Republican Elephant – October 26, 2011 More Hypocrisy and Nonsense from the Right-Wing ParaAbnormal Activity: The Gop’s desperate, highly secretive search for a candidate whose politics aren’t insane RICK the RECYCLER: Dumpster-diving Rick Perry using the same old tired Republican … Continue reading
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Republican Elephant – November 4, 2011 More Hypocrisy and Nonsense from the Right-Wing Power Heist: After Wall Street cons Americans out of their homes, retirement and democracy, the 99% fight to take them back Drunken Mister: Sauced Rick Perry actually … Continue reading
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What’s a good political campaign without some marketing tactics thrown in? Useless! All political campaigns need to have a well thought out approach to target voters. Most campaigns will include bumper sticker printing efforts showing the candidate’s name, party and year. Other efforts include distributing flyers door to door and hanging political posters. Flyers have [...]
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Republican Elephant – October 11, 2011 More Hypocrisy and Nonsense from the Right-Wing REAL STEAL: Herman Cain steals the spotlight and sucker punches Rick Perry with latest poll numbers Like A Rock Only Racist: RICK PERRY – GOP presidential candidate … Continue reading
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CALIFORNIA TOP TWO
California’s Independent strongholds and the political calculus of the top-two open primary (by Damon Eris, CAIVN) One might easily conclude that two Democrats would be assured the top two spots in the primary and head to the general election, since it is a Democratic majority district. But, if there were a Democratic favorite supported by half of all registered Democrats, with the rest of the district’s Democrats more or less equally supporting the other five Democrats in the race, the Republican, Independent or third party candidate could easily advance to the general election with as little as 8-10% support in the primary, depending on how the district’s Independents vote. It is for this precise reason that the state’s Democratic and Republican parties are considering holding caucuses or conventions prior to any such primary elections, to nominate the candidate who would be the “official” representative of the party at those elections and hopefully avoid splitting their party’s vote.
We’ve all come across people who just seem incapable of modifying their perspective based on new data being presented. Most of us still mouth the words that additional education (or indoctrination/propaganda as is often the case) is what is needed since surely this person will turn around if his/her consciousness is sufficiently expanded with additional [...]
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Obama And His Cronies Provide Political Supporters In Chicago With Low Cost Internet And PCs.
If this isn’t blatant favoritism I don’t know what is.
As part of the White House’s deal to permit Comcast to buy NBC Universal, the government forced Comcast to promise to provide, according to Abby W. Schacter of the New York Post:
2.5 million low income households: (i) high-speed Internet access service for less than per month; (ii) personal computers, netbooks, or other computer equipment at a purchase price below 0; and (iii) an array of digital-literacy education opportunities.”
Who are the lucky beneficiaries among all the Americans who fit this category? Are you sitting down? Poor blacks in Obama’s hometown in Chicago are the ones getting the sweet deal. Is it also a coincidence that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former Chief of Staff, was recently elected mayor and may need to boost his reputation among this same group of people, since he defeated a couple of the black candidates widely supported by them?
Of course, many of the key people in Obama’s White House also hail from the Windy City including the man who replaced Emanuel as the Chief of Staff, Bill Daley (brother of Chicago’s former mayor) and Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s oldest friends and advisers.
This sort of bullying is not uncommon in Cook County, one of the last Democrat-run city machines in the nation (wags call it Crook County for a reason). One hand washes the other there and rules are bent to favor political allies – the seeming modus operandi of Barack Obama on a national scale over the last few years.
Nor is race-based policy-making something that is unknown in the Obama administration. At the Federal Communications Commission Obama created something called the Chief Diversity Officer. The first person to hold this position is Mark Lloyd, who has a long record of advocating that blacks replace whites as executives in the broadcasting industry and as owners of media outlets to achieve racial fairness.
Were poor rural white kids in southern towns outside of Illinois even considered for such a sweet deal?
Written by Ed Lasky.
President Theodore Roosevelt said:
“It is the duty of all citizens, irrespective of party, to denounce, and, so far as may be, to punish crimes against the public on the part of politicians or officials.”
KENTUCKY
Galbraith claims no allegiance to party (By HAWKINS TEAGUE, Murray Ledger & Times) The Lexington attorney has run for governor in the Democratic primary three times – 1991, 1995 and 2007 – and once in 1999 on the Reform Party ticket, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal… “I’m an independent candidate for governor,” Galbraith said during a stop at the Murray Ledger & Times office Tuesday. “My running mate and I have no party affiliation whatsoever. We don’t want one. The problem with Kentucky and the reason we’re dysfunctional as a state government in Kentucky is because both parties have their horns locked up like two bull elk fighting over territory while the business of the people lays dead in the dust.
CALIFORNIA
NEVADA
Nevada Bill Passes, Eliminates the Easy Method for a New Party to Qualify for the Ballot (Ballot Access News) AB 81 also tells parties that nominate by primary that they cannot invite independents to vote in their primary. Only the Democratic and Republican Parties nominate by primary in Nevada. They have not been letting independents vote in their primaries recently anyway, but previously, the law was silent on whether independents can vote in primaries. AB 81 bars a party from inviting independents to vote in its primary.
Progressives woke up Wednesday celebrating Democrat Kathy Hochul’s victory for a House seat from upstate New York previously held by the GOP for decades. In Hochul’s success, they see a fresh opportunity for wider gains to reverse the drubbing Democrats took in the 2010 midterm elections.
Hochul beat Republican state Assemblywoman Jane Corwin 48 percent to 42 percent, with an independent candidate pulling up the rear.
The Democrat won Tuesday’s special election for a vacant seat in New York’s conservative 26th Congressional District by linking Corwin to the Washington Republicans’ plan to privatize Medicare.
Progressives say they also see the victory as a wider repudiation of the GOP drive to cut taxes for the wealthy and limit the federal government’s ability to deliver services for the middle class.
Alan Charney, policy and strategic director for USAction, a Washington advocacy organization, sees Hochul’s win as part of an emerging pattern, noting that Republicans have lost several other recent special elections, as well.
“In state after state, voters are telling us they want an end to tax cuts for the super-rich,” he says. “They want an end to corporate loopholes. And most importantly, they want to preserve Medicare and the vital services that are key to maintaining a healthy, vibrant middle class. For voters, the massive cuts that are happening at the state level and in Congress mark their season of discontent.”
Besides New York, conservatives have lost three special elections in as many weeks. In Wisconsin, a Democrat captured a General Assembly seat that had been held by Republicans for more than a decade. In Maine, a Democrat beat her opponent for a state Senate seat by more than 30 percentage points. And in New Hampshire, a Democrat easily captured a state House district that was ranked as the 16th strongest Republican district in the state.
“Yesterday, voters in Western New York sent a strong message that Medicare needs to be protected, that tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations won’t be accepted, and that in order to make our communities stronger, we must come together to build an economy that works for everyone,” says Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action of New York. “Kathy Hochul’s election to Congress doesn’t just mean that New York will have another great representative in Washington. Her election also proves a public desire for a government that puts its people before corporate profits.”
Ultimately, Charney says, the recent elections send a message: voters cherish the freedom that comes from opportunity and prosperity. “Freedom is about a fair wage, a decent life and hope for the future,” he says. “Programs like Medicare and Social Security help secure our freedom by protecting our dignity if we get sick and as we grow older.”
Another prominent Washington progressive group, Democracy For America (DFA), sees Tuesday’s win as further evidence Democrats should stand up against the conservative agenda pushed by House Republicans.
DFA Communications Director Levana Layendecker also cites a poll of voters in four states which she says finds opposition to cuts in such social programs as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
“Hochul won last night because she listened to voters that were telling her that what they really wanted Congress to do, above everything else, was to focus on jobs and protecting popular programs they depend on,” she says in an email which urges supporters to pressure House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer to take Medicare cuts off the bargaining table.
“It’s clear from our poll and from last night’s election results that if more Democrats follow Hochul’s lead, they will win in 2012 — and if they fall into the GOP’s trap by voting to cut Medicare benefits, they will suffer dire consequences in the next election,” she says.
If this new political dynamic holds, it could represent a dramatic shift back to the favor of Democrats, who lost control of the House last year due largely to tea party-fueled anger.
Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.