West Virginia Blue
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When it comes to hating Mitt Romney, its not because he's rich, which is what he believes, but how he became wealthy. Unlike other famous entrepreneurs, such as Walt Disney and Steve Jobs, Romney's greed is all too present in his politics. Bill Maher makes a good, rather funny, point in his money flaunting habits by comparing him to the money loving stars of hip-hop. Take a look.
As a typical egotistical, arrogant, columnist/blogger, I usually think I can express my viewpoints better than anyone else. But when it comes to summing up the Ron Paul situation, the conservative blogger Erick Erikson says everything anyone needs to know.
This is from Erick's column today in www.redstate.com:
"Let me get this straight.
Twenty years ago someone put some crazy, racist stuff in newsletters bearing Ron Paul's name and written in the first person as if they were from Ron Paul.
Ron Paul never read them.
Ten years ago, when confronted with some of the crazy stuff (I'm trying really hard not to use "crazy s**t" here), Ron Paul says he wrote them, but they must be taken in their whole context to understand them.
Fast forward to the present and Ron Paul never wrote them, does not know who wrote them, cannot recall the names of anyone who worked for him who might have written them, is shocked to learn he made big money off them, and people think this guy has the qualifications to be President of the United States?
Letting someone write bat crap crazy stuff under your name, not knowing who they are or what they are doing, profiting from them, then taking responsibility before denying responsibility is credible?!
If we're to take Ron Paul at his word, maybe we need to get him an Alzheimer's test. he is old. Hell, if pigs did fly and he did get elected President, he'd be 81 at the end of his first term."
Eric may normally be wrong about, well, everything, but he sure nails this perfectly
The CBO score of the GOP Medicare plan shows that elderly Americans would be responsible for 68% of their Medicare costs. Considering the low incomes of most people in WV over 65, this plan would prove catatrophic for the Mountain State.
Democrats, the GOP cannot overcome this issue as long as we hold the line. The recent congressional election in NY foreshadows a big swing for Democrats this coming election and for good reason. The GOP are unwilling to end tax breaks for millionaires but more than willing to pass the bill onto people that have worked their entire lives to make this country what it is. The American people will not stand for it.
We must find solutions to bring under control the nation's debt, but we can't do it on the backs of the elderly.
The first radio ad of the campaign is now in circulation, and it comes from the great teabagger hope, Bill Maloney, the businessman many rightwingers (with a kind of, sort of boost from the party leadership) hope will defeat Republican frontrunner Betty Ireland for the party's nomination.
He likes to constantly point out that he's not a "career politician" - which is basically shorthand for the fact that guys like Maloney and John Raese can buy their way into a campaign without having to pay their dues.
Maloney offers little in the way of specifics for fixing the state's problems, but the closing to his ad gives you a pretty good idea what his supposedly fresh approach to politics will bring:
As governor, Bill Maloney will work to defend life, protect traditional marriage and make West Virginia the most family-friendly state in America. And Bill Maloney will always defend our second amendment rights.
Who needs policy positions or an economic plan, when you can just resort to the same tired hot button issues?
You have to wonder just how long it took for the conservative leadership to find someone with such a bold vision.
Call it a slap in the face, call it stupid, or call it treacherous- Republican Larry Kump's proposed legislation requiring a nonbinding referendum in the eastern panhandle to determine the EP's desire to secede from West Virginia and become a part of Virginia will at least get the first term delegate attention.
West Virginia is a sum of her parts. The beauty of the eastern panhandle and the wonderful people that live there are a credit to the Mountain State. WV could no more afford to lose the eastern panhandle than a human being could afford to lose a heart.
Delegate Kump's legislation is a slap in the face of every West Virginian, especially those in the eastern panhandle. If Kump is so fond of Old Virginia then I strongly recommend he move there. I hope the proud people of Berkeley County make this first term delegate a one term delegate. Here is to the Mountain State, Almost Heaven, Vandalia, West Virginia, and all the people that are proud to call her home.
Until the filibuster is ended in the not so much a gentleman's club in Washington, the US Senate, our nation will never come out of the dark ages of the Bush years. Every day that goes by requiring 60 votes to bring righteous legislation into law insures that nothing will be done to bring hope to those whose lives are made so difficult by allowing those that have so much to keep the rest of our nation behind. I think that there is nothing so selfish as the behavior of the blue dog democrats and their partners in crime all of the Republican Senators that have brought President Obama's promise of hope for our nation to an absolute standstill because the Senate has the archaic and absurd filibuster. Their co conspirators in the medical industrial complex and the financial industry are no less guilty as they make it possible for the aforementioned elected officials to ignore the needs of their constituents by handing them campaign contributions that reward them for bringing us bad government.
We have watched health care, bank reform, and wall street reform weakened or defeated either by the greed of these Senators or by the absolute Bull S**t financed by the corporations that permeates the airwaves because it is so easy to buy off media. That media isn't just Fox or Rush Limbaugh it is every person that calls themselves a reporter who fails to report the lies and deceptive stories for what they are.
Now we have a whole new category added to the fray with the actions of Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama who feels that he has the power to keep good Presidential nominees from being confirmed by putting a hold on their nominations until he gets earmarks for his state passed and signed into law by the President. What he is looking for is best described in New York Magazine (HT Balloon-Juice) in an article published on Tuesday...
So why exactly has Shelby taken such drastic action? Because he wants some pork for Alabama. Specifically, one earmark for a $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers, and another for a $45 million FBI testing lab. It's a $40,045,000,000 ransom demand to the United States government. When did Dr. Evil become a senator?
Note that the contract mentioned involves an aircraft built by Airbus, a European company with facilities in Alabama that is competing with an American company, Boeing, with facilities all over the United States.
Time to call Senator Rockefeller and Senator Byrd and tell them point blank that the filibuster must go and tell them that it is necessary to do this so we can have true representative government back in Washington.
If the above image conjures steamy-dreamy sci-fi fantasies of hawks and hapless maidens, it's only my way of exposing far more than just "the good ol' boy chauvinism" that certain female Congress members still hide behind.
What I've conjured up is really no more than a snapshot of the political chauvinism now gripping the entire G.O.P.
First of all, The Honorable Rep. Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly been elected to represent the will of the people. Yet like any other soldier, under the U.S. Constitution, General McChrystal is no more than any other bureaucrat. So HIS charge is to implement the will of the people, as determined by their elected representatives!
In other words, Nancy Pelosi is McChrystal's boss.
Secondly, Stan "the MAN" McChrystal has a major problem regarding his latest advance in rank which NancyPants Pelosi threatens due to her position as House Speaker
From last Friday's email. I just got around to translating it tonight.
Dear XXXXXXXX,
The last few weeks have taken me across the Second District from the Eastern Panhandle, to Buckhannon and into Putnam and Jackson Counties in the Kanawha and Ohio River Valleys. I've heard from many of you along the way with your thoughts and concerns ranging from energy to the all-important healthcare debate.
I stopped a couple of places to claim credit for grants or the stimulus money that I did not vote for, but mostly I prefer to keep an arms distance with those sanitary phone town halls.
Thank for taking the time to write to me or for taking the time to stop and say hello. I appreciate hearing from you.
Haven't I gotten good at responding with utterly unrelated political mush these eight years, neither acknowledging your existence nor making a strong argument for my position? Sometimes I do in those one minutes speeches, but nobody watches CSPAN, right?
As I traveled from stop to stop, it became even clearer that West Virginia truly embodies what it means to be an energy state. Over the course of a week I visited an Upshur County home using geothermal energy, a Pendleton County Habitat for Humanity site engaged in "green" building, and multiple homes powered by wind and solar energy. I also spent time with researchers at MATRIC and West Virginia State University, where they're making important strides in new energy technology.
I am so glad I do not have to bother my beautiful mind with those with bad water like Nicky Ray does. And forget that those homes may have been where the pesky people Eastern Panhandle are with all the wind and solar alternates.
And throughout my energy tour, healthcare remained one of the most important issues on the minds of the West Virginians with whom I met. And during stops across the district, in meetings with constituents and in my phone calls and emails, there is no shortage of opinions when it comes to how best to reform our healthcare system.
I know you have opinions, but I will have to check with the guy with a tan to see if I can vote for reform that would help you out. Is Jack Abramoff out yet?
Those who like their current insurance coverage, must truly be able to keep it without fear of being moved into a government-run plan.
So, I heard about those death panels and I guess we have to use them to keep people off of Medicare. Oh, I mean one of the sorority sisters took chemistry, and she hasn't found the fountain of youth.
There is bipartisan consensus on issues like ending coverage denials based on pre-existing conditions, promoting wellness and insurance portability, and seeking lower cost options for the uninsured. My hope is that when Congress is back in session in September we can focus on these areas of agreement.
How did I know Grassley and Enzi were going to go a kamikaze on us this weekend. You know, I'm not really a Republican, right?
As always, please don't hesitate to contact my office with your thoughts and concerns.
We just love hearing from the little people, don't we Daddy?
At the Energy and Commerce Committee hearing in the House yesterday, the first of four days of hearings, the panel was composed of EPA Administrator Jackson, Sec. of Transportation LaHood, and Sec. of Energy Chu.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TeXass) used the last 6 seconds of his time to ask how oil got to Alaska. This was to imply that Alaska and the Arctic must have been warm at one point in time for oil reserves to be deposited there. Dr. Chu responded by giving him a short lessons in plate tectonics, that land masses have shifted over the course of 100 million years. "It just drifted there".
Rep. Barton tweeted that he baffled the Nobel Laureate. From The University of California. At least Rep. John Shimkus (R-ILiteral) did not start reading the Bible to try to prove Sec. Chu and Rep. Barton both wrong.
Isn't it ridiculous how some people will believe anything they read or hear on the TV from some talking head like Newt Gingrich?
Never mind that old Newt is a proven hypocritical liar. IE Chasing Clinton around and spending 80 million dollars of tax money to persecute a blow job all the while old Newt was having a affair himself. .............. Geez can anybody say hypocrite?
Yet for some reason so called conservative Republicans choose to have very short memories about such things. Could be a little of the "do as I say not as I do" mentality so prevalent among them. But whatever the reason ( hypocrites) this tendency for large segments of the nations population to swallow hook line and sinker whatever and any old propganda they are fed, the fact remains it is a real danger to this nation. ................... After all it was sheer fear mongering propaganda that got this nation stuck with the worst president in US history George Bush................. For 8 years. After which we have a economy on the rocks, and a world that doesn't trust a thing we say. Not to mention a loss of civil liberties we will have to fight hard to ever get back. ........... Nuff said to prove why propaganda should be combated wherever its encountered? ........... Yep! I think nuff said.
Some long time victim's of the right wing propaganda machine would be our economy, social issues, domestic spending, education and truth in military matters. But perhaps no one person has been more maligned by right wing propagandists than the honorable man that was our President Jimmy Carter..
The right wing just loves to smear President Carter every way they can. Never mind that the man has worked tirelessly to better the world for the poor and to stop needless wars. To the right wing he gets in the way of their agenda and that is enough reason to slander that honorable man for them.
Just lately its been Newt Gingrich.
Newt is insulting Carter by comparing him to George Bush............. if you can imagine that?
I have news for old hypocritical Newt.......... George Bush is not worthy to carry the shoes of a decent man like President Carter.
Lets see where to begin? Okay might as well begin with one of the biggest problems stopping reform in this nation currently............. And that would be Republican fear mongering and propaganda. Conservatives, So called Libertarians have held this country in the grip of fear and paranoia for the past 30 years and therein lies the root of many of the things that are wrong with the Nation. I shall look forward in the future to outlining detail by detail the way in which Republican conservative data never matches the truth. Be it economic , foreign policy, or domestic policy the Republicans are masters at manipulating truth and public opinion to further their own agenda . Which obviously has been a disaster for this nation. In the meantime take a look at this article a perfect example of the fear mongering and propganda coming from the right wing of which I speak.
Chuck and Huck and conservative propaganda
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 What the Huck? Chuck Norris' roundhouse kick to the gut of American democracy
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/What_the_Huck_Chuck_Norris_.html That was fast. It was just one year ago that right-wing martial arts guru Chuck Norris was a sought-after "get" for the GOP presidential candidates like Mike Huckabee, who paraded the star of "Walker, Texas Ranger" around the nation after the anti-abortion actor endorsed him in the primaries. But now it's 2009, Barack Obama is in the White House, and the inventor of chun kuk do is preaching the martial art of insurrection against the U.S. government. He also wants to run for -- and no, I'm not making this up -- "the president of Texas.": The call by some right wing leaders for rebellion and for the military to refuse the commander in chief’s orders is joined by Chuck Norris who claims that thousands of right wing cell groups have organized and are ready for a second American Revolution. During an appearance on the Glen Beck radio show he promised that if things get any worse from his point of view he may “run for president of Texas.” The martial artist/actor/activist claims that Texas was never formally a part of the United States in the first place and that if rebellion is to come through secession Texas would lead the way. Norris really comes close to crossing a line with this: Norris claims that; “Thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns for our nation.” The right wing cells will meet during a live telecast, "We Surround Them," on Friday March 13 at 5 p.m. He closes with the words of Sam Houston followed by a plug for his next martial arts event. “We view ourselves on the eve of battle." You really have to almost laugh at some of this. For eight years, progressives were lambasted -- in the face of the most unpopular and arguably the worst American president since the Civil War -- as victims of "Bush derangement syndrome" or as "Kos Kooks." That was largely because in the face of a government that invaded another nation on bogus pretenses and violated laws on core issues like torture and domestic spying, a few people advocated impeachment, a deliberative process under the U.S. Constitution, and a tiny handful talked about things like moving to Canada. Meanwhile, less than two months into the Obama administration, right-wingers are stocking the basement pantry, piling up the shotguns and organizing "cells," all with the help of a talk-show host who coincidentially became unhinged after he drove down the ratings at CNN Headline News, something that most people didn't think was possible. There's a lot to hash out in this country over the next few years but it's becoming more and more clear who respects the Constitution, and who does not.
via AmericaBlog, a Daily KOS diary that is more than a little surprising. I would need to see some confirmation of this response before I believed it. But, if true, it is very good:
"Well, it looks like the candidate in this election who will be the ultimate uniter won't by Barack Obama but Sarah Palin. Yesterday I was booowled over to learn that some rabid, rabid Republicans who live in rural Missouri now agree with me on one thing: They hate Sarah Palin. Hate her. The final nail was Thursday night's VP debate....
It turns out that they really, really, really, really did not like the fact that Palin flat out did not answer many of the questions. They found that to be outrageous. After all, the entire reason they were watching the debate was to see her answer questions, doggone it.
They also did not like all her attempts to be folksy. To them it just came off as, um, I think the word they used was "phony." In fact, the candidate who seemed to them to be real and more like them was not Sarah Palin but Joe Biden.
The women, in particularly, did not like Palin's flirty, winky act. That went over like a lead balloon. And both the men and the women did not like her "Can I Call You Joe" schtick. They found that to be disrespectful to Senator Biden."
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo...
I'm still struggling to figure out how the majority of Congress has given away so much constitutional authority to the executive branch over the last seven years.
It's bad enough when the legislative branch totally fails to provide effective oversight of the executive branch.
If the matters at hand were merely a matter of divvying up powers between Congress and the President, that would be one thing. What is truly disheartening is the loss of fundamental personal freedoms enshrined in our bill of rights.
Any one of us could--because of what we say on a phone conversation, because of a book we check out at the library (or what we buy on eBay), because of a meeting we attend, because of an Internet search we perform, or, even because of similar actions by someone we are thought to know--literally, any one of for any reason the President says is okay, can now be picked up off the street, sent to a foreign detention facility, and held indefinitely without charges.
I wish this were hyperbole. Sadly, it is not. President Bush had continually enacted through signing statements and through unchallenged concrete actions the principle of unified executive power.
President Bush claims the open-ended war on terror gives him reason to suspend any individual constitutional rights he sees necessary to engage in that war.
The reaction from the majority of Congress is as laughable as it lamentable. The majority of Congress has agreed to simply trust the President. This stance is the total antithesis to our Constitution, an insult of the founding principles of our country, and a complete abdication of Congressional responsibility.
How has this happened?
All I can figure is, the majority of Congress is afraid of confrontation. There is a constitutional crisis underway. Instead of dealing with it head on, today Congress is once again appeasing the President.
Few in Congress are willing to call a spade a spade. Few in Congress are willing to stand up for the constitution. Few in Congress are willing to do fully do their job.
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After all those years of Republicans turning their noses up at foreign cars (assembled .jpg)
