Quote of the day--on the election

"It is depressingly clear, in the aftermath of Tuesday’s midterm elections, that the key to political success is effective coalition-building. Created through the ceaseless, strident repetition of patent untruths, a coalition of the uninformed, the misinformed, the racially bigoted and the obscenely privileged has made serious progress toward its goal."   --none other than our own, very local Mr. Charles Guswelle, columnist, The Kansas City Star







Link to original post: http://www.kansascity.com/news/#ixzz14ZioI8z8

Off the street common sense from a "working class stiff"

A friend of mine, from Facebook (okay, okay, don't give me a hard time), was speaking in the last 24 hours about how, if the Democrats--President Obama and his Congress--had done a true stimulus package in the last two years, that this economy would be mostly fixed or healed and they wouldn't have been so trounced or "shellacked", using the President's phrase from yesterday, in this week's elections.  Herewith:


"My example. Take $10 billion. That's roughly $28000 per person. Issue it in the form a debit cards that can only be used to purchase American-made goods. You kill three birds with one stone that way. You help the American people, you jump-start the economy, and you bring jobs back from overseas. You can play around with different numbers and ways to spend it. Look at the current stimulus money. You can see it working right now, you see work crews out there and more trucks on the road, but most of that money is just sitting in cooperate accounts. There was no reason other than political shell games to not put money in the hands of American citizens. That is what the Democrats are supposed to do. Had they done that, I don't feel that they would have suffered loses in this elections."  --Chuck Collins, Facebook friend


Another old friend had said the same thing, some couple of years ago.


It's difficult to argue with the logic, isn't it?


Enjoy that weather, folks.

Hartzler in? Cleaver out?

If what the CBS Channel KCTV 5 reports right now is true, Vicky Hartzler is in, defeating 17 term, 80 year old Ike Skelton (not a huge surprise but a surprise nonetheless) and Emanuel Cleaver is voted out, by however a slim margin it shows? 

Holy cow.

This is some surprising election, at least on these points, among a few others.

Election good news and bad

Sure, there's likely to be bad news today, coming out of this election, for us progressives, but frankly, it should only be one thing.  That is, a bunch of Republicans will get voted into offices and we'll likely lose control of the House of Representatives.

Sure, there will be other areas where we lose this or that but it should be on a smaller scale.

With this election, though, there should be a great deal of good news, at least eventually, due to this election.

To begin with, Republicans, if they do control the House, are going to be tearing each other apart, for starters, because they don't have only one direction.  It looks to be a very divisive group, even with their organized "talking point" of each day.

Second, Republicans are threatening to shut down the government with this control.

Here's hoping.

That didn't work for them last time they tried it and I think the American people are even more short-tempered about this kind of thing now.  All we're looking for is a government that works--not one that's still seriously dysfunctional and non-working.

Third, face it, the 2012 presidential election starts tomorrow--or, rather, tonight at midnight.  And while that's not good for you and I--the working person on the street--that means all these people (men and women) will be jockeying and positioning themselves to be "the" candidate for the highest office in the land.  That means they'll have to stand out from the pack.  That means they'll have to go against their own party.  Yahoo.

Fourth, with Republicans in control of any part of Congress, you know they'll be showing their "true colors".  They'll be pushing and voting for things just for their core constituency.  Yep, you guessed it, they'll be creating wonderful benefits for corporations, to the exclusion of, again, you and I, the working stiff.  That will give everyone else great political ammunition to go after them.

Fifth and finally, I think, is this, from the news this morning:

Next for GOP leaders: Stopping Palin

Top Republicans in Washington and in the national GOP establishment say the 2010 campaign highlighted an urgent task that they will begin in earnest as soon as the elections are over: Stop Sarah Palin.

And this is magnificent, folks.  Seriously and for a few reasons.  First, they'll be tearing her down which will just keep them busy.  There's nothing like an in-family squabble to both make things interesting and make the whole shooting match go down, so to speak.

Next, think about it.  Who, from the Republican Party, that is either new or well-known (because that's what it's going to take--someone either new in the Party or already well-known) has enough charisma and intelligence to knock down the juggernaut that has become Sarah Palin?

If you can think of who that is, more power to you.  I can't.  And I think a lot of Republicans are like you and me on this note.  I certainly don't think Mitt Romney is the guy who can do it but who knows?  Maybe I'm wrong.  It sure isn't Bobby Jindall.  (Bwahahahahaha.  Oh, wait.  Don't make me laugh).

It seems clear that the Republicans will be tearing each other--and the Party--apart for the next two years, with no good, clear direction for the country.  And while that's unfortunate they won't have good things to do or offer for the country, it's good for Progressives and Democrats, both, so here's to that.

To close, I will say one last thing and that is what absolutely should not happen in the next two years, leading into the 2012 election.  That is, the Republicans had better not pull that same desperate, pathetic, horribly wasteful and negative crap they did last time around, with Bill Clinton, and charge this president with some made-up crime and go for impeachment.  It went nowhere last time and we have too many problems at stake for them to pull it now.  

Think happy thoughts, campers!

Links:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/44449;_ylt=Aqkr9ujk6Du._u4waZmz.cOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNibmJtdnBoBGFzc2V0A3BvbGl0aWNvLzIwMTAxMTAxLzQ0NDQ5BGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDbmV4dGZvcmdvcGxl

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/11/2/916155/-Theyre-already-talking-about-shutting-down-government?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+dailykos/index+(Daily+Kos)

Quotes of the day--on reason to vote today

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

--Plato

It can't be stressed enough, folks----vote tomorrow

“Just to be clear, progressives would be foolish to sit out this election: Mr. Obama may not be the politician of their dreams, but his enemies are definitely the stuff of their nightmares.” –Paul Krugman, economist, New York Times columnist

Quote of the day--on reason to vote tomorrow

“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”

--Plato

Vote Tuesday---and remember

How did we get here? And are we all really this stupid?

What I mean is, how did we get to the place we are now, where a wack-job like Sharron Angle, of all people, can say things like the following, as examples, and be in a tight race for a Senate seat out in Nevada against Harry Reid?

--"I hope that's not where we're going, but you know if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out." --interview with right-wing talk radio host Lars Larson in Portland, OR, January 2010

--"People ask me, 'What are you going to do to develop jobs in your state?' Well, that's not my job as a U.S. senator."  --May 14, 2010

--"We needed to have the press be our friend ... We wanted them to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported." --during an interview with Fox News Channel's Carl Cameron, Aug. 2, 2010

--"You can make more money on unemployment than you can going down and getting one of those jobs that is an honest job, but it doesn't pay as much. And so that's what's happened to us is that we have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry and said you don't want the jobs that are available." --on unemployment benefits, interview with KRNO, July 14, 2010

--"The Federal Department of Education should be eliminated. The Department of Education is unconstitutional and should not be involved in education, at any level." --July 12, 2010

--"When I said privatize, that's what I meant. That I thought we would just have to go to the private sector for a template on how this is supposed to be done. However, I've since been studying and Chile has done this." --explaining why Social Security should be phased out in favor of a system resembling the one created in the 1980s by right-wing Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, Aug. 12, 2010

"I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade." --Sharron Angle, explaining why she is against abortion even in cases of rape or incest, July 8, 2010

"Government shouldn't be doing that to a private company. And I think you named it clearly: It's a slush fund." -- on the BP escrow account set up at President Obama's urging to pay out oil spill claims, Alan Stock Show, July 7, 2010

"They [Republicans] say, 'You're too conservative.' Was Thomas Jefferson too conservative? I'm tired of some people calling me wacky." --March 21, 2010

Okay, Harry Reid isn't perfect and he's no saint and Nevada can no doubt do better in their representation--you can always find someone "better", one way or another but at least he doesn't say patently stupid, outrageous things, rapid-fire, again and again on the record.

Then, here in Missouri, you've got someone like Roy Blunt, for pity's sake, who's been in Washington 14 years, and there's this huge anti-incumbent sentiment but he's ahead in the polls and he's been shown--factually--to be as dirty a politician as about there ever was. 

Why is Roy Blunt leading in the polls, people?  Are we really that stupid? 

Sure, he's got name recognition and there's the incumbency thing on his side to campaign, you can't deny that, and then the corporations and all his wealthy friends are backing him because they know if he gets back in there he'll take care of them all with his votes but really---are we all that dumb?

It surely seems so.

Links:  http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/republicanquotes/a/Sharron-Angle-Quotes.htm;
http://citizensforethics.org/crew-26-lawmakers-corrupting-halls-congress

UPDATE:  Mon 10/18/10:  LAS VEGAS – Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle told dozens of Hispanic high school students last week that "some of you look a little more Asian to me..."


Man, she's not very bright.  (I'm trying to be nice)

Roy Blunt: voted out

Please folks, either vote for Robin Carnahan or against Roy Blunt, something.  It only makes sense.

Roy Blunt: wrong for Missouri

Political campaigns: good news/bad news

The good news? It's against John Boehner. The bad news? This is the beginning, I think, of ugly advertising attacks that will be unleashed this Fall, before the election, particularly since the Supreme Court ruled corporations and organizations can spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. Get ready, folks. Ugly political campaigning is about to get a LOT worse.

Basil Marceaux for Tennessee Governor?

Is this what has happened with our election system? I know it's easy to get on television but seriously, folks, surely we're better and smarter than allowing this to happen to us. Holy cow. Since George W. Bush got the Presidency is anything now possible?

You probably think you know where this poll of Americans is going--but you don't

What you're sure of and what we expect: 52% of the undecideds in the Senate race disapprove of President Obama to 35% who like the job he's doing. They don't think much of the Democrats in Congress either- only 26% have a like the job they're doing. But what you don't know and don't expect: Those numbers might seem bad- but they pale in comparison to how negatively those voters feel about Congressional Republicans- only 10% approve of the job they're doing while 61% disapprove. So these voters are down on President Obama and the Democratic majority- but their most negatives feelings are toward the Republican minority. Fortunately, Republicans are both in a world of hurt AND they're tearing each other apart, along with the job Libertarians and Tea Party members are doing to them. Man, this is getting good. Link to original article: http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/07/undecideds-in-ohio.html

Thank goodness it hasn't come down to this--yet--in Missouri or Kansas

John Wayne for office anyone?

Sheesh. (Slapping forehead).

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Good vs. Evil; Light vs. Dark

The Star outdid themselves yesterday.

The 2 pictures of the candidates for the US Senate from Missouri on the front page, along with the story, were magnificent.

Really, if ever a race were good vs. evil, dark vs. light, the little guy vs. the corporation, etc., etc., it's this race.

Robin Carnahan vs. Roy "Show me the money" Blunt.

Both old political families.

Neither perfect people but come on, you can't get too much dirtier than the Blunt family, individually and collectively, for payoffs and supporting corporate interests over the man on the street.

Who can forget Roy's son, the previous governor, letting his brother help get in legislation, as a lobbyist--while his brother is still that same governor--to let corporations the brother/lobbyist represents, get legislation squarely in their favor and that hurts the citizens of Missouri?

Aside: If Dickens were still writing, what better name for a corrupt political family in the state than Blunt? In fictional terms, that's just beautiful.

And while it's good vs. evil, and David vs. Goliath and all the obvious comparisons for this race, given Missouri's swing to more of a "red" state (meaning Republican, unfortunately), and the fact that the Rethugs took away any campaign contribution limits last year, it looks bad for us Democrats, liberals, "Leftists" and people for the people and the "common man" or working class guy.

It's still anyone's race, for sure, but it doesn't look good.

I'd think, at this point, there is a high likelihood that the big money and corporations are going to pull out all the money stops in the last 3 months of this campaign, in their effort to get ol' buddy Roy in that Senate seat.

Ugh.

Here's wishing us luck.

Here's hoping David can beat Goliath.