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Showing posts with label 2008 Election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008 Election. Show all posts
Friday, March 19, 2010
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
They just don't get it
Listening to NPR on KCUR briefly today, I heard Richard Viguerie, the longtime Conservative and Republican leader from the party's past.
He was talking about the Republicans and Democrats, of course, and where they've been in the recent past, where they are now and where they're going,
At one point, Mr. Viguerie said that we liberals and Democrats, in the last 2 years before this last Presidential election, totally ran our campaigns against anything and everything concerning George W. Bush. It was his thought that we really didn't have a platform--it was purely all against "W".
Holy cow.
With that kind of thinking--and I hope the Republicans keep it--the Republicans will just stay out of favor with voters. This is why we threw all the Repuglicans out of office, for pity's sake.
What they don't understand, thank goodness, is that we voted against W's government being against us--against the "common man"--the working class man, the man on the street.
It was George W. Bush's Republican government that pitted itself against us, the workers and voters.
When it came to big corporations vs. the little guy--Big Business always won, and there was never any question otherwise.
When it came to the environment--Big Business won out.
When it came to big government or the common man? Big government won again.
The list goes on and on.
So, as I wrote yesterday, by coincidence, we now have government more protecting the environment with higher gas mileage requirements for car manufacturers. Now, we have an EPA that is again trying to clear our air, water and soil of pollution, chemicals and poison.
Are they perfect, these Democrats?
No, decidedly not. But they're working for the man on the street and not just for the corporations and Big Business.
So, yeah, Mr. Viguerie, go on thinking we were just anti-George W. Bush and nothing else.
As long as you and all the other leftover Republicans--however few of you there are--go on thinking like that, you'll stay in the tiny minority in the country.
He was talking about the Republicans and Democrats, of course, and where they've been in the recent past, where they are now and where they're going,
At one point, Mr. Viguerie said that we liberals and Democrats, in the last 2 years before this last Presidential election, totally ran our campaigns against anything and everything concerning George W. Bush. It was his thought that we really didn't have a platform--it was purely all against "W".
Holy cow.
With that kind of thinking--and I hope the Republicans keep it--the Republicans will just stay out of favor with voters. This is why we threw all the Repuglicans out of office, for pity's sake.
What they don't understand, thank goodness, is that we voted against W's government being against us--against the "common man"--the working class man, the man on the street.
It was George W. Bush's Republican government that pitted itself against us, the workers and voters.
When it came to big corporations vs. the little guy--Big Business always won, and there was never any question otherwise.
When it came to the environment--Big Business won out.
When it came to big government or the common man? Big government won again.
The list goes on and on.
So, as I wrote yesterday, by coincidence, we now have government more protecting the environment with higher gas mileage requirements for car manufacturers. Now, we have an EPA that is again trying to clear our air, water and soil of pollution, chemicals and poison.
Are they perfect, these Democrats?
No, decidedly not. But they're working for the man on the street and not just for the corporations and Big Business.
So, yeah, Mr. Viguerie, go on thinking we were just anti-George W. Bush and nothing else.
As long as you and all the other leftover Republicans--however few of you there are--go on thinking like that, you'll stay in the tiny minority in the country.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
More proof: Republicans are evil; Democrats are stupid
Having borrowed this from my friend, Bryce (thanks, Bryce!), I have to give yest another example.
To wit: Norm Coleman not accepting defeat and conceding the election FROM LAST NOVEMBER to Al Franken.
Instead of doing that, and doing the right thing and making sure that Minnesota has their 2 representative Senators, what with all this financial and economic crisis, he, instead, is apparently thinking about taking the vote count to the state Supreme Court, instead.
Sad. Really pitiful.
This is all bad enough.
What's really bad, though, and blatantly hypocritical is that, if the roles were reversed and it were the Democrat who had apparently lost, the Republicans would be screaming bloody murder about what a travesty it is and how the Democrats should "do the right thing for the voters" and concede the race.
As it is, they insist they're the ones doing the right thing and seeing this thing out.
To the Democrat's credit, they aren't screaming about this as they might be both for the outrageousness of Norm Coleman and the Republicans, outright, and because of the Republican's hypocrisy.
Unbelievable. Pitiful. Again, sad.
The people of Minnesota should make it clear they've had enough of this travesty and nonsense.
Link:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/04/14/2009-04-14_al_frankens_minn_victor_court_rules.html
To wit: Norm Coleman not accepting defeat and conceding the election FROM LAST NOVEMBER to Al Franken.
Instead of doing that, and doing the right thing and making sure that Minnesota has their 2 representative Senators, what with all this financial and economic crisis, he, instead, is apparently thinking about taking the vote count to the state Supreme Court, instead.
Sad. Really pitiful.
This is all bad enough.
What's really bad, though, and blatantly hypocritical is that, if the roles were reversed and it were the Democrat who had apparently lost, the Republicans would be screaming bloody murder about what a travesty it is and how the Democrats should "do the right thing for the voters" and concede the race.
As it is, they insist they're the ones doing the right thing and seeing this thing out.
To the Democrat's credit, they aren't screaming about this as they might be both for the outrageousness of Norm Coleman and the Republicans, outright, and because of the Republican's hypocrisy.
Unbelievable. Pitiful. Again, sad.
The people of Minnesota should make it clear they've had enough of this travesty and nonsense.
Link:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/04/14/2009-04-14_al_frankens_minn_victor_court_rules.html
Saturday, January 31, 2009
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The RNC just pulled off one the most funny, sad, pathetic, desperate, pitiful and/or cynical act they possibly could.
Today, they elected, on their sixth vote--it took them 6 tries--their first ever African-American leader of their organization (the Republican National Committee).
Hearing that, you have to just bust out laughing.
Did you see this group last summer, at their national convention?
Or again, did you see the audience at Senator John McCain's concession speech, the night of the election last November?
Both groups, one very large, one large enough, were almost completely, totally lily-white.
Not only that, if a poll were taken, it would very likely be shown to be at least middle class, and a great deal of them upper middle class.
So we got an African-American from the Democratic Party as President so the Republicans threw the American public--and the world--a desperate, pathetic, political bone, way after the fact, of another African-American, in an effort to make themselves look, however ridiculously and disingenuously, like an inclusinve, multi-race party.
We all know better.
I salute the new Chairman, Michael Steele's, ability to take advantage of this situation, betray his people and exploit this opportunity so totally and utterly.
Opportunism never looked so good.
Link to full story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/us/politics/31web-steele.html?em
Today, they elected, on their sixth vote--it took them 6 tries--their first ever African-American leader of their organization (the Republican National Committee).
Hearing that, you have to just bust out laughing.
Did you see this group last summer, at their national convention?
Or again, did you see the audience at Senator John McCain's concession speech, the night of the election last November?
Both groups, one very large, one large enough, were almost completely, totally lily-white.
Not only that, if a poll were taken, it would very likely be shown to be at least middle class, and a great deal of them upper middle class.
So we got an African-American from the Democratic Party as President so the Republicans threw the American public--and the world--a desperate, pathetic, political bone, way after the fact, of another African-American, in an effort to make themselves look, however ridiculously and disingenuously, like an inclusinve, multi-race party.
We all know better.
I salute the new Chairman, Michael Steele's, ability to take advantage of this situation, betray his people and exploit this opportunity so totally and utterly.
Opportunism never looked so good.
Link to full story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/us/politics/31web-steele.html?em
Monday, December 29, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Hope
From Arianna Huffington:
"It's a theme Michelle Obama touched on many times on the campaign trail. 'Barack Obama will require that you work,' she said at a rally on the eve of Super Tuesday. 'He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism; that you put down your divisions; that you come out of your isolation; that you move out of your comfort zones; that you push yourself to be better; and that you engage.'"
"This call echoed something that historian and presidential biographer David McCullough had once said about JFK. 'The great thing about Kennedy,' he told me, 'is that he didn't say I'm going to make it easier for you. He said it's going to be harder. And he wasn't pandering to the less noble side of human nature. He was calling on us to give our best.'"
"And when Bobby Kennedy was agonizing over whether or not to run in 1968, he told one of his advisors: 'People are selfish. But they can also be compassionate and generous, and they care about the country. But not when they feel threatened. That's why this is such a crucial time. We can go in either direction. But if we don't make a choice soon, it will be too late to turn things around. I think people are willing to make the right choice. But they need leadership. They're hungry for leadership.' Forty years later, we are starving for it. Real leadership. Leadership geared to transforming the country."
_________________________________________________
That's what we voted for Tuesday.
Have a good weekend, y'all.
"It's a theme Michelle Obama touched on many times on the campaign trail. 'Barack Obama will require that you work,' she said at a rally on the eve of Super Tuesday. 'He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism; that you put down your divisions; that you come out of your isolation; that you move out of your comfort zones; that you push yourself to be better; and that you engage.'"
"This call echoed something that historian and presidential biographer David McCullough had once said about JFK. 'The great thing about Kennedy,' he told me, 'is that he didn't say I'm going to make it easier for you. He said it's going to be harder. And he wasn't pandering to the less noble side of human nature. He was calling on us to give our best.'"
"And when Bobby Kennedy was agonizing over whether or not to run in 1968, he told one of his advisors: 'People are selfish. But they can also be compassionate and generous, and they care about the country. But not when they feel threatened. That's why this is such a crucial time. We can go in either direction. But if we don't make a choice soon, it will be too late to turn things around. I think people are willing to make the right choice. But they need leadership. They're hungry for leadership.' Forty years later, we are starving for it. Real leadership. Leadership geared to transforming the country."
_________________________________________________
That's what we voted for Tuesday.
Have a good weekend, y'all.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Keep in mind they were supposed to be on the same team
From the Kansas City Star today:
"An angry (McCain) aide characterized the shopping spree..."--of Sarah Palin and her brood at Neiman Marcus, etc., as... 'Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus coast to coast,' and said later the full amount wasn't reported yet."
So it looks as though it will go higher than the $150,000.00 earlier estimate.
Yeah. She was a maverick, all right.
She was--excuse me, is--just dressed up white trash, folks, with little education.
And she was going to be in the number 2 spot, for power, in the United States and the world.
"An angry (McCain) aide characterized the shopping spree..."--of Sarah Palin and her brood at Neiman Marcus, etc., as... 'Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus coast to coast,' and said later the full amount wasn't reported yet."
So it looks as though it will go higher than the $150,000.00 earlier estimate.
Yeah. She was a maverick, all right.
She was--excuse me, is--just dressed up white trash, folks, with little education.
And she was going to be in the number 2 spot, for power, in the United States and the world.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
What's changed
...and what hasn't.
So, here we are, finally, with a historic election and one that was way too long.
It's nice to have it over.
It would have been nice to have it over even if, God forbid, it didn't turn out the way it did--if it didn't turn out this, the right way.
No more election commercials.
I've been thinking for 24 hours about what I'd write.
About how nice it is it turned out correctly.
About how monumental the whole thing was and is, in so many different ways.
But what I've really come down with, finally, is the realization of where we are and what we have and what we've done--and where we are not and what we don't have and what we haven't done, all at once.
Yesterday, by the grace of God (I use that as purely a euphemism) and by education and experience and so many things, we elected the best man, of the last two standing, for President.
That's one of the most important things. And it's huge.
Secondly, not incidentally, he is an African-American. The first in our more than 200 year history to have done so.
That's the monumental part, certainly, as we and the world all know.
What we don't have is true equality.
The United States never has, let's be clear on that, had the equality we declared in our Constitution.
Sure, we may have had more equality than other nations or, possibly, than any other nation on the planet (who really knows?).
But when this nation began, we wrote that we insisted on "equality for all."
At the time, that meant for all property-owning white males. Period. That was all.
Then, we added, what? "People of color"? Kind of. Sort of. Even though they couldn't really vote or buy whatever property they could afford and live wherever they wanted.
Then we added women to the list of "equality".
Yeah, so they could vote but forget about equal pay. Even today, in 2008.
But yesterday, it was also proven in this election that we still aren't there in terms of true, blanket, it's for everyone equality.
While the United States voted Barack Obama to be our next President, California voted to ban marriage for same-sex couples.
No equality.
2 men or two women who want to live together and commit to one another able to have complete, legal parity to opposing sex couples.
Nah.
Nope.
Not gonna happen.
"Wouldn't be prudent."
Yeah, right.
So the fact is, we took a big step last night, to getting closer to our country's long-term goal (of what we understood we had all along, right?).
But no.
We're not all the way there.
Not yet.
We have to keep working on it.
Let's celebrate this advance, sure.
But we still have a lot of work to do.
At least we repudiated the current butt-head President, his sidekick Vice President "The Dick" Cheney, the Republicans, the Republican platform of hate and exclusion, the hating and discriminating religious Right Wing and everyone like them and in their camp.
A brief time now, to celebrate, before we slug on.
So, here we are, finally, with a historic election and one that was way too long.
It's nice to have it over.
It would have been nice to have it over even if, God forbid, it didn't turn out the way it did--if it didn't turn out this, the right way.
No more election commercials.
I've been thinking for 24 hours about what I'd write.
About how nice it is it turned out correctly.
About how monumental the whole thing was and is, in so many different ways.
But what I've really come down with, finally, is the realization of where we are and what we have and what we've done--and where we are not and what we don't have and what we haven't done, all at once.
Yesterday, by the grace of God (I use that as purely a euphemism) and by education and experience and so many things, we elected the best man, of the last two standing, for President.
That's one of the most important things. And it's huge.
Secondly, not incidentally, he is an African-American. The first in our more than 200 year history to have done so.
That's the monumental part, certainly, as we and the world all know.
What we don't have is true equality.
The United States never has, let's be clear on that, had the equality we declared in our Constitution.
Sure, we may have had more equality than other nations or, possibly, than any other nation on the planet (who really knows?).
But when this nation began, we wrote that we insisted on "equality for all."
At the time, that meant for all property-owning white males. Period. That was all.
Then, we added, what? "People of color"? Kind of. Sort of. Even though they couldn't really vote or buy whatever property they could afford and live wherever they wanted.
Then we added women to the list of "equality".
Yeah, so they could vote but forget about equal pay. Even today, in 2008.
But yesterday, it was also proven in this election that we still aren't there in terms of true, blanket, it's for everyone equality.
While the United States voted Barack Obama to be our next President, California voted to ban marriage for same-sex couples.
No equality.
2 men or two women who want to live together and commit to one another able to have complete, legal parity to opposing sex couples.
Nah.
Nope.
Not gonna happen.
"Wouldn't be prudent."
Yeah, right.
So the fact is, we took a big step last night, to getting closer to our country's long-term goal (of what we understood we had all along, right?).
But no.
We're not all the way there.
Not yet.
We have to keep working on it.
Let's celebrate this advance, sure.
But we still have a lot of work to do.
At least we repudiated the current butt-head President, his sidekick Vice President "The Dick" Cheney, the Republicans, the Republican platform of hate and exclusion, the hating and discriminating religious Right Wing and everyone like them and in their camp.
A brief time now, to celebrate, before we slug on.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
More hope, more energy
From my day of canvassing to get out the vote, today.
I think it's going to be the day we wanted it to be. I think it's going to end up a very momentous, important, magnificent day.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Yeah, I was blown away, too
After getting together with friends this evening, for dinner, I realized I wasn't the only one who was a bit blown away, emotionally, of all things, by Senator Obama's "informercial" last evening.
It seems the pictures and videos and testimony were all a bit more than at least some of us were expecting.
It reminds me so much of what I think people thought and felt for first John Kennedy and then his brother, Robert.
See if you don't see more suggestions of that comparison in time to come. I think you/we all will.
Anyway, the closer we get to the election, the more overwhelming it all seems. The more incredible it seems, that Barack Obama will be President. (I'm pretty darned sure).
(And I am SO FREAKIN' SICK of this election, otherwise).
On a side note--back to the real and scary world of economics--did anyone see this following little tidbit?
"The Federal Reserve agreed to provide $30 billion each to the central banks of Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore, expanding its effort to unfreeze money markets to emerging nations for the first time."
See the story link here:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/10/fed-expands-swap-o-rama-to-brazil.html
That's 120 BILLION DOLLARS, all at once, to Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore.
Holy cow. We're talking real money here.
This all brings on a few rather significant questions, I think:
1) Holy spreadsheet, Batman, what is our government doing??
2) Is what the government is doing the right thing? (Are they the right things?)
3) Who's REALLY in charge of our government right now?
4) Are we going to regret this in short order?
5) Are the people "in control" REALLY in control?
6) Are these same people (you know, the ones in "control") sure of what they're doing?
7) Aren't we throwing one heck of a lot of money around and rather helter skelter, at that? (In the billions, regularly).
8) Are the people in charge REALLY certain of the ramifications of what they're doing?
9) Are some of the things we're doing counterproductive with some of the other things we're doing, simultaneously?
10) Can we be certain of our answer(s) to no. 9 above?
11) Can we be certain of our answers to any and all of the questions above?
12) Are the people in charge certain of the answers to any and all of the questions above?
13) What other "unkowns" are out there that we're unaware of?
14) Are we--all of us, even the ones in charge--totally winging it and in completely new, unidentified territory here, so they really AREN'T sure of what they're doing? (I'm afraid the answer here is a certifiable "yes").
Whole lotta questions, goin' on.
It seems the pictures and videos and testimony were all a bit more than at least some of us were expecting.
It reminds me so much of what I think people thought and felt for first John Kennedy and then his brother, Robert.
See if you don't see more suggestions of that comparison in time to come. I think you/we all will.
Anyway, the closer we get to the election, the more overwhelming it all seems. The more incredible it seems, that Barack Obama will be President. (I'm pretty darned sure).
(And I am SO FREAKIN' SICK of this election, otherwise).
On a side note--back to the real and scary world of economics--did anyone see this following little tidbit?
"The Federal Reserve agreed to provide $30 billion each to the central banks of Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore, expanding its effort to unfreeze money markets to emerging nations for the first time."
See the story link here:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/10/fed-expands-swap-o-rama-to-brazil.html
That's 120 BILLION DOLLARS, all at once, to Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore.
Holy cow. We're talking real money here.
This all brings on a few rather significant questions, I think:
1) Holy spreadsheet, Batman, what is our government doing??
2) Is what the government is doing the right thing? (Are they the right things?)
3) Who's REALLY in charge of our government right now?
4) Are we going to regret this in short order?
5) Are the people "in control" REALLY in control?
6) Are these same people (you know, the ones in "control") sure of what they're doing?
7) Aren't we throwing one heck of a lot of money around and rather helter skelter, at that? (In the billions, regularly).
8) Are the people in charge REALLY certain of the ramifications of what they're doing?
9) Are some of the things we're doing counterproductive with some of the other things we're doing, simultaneously?
10) Can we be certain of our answer(s) to no. 9 above?
11) Can we be certain of our answers to any and all of the questions above?
12) Are the people in charge certain of the answers to any and all of the questions above?
13) What other "unkowns" are out there that we're unaware of?
14) Are we--all of us, even the ones in charge--totally winging it and in completely new, unidentified territory here, so they really AREN'T sure of what they're doing? (I'm afraid the answer here is a certifiable "yes").
Whole lotta questions, goin' on.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
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