So how is Romney’s plan to send Foodstamps to the states going to effect his voter base?

That is a good question, after looking at this article in the Bloomberg News. Here’s a clip:

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said in May that he’d written off votes from 47 percent of Americans who are collecting government aid. Turns out many of them are part of his political base.

Seventy percent of counties with the fastest-growth in food-stamp aid during the last four years voted for the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data compiled by Bloomberg. They include Republican strongholds like King County, Texas, which in 2008 backed Republican John McCain by 92.6 percent, his largest share in the nation; and fast-growing Douglas County, Colorado.That means Romney is counting on votes from areas where lower-income people have become more reliant on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps.

Let’s see how it really fits his base support. Get the word out!

Related articles

• Republican-Heavy Counties Eat Up Most Food-Stamp Growth – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Terry O’Neill: The Romney-Ryan Budget: Reward the Rich, Punish the Rest (huffingtonpost.com)
• Romney attacked over climate change as activists tap post-Sandy concerns (guardian.co.uk)

Interviews with Supporters at Ohio Romney Rally

Life seems to be very hard for these folks. Listen to the big amount of Romney lies they have ingested like vitamins:

Wow! This is the first time I’ve heard that Obama has brought Buddhists into the country to take over.

How do you live with these people… these utterly stupid an misinformed people?

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• Ohio Mitt Romney Supporters Don’t Know Mitt Romney (bungalowbillscw.blogspot.com)
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• NBC’s Ohio Poll: 45% of Likely Voters Conservative, 23% Liberal–And Obama’s Up 6 (cnsnews.com)

 

Romney would go after Free Government Money… doesn’t that contradict the Romney who was nominated?

From Mashed Potato Bulletin:

In what could become Mitt Romney’s J.D. Hayworth moment this ABC News video utterly contradicts the Republican presidential candidates calls to severely cut government spending. As with J.D. Hayworth – John McCain’s Tea Party challenger in 2010 who was caught in “Free Government Money” informercial which contributed to his election loss – this video may be the metaphorical topper to the ex-governor’s campaign of flip-flopping. Depending on the coverage it receives, Mitt may have essentially shot himself in the foot.

Listen here:

 

Some swing state updates…Ohio looks like Romney is sneaking up.

The strong lead Obama was carrying in Ohio is seen as a tie in this poll. While other polls may be different, this one from the Cincinnati Enquirer is still upsetting:

You get what you pay for…

Ohio: Obama 49%, Romney 49% (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Minnesota: Obama 47%, Romney 44% (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Virginia: Obama 49%, Romney 46% (Priorities USA Action)

I’m really hoping that all these polls are not reality at all. They all  seem to  be set up to one side, left or right, by pollsters before they are taken.

For instance:

“…the Cincinnati Enquirer, a reliably conservative paper that virtually always endorses Republicans.  In 2008, they deftly endorsed John McCain without one word mentioning the walking time-bomb he had chosen as his Vice Presidential candidate.”

 – The Daily Kos

See what I mean?

Related articles

• Rasmussen All Tied In Ohio! (davidscommonsense.net)
• Minnesota Poll: Obama leading, but Romney sees gains – Minneapolis Star Tribune (startribune.com)
• Oct. 27: Minnesota Moonlights as Swing State, but Ohio and Virginia Are More Crucial (fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com)

Wow! Finally, a positive message…

 

…and it comes from Barack Obama! His just released ad breaks away from all the negative drones from both sides that have been clogging up our televisions.

I say thanks for changing the direction:

 

Judy Woodruff interviews Sen. McCain on the money the Citizens Union decision has brought into the fray…

Here’s part of the interview:

JUDY WOODRUFF: But in the wake of the Supreme Court decision Citizens United, we are seeing enormous sums of money going into this campaign, to the campaigns themselves, to outside supporters.

Is this — is it just inevitable that we’re now in a period where money is going to be playing this dominant role in American politics?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: I’m afraid, at least for the time being, that’s going to be the case, because of the most misguided, naive, uninformed, egregious decision of the United States Supreme Court I think in the 21st century.

To somehow view money as not having an effect on election, a corrupting effect on election, flies in the face of reality. I just wish one of them had run for county sheriff. So what we are. . .

JUDY WOODRUFF: You mean one of the justices?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: One of the five Supreme Court justices that voted to invalidate what we know of as McCain-Feingold.

Bom-pa-da-bom! So not all Conservative Republicans are married to the five reactionaries on the Supreme Court. Maybe there is a future after all.

Go over to Crooks and Liars and see the whole, revealing interview.

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• Sen. John McCain Trashes Supreme Court’s Citizens United Ruling [READ BRIEF] (ibtimes.com)
• A Democrat and a Republican want the Supreme Court to revisit “Citizens United” (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Judy Woodruff Interviews Boehner on PBS NEWSHOUR Tonight (yonkerstribune.typepad.com)

A Democrat and a Republican want the Supreme Court to revisit “Citizens United”

This Press Release went out from Senator Whitehouse’s office on Friday:

U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and John McCain (R-AZ) today filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court that details the explosion of anonymous political spending since the Citizens United decision.  The brief was filed in a case regarding a Montana law that bars corporations from funding election ads.  The case presents the opportunity for the Court to clarify the authority of Congress and state legislatures to address the threat of corruption posed by this spending.

“We are deeply concerned about the rise of unlimited, anonymous money now flooding our elections,” Whitehouse and McCain said in a joint statement.  “This unregulated and unaccountable spending invites corruption into our political process, and undermines our democracy.  We urge the Supreme Court to make clear that legislatures can take appropriate actions against corrupting influences in campaigns.”

The Senators’ brief, filed in American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock, asks the Court to deny a petition to review a Montana Supreme Court decision which held that the Montana legislature’s ban on corporate election spending was still constitutional following Citizens United.  Failing that, the brief asks the Court to give the Montana case a full review in light of the flood of anonymous money that has entered political campaigns since Citizens United.

The brief urges the court to “revisit Citizens United’s finding that vast independent expenditures do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,” arguing that rules requiring donor disclosure and prohibiting outside groups from coordinating with campaigns have been evaded and manipulated by politically-active groups and individuals.  The brief chronicles the extensive coordination that takes place between campaigns and super PACs, and the means of “identity-laundering” that allow secret donors to hide their activity.  The legislators conclude that “the campaign finance system assumed by Citizens United is no longer a reality, if it ever was.”

The Senators have both been leading advocates on campaign finance issues.  McCain was a co-author of the landmark Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, or “McCain-Feingold,” which limited corporate expenditures on political ads, and which was partially struck down by Citizens United.  Whitehouse has introduced legislation this year that would require enhanced disclosure of spending on political ads.

_________

This is something all Americans from all political backgrounds should get behind… unless you want 8 or 9 rich guys putting out whatever crap they want to sway elections. The Supreme Court stuck us with this in “Citizens United” and it is their responsibility to bring back the basics of democracy (and let’s stop pretending Corporations are citizens.)

Related articles

• States Wage War Against Citizens United (huffingtonpost.com)
• APNewsBreak: 22 states join campaign finance fight (kansascity.com)
• States Rally In Campaign Finance Legal Battle (npr.org)
• APNewsBreak: 22 states join campaign finance fight (sfgate.com)
• 22 states join campaign finance fight (timesleader.com)

With this quote, I thee wed…

Who is joining hands with all the truly religious in America by following the last three or four decades of political history?

Guess..

Look at every race that’s been run over the past forty, thirty years, and you will see a divide between George Bush and Al Gore, between George Bush and John Kerry, between John McCain and Barack Obama, between people who go to church and people who don’t … We are the party that believe in values.

Got it?

Yeah, it’s Rick Santorum from a WLW radio show last Friday.

Deborah Brancheau over at RestoringTruthiness.org has an article: Rick Santorum to Abraham Lincoln: Oh You Infidel! that sums up the situation of the values party nicely.

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Palin has announced she’s not running…

Want to buy a National Touring Bus? I guess one will be available now that Sarah Palin has announced that she won’t be entering the Presidential race (what a surprise!)

So what will she do now to maintain her personal publicity program?

I guess it’s time for me to announce that I’m not running, either.

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• Sarah Palin won’t run in 2012 (thestar.com)
• GOP Reacts to Palin No-Go (thepage.time.com)
• BREAKING: Sarah Palin Will Not Be Running for President (sfist.com)
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Two Quotes for the Morning… and the stupidity of Rick Santorum

The other day, in a long and meaningful speech based on his own experience, Senator John McCain lashed out at the support of waterboarding by his fellow Republicans.

Rick Santorum has now responded to John McCain’s claim that torture didn’t lead to Bin Laden’s death by insisting that on the subject of torture, McCain has no idea what he’s talking about:

Everything I’ve read shows that we would not have gotten this information as to who this man was if it had not been gotten information from people who were subject to enhanced interrogation. And so this idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being waterboarded, he doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they’re broken, they become cooperative. And that’s when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that’s how we ended up with bin Laden.

Perhaps Santorum forgets that McCain was held and tortured by the North Vietnamese and bases his opinion on real experience. McCain has even written that he did not become cooperative under “enhanced interrogation” at all, and in fact gave his tormentors false information to get them to stop.

So in response to the question of what does McCain think of Rick Santorum’s  comment, McCain spokesperson Brooke Buchanan made a one word reply:

Who?

(Source: Justin Elliott in Salon)

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• Rick Santorum says Sen. John McCain, an ex-POW, doesn’t understand the effectiveness of harsh interrogation (pennlive.com)
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• UnCatholic Quote of the Day (vgiordano.wordpress.com)
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• Santorum: Still dumber than a bag of hammers…. (tagg-lines.com)
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Let’s hear it for Russ Feingold!

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com Russ Feingold Launches ‘Progressives United’ To Combat Corporate Influences In Politics When some senators retire, they decide to take lucrative lobbying jobs. Others go straight to Wall Street. But Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, who lost his re-election bid in November, is continuing on his principled — and often lonely — path by starting an organization to combat corporate influence in politics, an effort he hopes will spark “a new progressive movement” that will truly hold elected officials accountable. Progressives United is an attempt to to build a grassroots effort aimed at mitigating the effects of, and eventually overturning, the Supreme Court’s infamous Citizens United decision that opened the floodgates to corporate spending in the U.S. electoral system. Feingold said that Progressives United will follow the example of his own campaigns and not take any soft money or unlimited contributions.

Read more here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/16/russ-feingold-progressives-united-corporate-influence_n_816693.html

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So it looks like Joe Lieberman is not going to run in 2012… How nice.

“It’s the first thing he’s done in 10 years to make Connecticut Democrats completely happy.” said Connecticut Democratic leader and former State Senator Bill Curry.

 

And I must agree. Although I said back when Lieberman betrayed Democrats everywhere (first by running as an independent against his party after losing the State Primary, and second by campaigning for McCain against the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, in the 2008 election) that I would ignore him in this blog, his announcement that he will not seek reelection is worth noting…if only to elicit public sentiment in favor of the decision. As you can see, I don’t really trust him to keep his word.

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• Lieberman will not run in 2012, adviser says – Washington Post (news.google.com)
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Quote of the Day… a pledge to make DADT work…From John McCain?

The number one opponent to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell“, John McCain, made an interesting pledge in a Fox Business News interview today:

“It is a law and I have to do whatever I can to help the men and women who are serving, particularly in combat, cope with this new situation. I will do everything I can to make it work.”

Is this a flip-flop or just good sense from Senator Cranky?

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Quote for the Day – Thre Majority Leader on Senator McCain’s opposition to ending “Don’t ask, don’t tell”…

Harry Reid

“First, Sen. McCain said he would seriously consider repealing it if the military leadership thought we should, and [when] the military leadership said it should be repealed, he pulled away the football. Then Sen. McCain said he would need to see a study from the Pentagon. When the Pentagon produced the study saying repeal would have no negative effect at all, he pulled away the football again.

“And his latest trick, he said yesterday that he opposed repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ a proposal that would be a great stride forward for both equality and military readiness … because of the economy,” Reid added. “I repeat, the senior senator from Arizona said he couldn’t support repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ because of the economy.

“I have no idea what he’s talking about and no one else does either.”

– Senator Harry Reid

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Most Americans want it, the Administration wants it, McCain doesn’t want it. Who’s right?

Looks like this will come up this week and we may get a decision on DADT:

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com   DADT Study: Pentagon Report Says Gays Could Serve In Military With No Harm The Pentagon study that argues that gay troops could serve openly without hurting the military’s ability to fight is expected to re-ignite debate this month on Capitol Hill over repealing the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Officials familiar with the 10-month study’s results have said a clear majority of respondents don’t care if gays serve openly, with 70 percent predicting that lifting the ban would have positive, mixed or no results. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the findings hadn’t been released. Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, have mostly opposed repealing the law because they say efforts to do so are politically driven and dangerous at a time of two wars. “This was a political promise made by an inexperienced president or candidate for presidency of the United States,” McCain told CNN’s “State of the Union” last weekend.

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Is McCain working against the rest of the Nation?

It doesn’t look like he’s listening to his Committee testifiers…

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) seemed like he was about to lose his temper during a press briefing Tuesday after Republicans filibustered the defense appropriations bill over a measure that would have repealed the military‘s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) held a briefing in the Senate press gallery immediately following the vote. McCain grew increasingly obstinate when pressed on the military’s history of actively seeking out gay troops to be dismissed under the policy. Of course, as ThinkProgress notes, the Senate Armed Services Committee — on which McCain serves as the ranking Republican — heard testimony just this past March from servicemembers who said their sexual orientation was actively investigated, including by searches of their private emails.

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The Senate Just Blocked The Defense Bill Including “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal…

This is a small triumph for the Republicans who, led this time by John McCain, filibustered the Defense Bill coming up for debate, and prevented the 60 votes (all Dems and Independents plus 1 Republican) needed by Harry Reid from happening.

Senate Majority Leader Reid needed those 60 votes to overcome Republicans led by McCain, but because he had attached debate on the DREAM Act and a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as amendments  he was stomped. Centrist Republican senators like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine were considered crucial to this effort — but they were unwilling to cross the aisle during today’s vote.

So this means that, for now, the basic Defense Bill, which funds the military (who needs it to just keep operating) is not on the floor. I’m watching Senator Barbara Boxer on C-Span2 right now who is complaining about the inability to debate either the DADT amendment or the Dream Act Amendment. One point she make is that the only other countries in the world that don’t allow open gays in the military are Iran, Turkey, Cuba, North Korea, Egypt and a few others… Our friends, England, Germany, Austria, Canada, France and many more, allow open gay military service. Get the idea.

The ED Show summed it up pretty well last February:

The DREAM act, which allows children who are not citizens but were brought into their country by parents, can get a leading run to citizenship… and, also, to populate our military with thousands of people currently not allowed in… has been trying to get on the agenda for the last 10 years. This is something that really should be brought back up on the agenda again and again until it is passed.

Meanwhile, we are seeing this Congress’ major problem… the inability to get things done when Senators… and that is Republican Senators… Filibuster EVERYTHING, rather than letting majority rule.

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• Collins Equates Senate Debate With ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy (huffingtonpost.com)
• ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Becomes Hot Button Election-Year Issue (huffingtonpost.com)
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Some McCain Fun for a Sunday Night…

I found this animation while toodling around YouTube. I can’t help but think if this were spread around more in 2008 when it came out, McCain might have attracted a whole different crowd.

Or maybe not.

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Quote of the Day – the DNC on McCain’s win in Arizona

“Today, the Republican party of Arizona nominated for Senate JD Hayworth in the shell of a politician that was once John McCain,” said DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan. “The complete takeover of the Republican party by the Tea Party has included taking over the soul of a Senator who was once the face of comprehensive immigration reform and who now would just build the ‘danged fence;’ a man who once reveled in being a maverick and who now is a rubber stamp for the extreme rightwing; a man whose name was synonymous with campaign finance reform and who now barely registers a notice when the law that bears his name was gutted by the Supreme Court to favor corporate America. So, we congratulate JD Hayworth on his nomination tonight.”

– The Democratic National Committee

I’m not crazy about this kind of comment, especially if it comes from the Democrats who I hold to a higher standard… but it’s true.

Republicans used to avoid criticizing each other…

…but it looks like they forgot Reagan’s “eleventh commandment”.

clipped from voices.washingtonpost.com McCain gets attacked on primary day Sen. John McCain stands a good chance of winning tonight’s primary against challenger J.D. Hayworth. But that hasn’t kept him from being a victim of party-on-party attacks, so to speak. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) criticized McCain today, claiming the Arizona senator “gets elected because of one thing – earmarks.” Tulsa World reports that Inohofe, in a speech at a Tulsa Metro Chamber breakfast, attacked McCain as a closet liberal for his opposition to earmarks, which Inhofe said were no more than appropriations. Inhofe made no mention of Oklahoma’s junior, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, who also opposes earmarks.

Then again, I’ve never thought much of Inhofe.
Or, for that matter, Republicans in general.

If you get Tweets from John McCain…

… then you probably got this tiny piece of bullshit.

Last American combat troops leave Iraq. I think President George W. Bush deserves some credit for victory.

about 12 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone Retweeted by 100+ people

• Reply
• Retweet

SenJohnMcCain

John McCain

Let’s give Bush credit for giving us an unnecessary war to fight for a decade, credit for the deaths of over 4,000 soldiers (and major wounding of more than 40,0000)… and let’s let Bush share the credit with John McCain and his buddies.

When you run against a War Hero, shouldn’t you learn a little more about War?

This is an interesting piece from Talking Points Memo which shows us how much candidates really know… in this case Ex Congressman J.D. Hayworth who is running in Arizona’s primary against John McCain for the Republican Senate Nomination:

While speaking last week to a local GOP organization in Phoenix, Hayworth was asked by an attendee about America’s failure to formally declare war in our modern conflicts. Hayworth defended the modern-day authorizations for the use of military force. “But I would also point out, that if we want to be sticklers, the war that Dwight Eisenhower led in Europe against the Third Reich was never declared by the United States Congress,” said Hayworth. “Recall, the Congress passed a war resolution against Japan. Germany declared war on us two days later. We never formally declared war on Hitler’s Germany, and yet we fought the war.”

Here’s the speech:

And here, of course, is the actual Declaration of War against Germany:

US Declaration of War against Germany

December 11, 1941
The President’s Message

To the Congress of the United States:

On the morning of Dec. 11 the Government of Germany, pursuing its course of world conquest, declared war against the United States. The long-known and the long-expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world now are moving toward this hemisphere. Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization. Delay invites great danger. Rapid and united effort by all of the peoples of the world who are determined to remain free will insure a world victory of the forces of justice and of righteousness over the forces of savagery and of barbarism. Italy also has declared war against the United States.

I therefore request the Congress to recognize a state of war between the United States and Germany, and between the United States and Italy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The War Resolution

Declaring that a state of war exists between the Government of Germany and the government and the people of the United States and making provision to prosecute the same.

Whereas the Government of Germany has formally declared war against the government and the people of the United States of America:

Therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the state of war between the United States and the Government of Germany which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the government to carry on war against the Government of Germany; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States

A Quote for the Day – predicting the future months in Congress?

When Senator McCain stated on television Sunday that the passing of the Health Care Bill meant that Republicans would not cooperate for the rest of the year, this response came down from the Senate:

“For someone who campaigned on ‘Country First’ and claims to take great pride in bipartisanship, it’s absolutely bizarre for Senator McCain to tell the American people he is going to take his ball and go home until the next election. He must be living in some parallel universe because the fact is, with very few exceptions, we’ve gotten very little cooperation from Senate Republicans in recent years”.

– Senator Harry Reid

You tell ’em, Harry.

When you get older, your memory goes…

clipped from politicalwire.com Flashback of the Day When Sen. Al Franken objected to Sen. Joe Lieberman’s request for additional time, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that in his 20-plus years in the Senate he had never heard a senator do that before. However, a Political Wire reader sends this excerpt from the Congressional Record from October 10, 2002: The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator’s time has expired. Mr. DAYTON. I ask for unanimous consent that I have 30 seconds more to finish my remarks. Mr. McCAIN. I object.

Thanks to Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire… does anyone anywhere think a slimeball like McCain is remotely believable any more?

Quote of the Day (a Doozy!)

“I think the interrogations were in violation of the Geneva Convention against torture that we ratified under President Reagan. I think that these interrogations, once publicized, helped al Qaeda recruit.”

– Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in an interview on Face the Nation, on the Bush administration’s interrogation methods.

Looks like McCain and Cheney are not in the same Party.

(Thanks to Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire)