Month: April 2011

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Featured Republican United States

John Ensign To Resign From Senate Over Ethics Violation

Senator John Ensign. Do we need to say more? We can end this post right here and everyone would walk away with a picture in their minds of a Republican Senator who had an affair with a Cynthia Hampton, the wife of a former top aide,  Doug Hampton. And everyone will remember Mr. Ensign’s parents doling out $96,000.00 to Cynthia and her husband in an effort to quietly bury the affair.

And Ensign is making news again, this time, announcing his retirement from the Senate. The news was confirmed on his website earlier today, where he issued the following statement;

“It is with tremendous sadness that I officially hand over the Senate seat that I have held for eleven years. The turbulence of these last few years is greatly surpassed by the incredible privilege that I feel to have been entrusted to serve the people of Nevada.  I can honestly say that being a United States Senator has been the honor of my life.”

Uh-huh…Mr. Ensign is under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee due to his affair with Mrs. Hampton and his actions afterwards, where he wallowed being lobbied by her husband. Resigning now is Mr. Ensign’s way of sparing his family the embarrassment of going through an investigation.

“While I stand behind my firm belief that I have not violated any law, rule, or standard of conduct of the Senate, and I have fought to prove this publicly, I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents, or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn out proceedings, or especially public hearings.  For my family and me, this continued personal cost is simply too great.

Mmm- hmm…Mr. Ensign will present his official resignation to Vice President Joe Biden on Friday,  his last day in the Senate listed as May 3rd.

Family values at work here people. This is the conservative way!

Categories
Democratic Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

Total Recall – Another Wisconsin Republican To Be Recalled

Earlier in the week, we reported that petitions were already filed to repeal four Republican senators in Wisconsin. Tomorrow, Democrats will file another petition, gathering thousands of signatures more than what is required to file.

Dems will file a massive amount of signatures tomorrow to trigger a recall election against a fifth Wisconsin GOP state senator, I’m told.

Graeme Zielinski, the spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, confirms to me that Democrats will submit approximately 30,000 signatures for the recall of Alberta Darling — nearly 150 percent of the 20,343 required.

This is the fifth time Dems have collected far more signatures than necessary for a recall — all but ensuring that all five recall elections will actually happen.

I’m only guessing that the last three petitions for recalls will be as successful.

Categories
childhood obesity Glenn Beck Michelle Obama Mike Huckabee Republican

Glenn Beck To Mike Huckabee – I Challenge You To A Duel

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My dear sir, I challenge you to a duel!

These words most easily explain what is going on between Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee. Mr. Huchabee, a 2008 Republican presidential candidate fell on Glenn Beck’s wrong side because of his support for First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign which addresses childhood obesity. Mike Huckabee even went as far as saying, “I think we should thank and praise Michelle Obama.”

That support coming from a Republican to the Democratic First Lady caused Glenn Beck to call Mike Huckabee a “progressive!” Now normally, being called a progressive is considered a complement, but coming from Glenn Beck, progressives are considered scums of the earth! Mr. Beck even said on one of his shows, that progressives are like America’s cancer.

Mike Huckabee did not take this insult lying down. He fired back on his website, saying;

This week Glenn Beck has taken to his radio show to attack me as a Progressive, which he has said is the same as a “cancer” and a “Nazi.” What did I do that apparently caused him to link me to a fatal disease and a form of government that murdered millions of innocent Jews? I had the audacity—not of hope—but the audacity to give respect to the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to address childhood obesity.

I’m no fan of her husband’s policies for sure, but I have appreciated her efforts that Beck misrepresented—either out of ignorance or out of a deliberate attempt to distort them to create yet another “boogey man” hiding in the closet that he and only he can see. The First Lady’s approach is about personal responsibility—not the government literally taking candy from a baby’s mouth. He seems to fancy himself a prophet of sorts for his linking so many people and events together to describe a massive global conspiracy for pretty much everything.

Sadly, he seems equally inept at recognizing the obvious fact that children are increasingly obese and that we now see clinical evidence of diseases in children that as recent as 20 years ago were found only in adults, such as Type 2 diabetes. The costs to our nation are staggering in increase health care expenses, but it even effects national security with now 75% of young men between the ages of 17 and 24 are unfit for military service primarily due to obesity! His ridiculous claim that John McCain and I collaborated and conspired in the 2008 campaign is especially laughable.

Is he not aware that McCain and I were competitors—not cohorts? Beck needs to stick to conspiracies that can’t be so easily de-bunked by facts. Why Beck has decided to aim his overloaded guns on me is beyond me. But he ought to clean his gun and point it more carefully lest it blow up in his face like it did this time.

Since falling off the media wagon, Glenn Beck has been left up to his own destructive devices. He has been fighting for recognition from the media, but for the most part, he’s been ignored. Consider this attack on one of his own as a way to be mentioned again, and for this brief moment, he got his wish… Glenn Beck.  Moving on…!

Categories
Barack Obama Domestic Policies Medicare Paul Ryan Republican Tax Tax cut United States voters

Paul Ryan Can’t Explain His Trickle Down Economics To The Voters

Republican Paul Ryan is able to go on television and proclaim the myth that taking money from seniors and giving it to billionaires in the form of a Tax cut is the way to get America back on the economic track. On television, with the media bought and paid for by some of these same billionaires, Ryan is never questioned about exactly how is this concept supposed to work. But at home, the people of his state knows better.

In a town hall meeting, with the very same voters that put Mr. Ryan into office, questions were asked about his budget plan for which Ryan had no favorable answers. Among other things, Ryan’s plan would give seniors an $8000.00 check to be put towards purchasing their own health care from the private market.

See for yourself!

Categories
Politics

President Obama’s Facebook Townhall Meeting – Video

President Obama appeared today at an event sponsored by Facebook.

In case you missed it, below is a portion of the President’s meeting.

Categories
Abortion Domestic Policies South Dakota women's

In Four Months, Republicans Introduced 916 Bills Against Women’s Right To Choose

It’s almost an unbelievable figure – 916. That’s the amount of legislation that Republicans introduced from January to April, trying to regulate a woman’s reproductive system. It’s absolutely stunning!

This information comes from a report by The Guttmacher Institute, and it finds that 49 states have contributed to this number with various bills geared towards regulating abortions and a woman’s right to choose. The report says that in 15 states, the following measures became law:

  • expand the pre-abortion waiting period requirement in South Dakota to make it more onerous than that in any other state, by extending the time from 24 hours to 72 hours and requiring women to obtain counseling from a crisis pregnancy center in the interim;
  • expand the abortion counseling requirement in South Dakota to mandate that counseling be provided in-person by the physician who will perform the abortion and that counseling include information published after 1972 on all the risk factors related to abortion complications, even if the data are scientifically flawed;
  • require the health departments in Utah and Virginia to develop new regulations governing abortion clinics;
  • revise the Utah abortion refusal clause to allow any hospital employee to refuse to “participate in any way” in an abortion;
  • limit abortion coverage in all private health plans in Utah, including plans that will be offered in the state’s health exchange; and
  • revise the Mississippi sex education law to require all school districts to provide abstinence-only sex education while permitting discussion of contraception only with prior approval from the state.

The report continues;

In addition to these laws, more than 120 other bills have been approved by at least one chamber of the legislature, and some interesting trends are emerging. As a whole, the proposals introduced this year are more hostile to abortion rights than in the past: 56% of the bills introduced so far this year seek to restrict abortion access, compared with 38% last year. Three topics—insurance coverage of abortion, restriction of abortion after a specific point in gestation and ultrasound requirements—are topping the agenda in several states. At the same time, legislators are proposing little in the way of proactive initiatives aimed at expanding access to reproductive health –related services; this stands in sharp contrast to recent years when a range of initiatives to promote comprehensive sex education, permit expedited STI treatment for patients’ partners and ensure insurance coverage of contraception were adopted.

Four months, 916 bills introduced. Sounds like a new record is about to be set. Whatever happened to Roe v. Wade? You know, the 1973 decision by the Supreme Court that gives women the right under the 14th amendment of the Constitution to have a choice? The law that has guided this issue for the last four decades.

Why is Roe v. Wade now a mute issue?

 

Categories
Birthers Donald Trump Republican United States

Michele Bachmann To Birthers: Move On. End Of Story!

Michele Bachmann appeared on Good Morning America and was asked about Donald Trump and the whole Birther conspiracy. Mrs Bachmann answered that she thinks we should “move on, end of story.”

The Republican representative was responding to host George Stephanopoulos when he presented her with a copy of President Obama’s certificate. Mr. Stephanopoulous then went on to describe the document, saying;

It’s certified, it’s got a certification number, it’s got the registrar of the state, signed. It’s got a seal on it. And it says: ‘This copy serves as prima facie evidence of the fact of birth in any court proceeding.'”

“Well, then that should settle it,” said Bachmann. She added: “That’s what should settle it. I take the president at his word and I think — again I would have no problem and apparently the president wouldn’t, either. Introduce that, we’re done. Move on, end of story.”

So is Michele Bachmann a convert? Has she come over to the side of sanity? Of course not. Bachmann is going to use this Birther issue again in the future. She was presented with facts and placed on the spot, so she had no other choice but to admit the whole birther conspiracy was crazy, but wait… given the appropriate time, in front of the appropriate audience, Bachmann will flip.

Categories
Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

More Wisconsin Republicans Added to Recall List

The count is now up to four. That’s how many petitions have been filed to recall the Republican senators who supported Governor Walker’s decision to strip Wisconsin workers of their union rights. Democrats got the required 15,000 signatures needed to add the latest senators Luther Olsen and Sheila Harsdorf to the recall list.

Meanwhile, progressives still plan to file recall petitions against four other GOP state senators, and have until May 2 to do so. They plan to do the same against Walker once he is eligible for recall. And as FDL’s Dave Dyden notes, “While conservative activists have hinted that they have achieved enough signatures to recall Democratic members of the Senate, they have yet to file any petitions with the GAB.”

Governor Walker will be eligible for recall in January 2012.

Categories
Arizona Barack Obama Birthers Donald Trump

Jan Brewer Kills Birther Bill In Arizona

We didn’t think she had it in her. But today, Jan Brewer vetoed a bill passed by both the Arizona Senate and House, and would have required all Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates to prove they are United States citizens.

The bill, which was sponsored in part and written to appease the Birther movement, would have appointed a person to determine the eligibility of presidential candidates, based on nothing else but their birth certificate and if that wasn’t available, their circumcision certificate (for males only, of course. Don’t ask what proof they’re asking of women).

“I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions,” Ms Brewer said in a statement.

For some reason, and we’re not quite sure what that reason is – *wink wink* – birth certificates or questioning whether or not a president was born in this country, was never an issue with previous presidents. Something about President Obama – and we haven’t quite put our finger on it – has triggered an entire movement, now led by presidential hopeful Donald Trump, requesting this particular president comply with their demands.

“I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to submit their ‘early baptismal circumcision certificates’ among other records to the Arizona secretary of state,” Ms Brewer said.

I guess knowing what the presidential candidate’s penis looked like was not an appealing thought for Mrs. Brewer. Too bad her fellow Republicans felt otherwise in the vetoed bill.

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Chicago Glenn Beck

Conservatives Accuse Glen Beck of Stealing Material

Crazy is crazy, no matter where it comes from. It is, and will always be, crazy! But if you ask some conservative Republicans, their crazy is their crazy, and they want the world to know it.

With that said, using someone’s crazy without attributing it to them, is in itself, crazy… and plagiarism. And according to these conservatives, Glenn Beck has been tried and is found guilty of this crime. The Daily Caller elaborates;

By any standard, Beck seems unusually reliant on the work of others, and unusually reluctant to credit it. In an interview with TheDC, Roger L. Simon, CEO of Pajamas Media, suggested that Beck has committed the journalistic equivalent of a notorious crime. “It is not a question of just doing it right the majority of the time. It is a question of doing it right always,” Simon said. “Doris Kearns Goodwin is forever a fraud in my estimation because she has been caught plagiarizing once. If you rob a bank once, you still robbed a bank.”

A remarkably large number of conservative writers say they feel robbed. During the March 18 airing of his television program, for example, Beck ran a portion of video created by a Chicago-based blogger who calls himself Rebel Pundit. The blogger, who does not publicly reveal his name, says he was initially pleased to see Beck running his video, which featured left-wing protesters demanding amnesty for illegal immigrants. He was soon shocked, however, to see that Beck’s staff had obscured the watermark logo of his website, RebelPundit.com, from the tape.

“I put my website name on there for a reason – to bring people from the movement to my website so they can see the other stuff that I’ve done,” the man behind Rebel Pundit told TheDC. “You’ve got pretty much the biggest guy in the movement take your stuff and actually have his editors spend the time to scrub my name off of it.”

It seems that when it rains, it really pours. Who would have thought a few short months ago, that conservatives would turn on the anointed one this way? They have accused him of going cuckoo on air and bringing down the Republican party in the process to the point where even Fox so-called News has turned their backs on him. Now this?

Seems Glenn Beck “has fallen, and he can’t get up!” (< == taken from a Medical Alert commercial. Not plagiarism on my part! LOL!)

 

Categories
Barack Obama Medicare Paul Ryan Politics Republican The Budget United States weekly address

President Obama Slams Ryan’s Budget… Again!

After President Obama presented his speech on reducing the federal debt, Republicans went on a crying spree, accusing the President of not playing fair, and “making a partisan speech.” All of a sudden, the very same Republicans who have stood in the way of every single piece of legislation the Obama administration has put forth, are now questioning why, as they see it, President Obama is not working with them and agreeing on the Paul Ryan budget.

So to make sure Republicans heard him the first time around, President Obama used his weekly address to put emphasis on his original points – that all, including the rich, must contribute their share to America’s future, and that Paul Ryan’s plan is not worth the paper it is written on.

The President:

Now, one plan put forward by some Republicans in the House of Representatives aims to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years. But while I think their goal is worthy, I believe their vision is wrong for America. It’s a vision that says, at a time when other nations are hustling to out-compete us for the jobs and businesses of tomorrow, we have to make drastic cuts in education, infrastructure, and clean energy – the very investments we need to win that competition and get those jobs.

It’s a vision that says that in order to reduce the deficit, we have to end Medicare as we know it, and make cuts to Medicaid that would leave millions of seniors, poor children, and Americans with disabilities without the care they need.

But even as this plan proposes these drastic cuts, it would also give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest 2% of Americans–an extra $200,000 for every millionaire and billionaire in the country.

I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think it’s right to ask seniors to pay thousands more for health care, or ask students to postpone college, just so we don’t have to ask those who have prospered so much in this land of opportunity to give back a little more.

Categories
Barack Obama Featured Politics Racism Republican White House

Racist Republican Email Depicts Obama As An Ape

You will have to check a calendar to believe the year is 2011, because if you simply rely on the stink that’s emitting from the Republican party today, you will swear that we’ve traveled back in time to the 1800’s.

Orange County in California is slowly becoming the epicenter of the racist element of the Republican party. Back in 2009, when the rest of America and the world for that matter, celebrated the inauguration of the first black president, Orange County was busy preparing an email showing the lawn of the White House covered in watermelons.

And now Marilyn Davenport, a Southern California Tea Party activist and member of the Central Committee of the Orange County Republican Party, has decided it was time to show her true nature, or rather, the nature she associates with the President. She forwarded an email depicting President Obama as the son of an apparent ape family, with the title of the email saying, “Now you know why theres no birth certificate.”

Equally despicable, is Ms. Davenport’s refusal to see any harm in her racist attempt at humor as witnessed by her unapologetic response to the incident. And oh yea, the “I have friends who are black” statement was included in her response. That alone, made everything all right! Ms. Davenport goes on to say;

“Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people–mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it.”

Calling the person who reported the email to The Weekly a “coward”,  Davenport is also blaming the media for making a “big deal” out of the incident.

I just checked. It is 2011, but evidently some people wish for the “good ole days…!”

More on this story here.

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