Year: 2012

Categories
Politics Republican

Polling Report: Special Missibama Muslim Edition

Just when I was going to recognize the modern south and how much attitudes have changed, along comes the story that Republicans in both Alabama (45%) and Mississippi (52%) believe that President Obama is a Muslim.

I try to be nice. I try to keep my focus on politics and public policy. I try to be fair. But really, what can you say about such blatant ignorance, fear and outright hatred? And these Republicans are going to go to the polls tomorrow to have a say in who’s going to run against the president in the fall.

The latest numbers in Mississippi are here. Gingrich is in front by a hair and I expect him to eke out a victory. Alabama’s numbers are here. For the moment, Romney has a slim lead and I think he’ll win.

To the predictions:

First, the state where the majority of GOPers believe Obama to be a Muslim

Gingrich          33%

Romney          32%

Santorum        29%

Paul                 6%

For their slightly less anti-truth neighbors

Romney          32%

Gingrich          31%

Santorum        30%

Paul                 6%

These southern states will vote GOP in the fall, so I don’t see that there’s much fuss about which candidate is more conservative than the others. If Romney wins both states then he can claim a mandate and I would think Gingrich would drop out. If Santorum wins both, he can claim two major victories and renewed strength. Romney will ultimately be the nominee, but a Rick for VP movement is a distinct possibility.

I hope the news outlets let us know who gets the Muslim vote.

Categories
Rush Limbaugh

Company Sues To Keep Name Off Rush Limbaugh’s Show

The Associated Press reports: A Kentucky-based health care company has sued to protect its name after being involuntarily drawn into the backlash over Rush Limbaugh’s derisive comments about a Georgetown law student.

Louisville-based Humana, the parent company of Concentra Health Services, filed on Thursday for a preliminary injunction to stop the Preval Group of Portland, Maine from using the name Concentra to market memory aid pills.

Humana said in court filings it received angry phone calls, emails and web postings after an ad for Concentra pills aired on Limbaugh’s show Monday. Concentra Health and the Preval Group are not related.

Limbaugh has been criticized for attacking student Sandra Fluke over contraception. He apologized but has lost some advertisers in the backlash.

Categories
Politics

Another Billionaire Warns of the Dangers of Capitalism

A few months ago, we highlighted this article by billionaire Nick Hanauer as he skillfully shed some light on the false Republican claim that rich people are job creators. Now, we bring you a piece by another billionaire who warns that capitalism will be our downfall.

His name is Jeremy Grantham, a British investor who manages a hedge fund worth more than $100 billion, and he had this to say;

It gets worse, for what capitalism has always had is money with which to try to buy influence. Today’s version of U.S. capitalism has died and gone to heaven on this issue. A company is now free to spend money to influence political outcomes and need tell no one, least of all its own shareholders, the technical owners. So, rich industries can exert so much political influence that they now have a dangerous degree of influence over Congress. And the issues they most influence are precisely the ones that matter most, the ones that are most important to society’s long-term well-being, indeed its very existence. Thus, taking huge benefits from Nature and damaging it in return is completely free and all attempts at government control are fought with costly lobbying and advertising. And one of the first victims in this campaign has been the truth.

If scientific evidence suggests costs and limits be imposed on industry to protect the long-term environment, then science will be opposed by clever disinformation. It’s now getting to be an old and obvious story, but because their propaganda is good and despite the solidness of the data, half of the people believe the problem is a government run wild, mad to control everything.

Categories
Afghanistan

US Soldier kills 16 Afghan Civilians in Shooting Rampage

Over the last few weeks, some strange events have happened in Afghanistan. Just a couple of weeks ago, there was the accidental burning of the Quran by American troops, an act that increased an already tensed situation in the country between Afghans and American soldiers and caused the president of the United States to issue an apology. Now, we hear the story of an American soldier who opened fire on Afghan civilians, killing at least 16 men, women and children.

Although an initial report suggests that the soldier involved in the shooting went “crazy,” that wasn’t the first thought that came to my mind. Although my reasoning may seemed a bit far fetched, consider this for a moment: the war in Afghanistan is in its final phase and is coming to an end. With the war in Iraq already brought to a successful conclusion, ending this unpopular conflict in Afghanistan would boost president Obama’s favorable ratings among a war-wary American public.

In the middle of an election year with an economy moving in the right direction and with a Republican opposition party determined to make sure this president fails, would it really be that far fetched to wonder if they are behind these random acts of violence? Is it wrong to wonder if money was exchanged to cause more tension in Afghanistan so that Republicans can say, see, we were right. We should stay in Afghanistan longer, but president Obama wants to end the war. He knows nothing about being Commander In Chief. He’s wrong and we were right.

Normally, this would not be the first thing I think about hearing about these different incidents in Afghanistan, but with the current toxic nature of our politics and with the do anything to win mentality of some in Washington, I wouldn’t put it past them to use this war as a political ploy to win an election. They are, after all… politicians. They are, after all… Republicans.

Categories
Politics teachers

Q. Are We Not Teachers? The Devolution of Education

We seem to have come to a critical point in the education deform movement. No, that’s not a typo: I don’t mean reform, I mean deform, because the people who want to use unreliable and faulty data to evaluate teachers and deny educators their negotiated due process rights are not reformers and never have been. They are out to twist education from a public responsibility to a privatized option whose purpose is to serve the needs of their wealthy supporters at the expense of unions and educators who know best how the system works and how it can best serve children.

It’s high time that policy makers, including Governors, Commissioners of Education (including ACTING Commissioners) and government officials respect the fact that educators know what works in the classroom and that they need to be intimately involved in the decision-making process. If you don’t include the stakeholders, any efforts at improving education will ultimately fail. We need to be loud and clear about what’s at stake, and to call for real reform that benefits parents, students and teachers. Please join me in expressing your concern about the direction that education reform is taking. We are headed down the wrong path.

Every word in this sentence is a link to an article that details the folly of using student standardized test scores to evaluate teachers. Yet, that’s exactly what the deformers want to do.

If what happened in New York City isn’t scary enough, consider this: Under the Value Added Model, teachers will be distilled down to a number and that number will stay with them for every year in which they teach. If the number is considered good, they’ll be OK, but if that number decreases, be ready for a storm that will make Katrina seem like a drizzle. Parents will want the teacher with the 86 rating, not you and your paltry 78. And just why were you a 92 last year but an 83 this year? It will be bad. Teachers will be two-students-who-ate-lousy-breakfasts-on-test-day away from being the teacher that nobody wants for their child.

In New Jersey,  there’s a bit of controversy over a  proposed teacher tenure bill because it would grandfather in all teachers who are currently working in schools. Never mind that those teachers have already been vetted during their 3 year probationary period. Governor Christie believes that New Jersey’s teachers as failing (even when they’re not) and that the NJEA lies about everything.

For the record, I have no problem with my dues money going to pay for advertisements and political action that calls out a governor who knows next to zilch about teaching or education or reforming or being diplomatic or appropriate or how to be a role model for anyone other than your average bully. And in a delicious irony, our bully-in-chief  signed an anti-bullying law that he refused to pay for and that was declared unconstitutional. Of course, there’s money for Christie’s tax cut proposal, but so far the response has been lukewarm at best.

Right now the deformers have the high ground. We know that the education and teacher bashing model is working because morale among educators has reached a new low. And that’s exactly what our society needs in a world of hyper-competitiveness, where education and skills will be the coin of the realm. Having a teaching staff that knows it’s unappreciated by the various elements who want to undermine public education is a sure fire way to keep American students undereducated for the future. And it’s a terrific strategy for  attracting and keeping the smart, creative, energetic, technologically savvy people we’ll need in education now and in the future.

The time is growing short for educators to take the lead and turn the deform movement into an actual educational reform movement. Get involved and let your voice be heard.

Are we not Teachers?

For more, please go to: www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest  

Categories
Politics

98 Advertisers Decides to End their Support of Right-Winged Hate Radio

Thanks to the most recent hate episode exhibited by Rush Limbaugh against Sandra Fluke, sponsors and advertisers to right winged talk radio are starting to find their moral grounds and are pulling their ads not only from Limbaugh’s program, but from other shows considered hateful, like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity of Fox News.

Think Progress reports on an article by Radio-Info, that found 98 advertisers have decided to end their support of right winged hate.

When it comes to advertisers avoiding controversial shows, it’s not just Rush From today’s TRI Newsletter: Premiere Networks is circulating a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid “environments likely to stir negative sentiments.” The list includes carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm) and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway). As you’ll see in the note below, those “environments” go beyond the Rush Limbaugh show

“To all Traffic Managers: The information below applies to your Premiere Radio Networks commercial inventory...They’ve specifically asked that you schedule their commercials in dayparts or programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity).’

Categories
children Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh Supported Joseph Kony over President Obama

Five months ago, Rush Limbaugh took go his radio program and continued his usual lies and misinformation about president Obama. On this particular occasion, Limbaugh blasted the president for sending 100 US Troops to Africa to search for Joseph Kony – the leader of a ruthless guerilla movement in Uganda, responsible for the kidnap and murder of hundreds of thousands of Africans.

The name of the group – Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – and the fact that Obama was against them was enough for Limbaugh to make his decision on where he stood, and he chose Joseph Kony.

“Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them,” Limbaugh said last Oct. 14, according to a show transcript.

Limbaugh then went on to read from what he said were the group’s self-described objectives, which included “to remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.”

“Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting,” said Limbaugh, implying that the US had taken the wrong side in the battle.

What Limbaugh did not say was that the list of LRA objectives appeared to have come straight off Wikipedia, according to a contemporaneous New York Times account. Nor did Limbaugh mention that for years the group had been widely accused of torture, murder, looting, and wanton destruction.

Perhaps the other major reason Limbaugh made this faux pas was that he was just talking too fast about stuff of which he knew little. Today over 50 million people have seen the Invisible Children video, which documents such LRA abuses as its kidnapping of children for use as soldiers. But Limbaugh’s discussion of the group occurred long before it became so well known.

In fact, as his broadcast progressed last October, Limbaugh obviously began receiving reports from listeners of the LRA’s real nature.

Near the end of the show he said, “Is that right? The Lord’s Resistance Army is being accused of really bad stuff? … Well, we just found out about this today. We’re gonna do, of course, our due diligence research on it. But nevertheless we got a hundred troops being sent over there to fight these guys – and they claim to be Christians.”

Categories
energy independence Politics weekly address

President Obama to Congress – “Put Aside The Bumper Sticker Slogans” on Oil

President Obama used his weekly address to talk about his all the above strategy for Energy independence, and he compared his plan to use air, solar, oil, wind and biofuels to that offered by the Republicans – the “drill baby drill” plan.

The president pointed out that under his administration, oil drilling is “at an eight year high,” suggesting that if drilling for fossil fuel was the answer, gas prices wouldn’t be where they are today.

And he asked congress to come together and “put aside the bumper-sticker slogans” and work together with him to move America towards a more clean and balanced energy future.

Categories
Politics

Pastor Pat Robinson – Sandra Fluke Needs $3000 for Contraception?

Tele-Evangelist Pat Robinson could not allow the Sandra Fluke / Rush Limbaugh controversy to go unnoticed on his television show. The minister and his special guest blessed us with some right winged knowledge,  and guess whose side they took… Rush Limbaugh’s. No surprises here.

Although Mr Robinson admitted that “Rush Limbaugh got a little bit over the top on that thing,” Robinson went down the very same path Rush took. He didn’t call Ms Fluke a “slut,” but the misleading way he asked if Sandra Fluke needed $3000 for contraception implied the same thing – like Rush would say, someone who is “having too much sex” for money.

Both Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robinson are intentionally misleading their audience. Ms Fluke did not say she needed $3000 because she’s having too much sex, she spoke on the importance of contraception to women’s health as it relates to controlling ovarian cysts and other diseases, and the cost to a woman if paid out-of-pocket.

We expected Limbaugh to mislead and misinform, but why would a self-proclaimed man of God dinghies same?

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics Slut

This is The Reason why Mitt Romney Cannot Criticize Rush Limbaugh

According to this Newsweek report, the reason is a twisted tale of corruption, involving campaign donations and spineless politicians – namely Mitt Romney. In other words, its Mitt Romney’s old company Bain Capital, doing what it does best.

The report states that “fourteen directors of Clear Channel, the company that hosts the Rush Limbaugh show, have contributed $726,400 to Mitt Romney since 1994, most of it in the current presidential campaign. Romney has come under attack for refusing to criticize Limbaugh’s comments about Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke, other than to say that calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute” was not “the language I would have used.”

“Romney’s former company, Bain Capital, acquired Clear Channel in 2008 with another Boston-based investment firm, Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL), so five of the entertainment company’s directors that have given to Romney come from Bain, while three are affiliated with the Lee firm. Three other directors are members of the Mays family that founded the company and continued to run it until 2011, when CEO Mark Mays stepped down. The remaining three donor directors come from other investment firms.

“The $26 billion merger, which was launched simultaneously with Romney’s first presidential candidacy in late 2006 and placed Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and much of the talk show right under Bain/Lee control, also involved Romney’s longtime law firm, Ropes & Gray, whose managing partner is the trustee of the family’s blind trust. David C. Chapin, a lead Ropes lawyer on the merger, has also given $12,700 to Romney, and five other partners who worked on it added another $10,400.”

Categories
Barack Obama Politics

A Younger Version, Same Ole Barack – Video

Republicans have corralled around this video like scavengers zeroing in on a dead prey. The video taken in 1991 shows a young Harvard Law President named Barack Obama giving a speech. This video, Republicans claim, shows “how radical” young Barack was because he spoke in favor of more diversity among the faculty.

This blast from the past, featuring Obama speaking on behalf of prominent Harvard Professor Derrick Bell at a protest calling for greater faculty diversity, was provided to BuzzFeed from WGBH Boston, and uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday.

Categories
Democratic Ohio Politics

Democrats Lose Eight-Term Congressman Dennis Kucinich In Ohio

The Hill reports “Rep. Marcy Kaptur edged out fellow Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) in a primary on Tuesday, leaving no clear path forward for Kucinich to remain in Congress.

It was a humbling loss for the eight-term congressman, who built a national following, twice ran for president and established himself as a forceful voice for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. But he faced a tough task in defeating Kaptur.

The swath of Ohio that brought Kaptur and Kucinich into battle runs along the coast of Lake Erie, spanning from Kaptur’s home base in Toledo to Kucinich’s stronghold in Cleveland. A last-minute change to the map, put into place by Republican state lawmakers, added more of Kaptur’s Toledo-area constituents to the new district, giving her a built-in advantage.

Neither Kaptur nor Kucinich sought out the fight. Drawn into the same district by GOP mapmakers, the two friends and House allies were forced to square off in the first of about a dozen redistricting-induced primary showdowns.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Kaptur captured 56 percent to Kucinich’s 40 percent. A third Democratic candidate, businessman Graham Veasey, placed last with 4 percent.

“This was a very intense campaign, because of the way the district was drawn,” Kaptur said on MSNBC. “We had to advertise in two media markets, the new one being five times more expensive than the existing one. It was just a real marathon.”

Kaptur said she had not yet spoken to Kucinich.”

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