Month: May 2015

Categories
Death Penalty News Politics

The New Kansas-Nebraska Acts

It’s been an interesting week in the conservative heartland. Nebraska legislators overturned the governor’s veto and abolished the death penalty, while in Kansas, the state legislature is thinking about raising taxes  because, well, that old conservative orthodoxy that says you can cut taxes and spur economic growth doesn’t seem to be working. Even would-be conservatives like Governor Chris Christie are paying the price for slow growth, and Christie still wants to cut taxes.

But there’s more. In a new Gallup survey, the number of people who consider themselves socially liberal has caught up to those who say they are socially conservative, a large jump from previous polls. Couple this with the news that younger Evangelical Christians are more socially progressive than their elders and you have the beginnings of the swing back to the middle this country so desperately needs.

The fever, it seems, might be breaking after all.

This was inevitable, as social and political shifts have been occurring approximately every 30 years. What began in the 1980s as a swing to the right, with Ronald Reagan’s presidency and gained momentum and roots with the conservative takeover of the Republican Party during the 1990s has evidently peaked and is now poised for a slow decline that will gain speed as a new generation of voters – who tend to be more progressive – participates in greater numbers. I certainly remember moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats in the 1960s and 70s, and I look for them to return sometime soon.

The main problem for the Republicans is that this new attitude might not save them for the 2016 presidential race. Social conservatives who vote in large numbers tend to be older than the new progressives, and they turn out for primaries. That’s why somewhat more moderate candidates, such as George Pataki and Chris Christie, will find it difficult to gain traction. But that movement away from the far right will also doom Rick Santorum and Rick Perry. Rand Paul could benefit, but my sense is that he’s ahead of the GOP curve. By 2024, he could be the mainstream nominee.

What we are seeing is the beginning of a new alignment that will take a couple of election cycles to define itself. How each party reacts to this is key, but the effects on the country will be real.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Newt Gingrich Politics

Former Republican House Speaker Accused of Sexually Abusing Another Male

Oh these Republicans have balls!

It is common knowledge that while Newt Gingrich masterminded the impeachment of President Bill Clinton for having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, Gingrich himself was busy having an affair of his own. And it is common knowledge that while Clinton was being impeached for said affair, another Republican leader, Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana, had to step down from being House Leader because he too was involved in multiple affairs.

Balls, right? Yea, I know.

But that’s not the end of if. Apparently, the biggest balls of all go to the next Republican who took over as House Speaker and became the longest-serving Republican House speaker in U.S. history, Dennis Hastert. It is now being revealed that Hastert had a secret of his own, and his secret was big… very big. Big enough that Hastert felt it was necessary to pay $3.5 million to a blackmailer to keep the secret… secret.

What was Hastert’s secret? Was it sexual in nature? Hell yea! He is a Republican after all. But unlike the sexual nature of his predecessors Newt and Livingston, Hastert’s sexual secret involved another man who might have been underage when Hastert had sex with him.

“It goes back a long way,” said one official discussing the recent seven-page indictment against Hastert.

On Friday, federal law enforcement dropped the anvil when they revealed that Hastert paid $1.7 million of the $3.5 million to a male he’s accused of sexually abusing when the boy was his student in Illinois.

And if they can all do it over, I’m sure Gingrich, Livingston and Hastert would all impeach Bill Clinton again for his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Balls!

Categories
Politics

Martin O’ Malley’s Presidential Announcement – Video

Martin O’Malley joins Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders as the third officially announced Democrat running for president in 2016.

Categories
Politics

Going Nowhere Fast – 5 GOP Hopefuls Tied for 1st Place

How fast can the clown car go with five clowns sitting in the driver’s seat? I don’t know. I’m not a Republican.

A new poll released on Thursday tells the tale of The Five.

The group, which includes former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who has yet to declare his candidacy, and Senator Marco Rubio, was clustered at 10 percent support each, with none beating Clinton in head-to-head matchups.

Also bunched at the top, according to the Quinnipiac University poll, are three arch-conservatives: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker; former Arkansas governor, onetime preacher and Fox television show host Mike Huckabee; and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, the only likely African-American in the crowded Republican field.

Libertarian-leaning Senator Rand Paul, in the spotlight recently for his opposition to the US government’s controversial surveillance of millions of Americans, earned seven percent, while rival Senator Ted Cruz came in at six percent and business magnate Donald Trump received five percent.

Categories
arrested child porn Politics

Another Conservative Arrested for Owning and Distributing Kiddie Porn

May 22, 2015 - Brooklyn, NY: Joseph Hayon, a Brooklyn politician running for a city council seat, is arraigned at Brooklyn Criminal Court for possession of child pornography.
May 22, 2015 – Brooklyn, NY: Joseph Hayon, a Brooklyn politician running for a city council seat, is arraigned at Brooklyn Criminal Court for possession of child pornography.

This is straight from the morally superior depleted Republican party.

An ultra-conservative one-time Brooklyn city council candidate — whose campaign slogan was “Our children are our future” — has been nabbed for possessing and sharing kiddie porn, prosecutors said Friday.

Joseph Hayon, 37, was arrested Thursday and admitted to police that he traded the sick pics of kids between the ages of 2 and 12 in December 2014 using his email account ArtModel@juno.com, according to a criminal complaint.

At his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, prosecutors said a tip led police to search Hayon’s Midwood home, where the stash of child porn was found.

Cops confiscated Hayon’s two laptops, five desktops, video camera, Samsung cellphone and one DVD, prosecutors said.

He was also slapped with an order of protection Friday barring him from coming in contact with his four children, ages 9, 7, 4 and 15 months. He was released on $50,000 bail.

“I can’t comment, my lawyer told me not to talk,” a scruffy Hayon, clad in a yarmulke, button-down and khakis, told reporters when he was released.

When asked whether his wife, Batya, tipped cops off to his disgusting behavior, he only said, “Definitely not my wife.”

Categories
Domestic Policies Foreign Policies Healthcare News Politics Wisconsin Union Bashing

Afraid of Rubio? They All Scare Me.

Ooohhh! Scary!!! Yes, The New York Times reported last week that many Democrats are most afraid of a presidential match-up between Hillary and…Marco Rubio.

Scary!!!

And why? Because…he has a story! Scary!!! And he’s good looking. And he’s a good speaker. And he’s Hispanic and his father came here from Cuba and he won big time races in Florida. And he was once friends with Jeb Bush who might or might not have promised not to run for president in 2016, which would have opened a spot for Rubio but Jeb evidently doubled back on that maybe promise and now Marco’s really really really scary angry.

Scary!!!

So why am I so, you know, cool about this whole thing? One reason is that once GOP primary voters wake up they’ll realize that Rubio represents everything the Republicans oppose in…Obama. Scary!!!

One term Senator. Check
Makes a good speech. Check
In his 40s. Check
Supports an immigration overhaul that, scary, would lead to a path to legal status. Check
Not a lot of foreign policy experience. Check

Another reason is that the GOP base wants a bona-fide conservative with a record of tax cutting, union-busting and border fence building and that’s not Rubio.

But aside from that, Democrats should not be singularly afraid of any one candidate. They should be quaking in their boots at the thought of any of the announced or near-announced candidates becoming president. All of them have pledged tax breaks for the wealthy and lower taxes for corporations. They’ve all pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act with no credible plan to replace it, keep health care costs down, or to continue to cover those who have already signed up for care. Each one would either strongly advocate for, or at least tolerate, religious objection laws for marriage equality and contraception coverage. They would all mandate government interference in women’s reproductive health issues. They oppose higher minimum wages and believe that public workers pensions are negotiable or expendable. And none of them has any credible plan for world order other than genuflecting in front of Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for American troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Not to mention climate change denial and the unwavering support of the NRA.

That’s a frightening collection of misguided and misbegotten policies that were derided in the 1980s as outlandish pipe dreams, the subjects of journal articles in the 1990s, adopted as the GOP platform in the aughts and now, as mainstream political thought in the teens.

Making any of them a reality? Scary.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Entertainment

The Avengers – The Redneck Edition – Video

From the good ole folks over at Bad Lip Reading, this is The Redneck’s edition of The Avenges.

Categories
Celebrities

David Letterman’s Set Thrown in a Dumpster Hours After his Goodbye Show

David Letterman spent 33 years hosting what has become an iconic show,  but just hours after Letterman said goodbye to The Late Show, CBS wasted no time in kicking David Letterman’s set to the curb.

Sentimental fans gathered outside the Ed Sullivan Theater on Thursday to watch as stagehands unceremoniously crushed and sawed through iconic pieces of the “Late Show” backdrop the day after the final show.

“I can’t believe they’re just demolishing the whole thing. It’s shocking,” said Stephanie Strausz, of Manhattan, who scored a second-row ticket to Wednesday’s star-studded finale.

“It should go in the Smithsonian, not the Dumpster,” she said.

Strausz was one of many “Late Show” lovers who successfully snagged a keepsake from a theater Dumpster that overflowed with red audience seats and bits of the bridges that made up the set behind Letterman’s desk.

More than a dozen fans waited for the workers and security to clear out Thursday evening before descending on the talk-show trash like vultures, scavenging for salvageable relics.

“Show business. They don’t waste much time,” executive producer Rob Burnett said via Instagram, next to a photo he took of the gutted theater.
There were a few things stagehands carefully carried out, including Letterman’s on-air desk — which was covered in bubble wrap and headed for the Smithsonian — a replica of the George Washington Bridge, loaded into a van, and furniture and instruments belonging to band leader Paul Shaffer.

Most of the costumes and some props were sent to a costume warehouse in Yonkers.

Categories
Politics Tamir Rice

Report – Cleveland Police Charged 12 Year Old Tamir Rice with “Aggravated Menacing”

Tamir Rice was cut down, killed by Cleveland police before he turned 13 years old. The 12-year-old was shot and killed by police in less than 3 seconds after they encounter the minor in a park. And now, months after they killed the boy, it is being reported the Cleveland police filed charges against Tamir in an apparent attempt to justify killing him.

Cleveland police charged 12-year-old Tamir Rice with “aggravated menacing” and “inducing panic,” according to documents published by the Daily Kos on Wednesday.

The incident report is dated Nov. 29, 2014, a week after Rice was fatally shot by 26-year-old Officer Timothy Loehmann within two seconds of encountering him at a local park. Neither Loehmann nor 46-year-old Officer Frank Garmback, who also responded to the call, administered medical treatment immediately following the shooting.

The document lists a “facsimile firearm” as part of the case narrative. Loehmann killed Rice believing him to be carrying an actual weapon. However, emergency dispatchers were originally told that the Airsoft rifle the boy had with him at the time was “probably fake.” Footage from the scene also shows the officers handcuffing Rice’s sister.

Categories
Politics

Six Baltimore Officers Indicted in Freddie Gray’s Death – Video

We all watch the last few moments of Freddie Gray’s life in horror as he was handcuffed and tossed into the back of a van by the Baltimore police. In addition to the injuries Mr. Gray received at the hands of police during the arrest process, something terrible happened in the back of the police vehicle that caused irreparable damage to Freddie’s spine. Riots and protests ensued in Baltimore and throughout the nation as people called for justice and today, the Baltimore prosecutor,Marilyn Mosby, announced that six officers were indicted in Freddie’s death.

Video

Categories
Politics

Soldier tells Jail Guards “I can’t breathe” 20 Times, then Dies – Video

Sgt. James Brown, an active Soldier in the military, died at the hands of jail guards after being restrained in his cell and saying he couldn’t breathe some 20 times.

The incident happened in Texas when the soldier turned himself into authorities on a DWI charge. He was supposed to spend 2 days in jail but when he checked in to serve his time, he never checked out alive.

Video

Categories
Politics

Los Angeles to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour

Los Angles steps up to the plate and does the right thing for its citizens.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday backed a plan to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour, joining a trend sweeping cities across the country as elected leaders seek to boost stagnating pay for workers on the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder.

Lawmakers agreed to draft an ordinance raising the $9-an-hour base wage to $15 by 2020 for as many as 800,000 workers, making L.A. the largest city in the nation to adopt a major minimum-wage hike. Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle already have approved similar increases, and raising the federal minimum wage has moved to the forefront of the Democratic Party’s agenda.

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