In TeddySanFran’s recent Late Nite post on Imus, Spocko of Spocko’s Brain noted the following:
The other day (Oct. 8 to be exact). Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan were bragging about how there were smarter than Imus because THEY didn’t apologize for their violent comments directed toward, Democrats, liberals, journalists and Muslims. They were talking about how Media Matters failed to get them fired so obviously they did the right thing and stood by their violent comments and called me a liar, a thief and a coward.
They think that because they brought out the big legal guns and shut down a little blogger that they “won” especially since there were no consequences to them. (Even though the station lost 28 advertisers and about 1/2 million in revenue.)
It gets better:
Spocko notes that the person hiring Imus is Farid Suleman, the Chairman of Citadel broadcasting who is the new owner of ABC Radio/KSFO, Rodgers’ and Morgan’s home base — and that Citadel might not have known of the turmoil that was roiling their planned acquisition:
I don’t think Citadel has an idea just how much Disney protected the people at KSFO. The fact that Disney had several lawyers and crisis PR people who swooped in to save them from themselves in the media is what protected their ass from being fired, that and they were still in the middle of a $2.7 billion dollar deal that they wanted to close to sell ABC Radio to Citadel.
So we have the head of Citadel rehiring Imus even as he’s just finished buying a radio network which harbors and promotes the extreme-right-wing eliminationists working at KSFO — a station so vile that even Michelle Malkin has called them out over a typical Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan rant involving torturing a person with a Sears Diehard battery hooked to his testicles before shooting his head off: “I don’t care if the guy had two thousand felonies, I don’t want the state shooting people for property crimes.“
Oh, and KSFO is a San Francisco radio station. Did you hear that, Madame Speaker Pelosi?
Riddle me this, Madame Speaker:
Has Pete Stark (who the Republicans have apparently ordered CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to destroy) advocated that conservatives be “pruned”? KSFO’s Lee Rodgers advocates it for liberals. Has Pete Stark ever said that Rupert Murdoch needs to be lined up and shot? No, but Lee Rodgers and Peter Mulhern say that the NYT’s Bill Keller should be lined up and shot. And not a peep from Wolf Blitzer, much less any Republican, of even mild reproof, much the full-on hissy kabuki they’re doing their worst to stir up.
Yeah, yeah, I know: We hold our Congresspeople and public officials to a higher standard. Or do we?
Not when (h/t to Digby for this) the office of Mitch McConnell — the leader of the Senate Republicans, not some lowly Democratic back-bencher Congressman — leads and orchestrates the attacks and smears on Graeme Frost, a twelve-year-old boy with a medical condition who offended the Republicans by daring to speak out for SCHIP.
Not when John Tanner, who is the chief of the Justice Department’s voting rights section, can say outrageous garbage about Hispanics — and you DON’T hear about it first (or at all) from Wolf Blitzer and CNN (just Google “CNN Tanner” and you’ll see for yourself), but instead from the Brad Blog.
Not when even as they roll out the carefully-coopted and groomed Bobby Jindal to be the publicly-’diverse’ face of Louisiana’s Republican Party, the real movers and shakers in Louisiana’s GOP are Klansmen and David Duke supporters like Vincent Bruno and radio host Keith Rush.
Tell ya what, Madame Speaker: The next time you get near a microphone, make sure that you ask anyone who mentions Pete Stark why they AREN’T mentioning Mitch McConnell. (You know — the guy in the photo at the top of this post?) Or John Tanner. Or Keith Rush and Vincent Bruno. Then you get to bring it all back around to SCHIP, which is your goal, right?
Come on, now. Fight the real enemy.
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zed?
I’ll go tell downstairs.
PW, you’re asking Pelosi to act like a real democrat? Ha ha ha !
Hi Betsy
I’ve lost a lot of respect for Pelosi this year. And there is little she can do to get it back.
Off to play with small children for a few hours. Back later.
Good on ya PW!
Thanks much for the information.
OMG that guy(?) is ugly… did you just have to?
I wonder if darkblack has anything we could look at for the next screed on that slug.
I think Gore’s running…more on his “other type of campaign” developments:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/27/43749/356
Millineryman @ 5
i believe in reconcilliation.
but it requires acknowledgement, telling the truth and making amends.
not seeing it.
so very sad, i expected emanuael et al. to be awful… but i, like you, had good expectations for speaker pelosi.
I have a fantasy that goes something like this; HRC is elected president. She then proceeds to use all the powers that Bush has accrued to the presidency to exact payback on all the right-wing yakkers who have made her life such a misery these past 15-odd years. Rush, O’Reilly, Hannity etc are all renditioned to black sites where they get to find out what Enhanced Interrogation actually means.
This is a fantasy. But if it actually happened it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. It would serve them all right.
I think we all have to face the fact that Pelosi et al have decided we’re better off as a police state with right wing death squads than a democracy, and they’re just sitting it out until the king declares it to be one. Of course, there are ways around it, but I don’t think the electorate has the balls to do it.
I’ve given up on these idjits that are nothing more than “posers”.
One fine day, they will all be out of office, and not soon enough for me.
The free pass on the hateful speech of the Republicans is disgusting. McConnell should have been censured in Congress for slandering the little kid.
FEMA…FEMA friggin’ lied to the world the other day, got caught red-handed, and there is virtually no reaction of substance..unbelievable….at least they got caught. At least McConnell got caught. At least Malkin gets exposed.
More sunshine please Goddess.
The successful coalition that put Ed Rendell in office beating the more conservative Bob Casey in the primary is what we should focus on. It is younger voters, single heads of households and minorities.
PeteCO @ 10
I’d like to have that dream too, but Big Dawg and Poppy Bush are just a little too friendly. I don’t think we have many real democrats left, and for that matter, I don’t think the bulk of the American people care.
“One fine day, they will all be out of office, and not soon enough for me.”
The ones coming up behind will be twice as bad. Then what?
Of note, this morning on Washington Journal, Repubs who called in were, without exception, against the Bush Administration, where the country is going, and disgusted with Congress – their calls are beginning to sound just like the Dems calls.
PeteCO @ 10
it would bother me. i don’t want revenge – i want a country i can be proud of.
selise @ 17
Yes, and not one called, “The Homeland”. I want the United States of America back.
katherine Graham Cracker @ 13
I’ve read that women are underrepresented among voters, esp the single heads of households that you mention, who are mostly women. It’s hard to figure out how to focus on that group since they are so busy with just getting thru the day. And the group is diverse. While probably the majority are among the poor, they are spread across the whole income specturm (I know several among the middle & upper middle income levels).
TexBetsy @ 3
Yeah, yeah, I know.
There’s a reason I send my money to the DNC or to individual candidates, and not to the DCCC or the DSCC. It’s because the DNC is now run by Howard Dean, and because of that the corporate donors and other business-as-usual fat cats vastly prefer the DCCC (aka Rahm Emanuel) and DSCC.
good morning, all… coffee is ready, though a little bit late…
we have CLOUDS here in So Cal… and a big thick marine layer!
PeteCO @ 10
The lizard brains have been beating on Hillary since ~1978.
I was already close to exploding, and this sorry episode of Pelosi and Hoyer lining up to condemn Stark, and then Pete’s pathetic apology has driven me over the edge.
I no longer believe this once great country can be turned around from it’s bent towards self-destruction!
I look at people going about their everyday business, oblivious to the reality of this country’s demise…and think to myself “These poor souls don’t know their country is already down the drain!”
I’ve never been a pessimist, but it’s hard to keep an optimistic attitude with the horrifying news I see every day…more Republican lies and deviousness and Democratic capitulation and cowardice…
AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
eCAHNomics @ 19
Women, especially single women, tend to be very liberal once you get them in the voting booth. The only place where women aren’t lots more liberal than men is in the South.
selise @ 17
I want both. There is an old David Bowie lyric that for years I didn’t understand; “To be insulted by these Fascists is so degrading”. And it is. Why the hell I should be expected to be civil to these animals and their halfwit followers is beyond me. I f*cking hate them. I’m sorry if that offends some people’s sensibilities, but there it is. All this misery and destruction for absolutely nothing. It makes me so angry.
PW@23
Yes, women are more liberal. The issue is how to get them into the voting booth.
OldCoastie @ 21
Air quality warning day today in Phoenix…. they showed the layer of smoke over the Grand Canyon last evening.
What they’re actually saying is that knowing how far they can press their luck is far more crucial in determining intelligence than the idiocy of the comments themselves. Maybe in an animal sense, that’s true. In the human world, however, intelligence is what advances the cause of the Team with 6 Billion Players. It’s like a quarterback saying that because he’s able to BS the coaches, he’s smarter than another qb who has a higher pass completion percentage.
This is quite interesting about a US Military Lawyer whistleblowing on Guantanamo…bears watching:
http://news.independent.co.uk/…..101949.ece
selise @ 9
LS @ 8
Gore/Dodd ‘08.
Please; pretty please?
1,638 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen Phoenix Woman and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
“…Citadel might not have known the controversy that was roiling their planned acquisition.”
Of course they knew, folks with that kinda money investin’ in broadcast media are not unaware of ANYthin that goes on ANYwhere in the broadcasting universe. This is good evidence that either hate radio pays, or more likely, the corporate oligarchy is ready to consolidate regional hate broadcastin’ much like they have consolidated mainstream network and cable news.
Either way, make no mistake, this is evidence that the forces of fascism are not simply an anomaly that swooshed into a political vacuum but instead is a well planned result of a long period of consolidation of corporate capitalism. Folks have been warnin’ about the consolidation of broadcasting and the capitalization of politics for at least 50 years.
The ascention of corporate fascism has taken place but don’t worry we’ll see Jesus in the Gulag.
KEEP THE FAITH AND TAKE IT TO THE STREETS, THE TREE OF LIBERTY IS GUNNA GET WATERED BY THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS…BEFORE THEY NUKE IT!!
OT, but does anyone know much about Jane Harmon’s H.R. 1955 — The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007? Could this be interpreted as a gateway measure to start quelling “terrorist” groups like, er, say, FDL?
eCAHNomics @ 19
Rendell focused on the issues that cross financial lines such as school and child care issues. It was really quite sophisticated in the way it was designed. Registration and voting were issues but that is the role of a good volunteer operation.
eCAHNomics @ 25
I hope HRC will do that…I also think a lot of women who are living with lizard brains will pull the lever for HRC, just for a little pay back.
Marilyn In Texas @ 30
My comment starts with “I joined…”
Marilyn
Oil prices rising, people losing their homes, prices at the mall escalating, more war….Joe Sixpack is waking up…
StarCraft VO @ 32
Crossed my mind.
Human race will ’split into two different species’
Mickey Kaus, call your office.
LS @ 29
Here’s another good recent expose on Gitmo: http://www.antiwar.com/blog/20…..ce-gorman/
Marylin in Texas_29
I couldn’t agree more with giving props when due. And her decision to bring SChip back is a good one.
LS @ 38
Well, without reading the act, just seeing about it, seems that it could also be used to apply against Blackwater et al.
Info on THE largest voting block … single women
http://wvwv.org/
Phoenix has its own hate radio – 550 – KFYI – News/Talk with a talk show host advocated shooting immigrants crossing the border. AND it is where Old JD Hayworth is now a drive time talk show host from 4-7 spewing his hate the brown people.
PeteCO @ 25
your anger doesn’t offend me. imo, it’s completely reasonable.
but i want no more black sites or torture. none. i want the end of it and all it stands for.
a fair trial at the hague, though…. that i can get behind *g*
What can we do on an individual basis to cut the knees off of these radio stations who allow these yahoos to spew so much hate?
How can we hold them accountable since no one else seems to want to?
1,368 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen allan_in_upstate and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Yes, Gore is runnin’…I think he’s waitin for the Iowa caucuses though to put a chokechain on Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. And I think it’ll be Gore/Edwards with Chris Dodd as the new majority leader in the Senate.
KEEP THE FAITH AND STRAP IT UP, HISTORY IS CALLIN’…WHO WILL ANSWER??!!
StarCraft VO @ 33
i don’t know anything, other than it passed in the house last week. here’s the thomas link: h.r.1955
My sense is that people are expecting too much in the way of ethical behavior from all politicians.
They have occasional lapses where they do something good. But basically the system rewards all sorts of wrong headed behavior.. cronyism… party loyalty, and of course personal advancement, money and ego.
This runs through dems of course and there are lots of different interests and voices to respond to. They can always find one whose needs justify their actions.
Our system is fundamentally flawed.
We need to change it because of the way humans react. So make service, all service term limited. There is plenty of talent. Do your time and return to private life.
We need to control capitalism. It’s headed for self destruction and taking all the pawns with it.
So I advocate much stronger changes than those who simply want THIS constitution to work. It never will given human nature.
But Pelosi is fighting her real enemy, Pheonix Woman.
You know: the Democratic voting base.
Us.
dakine01 @ 42
True, but it seems kind of a double-edged sword, especially in the hands of a Congress the people don’t trust.
SanderO @ 48
Sander,
The reality is that with humans involved, ALL systems are fundamentally flawed. No matter what system is devised, someone will come up with a mechanism to exploit it and the well meaning folks who devise it.
In case you missed Mickey Kaus’ f*ckery on Slate:
selise @ 43
You are right, of course, and I thank you for your understanding.
PeteCO @ 53 -
thanks for being willing to compromise on the hague *g*
Gore is running? Make my decade.
selise @ 44
I’m with you selise. I think true, meaningful change is revenge in and of itself. Suspect it would make some sweat bullets & feel at least some need to skulk around corners, avoiding the bright lights.
I’m with you on something else also:
PLEASE ask your question of penn. I hadn’t even known who he was, but just did a little search. It needs to be asked.
When is the interview? where? (not listed here, i see) Thanks. I always find your comments very well worth reading.
This is a hilarious post by Morbo at Carpetbagger.
Erectile dysfunctional degenerate junkie and Republican mouthpiece dismissed the military credentials of Paul Hackett as “resume padding”, a phony soldier reference. The only sane pushback comes from bloggers. Mention bloggers to Chuck and Rahm and Steny, all you get is a huge eyeroll.
selise @ 54
It’s a short train ride from Amsterdam. We could all go party afterwards! :)
LS @ 18
I also, sadly, I do not think we can count on
QueenMadame Speaker Pelosi for any help whatsoever.This is why I think term limits is a good idea.
It gets rid of the whole seniority thing and it becomes more of a “meritocracy”.
It relieves critters from raining tons of money to be re elected. And gives bribers less opportunities.
Couple that with complete public finance… no private money whatsoever and the greed incentive is largely blocked.
I have thought the entire “thing” through, but I can see hole universal term limits and 100% public financing can right a lot of wrongs. It will go a long way to making government cleaner and more responsive.
Patronage appointments and nepotism are disgusting.
here’s someone striking back at that Coulter creature
SanderO @ 61
And the end result is a system where the most powerful people of all are the staffers of the elected officials and the middle upper level bureaucrats. These would be the people who maintain the institutional memories and knowledge of what has gone before.
Hope all those people are honest and reputable and not Grover Norquist/Jack Abramahoff types.
katymine @ 43
Thanks for the website. I forwarded it to a friend in Houston who, with a D political group called Roadwomen (forget where the name comes from, but think it has some geographic connection) works to register women.
GOTV for single women should be a top priority of the D party, but as a party, they couldn’t be the slightest bit interested, from what I can tell. (CGC-sounds like Rendell is an exception.) But that shouldn’t stop politically active women from doing it, expescially voter registration. Not much point here in NYC, except for Staten Island, which is the only place where Rs still win. But it would make a huge difference in purple districts.
The ad on the website is well done, but I’m skeptical about how much difference ads make. Voter registration & door-to-doors on voting day is the way to go.
punaise @ 62
That is one brilliant video!!
In previous elections there has been funding for registration and gotv for younger women voters. We have the numbers to win we just need to get them registered and to the polls.
A.Citizen @ 60
What works on her grandkids, I fear, loses traction in a hurry with congressional bullies.
I’m not putting her down for effort, or for her gender. I simply think she’s working too hard for comity and making nice. There are way too many congresscritters suffering from ego-overload and galloping pompous-itis for that ever to happen, and it doesn’t need to for progress to be made.
They merely need to DO. THEIR. JOB. She’s there to make it happen. Period. imho.
That being said, nice lavendar suit, Madam Speaker. I double-dare you to wear pink.
I’d like to point out wrt Clinton & Pelosi that the women who are pioneers in traditionally men’s fields tend to be more like the men they are competing against than others of their own gender. So just because we don’t like P&C doesn’t mean that the gender’s lost.
punaise @ 62
punaise!
Just to say cut pelosi a little slack – she has been the victim of an onslaught of rightwing smear -, suggesting she was hiding during the election, suggesting she supported pedophiles, the totally false airplane flap, and various false stories about the intra-party fights and of course the phony headscarf story. I think there is miscommunication between the party leadership and the party. We should not believe anything we learn about Democratic leadership from the media and we should ask our party leadership to speak to us directly as Senator Dodd did this week.
eCAHNomics @ 68
More like the men. Hmmmm! In my experience, some considerable number of the men in power were the worst in allowing emotion and irrelevancies to obscure their vision. We wimmen had a divil-of-a-time getting them to tend to bidness some-a-da-time. Uh huh. Yup. Jus’ sayin’…
eCAHNomics @63
Woman Voices Woman Votes was all over Phoenix in 2006. Mailers, radio ads and voter registration tables at many of the events.
hey, npb! have you thrown in the Gore towel, too?
:~(
Adie @ 71
Don’t know which emotions you’re talking about, but guess one might be fear? Yep, W sure uses that to manipulate voters (& could well be a victim of it), but I think Clinton uses fear indirectly as expressed in her belligerent attitude toward Iraq war & Iran.
I wrote a letter to my congresscritter, Mary Fallin (R-OK) criticizing her opposition to SCHIP. Here is part of her response:
Leaving aside her incorrect claim of “government run healthcare” (does she advocate repealing Medicare and Medicaide?) does anyone notice anything missing in her laundry list of massive government failures?
katymine @ 72
Because I live in NYC, I have been completely unaware of it. Very glad to hear they’re active where it can make a difference.
One of the reasons I hang out here is to find out what’s happening in the rest of the country. Learning of wvwv has put a ray of sunshine into this rainy day. Thanks.
BTW, SCHIP is the perfect issue to mobilize the single-women voters.
Women voters were also pivotal this year. While a majority of both women and men nationwide voted Democratic on Nov. 7 – 56 percent of women and 51 percent of men – the gender gap proved decisive for Democrats in a handful of key Senate races.
In Virginia, where Democrat Jim Webb beat Republican incumbent George Allen by a fraction of a percent, 55 percent of women voted for Mr. Webb versus 45 percent of men. In particular, it was women of color who made the difference.
In Montana, where race was not a factor, 52 percent of women voted for the Democrat, Jon Tester, versus 48 percent of men. Mr. Tester beat incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns (R) by just a few thousand votes.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/…..-uspo.html
katherine Graham Cracker @ 70
i agree about note trusting the msm. and when in doubt, i’ve called her office for a clarification (have yet to get one).
but it’s pretty hard not to be frustrated when i see what happens in the house of representatives and compare that to her statements.
personally, i’m sick of being lied to.
we be lovin’ us our PW today!
GREAT post!
Phoenix Woman!
you’re a hero.
you rock.
thanks.
eCAHNomics @ 68
Margaret Thatcher being Exhibit A.
Why do we have to have a system with multiple terms?
Why pres for 2 terms then?
Why supremes for life?
This is all arbitrary and needs to be re examined.
KGC
How is it that you know so much about women voter patterns? Side interest or a professional connection?
Oilfieldguy @ 75
Other than her Republican party and its appointed minions and the invasion/occupation of Iraq?
Since she’s so against gov’t provided healthcare, you might ask her when she gave up hers.
selise
I know what you mean but I think the most important thing for me is for the Democrats to sweep everything. if that means sucking it up a little I’m going with that. Although I support the fielding of primary opponents
katherine Graham Cracker @ 78
Firedoglake has been discussing this issue for quite some time.
katherine Graham Cracker @ 85
I would actually like 2 viable respectable competing parties. But until the Rs show some sign of rejoing the human race, I’m with you.
selise @ 47
I find this bill’s definitions a little unsettling. For example,
What’s most unsettling is what’s NOT defined, namely “force” and “violence”. As an instance, could a national strike be characterized as “force to intimidate or coerce the US government…”? A mass demonstration? This thing seems a little broadly drawn to me.
I haven’t read the entire bill yet, so perhaps it’s not as bad as I’m seeing at first glance. But, maybe it’s something we need to pay attention to.
Adie @ 56
it’s listed for 5pm edt this afternoon.
Oilfieldguy @ 75
The useless, failed government that she’s….ummm…part of?
AAAAAGGGG!!! THE STUPID!!!!IT BURNS!!!!
eCAHNomics @ 83
More an interest in successful voter coalitions. I have been a Rendell watcher for a while and in 2003 was encouraging someone to run based on that coalition.
One of the organizing successes in 2006 were the minimum wage initiatives. Perhaps statewide childcare initiatives would be good for 2008
katherine Graham Cracker @ 85
i recognize that different people will support different tactics. imo, that doesn’t change that we’re on the same side.
for my part, though, i’m done with sucking it up. democratic pols don’t get any slack from me, just because they have a D by their name.
dakine01,
Other than her Republican party and its appointed minions and the invasion/occupation of Iraq?
ding!
PeteCO,
The useless, failed government that she’s….ummm…part of?
AKA political ju jitsu
woo hoo… i just finished putting together the list of congressional hearings for next week (60 so far, i’m sure more will be added). this is the earliest i’ve gotten it done.
Bilbo @ 88
I’m sure it’s an oversight on their part. Doubtless they will correct it to make it less open to broad interpretation before it becomes law.
/Snark Off.
KGC@91
Are there any child care initiatives around to your knowledge? I have the impression they’ve receded in the 21st C, and was surprised at how little Bill clinton emphasized them as a conjunct to welfare reform.
Bilbo @ 88
Blackwater, Capitol police, Tazer people, ICE…I’d lump their violent and forceful actions into ideologically driven homegrown terror. Just sayin’
eCAHNomics @ 96
Most states have child care lobbies that have legislative agendas. There hasn’t been much on the ballot lately. It doesn’t have to be childcare –
FEMA is no longer an agency designed to assist victims in times of crisis, in this country. They are, rather, the “tip of the spear” in an effort to manipulate disasters to maximize profit potential for certain corportions, as well as implementing privitization agendas being sought by Freidman Capitalists. They have been doing this since Bush came to power.
Please read this history of FEMA’s crimes:
http://willyloman.wordpress.co…..ma-become/
SanderO @ 61
We have term limits. It is called voting.
willyloman @ 99
Glad you are documenting it.
katherine Graham Cracker @ 98
I worked on a child care application for NYC during Y2K. It had been developed for ACS to use then was modified so that the HRA could use it as well to support the welfare-to-work stuff.
I also saw something in the NY Times the other day that home child care workers were going to be allowed to unionize under the United Federation of Teachers. These were the workers most likely to be involved in the child care system I worked on.
PeteCO @ 95
Right. You betcha. Actually, reading a little further, the bill would establish a committee to investigate the problem and write a report to be presented to Congress and the President in at most 18 months. There’s probably not an immediate threat from this. Presumably we’ll have a more strongly Democratic Congress and a Democratic President before the results see the light of day. Still, seems like Congress could find something a little more useful to expend precious time and resources on.
selise @ 93
Thank you for all you do…. now to email my local progressive radio hosts to pay attention and grab audio
dakine01@102
.
2-edged sword here. Good for child care workers, but would make child less much less affordable for the poor who really need it.
allan_in_upstate @ 39
“The Daily Mail”? An “evolutionary biologist” at the London School of ECONOMICS? Speciation without any sort of physical reproductive barriers…while at the same time arguing MORE gene flow (homogeneous looks, same pigmentation). And what would be the selective advantage in being dim-witted and ugly…even in the underclass?
Tripe! Not fit for wrapping fish guts in.
katymine @ 104
you are most welcome… and thank you for finding good uses for it. i’ll be updating each morning to see if i can find late additions.
p.s. i take request for audio rips… just leave a comment on the week’s list or email me.
off to do chores… hope to back in time for book salon.
Bilbo @ 103
The “Problem”? Which “Problem” is that? The constitutional right to freedom of assembly? That “Problem”?
Also note “in at most 18 months.” Which means it could be sooner, if the Deciderator decides we need protectin’ from terra.
eCAHNomics @ 105
I’m assuming that these are the same workers paid by the system I worked on, so they are basically unionizing as city paid although not officially on the payroll per se.
PeteCO @ 108
I may be an id10t (OK, I AM an id10t), but I don’t think (Hope) that Jane Harmon is trying to facilitate Little Boots move to be emperor.
In fact as I mentioned earlier, it could be a pre-emptive move against Blackwater et al.
someone this last week on Air America was saying that with Pelosi taking impeachment off the table is the same as removing a section of the Constitution right out of the document. It really put it in a new light.
When congress fails to do its constitutional duty it really is taking potshots at a 230 yr old birth certificate of our country.
dakine01 @ 109
child care workers should be considered professionals and paid as such. This is why subsidized child care is important.
Mary @100
voting is not term limits in our system and you know it.
We need a new clean slate of candidates each elections cycle.
We don’t need incumbents running so that we are forced to vote for “another” party. We don’t want incumbents spending time raising money to run for re election.
Voting is not term limits. I call that BS.
just had to run back to give you-all a msg from RevDeb who just called me from the philly peace protest. sounds like a ton of people showed up even with the rain, and there are so many people honking in support that i could hear them almost continuously as we talked.
yeah!!
katherine Graham Cracker @ 112
I agree. The downside with this though is the Child Care workers that I am speaking of here are the home day care operators. That is, the next door neighbor, Grandma, the woman down the street. I.E., the unlicensed friend rather than the educated professional. It is a thin line sometimes admittedly.
Observation:
From events in recent weeks, it now appears that Congress is in gridlock until January 2009.
dakineo1
“I agree. The downside with this though is the Child Care workers that I am speaking of here are the home day care operators. That is, the next door neighbor, Grandma, the woman down the street. I.E., the unlicensed friend rather than the educated professional. It is a thin line sometimes admittedly.”
The basic need for safe age appropriate non school care should be met. What that looks like will largely depend the community but there should be support available through public money when necessary.
1,340 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen SanderO and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
“voting is not term limits…we need a new slate of candidates each elections(sic) cycle.”
With all due respect, citizen sander, that’s bullshit…ya don’t wanna throw the baby out with the bath water. The solution is simple: public financin’ of campaigns right down ta local dogcatcher with hard restrictions on “issue campaigns” that are in any way connected ta parties er candidates.
Puttin’ regulation of capitalism back in our politics is ultimately what we’re talkin’ about here and the only way ta do that is to develop a system that encourages the development of experienced politicians beginnin’ at the local level and does not enable money to replace individual voices in the political marketplace.
KEEP THE FAITH AND WATCH OUT FOR THOSE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES!!
selise 89
thank you. just caught up with the toobz again.
spouse seemed to think he needed ‘em for doing some business stuff, heh.
But dang. We’ll be out during the book forum. I’ll have to catch it later.
btw, I join the others is thanking you for all the incredible work you do ferreting out and assembling the congressional schedules. It’s such a luxury to have all that spelled out so we can make time to watch and, even if not, at least to make our voices heard on relevant issues.
Republican Talking Point: Claims that the government is inefficient, ineffectual, and bad (even when they hold the reigns). The hypocrisy of this rhetoric seems to go over the heads of Joe and Jane Sixpack.
The government is very good at providing Congressmembers with health care benefits. It is good at sending Social Security benefit checks on time every month. It is amazingly good at halting food stamp benefits immediately when one loses eligiblity. It is good at collecting taxes from working people.
dakine01 @ 110
Wikipedia has Pelosi (by way of Time magazine) making this characterization of Harman:
Let’s see, if Pelosi thinks Harman hasn’t been aggressive enough in challenging teh chimp … given Pelosi’s track record, what does that say about about Harman? Still, this bill just looks like more pandering to the fearful electorate to me; very little in the way of substance.
SanderO @ 113
It is the responsibility of all citizens to vote. Term limits negate the responsibility of the voter to do his/her job in a democracy. Term limits is a short term (no pun intended)solution to a long term issue. If people don’t vote they deserve the government they get. We need good representation that can accrue experience in governing. Public funding will go a long way to clean up that stinky smell on the shoes of democracy.
http://www.motherjones.com/moj…../10/5957_e
Jonathan Schwarz has posted an essay on Edmund Burke at the URL above, which is germane to the situation in which we find ourselves. It’s great. Also on his blog A Tiny Revolution, he has been writing lately about the Iron Law of Institutions, which is also right on target about what’s going on in the Beltway right now. We also all need to remember what filthy tactics the Bush/Cheney cabal resort to when challenged. If we don’t lose heart and keep encouraging one another, we’ll eventually get this turned around.
NorskeFlamethrower @118
I agree 200%… Do you really want to throw out Jon Tester and Jim Web when they are just learning the ropes and getting warmed up?
Surprisingly Arizona has Clean Elections which was a citizen ballot measure. It excludes lower level candidates such as city counsels but does include state reps, senators and all statewide offices. It needs to be expanded to include ALL elected offices.
This law has been run up our state supreme court and kicked a dirty repug out of office who violated the clean election finance law. You never heard such whining!
Bilbo @ 121
Do you know what the time frame of that Time article? Methinks Jane Harmon feels she was seriously burned in the last year or two by Little Boots and may not be quite as easy as before.
Oops, URL in previous comment by me was truncated and I didn’t realize it.
The full URL is
http://www.motherjones.com/moj…..ke_sp.html
Oh, my, my, my…torture anyone????
http://www.taxitothedarkside.com/
Watch the trailer. This film needs to be released ASAP.
I have a question. How do we stop this divisive spewing of vitriol by the right, I don’t mean infringing on anyone’s right to speak freely, I am talking about the hate filled rhetoric that could actually harm someone. Where do these people come from and why are they permitted to continue, it would seem to me that their actions would only harm the repug’s in the long run and fill some peoples addled brains with ammunition to commit mayhem because someone like Melanie Morgan spews out the vomit that she does.
One can only assume that there is a tacit agreement that gives these people a voice in the highest offices of government-Duh!
The atmosphere created in the USA has been getting worse for years, the attacks on the Clinton’s being one obvious signpost, the war, and the fact that torture is given a wink and a nod, has thrown a gray pall over our country and the world, it is so egregious that it affects people like me inducing extreme despair on a daily basis.
I guess I have answered my own question in part, but I still want to know what others think can be done because this goes beyond electing a democrat any office you care to name.
What does it take to show people we are all on this rock together and now more than any other time in history,it is imperative that we act as a whole, not disparate parts fighting each other.
If we ever needed a true statesman, one who puts our country and the world before political affiliation, with wisdom of forethought, it is now, and sadly I see no one who qualifies.
Howie’s upstairs with Mike Schaeur…ActBlue Blue America.
dakine01 @ 125
dakine, I think it may have been this this article. If so, that would make it Nov. 21, 2006.
Biodun @ 116
Please to include chimpy as a heuuuuge cause of that-there gridlockian disease.
He’s stuck on veto/signing-statement mode, just because, no reason, just because he can get away with it. It’s just another version of the tantrums by which he’s undoubtedly steered his whole sorry excuse for a life’s work. Treason by any other name still stinks the same. Children, old folks, everyone else struggling in between, forests, oceans, wildlife, the future of all, world-wide, be da*ned. Is incompetence, petulant disregard for all the responsibilities of such a job, critically influential whatever the quality effort or woeful lack there-of. Is that not treason?!
whether it fits the perfect calendar or not, pencil it in.
IMPEACH!
/rant
marymccurnin @ 122
With term limits in place, don’t lobbists run the whole show more easily? Does not the revolving door system rule the day, and the country? I’m with you on this, Mary.
Mary @122
The issue of people voting and who are the choices are separate matters.
Perhaps they can be linked if we had better choices we might draw more people to the polls.
But, if we had new faces each election and non of the power of the incumbency, there is no reason to think there would be less voters.
There is no reason NOT to have term limits. The upside is sending a good rep packing. But there are plenty of people who can do that job. This is not rocket science.
Throw the bums out. all of them
allan_in_upstate @ 39
Somebody’s been re-reading H.G.Wells. ‘eloi’ is a fairly common answer in NYT crosswords, BTW.
Rain! in Orange County! it just started at my house!
thank you! thank you! thank you!!!!
OldCoastie @ 135
Excellent news! Let it rain!!
Ok here it goes.
We live in one of the greatest countries known to man, and the majority of the people on this site seem to be so filled with hate and pessimism, its hard to even comprehend. We can do anything here, say anything, see anything, and feel anything. Nobody says we can’t do it unless you impede on other rights. Enjoy life people, its the only one you get.
One other thing, there was talk here about Hillary putting the gags on Limbaugh, Hannity, etc. I would be very careful wishing things like this, without freedom of speech you have nothing, you have communist China/Russia. I personnally do not wish that on any Liberal (I’m conservative), because it will turn around and bite you.
So my advise for this weekend…Go out and walk along the beach, or forest, or heck even through the local mall. Thank God that you were born in a country that has all this cool stuff. Enjoy it and say hello to someone who may be looking a little down, or help some old lady load her groceries into her car, or just smile when passing someone. Who knows you might like it.
OldCoastie @ 135
Rain!!! Yay!!
SanderO @ 133
I still disagree even though I am not a rocket scientist. Government must be run by people who are dedicated and have experience in that arena. You are throwing the baby out with the bath water. We need to work to elect honest people. We need to clean out DC. Many things need to happen. I can understand your frustration with the problems we have and will face. And how are you going to entice people to run if they have to disrupt their careers for a brief amount of time in government. The only ones who could run would be the people who can afford to move from the work place to an elected office and back again. Public financing and bringing back the fairness doctrine would fix most of the problems that we find distasteful. The downside to my solution is that is will take more time than the term limit solution. Except for the time it will take to pass the law for term limits.
well, it only rained for about 5 minutes but it certainly is better than the 7% humidity we had a couple days ago…
Kurt says So my advise for this weekend…Go out and walk along the beach, or forest, or heck even through the local mall. Thank God that you were born in a country that has all this cool stuff. Enjoy it and say hello to someone who may be looking a little down, or help some old lady load her groceries into her car, or just smile when passing someone. Who knows you might like it.
Kurt, I don’t think we are so filled with hate, it is more like outrage that they are taking those wonderful things away from us that you correctly attribute to what America is.
As for the last words quoted above-Amen, my son and I are going out on a beautiful day for a long walk and I will be smiling because I am blessed with family.
Sander O 133
YES! There most definitely IS a good reason NOT to have term limits!
please see my #132.
Hi Mary. Rocket scientists are just great at rocketry, I hear. Don’t know about politics… Suspect they might be somewhat impatient. Whu? No reason… ;->
Old Coastie!
Great news! More please!
I’ll do a lil’ dance, but there better not be any Utube around, nor tilting glassware, heh. ;->
Adie @ 142
Funny and thanks. Now I am going to the co-op for groceries. Or as they say in New Orleans-I am going to make groceries.
Voting IS term limits. It’s the original version. Just because too many people won’t use it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
PW, I think Pelosi hasn’t listened to KSFO since it turned into talk radio. She’s probably thinking of it as the music station that it was in the 60s and 70s. (Al Collins, Jim Lange, Carter B Smith, Dan Sorkin, and Don Sherwood, who had the 6-9am slot for years.)
OC – we’re getting intermittent light showers up in the SF valley. Barely hitting wiper level, but nice.
Asking Madam Speaker to stand up for anything is an exercise in futility.
She is dead to me.
Someone needs to tell pelosi and reid, when they decided to take the high road, they will not encounter any wingnuts. They aren’t there, if you want to confront the motherfuckers, you can find them on the very lowest of roads.
Adie @ 7
Mitch perpetually looks like he just bit into a really sour lemon.
Guity of what exactly, Bobalooey?allan_in_upstate @ 52