How to Annoy Sean Duffy (Hint: He Has Turned Himself into a Poster Boy for GOP Hypocrisy)

FROM OUR GOOD FRIEND (O)CT(O)PUS AT THE SWASH ZONE:

By Octopus

Who is Sean Duffy, you ask? He is a GOP representative from Polk County, Wisconsin, who cannot make ends meet on his meager salary of $174,000 per year. Yet, he supports cutting salaries and benefits of public service employees along the lines of what his governor, Scott Walker, has proposed (story here).

THE EMBED CODE LINK ISN'T WORKING.   GO HERE FOR THE YOUTUBE VIDEO.


What do public service employees earn in the cheapskate state of Wisconsin? According to this (source), an average teacher earns $48,743, which ranks 24 in the nation. How do teacher salaries compare in other states?

Indiana - $46,640 (national rank 25)

Michigan $52,300 (rank 12)

Missouri - $42,750 (rank 43)

New Jersey - $61,830 (rank 4)

Ohio - $51,343 (rank 14)

So Sean Duffy cannot make ends meet on $174,000; yet he wants to cut salaries and benefits of employees earning LESS THAN A THIRD of what he earns. Astonishing! Now you know why Sean Duffy and the GOP are trying to suppress this video:

GOP Demands Videotape Pulled From The Internet

And the Republicans are playing hardball. The GOP contacted this website hosting service, Blip.TV, claiming copyright infringement. You can see page 1 of the complaint here and page 2 here - the usual intimidation tactics. A spokesperson for Duffy called Democratic criticism of this videotape “a misleading attack.”  I call it "newsworthy" in the public interest.

More than an embarrassment, the GOP does not want you to know what hypocritical scoundrels they are, and the best way to annoy Sean Duffy is to post copies of this video on the Internet. So please feel free to steal the video along with my commentary and go viral.  It will annoy the hell out of them.  My closing thought for today:

Suppression = Oppression

SINCE PRESIDENT OBAMA'S INAUGURATION:

UPDATE BELOW

The Dow Jones has increased more than 50% -- from 8,000 to more than 12,000;

The wealthiest received a massive tax cut;

The top marginal tax rate was three times less than during the Eisenhower years and substantially lower than during the Reagan years;

Income and wealth inequality are so vast and rising that it is easily at Third World levels;

Meanwhile, "the share of U.S. taxes paid by corporations has fallen from 30 percent of federal revenue in the 1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009."

Some Anti-Business Marxist, Socialist, Communist, Kenyan, eh?


Glenn Greenwald demolishes the self-pitying lies of the billionaire Koch Brothers who claim that President Obama is  "...the most radical president we’ve ever had as a nation...and has done more damage to the free enterprise system and long-term prosperity than any president we’ve ever had." 

They go on to say:  "He's a dedicated egalitarian...I'm not saying he's a Marxist, but he's internalized some Marxist models -- that is, that business tends to be successful by exploiting its customers and workers."

Really? 

Greewald then goes on to, y'know, use ACTUAL FACTS to destroy the lying Koch Brothers' self-serving, factless propaganda:

"Despite high unemployment and a largely languishing real estate market, U.S. businesses are more profitable than ever, according to federal figures released on Friday.



U.S. corporate profits hit an all-time high at the end of 2010, with financial firms showing some of the biggest gains, data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis show. Corporations reported an annualized $1.68 trillion in profit in the fourth quarter. The previous record, without being adjusted for inflation, was $1.65 trillion in the third quarter of 2006.


Many of the nation's preeminent companies have posted massive increases in profits this year. General Electric posted worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, while profits at JPMorgan Chase were up 47 percent to $4.8 billion."

GREENWALD CONCLUDES:"Whether one finds this state of affairs desirable or not, no rational person can describe them as the by-product of a Marxist, business-hating egalitarian. Quite the opposite. The political power of America's richest has never been greater, and the level of their responsibility and collective burden has never been less. Meanwhile, for ordinary Americans, the remaining remnants of their financial security and middle class comforts rapidly erodes. It's true that the U.S. Government has little regard for the free market: they intervene constantly in the free market on behalf of the nation's wealthiest and most powerful business interests; it's crony capitalism, corporatism: government run by corporations (or, as Dick Durbin said of the Congress in which he serves: "the banks own the place").


For billionaires to see themselves as the True Victims, to complain that the President and the Government are waging some sort of war against them in the name of radical egalitarianism, is so removed from reality -- universes away -- that's it's hard to put into words. And the fiscal recklessness that the Kochs and their comrades tirelessly point to was a direct by-product of the last decade's rule by the Republican Party which they fund..."


These data, of course, will not penetrate the cemented minds of the malcontented conservatives who continue to claim Mr. Obama is a Marxist, Socialist who is ruining America. 

But facts are stubborn things, and the facts are that Mr. Obama is no such person.  However, the Koch Brothers, in their funding of malignant organizations that spread lies and propaganda contrary to actual facts, are finding success with people who eagerly eat up "false facts" and who wouldn't know what truth was, even if it sat on their
mouth-breathing faces.

Links to all of the data are on Greenwald's blog.

UPDATE:

REPORT: Fox Linked Obama To Socialism At Least 35 Times In Run-Up To Election


March 29, 2011, by Rob Savillo

"During the weeks leading up to the 2008 presidential election, Bill Sammon used his position as a top Fox News editor to engage in a campaign to link Barack Obama to "Marxists" and "socialism." Today, Media Matters revealed that Sammon subsequently acknowledged that he had "privately" believed that the socialism allegation was "rather far-fetched."


Sammon's effort to push the bogus socialism charge included an October 27, 2008, email he sent to Fox journalists highlighting what he described as "Obama's references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists" in his 1995 autobiography Dreams From My Father.


In the nine days between Sammon's October 27 email and the November 4 election, Fox employees linked Obama to socialism, Marxism, or Communism at least 35 times on air. In some cases, Fox employees directly said or suggested that Obama was linked to socialism; in other cases, they gratuitously mentioned accusations made by "Joe the Plumber" or others."

The lemonheads who watch FAUX NOOZ for information heard the propagandist "news" readers repeat what Sammon told them to say, and then they scampered to their blogs and dutifully pasted the FAUX NOOZ lies--and felt patriotic about it.  Not once did any of these malcontented lackeys bother to check the veracity of what the FAUX NOOZ talking heads said.  Like good little lemmings, they just lathered, rinsed, and repeated.

THE REPUBLICAN HOPEFULS

UPDATE BELOW

It's Sunday morning.  The coffee's strong,  Mike's Pastry muffins are chockful of fat juicy blueberries, Mozart is playing on the radio and just before I tackle the New York Times Sunday crossword, I read this over at the Orange Satan, dailykos:

"...a quick look at the Republicans exploring the possibility of running against him should give us all reason to be optimistic.







Here they are, in alphabetical order:



Michele Bachmann: Fact-challenged kook.


Haley Barbour: Fat cat civil rights revisionist.


John Bolton: Mustachioed menace.


Herman Cain: African-American. Enough said.


Mitch Daniels: Cheese-eating surrender monkey.

Newt Gingrich: Unlikeable, amoral flip-flopper.


Mike Huckabee: Culture-warring colonialist.


John Huntsman: Obama's favorite Mormon.


Fred Karger: Openly gay. Enough said.


Sarah Palin™: Jew for Jesus. ;)


Dr. Ron Paul or Dr. Rand Paul*: The gold standard of crazy.


Tim Pawlenty: Action movie zero.


Mitt Romney: Unnuanced pander bear.


Rick Santorum: Google him.


Donald Trump: Megalomaniacal birther.



But the one stealth candidate that Mr. Obama should be exceedingly wary of is an unknown GOPer:

Karab Amabo!

He's the Republican Party's DREAM CANDIDATE, an answer to their prayers for taking back the White House in 2012. 

Here's how Bill Maher describes this amazing GOP presidential challenger:

"...let me tell you about Karab Amabo. Amabo would be our first home schooled president, and the first in his family to ever not graduate high school. After flunking out of bartending school, he spent years disorganizing communities, and wrote two books: A memoir, "Dreams From My Food Court", and a policy book, "Thinking Is For Dummies." And what are his policies? Karab Amabo believes we should increase our dependency on foreign oil and shrink the size of government until it performs only the most basic functions:  killing Arabs, paying farmers to grow corn, and probing people at airports.”

He continued, “Karab Amabo believes that abortion should be illegal, especially in case of rape or incest, and he is so pro-life his slogan is "Life Begins at Erection."

Karab Amabo pledges to repeal the job killing health care bill and to implement Amabocare, a comprehensive program that gives uninsured people with pre-existing conditions a chance to walk it off.





Temperamentally, Karab Amabo believes that America has had enough of no drama Obama and his measured Vulcan logic, and at the first sign of crisis Amabo will pray, scream, shit his pants, and fly Air Force One into a mountain.”

Maher moved on to First Lady Amabo and family, “And what of the Amabo family? Karab Amabo’s wife is a sour, ashen midget whose flaccid arms are so weak she can barely do her job operating the deep fryer at the Jack In The Box. The Amabos and their two sons go to church every four hours, and they have a meth lab where the White House garden used to be.”

Bill Maher concluded, “And perhaps the most important thing to understand about Karab Amabo is he’s not exotic or worldly or smart. He just loves America so much that when he says the Pledge of Allegiance, he not only puts his right hand over his heart, he salutes with his left hand, and makes the sign of the cross with his foot, which, admit it folks, is pretty hard to do.”

Be afraid; be very afraid!

Remember, you heard it here:  

The GOP's candidate for 2012: 

Karab Amabo.  "Life Begins at Erection!"

UPDATE:

From Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo:

 

GERALDINE FERRARO -- August 26, 1935 – March 26, 2011

Very sad news.  The first woman to run as a vice presidential candidate died today:

BOSTON – Geraldine Ferraro, who in 1984 became the first woman vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket, died Saturday in Boston, a family spokeswoman said.



Ferraro died at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was being treated for blood cancer. She died just before 10 a.m., said Amanda Fuchs Miller, a family friend who worked for Ferraro in her 1998 Senate bid and was acting as a spokeswoman for the family.


A three-term congresswoman from the New York City borough of Queens, Ferraro catapulted to national prominence in 1984 when she was chosen by presidential nominee Walter Mondale to join his ticket against incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.



Ferraro was smart, savvy, accomplished and knew the complexities of issues, foreign and domestic, and beloved by many.

She will be missed.

IN DEFENSE OF DITHERING: h/t CITIZEN K

Thank you, Citizen K, for linking to an online commentary by Timothy Eagan of the New York Times.

As I've stated previously, I didn't clearly understand the issues on why President Obama would interfere in Libya's civil war.  But I've been reading and informing myself, and I think I have a better grasp of the complexities of what is happening in Libya and with its dictator, Col. Ghadafy.

Go to this link to read his thoughtful analysis.

I thought the best response to the article was from the person [KT of NYC] who left this comment:

"Obama obtained a U.N. resolution mandating a 'no fly' zone prior to sending the US Air Force to Libya. That took maneuvering, including getting the Arab League on board. With the Arab League on board, Obama protected the US from a diplomatic crisis in the Mideast and further isolated Gadhaffi.

With the French and British involved, he made sure that the bombings did not look like, and were not, a US-led operation. All in three and a half weeks. This is dithering? This is statesmanship. Moreover, while Obama did not obtain Senate approval for our participation in the no-fly effort, I simply do not believe that the Chairs of the Senate Foreign Relation and Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader, were not briefed re what was happening.

It's the Senate, not the House, decides when we use military force in foreign nations. Hence, Boehner's objections are ridiculous; nobody asked him, because nobody had to ask him.

Obama did a good, quiet, safe job. He averted a massacre. People are going to recognize that his is the steady hand and careful, intelligent mind.

Finally -- all that the Republicans have running against him are a bunch of wafflers or wackos. The President is betting on the American people to hear the truth above the hype. I think that they will."

I've been trying to research if the highlighted red text is correct.  Anyone out there an expert? 
 
I've read up on the War Powers Resolution, but I can't find anything that validates what is highlighted above.

PALIN CALLS WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS A "ZONING" ISSUE

Is it possible for someone to be this stupid and admired by so many people?

Why yes.  Yes it is.


Palin had this to say after a deadly bombing in Jerusalem that killed one woman:


“President Obama was inappropriate to intervene in a zoning issue in Israel,” she said, referring to settlement building on the West Bank. "Let Israel decide their zoning issues themselves.”




Excruciatingly stupid. 

According to Palin, what has been going on in that tortured part of the world is nothing more than a municipal disagreement?

Palin is obviously unaware that every president since the 1967 War, as well as every Secretary of State, has criticized Israel on the issue of the settlements [zoning?] It is official US policy that Israel stop building settlements, and every U.S. President, including Obama has not taken any real action to stop Israel's construction, particularly in the Jerusalem area.
Does this woman ever do any independent reading or is she still relying on Bristol to google "foreign policy+Israel" to get her information?

This is on the Israeli Embassy's website:

March 1, 2011

"Today, President Obama had a productive discussion with members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. He reiterated America’s unshakeable support for Israel’s security, opposition to any effort to de-legitimize it or single it out for criticism, and commitment to achieve a peace that will secure the future for Arabs and Israelis alike.





The President praised the core Jewish values of freedom and democracy, human rights, and tikkun olam (to repair the world). He also acknowledged that those values extend not only to events in the Middle East, but to the challenges here at home, thanking the Jewish community leaders for their support to ensure that America continues to out-educate, out-innovate, and out-build the competition in order to win the future."


In addition to this idiocy on Israel's "zoning" problems, she criticized the US president while on foreign soil in India while America is at war, an action that was condemned by the GOP when the Dixie Chicks criticized Mr. Bush while appearing in London on tour.  Their transgression was merely saying they were ashamed that they were from Texas.  Palin accused President Obama of "dithering" over the Libya crisis--apparently ignorant of the difference between acting rashly in a volatile situation and deliberating.

Writing in a column on the craziness of Ghadafi, David Brooks of the NYTimes ended his article with this:

"Jeane Kirkpatrick was right years ago to make the distinction between authoritarian dictatorships and totalitarian ones. The totalitarian ones are both sicker and harder to dislodge. Qaddafi’s unhinged narcissistic oddness seems to be the key to his longevity. So remember: If you’re going to be a tyrant, be a wacko. It’s safer."

Perhaps this is the key to Palin's continuing popularity with a certain segment of our population.  If a person with no background in foreign policy and no curisosity about domestic affairs wants to continue to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate, be a wacko and say anything incoherent and illiterate that pops into and bounces around in your empty head. 

Hey!  This works for Palin AND Bachmann, and it has not diminished their standing with their fans. 

The more incompetent they reveal themselves to be; the more their followers love them.

Luckily, the majority of this country doesn't buy into their idiotic tommyrot.







 

TEA PARTY LOSING STEAM; PALIN LOSING SUPPORT; OBAMA'S LIBYA INCURSION SUPPORTED BY AMERICANS

While hundreds of thousands of Americans supported pro-union demonstrations
in Wisconsin,  Ohio, and Michigan, this past week only a paltry 300 showed up at a Tea Party convention in Tampa, Florida, where GOP big mouths guns were on the roster: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Fox News Judge Andrew Napolitano, and former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo. The Save America Convention’s website listed 25 guest speakers, meaning there was one speaker for every 12 attendees. If one includes the 13 musicians and other performers listed as entertainment, that ratio drops to one for every 7 and a half.

Meanwhile, in India, The Woman Who Will Never Be President disrespected America by dissing its president while on foreign soil, a  trangression that almost cost the Dixie Chicks their careers when they said they were ashamed they came from Texas because of George W. Bush, during the Gulf War. 

Sarah Palin's numbers are falling faster than a lead halibut in Bristol Bay.  Here's the bad news for this narcissistic know-nothing.  Read it and rejoice:

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was, as recently as last July, one of the GOP's most beloved figures. But since then, her "favorable rating" has been coming down and her "unfavorable rating" has been moving sharply north.

The latest data point of this trend is an ABC News-Washington Post poll. A story about (and details of) the poll can be found here.


Ms. Palin's shadow campaign for the 2012 GOP presidential campaign has been almost completely mismanaged. Her biggest problem -- that she lacks the experience and knowledge necessary to serve as president -- has gone unaddressed. She's embroiled herself in politically useless controversies. And she's been incoherent on hugely important issues (like the uprisings in the Middle East).

SOURCE

 
Americans support President Obama's Libya air strikes.
 
I'm not totally convinced this was a good thing, but cannot weigh in on the issue, since I know next to nothing about that area of the Middle East.  I'm not sure this country can sustain another conflict, and I don't know if the president had the authority to do what he did.  I'll reserve my opinion until I learn more.  But here is a chart on how Americans support the president:
 

SOURCE

"CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.



Nearly seven in ten Americans support the use of military air strikes in Libya in order to protect civilians from attacks by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, a new CBS News poll finds.


In a survey taken on Sunday and Monday, following Saturday's first round of U.N.-sanctioned missile and air strikes aimed at Libya, 68 percent of Americans said they approved of the military action. Just 26 percent said they disapproved.


Eight in 10 Americans want budget compromise


Fifty percent of Americans said they approved of how President Obama was handling the situation in Libya, and the president earned more support from Republicans on the issue than he did on domestic issues like the economy and the deficit. Forty-three percent of Republicans said they approved of Mr. Obama's handling of the Libya situation, according to the poll, and 41 percent disapproved. Sixty-six percent of Democrats approved, as did 43 percent of Independents."

WELCOME SPRING!

Beth's Floral
Oil on canvas
24" x 18"
by Charles Gray



Spring is like a perhaps hand

by E. E. Cummings

III

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and


changing everything carefully


spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and


without breaking anything.

HELP FOR JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI VICTIMS

As most of you know, there is a conservative blogger out there whose blog is dedicated to maligning  anything President Obama and the FLOTUS does.  This blogger usually attacks the Obamas in the most virulent expressions of hatred found anywhere in the conservative blogsphere.  Usually this blogger is completely wrong and backs up the defamation of Mr. Obama with absolutely no facts or links.   The blogger produces rants on issues he knows nothing about, and regularly infects the blogsphere with raging hatred and toxic illiterate disinformation. 

His latest scurility is about how the US government and Hollywood is doing nothing to assist Japan during the catastrophe that has devastated that country.  The blogger delivers this vilification in the opening statement:

"So, what are we actually doing to help these poor people. Not too much I'm afraid to report. These RACIST cowards are few and do not represent the America that I knew."

If the blogger had actually done a little research, the blogger would have seen that the hysterical screed the blogger wasted time on was completely wrong.  But that's not unusual with this blogger.  Most of this blogger's rants have absolutely no basis in reality.  I posted a couple of comments that refuted all the lies written in this bloggers diatribe, but since this blogger has implemented comment moderation, my refutation will most likely not be published. 
.
Deliberate lies and slander like the sort found on this bloggers blog need to be answered.

First of all, the blogger is apparently unaware that Japan is the 3rd largest economy in the world.  Japan is NOT anything like Haiti [the blogger complained that the US was so quick to come to the aid of Haitie--the poorest nation in the western hemisphere] a fact lost on this blogger who seems not to understand or know much of anything.  The Japanese are proud, self-sufficient people, and Japan is a technically advanced and wealthy nation.  But in a catastrophe of this size, even self-sufficient people in wealthy nations can accept help from their friends.  Here is what the US is doing for Japan:

Dozens of nuclear energy experts have joined thousands of troops providing assistance to the Japanese government in the wake of last week’s 9.0 earthquake.

"Here’s an updated look at how federal agencies and the military are helping:


DEFENSE DEPARTMENT:


The U.S. military has about 50,000 personnel stationed in Japan, many of whom are providing disaster assistance. Residents of the military’s Misawa Air Base, Japan, are collecting clothing donations in support of their Japanese neighbors.


The Navy is using P-3 Orion aircraft to survey the wreckage and the Air Force is providing an RQ-4 Global Hawk based in Guam to conduct similar flights.


The USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group continues operating off the east coast of the island of Honshu. The USS Tortuga’s MH-53 heavy-lift helicopters carried about 90 Japanese Self-Defense Force vehicles and personnel to the region to assist with recovery efforts.


Other U.S. ships are expected to arrive in the area by Thursday, the Defense Department said.


No U.S. bases are in the danger zone for radioactivity, and there are no plans to evacuate any U.S. personnel or their families, according to the Pentagon.


ENERGY DEPARTMENT:


Thirty-three experts from the department’s National Nuclear Security Administration are in Japan with 17,000 pounds of gear to assist Japanese nuclear experts. The crew deployed from Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas earlier this week (watch video of their deployment, above). The teams will help assess, survey, monitor and sample areas of the country for radiation.


Six other department personnel are also in Japan assisting officials with response efforts.


NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION:


The agency's analysts continue to believe that steps recommended by Japanese authorities regarding evacuations and other safety precautions are consistent with what they would do if a similar disaster occurred in the United States.


Nine NRC experts are in Tokyo providing assistance to the Japanese government, the agency said. The experts, including reactor experts, international affairs professionals and senior managers, are part of U.S. Agency for International Development teams providing assistance as needed. The personnel are assigned to NRC offices in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and the headquarters in Rockville.


The NRC is led by a five-member commission and crafts the nation’s nuclear policies and regulations.


STATE DEPARTMENT:


John Roos, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, issued a message Wednesday to Americans living in Japan, saying the country’s government “has significant expertise — and that’s probably an understatement saying ‘significant.’ They’re one of the most experienced countries in the world with regard to nuclear power and nuclear power plants.”


“The United States government also has significant and massive expertise in the nuclear area. ... The United States has and will continue to provide any support it can in continuing to address the issues as they have arisen,” Roos said.


U.S. citizens in Japan in need of emergency assistance, or people seeking information on the whereabouts of friends, family or colleagues, should send an e-mail to JapanEmergencyUSC@state.gov.


U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT:


The federal agency chiefly responsible for assisting foreign governments with disaster response has deployed urban search-and-rescue teams from Fairfax County and Los Angeles to Japan. The rescue teams, which also deployed to Haiti after last year’s quake, include about 150 personnel and 12 dogs trained to find live victims.


USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response Team is also in Japan coordinating the U.S. government’s response."

SOURCE


The blogger also complained that Hollywood has done nothing for Japan after the disaster.  Wrong again, as this blogger usually is.
 
Entertainment Industry and Celebs Pledge Aid for Japan Relief

"As the full horror of the scale of earthquake and tsunami damage to Japan, and its ongoing nuclear radiation crisis, hits Americans, folks in show business are stepping up. (Our initial report on Japan’s earthquake aftermath and Hollywood is here.)"

And this:

Bullock joins Hollywood pack in aid to Japan

"Oscar winner Sandra Bullock became the latest to join the cause when the American Red Cross said on Thursday that she had given $1 million to help victims of the disaster in Japan.



Several other celebrities and Hollywood studios have also pledged support to the nation.


Charlie Sheen, the embattled Hollywood bad boy, is donating $1 per ticket for all his upcoming live stage shows to the Red Cross.


Pop star Lady Gaga designed a bracelet for Japan relief and within 48 hours it raised $250,000, with sales ongoing.


Singer Katy Perry is donating sales of glow sticks on her concert tour to Red Cross relief in Japan.


Earlier this week, the Walt Disney Co donated $2.5 million to the American Red Cross for humanitarian efforts in Japan, and it also said it would match employee donations up to a total of $1 million.


The Warner Bros studio has pledged DVD and Blu-ray sales of its movie "Hereafter" to Red Cross efforts in Japan.


The donation by Bullock stands out as one of the biggest donations by a single Hollywood star.


The American Red Cross, which earlier this week announced an initial contribution of $10 million to the Japanese Red Cross Society, said it was "extremely grateful" to Bullock and her family for the gift."

All of this invalidates this destructive blogger's daily lies and misinformation. One can only guess at why someone would deliberately post falsehoods and slander.  Maybe it's a conservative value?  We just found out that James O'Keefe's NPR tape was another edited fraud, as was the ACORN tape, and Breitbart's fraudulent tape of Shirley Sherrod.

 It very well may be that these types of conservatives just do not know that lying and cheating are wrong.

JAPAN TSUNAMI RELIEF 

SAVE THE CHILDREN   [The blogger complained there was no "Save the Children" program for Japan, another lie.]

DONATE TO JAPAN, SAMARATAN'S PURSE

RESOURCES RELATED TO THE JAPAN CRISIS

OHIO VOTERS FEELING BUYERS REMORSE WITH GOVERNOR KASICH

UPDATE BELOW

Governor Kasich of Ohio is feeling the wrath of Ohio voters, just as Scott Walker did in Wisconsin.

Both Tea Party supported candidates are watching their numbers tank as they attack American workers in their individual states, and as those American workers register their anger by withdrawing their support for both of these governors.

From Talking Points Memo:

"Kasich barely defeated incumbent Gov. Ted Strickland (D) last November, winning by a slim 49% to 47%. But if they could do it all over again, 55% of voters now say they would vote for Strickland, while only 40% say they'd go with Kasich.



Kasich's short tenure has been marked by several mini-scandals, including an incident last month when he called a police officer who issued him a ticket an idiot -- three times, on camera. Then came the contentious budget debate, when he forcefully pushed for a bill to strip state employees of their collective bargaining rights. That bill goes even further than the one recently passed in Wisconsin, which prompted weeks of enormous protests and has sparked a recall petition for the state's republican senators.


Kasich's approval rating now appears to be deeply underwater. In the poll, only 35% of respondents said they approve of his job performance, while 54% sad they disapprove. In a University of Cincinnati poll released Monday, 30% approved of Kasich's job performance, compared to 52% who disapproved.


If there was any doubt that Kasich's showdown with unions irked his constituents, the PPP poll also addressed that issue, finding that voters overwhelmingly sided with the unions."


And here's the bad news for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker:

"A new Wisconsin Policy Research Institute poll released today revealed that by trying to break the public sector union in the state, Gov. Scott Walker is not only destroying his own popularity, but is making President Obama more popular, and could be handing Wisconsin to the Democrats in 2012.



The WPRI poll found that Wisconsin residents believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction by a 67%-24% margin. However the Republican leadership of Scott Walker has done nothing to convince them that the state is heading in the right direction, as 62% of those surveyed also felt that Wisconsin was on the wrong track. A deeper look into the numbers uncovers that Scott Walker’s attack on collective bargaining is hurting his approval more than anxiety over the economy.

Wisconsities may share a negative perception about the direction of both their state and the country as a whole, but President Obama and Scott Walker’s approval ratings are heading in opposite directions. Wisconsin residents’ approval of the job Obama is doing as president by a 53%-42% margin. The numbers are reversed for Gov. Walker as 53% disapprove and only 43% approve of his job performance. Shockingly among those who disapprove, 45% strongly disapprove of Walker. In contrast only 26% strongly disapprove of Obama."


The working class Americans of Ohio and Wisconsin reject Walker and Kasich's assault on the unions.  They will be defeated in the next elections in their states; and, finally, America is waking up to understand that the GOP is no friend of the American worker, and that these two bought and paid for governors are beholden to the corporatists and billionaires who support the GOP in its mission to dismantle everything that supports working class Americans.

IT ISN'T LOOKING GOOD FOR NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR CHRISTIE, EITHER!

The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, isn't doing so well either.  Mr. Obama is more popular in New Jersey than the loud-mouthed behemoth GOP governor.  Funny, isn't it, how the malcontented conservatives squealed about the size of Al Gore, Michael Moore, and even the fabulously toned and in shape FLOTUS, but are curiously silent about the grossly obese governor of New Jersey.  Maybe they just haven't noticed the elephant in the room.  He's losing his popularity too:

Poll numbers drop for Gov. Christie among N.J. voters


BY MATT FRIEDMAN
State House Bureau

STATE HOUSE BUREAU

"Governor Christie’s poll numbers have taken a hit since his budget address two weeks ago, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released Tuesday morning.

Governor Christie Voters are split on whether they have a favorable or unfavorable impression of Christie, with 46 percent viewing him favorably and 44 percent unfavorably. That’s down significantly from December, when 49 percent of voters saw Christie favorably and 39 percent had an unfavorable impression.


“While some polls showed Gov. Christie’s support increasing before the budget speech, reaction to the budget itself is mixed, which appears to be reflected in a decline in his post-speech favorability and job performance ratings,” said poll director David Redlawsk.


Forty-eight percent of voters said they are displeased with the govenror’s proposed budget, while 45 percent said they are pleased.


When asked to rate Christie’s job performance, 14 percent said excellent, 28 percent said good, 30 percent said fair and 26 percent said poor. Fourteen percent graded him with an A, 24 percent gave him a B, 26 percent gave him a C, 15 percent gave him a D and 19 percent failed him with an F.


President Obama fares better than Christie among Garden State voters, with 57 percent viewing him favorably to 36 percent unfavorably."


The GOP governors are tanking as fast as the half-governor of Alaska is tanking in the polls.

How many times have we read GOPers' comments that liberals are "afraid" of Palin?  Ha!  We're not afraid of that charlatan, it is the GOP who are wetting their undies, fearful that she'll take votes away from their eventual nominee for the 2012 elections.  We liberals would love to see her get the nomination or break out into third party, thereby ensuring an Obama victory in 2012. 

Afraid of her?  Why would we be afraid of a guaranteed loser????

UPDATE

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling has more on Ohio Gov. Kasich and the unpopular Ohio senate bill #5:

"The other thing that's worth noting is the independents. A lot of attention has been given to the way what's been going on in Ohio and Wisconsin is galvanizing the Democratic base, but it's also turning independents who were strongly supportive of the GOP in the Midwest last year back against the party. 62% of independents support collective bargaining for public employees to 32% opposed and 53% support repeal of SB 5 to 32% who would let it stand.



All of this is having an absolutely brutal effect on John Kasich's numbers. We find him with just a 35% approval rating and 54% of voters disapproving of him. His approval with people who voted for him is already all the way down to 71%, while he's won over just 5% of folks who report having voted for Ted Strickland last fall. Particularly concerning for him is a 33/54 spread with independents.


Voters in the state are having significant buyers remorse about the results of last fall's election. In a rematch 55% say they would now vote for Ted Strickland to just 40% who would vote for Kasich. Because this is a sample of all registered voters in the state and not just those who voted in last fall's Republican heavy electorate the self identified 2010 vote of this sample is 49% for Strickland and 46% for Kasich but that still suggests a 12 point movement toward Strickland among those surveyed over the last four month.
 
Of course the reality is that Democratic leaning voters did this to themselves to some extent. It's a small sample but among those who admit they didn't vote last fall, Strickland has a 57-13 advantage over Kaisch. It was a similar story in Wisconsin the other week where Tom Barrett led Scott Walker 59-22 among those who had stayed at home in 2010. Democratic voters simply did not understand the consequences- or didn't care- of their not voting last fall and they're paying the price right now. But the winners of that realization in the long run may be Barack Obama, Sherrod Brown, and Herb Kohl- these states are already looking politically a whole lot more like 2008 than 2010.



It's looking like a tough road ahead for Kasich."

FAUX NOOZ CONTEMPLATING CANCELLING GLENN BECK

In a week full of devastating news, comes a reason to be happy.  FAUX may cancel the Glenn Beck show:

From the NYTimes:

"Since last August, when he summoned more than 100,000 followers to the Washington mall for the “Restoring Honor” rally, Mr. Beck has lost over a third of his audience on Fox — a greater percentage drop than other hosts at Fox. True, he fell from the great heights of the health care debate in January 2010, but there has been worrisome erosion — more than one million viewers — especially in the younger demographic.



[People finally waking up to this charlatan?]



The erosion is significant enough that Fox News officials are willing to say — anonymously, of course; they don’t want to be identified as criticizing the talent — that they are looking at the end of his contract in December and contemplating life without Mr. Beck.


How could a breakup between Mr. Beck and Fox News — a bond that seemed made in pre-Apocalyptic heaven — come to pass? They were never great friends to start with: Mr. Beck came to Fox with a huge radio show and had been on CNN Headline News, so he did not owe his entire career to Fox and frequently went off-message. The sniping between Fox News executives and Mr. Beck’s team began soon after he went on the air in 2009.


Many on the news side of Fox have wondered whether his chronic outrageousness — he suggested that the president has “a deep-seated hatred for white people” — have made it difficult for Fox to hang onto its credibility as a news network. Some 300 advertisers fled the show, leaving sponsorship to a slew of gold bullion marketers whose message dovetails nicely with Mr. Beck’s end-of-times gospel. Both parties go to some lengths to point out that that the discussion has nothing to do with persistent criticism from the left.






The problem with “Glenn Beck” is that it has turned into a serial doomsday machine that’s a bummer to watch.


[snip]


What had been a fast and loose assault on all things liberal has grown darker and less entertaining, especially with the growing revolution in the Middle East, a phenomenon Mr. Beck sees as something of a beginning to some kind of end.


[snip]

“He used to be a lot funnier,” said David Von Drehle, who wrote the article in Timemagazine. “He was the befuddled everyman and something entirely new, but the longer people have listened to his ranting and raving, the wearier they become. Now you are just getting down to diehards. I mean, how many people were in the Waco compound at the end? A couple of hundred?”

[snip]


For months now Glenn Beck’s rating have been on the decline. Many Americans see him as an extremist pushing his own political agenda more than a news commentator, and now a source has told The New York Times that Fox News has considered not renewing his contract when it expires this year."



Let us all fervently hope this comes to pass, and that this self-proclaimed "rodeo clown" and "recovering dirt bag" finds another venue for his idiotic conspiracy blatherings--a soapbox in the middle of "Crazy Town." 

h/t tnlib, fb

More on Glenn Beck at The Glenn Beck Review.

REPRESENTATIVE ED MARKEY (D-Mass.), THE SMARTEST GUY IN THE ROOM

"MARKEY TAKES A STAND FOR SCIENCE (AND SARCASM).... A House Energy and Commerce Committee panel met yesterday to approve a ridiculous measure: members were asked, as Brad Johnson explained, to "overturn the scientific finding that fossil fuel pollution is causing dangerous climate change."







But before the vote was held, Rep. Ed Markey (D) of Massachusetts explained why his colleagues were making a mistake.






'I rise in opposition to a bill that overturns the scientific finding that pollution is harming our people and our planet,' the Democrat said. 'However, I won't rise physically, because I'm worried that Republicans will overturn the law of gravity, sending us floating about the room.






I won't call for the sunlight of additional hearings, for fear that Republicans might excommunicate the finding that the Earth revolves around the sun. Instead, we will embody Newton's third law of motion and be an equal and opposing force against this attack on science and on laws that will reduce America's importation of foreign oil.






This bill will live in the House while simultaneously being dead in the Senate. It will be a legislative Schrodinger's cat killed by the quantum mechanics of the legislative process. Arbitrary rejection of scientific fact will not cause us to rise from our seats today. But with this bill, pollution levels will rise. Oil imports will rise. Temperatures will rise.






'And with that, I yield back the balance of my time. That is, unless a rejection of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity is somewhere in the chair's amendment pile.'






Soon after, the subcommittee's Republicans approved the measure. Markey probably talked over their heads."

h/t Washington Monthly

WISCONSIN: "United We Bargain; Divided We Beg"

A DAY OF INFAMY FOR WISCONSIN! A PEARL HARBOR FOR WORKERS RIGHTS!

Wisconsin State Senate Passes Anti-Union Bill, In End-Run Around Dem Boycott

"...state Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate has released this statement, vowing to recall all those Republican state Senators who are eligible under the state's recall laws, which require at least one year of a term to be completed -- and to recall Walker next year:


'Using tactics that trample on the traditions of our Legislature, the Republican leadership has betrayed our state. Republicans have rubber-stamped the desire of the Koch Brothers and their godshead Scott Walker to cripple Wisconsin's middle class and lower benefits and wages for every single wage-earner in our state. The vote does nothing to create jobs, does nothing to strengthen our state, and shows finally and utterly that this never was about anything but raw political power. We now put our total focus on recalling the eligible Republican senators who voted for this heinous bill. And we also begin counting the days remaining before Scott Walker is himself eligible for recall.' "
 
State Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D) who has been in Illinois, released this statement:


"In thirty minutes, 18 State Senators undid fifty years of civil rights in Wisconsin.


"Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten.


"Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people.


"Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."The move is likely to have an enormous political impact in the state, as unions remain an important base of the Democratic Party organization in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the unions and Democrats have been actively organizing recalls of Republican state legislators -- leveraging the power of the tens of thousands of people who have protested the bill, and numerous opinion polls showing that Wisconsin voters oppose breaking the unions.


Wisconsin AFL-CIO president Phil Neuenfeldt has released a statement, entitled "Statement on Scott Walker and Republicans' Despicable, Extreme, Anti-Democratic Activities." Key quotes:

Tonight's trampling of the democratic process in Wisconsin shows that Scott Walker and the Republicans have been lying throughout this entire process and we have been telling the truth - that NONE of the provisions that attacked workers' rights had anything to do with the budget.


Scott Walker and the Republicans' ideological war on the middle class and working families is now indisputable, and their willingness to shred 50 years of labor peace, bipartisanship, and Wisconsin's democratic process to pass a bill that 74% of Wisconsinites oppose is beyond reprehensible and possibly criminal."
 
h/t TPM

REP. PETER KING (R-NY) WANTS TO INVESTIGATE AMERICAN MUSLIMS' POSSIBLE TIES TO TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS?

WAIT!

Congressman King!

You're going to have to investigate yourself first, ma sharia amour!

From the Weekly Standard:

"...the [Washington] Post reminds readers of the Irish-American King's past support of the Provisional Irish Republican Army during the height of the so-called "Troubles" in Northern Ireland:


In 1985, the Irish government boycotted the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City, the biggest celebration in the Irish-American calendar. The cause of its umbrage was Peter King, that year's grand marshal and someone the Irish government said was an "avowed" supporter of a terrorist organization, the Irish Republican Army.


King, then a local politician on Long Island, was one of the most zealous American defenders of the militant IRA and its campaign to drive the British out of Northern Ireland. He argued that IRA violence was an inevitable response to British repression and that the organization had to be understood in the context of a centuries-long struggle for independence."

And this:

"From his days as the elected Nassau County comptroller in the early 1980s, King has spoken out for the IRA, a nationalist group that waged a bloody bomb-and-bullet campaign for three decades in an effort to drive the British out of Northern Ireland. To King and other supporters, the IRA volunteers were freedom fighters. But to others, including many Irish Americans, the Provisionals (as the main IRA group was known) were terrorists.





In 1982, the New York Republican told a pro-IRA rally on Long Island, "We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry," according to an extensive account in the New York Times that traced King's IRA ties. A few years later, King said, "If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the IRA for it."




Oh irony of ironies!  Do these people not know their own histories?  What they've said and done, and which terrorist organizations they've supported?  Is King actually itching to start a witch hunt in which he himself could be subpoened to give testimony about his ties to terrorism?  And didn't you just love that passage about fighting against "British imperialism?"

Jeebus!  Did Rep. King pick that sentiment up while living in Kenya, Indonesia, fighting the Belfast Irish Mau-Maus?!

Anti-imperialist basterd! 

Calling Rep. King!  Oh Mr. King! Tea Partier Mike Huckabee is on the line!  And he has a question about British imperialism for you!!!

ZOMG!  Rep. King--not just a terrorist sympathizer, but he may not be "one of us," either!

Someone, quick!  Give Megyn Kelly a terrorist fist bump!

BUT WAIT!  THERE'S MORE!

"emptywheel" over a FireDogLake gets further into the King hypocrisy:

"Peter King would still be in prison if the US had treated his material support for terrorism as it now does, with sentences that can amount to a life sentence. Instead, the raging hypocrite is using the Congressional seat he owes, in part, to his earlier embrace of terrorism to sow bigotry and hatred–and to make the cooperation of the Islamic community, which plays a key role in identifying real extremists, more difficult."

PRESIDENT OBAMA vs. GOVERNOR WALKER

A poll is a poll is a poll.  

But this one IS interesting.  And should give the people who were crowing the loudest over last November's congressional election some pause:

Obama’s approval rating sits at a comfortable 53%-42%, above the national average, and a nine-point improvement in the poll from November.

(In November -- after the Democrats' shellacking in the midterms -- the president’s approval in the poll was split at 44%-43%.)

By contrast, Walker’s approval rating is upside down – with 43% approving and 53% disapproving of how he’s handling his job.

Walker’s “strongly disapprove” is a sky-high 45%; Obama’s is 26%. Walker’s favorability rating – also 43%-53% -- mirrors his approval.

His negative rating is up 18 points from November, when his rating was 45%/35%.

His “strongly unfavorable” is up to 41% from a “very unfavorable” rating of just 19% in November.

Question:  Who's crowing now?

h/t Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish

And this from Ezra Klein:

"Wisconsin's Democrats have been filibustering with their feet, and it's not clear how much longer they can keep it up. That's how it's supposed to be: thwarting the will of the elected majority is supposed to be difficult, not routine. What the Democrats have is the next election, not to mention the recall effort they've launched against a handful of Senate Republicans. "It's really up to the public to be engaged in carrying the torch on this issue," Jauch told the Journal. And shouldn't it be? The Democrats have shown the voters exactly what it is that they voted for in Walker. His effort to quietly gut collective bargaining in Wisconsin has been a huge failure. Democrats have turned up the volume in the Capitol to "deafening." But at some point, the state will have to move on. The question between now and then is whether the voters can persuade some of the Republicans to come to the middle, and if the Republicans refuse their entreaties, what sort of retribution the voters will visit on them for their stubbornness."

GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER GOES OFF ON HIS LACKEYS

MIKE HUCKABEE: LIAR

UPDATE BELOW

MIKE HUCKABEE, no matter how many times you repeat your fatuous explanation about "misspeaking" during a radio interview where you claimed that President Obama was raised in Kenya by his father and grandfather, which shaped his world view, and as a consequence of that Kenyan upbringing Mr. Obama came to detest British colonialism and his view of the Brits are different from other Americans' view--no matter how many times you try to explain it away, the facts stubbornly get in the way. 

[NOTE TO HUCKABEE:  Our Founding Fathers were ANTI-BRITISH COLONIALISM.  Maybe you were absent from school the day they taught that in your American history class?]

Here is what Huckabee said in answer to the radio jock's question about the "birth certificate":

"I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, [is] very different than the average American.



...if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."

Huckabee's spokesperson tried to clear things up.


"Governor Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in "Kenya." The Governor meant to say the President grew up in Indonesia.

So, then, what about all that stuff about the British and Kenya and Obama's father and grandfather?  And the Mau Mau Revolution?  None of that has anything to do with Indonesia."

Huckabee dug himself further into his hole by saying this yesterday:

"Additional remarks Huckabee made on a different radio show today [3/2/11] clearly demonstrate that pernicious attacks on Obama's very Americanism is the objective.


Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas. And I just do think that there is - again, I am not saying he's not a citizen, I've never said that, I've said the opposite. I've never said he's a Muslim .... I wish [reporters] would ask, though, does this president have a different worldview than any other president in the history of the United States."



So Huckabee suggests that because Mr. Obama spent 4 years of his life [ages 6 to 10] in Indonesia where madrassas exist, Obama somehow has a different world view?  Mr. Obama's school in Indonesia was NOT a madrassa, even if there were madrassas in that country.   Huckabee, in this insidious "explanation," continues to frame Mr. Obama as "other." 

And we understand that dog whistle, and what it signals to his base.   

I have an opinion too, Mike Huckabee, and it is that you are a dishonest man who would bear false witness against the president of the United States in order to strengthen your support with racist elements in your base.

I have another opinion:  You'll never be president.

But we have to think about this:  Mike Huckabee grew up in a part of this country that allowed the murder of African-Americans by Klansmen because of the color of their skin.  I think we have more to question and worry about HUCKABEE'S CHILDHOOD and its influence on HIM than we do Mr. Obama's childhood, growing up with his grandparents in Hawaii. 


Go here to read the fabulous Capt. Fogg on this subject.

UPDATE:
FROM ANDREW SULLIVAN'S THE DAILY DISH:   "Huckabee might be interested to know that Indonesia boasts over 17 million registered scouts, according to the world scouting movement [pdf], compared to the roughly 7.5 million in the US. Even Kenya has nearly half a million.


Of course, this is to take Huckabee literally. What he clearly meant to say is that someone called Barack Obama is not a real American. He's Palin without the figure."