Glad to see you're back posting again, Jeff. Say, how's the Chinese Shoe peddling gig going? I saw capper posted a picture of you wearing your brand in front of the xmas tree alongside of some homely creature I'll assume is your wife. Do the rest of the cogdis crew know that while you're posing as a true blue-fist, look for the union label crazy, you're actually the front man for Chinese goods?We literally get these comments around the clock.
Quite the contradiction, if you Democrats had enough brains to detect it. Ta-ta!
Sadly, Whitney wouldn't stand out in a crowd of Republicans in Fitzwalkerstan.Whitney, who is running for Louisiana's open sixth district, gained some prominence in June when she released a campaign video blasting global warming as a "hoax" and the press as "lamestream media." Wasserman said he pressed Whitney on the issue of climate change only to find her unable to answer his questions.
"But it’s not unreasonable to expect candidates to explain how they arrived at their positions, and when I pressed Whitney repeatedly for the source of her claim that the earth is getting colder, she froze and was unable to cite a single scientist, journal, or news source to back up her beliefs," he wrote.
Wasserman said he attempted to "change the subject" and ask whether she believed Obama was born in the United States. Her aides then ended the interview.
"When she replied that it was a matter of some controversy, her two campaign consultants quickly whisked her out of the room, accusing me of conducting a 'Palin-style interview,'" he continued. "It was the first time in hundreds of Cook Political Report meetings that a candidate has fled the room."
Card-carrying Democrats and their messengers are still loathe to use the L-word (liberal) and even the most ardent members of the left struggle to make the case the party – as a whole – is moving in their direction.
Sure, there are liberal cultural transformations – like the growing acceptance of gay marriage – that are coursing through the veins of the country. But, if anything, that dramatic change has been spurred by public opinion and at the local level, not a concerted effort by the top of the party of Andrew Jackson. The new liberal litmus test is much more economic-centered, including support for more generous entitlement benefits, higher taxes on the wealthiest and punitive laws that punish nefarious financial institutions.
And despite claims otherwise, Democratic candidates this cycle aren’t centering their re-election bids around their support for the health care law – President Barack Obama’s singular biggest and most liberal domestic achievement. Try to find a television ad in which a Democratic Senate candidate in a competitive race trumpets his or her explicit support for Obamacare.
Perhaps the most glaring evidence that the Democratic Party isn’t truly becoming more instinctively liberal is this simple but glaring fact: It’s difficult to find a party stalwart who will say it is.
“I think it’s a complicated question,” says Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “I don’t think it’s particularly left or moving left.”
Even with all the current advantages the Democratic Party wields on issues, demographics and cultural relevance, “conservative” remains a more politically palatable term than “liberal.”
“You can be conservative in a lot of ways. It could just be being cautious, careful, saving money. There’s a lot of ways it’s a positively balanced word. Liberal has a very political meaning that I think in the current landscape is seen as a more extreme label than conservative,” says Michael Dimock, a vice president at Pew Research who has studied political ideology. “That’s why you see all these groups in Washington using 'progressive' instead of 'liberal.' They see progressive as less of a stark term.”
While it’s true that more Americans are identifying as liberals, the heart of the Democratic Party remains in the middle. In a January Pew Research survey, just over a third of Democrats described themselves as liberal, compared with 63 percent identifying as moderate or conservative.
Roger Hickey, co-founder for the liberal group Campaign for America’s Future, contends that while the base is lurching leftward, party leadership is less comfortable with the path.To put it in other words, instead of trying to win by reaching out to the people, they Democrats are reaching out to the Big Money special interests.. That is why we end up with people like Chris Abele, Lena Taylor and Mary Burke. People that could be called progressive only when compared to the extremists running the Teapublican Party.
“The structure of the Democratic Party [is] trying to figure this out,” he says. “There are the timid Democrats who don’t want to threaten their possibility of getting money from Wall Street. There’s a lot of them, including Hillary Clinton.”
The innate pressure of keeping up with Republicans on the money front is a constant concern, Democrats will admit.
Bonior, who rose to be the No. 2 Democrat in the House, says even those best-intentioned lawmakers who come to Washington heralding liberal values are prone to become overwhelmed by the impact money has on the system. "Progressivity gets lost in a system that is corrupt and broken," he says, citing the gradual but consistent loosening of campaign finance laws. "It’s very difficult. You have to be a very strong leader to overcome that."
Therefore, as one left-of-center Democratic consultant puts it, “everything from prosecuting Wall Street to a more robust estate tax ain’t happening.”
“It’s the green,” he says.
Last Tuesday, voters in the Milwaukee County Communities of Shorewood, Whitefish Bay and Wauwatosa Citizens United and to return democracy to the people. The referendum passed easily in all three communities, with 76%, 65% and 64 %, respectively. had the opportunity to vote on the Move to Amend referendum, which calls for congress to pass legislation to overturn
Unfortunately for the corporate sockpuppets, 600 economists already have signed on saying that the minimum wage needed to be raised. Among those are seven Nobel Prize-winning economists.and eight former presidents of the American Economic Association.You're talking about people who themselves are more afraid of paying higher taxes than they are afraid of being poor in retirement. You're talking about essentially rich people. If you want to have a democracy of rich people, I suppose you're statement is true.Sadly, that seems to be the way this country is headed. And the Democrats are increasingly becoming nothing more the flip side of the same coin. Fortunately, all is not lost. From the article, one can see that the unions, despite the assaults it has suffered across the nation, are still standing. And not only are they still standing, they're rolling up their sleeves and are ready to do what needs to get done, which does not including going along to get along (again, emphasis mine):
We're being really clear. We're not going to give cover to Democrats who think it's a good idea to take away economic security from our most vulnerable citizens. We're extremely clear about that and we are not embarrassed about it whatsoever. We want a really clear message out there: If you cut Social Security benefits or Medicare benefits to our seniors, to our most vulnerable people in our country, you are going to get no cover from the American labor movement. We're happy to say that all day long. We think the reality is that it is by only treating our most vulnerable people fairly that there's going be any chance of progress on public policy issues facing our country going forward. That's the reality.And this is not just on a national level. This is going on at state, regional and local levels as well.
More recently, there is less tolerance for such poor decisions, such as the foolishness of going along with AB110 or other maleficent actions taken by the Teapublicans.It’s a vicious cycle. As average Americans give up on government, they pay less attention to what government does or fails to do — thereby making it easier for the moneyed interests to get whatever they want: tax cuts for themselves and their businesses; regulatory changes that help them but harm employees, consumers, and small investors; special subsidies and other forms of corporate welfare. And these skewed benefits only serve to confirm the public’s cynicism.I would point out that this goes not only for the federal government, but also state and local governments as well.
The same cynicism also makes it easier to convince the public that even when the government does act for the benefit of the vast majority, it’s not really doing so. So a law like the Affordable Care Act, which, for all its shortcomings, is still a step in the right direction relative to the costly mess of the nation’s healthcare system, is transformed into a nightmarish “government takeover.”
So here’s what I told my friend who said he’s giving up on politics: Don’t. If you give in to bullies, their bullying only escalates. If you give in to cynicism about our democracy, our democracy steadily erodes.
If you believe the fix is in and the game is rigged, and that a handful of billionaires and their Tea Party puppets are destroying our government, do something about it. Rather than give up, get more involved. Become more active. Make a ruckus. It’s our government, and the most important thing you can do for yourself, your family, your community, and the future, is to make it work for all of us.
A fake Bucky Badger was spotted this week in the Capitol rotunda...
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are not amused.
"The logo of Bucky Badger is a federally registered logo. As far as costumes go, they're not available to the public for sale," said Cindy Van Matre, UW-Madison trademark licensing director. "The only actual costumes are the ones the official mascot wears."
The bona fide Bucky is not political!!
Gov. Scott Walker says he has ordered top officials in his administration to study ways to avoid another situation like the one that led to euthanizing a fawn from a no-kill shelter.What comes next from the story is what sets this whole thing over the tipping point (emphasis mine):
The fawn, named Giggles, was brought to the Saint Francis Society shelter near the state line by an Illinois family who believed the animal had lost its mother. But state Department of Natural Resources officials took the animal from the shelter and euthanized it, saying state law required it to prevent the spread of disease.
Walker said today that he asked members of his cabinet earlier in the day to discuss the issue and present him with options. Says Walker, “I don’t ever want to see something like that again.”Wow. Just wow.
Here’s a hint. If you are a conservative, and your only sources of political news and analysis are Fox News, Limbaugh and conservative talk radio yackers, you do not have a realistic prism of the world.
And if you are a liberal, and your only sources of political news and analysis are MSNBC, Current TV and The Huffington Post, you do not have a realistic prism of the world.
Believe it or not, it is still possible to find journalism that is committed to the honest pursuit of the truth, wherever that may lead, rather than just spoonfeed a preconceived political agenda that tells you what you want to hear. We just have to look a little harder and think a little deeper to find it.
In thanking his colleagues, Vos promised an "aggressive agenda," saying they would take on reforming the tax code, reform regulations and figuring out "a way to make sure every child has a great education."In his next breath, he belied his own words:
"My style is one of inclusiveness," he said. "I want everyone to feel I will always listen."
He said he was pleased the state Senate has been recaptured by Republicans, but also pledged to work in a bipartisan way even though Democrats are in the minority in both houses.
"Not one party, not one chamber, has a monopoly on good ideas," he said.
Vos of Rochester, elected speaker as expected, made a plea for bipartisanship. But he also made comments undercutting Larson even before his appointment was announced.Vos should remember the adage of being careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. I'm sure that Larson will have no problems making short work of Vos when the time is right.
Vos told his GOP colleagues about the selection of Larson even as Senate Democrats were still in closed caucus. Assembly Republicans at first didn't believe Vos.
"Are you kidding me?" one of them asked.
"Sometimes, God gives you a gift," Vos responded.
A month after the political organization for Assembly Republicans said it would not financially back Rep. Roger Rivard because of his controversial comments on rape, the Assembly majority leader said Tuesday that Rivard will “always be welcome in this caucus.”Of course, given Suder's own personal history of misogyny and domestic violence, it's not surprising that he would warmly reach out to a fellow misogynist.
The comments by Majority Leader Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) came as Assembly Republicans bid Rivard, a Rice Lake Republican, and other losing incumbents goodbye in the state Capitol.
“I cannot say enough about the person you are,” Suder told Rivard. “I’m proud to call you a dear, dear friend. … You are always welcome in this caucus.”
As Gov. Scott Walker contemplates whether to create a state health care exchange under Obamacare, he will have to contend in the coming legislative session with nine lawmakers who have said they back a bill to arrest any federal officials who try to implement the health care law.I wonder if they were born this moronic or if they had to work on it.
Eight of the nine Republicans also have gone on record saying they also want to write a law that would see airport screeners charged with sexual assault if they conduct overly invasive pat-downs of passengers going through security.
All nine also told a tea party-aligned group they backed passing so-called "right-to-work" legislation; allowing people to carry guns without having to get permits from the state; allowing people to buy raw, or unpasteurized, milk; and blocking state funding for the federal Real ID law that requires states to develop more secure driver's licenses.
But their stance on the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, could cause the most fireworks in the upcoming session. Walker must decide by Friday whether the state will create a health care exchange under the health care law or leave those duties to President Barack Obama's administration.
Rep. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) is one of the nine from Wisconsin who told the Campaign for Liberty he would back legislation to declare Obamacare illegal and allow police to arrest federal officials who take steps to implement it in Wisconsin. He said he believes the health care law is unconstitutional, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that it passes constitutional muster.
"Just because Obama was re-elected does not mean he's above the constitution," Kapenga said.
In addition to Kapenga, those listed as supporting the Campaign for Liberty's positions are Sen. Mary Lazich of New Berlin; Reps. Don Pridemore of Hartford; Erik Severson of Star Prairie; Tom Larson of Colfax; Scott Krug of Wisconsin Rapids; and three Republicans elected for the first time last week who will be sworn in early next year - Rob Hutton of Brookfield, Mark Born of Beaver Dam and Dave Murphy of Greenville.
Kristof then turns over much of his column to his friend Scott:Yet for all his innate prudence, Scott now, at age 52, is suffering from Stage 4 prostate cancer, in part because he didn’t have health insurance. President Obama’s health care reform came just a bit too late to help Scott, but it will protect others like him — unless Mitt Romney repeals it.If you favor gutting “Obamacare,” please listen to Scott’s story. He is willing to recount his embarrassing tale in part so that readers can learn from it.
It all started in December 2003 when I quit my job as a pension consultant in a fit of midlife crisis. For the next year I did little besides read books I’d always wanted to read and play poker in the local card rooms.I didn’t buy health insurance because I knew it would be really expensive in the individual policy market, because many of the people in this market are high risk. I would have bought insurance if there had been any kind of fair-risk pooling. In 2005 I started working seasonally for H&R Block doing tax returns.As seasonal work it of course doesn’t provide health benefits, but then lots of full-time jobs don’t either. I knew I was taking a big risk without insurance, but I was foolish.In 2011 I began having greater difficulty peeing. I didn’t go see the doctor because that would have been several hundred dollars out of pocket — just enough disincentive to get me to make a bad decision.Early this year, I began seeing blood in my urine, and then I got scared. I Googled “blood in urine” and turned up several possible explanations. I remember sitting at my computer and thinking, “Well, I can afford the cost of an infection, but cancer would probably bust my bank and take everything in my I.R.A. So I’m just going to bet on this being an infection.”I was extremely busy at work since it was peak tax season, so I figured I’d go after April 15. Then I developed a 102-degree fever and went to one of those urgent care clinics in a strip mall. (I didn’t have a regular physician and hadn’t been getting annual physicals.)The doctor there gave me a diagnosis of prostate infection and prescribed antibiotics. That seemed to help, but by April 15 it seemed to be getting worse again. On May 3 I saw a urologist, and he drew blood for tests, but the results weren’t back yet that weekend when my health degenerated rapidly.A friend took me to the Swedish Medical Center Emergency Room near my home. Doctors ran blood labs immediately. A normal P.S.A. test for prostate cancer is below 4, and mine was 1,100. They also did a CT scan, which turned up possible signs of cancerous bone lesions. Prostate cancer likes to spread to bones.
I also had a blood disorder called disseminated intravascular coagulation, which is sometimes brought on by prostate cancer. It basically causes you to destroy your own blood cells, and it’s abbreviated as D.I.C. Medical students joke that it stands for “death is close.”
Already, Obamacare is slowly reducing the number of people without health insurance, as young adults can now stay on their parents’ plans. But the Census Bureau reported last month that 48.6 million Americans are still uninsured — a travesty in a wealthy country. The Urban Institute calculated in 2008 that some 27,000 Americans between the ages of 25 and 65 die prematurely each year because they don’t have health insurance. Another estimate is even higher.
You want to put a face on those numbers? Look at Scott’s picture. One American like him dies every 20 minutes for lack of health insurance.
I submitted an application to the hospital for charity care and was approved. The bill is already north of $550,000. Based on the low income on my tax return they knocked it down to $1,339. Swedish Medical Center has treated me better than I ever deserved.Some doctor bills are not covered by the charity application, and I expect to spend all of my I.R.A. assets before I’m done. Some doctors have been generously treating me without sending bills, and I am humbled by their ethic of service to the patient.
Some things I have to pay for, like $1,700 for the Lupron hormone therapy and $1,400 for an ambulance trip. It’s an arbitrary and haphazard system, and I’m just lucky to live in a city with a highly competent and generous hospital like Swedish.
When I make mistakes, my wife and friends forgive me. We need a health care system that is equally forgiving.
That means getting all Americans insured, and then emphasizing preventive care like cancer screenings. Presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt have sought to create universal health insurance, and Obama finally saw it achieved in his first term. It will gradually come into effect, with 2014 the pivotal year — if Romney does not repeal it.
In some ways, of course, America’s health care system is superb. It is masterly in pioneering new techniques, and its top-level care for those with insurance is unrivaled. Sometimes even those without insurance, like Scott, get superb care as charity cases, and I salute the doctors at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle for their professionalism and compassion toward my old friend.
But it would have made more sense to provide Scott with insurance and regular physicals. Catching the cancer early might have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in radiation and chemo expenses — and maybe a life as well.
I was taken aback by how many readers were savagely unsympathetic.
“Your friend made a foolish choice, and actions have consequences,” one reader said in a Twitter message.
Not sure why I’m to feel guilty about your friend’s problem,” Terry from Oregon wrote on my blog. “I take care of myself and mine, and I am not responsible for anyone else.”
Bruce wrote that many people in hospitals are there because of their own poor choices: “Smoking, obesity, drugs, alcohol, noncompliance with medical advice. Extreme age and debility, patients so sick, old, demented, weak, that if families had to pay one-tenth the cost of keeping the poor souls alive, they would instantly see that it was money wasted.”
That harsh view is gaining ground, particularly on the right. Pew Research Center polling has found that the proportion of Republicans who agree that “it is the responsibility of the government to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves” has slipped from 58 percent in 2007 to just 40 percent today.
First, a civilized society compensates for the human propensity to screw up. That’s why we have single-payer firefighters and police officers. That’s why we require seat belts. When someone who has been speeding gets in a car accident, the 911 operator doesn’t sneer: “You were irresponsible, so figure out your own way to the hospital” — and hang up.To err is human, but so is to forgive. Living in a community means being interconnected in myriad ways — including by empathy. To feel undiminished by the deaths of those around us isn’t heroic Ayn Rand individualism. It’s sociopathic. Compassion isn’t a sign of weakness, but of civilization.And secondly if you think that letting people like Scott die saves us money, you do not know much about economics:
My second argument is that if you object to Obamacare because you don’t want to pay Scott’s medical bills, you’re a sucker. You’re already paying those bills. Because Scott wasn’t insured and didn’t get basic preventive care, he accumulated $550,000 in bills at Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center, which treated him as a charity case. We’re all paying for that.This is such an important issue, that I had to use most of Kristof's column. While I can never hope to write as well as he does, there is one thing that I do have to offer that (I pray) Kristof never does understand. I have lived what Scott did.
Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan is coming on Sept. 10 for what has become a ritual of the 2012 campaign — a four-figure fundraiser followed by a five-figure fundraiser, both held on the Eastside.In other words, Citizens United did nothing more than make the buying and selling of our government open and legal. And unless you've got mega-millions, there isn't anything you can do until we can get the law abolished.
Public rallies and stops are becoming an endangered species of the 2012 campaign.
Two reasons explain the change: One is cash, the relentless drive for dollars in the new, post-Citizens United era of unlimited spending. The other is control, keeping the peoples’ representatives away from hostile constituents and erecting a barrier against gaffes. Gaffes can go viral.
[...]
A old tactic from Clinton’s public rallies has been adapted to today’s pay-to-play politics. No longer does a politician get to introduce the president, vice president or candidate. A small-business owner or disease survivor does the honor, giving profuse thanks to the leader.
Otherwise, the big givers get attention. They get treated like royalty at conventions: Just read Ken Vogel’s reporting in Politico on Republican SuperPAC brass in Tampa. Locally, givers get a variety of venues.
A renowned gardening expert hosted Jay Inslee on Bainbridge Island last weekend; the gorgeous Methow Valley digs of a CEO are the scene for an Inslee event this weekend. Or, hold off and go to the Bill Clinton lunch on Sept. 15, and maybe put down $5,000 to have a photo taken with Elvis.
Mitt Romney did not even announce his last Puget Sound foray, a pricey dinner in Medina. The Ryan visit will apparently feature a $1,000 reception and a more “intimate” $25,000 dinner.
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