The President sends his budget to Congress today.
Surprise! Catholic Bishops aren't happy with the contraception compromise. The White House says too bad.
Ron Paul's delegate strategy at work in Maine.
Rick Perry asks his bundlers to make it rain for Newt Gingrich.
Today in same-sex marriage: New Jersey legislators vote on legalization, while Washington's Governor signs it into law.
Kris Kobach calls "self-deportation" a sign of success in Alabama, Arizona.
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Video: GOP brings anti-science perspectives to war on women
Video: Plan presented to wrest control of ATF director from gun lobby
Video: Sister Helen Prejean on her influential activism against the death penalty
Video: Call him what you like, but don't mess with American Samoa
Video: Michael Hastings, fearless
Video: Tonight’s show
Video: McDonnell, awash in scandal, sees conservative credibility eroded
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The last thing this country needs is a ranting lecture from John Boehner. Americans are fed up with Republican intransigence, arrogance, stupidity and partisanship. This "party of no" has known all along that their agenda of cut, cut, cut is designed to kill as many jobs as possible and utterly wreck the American economy. It's all part of their plan to sabotage the country and defeat Obama by any means they can devise. Their entire play so far has been to blame Obama for everything, bemoan the destruction of our country in the most vile and violent rhetoric imaginable, and duck any responsibility for their own record or to offer their own proposals. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Even Reagan Adminitration officials are against the current Republican obstruction - Check out Bruce Bartlett on Moyers & Company -
http://billmoyers.com/segment/bruce-bartlett-on-where-the-right-went-wrong/
I cannot recommend this video highly enough. Please shared it and try to convince anyone you know who votes Republican to watch it. Our country is at great risk right now because of the insanity of the Republican Party. We do not have much time left to save it.
saw this quote in the NYT letters in response to Krugman's column- worth repeating\
Barry Goldwater, Congressional Record, 16 Sept. 1981:
"There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerfull ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus, God, or Allah, or whatever one calls the supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A,B,C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism."
take that Bishops and all the rest of the religious right
So hard to believe the Beltway Press has been so slow to pick up on what's really happening in the delegate garnering! Presumably the Washington Post has an intern that's paid to watch Maddow & report back. Amazing that the Romney campaign still seems oblivious. It will be instructive to see how many news outlets start reporting on this.
Congrats to Ron Paul for unobtrusively opening this rather large can of whoopass.
How may Republicans will be upset if the delegates vote in a way that in no way reflects how the states voted in their primaries/caucuses? The very idea of a brokered convention suggests that some small insider group has the power to undo the democratic process. But if there is a close race at the end, imagine if Maine delegates all voted for Paul? It's absurd enough that the party declared Romney the winner with 84% of the votes counted and a 200 vote difference between Romney and Paul.
"Kris Kobach calls "self-deportation" a sign of success in Alabama, Arizona."
In Alabama? I have to read this article, but last I heard, they were having problems with their fruits and vegetables rotting on the field.
And I thought it was Georgia that was having problems with fruits & vegetables rotting in the field because they have frightened off all of the immigrant workers.
Besides that, I thought that no fruits were allowed in Alabama.
This is a point that is lost over and over again when republicans state that good jobs are being taken away from Americans. When in reality it's jobs that no american really wants to do nor do are they jobs that pay living wages. Mowing lawns, picking fruits, cleaning hotels and homes, most of these jobs pay minimum wage and the people who work them need to have multiple jobs to just pay for a place to live and food to eat....
Think that was spin put out by the farmers who fear losing their cheap labor. Fact is the law didn't go into effect until after the bulk of the harvest was complete. No field is picked clean. There is always blemished and rotting fruit and vegetables laying in the fields until they are cleaned up.
Have to see what this year brings.
Nelios, that's easy. Eliminate minimum wage until those kinds of jobs become competitive again.
SadOldVeteran: No, I know that this was the case in Alabama as well, it was on the news. I remember, because Colbert rapidly responded with his "I told you so" banner. :)
Farmers could demand more legal migrant farm workers be allowed in but the legal workers have rights and they have one of those evil unions too.
Surprise! Catholic Bishops aren't happy with the contraception compromise. The White House says too bad.
Just remember!!! Denying health care to women is a matter of freedom of religion!
Yup, because the Old white guys of the Rethugs said so!
And along with freedom of religion, we enjoy due process and political representation... where in New Jersey, polling suggests that people want to vote in favor of gay marriage (as though it's ok to ask other people for one's rights), but then the governor says he intends to veto legislation that is supported by a majority of his voting residents.
SIGH.
I find it hard to comment on any of this because it is just so stupid. However I am more concerned by the people who buy what the right is selling, have they totally lost their minds? I always thought of myself as a good person who does not judge others by their race, religion, or sexual orientation. I am white and always thought discrimination would not be part of my life, then my son came "out" and now I live in fear that someone will hurt him just because he is gay. What kind of people have we become who worship a God who would welcome this type of behavior?
I'm thinking there's a lot of farmers in Alabama that aren't crazy about self-deportation and probably some in Arizona too. This is not a black and white issue however. There are illegals taking good paying jobs in construction. Instead of hiring four electricians a contractor will hire one licensed electrician and three illegals to do the work of the other three. I've got sons that are carpenters who have to work for reduced pay because of wage pressure from Illegals. I don't know what the answer is but it's more complicated than self-deportation.
My Presbyterian religion has no problems with contraception, but that doesn't really matter because religion has NO PLACE in government policy. I'm very tired of the Catholic church, a religion run by celebate men, and controlled by the Pope who is NOT a citizen of the US trying to dictate what the government of the US and the citizens of the US can and can not do. If you don't believe in contraception, don't use it, but do not push your ridiculous religious ideas on everyone else.
I really would like to hear the Republican candidates & the Catholic churches ideas on how they will deal with food shortages, overcrowding, unemployment, and budget crisis that would result from the population surge IF everyone actually quit using contraception and had 10 kids. Real life consequences people!
Has the Catholic Church ever expressed their outrage against ED meds for men? I'm assuming they are against the usage of ED drugs, but can't think of any public stance by the bishops. Also, why hasn't the issue of ED drugs been raked over the coals by the men in the media? I guess only women's health issues are somehow "religious" and men's health is just about health.
It seems like it is only worth commenting on when discontinuing the use of "modern means" will decrease procreative potential (contraception). If it increased procreative potential, why, then the Church should back it (even if we could suggest that those who have difficulty might have been made by God that way).
Are the bishops of the Catholic church raising contraception as part of health care insurance because they are intent on banning contraception in this country, or are they intent on getting "religious freedom" arguments interpreted so broadly that the Catholic church will not have to follow any fair employment practices, or do they see this as a "two-fer" and want to accomplish both? It seems to me that they are after both outcomes -- banning contraception and extending "religious freedom" arguments to allow them to avoid all fair employment requirements under the law.
Stern defending DeGeneres, O'Donnell & gay kids in Bachmann's home district (where "rash of suicides" have occurred—Rolling Stone article) against Santorum & Bachmann bigoted commentary, using refreshingly colorful words which Maddow isn't allowed to use on the TV:
http://www.vulture.com/2012/02/howard-stern-ellen-degeneres-rosie-odonnell.html
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/one-towns-war-on-gay-teens-20120202
This is what you vote for if you vote GOP:
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/one-towns-war-on-gay-teens-20120202#ixzz1mHlwDRGy
Reminds me of comments made by Caroline Myss, PhD, regarding the archetype of the Barbarian currently raging in this country:
http://www.hayhouseradio.com/show_details.php?show_id=26&episode_id=7960&schedule_id=67106
Barbarian. Predator. Vampire. Bloodlust. Vile Hatred of Other. The Possessed, Demonic Rage Unleashed, Wreaking of God and Religion, East & West Untouched, Infiltrated Alike. Nothing Pure Left Undefiled.
This is what you vote for if you vote GOP:
I'm sorry. Your religious beliefs don't matter? Is that right, now?
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/one-towns-war-on-gay-teens-20120202#ixzz1mHrIUFTv
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/one-towns-war-on-gay-teens-20120202#ixzz1mHqZqsPO
The Boston Globe—Elizabeth Warren Profile:
An Oklahoma Childhood, or why she broke her nose twice.
http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/02/12/girl-who-soared-but-longed-belong/rx59B8AcqsZokclyJXkg7I/story.html
The Backstory
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/02/12/hY9iu9muftdFLuNNdLav2N/story.html
Is this blog so provincial as to ignore the Greek austerity vote and riots??? This is a foreshadow of our future.
Hey Hank, its been forever.
There will be massive unrest around the time of the next election, when the Republicans who came in on the 2010 Red Tide (a toxic algae bloom in the real world I might add) do everything they can to clamp down on participatory democracy abbetted by opportune post census gerrymandering. The minority power elities are going to be nose to nose with a very large very vocal very pissed disenfranchised majority who have ALREADY BEEN OUT IN THE STREETS FOR MONTHS.
Which way do you think the cops will jump?
It is going to be fun even if they succeed in re-electing Obama. But if the economy slides back down the ravine again, it will be even more fun than we've seen yet.
But if any other than Obama wins, the party will never end.
I predict that another Republican Administration within the next 20 yrs will be the death of America as we have known it. Who wants to gamble on Democrats keeping the Whitehouse for the next five Presidential elections?
In short, yes. Interesting times loom.
The card will read:
Dear Representative Kurt Zellers and Senator David H. Senjem,
Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope you and your family enjoy a day filled with love and happiness. Our wish this year is that you honor love and embrace acceptance of all Minnesota couples. We urge you to have a change of heart and pull the Marriage Amendment off of the November ballot.
Sincerely,
Andrew’s Round Table
St. Paul, MN
(February 13, 2012). Members of
Andrew's Round Table (A.R.T.) will present 5,000 valentines to Kurt Zellers and
David Senjem on Valentine's Day, Tuesday, February 14, 2012. The valentines are
the result of Andrew's Round Table's "Change of Heart" campaign, a
request to the Senate and House majority leaders, to remove the Marriage
Amendment from the November election ballot.
“In the next 8 months, Minnesota will
spend countless hours and exorbitant amounts of money promoting and opposing
this amendment,” says Lori Wilfahrt, an A.R.T. representative. “Following the
tradition of giving Valentine's Day cards with messages of love and friendship,
we wanted to extend a similar message of goodwill to Minnesota's Republican
leaders this Valentine's day in the hope that they will reconsider their
decision to place the Marriage Amendment on the November ballot. On a day when
couples all over Minnesota will celebrate their love, we want to call
attention to the fact that people we love and respect will be hurt by the
negative ads and rhetoric that will surround this amendment vote. All of this
energy and money could be put to use in more positive ways in our society and
in this economy.”
The valentine
reads:
Dear Representative Kurt Zellers and
Senator David H. Senjem,
Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope you and your family enjoy a day filled with love
and happiness. Our wish this year is that you honor love and embrace acceptance
of all Minnesota couples. We urge you to have a change of heart and pull the
Marriage Amendment off of the November ballot.
Sincerely,
Andrew’s Round Table
The valentines will be presented
around 10am on Tuesday morning, February 14, 2012 at the state capital.
Contact Tom Marver 612.760.8410
ART or Andrew's Round Table was founded by Jeff and Lori Wilfahrt and others in memory of Andrew Wilfahrt, a gay soldier that lost his life last February in Afghanistan.
Self-deportation is NOT the correct term. These folks are not throwing themselves back over the US/Mexican border, they are moving to other less-prejudiced states within the United States.
So to the rest of the nation, please thank AL and AZ. They tossed their problems into your lap and now they're bragging themselves up. And by problems, I don't mean the immigrants, I mean the inability of these two test-case states to find equitable solutions to their social issues. Big Fail to both Arizona and to the state I live in only because my birth certificate allows it.