Showing posts with label Huffington Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Huffington Post. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
HuffPost Election News
Image via Wikipedia
Huffington Post Election Analysis:
Is it 1994 or 1946?
"For all the talk of Republican resurgence, the comeback turned out to be little more than the death throes of a party destined to spend decades in the wilderness.
Fast forward to 2010."
Friday, October 15, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Howard Dean for Huffington Post
Image via WikipediaFor some time now, various "reporters" and on-air personalities on the Fox News Network have failed to report the full story or relevant facts, instead indulging in race baiting in order to exploit people's fears and crank up the fringe of their audience. This was exemplified by Glenn Beck's nightly assault on Van Jones earlier this year. Recently, Fox has cranked up stories about the Department of Justice's decision not to prosecute a voter intimidation case against a Black Panther group and even worse, calls for Atty. General Holder's resignation. And now, the Sherrod Debacle.
Turns out Van Jones' name was added to a website without his permission, a fact the group finally admitted some time after he resigned. And maybe he said some things about the Republican Party that he shouldn't have -- but that has nothing to do with the fact that he is a brilliant environmental organizer. It also turns out that it was the Bush Administration who decided not to prosecute the case against the black panthers because as Bush's Assistant Attorney General Perez testified, "the facts did not constitute a prosecutable violation of the criminal statues, and under the Obama Administration Justice Department a judgment was won in a civil case.
And by now we all know how the Sherrod story went down. Despite his claims to the contrary on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace didn't have his facts quite right. As a media matters study showed, Fox News did in fact spend a lot of air-time on July 19th and 20th cranking up the false story. Not to mention that foxnews.com bragged that shortly after they posted a "report" about the video Mrs. Sherrod resigned.
None of this is new. I don't believe all or even most of the Republican party voters are racist, but going at least as far back as Lee Atwater, the Willie Horton ads, and the attacks on John McCain in the South Carolina primaries in both 2000 and 2008, the immigration debate in 2006, there is a persistent willingness in the Republican party to use race baiting for electoral advantage. The fact is, this is racist behavior.
Now if the Tea Party, which is not a professional group of politicians have the decency to repudiate the racist fringe in their group, why can't the Republicans? Obviously they think this approach works on the margins, but even if this stuff works, it sure doesn't produce good leaders or a civil society, and it certainly doesn't produce a stronger America, it produces an even more polarized and angry America. It's that willingness to put party ahead of country that has the Republicans in such low regard.
There are lessons to be learned here. Tom Vilsack stated the first one best: don't make decisions without all the facts. To that I would add: consider the source. If it is a group of individuals or a corporation that has chronically ignored the facts and engaged in race baiting in the past, they are likely to do it again. A report by Fox News, Breitbart or Matt Drudge, ought to have -- as it does in most people's minds -- little credibility.
The second lesson is harder. Stand up for what you believe in. I admire Nancy Pelosi because she is tough, gets things done, and doesn't take crap from the right wing or any one else. After the year and a half this country has just been through, it is pretty obvious that the right-wing has no intention of cooperating with anyone, and that they will do anything to regain power, just as they were willing to do anything to hold on to it. The only reasonable approach is to stand up to them as you would any group of bullies. Call them out for what they do- or don't do as the case may be. If the Tea Party can call out some of their own members, surely we can call out a group of people who have put their party ahead of their country.
I have often said the biggest problem with the Democrats is that we are not tough enough. Now is the time to be tough. The fact is that the stimulus package has reduced unemployment from where it would have otherwise been in this Bush-induced recession (based on policies most of the Republicans now in Congress voted for). The fact is, as 60 members of the House and the CBO showed last week, the Public Option, or Medicare Buy-in, as it should more correctly be called, would have reduced the deficit over ten years by an additional $68 million dollars. The fact is that President Obama -- despite Republicans killing the climate change bill -- has done more in 18 months to change America's approach to the environment and green jobs than any president in memory.
I have often said the biggest problem with the Democrats is that we are not tough enough. Now is the time to be tough. The fact is that the stimulus package has reduced unemployment from where it would have otherwise been in this Bush-induced recession (based on policies most of the Republicans now in Congress voted for). The fact is, as 60 members of the House and the CBO showed last week, the Public Option, or Medicare Buy-in, as it should more correctly be called, would have reduced the deficit over ten years by an additional $68 million dollars. The fact is that President Obama -- despite Republicans killing the climate change bill -- has done more in 18 months to change America's approach to the environment and green jobs than any president in memory.
The fact is that if we are going to tackle the deficit, it makes no sense to cut taxes for people with plenty of money while we tell people who depend on Social Security and Medicare that they have to do with less, or to play games with unemployment insurance for those who need it most.
The fact is that the Democrats won the election in 2008. The Republicans refuse to do anything for the country except say "no". That means we have to work hard and do what we believe is right. And we have to stop apologizing for it. We have to stand up for what we believe in and stop trying to make deals with people who cannot be trusted to make deals for the good of our country. It's not too late to win in 2010. Conviction politics works. Just ask the right wing!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Conservatives and GOP Have Suffered Worst Legislative Defeat Since 1960s
Image via WikipediaDavid Frum admits this is GOP Waterloo with no mitigating factors
Conservatives and Republicans today have surely suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s. Calling it "a defeat of free market economics and Republican values" and a virtual "Waterloo", the conservative forum of David Frum is seething.
For the GOP, this is a defeat of such magnitude that there are few mitigating factors. Even, says Frum, if conservatives attempt to console themselves with the idea that the House will flip in 2010, it is still a terrible blow.
And Frum points out something else: By November, the economy will have improved, and the benefits of the healthcare bill will be starting to show. They may be overly confident about a real change in 2010. As Huffington Post puts it, this is an enormous - if modifed - victory for Democratic legislation, and proves the Tea Partiers and GOP to be ineffectual and stymied.
As Frum says , even if there is a November victory, So what? "Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now.".
Frum says the GOP are themselves to blame. Strategic plotting forgot one thing: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton’s 42%. Within the Democratic Congressional caucus, the liberal block is bigger, more robust, far more powerful than under Clinton in '93-94. And the Democrats do not forget history, nor were they willing to let their Waterloo of 1994 recur.
Too late to second guess now, Frum says. It is law, it is irrevocable.
" David Frum: No illusions, please: The Bill will Never be Repealed" . Rush Limbaugh Made the GOP Fail
And then Frum follows up with his most priceless gem of wisdom:
"We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat."
He lays the blame on Tea Party Fox News pundits: "Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?"
Frum hits the nail on the head : The talk radio pundits thrive on anger, recrimination, fear, passion. They give pseudo-information, the incite to fury. And why? For advertising, ratings. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck caused the GOP to fail, Frum says. And he is right on target.
So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.
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Saturday, December 26, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Now Work Begins for Obama
Excellent Huffington Post piece: Obama, Freud, You, and Me: Where Selfishness Is, There Shall Sacrifice Be
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-goulston-md/obama-freud-you-and-me_b_159569.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-goulston-md/obama-freud-you-and-me_b_159569.html
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
AGAINST CENTRISTS AND THE MIDDLE WAY
Fantastic John Adams quote;
Piece against Centrism (though not quite reflective of my own thoughts) from Huffington Post, by Bob Cesca, "Fightning Back in the Age of Obama":http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/fighting-back-in-the-age_b_153376.html
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
MY BLAGOJEVICH INTUITION CONFIRMED
Last week, I had posted an article on Blago getting a bit of a bad rap. ( See Archives, "A Defiant Blagojevich. . . ". Now, Huffington Post's Melanie Sloan says more or less the same thing: ( nice to have one's intuition validated!)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melanie-sloan/is-governor-blagojevichs_b_151835.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melanie-sloan/is-governor-blagojevichs_b_151835.html
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Huffington Post: Obama and Smoking
I thought it was interesting to see a piece in today's edition of Huffington Post, on Obama and smoking. Although the article reinforced the same old theme - Obama is a "recovered" smoker, and happy to be so, and will continue to enforce the nation's ban on smoking, within the White House as well - I found it interesting, because members of the press know that Barack does indeed sneak cigarettes. Howe and Strauss, uncanny prophets that they are , predicted a Generation Xer coming to leadership, who would be a smoker, and make such respectable once more. So much for the politically correct health nazis
( yeah, I am a smoker, lol). Believe it or not, this lifiting of the ban on smoking is an important feature of a return to the general consensus, in which the fusiness of the unravelling period gives way to the bolder and freer atmosphere and machismo of the fourth turning era.
( yeah, I am a smoker, lol). Believe it or not, this lifiting of the ban on smoking is an important feature of a return to the general consensus, in which the fusiness of the unravelling period gives way to the bolder and freer atmosphere and machismo of the fourth turning era.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Obama and Pakistan: Time to rethink the stance
The idea that Pakistan could aid in the fight against Al-Quada appears to be an illusion with the attacks on Mumbai. Obama must now rethink his stance, at a time when his transition to the presidency is being watched closely by the global community. It would seem that in his original bravado and tough talk on going into Pakistan to hunt terrorists, he is being vindicated.
But Clinton and other Democrats had apparently chided him into recanting. What is such a one as Barack to do, crawling as he is, "between heaven and earth", with his enterprises losing the name of action?
Nothing like being proven right after one has recanted and reversed one's position! ( And being forced by circumstance, perhaps, into doing that which one desperately wanted to do all along?) In any case, he has some thinking to do now, and as Bradley of Huffington Post online has put it, "Happy Thanksgiving, Mr. President-Elect!"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-bradley/happy-thanksgiving-mr-pre_b_147014.html
But Clinton and other Democrats had apparently chided him into recanting. What is such a one as Barack to do, crawling as he is, "between heaven and earth", with his enterprises losing the name of action?
Nothing like being proven right after one has recanted and reversed one's position! ( And being forced by circumstance, perhaps, into doing that which one desperately wanted to do all along?) In any case, he has some thinking to do now, and as Bradley of Huffington Post online has put it, "Happy Thanksgiving, Mr. President-Elect!"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-bradley/happy-thanksgiving-mr-pre_b_147014.html
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