Daily Archives: October 7, 2010

October 7, 2010 · 8:29 PM

O’Donnell Breaks No National Media Pledge, Interviews With CNN — Will She Now Appear On Maddow?

She was against interviewing with the national media before she was FOR it…can anyone say “flip flop”?

Think Progress

GOP U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell sparked a media firestorm after her victory in the Delaware primary last month. After establishment Republicans attacked her and comedian Bill Maher released a video clip of her saying she had once dabbled in witchcraft, O’Donnell went into damage control mode. First she canceled Sunday show interviews and then told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that she would no longer appear on national news media.

But, O’Donnell has broken her pledge. Yesterday, she promised CNN’s Jim Acosta that she would talk to him, and today, she granted him an interview, part of which has already aired on CNN’s The Situation Room.

But now that O’Donnell has given CNN an interview, thus breaking her “no national media” pledge, perhaps she can also do an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. After all, O’Donnell used Maddow-as-villain in a recent fundraising campaign. Maddow, along with some of her staff, was kicked out of O’Donnell’s campaign office this week after making an attempt to interview her. And the MSNBC host responded last night that she’d be happy to have O’Donnell on her show so she can provide her point of view:

MADDOW: If you are unhappy with our coverage of you, Ms. O’Donnell, if you think that we intentionally “cover up the truth”… as you said in your fundraising letter, I can assure you that our reporting on you would be so much better-informed if you were actually in it, if you would actually talk to us, instead of having your staffers call us names and getting some angry man to yell “Get off my lawn” at us, just because we asked for an interview.

 

At the end of the segment, Maddow made a pledge of her own. “So say, ‘Yes,’ Christine O’Donnell!” Maddow said. “It will be fun, I promise!”

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· 7:46 PM

Teachers Unions Pile On DeMint[ed]: ‘Ignorance And Discrimination Go Hand In Hand’

Senator DeMinted (R-SC) is under fire, as well he should be…

Huffington Post

Joining several LGBT and women’s rights organizations, the nation’s two major teachers unions are now coming out and criticizing Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) recent comments that openly gay individuals and unmarried pregnant women should be barred from teaching in public schools.

“We thought these battles had already been fought and won decades ago,” said National Education Association (NEA) Government Relations Director Kim Anderson. “This is one of the reasons why the NEA has fought for civil and human rights ever since its conception 157 years ago, and we want qualified people in the classroom, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re married or what their sexual orientation is.”

When asked whether DeMint should apologize publicly for his remarks, Anderson replied, “I hope that voters will make their minds up clearly and send a message to him about what his policy statements should reflect.”

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is run by Randi Weingarten, who is out as an openly gay woman. “On a personal level, as a gay woman, I am very disappointed that a senator would place more emphasis on who we are as human beings than on what we do as professionals,” said Weingarten in a statement to The Huffington Post. “That is not the UNITED States of America that was on display at last Saturday’s One Nation rally in Washington, D.C. That event better reflected the country that I know and am proud of.”

Continue reading…

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· 7:40 PM

GOP ad casting call: ‘hicky’ W.Va. look

Well, it seems they got caught this time trying to present a “populous view”, which in reality is strictly corporate run, bought and sold…H/T to Mike Allen over at Politico.

Politico

A Republican ad that shows a couple of regular-looking guys commiserating in a diner about West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) turns out to have been shot with actors, from a script, in Philadelphia.

But not just any actors: “We are going for a ‘Hicky’ Blue Collar look,” read the casting call for the ad, being aired by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miner/trucker looks.”

“Clothing Suggestions” included jeans, work boots, flannel shirt, denim shirt, “Dickie’s type jacket with t-shirt underneath,” down-filled vest, “John Deer [sic] hats (not brand new, preferably beat up),” “trucker hats (not brand new, preferably beat up).”

The NRSC began airing the ad this week in the West Virginia Senate race, in which Manchin is facing a sudden scare from Republican businessman John Raese (pronounced “racy”) in the contest to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd.

The casting material was provided to POLITICO by Democrats. It’s not unusual for political ads to use “fake” actors to stand in for real people — but a Democratic official said the wardrobe advice played right into the case against Manchin’s opponent. “Our whole frame on Raese is that he doesn’t understand working people,” this official said.
Continue reading…

 

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· 7:24 PM

Wisconsin GOP Chairman Priebus calls for Obama’s execution!!!

Democurmudgeon

Reince Priebus is the “the boosterish, workaholic chairman of the Wisconsin GOP.”

Oh, he is so much more than that. He’s Wisconsin’s Barney Fife and sometimes mentioned as a possible replacement for his good friend Michael Steele.

In a recent media conference call with Wispolitics.com, about Sen. Russ Feingold’s position that Osama bin Laden should be sentenced to life in prison if captured instead of executed, Priebus made a jaw dropping Freudian slip.

Priebus “accidentally” called for “Obama’s” execution, three whole times, when he should have said Osama. What conservative wouldn’t confuse the world’s most infamous terrorist with the United States President? Check it out

For those who would defend Priebus by claiming it was just a gaffe, I would like to defer to Rience’s own words from this same interview below:

“Now, some people would just say that maybe he just used the wrong word, and it was just a gaffe, from a normally smooth skilled politician. Well if that’s the case, then it’s a pretty major misstep this close to the election…”

And who calls bin Laden by his first name?

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· 6:19 PM

Thursday Evening Blog Roundup

First lady first on list of most powerful women
One look at the 2010 World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list and it is clear that we’ve..

Video: GOP fails to correct O’Donnell’s ‘classified’ claims
Rachel Maddow talks about the GOP’s refusal to refute Christine O’Donnell’s claims t..

Poverty hits the suburbs as Gingrich mocks the poor
He always was a compassionate person . The US suburbs have often been swing vote area..

Banker’s Agent Breaks Into Florida Woman’s Home Illegally. Do Any Laws..
Via Raw Story , the news that JPMorganChase may be taking possession of foreclosed h..

Sarah Palin and Hannity whine about Obama and Dems’ ‘politics of destr..
Click here to view this media Ah, the piteous whine of the crested Republican, heard..

Beck’s historian delivered talks to racist, anti-Semitic Christi..
According to the Anti-Defamation League, David Barton, a self-described historian pr..

Reality need not apply: Fox continues to deny aid to poor is stimulati..
Fox News hosts and contributors have recently dismissed estimates of food stamp prog..

Right-wing smear machine falsely declares Dem congressman thinks U.S. ..
Conservative media are pushing a deceptively cropped video of Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL) ..

Massey Coal Cited For Dangerous Mining Violations In West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A surprise inspection has turned up serious safety violati..

Sharron Angle’s Pastor: She’s ‘Snow White,’ Harry Reid Belongs To ‘Cul..
Much has been made about the way Sharron Angle chooses to manifest her religion into..

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· 5:42 PM

Obama vetoes bill to speed foreclosures

Logo of the United States White House, especia...

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The Senate tried to sneak this bill in without debate just before they went on vacation.  Essentially the bill was to make it easier for courts to clear foreclosures so banks could  process them at a faster pace…

CNN Money

President Obama won’t sign a bill that could have made it easier for courts to clear foreclosures, the White House said Thursday.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the president’s action a “pocket veto,” although there was some dispute over whether Obama can use that method of disapproving legislation.

A pocket veto is a veto that happens with Congress is out of session, but the Senate isn’t quite out of session under a bipartisan deal worked out to prevent the president from making recess appointments.

The move is not the president’s first veto. He also vetoed a spending bill at the end of 2009.

The bill would have required federal and state courts to recognize documents that were notarized in other states. Both congressional chambers approved the legislation by voice votes, a move used for noncontroversial bills. The House passed it in April, and the Senate passed it Sept. 27.

However, housing advocates and attorneys warned that the bill might have made it more difficult to challenge the quality of foreclosure records at a time when reports of improperly foreclosed homes are increasing.

“We have heard from officials around the country about the concern that they have about the possible unintended consequences of this legislation — certainly in light of what we are seeing in the mortgage processing,” said Gibbs at his daily briefing.

Continue reading…

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Filed under Housing Foreclosures, Pocket Veto, POTUS, President Obama, Robert Gibbs

· 4:11 PM

The Chamber, the GOP, the “Pledge” and outsourcing

Daily Kos Diary – Joan McCarter

Back in July, the Republicans announced their big “America Speaking Out” effort, with the Web site designed to let America craft the new Republican agenda. Then we found out who they considered America when they promptly convened a meeting with key lobbyists.

Invitees included Dan Danner, head of the National Federation of Independent Business; Bruce Josten, top lobbyist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Jay Timmons of the National Association of Manufacturers; and Joe Stanton of the National Association of Home Builders.

Fast forward a few months, and we actually see the results of that American agenda, in the release of the GOP “Pledge”.

Turns out they don’t really care what America wants. Here’s Think Progress’s Lee Fang:

As the Wonk Room’s Pat Garofalo reported last week, the second most popular item on the “job creation” section of America Speaking out was the user-submitted idea to “Stop the outsourcing of jobs from America to other countries that do not pay taxes into the U.S. and stop the tax breaks that are given to these companies that are outsourcing.”

Guess what’s not in the Pledge? Yep, there’s nothing about “Stopping the outsourcing of jobs from America to other countries that do not pay taxes into the U.S. and stop the tax breaks that are given to these companies that are outsourcing.”

And on the very morning they released the plan:

This morning, just as Republicans finished their press conference officially releasing the “Pledge to America,” the idea to remove tax breaks for corporations shipping jobs overseas was the most popular idea on the GOP’s America Speaking Out website.

Stopping outsourcing not only didn’t make it into the Republican agenda, Republicans in the Senate repeatedly voted against legislation that would have ended tax breaks for companies outsourcing jobs AND given new tax incentives to businesses bringing jobs home.

And what do we hear from the Chamber, planning on spending millions more between now and November 2 to defeat Dems:

It’s become sort of a mantra in business circles: Democrats’ vast array of new regulations is strangling innovation and job growth.

And the mantra gets a much bigger megaphone on Thursday, when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launches a national grass-roots and media campaign aimed at driving home the message to voters ahead of the Nov. 2 midterm elections.

No, it’s not about regulation. It’s about outsourcing, one of the Chamber’s favorite business practices. No wonder the second most popular idea from America to Republicans didn’t make the cut. The GOP had to keep a more important, to them, pledge to make sure they reap the benefits of the Chamber’s election spending. Handy how that all works out.

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· 2:54 PM

Kissing Cousins: How The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce And American Crossroads Hook Up To Elect Republicans

We, as Americans, need to pay close attention to the United States Chamber of Commerce’s relationship with Crossroads GPS and the Chamber’s relationship with foreign contributors.  The motives of the USCOC are not in the interest of American citizens and American jobs…

Think Progress

Following ThinkProgress’s exclusive report detailing how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce actively solicits foreign money and funds its attack ads against Democrats, many are calling for a Justice Department investigation. Similarly, two campaign finance watchdog groups have called on the IRS to investigate a shadowy group set up by Karl Rove and former RNC chair Ed Gillespie, Crossroads GPS, which is connected to the 527 group American Crossroads. Though both groups — the Chamber and American Crossroads — had flown under the radar by taking advantage of legal loopholes that allow them to avoid disclosing their funders, the extent of their shadowy practices has only recently become clear.

Now, a new investigation by ThinkProgress details just how intertwined the two groups are in their quest to advance a conservative political agenda. At every turn, from the operatives running the two organizations to their targeted races to their media firms, American Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are bound to one another. Prior to becoming President and CEO of American Crossroads, Steven Law served as chief legal officer and general counsel of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. His duties included personally overseeing the legal side of the Chamber’s multimillion-dollar political program.

Similarly, the man currently in charge of the Chamber’s political activities, Bill Miller, has a history with Law and Rove. In April, the three met along with other GOP consultants, to coordinate how to jointly fight Wall Street reform. The very next day, Miller sent out an e-mail directing all Chamber members to fight reform and Rove appeared on Fox News to peddle his theory that the Wall Street reform bill would result in the government snooping into “everybody’s checking account.”     Continue reading…

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· 2:37 PM

Palin’s Achilles’ Heel

Todd Palin + Sarah Palin by David Shankbone 2010

Image by david_shankbone via Flickr

The Daily Beast

The email feud between Joe Miller and Todd Palin reveals a problem for Sarah’s political future: her vindictive streak.

Sarah Palin made Joe Miller’s career by endorsing his upstart campaign against GOP senator and Alaskan political powerhouse Lisa Murkowski. The former Alaskan governor’s support helped Miller, a political novice, topple Murkowski in the recent primary. It was a stunning upset that made him a national figure—and confirmed Palin’s reputation as this season’s kingmaker.

But emails leaked earlier this week between Palin’s husband, Todd, and Miller reveal that all is not well between the feisty former vice-presidential nominee and her protégé. The messages, confirmed as authentic and explained by Todd, are a reaction to an interview in which Miller failed to offer full support for the idea of Palin running for president in 2012. The curt rebuke from the Palins was a reminder of how much loyalty Palin demands from those she endorses and supports—and just how thin-skinned and prickly she can be when the favor is not wholeheartedly returned.

The liberal-leaning Alaska political blog Mudflats got hold of the two juicy emails between Todd and SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford, Miller, and their (Palin’s and Miller’s) mutual lawyer, Thomas Van Flein.

 “Hold off on any letter for Joe. Sarah put her ass on the line for Joe and yet he can’t answer a simple question’ is Sarah Palin Qualified to be President’. I DON’T KNOW IF SHE IS.

Joe, please explain how this endorsement stuff works, is it to be completely one sided.

Sarah spent all morning working on a Face book post for Joe, she won’t use it, not now.”

It ends with Palin telling Miller, “Put yourself in her shoe’s Joe for one day.”

All of this was in response to Miller’s appearance on Fox News Sunday earlier in the day the email was sent, September 19. Host Chris Wallace asked Miller whether he though Palin was qualified to be president. Miller’s answer:

“I’m running a U.S. Senate race right now in the state of Alaska. That’s what I’m focused on. You know, I’ve been asked about various candidates throughout the country during this race. That’s not my role to comment on those candidacies.”

Continue reading…

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Filed under GOP, GOP Agenda, Joe Miller, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, Tea Party Hypocrisy, Tea Party Ignorance, Tea party In-fighting, Todd Palin

· 1:53 AM

Ed Schultz Takes On The Chamber Of Commerce’s ‘Anti-American Money Bomb’ (VIDEO)

United States Chamber of Commerce logo.

Image via Wikipedia

Huffington Post

“Ed Show” host Ed Schultz took on the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce Wednesday night in the wake of allegations that the business lobby is spending foreign money on political attack ads in violation of federal election laws.

“I’m going to say this loud and clear,” Schultz said, with a graphic reading “Anti-American Money Bomb!” in the foreground. “It is flat-out dangerous that we don’t know where the money is coming from and foreign countries are influencing our electoral process.”

Watch:

 
 
 

 

 

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