Daily Archives: October 10, 2010

October 10, 2010 · 8:47 PM

Paladino Attacks Gays in Brooklyn Speech – children should not be “brainwashed”…

The New York Times

Republican candidate for governor Carl P. Paladino told a gathering in Williamsburg Sunday that children should not be “brainwashed” into thinking that homosexuality is acceptable, and criticized his opponent, Democrat Andrew M. Cuomo, for marching in a gay pride parade earlier this year.

Addressing Orthodox Jewish leaders, in Williamsburg, Mr. Paladino described his opposition to same-sex marriage.

“That’s not how God created us,” he said, reading from a prepared address. “I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t.”

And then, to applause from the group at Congregation Shaarei Chaim, he said: “I didn’t march in the gay parade this year — the gay pride parade this year. My opponent did and that’s not the example we should be showing our children.”

Newsday.com reported that Mr. Paladino’s prepared text also included a sentence saying: “There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual.” But Mr. Paladino omitted that statement when he gave the speech.

About an hour after Mr. Paladino’s remarks, Mr. Cuomo’s campaign released a statement condemning them..

“Mr. Paladino’s statement displays a stunning homophobia and a glaring disregard for basic equality,” it said. “These comments along with other views he has espoused make it clear that he is way out of the mainstream and is unfit to represent New York.”

Mr. Paladino declined a request to be interviewed after his appearance. His campaign manager, Michael R. Caputo, denied that Mr. Paladino was anti-gay, and noted that he employed an openly gay man on his campaign staff.

“Carl Paladino is simply expressing the views that he holds in his heart as a Catholic,” Mr. Caputo said in a telephone interview. “Carl Paladino is not homophobic, and neither is the Catholic Church.”   Continue reading…

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· 8:38 PM

Karl Rove is Pissed at Barack Obama

After reading this short piece I’ve come to the conclusion that although he was forced to tow the “Christine O’Donnell line” against his will, Rove has still maintained his Orwellian logic. 

To Rove lies equal “truth” and evil equals good, etc.  His one line statement at the end of the article below confirms my theory.

New Yorker

So, the Obama administration is convinced that the GOP, including Karl Rove, and the Chamber of Commerce funded a deluge of midterm-election ads with money from undisclosed foreign corporations. Yesterday, a Times piece questioned whether that practice is “improper, or even unusual,” but this morning on Face the Nation, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said hell yeah it is:

“Why not simply disclose where this money is coming from? And then all of these questions’ll be answered. These interest groups … are now the major force in some of these campaigns … This issue of this special-interest spending is very important. It’s never happened before, that organizations are spending this kind of money.”

So, the White House is running a new ad this week that dubs Karl Rove and Republican strategist Ed Gillespie “Bush cronies,” and calls the Chamber of Commerce “shills for big business.” In response, with a sneer visible even via e-mail, Rove told Politico: “It is sad to see the president diminish his office by these baseless attacks. Even the truth doesn’t restrain him when it comes to assaulting his enemies list.” Thus, Karl Rove is pissed. The ad’s running anyway. ‘Till next time!

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· 4:37 PM

Clarence Thomas’ Tea Party Wife

So…how legal is this anyway?  I mean in terms of conflict of interest…

Newsweek

The wife of Justice Clarence Thomas is a Tea Party activist. Together, they’re the right’s new power couple.

Justice Clarence Thomas probably had a ho-hum day on June 7, 2010. From time to time, the Supreme Court of the United States makes historic decisions, but on that day, it didn’t. It handed down three noncontroversial rulings, and in all of them, Justice Thomas voted, non controversially, with the majority.

His wife, on the other hand, started the day in a blaze of publicity. Virginia Lamp Thomas, known to all as Ginni, appeared that morning on Sean Hannity’s Fox show. Wearing a TV-red jacket, Thomas bantered with Hannity about the “tyranny” President Barack Obama and his party are inflicting on the country. Then Thomas, who had recently launched a nonprofit called Liberty Central, sounded a dire warning. “We are in a fight for our country’s life,” she said. “We’ve all got to do whatever we can.” Channeling Tea Party rhetoric, she called on conservative voters to give money, sign petitions, and, in November, overthrow those who are turning “citizens” into “subjects.”

It’s like a Hollywood movie. One spouse goes off to work at the Supreme Court, that most august of institutions, where formality and discretion reign. The other puts on her power suit—and occasionally, a foam Lady Liberty crown—and enters the raucous, chaotic world of Tea Party politics and Fox News pontificating. Ever since Ginni Thomas launched Liberty Central with $550,000 in November 2009, she has become a rising star in the constellation of conservative pundits. According to its Web site, Liberty Central is a nonpartisan educational group devoted to reviving America’s “Founding Principles—limited government, personal responsibility, individual liberty, free enterprise, and national security.” It offers scorecards on politicians, a petition against tax increases, and testimonials about the benefits of grassroots activism. (Both Thomases declined to comment for this story.)   Continue reading…

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· 4:18 PM

Cantor Opposes Foreclosure Moratorium: ‘People Have To Take Responsibility For Themselves’

In light of millions of people losing their homes and the jobs are not “there” to accommodate the millions out of work, not to mention the GOP stonewalling any legislation to help those people affected by the above, I am hard-pressed to see how the hell can they say that the GOP will sweep the mid-terms and glide into a majority for the House this November.

Think Progress

In recent weeks, there have been extremely disturbing revelations about how the nation’s biggest financial institutions handle foreclosures. After widespread reports about “robo-signers” — bank officials who would sign foreclosure forms without even reading them — several large financial institutions declared they were halting their foreclosure process. For example, a Bank of America official admitted in a bankruptcy case that she signed 7,000 to 8,000 foreclosure documents a month and “typically” did not read them “because of the volume,” and last week, Bank of America announced it was stopping all foreclosures across the country until it could be sure the process was fair to homeowners.

Several lawmakers have joined the banks in calling for foreclosure moratoriums until banks can carry the process out in a fair and legal manner. And a bipartisan group of attorneys general is also demanding action — for example, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, is asking 30 lenders to stop foreclosures until they can prove it’s being done legally.

On Fox News Sunday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) called for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures, saying “it’s absolutely imperative that we keep people in their homes.” House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) disagreed strongly, however, saying he was “just perplexed” at Wasserman Schultz’s answer, and that “people have to take responsibility for themselves.”

CANTOR: I’m just perplexed to that answer, Bret… what we’re seeing if you do that, if you impose a moratorium on foreclosures what you are telling people and institutions that lend money is they do not have the protection to take the risk they need to, to extend credit for people will get a mortgage. You’ll shut down the housing industry if that is the case[...]

What we’re talking about, Debbie, you have 10 percent, if that, of the population who are now in a foreclosure situation or in a mortgage that they have been unable to meet the obligations… Now, come on, people have to take responsibility for themselves. We need to get the housing industry going again. We don’t need government intervening in every step of every aspect of this economy.

Watch it:

Continue reading…

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· 4:09 PM

Obama steps up campaigning

Politico

With just three weeks before Election Day, President Barack Obama will spend his time much as he did in the final weeks of his own campaign in 2008.

The president will be in Philadelphia on Sunday, Miami on Monday, and on the road or beaming from the Internet most days from now until November 2, as he tries to turn out his base supporters and convince skeptical independents of the importance of keeping Democrats in control of Congress.

“He has a spectacular God-given gift of communication,” says Democratic strategist Paul Begala, a former aide to Bill Clinton. “I just want him to use it to communicate to the American people what Republicans stand for.”

But history may not be on Obama’s side, according to political scientist Ross K. Baker of Rutgers University, just as it wasn’t for Ronald Reagan in 1982, Clinton in 1994, and George W. Bush in 2006. “The White House would love to be able to change the direction of the campaign with well-chosen words or well-timed speeches,” he says, “but mostly they can’t.”

Obama’s pre-midterms itinerary will take him to all four corners of the country – from Florida to California to Washington and Massachusetts – and in between – to Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Oregon.

“In addition to raising money and drawing extensive local media coverage, the president is in a unique position to make a compelling case to Democrats and Independents, who got involved in politics for the first time during his 2008 campaign, that their votes are critically important in this election too,” says White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

Continue reading…

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· 12:46 PM

DNC: CHAMBER OF COMMERCE POTENTIALLY ‘STEALING’ ELECTION

So this is what’s become of our democracy. 

It’s unacceptable and everyone, independents, progressives, and liberals need to push the Obama administration to do more to stop this outrageous takeover of our government by what is essentially a “foreign agent” in the guise of The United States Chamber of Commerce.  They do not have the interest of this country at heart. 

Their business is to insure foreign monies sent to the Chamber of Commerce  produce more outsourcing, which will not be done under a democrat majority in the house and senate.

Huffington Post

Ratcheting up the debate over the influence of outside groups in congressional elections, the Democratic National Committee has made a major ad purchase pushing the case that the November elections could very well be “stolen” by foreign influences.

The committee is airing a spot on national cable this coming week that turns an already harsh spotlight on the roles being played by former Bush strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie in addition to the Chamber of Commerce. Pivoting off reports that the business lobby has used foreign donations for its campaign activities, the spot ends with fairly conspicuous if not ominous shot of Chinese currency being stacked up — ostensibly for use against Democratic candidates.

“Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie: They’re Bush cronies. The US Chamber of Commerce: They’re shills for big business,” the ad goes. “And they’re stealing our democracy. Spending Millions from secret donors to elect Republicans to do their bidding in Congress. It appears they’re even taking secret foreign money to influence our elections. It’s incredible, Republicans benefiting from secret foreign money. Tell the Bush Crowd and the Chamber of Commerce – stop stealing our democracy.”

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· 9:00 AM

Sunday Morning Blog Round

Manchin Releases “Hicky” Ad of His Own
A new ad for Joe Manchin, West Virginia’s Democratic candidate for Senate, seizes on ..

Video: Unlimited donations = crazier candidates
Rachel Maddow recaps Thursday’s TRMS interview with Oregon Congressional candidate..

Foreclosure Fraud Inquiry Planned By Up To 40 States
WASHINGTON — The attorneys general of up to 40 states plan to announce soon a ..

David Vitter’s new ad trafficks heavily in race-baiting
Earlier this week, Nevada Senate Candidate Sharron Angle put out an anti-immigrant a..

GRAPHIC: How The Chamber Gets Its Foreign Money
After consulting with the Chamber of Commerce’s chief lobbyist Bruce Josten, the New..

Clueless Rick Santorum: ‘Bush Policies Worked’ To Reduce Poverty..
Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum appeared on Fox News yesterday to defend former..

Video: U.S. Chamber of Commerce strikes again
Public Citizen’s Robert Weissman explains why the Chamber of Commerce is using litig..

 

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