"The vote was 57-41. Oddly, the side with 41 votes actually won. Because that is how the Founders wanted things to not work in this god-blessed nation."
Tomorrow, more than a million people who've been out of work for six months or more will lose unemployment benefits, because Senate Republicans and theoretical Democrat Ben Nelson joined together to block an already too-small package of half-measures designed to provide some modicum of help for the nation's millions of jobless people.
The vote was 57-41. Oddly, the side with 41 votes actually won. Because that is how the Founders wanted things to not work in this god-blessed nation...
There are lots of options once we start pretending that human beings who are different from us are somehow less worthy of respect: perhaps an old-fashioned brand burned into their skin, or a number tattooed on their arms. It seems that running in a Republican primary requires candidates to appeal to the worst attributes of likely voters.
Pat Bertroche, a Republican primary candidate for Congress in Iowa, has illustrated perfectly why you don't refer to human beings as "illegals": it's dehumanizing. And once you've lost sight of someone's humanity, you feel comfortable saying and doing pretty much whatever you want to them.
At a Republican forum, where candidates vied to outdo one another with disturbing anti-immigrant rhetoric, Bertroche rose to a new high — or low — and beat his competition hands down. The Congressional hopeful said, referring to undocumented immigrants who are detained and deported, "I actually support microchipping them. I can microchip my dog so I can find it. Why can't I microchip an illegal?"...
After proclaiming April Confederate History Month in Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell went into apology mode Wednesday. It seems that in honoring the "sacrifices" of Confederate soldiers and other southerners during the Civil War, McDonnell neglected to mention the issue that started the conflict -- slavery. When the criticism started rolling in, the first-term governor acknowledged he made a "major omission" and apologized "to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed."
McDonnell said he initially left out references to slavery because he wanted to touch on issues most "significant" to Virginians in a document designed to promote tourism in the state, the Washington Post said.
McDonnell phoned personal apologies to former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder -- the nation's first elected black governor -- and Del. Kenneth Cooper Alexander, chairman of the state's Legislative Black Caucus. McDonnell added language to his proclamation saying slavery was "an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights, and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders."...
Deceiving voters is apparently the goal of the Chamber of Commerce, and, one suspects, the goal of Pete Wilson and Meg Whitman.
"The chamber ad fails to point out that the organization took the same position for which it is now criticizing Brown...The chamber's commercial and Web site acknowledge that the job losses to which it refers have occurred since 2007—long after Brown was governor and while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who received the chamber's endorsement, was in office." Groups say attack ad against Brown violates law By JULIET WILLIAMS Associated Press Writer 04/07/2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Two groups complained Wednesday to California's campaign watchdog agency about a television commercial funded by the California Chamber of Commerce that attacks Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown.
The ad and an accompanying Web site say Brown, the state's current attorney general, raised spending as governor from 1975 to 1983 and opposed Proposition 13, which limited property tax increases.
"California's lost 1 million jobs. We're $200 billion in debt, and Jerry Brown has a 35-year record of higher spending and increased taxes," says the ad, which the chamber said in a news release will air "throughout virtually all of California in the coming weeks."
The California Democratic Party and the Santa Monica-based group Consumer Watchdog complained Wednesday to the Fair Political Practices Commission, arguing that the ad violated California elections law.
The groups say the ad, which was not paid for by the chamber's political action committee, is intended to defeat Brown and therefore should be subject to disclosure rules about who paid for it. They also say it's costing the chamber more than $1 million.
They also note that Republican candidate Meg Whitman's campaign manager, former Gov. Pete Wilson, is on the chamber's board...
The chamber's commercial and Web site acknowledge that the job losses to which it refers have occurred since 2007—long after Brown was governor and while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who received the chamber's endorsement, was in office.
While Brown did oppose Proposition 13, which was approved by about two-thirds of voters in 1978, so did Wilson and the chamber, along with the California Taxpayers Association. They supported an alternative measure for a split-roll tax with lower taxes for owner-occupied homes.
The chamber ad fails to point out that the organization took the same position for which it is now criticizing Brown...
...potential Senate hopeful Stormy Daniels says she's found her inner Republican.
Politico reports if the former porn star decides to run for the Senate from Louisiana, she will switch to the GOP after last week's revelation the Republican National Committee spent almost $2,000 at Voyeur, a bondage-themed nightclub in Los Angeles:
"Over time — my libertarian values regarding both money and sex— and the legal use of one for the other [are] now best espoused by the Republican party."
Sen. Orrin Hatch said he is "ashamed" of a Republican National Committee presentation that called for demonizing Democrats and President Barack Obama to help raise money.
"There is no excuse for that kind of stuff," said Hatch, R-Utah, during an appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday. "It shouldn't have happened. I'm ashamed of that." ...
Republicans may “market themselves as the party of fiscal restraint,” but states that vote Republican benefit from federal government redistribution far more than those that lean Democratic. This has been true since about 1992, the tail end of George H.W. Bush’s presidency.
So argues Gary Richardson of the University of California, Irvine, in the most recent issue of The Economist’s Voice. An excerpt:
In 2004, the average Alaskan received $1.84 in federal benefits for each $1.00 he or she paid in federal taxes. The Republican presidential candidate, George W. Bush, received 62 percent of the vote.
Now consider the state of Massachusetts. In 2004, the average resident received only $0.82 in federal benefits for each $1 paid in federal taxes. Yet less than 38 percent of all voters pulled the lever marked George W. Bush. And this was not an effect of John Kerry’s candidacy in particular. Four years before, when his opponent was Al Gore, Bush received only 33 percent of the vote.
The pattern holds true across all fifty states: In 2004, the 28 states in which George W. Bush received more than 50 percent of the vote received an average of $1.32 in federal benefits for each $1 their citizens paid in federal taxes. In contrast, the 19 states in which George W. Bush received less than 50 percent of the vote received an average of $0.93 on the dollar.
