As one would expect Karl Rove blatantly lied about Senator Arlen Specter's motivation for switching his Party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.
In a statement issued earlier today, Senator Specter said his former Party had moved too far right.
Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.
Speaking from FOX Looney Tunes News, Rove said Specter had lurched left.
What else can one expect from the Party of Intolerance, No, Never, Hate, Ginned Up Warfare, Obstruction, Torture, Tax Cuts for the Rich, and Whores for the Fat Cats?
Thanks to the Republican jackasses in Austin and Washington, the video clip below gives us a glimpse into how the people of Texas are perceived.
Lawmakers here intend to replace existing funds with federal stimulus money.
I literally spat out my coffee this morning when I saw an article on front page of the Houston Chronicle's City and State section Stimulus, or better yet, status quo. Political reporter Lisa Falkenberg reveals one of the most appalling and unimaginable Republican shenanigans regarding federal stimulus money.
It seems that our esteemed lawmakers cleaned out the public schools' piggy bank so it could replace it with federal stimulus money.
to tax $165 million of the billions of U.S. bail out funds doled out to AIG.
U.S. Taxpayers now own 80% of AIG.
AIG used $165 million of our taxpayer dollars to fund rather generous bonus packages for its executives.
In an attempt to recoup the misused bailout money, a 90% tax penalty on the AIG bonus packages passed in the U.S. Congress today with a vote of 328 for, 93 against.
Uh Oh. Boss Rush won't be happy with his 87 Republicans who voted yes to increased taxes and socialism.
The other 50% of U.S. House Republicans voted YES to the continual plunder, pillage and robbery of our U.S tax dollars by corporate fat cats and lobbyists.
Boss Rush will be very, very happy with his 85 Republican soul mates who voted for the right of corporations to perpetully rape and pillage our national treasury. After all, the Boss is a rather substantial fat cat himself in terms of both his personal wealth and physical appearance.
Meet the faces of the conservative corporate protectors whose ideology supports free, unregulated and unfettered rights for corporations to rob taxpayers blind.
W. sure was well versed in the fuzzy math for which he had ridiculed Al Gore back during the 1999 Presidential campaign cycle. Between the removal of all regulatory checks and balances, coupled with the failure to include all of the federal spending dollars in the national budget, the American people, yet again, have been misled, swindled and scammed by the Bush Administration and his Republican Party.
Thanks to the sources cited in my most recent diary on the make believe of trickle down nothing economic black magic, we are reminded that Phil Gramm, while serving in the U.S. Senate, had engineered the dismantling of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. The Glass-Steagall Act had been passed in 1933 as a means to stem the wild and rampant speculation of banks that led to the Great Depression.
Governor Perry outed himself for being the out-of-touch moron he truly is. He carefully tends to his flock of fat cats but he refuses to lift a finger to improve our schools, save or create jobs or help jobless Texans gain access to unemployment and health insurance. Perry and the remaining dregs of southern Republicans continue to exist in a parallel universe completely detached from the majority of their constituents. Hopefully the elections in 2010 and 2012 will sound the death knell for the sorry lot of them.
Yesterday in the Houston Chronicle I read an article written by Clay Robison that reveals pay to play continues ho' hum, as usual in Texas. No one is squawking or screeching about it either, unlike the case in Illinois and consequently Washington, D.C. I wonder why?
(Title changed becawse I loved the one Libby used on DailyKos. A lot. - promoted by boadicea)
Why is it that Texans get stuck with gawd awful lawmakers who are completely out of synch with the majority of sentiments and beliefs held by the American people? Why do they continue to serve as endless sources of shame, ignorance and embarrassment to those they supposedly represent? Why do they continue to bring the scorn of the rest of the nation into our living rooms on an almost daily basis? Tom Delay, Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales and George W. Bush, Phil Gramm,Harriet Miers and Karen Hughes comprise the short list of Texas jackasses. It will take at least four Presidential Administrations to clean up after them. We will endure very hard times in the process, thanks to the brilliance of the Texas Brigade of Douche Nozzles.
W. & Co. may have left Washington but tragically we have other jackasses who are serving there. One of the biggest, John Cornyn, held up the nomination of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this week. Of course he voted for Clinton when it was all said and done. Cornyn's intentions were merely a typical douche nozzle style political stunt. He and his right wing nutjob buddies are gunning for Hillary just like they went after Bill during his Presidency. While the right wing extremists railed against Clinton over inane silliness, Osama bin Laden busily plotted and schemed against us. Washington was too tied up in knots over Monica to notice.
Obstructing Clinton's confirmation did not satisfy Cornyn. No folks, he is doing another douche nozzle dance that brings us more scorn. The jackass became yet a bigger jackass by throwing a road block into the path of Attorney General Nominee Eric Holder, too. It seems that Cornyn doesn't have a problem with torture. Holder does. So do the majority of the American people.
As we all know, this week is the last of the G.W. Bush Administration. Given a national Democratic landslide election and George W. Bush's recent approval rating, there is little doubt that there is more than a tad of dancing taking place in a plethora of streets throughout the U.S. and the world.
For much of their eight year term in office, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have remained tightly entrenched behind iron gates. They avoided the press and media as much as possible. They steered clear of the public and chose to helicopter in and out of their homes and offices whenever feasible. And yet for the past two weeks both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have been parading around on the Sunday morning talk and political news circuits. In their final days in office both men desperately tried their darnedest to re-write history. I imagine at this time, after Bush's farewell address, both men are securely ensconced back in their delusional bubbles in undisclosed locations.
With regard to Presidential exit interviews, former Press Secretary Scott McClellan is one of many who offered commentary on Bush's farewell address.
"It's hard to talk about moral clarity when you have tarnished our government's moral standing in the world," McClellan said. "If you look at the speech it was really a feel-good farewell speech. It was designed one final chance to burnish his legacy by highlighting his humanity, showing his humanity, his compassion, his inner decency and good intentions."
But "there are really two problems they don't seem to get," Bush's ex-press secretary remarked. "First of all, the public trust. The president long ago sadly lost the public trust. They are no longer listening to what he has to say or buying what he is selling. Unless he is willing to come out and talk candidly about his own mistakes, his own policy mistakes, and address those issues openly with the American people they are not tuning in."
For the last few weeks we have been listening to wall-to-wall coverage 24/7 about the flamboyant governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, and pay-to-play politics. As we all know by now the Illinois governor is charged with criminal conspiracy for attempting to sell President Elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat. Rod Blagojevich is clearly another crooked and arrogant politician who thinks he is above the law. But at least this one found himself impeached by the Illinois House.
It is nice to know some states have lawmakers who have an ethical spine where such blatant corruption and beyond the pale pay-to-play politics are concerned. Too bad Texas is sorely lacking in this area. But one has to remember the Party that is running the state at this time, although not all Democratic politicians would receive A's in ethics and integrity departments either.
When the Blagojevich scandal broke, several of the cable TV talking heads and pundits appeared especially outraged by pay-to-play politics and so I promptly sent off an email to MSNBC and CNN and suggested that if they are so livid about pay-to-play, they ought to send their research staff down to Texas to see how it works in a state where purchasing elections and pay-to-play is business du jour. Apparently other folks from around the U.S. contacted the media with the same request. Chris Matthews of Hardball responded with a chart that listed the most offending states. Texas is among them.
Thanks to his brilliant grassroots efforts, his exhaustive and skillful community organization talents, President Elect Barack Obama has pulled off a landslide Election. Through his exhaustive campaign in which he elicited the support of thousands of volunteers, his extraordinary discipline, his tireless, never ending hard work, the severe lack of sleep, the sacrifice of his personal and family life, and despite the attacks and the attacks and the attacks and the misinformation and the misinformation and the blatant media bias, the bias, the bias, and the appalling regional ignorance, the ignorance, the ignorance, and the hate talk, the hate talk, the hate talk, somehow, despite all of the symbolic and vociferous right wing smearing and screaming, finally the majority of Americans heard through the deafening clamor and voted for truth, hope, change and a return to normality.
The president-elect won overwhelmingly among blacks, Hispanics and voters under the age of 30. He made inroads among important swing groups, including Catholics, suburbanites, political independents, even veterans. He won in the Midwest, where Mr. Kerry had lost. He even made small gains among groups that typically have been solidly Republican - whites, conservatives, Southerners, regular churchgoers.
And, according to the The Politico, the most affluent voters were key to Obama's win.
Thankfully, for the entire planet, the last eight years of the Republican Dark Ages and Reign of Financial Terror have crashed and burned, hopefully forever.
I do not possess either the time or poetic writing skills to properly express how I felt on Tuesday night when Senator Barack Obama won the Election. I can tell you that I cried. I screamed. I shared a champagne toast with friends. I called my son in Roanoke, VA but I could not hear him because he and other Obama supporters, staff workers and volunteers were screaming "We DID it!" "Oh God, we DID it!" After yelling "we are proud of you" into the mayhem of the moment in Roanoke, I hung up.
My husband and I fist bumped. We danced. We hugged and cried together. Next thing I know, hubby, a naturalized American citizen, wrapped himself in the huge American flag that we normally display outside the house on Memorial Day and July 4th. He ran next door to the TV lobby in the College Commons where his students were either celebrating or staring at the screen in disbelief. My husband cried: "America I love you! We did it!" All of the students went wild with cheers. I could hear the pandemonium inside the house.
(Today is the last day of early voting-let's run up that early vote, and then help GOTV on Tues. - promoted by boadicea)
According to the Houston Chronicle one million more residents have voted so far, with one day left for early voting in Texas. In Harris County (the largest district in the State) Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.
Leland Beatty, a Democratic consultant, said 42 percent of early voters had voted in Democratic primaries and 20.6 percent in Republican primaries.
A Republican strategist here said the reason for the higher turnout is due to huge participation during the Primary when large numbers of voters came out to vote for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The strategist said some of those voters were Republicans who will vote for McCain during the General.
Well, we will see about that. My crystal ball is the same size as the GOP strategist and I'm not even a strategist. If the Texas Republican base is comprised of 23% of dumb bunnies who choose to believe Senator Obama is a Muslim we may be able to assume that 77% of Texans may just engage their brains before voting. After eight years of W. &Co. we can also assume that 77% percent of voters here understand that they are far worse off than they were in 2000. A vote for McCain should translate to a vote against one's own self-interests if not one's very financial survival.
I find the results of the poll to be so embarrassing and alarming that I had to force myself to post this diary.
Meet the base of the Texas Republican Party, folks.
There is, of course, nothing actually wrong with one being a Muslim but the implication where seriously misinformed and low information voters are concerned is highly disturbing. Do they honestly do not know Obama's religion or do they choose to ignore the truth?
The bias against Muslims is bad enough and we have G.W. Bush and his fanatical right wing neonut base to thank in demonizing all members of this religion. W.'s reckless and careless language about "Islamic Fascism" has served to paint all members of the faith as potential terrorists.
The poll conducted this month by the University of Texas found that less than half the state's voters, a majority of whom support John McCain's candidacy, could correctly identify the religion of the Democratic presidential candidate. Obama has been a member of the same Christian church in Chicago for more than 20 years, and he faced controversy earlier this year when controversial statements from the church's former pastor appeared online.
When asked Obama's religion, 22.7 percent of the respondents said Muslim, while 45 percent correctly said Protestant.
The Houston Chronicle has become a gift that keeps on giving good news for Democrats in the Houston area.
Today's lead story:
"Except for Emmett, Poll Sees Dem Sweep."
Judge Emmett is ahead because he and Houston's Mayor Bill White worked well together in addressing Hurricane Ike's aftermath. He is likable and folks trust him.
The surprising and great news is that Harris County's Democratic judicial candidates are in a dead heat tie with Republicans.
Voters favored Democratic candidates over Republican candidates by 7 percentage points in elections for county leadership jobs, except in the county judge's race, where Emmett has a 13-point lead over Democrat David Mincberg, according to the survey. Sixteen percent of the respondents were undecided or said they lean toward neither party's entry.
The number 7 also popped up specifically in the race for district attorney; Democrat C.O. Bradford ran 7 percentage points ahead of Republican Pat Lykos in the poll, conducted Monday through Wednesday as early voting began for the Nov. 4 election.
The poll results indicate tough years lie ahead for the GOP. This is absolutely drop dead fabulous news considering it was not long ago when Karl Rove and Tom Delay hatched their Texas Permanent Republican Majority scheme. We are now stuck with the consequences manufactured by these two Republican low life crooks.
(Make sure you know how you can make your vote count. - promoted by boadicea)
Tonight I received a forwarded message from Gerry Birnberg Chair, Harris County Democratic Party.
There is a FALSE rumor going around by e-mail telling people that if they vote Straight Democratic Party, they must also cast a vote specifically for Barack Obama in order to have an Obama vote registered. THIS IS FALSE INFORMATION probably initiated by Republican dirty tricksters, but now being spread by well-meaning Barack Obama supporters.
The truth is that if you cast a Straight Democratic Party vote, you will be voting for Barack Obama and your Straight Democratic vote will count as a vote for Obama. But if you then go down and "vote" for Obama, you may actually be cancelling your Obama vote.
Don't be fooled: Just cast a Straight Democratic Party vote and that will get Obama and all the Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.
Sigh.... How predictable...
I intend to vote a straight D ticket on October 20th when my very favorite early voting poll opens. That would be Fiesta Mart on Kirby Drive, across from Reliant Stadium.
Vote D or suffer the consequences of four more years of hell.
According to a diary written by blogger Jerome รก Paris on Daily Kos
today that includes data provided by the Sierra Club, John McBush has told more than a few tall ones on his voting record on energy bills. In a recent interview Walter Issacson asked John McCain to respond to Thomas Friedman's charge that the Senator did not support an extension of tax cuts for wind and solar energy companies.
WALTER ISAACSON: [...] Tom Friedman's column mentioned that you haven't been there supporting the tax breaks that need to be extended for wind and solar. Do you support those breaks, and will you keep pushing for--will you push for it at some point?
JOHN MCCAIN: Yes, and I have, and I have a long record of that support of alternate energy. [...] I've always been for all of those and I have not missed any crucial vote. But my citizens in Arizona know that when I'm running for the President of the United States I have to be out campaigning. But I of course I am for renewable energy.
Thanks to Kevin Drum. Here are some choice points from the Republican Party Platform:
The Party calls for the United States monetary system to be returned to the gold standard. Since the Federal Reserve System is a private corporation, has no reserves, and is not subject to taxation or audit, we call on Congress to abolish this institution and reassume its authority, enumerated by Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, for the coinage of money.
Let's just abolish the Federal Reserve. Never mind that this institution is responsible for processing every check written in the US economy. Never mind they set interest rate policy for the nation as a whole.
And by all means let's return to the gold standard. After all, strict moneterist policy was so successful in the late 1970s (anybody remember stagflation)?
Our Party pledges to do everything within its power to restore the original intent of the First Amendment of the United States and the concept of the separation of Church and State and dispel the myth of the separation of Church and State.
Let's look at that pesky First Amendment again, shall we?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Maybe I don't have the right dictionary, but it sure looks to me like that says "we won't make an official state religion."
The Party believes the minimum wage law should be repealed.
That's a great idea guys. Business has shown such a profound desire to actually pay people what they are worth, especially in this economy.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Now do you guys know why Republicans always sound crazy?
