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An Outline of Republican Party Troubles for November

May 18th, 2010
by Tom.
1 comment

Re: Lincoln Mitchell: The Republican Midterm Dilemma, Lincoln Mitchell, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, as posted in The Huffington Post, May 17, 2010 01:55 PM

After the Democratic Party took back control of congress in 2006, the 2008 presidential election emerged not just as an opportunity, but also as a test for the Democrats. The 2006 election had defeated, but more importantly, discredited, the Republicans. Had the Democrats been unable to win in 2008, it therefore would have raised the questions of whether the Democrats could ever win, and what the point of the Democratic Party was. Fortunately, Barack Obama got elected president in 2008, so these questions have been avoided.

Ironically, the Republican Party, by portraying President Obama as seeking to bring about the socialist apocalypse, and by stressing the strength of anti-Obama among voters, has spun itself into a similar corner today. Raising expectations is never wise in politics, but the Republicans have done just that in the last eighteen months. They have made this more of a problem by overstating the danger represented by the Obama presidency.

They have also raised expectations of victory in November through the constant droning of the right wing echo machine, i.e. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck.

The author here has made some very good points to ponder. He has made the case that Republicans have painted themselves into a corner again. Remember the box they put themselves in with financial reform? It is hard to justify some of their stances. I want to share his paragraph thesis statements in outline form.

1. [Raising expectations… by overstating the danger represented by the Obama presidency] has led to a context where if the Republican tsunami of 2010 fails to materialize in November, even loyal Republican voters will be forced to ask some tough questions about the relevance and future of their party.

2. Obama’s poll numbers, which fell steadily through the last half of 2009, have been reasonably steady this year. The tea party movement has not brought new energy into the Republican Party or become a new force in American politics, but it may continue to derail the Republican Party from nominating electable candidates.

3. The Republican Party has added to their problems by taking policy positions, notably their almost blind allegiance to the health insurance, finance and oil industries, which have pushed voters away and made Republican attacks on Obama easier to dismiss, particularly for those in the political center.

4. The anger and fear that many Americans feel towards the Obama administration is real. Obama, after all, very overtly campaigned on a theme of change, and change always scares some people. However, the Republican Party will remain unable to use this anger and fear to their advantage until they move away from the policies and positions which the American people have voted against in the last two elections.

The fear of Obama that the tea baggers hoped would sweep the nation like wildfire has only been a flash in the pan. Most Americans find it hard to believe that we are facing a socialist nightmare with the policy changes that Obama and Congress have implemented so far. Republicans continue to shout about Obama, but most of the noise just isn’t ringing true. Those folks who are vehemently frothing at the mouth over Obama are the 30% who would still vote for George W. Bush, and would never vote for Obama, or any other Democrat for that matter.

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President Obama Facing Dangerous Crowd

Apr 1st, 2010
by Tom.
2 comments

 

Tea Party Racism

Re: Tea parties prepare for Obama visit to Charlotte – CharlotteObserver.com, By Jim Morrill and Bruce Henderson, Staff Writers, Posted: Thursday, Apr. 01, 2010

President will tour plant that has green jobs; demonstration leaders urge a peaceful protest.

Tea party groups from around the Piedmont are planning to protest President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and other policies Friday, though details of the presidential visit remained sketchy Wednesday.

Tea party organizers said they expect protesters from as far as Asheville to descend on southwest Charlotte, near the Celgard plant the president plans to tour.

Celgard has been among the most prominent examples of the green-energy jobs that Charlotte’s economic development leaders hope to expand. The company makes porous membranes for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in notebook computers, digital cameras and other devices.

Obama is scheduled to make a midday visit to the plant, which he’s expected to tour before he speaks about the economy.

Tea party protestors as a group are a slurry mix of just about every dumbed-down, emotionally driven, faux institution along with every hell-bent, ideologically rabid, wolf pack you could imagine. They include, but are not limited to:

*birthers (he’s born in Kenya, etc.),
*deathers (death panels. Grandma’s plug pulled, remember? dwindled. not a big issue anymore since all these facts got out about HCR.),
*armed christian militia/survivalists (crazy dangerous. group arrested in Michigan this past week. they will show up with guns and 2nd amendment signs. they all train together. arrest them all.),
*Birchers (John Birch Society, 1950’s hold-overs still ranting about communist takeovers. Koch brothers are members, uber billionaires, Koch Industries, father was founding member, Koch brothers started Americans for Prosperity, bankrolls tea parties. radically opposed to anything “socialist”. not grassroots no matter how loud they get. inches from becoming armed survivalists.),
*racists (will carry signs depicting Obama caricatured as almost anything except an American President. shouts the “n” word at black passersby.),
*xenophobes (loudly suspicious of anyone brown and foreign-looking/sounding. sees terrorists everywhere.),
*libertarians (no taxes, period. never mind all the public transportation they used to get there.),
*tenthers (refers to the 10th Amendment. 13 states’ Attorneys General are filing a frivolous and improbable lawsuit claiming the health care mandate, a Republican idea, is unconstitutional. they believe states have the power above the federal government. big dog whistle for anti-civil rights.),
*cold warriors (stuck in the 60’s cold war. be afraid of the communist threat.)
*Zionists (more anti-Muslim than pro Israel. picture Senator John McCain on stage singing, “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran”.)

The organizers of the tea party factions are calling for peaceful protests:

Protesters announced their plans on Facebook.

They plan to gather on South Tryon Street at Carowinds Boulevard. Craig Nannini, a tea party organizer, urged protesters to remain peaceful.

“Remember, even if you vehemently disagree with President Obama, respect the office,” he wrote. “Bring respectful signs (hand carry the signs, no sticks), and if counter-protesters come, be respectful and civil to your fellow Americans, even if they are not. We need the story to be about the message, not anything else, so everyone be on your best behavior.”

Since Congress passed the health care law this month, there have been reported threats on both sides. Michael Kelly, president of the tea party group We The People NC, said the protests will be civil.

“We expect the opposition to protest and try to incite violence,” he said, “and we intend to remain peaceful about it.”

Can you believe this BS? This Craig Nannini is trying to inject a pre-determined judgment that “counter-protestors” will show up and be the ones to blame if the tea party protestors get out of hand. He wants the tea party folks to have the luxury of washing their hands, shedding culpability ahead of the event, if things get crazy. It’s like a pre-apology, you know, “forgive me if this hurts you, but I’m doing it anyway”. He is afraid things will get out of hand and is cowardly weaseling away from responsibility.

Now that we have a good picture of who the tea party protestors are we have to look at the fact that these crazies are showing up tomorrow at a Presidential event near Charlotte. Good luck, Mr. President. Wear body armor.

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Going Off the Deep End Over Guantanamo

Dec 30th, 2009
by Tom.
1 comment

Re:  Likely casualty of air plot: Obama’s Guantanamo plans | McClatchy 

Maximum Security Prison at Thomson, Illinois

 

The foiled Christmas Day plot to blow up a jetliner over Detroit has thrown up a major roadblock to President Barack Obama’s pledge to close the prison camps at Guantanamo. 

The author speaks of a political roadblock, not a real, practical one. The right-wing nut jobs are stomping their feet again about how we cannot close the Guantanamo prison because some of the prisoners might reoffend. But the truth is that a great majority of the murderers and rapists and child molesters that serve their time and are set free reoffend again and again. The recidivism rate in the US is high and keeps getting higher. The following information is from the US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs: 

Recidivism is measured by criminal acts that resulted in the rearrest, reconviction, or return to prison with or without a new sentence during a three-year period following the prisoner’s release. 

Summary findings 

  • During 2007, a total of 1,180,469 persons on parole were at-risk of reincarceration.  This includes persons under parole supervision on January 1 or those entering parole during the year. Of these parolees, about 16% were returned to incarceration in 2007.
  • Among nearly 300,000 prisoners released in 15 states in 1994, 67.5% were rearrested within 3 years. A study of prisoners released in 1983 estimated 62.5%.
  • Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 states in 1994, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime.
  • These offenders had accumulated 4.1 million arrest charges before their most recent imprisonment and another 744,000 charges within 3 years of release.
  • Released prisoners with the highest rearrest rates were robbers (70.2%), burglars (74.0%), larcenists (74.6%), motor vehicle thieves (78.8%), those in prison for possessing or selling stolen property (77.4%), and those in prison for possessing, using, or selling illegal weapons (70.2%).
  • Within 3 years, 2.5% of released rapists were arrested for another rape, and 1.2% of those who had served time for homicide were arrested for homicide.

Source: Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994 

We all know that some prisoners released will reoffend, no matter where they were incarcerated. Aside from psychological profiles that tell us who might reoffend, we have no way of telling who among them will actually do it. When there is no legal reasons to incarcerate a person, when there is no hard evidence that would warrant filling charges against that person, then they have to be released under US and Military law. 

The next obvious point here is the question, “Can’t our prisons hold Yemini prisoners as well as any other?” The new prison and the townsfolk in Thomson, Illinois seems to be perfectly capable of accepting the Yemini along with the others, so why should this lone,really ignorant, Yemini terrorist be a reason to halt plans to close Gitmo? 

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on FOX Entertainment this Sunday said, “But today it’s a first-class facility. It would be a mistake to send these 90 people back to Yemen, because based on the past of what’s happened when we’ve released people from Guantánamo, a certain number of them have gone back into the fight against us.” 

Politicians are good at misdirection, and Joe has tried it again here. There are no plans to send all 90 of the Yemini prisoners back to Yemen. There is, however, plans to send them to Illinois. Him and all the other Obama haters out there are jumping all over this as a reason to keep Guantanamo open. What does it matter if the prison there is closed? The right-wing whack-jobs think that by keeping the prison open that they will have defeated another of Obama’s plans never mind what’s good for America. Besides, Obama didn’t send the two men who planned the bombing back to Yemen, President Bush did. 

Officials say the White House is counting on congressional approval for its Illinois prison plan and that it has full confidence in Obama’s Guantánamo Review Task Force, saying that the process is more thorough than the Bush administration’s, which released two detainees now linked to the Detroit airliner plot. 

ABC News identified the men as Mohamed al Harbi and Said al Shihri, both Saudi nationals who were repatriated to a rehabilitation program in the oil-rich kingdom in December 2007. They have reemerged as leaders of an al Qaeda offshoot in Yemen. 

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