Republicans pulled off a pretty neat trick, running up huge deficits and then making it their party’s big issue. Not to be outdone, the Democrats have managed to make $1.3 trillion look small. The deficit actually shrank in the last fiscal year, according to the Treasury, and revenues were up. Here’s the hitch: We were still $1.294 trillion in the hole, and it’s easy to shrink a deficit when the previous year’s shortfall included part of TARP and the stimulus on top of lousy tax receipts and the odd trillion for the military. Consequently, both Democrats and Republicans are already campaigning on the news that the astronomical deficit is smaller.
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By Dan Becker and James Gerstenzang The tea partyers issue dire warnings of the threat posed by government, but their movement ignores the threat from corporate America: pollution, dangerous products and banking practices that brought us the worst economic crash since the Great Depression. Related Entries October 26, 2010 BP and Other Polluters Pay for Senate Campaigns October 24, 2010 Two-Thirds of Benin Is Underwater
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As the day fast approaches when lots and lots of Americans will converge in Washington, D.C., for Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity, three “Daily Show” envoys round up six special Americans to join them as they ride to the rally on the sanity bus. Related Entries October 26, 2010 BP and Other Polluters Pay for Senate Campaigns October 24, 2010 Two-Thirds of Benin Is Underwater
Continue reading …State Department Asks Anti-Tea Party NYT Reporter to Brief Foreign Press on Movement
October 26, 2010 No Comment
When seeking political neutrality in a discussion of the Tea Party movement, it's probably best to avoid including – let alone promoting – a reporter who consistently suggests that racism undergirds the movement. But that is exactly what the State Department did in selecting New York Times reporter Kate Zernike to brief foreign journalists on the Tea Party last Friday. read more
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Carly Fiorina has been giving Barbara Boxer cause to worry about her Senate seat as the midterm elections loom large, but the contest in California took an unexpected turn on Tuesday, when Fiorina suspended her campaign to deal with an infection stemming from a round of post-breast cancer reconstructive surgery she underwent last summer. However, her chief of staff emphasized that her turnaround time following this hospital visit will be short.
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The Guardian is reporting that some of Europe’s biggest polluters, including everyone’s favorite oil company, have given $240,200 in campaign donations to U.S. senators who, coincidentally, helped defeat climate change legislation. It’s all legal , provided the cash originally comes from American citizens or residents. See how BP spends it’s political money in the U.S. here . The Guardian: BP and several other big European companies are funding the midterm election campaigns of Tea Party favourites who deny the existence of global warming or oppose Barack Obama’s energy agenda, the Guardian has learned. An analysis of campaign finance by Climate Action Network Europe (Cane) found nearly 80% of campaign donations from a number of major European firms were directed towards senators who blocked action on climate change. These included incumbents who have been embraced by the Tea Party such as Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, and the notorious climate change denier James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma. Read more Related Entries October 25, 2010 What If? So What? October 25, 2010 McConnell: Ousting Obama Is GOP’s Top Goal
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The billionaire investor/activist has written a well-reasoned essay in the Wall Street Journal arguing for an end to marijuana prohibition. The L.A. Times reports that in California, Soros is backing the cause with more than words. California’s Prop 19, as Soros explains, “would legalize the recreational use and small-scale cultivation of marijuana.” The billionaire is reportedly helping to fund the initiative, as is the guy from the Men’s Wearhouse commercials. At least one law enforcement official, Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca, says he’ll ignore the proposition if it passes. Baca, who told reporters he has “hell no” never smoked marijuana, just wants to live in a world where teenagers and glaucoma patients don’t blow smoke in his face: “If you want to do a joint in your house, do it. Leave the rest of us alone.”
Continue reading …Joy Behar Declares Sharron Angle a ‘Bitch’ Who Will ‘Go to Hell’ for Campaign Ad
October 26, 2010 No CommentComparing her latest campaign commercial to a “Hitler Youth commercial,” “The View” co-host Joy Behar angrily pronounced that Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R) is a “bitch” who will “go to Hell” for her ad. While none of the four co-hosts agreed with the tone of Angle's ad, Behar was the most vicious in her attack on Angle, calling her a “moron” and insisting she should try out her campaign rhetoric in the south Bronx [ Video embedded after the page break] : read more
Continue reading …Newsweek’s Idea of a Moderate Democrat: Liberal North Dakota Congressman with Single-Digit ACU Score in 2009
October 26, 2010 No Comment
Newsweek — the floundering weekly news magazine that was recently sold for the princely sum of $1.00 — apparently assigns a pretty low value on the intelligence of its readers. Take yesterday's online article by David Graham on the reelection campaign of the at-large congressman for North Dakota: “Meet Earl Pomeroy, the Moderate Democrat Touting His Health-Reform Vote.” “Can one Blue Dog’s unorthodox ad strategy localize his election and head off the demise of another incumbent?” asked the subheadline. Of course, both the moderate and Blue Dog tags bring to mind a Democrat that perhaps agrees with the liberal leadership of his party about half of the time, but is fairly independent and conservative-minded on a whole host of issues. Trouble is, this is precisely what Pomeroy is not, according to both the liberal Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and the American Conservative Union (ACU). read more
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Toronto Election News I previously reported on the Toronto election that Bikes and Streetcars Are Under Threat As The Suburban Car Loving Politicians Fight Back . Last night, Rob Ford was elected in a landslide as mayor of the largest city in Canada. Voters came out in droves (highest turnout in years) to elect the “respect for taxpayers” man who will end frills and cut back on government. The first tax to go will be the auto registration tax brought in by the last mayor, and seen as a direct attack on the car. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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