enlarge Credit: CNN Election 2000 – it all came down to that. Click here to view this media December 13, 2000 was the day the Presidential election was over . Hotly contested, even to this day, the election was finally decided by the Supreme Court, who overruled a lower court’s decision to recount ballots in Florida. But as Representative David Price from North Carolina put it: David Price (D-North Carolina): “I think the dissenting opinions are going to be treated much more kindly by history than the majority opinion. But we’ve got to move on.” And ten years on, those words keep coming back. Here are the concession and victory speeches by Al Gore and President-Elect Bush with a wide range of opinions on the days events by a whole host of pundits, politicos and just plain folk, as reported by NPR on the evening of December 13, 2000.
Continue reading …Megyn Kelly Blames Democrats’ ‘Class Warfare Narrative’ for Arsonist in Cape Cod
December 15, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media The hackery over at Fox just never stops. With the economy in the tank and millions of people out of work and fed up with what’s going on in America — the rich getting richer and income disparity we haven’t seen since the Gilded Age — someone gets fed up enough to start lighting rich people’s homes on fire, and of course it’s all the Democrats’ fault. Their sin, in Megyn Kelly’s eyes, is having a “class warfare narrative”. Obviously no one in the Democratic Party is advocating for people to go out there and burn down rich people’s houses. Kelly is ridiculous as she attempts to paint any Democrats who have been honest about the fact that there is class warfare going on, and the fact that the upper class is winning it, as the cause for civil unrest. Pointing out what’s painfully obvious already to the people suffering is not what causes someone to lash out like this. The suffering is. That, or just straight-out mental illness or both, which we won’t know until they catch the suspect[s]. In the meantime, of course, “Fair and Balanced” Fox anchors are free to speculate as wildly as they like. Kelly rounds out her coverage with telling her viewers to go check out Bernard Goldberg’s op-ed, which I already posted about here: Bernard Goldberg Attacks Senator Sanders and Calls for ‘Big Bronze and Granite Monument’ to Honor the Rich Yeah, that’s the ticket, Megyn. I’m sure reading that op-ed will just turn around every American who didn’t realize that their biggest economic problem is that they weren’t building enough monuments to rich people. h/t Media Matters and here’s more on the arson from The Boston Globe. Arson suspected in 2 Cape Cod incidents : State fire officials are investigating a connection between two separate incidents of arson in two Cape Cod towns, authorities said yesterday. In both instances, someone apparently left messages at the scene condemning wealthy people, officials said. State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said evidence found at both locations has led investigators to believe they might be connected. “There is some commonality to both incidents,’’ Coan said. “There was offensive graffiti that was written and very visibly displayed at both sites.’’ On Nov. 24 at around 3:30 a.m., fire crews responded to Boulder Brook Road in Sandwich, where a heavy fire ripped through an unoccupied home and garage that was still under construction. Coan said State Police assigned to his office and personnel from the Sandwich police and fire departments concluded the blaze was intentionally set, based on physical evidence found. More than a week later in Barnstable, someone attempted to burn down a residence on Trotters Lane in the Marstons Mills section, Coan said. Barnstable police Detective John York said authorities discovered incendiary devices at the home, and someone had spray-painted expletives on the fence. A similar message was found at the house in Sandwich. York said the incendiary devices, which officials would not describe in detail, appear to have burned out before setting the Barnstable home on fire Dec. 2. “Fortunately, no one was injured in either incident,’’ Coan said. He declined to say how investigators determined the incidents to be arson, citing the ongoing investigation. Coan urged anyone with information about either incident to call the state’s 24-hour arson hotline at 800-682-9229.
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Click here to view this media There have been all kinds of obituaries already written for the DREAM Act — most recently the WaPo’s dubious report Sunday declaring the DREAM Act had been “shelved” : “The measure that passed in the House on Wednesday is unlikely go anywhere in the Senate,” it claimed. Well, maybe, maybe not. Fact is, the DREAM Act at this point is still very much alive, and there are rumblings from some Republicans — led by Richard Lugar — that they too are going to do the right thing and vote for it. After all, as Laura Ingraham pointed out on Fox & Friends this morning, the DREAM Act was originally sponsored by a Republican Senator — Orrin Hatch of Utah. Now, of course, like his pal John McCain (who also championed it for years), he’s nowhere to be found. Still, these rumblings make Ingraham nervous, and she warned all good Republicans out there that they need to remember what they got sent to Washington to do, which apparently is: Block and obstruct any and every measure or policy championed or proposed by Democrats, regardless of its actual merits. And make no doubt: Democrats are working to pass the DREAM Act, because they recognize it’s a one-time opportunity to get it right. Here’s Harry Reid today at his press conference: REID: We have made some progress since we visited with you last Thursday. We still have the same number of things to do, but we have made some progress. We’ve got — we must complete the tax bill. We hope to do that as early as sometime this evening. We’re going to move as soon as we can to the START treaty. We may have to go back and forth a little bit, because we have to fund the government. There’s going to be a staff briefing on the work that Senator Inouye and his members have done on the funding for the government. That’s sometime this afternoon, over in the Dirksen Building. Once we complete those three major things, we have other things to do that are extremely important. We’ve got to make sure that we complete work on the DREAM Act. There were some very impassioned presentations made in our caucus today on that. Right now, it appears that supporters of the act are four votes short. Four Democratic senators in particular need to be reminded of the importance of this legislation: Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who was originally elected with strong progressive support, and is currently a ‘no’; his Montana Senate-mate, Max Baucus, who’s sitting on the fence; Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, another fence-sitter; and Sen. Kaye Hagan of North Carolina, who, as Kos acutely observes, owes her seat to black and Latino voters. Some other fence-sitters who could use similar reminders are Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri; Joe Manchin of West Virginia; Kent Conrad of North Dakota; and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. They’re being persuaded, evidently, by people like Dana Rohrbacher, who thinks it’s a plot to harm white people: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) was not joking when he took to the House floor Wednesday to warn that voting for “the Affirmative Action Amnesty Act,” as he dubbed DREAM, will “relegate the position of non-minority American citizens to behind those who are now in this country illegally.” Appearing on Radio America with Greg Corombus yesterday, Rohrabacher expanded on the dangers to white people of DREAM, explaining that the “real zinger” is that it puts minorities “ahead of every American child who’s not a minority.” “[T]hey can get into college before our kids,” Rohrabacher said on behalf of white people everywhere, warning ominously at the end of the interview that “if Americans aren’t alerted to this, we’re going to lose our freedom”: ROHRABACHER: And one thing that people don’t talk, and this is the real zinger. … So they go to college, they finish, they get their legal status. Well, if that person happens to be a minority, which many, as we know, illegal aliens are Hispanic in background and other minorities, they then are immediately eligible to all the preferences we have written into our laws. So we’re not only putting them in the line, so to speak, but we’re putting them ahead of every American child who’s not a minority. You put them at the front of the line for government education program, for jobs, for all the other preferences that we’ve written into our law. This is outrageous! Not only are we paying them money, that should be going to our kids education, but we’re making it so they can get accepted to college before our kids can get into. Please alert the people, if Americans aren’t alerted to this, we’re going to lose our freedom and we know it’s in jeopardy right now. Maybe instead they should be listening to Linda Chavez : A number of Republicans who previously supported the legislation – including one of its chief authors, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah – have decided it is too risky to vote for it now. But the real risk is to the future of the Republican Party. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich recently called for a “zone between deportation and amnesty” for illegal immigrants, which would allow them to work in the country. Gingrich is a rock-hard conservative, but he recognizes that the hard line that has come to dominate the GOP’s stance on immigration poses problems for the future of the party, and he’s recently launched an outreach to Hispanics. That zone should encompass a path to legalization for the most worthy among illegal immigrants. The refusal of all but a tiny handful of Republicans to vote for the DREAM Act will become a future nightmare. Hard-line anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric has already cost Republicans at least two U.S. Senate seats, Nevada and Colorado, even in a GOP landslide election. It could well cost Republicans the White House in 2012 – the Democrats are betting on it. I’m betting that most of them ignore such advice. But it would be unconscionable for Democrats to do so.
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A lot of companies out there tend to slap the words green, sustainable, etc. on their labels without backing those claims up with any legitimately sustainable practices. Virgin Media is trying to show people that it’s not one of those companies, and it recently launched a website dedicated to promoting its efforts on sustainability. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Michael Steele Doubles Back And Announces He’s Running For RNC Chair Again
December 14, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media Surprising the media that had been persistently reporting that he had decided against running (perhaps because, as Neal Cavuto says, no one in his party likes him), Michael Steele announced on Monday that he was planning on running for a second term as RNC Chair . Michael Steele said Monday night that he would fight to remain chairman of the Republican National Committee next year, ignoring calls from some in the party for a new leader to help unseat President Barack Obama in 2012. Mr. Steele notified fellow RNC members during a conference call that he will seek a second two-year term in the Jan. 20 election, participants said. The announcement ends weeks of speculation in which the 52-year-old former lieutenant governor of Maryland kept an unusually low profile.[..] His decision could spark a contentious fight to lead the committee as the party gears up for the next presidential primary season and its effort to defeat Mr. Obama. Four candidates have already announced their intention to replace Mr. Steele, and others could enter the race.[..] The announced candidates are Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan Republican Party chairman; Maria Cino, a veteran of the Bush administration, who claims the backing of former Vice President Dick Cheney and former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie; Reince Priebus, chairman of the Wisconsin GOP; and Ann Wagner, a former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. As chairman, Mr. Steele presided over the biggest Republican gains in decades. The party netted 63 House seats in last month’s midterm elections, regaining the majority, and gained seven Senate seats, including one in January. Despite those gains, critics complained that Mr. Steele spent lavishly, neglected the party’s biggest donors and failed to prove he can raise the money necessary to deny Mr. Obama a second term. The RNC raised $192 million during his tenure as chairman and spent $206 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That left the committee with more than $15 million in debt, according to its latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. On Monday, Mr. Steele promised to “streamline the RNC” and told members that the committee had already begun implementing a new accounting system to track fundraising and spending. He trumpeted the committee’s expanded base of small-dollar donors and, in a direct nod to his critics, acknowledged that “a significant number” of major donors “have migrated to other organizations led by former RNC chairmen…that are not bound by the same laws as the RNC.” I think I can speak for comedians and liberals when I say, “Go Steele!”
Continue reading …Ken Cuccinelli Hopes Putting Employers in Limbo With HCR Ruling Will Push Case to Supreme Court
December 14, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media John King talked to Virginia’s wingnut birther Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli about today’s ruling by Judge Henry Hudson that the individual mandate in the health care law is unconstitutional. Cuccinelli dismissed concerns that this might create uncertainty for employers in Virginia and said he hoped that would make it harder for the Supreme Court to turn down hearing the case. Cuccinelli also defended immediately raising campaign funds from the ruling , painting himself as the victim who’s going to have powerful interests coming after him, rather than the fact that he’s been using the issue for political gain from day one. Par for the course, ignored in this conversation… Judge Hudson’s conflict of interests . Also ignored, whether or not conservatives getting their wish if the Supreme Court does take the case and rules against it, that potentially opening the door back up to a public option . CNN Transcript : KING: Dan Lothian at the White House — Dan pointing out a legal ruling that reignites the political debate. Now let’s get the perspective of the man who challenged the law and won, at least this first round. Republican Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli of Virginia joins us from Richmond tonight. Sir, I’m holding the decision here from Judge Hudson. You win the case on this round. You just heard Dan Lothian note there are two other cases upholding the law. One of them in Virginia — CUCCINELLI: Right. KING: What do you think makes this decision better than the other two? CUCCINELLI: Well, whenever you have a state as a party with the federal government, you’re in sort of a different category. And the next one of these is coming up Thursday in Florida when they have their merits hearing down in Florida. Probably get a ruling in January or February time frame in that case. There are 25 total cases running across the country. Certainly you’re going to see a series of rulings, but even in the two we’ve seen so far that went the federal government’s way on the individual mandate; the federal government was ruled against in both cases on their tax argument. And there are two arguments in this case. The individual mandate, whether or not it’s constitutional, and whether or not the penalty, if you disobey the government instruction that you must buy their government-approved insurance is a tax. And the federal government lost again on the tax argument in addition to the individual mandate today. This is obviously a very important ruling. But as you’ve pointed out here on this show, this one is probably going to the Supreme Court. We hope it gets there soon because it certainly introduces an amazing amount of uncertainty for our whole economy. KING: Let’s get to that point because I know your position. Your position is this law is unconstitutional. The administration clearly disagrees. CUCCINELLI: Right. KING: If you’re an American citizen watching, whether you live in Virginia or elsewhere of you’re an American employer watching, you’re in a bit of a limbo. The law is still in place obviously, but you’re thinking, should I change my conduct? Should I affect my hiring? What I get a new health care policy for my employees or what should I do if I’m an individual and I don’t buy insurance? So do you believe there’s the political will to at least ask the Supreme Court for an expedited review of this case or will this goes on in the courts for another two or three years before it gets all the way to the top? CUCCINELLI: I actually think it’s harder not to make the request than to make the request because there’s so much uncertainly out there. And we all know there’s a lot of business money parked on the sidelines, waiting to see what the rules of the road are going to be, not just in health care, but you introduces the tax compromise that’s being discussed in Washington. All these things have an impact on whether or not businesses are willing to start investing that cash that they’re holding and to help start creating jobs. And I think that this administration could benefit by moving this case faster and reducing the uncertainty in the economy more quickly. And whatever the outcome, whether Virginia wins or whether the federal government wins, knowing the outcome is a benefit by itself to all Americans. Obviously I hope that we protect the Constitution and Virginia prevails, but I don’t get to decide that. The Supreme Court is ultimately going to have to do that. KING: Mr. Attorney general, I know your position, the conservative, the federal government has no right to do this. That’s your position. Answer, though, if you go on Twitter, on Facebook, e- mails to us today, answer the critic of your position who says well then what happens? If you don’t have this mandate in play, what happens if some 30, 35-year-old person decides you know what, I’m young. I’m fine. I’m safe. They don’t buy insurance. They don’t get it from their employer and then they have a horrific accident, say a car accident. And they end up in the emergency room. Who pays then? CUCCINELLI: Yes, John, that’s a great question. And of course I’m an attorney general and my obligation first is to defend the Constitution. But the reality is, as you said, there are plenty of people who see benefits in this bill and in a 2,700 page bill surely there’s something in it for everybody. I hope, “A” that we win the case and “B” that the parties can get back to the table and start to work on the things that there’s broad agreement on. There wasn’t broad agreement. There were enough votes to get this through, but I wouldn’t call it broad agreement here. We need to start getting consumers in control of health care to drive costs down. More government hasn’t worked for 45 years. So we need to go in a different direction so we can offer people other alternatives. I did that as a state senator to increase the availability of health insurance, put in bills to help myself do that before I was an attorney general. There are ways we can do this to help take care of the folks who need greater access to health insurance, but violating the Constitution and eliminating some people’s freedom is not the way to do that. KING: This is a legal fight, but as you know, it’s also a high stakes political battle. And within minutes of winning this decision, you could go on the Internet and see an ad that’s congratulating you, celebrating your victory in this case in Virginia and saying donate money. Donate (ph) — make political contributions to Ken Cuccinelli, the attorney general of Virginia. Is that appropriate, sir, for you to raise money off of this especially within hours of the ruling? CUCCINELLI: Yes, there’s no question that the debate and the contest over this occurs not just in the media. It occurs in the political environment, by which I mean on Capitol Hill here in Richmond, but also in the political environment like campaigns. And the fact is I need to survive politically. I’m an elected official in Virginia. The people of Virginia, 58 percent of them voted for me in the last election. And an awful lot of very upset folks, a lot of them very powerful with plenty of money here are going to be coming after me. They’ve already said as much, in the next election. And we have to prepare for that as well while we continue to defend the Constitution regardless of what the consequences are. KING: Mr. Cuccinelli, appreciate your time tonight. We’ll keep in touch as the case makes it way through the court — CUCCINELLI: Thanks for having me.
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Image credit: Permaculture Media The BBC seems to have gotten on a permaculture kick lately. Not long ago the broadcaster aired a beautiful and big thinking documentary about peak oil, agriculture, and one farmers’ attempts to redesign her farm along permaculture principles . Now I’ve just come across a great video in which the BBC’s very own gardening guru Alan Titchmarsh explores a stunning forest garden created by two of the pioneers of permaculture in Britain. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Does John Boehner’s 60 Minutes Interview Confirm That He’s A Pathological Cryer?
December 13, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media Did you see all the golf references in the 60 Minutes segment on Rep. John Boehner? You can thank your donations to Blue America and Americans for AmericaPac, because CBS contacted us for permission to use our “golf ads” in their program. Lesley Stahl brought up his golf game a couple of times as she gave CBS a puff piece on Boehner just in time for Christmas. I didn’t really expect too much from her, but it would have been nice to mention a little of his sordid history of handing out checks from Big Tobacco if she was going to do a personal profile. In this 1996 documentary by PBS called “The People and the Power Game ,” John Boehner is caught red-handed in an amazing act of corruption, and his biggest critics are fellow Republicans. Boehner: Mine asked me to give out a half dozen checks quickly before we got to the end of the month and I complied. I did it on the House floor which I regret and I should not have done, it’s not a violation of the House rules, but it’s a practice that’s gone on here for a long time. Were the checks from tobacco companies? Boehner: Ahh, I think if my memory serves me correctly, I think it was a tobacco company, yes. Q)….but in this case tobacco’s well timed contributions helped save its subsidy. The people that were passing out the checks won. He did say that he’s never been to a tanning salon before so I guess it’s all that golf he plays in the bright sunlight that gives him that orange hue. Lesley also got hung up on the fact that President Obama repeatedly said that the Republicans were holding America hostage. Stahl: He basically called you a hostage-taker. Boehner: Excuse me, Mr. President. I thought the election was over. You know, you get a lot of that heated rhetoric during an election. But now it’s time to govern. {} Stahl: There have been moments of disrespect shown to President Obama. Boehner: Well, there was some disrespect, I would suggest, that was shown to me yesterday by the president. Boehner repeatedly attacked the Democratic Party and the President too many times for me to recount but here’s a few: Hmmm. So let’s see now. This would be the same John Boehner who threw an hour-long hissy fit on the House floor, called President Obama a “leftist” (when you stop laughing so hard, remember that David Gregory didn’t bother to challenge him on that either), promised to do everything within his power to make it difficult to pass health care reform , advocated layoffs of police and firefighters rather than compromise on the stimulus bill, and called President Obama a socialist before lying about calling him a socialist . He’s so sensitive, or is he? One of the most alarming things in this interview was the fact that he starts crying like a baby at the drop of a hat. There’s “sensitive” and then there’s pathological . It was truly bizarre. People think that’s it’s hard for an actor to cry during a scene, but watching Boehner weep more often than Glenn Beck illustrates that it’s not very hard at all. And on election night, in his victory speech, the public saw something they probably never expected from Boehner: it was called “the sob heard round the world.” Can you imagine if Democratic politicians acted this way? FOX News would be running stories 24/7 about how al-Qaeda and all the lone wolf cells would be emboldened to terrorism because of their weakness. It would be non-stop. How serious is a man like John Boehner after all? Here’s his take on global warming with the very serious George Stephanopoulos. Boehner cites cows’ flatulence to defend his sacred carbon emissions”> Rep. John Boehner cites cows’ flatulence to defend his sacred carbon emissions STEPHANOPOULOS: So what is the responsible way? That’s my question. What is the Republican plan to deal with carbon emissions, which every major scientific organization has said is contributing to climate change? BOEHNER: George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide. And so I think it’s clear… Stahl missed that one too. His Tea Party allies will not be pleased as soon as he has to vote to raise the debt ceiling, but just think about it. He’s like the choice after VP Biden to take over the White House in case of an unforeseen emergency.
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Every year a panel of leading conservative media observers and experts picks the most-biased media quotes for the Media Research Center's annual awards for the year's “worst reporting.” And these judges have done so again this year to decide the 2010 award “winners” with the choices to be announced on Monday, December 20. But now you too can participate via a separately-compiled Web ballot!
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