The IRS

 

 

Unless there is missing information, there is little doubt that President Obama knew nothing about the outrageous behavior in the Internal Revenue Service. Never should that branch of government be used to intimate or burden any free expression of speech.

The IRS has the ability and powers to create fear and an enormous amount of personal information about each of us to make that fear real.

The systematic effort by the IRS to go after 'Tea Party" type groups is inexcusable. If those groups were progressive we would be wildly off the charts with rage.

This has occurred on the President's watch and he must match his angry words with quick and decisive action to show there is absolute no room in American democracy for this kind of violation of human rights. Heads must roll.

The IRS is long pass due for a major overhaul and reform. The President should work with conservatives to create legislation that not only will deal with this problem but overhaul the entire agency.

Who is being targeted doesn't matter. What matters is that the IRS is out of control and needs to be reformed with the appropriate checks and balances.

So Much For The 'New Republican Party'......

 

 

 

Over the last weeks we have heard about the 'New Republican Party' that is going to make outreach to new constituencies, avoid divisive issues and focus more on traditional conservative issues like the economy. Well, you can hang that fantasy up.

The National Republican Party at a three day meeting in Los Angeles made one of its first actions to pass a resolution against marriage equality. Very little debate took place and there was not one dissenting vote on the resolution. So the message is very clear to LGBT Americans. The Democrats support marriage equality and the Republicans will continue to fight it tooth and nail. The choice could not be any clearer.

Shame on them for rushing in to oppose marriage equality when a vast majority of Americans now support it. Even the young members of their Party support it. The pandering to the religious right and Tea Party must stop or it will soon see a new party of emerge from the ashes of this one.

The Secret Attempt To Create A Gingrich/ Santorum Ticket In 2012

 

 

 

One of my favorite times in presidential campaigns is the year afterward when everyone rushes books, articles and interviews to give us the 'inside scoop' of what was happening in the campaigns. In 2008, "Game Change" was a spectacular book that I could not put down.

Joshua Green for Bloomburg Business Week has a great column on attempt to get Gingrich and Santorum to run together as a ticket. The 'Unity Ticket' was meant to detail Romeny and put the team in the White House.

Green reports:

It’s one of the great untold stories of the 2012 presidential campaign, a tale of ego and intrigue that nearly upended the Republican primary contest and might even have produced a different nominee: As Mitt Romney struggled in the weeks leading up to the Michigan primary, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum nearly agreed to form a joint “Unity Ticket” to consolidate conservative support and topple Romney. “We were close,” former Representative Bob Walker, a Gingrich ally, says. “Everybody thought there was an opportunity.” “It would have sent shock waves through the establishment and the Romney campaign,” says John Brabender, Santorum’s chief strategist.

But the negotiations collapsed in acrimony because Gingrich and Santorum could not agree on who would get to be president. “In the end,” Gingrich says, “it was just too hard to negotiate.”

Romney eked out a three-point win in Michigan on Feb. 28 and was never seriously threatened again. While this type of elaborate scheming is more typical of political thrillers, it was real this time. A year later, many of those who worked to build the Unity Ticket still believe it could have been decisive.

“I was disappointed when Speaker Gingrich ultimately decided against this idea, because it could have changed the outcome of the primary,” Santorum says. “And more importantly, it could have changed the outcome of the general election.”

The discussions between the two camps commenced in early February, just after Gingrich got trounced in Florida. Brabender called members of the Gingrich brain trust, hoping they could persuade Gingrich to drop out and endorse Santorum, who was rising in the polls. “I’ll tell you this,” says Brabender, “If Gingrich had dropped out at the right time, Santorum would have been the nominee.” Brabender wasn’t short on moxie: He wanted Gingrich to declare in the middle of a nationally televised debate that he was dropping out and endorsing Santorum. “I couldn’t write an ad to match the political theater that would have created,” he says.

Gingrich had other ideas. He proposed that both men join forces but remain in the race, each concentrating on the states where he matched up best against Romney. Gingrich thought he could carry Georgia, Delaware, Washington, and Wisconsin (from which his wife, Callista, hails). Santorum would focus on other states in the South and the upper Midwest. But there was a catch. “The appeal of a Unity Ticket was strength in numbers,” says Kellyanne Conway, Gingrich’s pollster. “The big question was, who was going to unify with whom? Who was going to be the sheriff and who was going to be the deputy?”

Gingrich thought that he belonged on top of the ticket. “Our reasoning,” says Walker, “is that we had won a major primary at that point [South Carolina] and people like Rick Perry were coming on board. Perry had just endorsed Newt.”

To Santorum’s team, however, the Gingrich campaign was a sinking ship, and their own man was the obvious choice to lead the ticket. “At the end of the day,” says Brabender, “we won 11 states and tied two others. He won two states, which makes it only logical that Rick was the one who had earned the right to go one-on-one with Romney.”

Even so, the obstacles did not seem insurmountable. Both camps agreed that Romney was vulnerable. “If Romney had lost either Florida or Michigan, I believe the money people would have begun to abandon him,” Walker says. Both agreed that a joint ticket could catalyze the powerful “Anybody But Romney” faction already emerging among GOP primary voters.

Read more here.........

On Sequester.....Not One Cent In Pay For Congress!

 

 

 

"What won't happen is that Congress stops getting paid, their staffs are laid off and the perks are done away with immediately.  In fact, they didn't even work this weekend to find a solution. Stop the pay, the perks and their staff and we will have a solution very, very soon. "

There is a sense that the implementation of sequester is turning out not to be a big deal. In fact, several of my friends have indicated maybe it is a good action to cut back on our debt. The newspapers have been warning of dire circumstances leading up to the deadline. Just two days after the deadline passes the media on one morning show featured the sink hole in Florida over sequester.

Don't be fooled. This is very serious business.

Sequester, in the long term, will dramatically affect our economy and economic growth. Thousands of Americans will lose their jobs. Our national security will be at risk because of across the board cuts instead of strategic cuts. Programs like Head Start, our National Parks, environmental protection, ADAPT for people with HIV/AIDS, etc will be devastated.

What won't happen is that Congress stops getting paid, their staffs are laid off and the perks are done away with immediately.  In fact, they didn't even work this weekend to find a solution. Stop the pay, the perks and their staff and we will have a solution very, very soon.

What won't happen with sequester is economic justice.

The middle class and poor will be punished and the oil companies will still receive their massive depletion allowances , loop holes will enable major corporations to pay no taxes and off shore accounts will enable them hide money to avoid taxes. Just ask Mitt Romney and he can explain how it works for the rich.

The concept that we can't build a just and fair tax system in America is just outrageous. The Republicans in the House of Representatives would rather shut down America then require those who are cheating the system to pay their fair share. No discussion is allowed about creating a system of fairness. Just shut government down and refuse to move an inch.

This economic stalemate will hurt average Americans but not the big guns. This Sequester is dangerous and damaging just as we are making an economic comeback. Those who don't believe in science, basic economics and that the world is square want us to believe this is all for the good of the country.

Don't you dare buy into it.

Editorial Cartoon of the Week: Republicans And Sequester

 

 

 

House Republican Strategy Is To Turn Other Groups Against LGBT Americans

 

 

How do you stop progressive legislation without offending major groups who benefit from that legislation?

House Republicans think they have found a winning ticket. They hang all their opposition to a piece of legislation on the fact that LGBT Americans are included in it. This way they can blame others for their ideological rigidity. In addition the Republicans can insert a wedge in between members of the grand coalition that put Obama into office for a second term.

The first time was with the immigration bill with McCain and Graham insisting that LGBT Americans not be included the legislation. In addition, House Republicans have made clear that if LGBT Americans are included it could kill the legislation. Of course that forces our allies to chose between us or the legislation they so desperately been seeking.

Now Think Progress is reporting that House Republicans have stripped LGBT issues out of the Violence Against Women Act.

The House GOP bill entirely leaves out provisions aimed at helping LGBT victims of domestic violence. Specifically, the bill removes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from the list of underserved populations who face barriers to accessing victim services, thereby disqualifying LGBT victims from a related grant program. The bill also eliminates a requirement in the Senate bill that programs that receive funding under VAWA provide services regardless of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity

Will be interesting to see how House Republicans attempt to stop climate change since LGBT Americans would benefit from a cleaner and environmentally sound planet. Maybe they will insert a provision banning LGBT citizens from breathing the clean air or forcing us to live along the coast near the rising waters!

VIDEO: Robert Shrum On Fundamental Shift In American Politics

On the Reverend Al Sharpton Show on MSNBC, commentator and author Robert Shrum says there is a fundamental shift in American politics. The fact that the Republicans are still captive to the Tea Party could mean that a major realignment is taking place. Listen in.

Michele Bachmann for United States Senate?

 

 

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water! Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann barely held on to her Congressional seat in the last election. Around the country you could hear a collective sigh of relief that maybe she had her wings clipped enough not to bother us the next two years. Guess again!

In Minnesota, she is the first choice of Republicans to run against incumbent Democratic Senator Al Franken in 2014.

 According to the Public Policy Poll,  Republicans in Minnesota love her. Bachmann pulls a strong 45% of the Republican electorate to be their nominee. Her closest rival would be John Kline with 19%. Amazingly, for those Republicans who describe themselves as 'moderate', Bachmann is their first choice! "Moderate" and Michele Bachmann in the same sentence is simply incredulous.

Fortunately, in an preliminary test run, Senator Franken beats Michele Bachmann by 54% to 40%.

Didn't the Minnesota Republicans get the memo from the last election that Americans don't want extremists in their government especially one that hates gays, hispanics and women?

New Poll Shows All Time High For Abortion Rights And Many Other Progressive Issues

 

 

The right of a woman to have control over her own health decisions and body is clearly gaining favor with Americans. For the first time in the Wall Street Journal/ NBC News Poll, a woman's right to choice is supported by 54% of Americans.

Even more astounding is that 70% of Americans do not want to overturn Roe v. Wade which is the 1973 Supreme Court decision giving that "right to choice' to American women. That is an increase in polls numbers from 58% who felt that way in 1989.

The same poll showed that:

- 52% of Americans are now approving of the job being done by our President.

-52% support allowing undocumented workers to apply for legal status in America.

-56% support stricter gun control laws.

-51% of Americans are optimistic about the President's second term

-61% find the President likeable.

-49% have a negative view of the Republican Party and only 26% have a positive view of the GOP.

-only 23% of Americans have a positive view of the Tea Party while 47% hold an unfavorable view of the right wing.

-60% of Americans believe the Iraq War was not worth fighting.

-51% believe the Afghanistan War was not worth fighting but 62% think it has been successful.

Tea Party's 'Freedom Works' Paid Glenn Beck Over $1 Million For Promotion On Air!

 

 

Increasingly the political arm of the Tea Party, Freedom Works, is coming under strong scrutiny by the press. Since former House Majority Leader left the organization (after an attempted coup) with an $8 million dollar severance package, the operations of the organization is seeing the light of day. What is emerging is a well financed right wing machine financed mostly by major donors that pay huge amounts to conservative commentators to promote them on the air but not as paid advertisements.

Media Matters and Mother Jones both have run investigative stories about the organization. Glenn Beck was paid over $1 million for favorable mentions on the air and urging his listeners to support the organization with their checks. Rush Limbaugh started receiving payments for similar favorable comments on the air but the extent of his financial arrangement was unknown. Beck never disclosed to his listeners as he made his appeals that he was receiving over a million dollars.

Media Matters reported that  Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey said after the failed coup:

"Armey also said the relationship with Beck expanded to include rallies that were co-sponsored by Beck and FreedomWorks, and included appearances by FreedomWorks President and CEO Matt Kibbe.

Armey said he objected to these events, dubbed FreePACs, because they often charged admission to FreedomWorks activists.

A review of promotional information for the events found $20 was a standard donation requested at some of the locations, while a Dallas, TX., FreePAC last summer charged prices as high as $971.

"You don't charge activists to attend rallies. I would consider that wholly inappropriate behavior," Armey said. "There was a lot of resentment on the part of the activists. They would naturally expect that they are providing the activist power and think that they have a right to attend."

Beck and Armey

"The principal value to anyone from the relationship with Beck was Matt Kibbe, who got to share Beck's stage with him," Armey said, adding that he found out about the July 2012 Dallas rally after his name was already being used to promote it.

"They put out an email under my name that had more information than I had," he recalled. "That is why when I resigned I had them cease and desist using my name."

Armey said he began looking into the specifics of the Beck and Limbaugh arrangements last year after hearing from others in the organization that such activities were being done without his knowledge.

"I had come to the point where I don't know how much we are spending on Beck and Limbaugh, but we are spending too damn much and we are getting too little value out of it," Armey said. "It was something I only found out about after inquiring into the affairs in September or October.

"Starting in January of last year, in that general neighborhood, what we had was a pattern that Kibbe got into a pattern of consistently working out arrangements with people without telling me what he was doing," Armey added. "They had people issue directives, 'don't tell Armey about this.' I had people close to me saying there is something fishy here, you better look into it."

Armey pointed out that any reports of revenue raised through the Beck and Limbaugh arrangements does not take into account the money paid to them in the deal."

Mother Jones reported that far from raising money from elderly citizens in Kansas almost all of the $40+ million for Freedom Works comes from just a few major right wing donors.

"Last month, the Washington Post reported that Richard Stephenson, a reclusive millionaire banker and FreedomWorks board member, and members of his family funneled $12 million in October through two newly created Tennessee corporations to FreedomWorks' super-PAC, which used these funds to support tea party candidates in November's elections. The revelation that a corporate bigwig like Stephenson, who founded the Cancer Treatment Centers of America and chairs its board, was responsible for more than half of the FreedomWorks super-PAC's haul in 2012 undercuts the group's grassroots image and hands ammunition to critics who say FreedomWorks does the bidding of rich conservative donors.

Big donations like Stephenson's are business as usual for FreedomWorks. According to a 52-page report prepared by FreedomWorks' top brass for a board of directors meeting held in mid-December at the Virginia office of Sands Capital Management, an investment firm run by FreedomWorks board member Frank Sands, the entire FreedomWorks organization—its 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) nonprofit arms and its super-PAC—raised nearly $41 million through mid-December. Of that total, $33 million—or 81 percent of its 2012 fundraising—came in the form of "major gifts," the type of big donations coveted by nonprofits and super-PACs. (FreedomWorks' nonprofit components do not have to disclose their funders.)"