>Obama versus…

>Even though the 2010 elections are barely behind us and the presidential election is almost 2 years away, the campaigning has been going on for month. Actually, the Republicans began campaigning immediately after Barack Obama was elected, but that basically happens after every presidential election.

Anyway, with Obama’s fairly high ratings among Democrats (who are the ones that vote in primaries) it is assumed that he will have no challenger from his own party. This will allow him to raise a lot more money; democrats won’t be funding other candidates. It will also allow him to focus his message on Republican policies and not have to debate against other democrats and their policies like he did during the last campaign.

Public Policy Polling released results from a poll that pitted Obama against potential Republican challengers in Iowa. Obama beat them all.

Obama leads Mike Huckabee 47-43.
Obama leads Mitt Romney 46-41
Obama leads Newt Gingrich 51-38
Obama leads Sarah Palin 53-37

What is interesting is that in Iowa, which is one of the early primary states that every Republican candidate would love to win, is that Republican support for any of these candidates ranges only from 67-79 %. The Republicans are not really unified around any of these candidates. That could translate into low Republican turnout in the election.

Democrats are more unified around Obama in Iowa, ranging from 86 to 91 %, depending on who the potential Republican candidate is.

The poll also showed that among independents, Obama has a 49% approval rating compared to 40% that are not approving of his job performance.

The pollsters say that these numbers are reflective of what they see across the county; unified Democratic support behind Obama, and not so much support from Republicans around any of their candidates.

Things are looking good for Obama, and that means coattails across the country. After two years of Tea Party politics in the House, I think voters will be ready to replace a lot of Republicans with Democrats.

It’s going to be an interesting two years of campaigns.

If you didn’t get a chance to see Obama’s speech at the Tucson memorial, here it is.

How his detractors could find fault with this, I don’t know, but they did, with everything from calling the event a “pep rally” to being critical of the college students that attended and the seating arrangement of those involved in stopping the shooter.

I guess when there is nothing to criticize, and when you feel it is more important to jazz up your conservative viewers than to allow the people of Tucson to express their grief and their hope at the same time, that making up controversy is the only thing to do.

To paraphrase John Stewart, hollers of “Who – hoo” in one culture are not that different than people yelling “Amen” in another.

Watch John Stewart as he takes on the critics of the service.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Veiled Criticism
www.thedailyshow.com
http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:371002
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

>Imagine

>I’m not at all happy about President Obama caving in to the Republicans and their definition of compromise on giving tax breaks to those who make over $250,000 a year.

Another campaign promise broken, that’s how I see it.

What he and the Republicans he’s in bed with don’t understand is that those wealthy individuals would still have been getting the tax break on their first $250,000 of income, like everybody else, but they wouldn’t be getting the special treatment on their additional income. And 80 per cent of Americans agree that they should not be getting the tax cut.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is threatening to filibuster the measure, and I say go for it.

Even if it delays the defense bill that includes Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and everything else in the lame duck session.

And I don’t want to hear any complaints from progressives or Democrats or gays or anybody else because the fault of the matter lies with you. By not exciting your voters and getting them out to the polls in November, you empowered the Republicans and virtually assured the nation that nothing progressive or positive will happen during this session or the next two years.

The President and the Republicans are wanting to add $900 billion to the deficit. I’m not a deficit hawk by any means, and it wasn’t high on my list of priorities going into the 2010 elections. But that’s all the Republicans were talking about, and then the hypocrites turn around and sponsor a measure that adds $900 billion, and bring the president along with them (so they can later blame him for increasing the deficit even further).

Giving those tax breaks to the rich do nothing to stimulate the economy. I mean, these are tax breaks the rich have had for 10 years and they did nothing to help the economy during that time, so what makes them think they will help during the next two years?

Well, today is the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death.

We old hippies and others still imagine the world as a better place, and have faith that someday we will get there. Just not as quickly as we hoped.

Here’s Lennon’s song “Imagine,” performed on the show “Glee,” by members of a choral group from a school for the deaf who were invited to the Glee school to practice and perform, and joined by some of the regulars on the show. Bet you’ve not seen the song performed in this manner.

>More reasons not to vote Republican; and …

>Keith Olbermann took up where I left off in his Special Comment last night regarding the upcoming election and the Republican Tea Party candidates. Fortunately none of these candidates are from Alabama, but that doesn’t mean the Republican candidates here don’t have the same backward moving ideas that these candidates support.

Part 2

I know you might not have time to watch these two videos, so let me summarize.

The Republican Tea Party want to elect candidates who will…well, if you think Jim Crow was bad, just wait and see. They are trying to scare white voters by instilling fear of the different folk. Oh sure, the targets are brown instead of black this time, but it is no different than the racist candidates of the past trying to scare white voters in to voting for the racist candidates. Remember Jesse Helms?

Senator Hank Sanders is concerned. “I ain’t going back to the cotton fields and Jim Crow days,” he said in a robocall urging people to vote for “Ron Sparks, Jim Folsom and others who would do right by all of us.”

So here’s the deal. When you vote for Republicans, you empower that party and those within the party that do want to return to Jim Crow days, that do want to return to pre-Lawrence v Texas days, that do want to do away with Social Security, that do want to take Alabama children off of the insured list and return them to the uninsured list (Robert Bentley wants to repeal health care reform. He’s a doctor, yet would remove children from their insurance).

And what will the Republicans in Washington focus on after the election? Their Senate leader let us know. If you only watch one of these videos today, watch this one.

Ok, that concludes the negative portion of this post. Now for the positive.

The president appeared on The Daily Show last night, where he reminded us of the accomplishments that have been made during the past 2 years, and that the change we were hoping for is ongoing, and that the promise was not that we would see change that we can believe in within 18 months.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:363490
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Part 2

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:363491
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Part 3

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 3
www.thedailyshow.com
http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:363492http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1677108722778516534
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

The president also met with progressive bloggers (my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail) yesterday. Read a transcript here of what he said about DADT and gay marriage. Here’s a bit of it.

But I also think you’re right that attitudes evolve, including mine. And I think that it is an issue that I wrestle with and think about because I have a whole host of friends who are in gay partnerships. I have staff members who are in committed, monogamous relationships, who are raising children, who are wonderful parents.

And I care about them deeply. And so while I’m not prepared to reverse myself here, sitting in the Roosevelt Room at 3:30 in the afternoon, I think it’s fair to say that it’s something that I think a lot about. That’s probably the best you’ll do out of me today.

So…the President’s attitude, like the country’s as a whole, is changing. “The arc of history,” he said.

>About Republicans and their beliefs

>I posted the following on Facebook yesterday.

Republicans believe our best days are behind us. I’m voting Democrat because they believe our best days are still to come.

And the other day I wrote that I’m voting a straight Democrat ticket.

Here are some reasons I cannot support any Republicans.

Monday night in Kentucky a (Republican candidate) Rand Paul campaign worker stepped on the head of a woman who was trying to get a picture of the candidate with her RepubliCorp sign.

The Republican candidate wrote this off as “passion.” And he wants to be a Senator.

Republican candidate Sharron Angle of Nevada has used anti-Hispanic rhetoric and pictures in an ad where she says “waves of illegal aliens streaming across our borders.”

First of all, Nevada does not have a border with any other country, let alone Mexico.

Second, crime actually decreases as immigrants come into our cities.

Yet she demonizes Latinos and insults the intelligence of Nevada voters (and the rest of America). She wants to be a Senator.

In 2007 the Republican presidential candidates debated and the question of evolution came up. That such a question even had to be asked of prospective leaders of the country amazes me, but when three candidates raised their hand after being asked who does not believe in evolution I couldn’t believe it.

The three were Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo and Mike Huckabee.

Tancredo is now the Republican candidate for governor of Colorado.

Republicans in that state actually want to elect someone who does not believe in science to lead their state.

Republican Christine O’Donnell also does not believe in evolution (or self pleasure).

She says evolution is a myth. Republicans in Delaware (all 7 of them) chose her to represent their party. She wants to be a Senator also.

Oh, one more.

I am making an assumption here, (that this guy is a Republican), but Midland, Arkansas, School Board member Clint McCance has publicly stated (on Facebook) that he would only wear purple “if they (gays) all commit suicide” and that he “enjoy(s) the fact that they often give each other AIDS and die.”

This is a school board member, whose duty is to make policy, including providing a safe learning environment for kids. All kids. Except for the ones he wants dead.

He also said he would “disown” his kids if they were gay, and he would “absolutely run them off.” I can’t wait till one of them comes out…but I feel for them.

These are just a few examples of the uncaring, hateful, uneducated, bigoted, racist, frightening Republicans running for or already in office. How can anyone support a party that believes in these things.?

>Discordant

>Main Entry: dis·cor·dant
Pronunciation: \-dənt\
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century
1 a : being at variance : disagreeing b : quarrelsome : relating to a discord
— dis·cor·dant·ly adverb

It sure seems that we are living in discordant times. There are many examples, but certainly highlighted by the example of Joe Wilson’s shout of “You lie,” during the president’s state of the union address, and Republican Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle urging supporters to use “second amendment remedies” if they don’t get their way.

Immigrants are among the targeted. I heard someone on the local radio yesterday telling about watching a soccer game and stating that she “knew” that 95% of the young guys playing were “illegal.”

First, there is this:

Second, where does she come up with the 95% figure?

As of 2008 there were 46,822,476 Hispanics in the United States (out of 304,059,728 people). Of these, it is estimated that 11,000,000 or around 23 %, are undocumented. Saying that 95% of the young men in a soccer game are illegal is not only plainly wrong, but it’s also misleading and contributes to the discordance in our country.

It results from the xenophobia in our community, and across the nation.

In Birmingham yesterday there was a pro-immigrant rally rally that cheered the judge’s ruling on the Arizona law. Isabel Rubio, executive director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama said that officials in other cities in our state are interested in passing versions of the proclamation issued by Birmingham at the rally declaring the city as one that welcomes all.

But the Republican Tea Party loves the controversy. They want to keep us divided, hoping it will allow them to win a few races.

But I have this America-view that we are better than that. I grew up seeing the worst that America had to offer during the 20th century in the worst city be in during the 1960’s. (Disclaimer – I lived in Vestavia, but I was close enough to Birmingham to know what was going on and to see it with my own eyes.)

And as a result I can recognize hatred when I see it, or hear it. The Republican Tea Party depends on hatred to survive. And what they want to do to the country is deplorable.

Their platform:

1. Repeal health insurance reform
2. Privatize social security or get rid of it.
3. End medicare.
4. Extend the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy and big oil.
5. Repeal Wall Street reform.
6. Protect those responsible for the oil spill.
7. Abolish the Department of Education
8. Abolish the Department of Energy.
9. Abolish the Environmental Protection Agency.
10. Repeal the 17th amendment (ending the direct election of U.S. Senators)

The Republican Tea Party Contract on America

A vote for a republican, any republican, is a vote for this agenda. Remember this in November.

Sitting at home is a vote for this agenda as well. Remember to vote in November.

>What we learned yesterday

>Where to start after yesterday’s primary election?

I’ve not spent 13 hours at a polling place since my own campaign on election day 4 years ago. Those of us making a last minute effort to influence voters had a good day at Thompson Manor in Bessemer.

Do we do any good by handing out ballots or candidate info to people on their way in to vote?

Who knows, But in a close race, when there are many races on the ballot, a voter might be coming to the poll in strong support of only one candidate in a single race, and really not decided on the other races, so we pass out our literature in hopes of gaining a vote or two.

At any rate, I think the voters of Alabama proved one thing yesterday. We are not a teabagger state.

Xenophobe Tim James seems destined to be left out of the runoff. He’s currently in third place.

Theocrat Roy Moore can ride off into the sunset on that horse he’s pictured on in today’s Birmingham News.

Racial profiler wanna-be Steve French lost. (The victor of this primary may well be a teabagger).

Laughingstock Dale Peterson lost his youtube based campaign of threat to a couple of more sensible Republicans that will face each other in a runoff.

Teabagger-come-lately Parker Griffith lost his Republican bid for the seat that Democrats gave him 4 years ago. It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature, and it’s not nice to fool Democrats either, Griffith. (His replacement leans teabag).

As for the Governor’s race, the only surprise on the Democrat side was the margin of the Ron Sparks win over “throw ’em (both gays and blacks, other wise known as “your base”) under the bus” Artur Davis.

Davis’ vote against the health care bill has to go down down as one of the biggest political errors in Alabama history. Pundits are downplaying it, while every single black person I spoke with, and there were many, said that vote sealed the deal against him. Whoever advised him to vote that way (surely he didn’t come up with that himself, heck, he’s got a Harvard education! after all), should be fired. Oh wait, they don’t have a job now anyway, do they?

On the Republican side, it is truly a gift from God if in fact it turns out that Tim James can join Roy Moore at Buck’s Pocket (many of you younger readers might not know, but Buck’s Pocket is “where all the defeated public officials go to lick their wounds after an unsuccessful election.”

In the race to replace Davis in AL-07, Terri Sewell led the pack with 31,489 votes over Sheila Smoot with 24,376 votes. Earl Hilliard, Jr. came in third with 22,939 votes. Sewell and Smoot will face each other in a runoff.

Six weeks of campaigning to go for those in runoffs. I will investigate some numbers and comment more on these and other races later.

>Michael Steele…Keep Talking

>Michael Steele is such a misfit for the floundering Republican Party, and floundering is so entertaining to watch. I’m sure that everyone is aware of his conflicting statements on abortion and choice. Frankly, I understand his confusion, not because I agree with him, but because I realize what a difficult issue it is for some, and that it is not a black and white issue. That is precisely why it is an issue of choice. But I’m not here to write about that.

The remarks people are talking about come from a GQ interview.

But also in that interview was this:

GQ: Do you think homosexuality is a choice?

Steele: Oh, no. I don’t think I’ve ever really subscribed to that view, that you can turn it on and off like a water tap…you just can’t simply say, oh, like, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being gay.” It’s like saying “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being black.”

That’s what we’ve been saying all along. Thanks, Michael.

So he is not exactly following the party line when he takes these positions. In fact, does this sound like your typical straight republican (also from the GQ interview)?

GQ: Did you watch the Oscars?

Steele: I did! I love the Oscars. Despite what Mr. Shales said in his review in The Washington Post, I liked it. I thought it was: [claps]. And the host! Who knew?

GQ: Did you watch the red-carpet stuff, too?

Steele: I did. I’m looking for who’s got what dress on, you know? I’m looking at the dresses. I’m lookin’ at what they’re doing with the hair. I’m lookin at the fellas. Now, you know, guys are wearing black and white, and I get that, but there’s some style points I could share with some of these brothers out there who just ain’t gettin’ it together.

“I thought it was [claps].” Is that not just a little…? Well, he seems really, really interested in the star’s dresses and hair, too.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but…

There is something wrong with this:

That picture was taken in front of the California Supreme Court building last week when the hearings were going on regarding Prop 8. Dan White, if you don’t know, was the San Francisco Supervisor who assassinated Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone in 1978.

It’s because of people like the person holding this sign that we need hate crime laws. But even more important, we need to educate people. This person probably does not understand the humanity of LGBT persons. Or, this person is so deep in the closet and so self loathing that they would carry a sign like this, condemning themselves.

In either case, the person has a lot to learn.

That is why blogs like this continue to expose the hypocrisy and false assumptions surrounding the issues of sexuality. And slowly, a little too slowly it sometimes seems, but slowly, people are learning that gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender men and women are just as much a part of the human equation as they are, and that all people deserve respect and rights.

It’s really quite simple. It’s really quite constitutional. And it’s really quite Christian.

>The Truth About Rush and the GOP

>

Today one of the best letters ever to the Decatur Daily was printed (the best might have been mine, printed a couple of years ago. I might dig it up someday). It’s from Mick Hubbard of Hartselle. Way to go Mick, email me if you want to contribute on Bessemer Opinions from time to time.

His letter:

To: The Daily

While watching the CPAC convention and the new Republican Party leader, Rush Limbaugh, one thing that was proven last week was their motto really is “We Know What’s Good for America.” Yet during the entire week, Limbaugh and his fellow travelers remained in total denial of the fact that the GOP caused (yet another) great GOP recession.

Thus for the 21st century to date the GOP has:

• Supported communism by selling out the American economy to the threat of control of American capitalism by communist China.
• During the last three elections the GOP proved continuously that its dominant cultural values are defined by its core constituency that still practices a culture of hate.
• For the better part of this decade, GOP leaders such George Bush and Dick Cheney and Republican congressional leaders used lies about weapons of mass destruction and promoted government surveillance and control with increasing encroachment on the rights of the individual. When a hospitalized and morphined John Ashcroft wouldn’t even sign the permission slip to allow this sort of thing, the Bush administration went ahead with it anyway.

So today, the newest GOP leader Limbaugh is promoting a CPAC ruling elite dedicated to wielding total power over America by continuing to practice Adolf Hitler’s motto: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”

For all of the talk from Republicans about how the conservative agenda got away from the leadership, these same people were complicit and apologetic while it was going on.

It’s time the Democratic National Committee got back to “Fighting Like Hell for the Living” or the GOP will produce “1984” at last — a course the Bush autocracy set America upon, which Limbaugh’s GOP is dedicated to perpetuating and a continued destruction of the middle class, much less the least among us.

Mick Hubbard

Hartselle

>Western Tribune column March 4 2009

>Last week President Barack Obama made a speech before congress and the nation that told the state of the union, although officially it was not a State of the Union Speech, which presidents do not give during their first year in office.

Following the president, Republican hot shot and Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal gave the Republican response. No one would envy Jindal as he followed a polished speaker with a high approval rating who had members of both parties standing in approval several times during his hour long address.

But even if Jindal had to overcome all of that, and even if he was addressing a party that is struggling to re-discover its identity, and even if conservatives think the president’s spending plans are overblown, was making up stories linked to the biggest Republican failure in a state that thrives on federal assistance the way to do it?

Jindal told the story of being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee during the height of the rescue efforts following Hurricane Katrina as the sheriff attempted to overcome supposed bureaucracy. Politicians should realize that everything they say will be examined with a fine tooth comb, and it didn’t take long to learn that Jindal was not in Lee’s office when rescue efforts were being organized, in fact, he only learned about the incident later and was not personally involved at all.

But even if he thought he could get away with the story, why would a Republican remind the American people about Hurricane Katrina? Immediately images of stranded victims being plucked from rooftops and an out of touch Republican president are recalled.

And why would the Republican Party pick Louisiana as the site from which to criticize federal spending when that state thrives on federal dollars?

All these things seem to underscore a party in disarray.

Traditionally it seems the Democrats are the party that is disorganized in strategy and self-defeating with its tactics. Next year’s mid-term elections are a long time away and a lot can happen, but unless the Republican Party can find its way look for more gains by Democrats.

Surely Republicans don’t think that by choosing a spokesperson with foreign roots and choosing Michael Steele, an African American, as chairman for the Republican National Committee they can prove their diversity and regain the support of the public.

Americans are smarter than that. Democrats should be rejoicing.

>Republican Catfight and A Lesson to be Learned

>The Birmingham News arrived today but only after I called.

It could be that we have a new carrier, and she or he is not accustomed to the route yet, because it seems to be coming earlier and earlier. They say, however, that the paper is supposed to be delivered before 5:30, so if we get up at 6:00 and the paper is not on the sidewalk at that time, they are getting a call.

My column this week in The Western Tribune is about Bobby Jindal and the Republican Party in disarray. I realize now it is not that the Republicans are looking to people like Jindal for leadership. No, their main problem is Rush Limbaugh.

Rick says it’s like a catfight? Oh goody. Like Alexis and Krystle? How fun!

“What are your plans? Then again, who gives a damn.” That’s Krystle’s attitude, seems to be Rush’s too.

I Would Be Livid

When the kids were young, back in the 90’s, we debated about investing in Alabama’s Prepaid College Tuition Program, but we didn’t.

Now program managers are “scrambling to find ways to keep paying student’s tuition.” Story here

Asked whether the program might simply fail, Fitch (Gregory Fitch, Chairman of
the Alabama commission on Higher Education) on Monday said: “That’s a difficult
question.”

The funds are not insured, or guaranteed by the FDIC, the state, the Program or any state or federal agency.

I wonder, if Alabama had a lottery funded tuition program like certain other states around us, if the higher education of thousands of kids would not be in jeopardy now. I spent a few minutes looking for some info about the status of the programs in Tennessee and Georgia, but could find nothing negative. Not a complete search, but nothing popped up.

There is a lesson to be learned here

Republicans, listen. don’t mess with Social Security by suggesting a plan where individuals invest their money. Can you imagine, I mean seriously, if such a plan had been in place during the recent downturn, the trouble that seniors would be in now?

If ever, in the next 50 years, someone suggests privatizing Social Security, please respond with “2009, 2009, 2009.”

Entertainment Corner

Last night Jimmy Fallon took over as host of Late Night. Was he funny? Need more time to develop to the concept of late night host?