The "empowerment" of the Right since the election of President Obama has brought new relevance to old arguments for xenophobia, bigotry and prejudice. In a few short years our public discourse has declined, one might say devolved, into a number of unbelievably petty and small issues which exercise our emotions more than our reason. As much as this reinforces "end-of-empire" theorising it has to be wondered what legislative Republicans, among others, could possibly be thinking:
The right's singularly intelligent strategy is, I guess, to drive all of us as mad as the right is - to embroil us all in the right's juvenile distractions, its adolescent food fights, its infantile diversions from whatever is truly important. In time, or so the strategy goes, the civilized intelligentsia will walk away in resigned disgust, as will barely interested independent and moderate voters, leaving the political arena almost entirely to the right.
Is that it? If so one fails to see the distinction from a drunken adolescent who threatens to burn down the house because they're denied the keys to the family car.
Recently the infamous Heartland Institute, who commissioned billboards associating climate science with the Unabomber, decided to "spin off its insurance research project effective May 31." The reason? Climate change scepticism makes impossible meaningful actuarial work on insurance. Sheesh. Brace yourselves for another summer of diligent hammering away at the ethical and social foundations of the Republic.
UPDATE: During an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts on Thursday President Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage:
In an interview with ABC News, Obama said, "I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married."
snip
"I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married." http://2012.talkingpointsmemo....
This wasn't easy at least politically-speaking. And we can debate whether or not it was smart or whether or not VP Biden's remarks on Sunday were pre-planned or not. At this point, today, all I want to say is, "Thank you, Mr. President."
The remainder of the stations in Maine, as well as all of Nassau's properties in New Hampshire and Vermont were sold to a partnership of Bill Binnie and Jeff Shapiro for $12.5 Million. Shapiro previously operated many of those stations when he co-ran Vox Radio Group.
Total: 29 sticks, including but not limited to:
Vermont - Talk 1450 WSNO Barre, Country 1490 WIKE Newport, Hot AC "Moo 92" 92.1 WMOO Derby Center, Country "95.3 & 107.1 The Wolf" WXLF Hartford and WZLF Bellows Falls, Country "Froggy 100.9" WWFY Berlin, Classic Rock "101.5 The Fox" WEXP Brandon and 100.7 WTHK Wilmington, Classic Hits "Oldies 104.3" WWOD Hartford and 96.3 WFYX Walpole, NH, Classic Hits "107.1 Frank-FM" WORK Barre
Interesting. I'll never forget the day I was told Vox (who I worked for in Bennington at the time) was selling Barre/Montpelier. He saved that one for last, with a pause thrown in. I was in Virginia not too long after that.
Okay. Your turn to ramble....well, I got one more thing on the jump.....
I've missed you guys. Though it's great to be covering the Leveson Inquiry for the DailyBeast and Newsweek, it's on teh blogs in the US that I built up the support, courage and debating skills to devote these last few months to covering the Hacking Scandal and the Leveson Inquiry, and doing my bid to purge the UK of years of monopolistic media practices and abuse of power.
Just so you know, the hacking scandal has finally moved into a much bigger area of illegality, which was the first reason two years ago my interest (and concern) about Murdoch's News Corp was piqued. James Murdoch's bid for BSkyB would have given News Corp. a distorting monopoly in broadcast that it already has in newspapers here (40 percent of the readership.)
Not the cover: just a quick promo by Eric Lewis
We were days away from becoming a banana republic, with a foreign, non tax paying dynasty controlling our means of communication. Only the brave work of lawyer (Mark Lewis) and a journalist (Nick Davies) prevented this catastrophe happening by exposing the industrial scale of phone hacking and surveillance deployed by News International - against celebrities, lawyers, and political opponents.
Now, like Saigon in 1975, the Murdoch helicopter is on the roof of News International. Last weeks revelations about back door channels between senior ministers and News Corp. over the $16 billion takeover of our pay TV monopoly, BSkyB, are a clear sign that the Murdochs are burning their bridges, and trying to take down the Coalition Government which - under considerable pressure and only after the Hacking scandal - finally stood up to News Corp., blocked the BSkyB bid, and set up the Leveson Inquiry which is beaming a scorching torchlight through 30 years of political blackmail, back room deals, and illegality.
Game on: as the Romney campaign shifts gears from the the battering and often baffling GOP primaries to a kinder and more moderate friendly (lulz) general election campaign, I've been beginning to pay more attention. While watching a candidate who's held more positions than the unabridged Kama Sutra try to move toward some semblance of sanity is the height of political entertainment for me, I've got to say this 'bracket and prebuttal' strategy they're employing gives me a robust chuckle.
To beat a sitting president, you first have to chase him around the country.
At least that's the operating theory at Mitt Romney's campaign headquarters, where aides are unleashing a new strategy to combat President Obama at his campaign stops and to even adopt Obama's itinerary as their own.
With the general election campaign in full swing, the presumptive Republican nominee plans to stage "prebuttal" and "rebuttal" speeches to Obama designed to try to force the president on the defensive.
When Romney's staff moved out of its office in Iowa after a virtual tie in the caucuses in January, the Obama campaign opened an office in Romney's vacant headquarters.
Now, that's how you prebut. Welcome to the Big Leagues, Mitt.
According to the Homer News, http://homernews.com/stories/0... during a radio interview, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) criticized Rush Limbaugh's tirade against Georgetown University Law School Student Sandra Fluke. The Senator was in Homer, Alaska on a one-day visit and appeared on a local AM radio station, KBBI, 890 kHz.
She also criticized the Republican candidates for President for standing in silence and not condemning Limbaugh's rhetoric.
1) Republicans not only want to reduce caterpillar's access to abortion care, they're actually trying to redefine rape. After a major backlash, they promised to stop. But they haven't yet. Shocker.
While whiling away a late-March Saturday afternoon, I came across these results from a political compass quiz. The results seem to indicate more progressive participants than conservative ones. This makes some results stand out as a bit eyeopening. See if you can spot the ones that seem out of whack.
Currently, after 117538 submissions, the average Conservative/Progressive score is 6.04, the average Capitalist Purist/Social Capitalist score is 6.79, the average Libertarian/Authoritarian score is 5.58, and the average Pacifist/Militarist score is 4.43
1. Are our gun control laws too strict? - 27% said yes, 73% said no
2. Should gay marriage be legalized? - 66% said yes, 34% said no
3. Should we consider invading Iran? - 23% said yes, 77% said no
4. Should intelligent design be taught in public schools alongside evolution? - 52% said yes, 48% said no
5. Does the US need a system of universal health care? - 61% said yes, 39% said no
6. Should marijuana be legalized? - 58% said yes, 42% said no
7. Should we repeal [or substantially change] the Patriot Act? - 56% said yes, 44% said no
8. Does the US have a right to stop countries we do not trust from getting weapons? - 50% said yes, 50% said no
9. Should we end (or reduce the use of) the death penalty? - 40% said yes, 60% said no
10. Should there be a higher minimum wage? - 68% said yes, 32% said no
11. Does affirmative action do more harm than good? - 62% said yes, 38% said no
12. Is the United States spending too much money on defense? - 56% said yes, 44% said no
13. Should embryonic stem cell research be funded by the government? - 59% said yes, 41% said no
14. Should flag burning be legal? - 43% said yes, 57% said no
15. Should all people (rich and poor) pay fewer taxes? - 58% said yes, 42% said no
16. Should the US begin withdrawing from Iraq? - 80% said yes, 20% said no
17. Is it sometimes justified to wiretap US citizens without a warrant? - 34% said yes, 66% said no
18. Should the government be involved in reducing the amount of violence/pornography in tv/movies/games/etc? - 25% said yes, 75% said no
19. Should the United States only start a war if there is an imminent threat of being attacked ourselves? - 77% said yes, 23% said no
20. Should stopping illegal immigration be one of our top priorities? - 56% said yes, 44% said no
21. Is outsourcing of American jobs justified if it allows for cheaper goods? - 28% said yes, 72% said no
22. Are all abortions unethical? [with the exception of risk to mother's health] - 37% said yes, 63% said no
23. Should social security be privatized? - 56% said yes, 44% said no
24. Should the United States ever go to war even if the UN is against it? - 50% said yes, 50% said no
OK. I'll answer my own question right off the bat. Yes. Losing would be horrendous. It would be horrendous for us politically and policy-wise. It would validate those on the right who claim the mantle of The Constitution (along with God, Reason, History, Morality, etc.). If the mandate alone falls, the whole thing becomes an economic albatross.
How do we maintain the prohibition on exclusion of pre-existing conditions without maintaining the economic participation of the healthy? [A caveat to Clintonians here. You were right 4 years ago. HRC was right. I never mixed it up on this issue, in part because it made me uncomfortable, though I cringe to acknowledge that it was not enough to admit at the time that Obama was wrong. What's worse is that I think Obama knew even then that mandates were the key to economic viability. So while some Obama supporters recoiled from Hillary Clinton as the professional politician who would say anything, as a caricature machiavel, she was the candidate bold enough to tell the controversial truth on this issue. And this should be marked forever to her credit.] And if the whole thing goes down, millions of Americans will lose their care and unfunded emergency services will continue to be a drain on the economy and the lack of preventive and timely care will exacerbate them. One of Obama's 3 undersold signal accomplishments (the other being the auto industry and killing OBL, though we might add the draw down in Iraq and prevention of a 2nd great depression as well) will be turned into a defeat.
Tom Watson, the MP who led the charge against Murdoch's UK empire, is asking for help
On the eve of Lowell Bergman's excellent PBS documentary (tonight 10 PM PBS) on the original Hackgate allegations that closed News of the World, we have a data dump which actually takes the hacking allegations to a whole new level: to a global News Corp security group which appears to have been behind pay-TV hacking across the world.
Last Night's BBC1 Panorama Documentary
Through a series of reconstructions, hidden surveillance cameras and interviews with the key players, Panorama alleges that the piracy which crippled ITV Digital was a deliberate attack by the News Corp. subsidiary NDS, which produces about 75 per cent of the encryption software that protects access to pay-tv. The programme centres on an exclusive interview with Lee Gibling, the man behind The House of Ill Compute website which was, until it was closed down in 2001, the main source of codes and software for manufacturing pirate access cards.
he "empowerment" of the Right since the election of President Obama has brought new relevance to old arguments for xenophobia, bigotry and prejudice. In a few short years our public discourse has declined, one might say devolved, into a number of unbelievably petty and small issues which exercise our emotions more than our reason. As much as this reinforces "end-of-empire" theorising it has to be wondered what legislative Republicans, among others, could possibly be thinking:
OK. I'll answer my own question right off the bat. Yes. Losing would be horrendous. It would be horrendous for us politically and policy-wise. It would validate those on the right who claim the mantle of The Constitution (along with God, Reason, History, Morality, etc.). If the mandate alone falls, the whole thing becomes an economic albatross.
