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Olbermann analyzes the Gulf oil-spill catastrophe, including the President’s mea culpa.
Enjoy the vid.
Category: Republicans
Tell Fox News John Stossel Has To Go!
The following is from Media Matters for America, and I am happy to reproduce it here. Please take action:
On Wednesday, Rand Paul, the GOP’s US Senate candidate for Kentucky repeated his claim that a central piece of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was wrong, and that businesses should be free to discriminate against whomever they please.1 Paul and his supporters don’t seem to care that without federal intervention, Black people might still be second-class citizens in most aspects of American life: where we eat, where we work, even where we live.
Then, on Thursday, FOX contributor and business anchor John Stossel went even further than Paul and called for the section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that applies to business to be repealed.2 And he’s refused to back down.
It’s time to hold FOX accountable:
http://www.colorofchange.org/stossel/mm/?id=1835-468358
While Rand Paul may have started this outrage, he can be taken care of at the ballot box — FOX News can’t.
Stossel’s position is an affront to Black America and everyone in this country who believes in racial progress. It’s one thing to be a candidate with backwards views. It’s another to be employed by a supposed news network and to use that platform to push hateful ideas that our nation repudiated decades ago.
It’s time that FOX drop Stossel. It’s why I’ve joined ColorOfChange.org in demanding Fox do so immediately. If after hearing from thousands of people like you and I, FOX refuses to act, it will make clear that FOX stands with Stossel and his values, and ColorOfChange has pledged to go directly after the network with a major public campaign.
Can you take a moment to add your voice to the call to fire Stossel? After you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same:
http://www.colorofchange.org/stossel/mm/?id=1835-468358
FOX has a history of providing a platform for bigoted views and race-baiting. Most recently more than 300,000 people helped us hold FOX accountable by stripping Glenn Beck of more than 100 of his advertisers, after Beck called President Obama a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people."3
But Stossel has arguably gone beyond Beck, echoing segregationist arguments from the Jim Crow era:
"It’s time now to repeal that part of the law because private businesses ought to get to discriminate. And I won’t ever go to a place that’s racist and I will tell everybody else not to and I’ll speak against them. But it should be their right to be racist."
Stossel went on to argue something that history has disproved time and again — that private business will do the right thing, without being compelled by laws, because no one would patronize a business that discriminates. It’s a blind belief in market fundamentalism that just isn’t in sync with reality. In the ’60s, white-owned businesses that allowed Blacks as customers lost business. Market forces actually perpetuated discrimination; they didn’t combat it. Simply put: segregation would still be active in parts of this country if government hadn’t stepped in.
And recent history has shown that the public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act is still needed. In 1994, it was used to hold Denny’s Restaurants accountable, after the chain repeatedly refused to seat Black customers.4 Just last year, it was used to go after a Philadelphia pool that prevented Black children from swimming there.5
It’s time for Fox News to make a choice. Are they willing to continue to give a platform to racially-divisive rhetoric and revive dangerously outdated perspectives? Or will they move with the rest of the nation into into the 21st century? Please join me in calling on Fox News to fire John Stossel. And once you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same:
http://www.colorofchange.org/stossel/mm/?id=1835-468358
Thank you.
References:
1. http://huff.to/cjOnxL
2. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201005200033
3. http://bit.ly/aoJUUy
4. http://nyti.ms/bpVZZY
5. http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/January/10-crt-033.html
Dios Mio! Arizona Superintendent Out to Get Teachers with Accents
No kidding. Arizona superintendent Tom Horne is on the lookout for teachers who pronounce "comma" as "COH-ma."
Oy. Vey.
Late last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Arizona Department of Education “recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English”:
State education officials say the move is intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly. But some school principals and administrators say the department is imposing arbitrary fluency standards that could undermine students by thinning the ranks of experienced educators. […]
“This is just one more indication of the incredible anti-immigrant sentiment in the state,” said Bruce Merrill, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University who conducts public-opinion research.
At one school, for example, state auditors complained that teachers pronounced “words such as violet as ‘biolet,’ think as ‘tink’ and swallow the ending sounds of words, as they sometimes do in Spanish.” The principal at that school acknowledged that teachers “should speak grammatically correct English” but said they shouldn’t be punished for having an accent.
The man in charge of this project, far-right Arizona superintendent Tom Horne — who is running for attorney general — has been going on national media in recent days to defend his policies.
What would he do if he wandered into a Latin Mass? Arrest the priest?
Specter Loses Pennsylvania Senate Fight; Tea Bagger Wins GOP Nod in Kentucky
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who bolted the Republican Party more than a year ago in a bid to salvage his Senate career as a Democrat, was defeated in a primary for his new party’s nomination on Tuesday, as Democratic primary voters turned against him and selected Rep. Joe Sestak for the nomination.
Mr. Specter, 80, lost his bid for a sixth term despite the backing of a wide swath of the Democratic political establishment – starting with President Obama in the White House and continuing with Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania.
“It’s been a great privilege to serve the people of Pennsylvania,” said Mr. Specter, looking drawn and downcast as he delivered a brief concession speech. “And I’ll be working hard for the people of Pennsylvania very hard for the coming months.”
In another election that sent waves of anxiety through political leaders here in Washington, Rand Paul, one of the early leaders of the Tea Party movement, won the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky on Tuesday night, delivering a powerful blow to the party’s establishment and offering the clearest evidence yet of the strength of the anti-government sentiment simmering at the grass-roots level.
Mr. Paul, the son of Representative Ron Paul of Texas, easily defeated Trey Grayson, the Secretary of State from Kentucky. Kentucky voters turned against Mr. Grayson even though he had the support of the state’s best-known political leader — Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader.
“I have a message,” Mr. Paul said, delivering a victory speech in Bowling Green. “A message from the Tea Party. A message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We have come to take our government back.”
The world is upside down. Conservative Republicans are losing to hyper-radical “Deliverance-era” conservatives. Specter lost to a true-blue Democrat.
I’m not gonna lie: I like Arlen Specter. He served Pennsylvania well for a long, long time. Met him at the Netroots Nation convention in Pittsburgh last August. He will be missed.
But the time has come for a true Democrat to hold that seat.
Rep. Joe Sestak, welcome to the Coffee Party, sir.
Conservatives Gone Wild: GOP Rep. Mark Souder Will Resign Over Affair With Staffer
No, liberals are not without sin and should cast no stones. But sharing news is a different story.
And this is news.
Eight-term Republican Congressman Mark Souder of of the great state of Indiana admitted to an affair with a staffer and will resign his seat effective Friday.
Indiana Republican Rep. Mark Souder announced Tuesday he would resign from Congress, effective Friday, because he had an affair with a staffer.
Souder said in a statement provided by his office that he has "sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff."
He scheduled a news conference in Fort Wayne on Tuesday to discuss his decision.
Souder won a bruising Republican primary on May 4 to be nominated for his ninth term representing northeastern Indiana.
Souder, 59, said he also would not be a candidate in the fall election.
"I believe it is the best decision for my family, the people of northeast Indiana and our country," he said in the statement.
Here’s a video produced by Rep. Souder’s office highlighting the fact that he was "one of the only voices speaking in defense of abstinence education during an April 2008 hearing," courtesy the Huffington Post:
He’s going Back Home Again.
Just sayin’.
Utah Republicans Oust Sen. Bob Bennett for Uber-Conservative Tea Bagger
Sen. Bob Bennett, a conservative who fell out of favor among even more conservative Republicans in an anti-incumbent rage, failed to get his party’s nomination in Utah Saturday, making it very difficult for him to seek a fourth term.
The gangly, bespectacled senator finished third in the second round of balloting at the Republican state convention in Salt Lake City, sealing his fate, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Businessman Tim Bridgewater and lawyer and Tea Party favorite Mike Lee finished first and second respectively and will face off in a June 22 primary.
When results were announced there were shouts of "he’s gone, he’s gone," as some GOP delegates waved "Do Not Tread On Me" flags — a favored symbol of the aggressively conservative Tea Party movement.
Bennett became the first incumbent Utah senator to be deprived of his party’s nomination since Democrats ousted Sen. William King in 1940. King opposed the New Deal.
Tea Baggers oppose any deal.
The radical and destructive polarization of American politics ushered in by Ronald Reagan continues.
Free Rides May Finally End for Illinois Seniors
First, Illinois’ senior citizens must realize that Rod Blagojevich was practicing cheap politics when he railroaded free rides for seniors through the legislature. The state of Illinois simply can’t afford this for every senior in the state.
For those of you tuning in from other states, this has meant free rides on the CTA, Metra and Pace. Public transportation.
Generally, it’s easier to get something past the House of any legislature. Senates, state and the big one in D.C., can be more temperamental.
Well, today, the Illinois Senate took a vote:
The days of all Illinois seniors riding free on the CTA, Metra and Pace could be numbered. On Wednesday, the state Senate voted to limit those free rides to seniors who need them most. CBS 2’s Mike Parker reports it’s all about money.
Transit agencies have been complaining that the free ride program is costing them millions in lost revenue every year.
Some estimates have gone as high as $60 million a year in lost fare money. Those losses have affected the CTA, Metra and the RTA. Now the Senate has voted to limit free transit for seniors.
Single people over 65 who make more than about $41,000 a year could no longer ride for free. In a two-person household, the income limit would be about $55,000.
CBS 2 Chicago reminds us, " The free rides were inserted into legislation two years ago by then-governor Rod Blagojevich, who used it as a bargaining chip in a budget battle with the legislature."
It was a ploy — and a bad idea — from the start.
I recall a conversation with one Chicago legislator after Rod pushed this through the legislature. At the time, there was no know way to pay for the free rides. But the bill passed.
Thank you to the Illinois senators for working to plug the gap.
Governor Quinn, sign the bill.
Senator Lindsay Graham Holds the Earth Hostage for Political Gain
IS THE Senate climate bill doomed? It certainly took a hit Saturday, when Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), hitherto the bill’s lone Republican backer, threatened to abandon the effort. Mr. Graham, who had worked with Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) for months on the bill, derided Democratic leaders for opening the way to take up immigration reform before the climate bill, calling the move "a cynical political ploy" and claiming that it endangered the climate effort. He has a point.
Painstaking negotiations on the substance of a compromise climate bill are nearly complete. Mr. Graham, Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lieberman have gone to extraordinary lengths to attract a coalition of supporters, including environmental groups, electric utilities, businesses, the Christian Coalition and even oil companies. Fence-sitting senators concerned about the bill’s effects on manufacturing and American competitiveness seem to be coming around to the idea of pricing carbon. This emerging coalition, backers claim, is still behind the bill.
Lindsey O. Graham is holding the earth hostage…, over politics. Immigration reform. And the Republicans’ refusal to do anything.
Take a deep breath — if you still can — and call or email Lindsey Graham:
Video: Fox News Cuts Away From Obama Bill Signing To Cover Plane That ‘Had No Problem Landing’
From our friends at Media Matters.
Honestly, this sounds like a headline out of The Onion.
R.N.C. Dismisses Aide Over Outing to Club With Topless Women Imitating Lesbian Sex
This just in from the New York Times:
A Republican Party spokesman said Monday evening that a staff member has been dismissed following a February outing to a risqué Hollywood nightclub, where a party donor submitted a $2,000 tab and asked for reimbursement from the Republican National Committee
Doug Heye, the communications director for the R.N.C., issued this statement:
“At the outset, Chairman Steele was not at Voyeur West Hollywood. He had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location acceptable. While some in the press have suggested Chairman Steele was at the venue, he was not and no proof has been offered that he was. When the expense was incurred, Chairman Steele was on United flight # 0084, returning from the RNC Winter Meeting.
“Upon finding out of the expenditure this morning, Chairman Steele demanded the committee get to the bottom of this matter immediately.
“The committee has taken appropriate steps to address the issues relating to the reimbursement of certain expenses. First, as reported, the expenditure in question will be recouped by the RNC. Second, appropriate personnel actions have been taken and accounting and reimbursement processes are being revised to ensure that such an action cannot reoccur. We recognize the difficulty this incident has caused and assure our members and supporters that any necessary and proper remediation is being implemented immediately.
“It is unfortunate that a loyal GOP donor who has recruited other donors became involved in this incident while merely trying to help what turned out to be the improper request of a staffer who is no longer with the committee.”
In fairness, I posted the entire statement from the R.N.C.