Can we admit the Wall Street Journal is just FOX NEWS in print?

On the same day President Obama will start Thanksgiving week by signing legislation that will create tax breaks for businesses that hire veterans.  An editorial in The Wall Street Journal urges President Barack Obama to abandon his candidacy for reelection and allow Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to become the nominee of the Democratic Party.

This editorial, written by Democratic pollsters, suggests the President step aside for the good of country and party because even if he wins, he won't be able to do anything.  It lays the blame for this squarely on the President, not the opposition party who despises him and has worked with the singular goal of destroying him and his presidency.

It's kind of unbelievable. 

By going down the re-election road and into partisan mode, the president has effectively guaranteed that the remainder of his term will be marred by the resentment and division that have eroded our national identity, common purpose, and most of all, our economic strength. If he continues on this course it is certain that the 2012 campaign will exacerbate the divisions in our country and weaken our national identity to such a degree that the scorched-earth campaign that President George W. Bush ran in the 2002 midterms and the 2004 presidential election will pale in comparison.

We write as patriots and Democrats—concerned about the fate of our party and, most of all, our country. We do not write as people who have been in contact with Mrs. Clinton or her political operation. Nor would we expect to be directly involved in any Clinton campaign.

If President Obama is not willing to seize the moral high ground and step aside, then the two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, must urge the president not to seek re-election—for the good of the party and most of all for the good of the country. And they must present the only clear alternative—Hillary Clinton.

 I like Hillary Clinton.  She's be an amazing president.  But, what the...?  Just give in and give the GOP what they want?  You really think Obama quitting would make the GOP have to focus on ideas?  You're completely delusional.

Okay...  whatever.

Here's a Twitter flyer for #Nov17 #17NOV distribute wide... on Twitpic

Here's a Twitter flyer for #Nov17 #17NOV distribute wide... on Twitpic

Scalia and Thomas dine with healthcare law challengers as court takes case

Think they'll recuse themselves? Especially Justice Thomas, whose wife, Ginny, was one of the primary political forces behind the Tea Party effort to repeal the healthcare law... and made millions doing so?

Yeah. Probably not.

Scalia and Thomas dine with healthcare law challengers as court takes case

I'm back!!!!

The combination of some snarky prick posting on my heartfelt goodbye and the #OWS movement and the bumbling of the people who were supposed to make things better for 100% of Americans and instead continued on this path of coddling the rich and punishing the 99% of us who rely on our government to simply work effectively... I'm back, bitches!

Harvard Students Join the Movement | Truthout

Harvard Students Join the Movement | Truthout

Shutting down

As anyone can see, I have not posted in months. There are reasons for this.

I am finished with this blog.

I find writing a screed about politics tedious and it's like peeing against the wind... Only without the satisfying feeling of accomplishment that one gets afterward.

I have had several disagreements with family and friends because of this blog and never because of my stance or disputing facts and figures... always personal attacks that I don't "Love America enough."

Much of what I've written or pointed out has been dog chasing it's tail work to rebut the lies and misleading statements or rumors started by the other side to distract and confuse people about real issues.

It doesn't really do much good.

I will still pull out interesting articles and have discussions with them with my friends on facebook, I am still me... but I'm finished with writing about our broken system.

I am soon to be a father. That interests me. There are stories there. As I'll be a stay at home dad... there are definitely stories there.

I'm working on a screenplay with Ambarish Manepalli, the best friend and partner anybody could have. We've been commissioned to write it and that interests me. The process interests me.

I'm still acting. I'm still Associate Producer of Partial Comfort Productions - the best, most talented, no holds barred theater company in New York.

My life is more interesting than this blog.

I will still scream at idiot Republicans from South Carolina when they are on the TV. I will still watch Olbermann and Maddow and Bill Moyers and Bill Maher and John Stewart and laugh at people's lack of common sense, common decency and sense of public good. I will still get angry at the greed that is so pervasive in our great nation.

I'll still be me.

But my life is just so much more interesting than this little blog could ever be.

Feel free to read about it. I'll be blogging through it all, but not here.

Shutting down.

Rachel Maddow Takes On Pat Buchanan (VIDEO): "You're Playing With Fire... You're Living In The 1950's"

So sad. Just another example of the GOP screed. He obviously has no idea what the Ritchie case involved, nor the statutes of the law governing that case. The only reason the SCOTUS overturned that case is because they changed the fundamental rules regarding the case, which Sotomayor then admitted was correctly ruled.



Pat and his ilk can't stand the fact that the country is more diverse than ever and we are seeing the true legacy of the civil rights movement coming to fruition. In particular, Judge Sotomayor is a great judge. She has been for a while and if the GOP would focus on her cases, they'd find that she is not an "activist judge" like their beloved Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts. She's a judge who wants the facts, bases her judgment solely on facts and is possibly the most qualified JUDGE to sit on the court.



Racism is going to be the next big "thing" to rear it's head. Domestic terrorism, right wing groups and racial crime... just watch. And it's starting with Pat... Thanks, Pat.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Savaging of Sarah Palin

Mrs. Palin makes her children and her family an issue every time she trots them out. And the media never "savaged" the family. Comedians make jokes about politicians' and often their families. Sarah Palin is one of the few who not only fought back, but who fought when there was nothing there to fight. Her talent lies in her ability to filter the truth. Her perceived truth was that Letterman made a sexual joke about her eight year old daughter. The actual truth, plain to every rational thinking person, is that he made a joke about her 18 year old daughter who had a child of her own at age 17. A daughter who is now a legal adult.



Palin understands that perception is everything in politics. It is her true talent. She was not savaged by the press. She was asked simple questions that any politician should be able to answer, but was unable to do so. Her inability to do so was then rightly questioned. Instead she creates the perception that she is being "savaged", that the press is out to get her. They are not. They did the job we expect from them: to tell us when the Emperor has no clothes.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Guardrails for the Internet: Preserving Creativity Online

As an actor and writer, thus a creator of creative content, the internet scares the hell out of me. And while much artistic work created is pirated online, corporations do their fair share of thievery. Sites like HULU or network websites show content for "free" while refusing to pay the creative forces behind those shows. The latest contract negotiated by my union attempts to address the issue. The industry claims they make no money from showing the content online, however, they have also admitted the "limited" commercials bring in billions... Billions that go to the network, not the artists. They are also not forthcoming with the actual numbers from online advertisement during their streaming broadcasts.



I have no problem with the networks or sites like HULU showing content. I love it. It makes entertainment more accessible and continues to provide employment, but they need to be better about sharing the money that comes in.



I would love to see the internet be free for everybody, a system that uses the current television airwaves to give free net access to all people. It will never happen. Giant telecom corporations have too great a financial stake in continuing as the gatekeepers of the internet.



Perhaps they could spearhead putting a system in place to fight piracy, a way of putting guardrails on the internet, of promoting good responsible net journalism, of allowing the providers of artistic content the means to pay their artists, of ensuring a transparency in the net marketplace.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

For Memorial Day: How KBR Killed U.S. Soldiers

It keeps piling up and all roads seem to lead to Dick Cheney.
About Iraq
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Former Senior Interrogator in Iraq Dissects Cheney's Lies and Distortions

Great read. We need to hear more from the people who were directly affected by the former administration's bumbling decisions.
About Harsh Interrogations
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Saving the Brooklyn Bridge

Already wrote in, Anna. Thanks for posting this! Hiding the Brooklyn Bridge behind another cookie cutter shoe box of glass and steel is a crime. It's akin to building skyscrapers around the Eiffel Tower or the Pyramids of Egypt.



It's being done only for profit and greed. The money they make is temporary, this eyesore is permanent.



Sad.
About Real Estate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

A COUPLE THINGS:

If the GOP can vote the "rename" the Democratic Party, "The Democratic Socialist Party", then can the Dems rename the GOP the "Republican Fascist Party"?

Donald Rumsfeld is creepy... (read more here.)

Go do your Style Statement! And then go to White Hot Truth.
Still working on mine... Thinking - Genuine Passion. The wife's is - Composed Grace.

Politicians are idiots.
cases in point: President Obama railed against the Bush Administration policies on Terrorism... (rendition, torture, surveillance, military tribunals, targeted killing... etc.) But they have done nothing to end it.

END Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Just watched an eighteen year A.F. vet... a decorated fighter pilot with two years service left... Mandatorily discharged because he's gay. Stop the discrimination and stop the witch hunt like you promised, Mr. President.

Dems and Republicans... The argument for not closing Guantanamo because you don't want terrorists on US soil is a red herring and a false argument made for your own political gains. On US soil we are housing (or housed) Timothy McVeigh, The Unibomber, Charles Manson, The Blind Sheik, the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, serial killers, rapists... Don't tell me that you won't close Guantanamo because you don't want bad people in US prisons. That's bullshit.

Why are Dems still cowering in the corner? You fucking won!!! By a lot!!! In two elections in a row! Grow some balls! Get a pair and do what you were elected to do or get the hell out of the way.

The only difference in the Bush Administration's redistribution of wealth and the Obama Administration is the direction the wealth flows. It's corporate welfare to personal welfare. Think about it.

Play reading Monday went very well. Thanks to everyone who came and gave such wonderful feedback.

End for today.

Evangelical Christians support torture. Unbelievable.

This report on CNN really got to me. It makes no sense. Torture is not exactly the Christian thing to do. My own religious beliefs are extremely personal but a I am well versed in Christian tradition... I do know that the story is Jesus includes torture.

JESUS WAS TORTURED.

How can any Christian possibly think torture is okay? How many Christians were tortured throughout the centuries.

What is most telling is that Evangelical Christians were most likely to support torture while the religiously unaffiliated were the least likely to support torture. This tells me more about Evangelical Christian religious thought (different from "evangelical") and their political goals than their understanding of Jesus' teachings.

According to a 2003 survey taken before the Iraq War by beliefnet and the Ethics and Public Policy Center, 81% of Evangelical Christians believed it was "very important" to evangelize Muslims in other countries, 83% believed it was "very important" to evangelize Muslims in the United States.

While 76% believe Islam opposes religious freedom and 73% believe stopping religious persecution should be a top priority of American foreign policy, only 52% believed Muslims should be welcomed in America, 54% believed there should be a dialogue with Muslims, 17% believed Muslims prayed to the same God and whopping 2% believed the other religions in the world are equally true and good.

Which faith opposes religious freedom?

And while only 45% believe the current conflict is between the United States and Islam only 9% believe there could be peace with Islamic nations if conditions of poverty were eliminated.

It's not hard to see how Evangelical Christians came to this world view. Their leaders teach it. Franklin Graham, whose charity, Samaritan's Purse, has done wonderful work, is one of the leaders in the anti-Islamic movement. He has said, "We are in a Third World War... It is a global fight against Islamic fundamentalism." (Franklin Graham, Oct 17, 2004)

A November 16, 2001 article in MSNBC discusses comments made by Franklin Graham, Chairman and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse:

“But now Franklin is in trouble with political friends for comments made recently, calling the entire Islamic religion ‘wicked, violent and not of the same God’. “I don’t believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion’, said Graham. Asked by NBC News to clarify his statement, Graham repeated his charge that Islam, as a whole, is evil.”

Is it any wonder then, that the majority of Evangelical Christian's believe torture is justified? If the question asked were, "An Evangelical Christian knows of a terror attack imminent in the United States, would torture be justified in gaining information?" would the answer be different.

The new survey by the Pew Research Center shows that "mainline" Protestant groups - such as Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans and Presbyterians - are the religious groups least likely to support torture. They are also the religious groups most involved in social justice, ending poverty, promoting social principles that are thoughtful and prayerful.

The Pew survey really speaks more to the xenophobia, racism and religious intolerance of this countries most vocal religious group than to the honest beliefs of American Christians. It once again puts Evangelical Christians on the wrong side of almost every social/political issue we face today. While they can quote chapter and verse, it exposes them as woefully ignorant of the true nature of Christ's teachings.

Torture is wrong.

Period.

Christians should know this.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

The Washington Region Religious Campaign Against Torture rallied on Capitol Hill in March 2008.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small. See results of the survey »

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The survey asked: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?"

Roughly half of all respondents -- 49 percent -- said it is often or sometimes justified. A quarter said it never is.

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.

I COME FROM THE REDDEST STATE IN THE COUNTRY!

How is it then, that I'm so blue? My family is blue, my wife is blue... Very blue.

Very interesting. You keep being RED, Utah. Still love you.

January 28, 2009

State of the States: Political Party Affiliation

Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Hawaii, and District of Columbia are most Democratic

by Jeffrey M. Jones

Page:12

This is the first in a four-part series on the "State of the States" to be released this week on Gallup.com. The series examines state-by-state differences in party affiliation, religiosity, consumer confidence, and employer hiring and letting go, based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking data collected throughout 2008.

PRINCETON, NJ -- An analysis of Gallup Poll Daily tracking data from 2008 finds Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Hawaii to be the most Democratic states in the nation, along with the District of Columbia. Utah and Wyoming are the most Republican states.

In 2008, Gallup interviewed more than 350,000 U.S. adults as part of Gallup Poll Daily tracking. That includes interviews with 1,000 or more residents of every U.S. state except Wyoming (885) and North Dakota (953), as well as the District of Columbia (689). There were more than 15,000 interviews conducted with residents of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Florida.

This large data set provides the unique ability to give reliable estimates of state-level characteristics for 2008. Each sample of state residents was weighted by demographic characteristics to ensure it is representative of the state's population.

In order to rank the states on partisanship, Gallup analyzes "leaned" party identification by state. This measure adds partisan-leaning independents to the percentage who identify with either of the parties. Thus, the Republican total includes Republican identifiers and independents who lean Republican, and the Democratic total likewise includes Democratic identifiers and independents who lean Democratic.

This helps makes the state data more comparable because the percentage who identify as political independents varies greatly by state, from a low of 25% in the District of Columbia to a high of 53% in Rhode Island.

The accompanying map shows party strength by state for 2008, ranging from states that can be considered solidly Democratic (a Democratic advantage in party identification of 10 percentage points or more) to those that can be considered solidly Republican (a Republican advantage in party identification of 10 percentage points or more). States in which the partisan advantage is less than 5 points in either direction are considered "competitive." (The full data for all states appear at the end of the article.)

What is immediately clear from the map is that residents of the United States were very Democratic in their political orientation last year. In fact, Gallup has earlier reported that a majority of Americans nationwide said they identified with or leaned to the Democratic Party in 2008.

All told, 29 states and the District of Columbia had Democratic party affiliation advantages of 10 points or greater last year. This includes all of the states in the Northeast, and all but Indiana in the Great Lakes region. There are even several Southern states in this grouping, including Arkansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky.

An additional six states had Democratic advantages ranging between 5 and 9 points.

In contrast, only five states had solid or leaning Republican orientations in 2008, with Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska in the former group, and Nebraska in the latter.

The most balanced political states in 2008 were Texas (+2 Democratic), South Dakota (+1), Mississippi (+1), North Dakota (+1), South Carolina (even), Arizona (even), Alabama (+1 Republican), and Kansas (+2 Republican).