Political News Bits of the Day

Discussing all things political in NW Arkansas and beyond.
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Dardedar
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

The only thing better than a good sex scandal, is a good sex scandal with a sex tape. But don't get your hopes up too much. Notice your source: DailyNews/Gossip.

D.
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

Our friend Barbara wrote this LTE on Cap and Trade:

***
"The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) just passed in the House. We treehuggers wanted something that cuts greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, sells all carbon permits to industry for top dollar, has zero offsets, stops all coal-fired power plant construction and invests $50 billion a year in clean energy. ACES doesn’t reach any of those goals.

If we let the perfect be the enemy of the good ACES could die in the Senate and leaving us stuck with rising carbon emissions, rising global temperatures, longer and hotter wildfire seasons, spring floods and summer droughts. Not to mention security issues with dependence on foreign fuel. (We’re importing 60% of our petroleum and producing 40% domestically. If we re-tool our transportation sector with a combination of increased vehicle efficiency, domestically-produced, non-food biofuels, and increased transit and freight rail use, we can do just fine on the currently existing domestic oil wells and create jobs, too.) We can’t afford the same ol’ same ol’. So what does ACES actually do?

This treehugger doesn’t mind offsets for sustainable agriculture and restored forests/wetlands. ACES offsets for forest and wetland preservation/restoration and sustainable agriculture sequestered carbon. That means millions of jobs in national (and international) forests, parks, and monuments as well as on America’s farms and millions of tons of sequestered carbon.

ACES includes a 20% renewable electricity standard, increases emissions standards for existing/new coal plants, and mandates buildings be 30% more efficient than current requirements by 2012 (50% more efficient by 2016), potentially adding up to a 17% below 1990 levels reduction by 2020 – a definite step in the right direction. The building energy efficiency provisions (including weatherization of residences) create millions of jobs and save millions of dollars in energy – and carbon emissions.

ACES awards rather than sells 85% of the carbon permits – but 80% of them go to consumer rebates, low-income relief, international and domestic adaptation, technology transfer, etc. to deal with initial increases in fuel costs.

ACES invests in retooling U.S. plants and retraining U.S. workers to produce the components of clean energy, including upgrading the utility grid - millions more American jobs building and retooling and running those plants plus more jobs installing and running the new energy facilities – and more jobs training/retraining people to do all that.

Green jobs are where economy, environment, energy, and security connect. Green jobs will rebuild the middle class which drives the economy. Green jobs protect the environment and transform America from a fossil-fuel burning energy waster to a top-notch, cost-effective, efficient renewable energy dynamo – and keep us out of trouble in foreign lands that will no longer be “strategic.”

Jobs provide incomes that buy stuff creating more jobs – all of which pay taxes and reduce/eliminate the deficit and debt – the upward spiral of a healthy economy. John Boozman blew his chance. ACES now goes to the Senate. Contact Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and tell them to pass ACES. We can’t afford not to."
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Job creation and presidents:

Image
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

I met a fellow on the weekend who said those on the left are terrified of Palin. After all, "why would she be getting so much attention/coverage?"

It's an idea I am unable to take seriously (now or before her latest belly flop).

But what do republicans think? Did she make them more or less likely to support the McCain ticket?

Bingo:

Image

"Using numbers from a post-election poll, Jones and Cox conclude that Palin damaged McCain's brand because her style evoked the kind of polarizing politics that Americans had grown sick of--and to which, not coincidentally, Barack Obama offered himself as an antidote." The rest at 538
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Savonarola »

Darrel wrote:I met a fellow on the weekend who said those on the left are terrified of Palin. After all, "why would she be getting so much attention/coverage?"

It's an idea I am unable to take seriously (now or before her latest belly flop)
I'm afraid. People are stupid enough to be swayed by her tactics, despite the fact that she's an ignorant ditz. While I don't think she could actually be elected president, I think she could very well end up in some high position -- if she's not elected to where she wants to be (and she won't), she'll have made such a stir in rabid-righty circles that she'll get appointed to a high position.
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

Look what happens when an industry hack tries to float dishonest smears in front of Kucinich. He gets a beautiful smack down. Two and a half minute video clip:

Dennis Kucinich Pummels Right Wing Dr. On Canadian Healthcare System.
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by tmiller51 »

The Dr. seemed truly in shock that he was going to be challenged on anything. He really came off looking like an arrogant jerk.
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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1. NEWSCASTERS: JON STEWART DONS THE MANTLE OF CRONKITE.

"Even as the revered anchor of CBS News was laid to rest, Time released the
state-by-state results of a poll of 10,000 Americans across the nation,
asking: who is now the "most trusted" newscaster in America? The
overwhelming choice, with 44%, is Jon Stewart. Coming in a distant second
was Brian Williams, with 29%. What sets Stuart apart is that he is totally
fearless. He speaks the truth without equivocation -- no matter who is
offended. The poll also reflects the chaotic state of the news industry at
the start of the 21st century. When Cronkite reigned, a handful of major
networks broadcast the evening news at about the same time. You either
watched the news or turned off the television; now you have a thousand
mindless alternatives to the news."

http://www.bobpark.org/
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

So good to have good news again...

"President Barack Obama directed federal agencies on Thursday to enact new rules governing federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells.

The rules, issued earlier this year by the National Institutes of Health, loosened some ethical requirements that scientists said could have cost them a decade of work." Reuters
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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"Less than half of Republicans believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America, a new public opinion poll finds.

Only 42 percent of Republican respondents... said they thought Obama was a natural born citizen; 28 percent said they did not believe Obama was born in the United States; 30 percent said they were not sure...

Overall, even including Democrats and independents, only 47 percent of respondents in the South said they believed Obama was born in America, with 23 percent saying he was not and 30 percent saying they were unsure. In the Northeast and Midwest, the percentage of respondents who believe Obama was born in the U.S. was over 90 percent."

LINK

DAR
If there was any question about just how GODDAMN STUPID people are in the South.
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Post by Doug »

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.

These allegations, and a series of other charges, are contained in sworn affidavits, given under penalty of perjury, filed late at night on August 3 in the Eastern District of Virginia as part of a seventy-page motion by lawyers for Iraqi civilians suing Blackwater for alleged war crimes and other misconduct.

See here.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Doug »

Darrel wrote:If there was any question about just how GODDAMN STUPID people are in the South.
Image
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

Doug wrote:[Doug chart above]
DAR
Good job. Best to draw a picture for the Galt types.

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Survey Finds High Fees Common in Medical Care


Excerpt:

A patient in Illinois was charged $12,712 for cataract surgery. Medicare pays $675 for the same procedure. In California, a patient was charged $20,120 for a knee operation that Medicare pays $584 for. And a New Jersey patient was charged $72,000 for a spinal fusion procedure that Medicare covers for $1,629.

... The group said it had used Medicare payments for comparison because Medicare was so familiar and payments are, on average, about 80 percent of what private insurers pay.

“It’s the wild, wild West when it comes to prices of anything in the U.S. health care system, whether for a doctor visit or for hospital charges,” said Jonathan S. Skinner, a health economist at Dartmouth.

The situation is so irrational, said Uwe E. Reinhardt, a health economist at Princeton, that it simply cannot go on. “We will not emerge out of this decade with this lunacy,” Dr. Reinhardt said, adding, “You worry about credit card charges, you scream for consumer protection — why not scream for it here?”

NY Times
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Number of Americans Paying Zero Federal Income Tax Grows to 43.4 Million

The top ten non-tax paying citizens live in the following states:

1. Mississippi 43%
2. Louisiana 40%
3. Arkansas 38%
4. New Mexico 38%
5. Alabama 38%
6. Texas 36%
7. Montana 36%
8. Oklahoma 36%
9. South Carolina 36%
10. Georgia 36%

Tax Foundation
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Doug »

In a new book, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge reveals new details on politicization under President Bush, reports US News & World Report's Paul Bedard. Among other things, Ridge admits that he was pressured to raise the terror alert to help Bush win re-election in 2004.

See here.
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by tmiller51 »

Just so you won't have to bother reading about it tomorrow, the republican spin will be that Ridge is only saying this now to sell his book. I'm sure Galt will agree.

Tim
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Betsy »

You know that little strip of news tidbits on the front page of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette every day? Here's one from today (Sunday, Aug. 23)
Charlie Crist, the Republican governor of Florida, told a group of real estate agents that he’s had prayer notes placed in the Western Wall in Jerusalem each year and no major storms have hit the state, adding, “Time goes on — May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December — no hurricanes. Thank God.”
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Savonarola »

Betsy wrote:
Charlie Crist, the Republican governor of Florida, told a group of real estate agents that he’s had prayer notes placed in the Western Wall in Jerusalem each year and no major storms have hit the state...
PZ Myers posted this on his blog. For those of you who don't know, pharyngulites have this habit of voting in polls that Myers posts on the blog. The results before his post were promising, but sometimes it's just funny to see the later results:
Divine intervention? results
Gov. Crist said he's had prayer notes placed in the Western Wall in Jerusalem each year and no major storms have hit Florida.

Another good reason not to vote for him! 4104 votes - 95%
Thanks for jinxing us now! 129 votes - 3%
It is good to know that we have a leader that believes in the power of prayer. 68 votes - 2%
Don't knock it. Whatever works! 12 votes - 0%
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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"...3 more companies have withdrawn their advertisements from the Glenn Beck show, bringing the total number of companies who have dropped Beck up to 36."

LINK
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