Obama Bypasses Senate For Key Justice Post : NPR

Another reason that Republicans suck...

Obama Bypasses Senate For Key Justice Post : NPR

Obama Appoints Four New Ambassadors : NPR

It'a absolutely ridiculous that the President had to wait until recess to appoint some of his selections for ambassadors. The Republican were blocking EVERYTHING! I wonder how things will go in 2011? Not good...

Obama Appoints Four New Ambassadors : NPR

Alaska Sen. Murkowski's Victory Certified : The Two-Way : NPR

Okay Joe Miller, it's time to concede now. Face it, you lost. Game over...

Alaska Sen. Murkowski's Victory Certified : The Two-Way : NPR

Reports: Feds Probing Christine O'Donnell's Use Of Campaign Funds : The Two-Way : NPR

Am I surprised? No. I imagine more of these stories will appear in the next few months. As I was saying the American electorate was duped and we will see what these Republican frauds were really up to...

Reports: Feds Probing Christine O'Donnell's Use Of Campaign Funds : The Two-Way : NPR

CBC News - Politics - GG praises Canada's effort in Afghanistan

Yes, "...peace and education are the key to rebuilding family life in Afghanistan." This is a comment from Canadian Governor General David Johnson. And it is right on the point! I surprised that other see this too. Progress! Yes, progress!

CBC News - Politics - GG praises Canada's effort in Afghanistan

CNN Poll: Plurality say Obama’s policies will likely fail – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Ugh, 51% think that Republican control of the House is good for the county? The electorate was duped...

I think Democrats will have to expose the Republicans for who they are. The tax cuts for the top 2% is just a start. We will see what they are really up too. Thank you America for f'ing up the county...

CNN Poll: Plurality say Obama’s policies will likely fail – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Georgia Schools Offer Lesson In Living With Cutbacks : NPR

And cutting Education make sense? If the Republican establishment is looking for cuts, education and health care should not be in the mix. These public programs impact us all. Making sure our kids have the leadership skills for the future (and Yes! art and music ARE PART OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE!), having quality school districts helps the home values, quality health care for all Americans. When will the American public WAKE UP and see the lies the Republicans and Tea Party freaks are giving us. These programs can't afford cuts right now. Lets evaluate that sacred defense budget...

Georgia Schools Offer Lesson In Living With Cutbacks : NPR

Slashing $100 billion from the budget: Can the GOP do it? - Dec. 27, 2010

One of my biggest wishes for 2011 is for the Democratic Congressional Senators and Representatives and the President is to expose the lies that the Republicans spouted during the 2010 campaign. So, you are going to cut $100 billion but you have already said tax cuts for the über-rich. You will not cut the defense budget. Hmm - cuts to education, health care, housing and urban development. In a recession? Really? Education has already been gutted. I think there is a lot more pork in that defense budget that you would like to acknowledge...

Slashing $100 billion from the budget: Can the GOP do it? - Dec. 27, 2010

Is this some of the pork?

Alaska's Miller Won't Block Murkowski's Certification, But Challenge Will Go On : The Two-Way : NPR

Quit wasting tax payer money on this. Joe Miller - you lost. Get over it already. Are you that much of a sore loser? Or are you just classless?

Alaska's Miller Won't Block Murkowski's Certification, But Challenge Will Go On : The Two-Way : NPR

Female Suicide Bomber Kills 45 In Pakistan : NPR

Again, the Taliban is pure evil. Bombing of a public aid facility? Really? This is despicable. The only way of peace in the area is the eradication of the Taliban and Al Qaida. But military force alone will not do this. It's education and rebuilding that will take decades to fix...

Female Suicide Bomber Kills 45 In Pakistan : NPR

365-165: Merry Christmas! « Fat Cat Images

Merry Christmas everyone! We will still take a time out from the political banter. Here is a image from my photography blog. Enjoy!

365-165: Merry Christmas! « Fat Cat Images

Official NORAD Santa Tracker

Okay. For a few days, I guess we can stray away from the political banter. Here is the official Santa Tracker from NORAD. Happy Holidays!

Official NORAD Santa Tracker

Not such a lame-duck session: What Congress passed, Obama signed in week – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

Here is a listing of all the accomplishments over the past few weeks from Congress. Ladies and gentlemen... good job!

Not such a lame-duck session: What Congress passed, Obama signed in week – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

The new census data may favor Republicans, but long-term demographic trends favor Democrats. - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine

Thank you to Mr. Cromartie (a fellow blogger on this site) for sharing this link. Just as I suspected that the census fear scare on the population numbers and the so called "shift" to red states. Those red states are now a little more purple...

The new census data may favor Republicans, but long-term demographic trends favor Democrats. - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine

For Obama And Democrats, Christmas Came Early : It's All Politics : NPR

Way to go lame duck Congress. Way to go President Obama. Way to go! A lot of wins over the past few weeks for progressivism. This may be the last of those wins for a long time. Sadly, I fear the next Congress...

For Obama And Democrats, Christmas Came Early : It's All Politics : NPR

There are genuinely good people in the world...

So, this is a post off the beaten path a bit. I went to call my brother to ask him a question and someone I do not recognize answers the phone. It was the shop owner or clerk at Marino's Beverage Depot in Sylvania, Ohio. He asked if I knew the owner of this phone. I said yes and he said it was found at the beverage mart and he has it. I gave my brother a call and he did not realize that he had lost his phone. He was going to go to the Depot to pick it up. But how nice and responsible the person at the beverage mart was. Remarkable in fact, that people take the time out of their day to help their neighbor. It is heartwarming that good still exists. People still help their neighbors. And that is what we should do.

GOP sees good news in census numbers - CNN.com

I'm not quite sure. Yes, the population is moving but liberals are moving too. Some of these districts could be a bit more progressive. Or I'm just smoking something really weird...

GOP sees good news in census numbers - CNN.com

Obama Secures Votes To Pass Nuclear Arms Treaty : NPR

All this activity. I'm still a little surprised by this. It's good, yes. But why all this activity now? I know, I've been saying this for a few days now. But a September or October passing of all this activity could have cut the losses a bit. I'm just sayin'...

Obama Secures Votes To Pass Nuclear Arms Treaty : NPR

Senate Democrats Confident They'll Have The Votes To Ratify START Treaty : NPR

They better. Again, what I have been saying. Why all this activity now? What was wrong with the summer or September or October? While I applaud the progress, the timing is less than desirable...

Senate Democrats Confident They'll Have The Votes To Ratify START Treaty : NPR

Ending Military's Gay Ban Lets Obama Fulfill Another Clinton Promise : It's All Politics : NPR

Maybe Obama is on a roll. It's good that this has finally passed. If the START treaty passes in the next few days, that would be good too. I wonder why all this activity did not happen in September or October? Would that have changed the November outcome a little? Food for thought...

Ending Military's Gay Ban Lets Obama Fulfill Another Clinton Promise : It's All Politics : NPR

Obama, Like GOP, Wins, Loses In Tax-Cut Deal : It's All Politics : NPR

I think more of a loss for everyone. But it is only a two year plan. We will see what happens in 2012. Hopefully this can be a good campaign tactic for liberals in less than two years from now...

Obama, Like GOP, Wins, Loses In Tax-Cut Deal : It's All Politics : NPR

Predictions For 2011 -- From 1931 : Planet Money : NPR

Scary and interesting at the same time...

Predictions For 2011 -- From 1931 : Planet Money : NPR

Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid | Media and Culture | AlterNet

This is what I knew all along. Finally, the truth is out!

Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid | Media and Culture | AlterNet

Procedural snag delays House vote on tax deal - CNN.com

I have to agree. The deficit-exploding giveaway to the rich is unnecessary. Especially when we are looking to cut the deficit. I think we should hold out for a better plan...

Procedural snag delays House vote on tax deal - CNN.com

House passes 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal - CNN.com

It's good that the House of Representatives passed this legislation. Now on to the Senate (again). Hopefully the Senate can do the right thing and pass this too? Why would you not want patriotic Americans serving in your armed forces regardless of sexual orientation. Especially when the ranks of those willing to serve have worn thin...

House passes 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal - CNN.com

Holbrooke's 'Af-Pak' Structure Likely To Survive Without Him : The Two-Way : NPR

This is kind of comforting news following the death of Richard Holbrooke. The rebuilding effort of Afghanistan is paramount to our success in the war. Hopefully this diplomatic legacy will live on...

Holbrooke's 'Af-Pak' Structure Likely To Survive Without Him : The Two-Way : NPR

Controversy Heats Up On GOP Members’ Choice of “Prince of Pork” Hal Rogers to Lead Appropriations | DCCC

Nice one GOP. Nice one. I really don't know why voters were blind to this crap in November. Same old, same old from the GOP...

Controversy Heats Up On GOP Members’ Choice of “Prince of Pork” Hal Rogers to Lead Appropriations | DCCC

PoliticalCartoons.com Cartoon

This cartoon is awesome. Says it so well..

PoliticalCartoons.com Cartoon

Family, friends gather to honor Elizabeth Edwards | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

This speaks volumes about the type of person Elizabeth Edwards was. Something that the current leaders both Democratic and Republican can learn from. An openness that doesn't require any quieting of Wikileaks. A true breath of fresh air, to allow all to participate. To allow all to hear and see all...

Family, friends gather to honor Elizabeth Edwards | freep.com | Detroit Free Press: "Jennifer Palmieri, who was a senior adviser during John Edwards' presidential campaigns, said the funeral is open to the public because Elizabeth Edwards always insisted on open campaign events — much to the consternation of staff who wanted to control access. She never wanted tickets issued, even free ones.

'So it may be a little messy getting folks in the church,' but that's how she would have wanted it, Palmieri said."

Life among U.S. enemies: Embedded with the Taliban - CNN.com

This video shows the human side of the Taliban. Although I still consider them evil, this video reminds us that the enemy is human too. This is the sad element of war. Both sides see there role as just and one side will ultimately fail. There still is a human element to war. That's why bombs and bullets alone do not win the struggle. There has to be belief in the people fighting and I think the Americans may be losing on this front. It's scary, I know, but this struggle is much deeper than we would like to acknowledge. We need to win the human element too. That's the hard part, convincing the Afghan people that our side is just. Especially when we are occupying their country...

Life among U.S. enemies: Embedded with the Taliban - CNN.com

9/11 responders bill defeated by Senate GOP filibuster - CNN.com

Really GOP? Are you that stubborn to not support a patriotic measure like this? The GOP really disgusts me right now. Shame on you Republicans...

9/11 responders bill defeated by Senate GOP filibuster - CNN.com

Maybe... but I am still not convinced

I'm still not sold on the Obama compromise. I think he could have held out longer...


http://www.freep.com/article/20101207/NEWS07/101207048/1285/news15/Obama-Tax-cut-deal-is-best-Dems-can-hope-for

Elizabeth Edwards Succumbs To Cancer : NPR

America lost a remarkable leader today. We pause today to honor her courageous life.

Elizabeth Edwards Succumbs To Cancer : NPR

AlaskaDispatch.com: What's Joe Miller's motivation?

I wonder too. He is not making any sense and I read the comments at the Anchorage Daily News. They are not good for Mr. Miller. He is on a slippery slope downhill. He's being called a cry baby and sore loser in his own state. Way to kill your political future dude...

AlaskaDispatch.com: What's Joe Miller's motivation?

Obama And Republicans Agree On Tax Cut Extension : NPR

I know some people state the President does not have any negotiating savvy and I would have to agree. I think the President caved way too soon about this. Especially when this adds $700 billion to the deficit. And we thought the Republicans were about fiscal responsibility... Right...

Yes, we needed the extension of unemployment benefits but do we want the Republicans running the show? Is this really how things will go for the next two years? I certainly hope not...

Obama And Republicans Agree On Tax Cut Extension : NPR

Gin and Tacos: Turntables (An Ode to Macomb County)

If the site Gin and Tacos isn't a part of your daily reading, it most assuredly should be. Today's entry summarizes quite nicely the rhetoric of economic warfare used by the Republican Party to turn us against each other over the last 35 years, with each party pointing the finger at the other as the primary culprit in the economic decline of our country while someone, somewhere, is laughing all the way to the bank at our expense. (It turns out that there are a lot of people laughing, actually, but that's another story).

The entire article is worth your read, but the summary line, near the end, is particularly poignant:

We know that Americans are politically ignorant and selfish enough to be OK with whatever negative things happen as long as it happens to someone else.

I've thought about that a lot as I've traveled North America over the last decade or so as a part of my career where I have, in turn, interacted with so many workplaces that I've lost count.

But I grew up here, and still live here, and so I carry the sadness of the death of the local economy with me. I remember vividly taking a wrong turn in Manchester, MI one morning and ending up in a four square block area that consisted of nothing but eight small factories closed and for sale. I remember a couple of Christmases ago sitting with my 65 year old mother and listing off the two dozen factories (in a town of 30,000) that employed her parents and older siblings that are now razed and forgotten.

Occasionally, I'll stop and shop at a development near downtown Cleveland called Steelyard Commons, a series of big box and strip stores developed on land that was once devoted to churning out steel. The jobs are at least marginally better than nothing, I suppose, but if you find the quality of jobs satisfactory in this example of "creative destruction", then I'd question whether you have much in the way of morals, or a conscience at all. Economists aren't known for their soul for a reason.

And that leads me back to 1980, when the Reagan Democrats, so many of whom lived and worked in Macomb County, fearful for their jobs and deluded by the Reagan Revolution into thinking that the poor (minority) people were coming to take away their lives and lifestyle, pulled the lever and pressed the accelerator on the end of their lifestyle, willfully, ignorantly violating the cardinal rule that should guide every parent and every generation; to leave the world and the economy in a better place than they had it.

The reality of their decisions from that point forward is that the lifestyle they had, and the one they should have seen to it that would be passed on to their children and their children's children, is gone. Gone because of their willful participation in the political process that ruined it. The unemployment rate in Macomb County stands at 13.4% this holiday season. A significant percentage of those people the children and grandchildren of those people who pulled the lever all those years ago. Do you suppose the people responsible for it have enough self awareness to look in the mirror and understand the consequences of their inactions?

Probably not. Candice Miller, who worked with Tom DeLay to attempt to bribe former congressman Nick Smith for his vote on the Medicare Perscription Drug Bill, was easily re-elected this fall.

Living Without Work: The Long-Term Unemployed : NPR

Are tax cuts to the top 2% of earners in America really going to create jobs? No - not if there isn't a demand for goods and as long as unemployment is above 9.5% there is a lot of people pinching pockets and lessening demand. Extending unemployment benefits actually helps demand a bit. Exetnding tax cuts for the über-rich really does nothing other that make the rich more rich.

Living Without Work: The Long-Term Unemployed : NPR

On Wikileaks and the Reaction

The hand wringing by Baby Boomers on both sides of the aisle about the recent series of diplomatic cables leaked by the Wikileaks site would be entertaining in it's hypocrisy were it not depressingly indicative on both the state of contemporary media and contemporary politics.

From a generational perspective, Boomer era media blowhards have two darling examples of their own greatness they like to bask in: the Pentagon Papers, a critical piece of leaked documentation that crystallized opposition to Vietnam, embarrassed the Johnson Administration, damaged the people's faith in their government and ultimately led to a timely withdraw from an unwinable war; and Watergate, a story fed mostly by anonymous leaks and stolen files that was used to bring down a morally corrupt hack of a President.

So to hear so many of their ilk, mired in a fading medium with which the public has lost confidence, decry the outrage of leaked information, it's contents, and their potential adverse impact on diplomatic and military operations, sounding exactly like their parents and grandparents did 35 years ago is high comedy.

But things are different now. Setting aside that exact phrase was what people used to justify the Iraq invasion (and you'd really ought to check yourself before uttering that phrase, because things are never truly unique if you pay attention to your history) in this case this statement is actually true. Things are worse. Much worse. The fourth estate, or what's left of it, serves as either a house organ for the Republican Party (Fox, any AM radio station), a special interest channel by and for white people ages 45-64 (any network news program), ambulance chasing and infomercials disguised as news (your local news affiliate), or the marketplace for talking heads to scream past each other context free (everyone else).

Honest, detailed, comprehensive investigative reporting, the kind of which that would have kept us out of Iraq, for instance, is few and far between. There's only one Seymour Hersch. Mother Jones doesn't have that many subscribers. So it falls on organizations like Narco News and Wikileaks to do the work that, once upon a time, our now hobbled, co-opted and largely worthless domestic fourth estate does for us. And that may be uncomfortable. But it's necessary and, much to the chagrin of bleating boomer columnists, the future of journalism.

More than 600 unemployed Washtenaw County workers could lose benefits this month without an extension - AnnArbor.com

And yet the GOP thinks that extending tax cuts to those over $1 million in income will create jobs. Guess what, it does not. Extending unemployment benefits until that does occur helps though. Hmm. Again, is the GOP really creating policies that are aligned with the success of the American public as a whole?

More than 600 unemployed Washtenaw County workers could lose benefits this month without an extension - AnnArbor.com

Democratic procedural votes on extending Bush tax cuts fail in Senate - CNN.com

No big surprise here. I think the Republicans are actually working AGAINST the American public. This is the kind of partisan politics that the GOP displays time and time again. Even when the American public wants compromise and working together. Instead they get the same old. See what you voted for America. You get what you deserve...

Democratic procedural votes on extending Bush tax cuts fail in Senate - CNN.com

TRENDING: Palin book signing a tightly controlled operation – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Again, why Sarah Palin will not be a viable candidate for the U.S. presidency. We learned from the Bush administration that closed door policies are not the best interest for Americans. Let the media in Sarah to your book signings so they can evaluate the type of candidate you really are...

TRENDING: Palin book signing a tightly controlled operation – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Proposal For Religious Theme Park Officially Unveiled - Cincinnati News Story - WLWT Cincinnati

Any tax incentive for such a theme park are just wrong. You can NOT use public funds to promote ANY religious agenda. This is what our first amendment protects against. This proposal disgusts me...

Contact Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear that NO TAX INCENTIVES should be given to a project such as this. This is unacceptable... http://www.governor.ky.gov/contact/contact.htm 

Proposal For Religious Theme Park Officially Unveiled - Cincinnati News Story - WLWT Cincinnati

House OKs Middle-Class Tax Cuts : It's All Politics : NPR

Well - at least the House Democrats make sense. I see this as low hanging fruit. If we want to cut the deficit and lower the debt then why would we not want to save over $700 billion? If you are in the top 2% wealthiest Americans, then this tax cut really doesn't impact you. The Republicans' smoke and mirrors campaign has already started...

House OKs Middle-Class Tax Cuts : It's All Politics : NPR

New Reports Offer Liberal Alternatives On How To Reduce Deficits, Debt | The New Republic

Interesting alternative approach to reduce the federal deficit...

New Reports Offer Liberal Alternatives On How To Reduce Deficits, Debt | The New Republic