Election 2012 : Nov 6

• Know where you vote. http://progma.us/pollinginfo 
• Make a plan when you're going to vote -- after work? before? during lumch? 
• Ask your friends and family: do they know where they're voting? Do they have a plan as to when they'll vote? 
• Voting problems? CALL : 1-866-OUR VOTE - http://www.866ourvote.org/ - Lawyers will be on the line, live, to answer any questions. DO NOT BLOW OFF ANY CHALLENGE To YOUR OR ANYONE'S VOTE--make a call and talk to a lawyer. If you  have ANY questions about the voting process--CALL. 
• Needham: Remember to VOTE YES on the Citizens United ballot question: http://hmny.me/democracyamendment
• Needham: Review your ballot: http://www.lwv-needham.org/Nov12_election.html
• Read and share great Needham Letters to the Editor about Elizabeth Warren: http://hmny.me/EW2012NeedhamLTE
• VOLUNTEER for the President, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Kennedy!!
• Stop by HQ and check in with Rachael and Vanessa for elizabeth and joe: 51 Lincoln Street, Needham, MA (Old site of Needham Comm. Council)
• Canvass in NH for Obama: check in here: http://hmny.me/canvassercheckin
• Help create a picture of voter turnout in Needham: email or post on this page the vote counts at your precinct in Needham (note the time recorded) -- if there are two precincts at your polling place, note both!

WE ARE VOTING ON CITIZENS UNITED--

We've all been focused on the big races, with Elizabeth Warren, Pres. Obama and Joe Kennedy capturing much of our volunteering energy/time.

Please make sure you also know about the MONEY IN POLITICS ballot question that will be on Needham ballots on Tuesday.
MORE INFORMATION: http://hmny.me/democracyamendment

Please vote YES on Question 4 and 5 (Precincts A-C, I-J) and Question 5 (Precincts D-H), to say, YES, Congress should act to reverse Citizens United and regulate money in elections.

YOU HAVE TO TURN YOUR BALLOT OVER to get to all of the questions!

Let the Market Decide; The Government Shouldn't Pick Winners and Losers!

"The Government is not a good Venture Capitalist"

Jon Stewart compares the Administration's business record to Bain's. And calls out the hypocrisy of this stupid, stupid conservative talking point. (second video)

!!!!

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	- Thurs 11p / 10c
Picking Winners & Losers
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

from October 2012: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-october-25-2012/picking-winners---losers
Bain record: 22% failure; Government: 8%

"It is not the ROLE OF GOVERNMENT to pick winners and losers". Jon takes it down.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

from: American Pickers - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 10/25/12 - Video Clip | Comedy Central - http://bit.ly/TozDRJ

Just to finish off the great first segment of this 10/25 episode... here's what Jon says next about "Rape babies are god's gift" ... and punctures the cynical reasons why Republicans have tried to distance themselves from him.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

From: Republican Candidate Said What About Rape Now? - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 10/25/12 - Video Clip | Comedy Central - http://bit.ly/ToA3r2

Kill Big Bird: "Every bit counts"

4 million dollars a big deal if it's for PBS. Not if it's for oil CEOs. 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Children's Television Chop Shop - This Week With George Snuffleupagus
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Scott Brown, the Sarah Palin of Massachusetts

Needham Vote Results

I'll post what intel I get, here, when I get it. I have been very busy this GOTV lead up, which makes me bummed to have not been able to have the beer party to help everyone prep for their vote today.

Running Updates start below:

2:05 PM 209 votes in precinct H; 178 in G

• Needham patch will post results:  http://needham.patch.com/articles/primary-polls-closed-results-to-post-soon
• "It's sad" -- quote from Needham's polls today: Low Needham voter turnout so far for state primaries - Needham, Massachusetts - Needham Times (9/6/2012) http://bit.ly/OYGuvY
• State Primary Today: What Needham Voters Should Know - Needham, MA Patch (9/6/2012) - http://bit.ly/OYJqZv

The Liberal Media

"A popular tactic right now is to assert that a kind of gaffe gap exists, and is dispositive evidence of the media’s bias toward the president. As a result, you get a contorted column that bemoans the press’s shallow obsession with this kind of campaign ephemera while it simultaneously labors to prove the “underreported” nature of these very same harmless misstatements by Obama. This kind of whinging shouldn’t be given the time of day, but the implicit stamp of approval it gets when Tapper and Halperin throw out their fact-free, faux outrage means that the media bias myths live another day.

But there’s a long-term price for this reckless self-sabotage of journalism. If the media itself accepts the fact that bias no longer needs to beproven but merely asserted, if our democracy comes to believe (as polls increasingly show is happening) that this mythical bias is simply a given, then the public’s trust in the profession will be irreparably harmed. Once defanged, the press will discover what it’s like when it can no longer effectively function as a champion of the truth—politicians will be free to brazenly campaign and govern based purely on dogma and ideology, without regard for facts at all.

Right here, right now, and especially after what we've seen the past few nights down in Tampa, the press is facing this frightening prospect. So, it must make a choice and make it quickly. Should the media continue to give in to a mistaken sense of professional guilt by avoiding controversy and seeking penance for partisan transgressions that it hasn’t really committed? Or should it be willing to stand firmly with the facts, whatever they are and whomever they afflict, and let the evidence ultimately prove it right?"

--great summation of the Liberal Media myth and the crap it's unleashed on us all

'Post Truth Politics,' Continued | The Nation - http://bit.ly/N7RbQm

How Mitt Romney Won The Debate Spin Over And Over -- By Fulfilling The Liberal Media's All-Consuming Need For Fresh Narrative | The New Republic - http://bit.ly/TRK24H

VOTE: This THURSDAY - September 6

PRIMARY ELECTION DAY IS THURSDAY THIS YEAR.  That's THIS Thursday.

Not Tuesday. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6.

On THURSDAY, Sept. 6, you will go to the polls and you will vote! >> Click here to add it to your google calendar. <<

No one seems to know this, so make sure YOU have put it on your calendar--and that you send a reminder to your friends, family and other networks. 

My favorite election day t-shirt is from MassVote, and it says: VOTE. EVERY TIME.

>> WHY IT'S IMPORTANT YOU VOTE--AND VOLUNTEER--THIS THURSDAY

I'm going to talk turkey here. There are no big, tight elections for us in Needham. The Governor's Council race is the biggest unknown, but that is hardly a headline grabber for occasional voters.  (I promise to have a recommendation soon, which I will post here; I am still gathering info.).

It IS the statewide primary, which means that we can vote for ELIZABETH WARREN.  It also means that we'll be voting for the first time for our NEW CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, MA-04 (we used to be MA-09, with Stephen Lynch). MA-04 is represented by Barney Frank, who is retiring. So THURSDAY we will vote for who we want to replace him (and of course, we'll vote again in November).

Turkey talking: Joe Kennedy will win the election on Thursday. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't vote--or that you shouldn't help GOTV (get out the vote):

• Getting out the vote for the primary is an important dry run for Election Day in November, where Elizabeth Warren's tight race, and Obama (not so tight in MA) will be on the ballot. 
• It's a dry run for the VOTERS (a primary day voter will be more likely to turn-out on Election day) 
• and it's a dry run for the VOLUNTEERS (practice and familiarization with GOTV activities like poll checking, GOTV canvassing and calls)
• (Not to mention that we want our future Democratic Congressman to have a strong showing!)

NOW I'M GOING TO TELL YOU THAT TO HELP ELECT ELIZABETH WARREN -- YOU SHOULD VOLUNTEER FOR JOE KENNEDY THIS WEEK AND ON THURSDAY:

1. We know that if every registered Democratic voter gets out to vote on Nov. 6, Elizabeth Warren will win. 
2. Because Elizabeth Warren is uncontested on Thursday, and because Obama is not on the ballot on Thursday, those campaigns are not going to be investing too many resources in GOTV 
3. And, on any given day of the week, Needham is ONE town among 350 that the Warren campaign has to cover.
4. On the other hand, Needham is one of 34 towns that Kennedy has to cover. 
5. Using crude math, Needham is 1/34 of the attention of the Kennedy campaign, but 1/350 of what the Warren team needs to cover.
6. But remember--JOE KENNEDY calls/doors DO help Elizabeth Warren, a lot. 
1. Democratic voters sat out in January 2010. We have to activate them again, and Joe Kennedy's campaign has the resources/time/attention to give to Needham to help us do that on Thursday. 
2. It's money on the table, so help out Joe Kennedy on Election Day, September 6, to help elect Elizabeth Warren! Contact Rachael, Needham's Kennedy Field Organizer: rgoldenberg@joekennedy2012.com

Gobble gobble.
_____
shortlink to here: http://hmny.me/VoteTHURSDAY_2012September6

Polarization and the Fetishization of the Mythical Center

Paul Krugman on: "Reasonable Republicans?"

"Several commenters have asked that I provide examples of Republicans making reasonable economic arguments; some of them seem to be saying that I’m proving my bias if I don’t provide such examples. 

But it doesn’t work that way: if all Republicans are saying unreasonable things, then it’s a distortion — indeed, a form of bias — to insist that there must be reasonable Republicans. 

Now, what you can quite easily find are examples of people who used to be Republicans, or even still consider themselves Republicans, saying reasonable things — say, Bruce Bartlett or David Frum. But the very fact that they’re reasonable has led to their excommunication from the movement! 

It’s kind of the “treason never prospers” argument (“for if it prospers, none dare call it treason”); if someone declares--

• that tax cuts don’t pay for themselves, or 

• that printing money when you’re in a liquidity trap isn’t deeply inflationary, or 

• that fear of Obamacare isn’t holding the economy back, 

--he ceases to be considered a member in good standing of the GOP. There are, therefore, no reasonable Republicans on these issues."

______________

Medicare: It's Socialized Medicine and It Works.

The reason Medicare costs are growing is because it covers ONLY the *most expensive*, sickest population: elderly people.  There are no healthier (less costly) enrollees (younger people) to spread out the costs.

Also... Like medicine ACROSS THE BOARD, for everyone, costs have been rising for decades, and they seriously need to be put in check.

But the problem isn't that we're spending too much on Medicare: the problem is that US medical care costs too much. (Other countries get much more out of every medical-dollar--they spend less and  have better health outcomes!).

"Obamacare" made a noble first pass at fixing the obvious problems that slow this too-fast growth of Medicare (which every conservative complains about) over the next decade:

• eliminate overpayments to private insurers, 
• reform provider payments to encourage greater efficiency, 
• tie reimbursements to improvements in economic productivity, 
• and reduce fraud and abuse.
• (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)

These changes are where the "$700billion" comes from.

Very, very cynically, Romney/Ryan are savaging Obama for "robbing Medicare of $700billlion"---but THEIR Medicare plan preserves those very "cuts"/savings!! AND then uses them to pay for their massive tax cuts!

• The Ryan-backed GOP budget maintains these cuts, but rather than using them to improve the Medicare program, it applies the savings to pay for massive tax cuts. As the budget chairman himself admitted during an April 5, 2011 speech at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), “We retain the Medicare savings” — and that’s not all. The Republican blueprint transforms the existing Medicare benefit guarantee into a premium support program that would provide seniors with depreciating vouchers to buy insurance from private plans. (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)
• (Ezra Klein, in the 5th paragraph, gives plan details/citations in the legislation)

This kind of massive whopper of a lie is par for the course with the conservative chatterers and the Romney (Now Romney/Ryan) campaign. But it's a biggie, because Medicare is a major issue for the electorate.  And it turns out that a massive majority of Americans do not like the Ryan and Romney plans to voucherize Medicare. 

And: on top of the savings ("cuts" as Romney/Ryan call it) from Obamacare (which Romney/Ryan keep)--Romney's plan would institute another $2 BILLION IN CUTS (Klein, last paragraph). ??!! They can't have it both ways--complaining about the "cuts"/savings then keeping them AND ADDING TO THEM. 

The truth hurts Romney/Ryan. Which is why they are lying, distorting, obfuscating and muddying to keep the less-informed voter confused.  

They cannot be allowed to get away with it.

Ayn Rand. Sociopath.

Now that we have a real live Ayn Rand worshiper running for vice president of the United States, I'm excising this short Rand reading list from the Teaparty entry elsewhere on this blog, in anticipation of more Rand gems to add in the coming months.

What a sad, broken and destructive woman. Our curse that she has infected our political id so inextricably.

for an a good primer on Rand herself and a great listen--play the AUDIO ONLY youtube clip--it's just audio, press play and browse in another window while you listen.

The woman, her life/story and philosophy

• I, me, mine: the unholy trinity to ayn rand « Tomfoolery - (1/23/2011) http://bit.ly/PddnGb
• Slate Book Review: "The Perverse Allure of a Damaged Woman"(Nov 2009
• " thrilling psychological portraits of a horribly damaged woman who deserves the one thing she spent her life raging against: compassion."
• Stranded in New Mexico - AYN RAND: SOCIOPATH, ATHEIST, PHILOSOPHER OF SELFISHNESS (7/1/2012)  http://bit.ly/MRC9t8
• Ayn Rand was fascinated w/ a gruesome serial killer (AlterNet, 1/2011)

Ryanomics = Romneyomics

5 Things Paul Ryan Actually Believes:

1. Really believes in ending Medicare as we know it
2. Really believes in ending Medicaid as we know it
3. Really pushed for privatizing Social Security
4. Really would decimate government funding to the point of failure to perform routine operations
5. Really wants to enact the biggest transfer of wealth in modern US history--from the middle-class and poor to the rich

Read more about these 5 items at the link

David Axis-of-Evil Frum (W's speechwriter) maps Ryan's Plan out for us:

• He's wrong to believe that today's economic problems are caused by fears of tomorrow's debts. Ryan's plan implies a promise that we can create jobs in 2013 by restraining Medicare costs after 2023. That's ideology talking, not economics.
• He's wrong to say that the US faces an imminent debt crisis. Today's big deficits are the consequence, not the cause, of the weak economy.
• He's wrong to treat the Medicare cost problem in isolation from other aspects of the healthcare cost problem. You can't force healthcare costs down generally by dealing with Medicare alone. And if you do deal with Medicare alone, you risk stranding seniors with inadequate resources as healthcare inflation continues to rage.
• He's wrong to bet the house on premium support without any certainty that it will work. We 
• should test whether this idea will deliver as promised. (Calling Jim Manzi, author of the new book about the need for public-policy testing, Uncontrolled!)
• Above all: Paul Ryan is wrong, wrong, wrong to imagine that a society can deal with rising social-insurance costs while entirely exempting Republican-voting age cohorts and without asking for anything from its richest people—in fact while simultaneously delivering those people a huge tax cut.
• Read more: David Frum - What's Right and Wrong in the Ryan Plan - The Daily Beast (8/11/2012) http://bit.ly/Sa3DfV

Top 10 Ways Ryan Budget Hurts the Middle Class

1. It caters to the 1 percent. 
2. It ends Medicare as we know it. 
3. It eliminates the health care safety net. 
4. It increases unemployment. 
5. It threatens our economic competitiveness. 
6. It showers money on Big Oil. 
7. It devastates Social Security. 
8. It shortchanges K–12 education. 
9. It shortchanges higher education. 
10. It ignores the wishes of the American people.

Read more at: Center for American Progress: Top 10 Ways the Ryan Budget Hurts the Middle Class - (3/21/2012)



12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan
(8/11/2012) http://bit.ly/R06n4x

1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand. 
2. Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cut them for millionaires. 
3. Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system. 
4. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.”
5. Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years. 
6. Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students.
7. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil. 
8. Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies .
9. Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.”
10. Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.” 
11. Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget. 
12. Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.

Disenfranchisement and race and poverty

Scott Brown objects to registering poor people

• By the way: the cosst of implementing voterID in MA? $23Million:  http://www.democrats.org/the-real-cost-of-photo-id-laws
• Romney Passes Welfare-Queen Card To Scott Brown For Voter-Registration Gambit | The New Republic (8/10/2012)  http://bit.ly/PL7fCY
• "In many other states, Republican-dominated legislatures have been moving in the opposite direction, trying to make the voting process more burdensome either by cancelling early voting or requiring government-issued picture IDs. Those rules — which disproportionately affect poor people, who lack cars and driver’s licenses — are aimed at keeping people away from the polls; in that context, it’s easy to see why Brown would assume that any move to increase registration would be politically motivated. / But even in a politically charged environment, making it easier for qualified voting-age adults to register to vote and making it harder for them to do so are not equivalent: The state government should be doing all it can to increase participation by qualified voters. There’s nothing sinister in Massachusetts’s commitment to send voter registration forms to poor people, especially to remedy its past failure to follow federal law.making it easier for qualified voting-age adults to register and making it harder for them to do so are not equivalent -- Massachusetts is justified in mailing voting forms to aid recipients - Editorials - The Boston Globe (8/10/2012) http://b.globe.com/OQAVjx
• Deval Rigs Vote For... GOP? - Talking Politics  http://bit.ly/PFBHhV
• Scott Brown: Encouraging the Base by Discouraging the Vote, Take Two | HesterPrynne (8/9/2012)- http://bit.ly/OQznGd
• Massachusetts is justified in mailing voting forms to aid recipients - Editorials - The Boston Globe (8/10/2012) http://b.globe.com/OQAVjx
• Massachusetts the only state that agreed to send mass mailings in the wake of lawsuits - The Boston Globe [NOT TRUE: ALSO MICHIGAN]- (8/10/2012) http://bo.st/OQBcDd
Watchdog Slams New Scott Brown Attack on Voting Rights of Welfare Recipients | Public Campaign Action (8/8/2012) Fund - http://bit.ly/OQzIca
• Scott Brown demands Elizabeth Warren reimburse taxpayers for vote registration mailings - Political Intelligence - Boston.com (8/10/2012) http://bo.st/OQzPo4
• Brown criticizes voter mailings - Boston.com -(8/9/2012) http://bo.st/MYKGvV
• USAprogressive: DEMOS President Fires Back At Baseless Partisan Attacks (8/9/2012) http://bit.ly/OQzWjg
• Scott Brown Decries Legally Mandated Voter Registration Effort (8/8/2012) http://bit.ly/O9MYwm
• Deb In the City: The cost of politics (8/2012) http://bit.ly/NyUH26
• I believe a democracy is better when more (all?) people participate, so I really like this law. 
•  Because when you can't actually suppress votes, the next best thing is to blow a dog whistle signaling that you regret that you can't.  

Why Some People Don't Vote, Register

• Voting’s Outcasts: Why One in Five Blacks in Kentucky Can’t Cast a Ballot | The Nation (9/18/2012) http://bit.ly/Ob54is
• An abridged history of Conservative voter suppression | Dirt & Seeds (3/28/2011)- http://bit.ly/RHckCM
• Survey Shows Why Many Americans Fail to Vote in Elections - http://bit.ly/OXhGYs -
• Who are the non-voters? : The survey found that nonvoters are disproportionately young, single, less educated and more likely to be of an ethnic minority than infrequent and frequent voters. 40 percent of nonvoters are under 30 years old, compared to 29 percent of infrequent voters and 14 percent of frequent voters. Infrequent voters are much more likely to be married than nonvoters, with 50 percent of infrequent voters married compared to only 34 percent of nonvoters. 76% of nonvoters have less than a college degree, compared to 61 percent of infrequent voters and 50 percent of frequent voters. Among nonvoters, 54 percent are white or Caucasian compared to 60 percent of infrequent voters and 70 percent of frequent voters.
• USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll: Stay-at-home Americans disgusted: why 90 Million Americans Won't Vote in November. – USATODAY.com (8/15/2012) http://usat.ly/PdeqZg
• (Washington): sociological evidence overturns felon voting ban » Citings and Sightings - http://bit.ly/RH59ub (1/2010)
• The surprising ruling, by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle, said the law violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act by disenfranchising minority voters.  The decision is the first in the country’s federal appeals courts to equate a prohibition against voting by incarcerated felons with practices outlawed under the federal Voting Rights Act, such as poll taxes or literacy tests.
• drunkbrad: Poor people choose to be poor--and choose not to register for same reasons (what?) http://bit.ly/OQzul3

Big Lies, False Equivalency, and How Do They Get Away With It?!

BIG LIES

"In the last 30+ years the left has been at a disadvantage because while the Right has always been willing to make bold unsubstantiated statements, some that may have been true but most not, the left has always been science and evidence based. 

While Republicans categorically stated that their policies would work unsubstantiated, Democrats and Liberals seem to be always waiting for data to substantiate. Moreover the media seem to expect more substantiation from the left than the right. How then could President Obama’s birthplace stay in the media as a serious story? How else could the characterization of Obamacare “killing your grandma” be taken seriously? How else could the Romney/Ryan budget be accepted as a viable budget when it fails the simple test of basic arithmetic?" 

{from Senator Harry Reid, A Patriot Ensuring Americans Vote With Eyes Wide Open (8/7/2012)  http://goo.gl/EBVmb }

FALSE EQUIVALENCY

"In modern politics it is cool for pundits to breathlessly claim "Both sides do it" because they are too lazy or dishonest to point out the very big obvious differences. Pundits love to throw their hands up in the air and say that Republicans and Democrats are the same, and people who are frustrated with a broken political system believe it. They are not the same. They are very different. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either intellectually lazy, uninformed or lying to you."
{from Jesse La Greca/Daily Kos: STOP telling me "Both sides do it" - (7/3/2012) http://goo.gl/WmGAF }

this audio clip (above) strips away the lie of "centrism"

HOW DO THEY GET AWAY WITH IT?

"Mitt Romney’s tax and spending plans are so irresponsible, so cruel, so extreme that they are literally incredible. Voters may find it hard to believe anyone would support such things, so they are likely to discount even factual descriptions as partisan distortion. 

The pro-Obama New Priorities PAC stumbled across this phenomena early in 2012 in its focus group testing. When they informed a focus group that Romney supported the budget plan by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and thus championed ending Medicare as we know it while also championing tax cuts for the wealthy, focus group participants simply didn’t believe it. No politician could be so clueless." 

{K vanden Heuvel: Romney’s incredible extremes WaPo (8/2012)  http://goo.gl/VYlX1 }

"This is as loathsome a lie as Romney has told all year -- and given his record, that's not an easy threshold to meet. It's important to realize that this isn't a matter of opinion. CNN's headline over the weekend said, "Romney campaign jabs at Obama over voting rights suit." The headline on the Politico homepage yesterday said, "Obama, Mitt camps spar on military voting." No. Wrong. No one is "jabbing" or "sparring." One candidate lied and got caught. Full stop." 

{Romney gets caught lying about Obama, military voters - The Maddow Blog (8/2012) - http://goo.gl/L748b }

____

Romney Campaign Attacks Obama For Medicare Cuts That Ryan And Romney Have Endorsed | The New Republic (8/2012) http://bit.ly/RFxU8X

• Capturing the cynicism on display here isn't easy. I'm going to try anyway. Yes, the Affordable Care Act includes substantial cuts to Medicare. But Ryan's own budget, which nearly every House Republican voted to pass and which Romney has said he would sign as president, leaves those cuts in place and uses them to finance other priorities.  In other words, the Romney campaign is attacking a proposal that Romney and his allies endorse. The most significant difference between the two sides, at least for the short- to medium-term, is how they handle the savings these cuts generate.

Sabotage!

It's no secret that the day Obama was elected, the Republicans went to work jamming his agenda, to make their number 1 priority, as Senator Mitch McConnell said, unseating him in 2012.

Not jobs.
Not the war.
Not the economy.
Not children.
Not puppies.

Nope. Job #1: Undermining the president and making him a one-termer.

Let's just call it what it is: sabotage.
__

• Biden: McConnell decided to withhold all cooperation even before we took office - The Plum Line - The Washington Post -(8/10/2012) http://wapo.st/OQxZ6E
• "page 207:Biden says that during the transition, he was warned not to expect any cooperation on many votes. “I spoke to seven different Republican Senators, who said, `Joe, I’m not going to be able to help you on anything,’ he recalls. His informants said McConnell had demanded unified resistance. “The way it was characterized to me was: `For the next two years, we can’t let you succeed in anything. That’s our ticket to coming back,’” Biden says."
• (confirmed by Bob Bennett and Arlen Specter)
• "The Republicans' 2012 election strategy is perversely brilliant: Sabotage President Barack Obama's job-creation efforts, then blame him for the wreckage. This strategy was in action the other day, when Mitt Romney assailed Mr. Obama on the stump. Mr. Romney said that "with America in crisis, with 23 million people out of work or stopped looking for work, he hasn't put forth a plan to get us working again. // Mr. Romney conveniently omitted the fact that Mr. Obama put forth such a jobs plan last autumn. The American Jobs Act would have put as many as 2 million construction workers, cops, teachers and firefighters back to work -- so said economic forecasters -- if only congressional Republicans hadn't dynamited it. // Yes, sabotage was required. Republicans knew their prospects for beating Mr. Obama would be damaged if they signed on to a plan that got more Americans working again. They're far too invested in economic misery to let that happen. As Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell candidly remarked in 2010, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."" (Sabotage Obama: The GOP's Job-Killing Political Strategy is Working Just Fine, July 2012)
• The Guardian: Did Republicans deliberately crash the US economy? Be it ideology or stratagem, the GOP has blocked pro-growth policy and backed job-killing austerity – all while blaming Obama (June 2012)
• 87/2012 @thinkprogress: Herman Cain is hoping for much higher gas prices to improve Romney's chances http://thkpr.gs/RmevK7
• Ryan shunned debt-ceiling standoff "Grand Bargain" bc feared a boost for Obama : Family, Faith and Politics Describe Life of Paul Ryan - NYTimes.com - http://nyti.ms/Nl6hDa
  • Ryan’s enormous influence was apparent last summer when Representative Eric Cantor, the second most powerful House Republican, told Mr. Obama during negotiations over an attempted bipartisan “grand bargain” that Mr. Ryan disliked its policy and was concerned that a deal would pave the way for Mr. Obama’s easy re-election, according to a Democrat and a Republican who were briefed on the conversation.
  • (more on debt deal: Matt Bai - Obama vs. Boehner - Who Killed the Debt Deal? - NYTimes.com (3/28/2012) http://nyti.ms/GTj3Bj )

Big, Big Government!!

"As conservatives continue to decry supposed booming growth in the size of the American government, the public sector lost another 9,000 jobs in July, according to the Labor Department report released Friday. The public sector, comprised of federal, state, and local government employees, has now cut more than 680,000 jobs since 2009, the worst three-year period on record. Without those public sector cuts, the unemployment rate would be a full-point lower. And that growing American government? It is now smaller than it has been since 1968, according to a Federal Reserve Economic Data chart published by The Atlantic’s Jordan Weissman:

Upgrading the Vote in Massachusetts

UPDATE: Bad news--this great reform package died in the last days of the session. Let's not let that happen next session. keep on those legislators.

ACTION NEEDED ON GOOD ELECTION REFORM / TIME SENSITIVE!
shortlink to this page: http://hmny.me/elexnreform2012
If we want to change our country's politics, we need to have a plan for long-term change, and that means growing the voting base for elections in the future. Conservatives would have you believe that "liberals" want to do this by sneaking "illegals" into the polls, have dead people vote, and otherwise committing mass voter fraud. That both illogical and ridiculous.

Remember hanging chads?

What we need to do is engage the people who will be future voters (young people), bring back to the process those who need to update their voting status (people who have changed addresses, students, new residents), engage those who have dropped out of the process (the cynical/apathetic), and be guaranteed that our elections are sound--that every vote is counted (no hanging chads).

There is a good election reform bill on Beacon Hill that has passed the House--but is currently waiting on the Senate. With only 5 odd weeks left in the session, if the Senate doesn't act quickly, this good Election Reform bill will die--and we won't have a chance to implement these NEEDED reforms before November elections. That's why you need to call your State Senator TODAY.

Economic Amnesia (More Trickle Down)

The conventional wisdom is that the fate of the presidential elections will rely a lot on how the economy is doing in the fall. For this reason, many have said--even top Republican advisors, out loud!--that Republicans are purposefully hampering the economy in order to kneecap the president and his chances for re-election in 2012.
Meanwhile, recessions have cycles, and while we're not out of it by any stretch, there are signs of improvement. Even Republican governors are contradicting Romney's narrative of economic doom and gloom.

There is no question that our economy is sputtering along and people are hurting. Pres. Obama and his leadership/policies SHOULD be up for debate and review. And so should Romney's alternatives.

While Romney criticizes the weakness of our recovery and Obama's "failures" to bring us out of it faster/stronger, listen for whatever it is he is saying a "President Romney" would have done differently.

What, exactly, substantially, are his policies? And... Would they work?

• We know that he wouldn't have bailed out Detroit and the auto manufacturers ("Let Detroit go bankrupt").
• We know he wants to cut spending and criticizes the Obama stimulus package of 2009.
• We know he wants significant tax cuts, as well as extension of the Bush tax cuts, which go primarily to the wealthiest. 
• We know that he has accused (falsely) Obama of massively expanding government regulations, and said he'd cut the red tape that's supposedly choking economic growth.
• (Update: Tax Policy Center put together Romney's tax plans based on his statements (given that he hasn't released any specifics) and ran analysis of the numbers. Read the breakdown here: "Why Romney's Tax Plan Is Mathematically Impossible" [Aug 6, 2012, "Next New Deal]) 

So... in response to economic failures of  key industries, he would have done nothing. His response to recession would be cutting taxes for the wealthy and slashing regulations.

Who does this sound like?

There is no meaningful difference between the trickle-down economics of George W. Bush, rejected by the country in 2008, and the plans supported by Mr. Romney and his Republican allies in Congress. All the elements are there, from the slavish devotion to tax cuts for the rich, to a contempt for government regulation, to savage cutbacks in programs for those at the bottom. (The Political Contrast - NYTimes.com (6/14/2012))

And we have a record of how things worked out under these policies:

• Killer Facts on Failure of Bush Economic Policies | Americans for Responsible Taxes - http://goo.gl/3mm6F
• The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush | Politics | Vanity Fair (2007) http://goo.gl/A8gT
• Bush Tax Cuts Have Provided Extremely Large Benefits to Wealthiest Americans Over Last Nine Years — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (7/2012) http://goo.gl/xYxrc
• Presidential Job Records - NYTimes.com - Krugman (May 2012) http://goo.gl/Np9v6
• Mitt Romney and Taxing the Rich -   Lowered taxes on the rich have not correlated with faster GDP growth  - http://goo.gl/UJTR8
• Idea of the Day: Great Recession Could Have Been Prevented by Bush Administration - http://goo.gl/czDgD
• Krugman - Why doesn't Bush get economic credit? - NYTimes.com - 1/28/2008 - http://goo.gl/BU4zv
• Mitt Romney Promises to Create Eleventeen Million Jobs - NYTimes.com (5/12/2012) http://goo.gl/CVmxc -- 
• Romney said that we should be creating 500,000 jobs a month — which almost never happens — and that we should have 4 percent unemployment, which is way below almost anyone’s estimate of the lowest rate we can have without accelerating inflation.
  But he understands the economy, right?
• Since Romney is proposing a complete return to Bush economic policies, it might be interesting to note the average rate of job creation during Bush’s first 7 years in the White House — that is, his record even if you ignore the catastrophe at the end. And that average monthly rate, from the BLS, was … drum roll … 66,000.
• Economists: Romney’s ideas wouldn’t fix short-term crisis, and could make things worse - The Plum Line - The Washington Post (6/7/2012) http://goo.gl/gNKXT

Let's not forget.

_____
Trickle Down, Supply Side

• Tax Cuts For The Rich Do Not Spur Economic Growth: Study | TPMDC (9/17/2012) http://bit.ly/UcApTd

More on economic revisionism:

• Must read: Bruce Bartlett (REAGAN's guy), The Clinton Tax Challenge for Republicans (8/2012)
• Economists to Romney campaign: That’s not what our research says (8/8/2012) http://wapo.st/MjCHN3
• The Whole Story: Chairman Conrad's Response to Republican 'No Budget' Claims:  Senate Budget Committee (4/30/2012) http://goo.gl/svlZ0 

More on economy:

• Those Idiots In Washington Don't Know Jack About The Economy (7/27/2012) Business Insider - http://goo.gl/QwgCC
• Includes 10 economic untruths debunked
• The most important issue in this year's election is the economy. But as a survey of economists by the Chicago Booth School makes clear, the last people you should be listening to about how to fix the economy are the people in Washington. Why? Because they don't know jack about the economy. (Or, more likely, they know something about the economy but they care a lot more about getting elected than fixing the economy, so they'll say whatever they think will get them elected.)
• Ed.: Paul Ryan’s Cramped Vision - NYTimes.com (8/11/2012)  http://nyti.ms/Nhkelx
• A candidate of no details — I’ll cut the budget but no need to explain just how — has named a vice-presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, whose vision is filled with endless columns of minus signs. Voters will now be able to see with painful clarity just what the Republican Party has in store for them.
• Alternet: 8/2012: Obama v. Romney: Two Radically Different Visions Of America's Future   http://bit.ly/PAgGFc:
• We've got a stark choice: do we improve the systems that have made us rich and powerful in the past? Or do we tear them down in the name of "freedom," and hope for the best?
• 8/2012: RT @ThePlumLineGS: In an election all about economy, you'd think there'd be more scrutiny on which candidate's plan would fix it http://wapo.st/OHpEov
• Analyzing Mitt Romney's Plan To Fix The Economy... - Business Insider (July 11, 2012) http://goo.gl/dkImW
• Romney Campaign Said to Ask Rep. Gov Scott to Downplay Job Gains http://t.co/IY648OS5
• Katrina vanden Heuvel: Romney’s incredible extremes - The Washington Post (8/2012)  http://goo.gl/VYlX1 -- "Mitt Romney’s tax and spending plans are so irresponsible, so cruel, so extreme that they are literally incredible. Voters may find it hard to believe anyone would support such things, so they are likely to discount even factual descriptions as partisan distortion."
• Romney's tax plan crunches middle class - Tampa Bay Times 8/6/2012 http://bit.ly/PFAJSS
• Scot Lehigh - Romney's Fanciful Tax Plan- Opinion - The Boston Globe (8/8/2012) http://b.globe.com/PFAW8x
• Wonkbog: The Romney campaign says stimulus doesn’t work. Here are the studies they left out. (8/8/2012) http://wapo.st/O5YqWZ

Blame Bush.

Pretty much.

Go right ahead. Using figures by Reaganomics architect Bruce Bartlett, Andrew Sullivan writes:

When you check reality, rather than the alternate universe constantly created by Fox News and an amnesiac press, you find that Bush had a chance to pay off all our national debt before we hit the financial crisis - giving the US enormous flexibility in intervening to ameliorate the recession. Instead, we had to find money for a stimulus in a cupboard stripped bare - its contents largely given away, by an act of choice. 

I'm tired of being told we cannot blame Bush for our current predicament. 

We can and should blame him for most of it - and remind people that Romney's policies -- more tax cuts, more defense spending-- are identical. 

With one difference: Bush pledged never "to balance the budget on the backs of the poor." Mitt Romney has no qualms about doing that very thing. And he will, if he is given the chance.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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www.thedailyshow.com
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Reaganite Bruce Bartlett (also referenced above) lays it out in black and white: 

Republicans would have us believe that somehow we could have avoided the recession and balanced the budget since 2009 if only they had been in charge. This would be a neat trick considering that the recession began in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.They would also have us believe that all of the increase in debt resulted solely from higher spending, nothing from lower revenues caused by tax cuts.  

And they continually imply that one of the least popular spending increases of recent years, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), was an Obama administration program, when in fact it was a Bush administration initiative proposed by the Treasury Department that was signed into law by Mr. Bush on Oct. 3, 2008. 

Lastly, Republicans continue to insist that tax cuts are highly stimulative, often saying that they add nothing to the debt, when this is obviously ridiculous. 

Conversely, they are adamant that tax increases must not be part of any deficit-reduction package because they never reduce deficits and instead are spent. This is also ridiculous, as the experience of the Clinton administration clearly shows. The new C.B.O. data confirm these facts.

PS:
"According to a new Gallup survey, over two-thirds of the country say Bush deserves either "a great deal" or "a moderate amount" of blame for the economy, compared to just over half who say the same about Obama" (MMFA, Poll Shows Americans Still "Blaming Bush" For Economy | Media Matters for America - http://goo.gl/1p8c4 June 14, 2012 )

Needham Teens Getting Organized for 2012

This past weekend, I met with a small group of Needham teenagers who wanted to learn about how to get involved in President Obama's 2012 reelection. We talked about what a grassroots campaign means--and how important organizing your community is to not just electoral victories, but longterm legislative/policy changes we want to see in the world (the reason why we support one candidate over another, right?). They also understood that Barack Obama's success has been in large part determined by the disposition of US Congress/Senate--and that it's as important to pay attention to races further down the ticket.

Perhaps most importantly, these kids (meant in the best way!) really seemed to GET IT that elections are about long-term changes... And that the day an election ENDS is the day that the real work begins: holding our electeds--for whom we worked to bring into office--accountable to the vision and values that led us to support him/her in the first place.

These five Needham teens closed the day fired up and ready to organize. I left hearing them talk about how to get other teens engaged, ways to get their peers involved, and what they'd need from the community to get going. I can vacillate between varying degrees of hope and despair. But it's scenes like this--where young people are engaging in the process of citizenship--that ultimately keep me the pragmatic realist idealist that I am.

They are planning their inaugural CANVASS on JUNE 23, SATURDAY--the opening plan is to go to New Hampshire to knock on doors for Obama.

They need some drivers to carpool, and Obama needs more volunteers. Can you join them? Let me know.

These 5 teens, 4 of whom can't drive, are the first in Needham to get organized and take action for Obama 2012. Give them a HUGE cheer, and let's let them lead the way!

___
Work on political campaigns and community organizing can count toward Needham High volunteer/community service requirements:

• See the "Politics" section of the guidelines, and see this application for CSL hours!
• Needham H.S. student Ali C. is coordinating the effort for Progressive Mass (includes Obama, Warren, Kennedy and other prog. organizing) for Needham Teens--
• Contact her: acbell5495@gmail.com
• Join the "Grassroots Teens" facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/479985782016675/

For more, from me, on Organizing and 2012 elections, click here.

Stimulus - Response - Stimulus - Response

The flip side of Austerity.  Stimulus = injecting $$ into the economy, to get money flowing again, so people can buy, businesses can expand and hire.  Stimulus is about spending and creating jobs. 

GOP/CONSERVATIVE HYPOCRISY/DOUBLESPEAK ON STIMULUS (they know it works, but campaign against it!)

• Wonkbog: The Romney campaign says stimulus doesn’t work. Here are the studies they left out. (8/8/2012) http://wapo.st/O5YqWZ
• National Memo » LOL Of The Week: Romney Accidentally Speaks The Truth (5/28/2012) http://goo.gl/8CdHY
• In a single sentence, Mitt admitted that everything the GOP has been saying about the economy since 2009 is a lie. Asked why he wouldn’t cut spending immediately, the presumptive nominee said: “Well, because if you take a trillion dollars, for instance, out of the first year of the federal budget, that would shrink GDP over 5%.”
• Chamber Of Commerce Government Spending, Pro-GOP | ThinkProgress (2/2012) 
• the Chamber has a selective memory. It was a leading proponent of Obama’s 2009 stimulus legislation promising that the tax cuts and even many of law’s spending provisions would “provide stimulus and get Americans back to work.” Allen has called the law a “jobless stimulus.” 
• Though the measure passed almost entirely along party lines, the Chamber spent millions in 2010 to defeat the Democrats who backed the bill — and some of that money may have come from foreign businesses. The $789 billion law has been the largest increase in spending in the Obama presidency.
• Romney Bashes Stimulus, Then Fundraises In Home Of Stimulus Recipient | ThinkProgress (May 2012) http://goo.gl/qv4Jy
• Darrell Issa: "I called for these policies (SHH) but everyone knows they don't work" /economists' view, 2/2011
• Allen West: praises work funded by stimulus (tho he is against it) 2/8/2011
• Republicans call for DEFUNDING half-finished projects that they called for (2/8/2011, ThinkProgress)

So much red tape!

Messaging ("Framing") for 2012

Democrats and progressives are terrible about framing our own issues in our way; too often our leaders/spokespeople appear on the defensive, accepting a negative framing of some vote or issue as they try to defend against it. We need to get better at this.

The blog post that I've copied below, from Winning Words Project, is excellent in breaking down what "frames" (or messages) we should be getting out there, to affirmatively own our messages, rather than reactively. (More on framing, from me, here: Messaging, Framing)

Bad framing: David Axelrod on the President's economic message, and then, how he shoulda done it:

The below is from Crooks and Liars:

One of our objectives at The Winning Words Project is to help our elected officials, including (and especially!) the president, articulate the Progressive story so that it:

• Resonates with a wide audience, including Independents and those who fall in the middle of the political spectrum.
• Cuts the Republican smears off at the knees.
• Gives our policies the moral argument that's needed for their acceptance.
• Establishes our own frames without repeating Right Wing frames (which only reinforces them, even when used in debunking them).

Strangely Honest Morning Joe talks MA Senate Race

He's speaking all kinds of sense... and then talks glowingly about Elizabeth Warren in a way I NEVER would have expected. I'm frankly gobsmacked.

Playing the Victim

The idea that Liberals are perpetual victims crops up all the time in conservative talking points. It's a means of derailing conversation without appealing to substance, and demeaning/undermining legitimate historical/institutional injustices to a sneaky/dishonest tactic (see image at left).

So I find myself coming back to this clip from Jon Stewart over and over, because really, he nails it. Worth your time. You can also find it at this link (July 2011, "GOP - Special Victims Unit)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Vast Wasteland.

see Newton Minow, in 2011, talk
about the "Vast Wasteland" speech.
Read brief overview, here

we have the Echochamber of Fox News, but let's be real... the news media as a whole is Not Helping, if your goal is real information, insight, analysis based on facts.

I'll be throwing relevant links of interest about The Media in this thread as I find ones that interest me. For now, here's a good place to start:

• Per a study on "job killer" claims, as discussed in dailyKos: Liars "can count on media quoting w/o pushback, and ultimately treating lies as reality"
• Daily Kos: "Republicans say 'job killer.' Traditional media fails to challenge or fact-check. Then repeats it." http://goo.gl/36nxM (6/14/2012)
• Slide to 10:50 or so for Colbert's laser-focused take-down of the media, which is as relevant today as 2006

 For more recent description of our newsmedia and how it's hurting democracy--see this Bill Moyers interview with Marty Kaplan:
 

KUDOS: MEDIA FIGURES DOING IT RIGHT

• O'Brien holds him to the facts about Medicare: Pawlenty suggests that Soledad O’Brien doesn’t understand English | The Raw Story (8/15/2012) - http://bit.ly/PkIkKj
• O'Brien pins Sununu down on Medicare facts:  Romney surrogate to CNN host: ‘Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead’ | The Raw Story (8/14/2012) http://bit.ly/Re0FfK
• Chuck Todd calls out a Romney surrogate liar on his lie | Eclectablog (8/15/2012) - http://bit.ly/RSV63Q

EXAMPLES OF STUNNING MEDIA FAILURES ON FACTS

• "We Haven't Run The Numbers:" A Startling Ryan Admission That's Getting Little Attention | Blog | Media Matters for America (8/15/2012) http://bit.ly/RWIlH1

MEDIA CONGLOMERATION

• The National Entertainment State, 2006 | The Nation - http://bit.ly/NqrDPD
• Where do Americans get their news and who controls what they consume? Ten years ago, when The Nation first charted a map of the National Entertainment State, four colossal conglomerates spread across the media landscape. Today, that map has significantly changed, because of the rise of new media and a vigorous reform movement, but the old corporate giants still hold most of the cards. Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft are quickly rising, but are not included in this chart because they do not own--not yet, anyway--the major television networks, which remain Americans' #1 source of news.