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RNC member Jeff Kent wants the Democratic Party to rename itself to conform to his Rightwing wacko delusions.
In January of 2007 when ex-KGMI talkshow host Jeff Kent was made Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from the Western Region he was quoted as saying, "As we build momentum toward the 2008 presidential elections and our state’s gubernatorial race, the upcoming campaign season promises to be historic in many ways.".
And 2008 was a historic campaign season, just not historic in the way Kent hoped.
So now, Kent is all sour grapes and unhinged accusation.
A Wall St Journal blog says: "Washington state RNC member Jeff Kent sponsored the resolution pushing the “socialist” label. But he won’t be satisfied if only Republicans start using the label. Kent suggested Democrats should be “truthful and honest with the American people by renaming themselves the Democrat Socialist Party.”"
Policito also quotes Kent as saying: ""There is nothing more important for our party than bringing the truth to bear on the Democrats' march to socialism,” said Jeff Kent, the Washington state committeeman who proposed the resolution. “Just like Ronald Reagan identifying the U.S.S.R. as the evil empire was the beginning of the end to Soviet domination, we believe the American people will reject socialism when they hear the truth about how the Democrats are bankrupting our country and destroying our freedom and liberties." "
It's not really surprising that Kent would be comparing the Democratic Party to the U.S.S.R. since he has a long history of connections to the Rightwing lunatic fringe. Back in the '90's he was closely associated with Whatcom county's terrorist sympathisers, the people who supported the, domestic terrorist, militia movement with their caches of weapons and explosives and their death list of local officials and journalists.
What is surprising is that Jeff Kent, and other nut cases like him, are in the upper echelon of the Republican Party.
The GOP lost big in the 2008 election. Barack Obama was elected President and the Democratic Party expanded its majorities in the House and Senate. The majority gets to rule; that's not socialism, that's democracy.
I can see why the GOP would be unhappy, but invoking the name of the old Soviet Union in their objection to Obama's proposals to pull the U.S. economy back from the brink of disaster is just ridiculous and unhinged.
After the recent astroturf Tea Party and this silly resolution, I think it's the Republican Party that should change its name to the Ridiculous Party. They can keep the initials GOP, because now we know those letters stand for Grotesque Obnoxious Preposterous.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Earth Day
thanks to Andrea for this....let us behave as if our lives depended on it.....
check it out at Meatless Monday
check it out at Meatless Monday
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Wingnuts Squirrelly About ACORN
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We drove into B'ham last Wednesday to see the Tax day tempest in a teapot. I drove and jpeg shot video of the protesters. I estimated the crowd at between 1000 and 1500. An impressive turnout for Whatcom county.
We had a momentary encounter with some of the protesters when we stopped at a traffic signal there on Meridian. You can see & hear it in the video. When they saw jpeg's camera, they asked "Are you from ACORN".
It seemed like an out of nowhere question at the time. We looked carefully for counter-demonstrators as we drove on, and didn't see a single one. As it turns out, wingnut provocateurs had been warning potential attendees that ACORN was going to disrupt their tea party.
And that imaginary threat turned out to be a convenient excuse for the tea party organizers to not produce the sign-in sheets they had originally claimed proved their inflated attendance numbers. The Rightie rumor mill told people not to sign anything at the demonstration because infiltrators from ACORN would be there, gather information on them, with fake petitions and sign-in sheets.
All that talk about ACORN made me curious, so I made enquiries. I don't know everything that goes on in Whatcom County, but I do know people who know people, who know people... who know people. So given a little time, I usually hear something about any sort of political activity that's gone on locally.
Not a word about ACORN, not a single word, and no word about anyone at all making any effort to disrupt the teabaggers party. I saw some of the local MoveOn.org folks, Thursday, and they were busy with other things. The local Peace & Justice folks weren't stirred up. The local Democratic Party barely noticed that the Conservo-publi-tarians were having a public hissy fit on Tax day. Everybody left of center seemed to think there wasn't anything new about people on the Right complaining about taxes and government. And they certainly weren't interested in preventing anyone from exercising their right to free speech on a public street.
But as the '60 song says; "paranoia runs deep" and the Right seems to just loves wallowing in delusions of being plotted against.
Saturday, I attended Congressman Rick Larsen's townhall meeting in Blaine. In the foray of the city hall, as I signed in, someone in the line behind me said, "Ah, ACORN is here". I looked around the room and couldn't figure out what elicited the comment. There were no protest signs, no one was wearing political buttons or an ACORN name tag. There were no young hippie/anarchist types.
ACORN wasn't there but the teabagger's were. As the meeting proceeded, it became clear that about a quarter of the people there were Rightwingers. There were lots of Republican talking points posed as questions.
Congressman Larsen spent much of the Question & Answer time patiently explained what Congress had actually done and not done, as opposed to what the Righties thought was happening. Clearly FoxNews, Michele Malkin, Glen Beck, etc. haven't been giving those folks accurate information.
We drove into B'ham last Wednesday to see the Tax day tempest in a teapot. I drove and jpeg shot video of the protesters. I estimated the crowd at between 1000 and 1500. An impressive turnout for Whatcom county.
We had a momentary encounter with some of the protesters when we stopped at a traffic signal there on Meridian. You can see & hear it in the video. When they saw jpeg's camera, they asked "Are you from ACORN".
It seemed like an out of nowhere question at the time. We looked carefully for counter-demonstrators as we drove on, and didn't see a single one. As it turns out, wingnut provocateurs had been warning potential attendees that ACORN was going to disrupt their tea party.
And that imaginary threat turned out to be a convenient excuse for the tea party organizers to not produce the sign-in sheets they had originally claimed proved their inflated attendance numbers. The Rightie rumor mill told people not to sign anything at the demonstration because infiltrators from ACORN would be there, gather information on them, with fake petitions and sign-in sheets.
All that talk about ACORN made me curious, so I made enquiries. I don't know everything that goes on in Whatcom County, but I do know people who know people, who know people... who know people. So given a little time, I usually hear something about any sort of political activity that's gone on locally.
Not a word about ACORN, not a single word, and no word about anyone at all making any effort to disrupt the teabaggers party. I saw some of the local MoveOn.org folks, Thursday, and they were busy with other things. The local Peace & Justice folks weren't stirred up. The local Democratic Party barely noticed that the Conservo-publi-tarians were having a public hissy fit on Tax day. Everybody left of center seemed to think there wasn't anything new about people on the Right complaining about taxes and government. And they certainly weren't interested in preventing anyone from exercising their right to free speech on a public street.
But as the '60 song says; "paranoia runs deep" and the Right seems to just loves wallowing in delusions of being plotted against.
Saturday, I attended Congressman Rick Larsen's townhall meeting in Blaine. In the foray of the city hall, as I signed in, someone in the line behind me said, "Ah, ACORN is here". I looked around the room and couldn't figure out what elicited the comment. There were no protest signs, no one was wearing political buttons or an ACORN name tag. There were no young hippie/anarchist types.
ACORN wasn't there but the teabagger's were. As the meeting proceeded, it became clear that about a quarter of the people there were Rightwingers. There were lots of Republican talking points posed as questions.
Congressman Larsen spent much of the Question & Answer time patiently explained what Congress had actually done and not done, as opposed to what the Righties thought was happening. Clearly FoxNews, Michele Malkin, Glen Beck, etc. haven't been giving those folks accurate information.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Corporate Astroturf Spectacle
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Schuster: If You're Planning Tea Bagging Across The Country, 'You're Going To Need A Dick Armey'
Schuster: If You're Planning Tea Bagging Across The Country, 'You're Going To Need A Dick Armey'
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tea-ed Off
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I've always associated the term non-partisan with political neutrality rather than simply not being officially sponsored by a political party.
When the League of Woman Voters has a voter registration table at the community college because that's where lots of potential new voters are, that's non-partisan. Their goal; to register voters, with no political agenda about who those newly registered voters might vote for.
Isn't promoting a conservative political agenda just as partisan as promoting a Republican agenda? I think the politics of the organizers is what determines whether an event is or isn't non-partisan. Were 'out of Iraq' or 'impeach Bush' rallies non-partisan because everyone displeased with Bush was invited? I don't remember them being reported as 'non-partisan rallies to End the War/Impeach Bush'.
The April 15 TEA Party is an anti-stimulus package propaganda campaign. A thinly disguised attack on President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress.
We had an election in 2008 and as a result, we have a Democrat in the Whitehouse and a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress. Republicans/conservatives aren't, as they would have us believe, being subjected to tyranny. They just lost the election... the majority rules... democracy works like that.
Nationally, the TEA Parties are being promoted by FoxNews Corp, FreedomWorks which is run by former Republican majority leader Dick Armey and a bevy of Rightwing talkingheads. Locally, the, so called non-partisan, organizing committee for the Bellingham Tea Party have purchased ads in the Lynden Tribune, The Bellingham Herald, KGMI and KAFE radio. Paid appearance fee to KGMI for coverage of the event. Rented Fox Hall for signmaking and solicited business sponsorships from Boston Pizza, Birch Equipment, Print & Copy Factory, Cascade Radio Northwest, Business Club, Day Wireless Systems, Baker Septic.
KGMI will be doing coverage of the "Tea Party" morning "sign making party" and the afternoon sign waving event, but they won't be taking phone calls.
The poster for the "Bellingham Tea Party" is headed "Silent Majority No More!".
This Tea Party political stunt does not represent a majority of Americans. "A new Gallup Poll finds 48% of Americans saying the amount of federal income taxes they pay is "about right," with 46% saying "too high" -- one of the most positive assessments Gallup has measured since 1956. Typically, a majority of Americans say their taxes are too high, and relatively few say their taxes are too low." ... "The poll also finds 61% of Americans saying they regard the income taxes they have to pay this year as fair. There has been very little change on this measure in the last six years."
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll finds that 58% say Barack Obama does have a clear plan for solving the country's economic problems while 74% say Republicans in Congress do not have a clear plan for solving the country's economic problems and 61% think the Republicans in Congress are not doing enough to cooperate with the Barack Obama.
Please take a few minutes to write a letter to the editor, telling how you support President Obama's economic stimulus program. The stimulus package means spending on infrastructure, roads & schools. That infrastructure work will mean contracts going to American companies and that will mean jobs & paychecks for American workers.
You can send your letter to:
The Northern Light
225 Marine Drive, Blaine, WA 98230
fax 360/332-2777
E-mail:editor@thenorthernlight.com
Ferndale Record-Journal
P.O. Box 38, Ferndale, WA 98248
E-mail: news@ferndalerecordjournal.com
Fax: (360) 384-1417
Lynden Tribune
PO Box 153, Lynden, WA 98264
E-mail:editor@lyndentribune.com
Fax: 360-354-4445
Bellingham Herald
The NewsroomAttn: Editorial Page Editor
P.O. Box 1277, Bellingham, WA 98225
E-Mail:letters@bellinghamherald.com
Fax: 756-2826.
I've always associated the term non-partisan with political neutrality rather than simply not being officially sponsored by a political party.
When the League of Woman Voters has a voter registration table at the community college because that's where lots of potential new voters are, that's non-partisan. Their goal; to register voters, with no political agenda about who those newly registered voters might vote for.
Isn't promoting a conservative political agenda just as partisan as promoting a Republican agenda? I think the politics of the organizers is what determines whether an event is or isn't non-partisan. Were 'out of Iraq' or 'impeach Bush' rallies non-partisan because everyone displeased with Bush was invited? I don't remember them being reported as 'non-partisan rallies to End the War/Impeach Bush'.
The April 15 TEA Party is an anti-stimulus package propaganda campaign. A thinly disguised attack on President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress.
We had an election in 2008 and as a result, we have a Democrat in the Whitehouse and a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress. Republicans/conservatives aren't, as they would have us believe, being subjected to tyranny. They just lost the election... the majority rules... democracy works like that.
Nationally, the TEA Parties are being promoted by FoxNews Corp, FreedomWorks which is run by former Republican majority leader Dick Armey and a bevy of Rightwing talkingheads. Locally, the, so called non-partisan, organizing committee for the Bellingham Tea Party have purchased ads in the Lynden Tribune, The Bellingham Herald, KGMI and KAFE radio. Paid appearance fee to KGMI for coverage of the event. Rented Fox Hall for signmaking and solicited business sponsorships from Boston Pizza, Birch Equipment, Print & Copy Factory, Cascade Radio Northwest, Business Club, Day Wireless Systems, Baker Septic.
KGMI will be doing coverage of the "Tea Party" morning "sign making party" and the afternoon sign waving event, but they won't be taking phone calls.
The poster for the "Bellingham Tea Party" is headed "Silent Majority No More!".
This Tea Party political stunt does not represent a majority of Americans. "A new Gallup Poll finds 48% of Americans saying the amount of federal income taxes they pay is "about right," with 46% saying "too high" -- one of the most positive assessments Gallup has measured since 1956. Typically, a majority of Americans say their taxes are too high, and relatively few say their taxes are too low." ... "The poll also finds 61% of Americans saying they regard the income taxes they have to pay this year as fair. There has been very little change on this measure in the last six years."
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll finds that 58% say Barack Obama does have a clear plan for solving the country's economic problems while 74% say Republicans in Congress do not have a clear plan for solving the country's economic problems and 61% think the Republicans in Congress are not doing enough to cooperate with the Barack Obama.
Please take a few minutes to write a letter to the editor, telling how you support President Obama's economic stimulus program. The stimulus package means spending on infrastructure, roads & schools. That infrastructure work will mean contracts going to American companies and that will mean jobs & paychecks for American workers.
You can send your letter to:
The Northern Light
225 Marine Drive, Blaine, WA 98230
fax 360/332-2777
E-mail:editor@thenorthernlight.com
Ferndale Record-Journal
P.O. Box 38, Ferndale, WA 98248
E-mail: news@ferndalerecordjournal.com
Fax: (360) 384-1417
Lynden Tribune
PO Box 153, Lynden, WA 98264
E-mail:editor@lyndentribune.com
Fax: 360-354-4445
Bellingham Herald
The NewsroomAttn: Editorial Page Editor
P.O. Box 1277, Bellingham, WA 98225
E-Mail:letters@bellinghamherald.com
Fax: 756-2826.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
an evening with David Suzuki
i had the pleasure last evening of attending the evening with David Suzuki and a very large, enthusiastic crowd at the Mount Baker Theatre. He read from the chapters of his new book co-authored with David Robert Taylor and then delighted, informed and rallied us all to work as if our lives depended on it to save our beautiful home, planet earth.
a couple of my favorite moments from the Q & A.....
and a call to action on October 24th (happy birthday mom ..i wish you could appreciate and participate)
24 October 2009
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION
check it out
and this very funny moment..
full Q & A
Village Books Presents AN EVENING WITH DAVID SUZUKI
David Suzuki points the direction we must take as a society if we hope to meet the
environmental challenges we face in our still-young century. The Big Picture not only identifies the problems we face but proposes solid, science-based solutions, and examines the forces that are preventing real change. These essays tell the story of a species struggling to come to grips with its own biological nature, a nature we must ultimately embrace to live in balance with the systems that sustain us. David Suzuki is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist, and broadcaster, who has written 42 books, and received countless degrees and honors. He is renowned for his radio and television programs that explain the complexities of the natural sciences in a compelling, easily understood way.
Proceeds will benefit Sustainable Connections.
MBT
a couple of my favorite moments from the Q & A.....
and a call to action on October 24th (happy birthday mom ..i wish you could appreciate and participate)
24 October 2009
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION
check it out
and this very funny moment..
full Q & A
Monday, April 06, 2009
Senator Cantwell Visits Whatcom County
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Saturday afternoon Senator Maria Cantwell stopped by to say hello to Whatcom County Democrats. The gathering was held in Bellingham at the Blue Horse Gallery.
Sen. Cantwell was back in Washington State after a week of Senate budget action, and anxious to talk about her work on alternative energy and climate change, Indian affairs, northwest energy supply issues, and more.
The gathering was well attended with a sprinkling of local elected officials in the crowd. County Councilman Carl Weimer was there as well as B'ham's Mayor Dan Pike and assorted city council persons.
Saturday afternoon Senator Maria Cantwell stopped by to say hello to Whatcom County Democrats. The gathering was held in Bellingham at the Blue Horse Gallery.Sen. Cantwell was back in Washington State after a week of Senate budget action, and anxious to talk about her work on alternative energy and climate change, Indian affairs, northwest energy supply issues, and more.
The gathering was well attended with a sprinkling of local elected officials in the crowd. County Councilman Carl Weimer was there as well as B'ham's Mayor Dan Pike and assorted city council persons.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Republican Approval Numbers Plummet
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It's no wonder the Whatcom County Republican Party Chairwoman is advertising her next political stunt as a non-partisan event. This tax-day stunt is part of an astro-turf PR campaign Planned Months Ago by GOP Billionaires that's supposed to convince people that President Obama's economic stimulus plan isn't popular.
Republicans have been glad to give handouts to Wall Street but hysterically opposed to helping Main Street. Now that Americans understand that, Republicans approval numbers are plummeting.
Even Republicans aren't very happy with Republicans
Pew Research Center - The Databank:
It's no wonder the Whatcom County Republican Party Chairwoman is advertising her next political stunt as a non-partisan event. This tax-day stunt is part of an astro-turf PR campaign Planned Months Ago by GOP Billionaires that's supposed to convince people that President Obama's economic stimulus plan isn't popular.
Republicans have been glad to give handouts to Wall Street but hysterically opposed to helping Main Street. Now that Americans understand that, Republicans approval numbers are plummeting.
April 1, 2009 - Quinnipiac University National Poll
Who do you trust to do a better job handling the economy - President Obama or the Republicans in Congress?
President Obama ______ 55%
Republicans in Con ____ 27%
DK/NA _____________ 18%
Even Republicans aren't very happy with Republicans
Pew Research Center - The Databank:
Public approval of the job Republican leaders in Congress are doing has fallen to just 28%, down from 34% a month ago and the lowest level in Pew Research surveys going back 15 years. Slightly more than half (51%) say they disapprove. With the drop in GOP approval, the gap between public evaluations of Democratic and Republican congressional leaders is the largest Pew Research has recorded over the past eight years in which both party's leaders have been evaluated. Currently, 47% of Americans approve of the job Democratic leaders in Congress are doing -- virtually unchanged from a month ago and 19 points higher than the approval rating for Republicans. For most of the past decade, approval of Republicans and Democrats in Congress have tracked very closely together. Since February, the drop in GOP approval has been the steepest among Republicans themselves. Just 43% of Republicans say they approve of the job their party's leaders in Congress are doing -- nearly as many (37%) say they disapprove. ...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
House Operating Budget Press Conference
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Thanks to TVW we get to see Rep. Kelli Linville lead a press conference about the House version of the proposed Operating Budget for 2009-2011.
The cuts suck. But the revenue shortfall is not the fault of Washington State's Democrats. It's part of the global economic cluster F..k. If you want to blame someone, blame the greedy MF'er on Wall St. and their deregulating pals inside the beltway...
Thanks to TVW we get to see Rep. Kelli Linville lead a press conference about the House version of the proposed Operating Budget for 2009-2011.
The cuts suck. But the revenue shortfall is not the fault of Washington State's Democrats. It's part of the global economic cluster F..k. If you want to blame someone, blame the greedy MF'er on Wall St. and their deregulating pals inside the beltway...
The Washington State House of Representatives release their proposed 2009-2011 Operating Budget (HB 1244) during a press conference in Olympia.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Democracy For America, 5th B'day Party
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It's DfA's 5th Birthday. jpeg and I got together with several other DfA members and joined the birthday party conference call.
It was good to hear Dr., Governor, Chairmen Howard Dean. He introduced "Stand With Dr. Dean"
Listen to the DfA birthdya party conference call:
It's DfA's 5th Birthday. jpeg and I got together with several other DfA members and joined the birthday party conference call.
It was good to hear Dr., Governor, Chairmen Howard Dean. He introduced "Stand With Dr. Dean"
Listen to the DfA birthdya party conference call:
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
randized again....!
Today Thom Hartmann had Yaron Brook from the Ayn Rand Institute on and he stated over and over that this economic catastrophe (yet to come, in my opinion) is because of too much regulation...
huh.... Scooby doo moment for sure.... and several repeats of that as he claimed a real free market would work it out. Bad stuff would get "flushed out of the system." and we'd "get rid of bad players".... we just need to let the market place decide.
My big question for the yaron is: when you say get rid of the "bad players" what does that mean? Does it mean they get to take the money and go away?? Do they get to immigrate to Paraguay (land of very large aquifers) and buy up some property?? And what about the State of California's retirees?
I say this is no booboo (or as i like to say..."don't you teenage boy me!!!") this is a crime and I want the "bad players" held responsible, not paid off.
still best said by Stephen Colbert linked in previous post
huh.... Scooby doo moment for sure.... and several repeats of that as he claimed a real free market would work it out. Bad stuff would get "flushed out of the system." and we'd "get rid of bad players".... we just need to let the market place decide.
My big question for the yaron is: when you say get rid of the "bad players" what does that mean? Does it mean they get to take the money and go away?? Do they get to immigrate to Paraguay (land of very large aquifers) and buy up some property?? And what about the State of California's retirees?
I say this is no booboo (or as i like to say..."don't you teenage boy me!!!") this is a crime and I want the "bad players" held responsible, not paid off.
still best said by Stephen Colbert linked in previous post
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Colbert nails this one....
i remember reading rand as a teenager and thinking it was wondraful....my aunt cautioned me and now as i look at our national disorder,(well, one of them) narcissitic personality disorder, it makes sense to me. i love his analysis, "Preachy and Can Be Used To Justify Anything"
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Doug Ericksen (R-Doom & Gloom)
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As we've all come to expect, Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale) once again has declared to reporters that a Bill passed by Democrats will bring on the end of the world.
But this time, Doug seems to be running on auto-pilot. Brad Shannon of the Olympian reports; "Republican Rep. Doug Ericksen of Ferndale warned it will force industry to leave the state, pushing jobs to China."
Doug's statement is really quite odd since the Bill "links grant awards from the Public Works Board and other programs to local government's progress toward state climate-change goals." and has nothing to do with 'industry' ...or any form of private enterprise, for that matter.
Doug has been in the State Legislature for quite a few years and he continually says everything Democrats do is bad for business and magazines like "Forbes" keep rating Washington State up at the top in their yearly "The Best States For Business" articles.
As we've all come to expect, Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale) once again has declared to reporters that a Bill passed by Democrats will bring on the end of the world.But this time, Doug seems to be running on auto-pilot. Brad Shannon of the Olympian reports; "Republican Rep. Doug Ericksen of Ferndale warned it will force industry to leave the state, pushing jobs to China."
Doug's statement is really quite odd since the Bill "links grant awards from the Public Works Board and other programs to local government's progress toward state climate-change goals." and has nothing to do with 'industry' ...or any form of private enterprise, for that matter.
Doug has been in the State Legislature for quite a few years and he continually says everything Democrats do is bad for business and magazines like "Forbes" keep rating Washington State up at the top in their yearly "The Best States For Business" articles.
Friday, March 06, 2009
Does Bill O'Reilly Have The Balls To Meet The Challenge?
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BillO loves to toss around those labels. He's quick to judge and even quicker to condemn. Now SEIU is challenging him to come find out who they really are. BillO's usual M.O. is to send out one of his flunkies to do an ambush 'interview'. Will he have to guts to go himself and actually learn something?
SEIU Members respond to a baseless attack from Bill O'Reilly by issuing a challenge for the "news" man to walk a day in the shoes of a union member.
Learn more and send a message to BillO: HERE
BillO loves to toss around those labels. He's quick to judge and even quicker to condemn. Now SEIU is challenging him to come find out who they really are. BillO's usual M.O. is to send out one of his flunkies to do an ambush 'interview'. Will he have to guts to go himself and actually learn something?
SEIU Members respond to a baseless attack from Bill O'Reilly by issuing a challenge for the "news" man to walk a day in the shoes of a union member.
Learn more and send a message to BillO: HERE
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Ericksen Alert! - Doug Sez; Damn The Homeless, Protect The NIMBY's
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My GoogleNews Alert read:
And I thought I'd struck gold... I could see my headline "Ericksen (R-Ferndale) Against Breast-feeding", but no such luck... Ericksen was being quoted about opposing a different Bill.
Even so; does Ericksen (R-NIMBY) think the homeless are a safe target? Or maybe he just thinks nobody here in the 42nd LD is watching his antics...
My GoogleNews Alert read:
Breast-feeding in public protected by Wash. bill
Seattle Times - Seattle,WA,USA
Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, said the bill was just another case of the Democratic majority in Olympia mandating what city and county councils can and can't ...
And I thought I'd struck gold... I could see my headline "Ericksen (R-Ferndale) Against Breast-feeding", but no such luck... Ericksen was being quoted about opposing a different Bill.
Even so; does Ericksen (R-NIMBY) think the homeless are a safe target? Or maybe he just thinks nobody here in the 42nd LD is watching his antics...
... House lawmakers also approved a bill that would bar city and county ordinances that unreasonably prevent churches from providing shelter or housing to the homeless. The bill also would block cities and counties from forcing churches to have liability insurance related to their homeless housing operations.
Supporters said local governments that block outreach efforts to the homeless are trampling on a church's religious rights.
But opponents of the measure, including Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, said the bill was just another case of the Democratic majority in Olympia mandating what city and county councils can and can't do.
"From the big brothers in Olympia, this is an interesting piece of legislation," Ericksen said. "Nobody is against the free expression of religion, but ... there are certain groups who have tried to utilize this exemption to be able to go into certain places and exercise a political agenda."
...full article
Monday, March 02, 2009
t boone alert ....again
For some mysterious reason, as I prepared to listen to Thom Hartmann today, a segment of a David Bender show where he had t boone pickens on as his guest, started playing. I was horrified to hear David Bender singing the praises of t boone pickens. Wow!
Not one important question was asked of him. Not a single mention of hydraulic fracture drilling or the mystery chemicals used in the barbaric practice or how the big natural gas boys are planning more drilling all over the country and they don’t think it’s any of our damn business what chemicals they are using.
He says t boone has a new clean energy plan for America. No more of that “nasty foreign oil.” This man is using barbaric techniques to extract our natural gas from the earth to profit enormously selling it back to us. And he can't seem to buy up enough water in Texas. He is being adulated as our great new innovator-in-chief as the extracting of natural gas is poisoning our precious drinking water.
David went on and on about how the t boone man had been sooooo patriotic to spend $58,000,000 of his own money to help America. He couldn’t promote him enough!!! Yikes! Hey t boone…. Stop doing America your favors….
A real hero would be someone who was indeed trying to move us to solar and wind AND most importantly helping us power down, as if our lives depended on it, and preparing us to share the dwindling resources of planet earth, NOT POISONING OUR WATER! I hope our leaders and representatives don’t drink the kool aide, but I fear they will. And the marketing (lobbyists) is the slickest, most bankrolled the world has seen. Wheeee…get out your grandchildren and great….great….great….great.…great….great grandchildren’s credit cards cuz seven generations is being reinvented by some very greedy people.
WAKE UP AMERICA!
earlier t boone alert
Not one important question was asked of him. Not a single mention of hydraulic fracture drilling or the mystery chemicals used in the barbaric practice or how the big natural gas boys are planning more drilling all over the country and they don’t think it’s any of our damn business what chemicals they are using.
He says t boone has a new clean energy plan for America. No more of that “nasty foreign oil.” This man is using barbaric techniques to extract our natural gas from the earth to profit enormously selling it back to us. And he can't seem to buy up enough water in Texas. He is being adulated as our great new innovator-in-chief as the extracting of natural gas is poisoning our precious drinking water.
David went on and on about how the t boone man had been sooooo patriotic to spend $58,000,000 of his own money to help America. He couldn’t promote him enough!!! Yikes! Hey t boone…. Stop doing America your favors….
A real hero would be someone who was indeed trying to move us to solar and wind AND most importantly helping us power down, as if our lives depended on it, and preparing us to share the dwindling resources of planet earth, NOT POISONING OUR WATER! I hope our leaders and representatives don’t drink the kool aide, but I fear they will. And the marketing (lobbyists) is the slickest, most bankrolled the world has seen. Wheeee…get out your grandchildren and great….great….great….great.…great….great grandchildren’s credit cards cuz seven generations is being reinvented by some very greedy people.
WAKE UP AMERICA!
Buried Secrets: Is Natural Gas Drilling Endangering U.S. Water Supplies?
by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - November 13, 2008 1:00 pm EST
In July, a hydrologist dropped a plastic sampling pipe 300 feet down a water well in rural Sublette County, Wyo., and pulled up a load of brown oily
water with a foul smell. Tests showed it contained benzene, a chemical believed
to cause aplastic anemia and leukemia, in a concentration 1,500 times the level
safe for people.
The results sent shockwaves through the energy industry and state and federal regulatory agencies.
Sublette County is the home of one of the nation's largest natural gas fields, and many of its 6,000 wells have undergone a process pioneered by Halliburton called hydraulic fracturing [2], which shoots vast amounts of water, sand and chemicals several miles underground to break apart rock and release the gas. The process has been considered safe since a 2004 study [3] (PDF) by the Environmental Protection Agency found that it posed no risk to drinking water. After that study, Congress even exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Today fracturing is used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States.Cathy Behr (Credit: Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)
.........In mid-August, the Colorado debate intensified when news broke that Cathy Behr, an emergency room nurse in Durango, Colo., had almost died after treating a wildcatter who had been splashed in a fracking fluid spill at a BP natural gas rig. Behr stripped the man and stuffed his clothes into plastic bags while the hospital sounded alarms and locked down the ER. The worker was released. But a few days later Behr lay in critical condition facing multiple organ failure.
Her doctors searched for details that could save their patient. The substance was a drill stimulation fluid called ZetaFlow, but the only information the rig workers provided was a vague Material Safety Data Sheet, a form required by OSHA. Doctors wanted to know precisely what chemicals make up ZetaFlow and in what concentration. But the MSDS listed that information as proprietary. Behr’s doctor learned, weeks later, after Behr had begun to recuperate, what ZetaFlow was made of, but he was sworn to secrecy by the chemical’s manufacturer and couldn’t even share the information with his patient.
News of Behr’s case spread to New York and Pennsylvania, amplifying the cry for disclosure of drilling fluids. The energy industry braced for a fight.
........Thanks in large part to hydraulic fracturing, natural gas drilling has vastly expanded across the United States. In 2007, there were 449,000 gas wells in 32 states, thirty percent more than in 2000. By 2012 the nation could be drilling 32,000 new wells a year, including some in the watershed that provides drinking water to New York City and Philadelphia [4], some five percent of the nation's population.
The rush to drill comes in part because newly identified gas reserves offer the nation an opportunity to wean itself from oil.
Natural gas, as T. Boone Pickens said recently, is "cleaner, cheaper… abundant, and ours." Burning gas, used primarily to heat homes and make electricity, emits 23 percent less carbon dioxide than burning oil. Gas is the country's second-largest domestic energy resource, after coal.
full article
earlier t boone alert
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Rick Santelli - Asshole of the Apocalypse
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Holy cow! Here's one time when guys can say they read Playboy for the articles and mean it. A detailed article exposing how that business news peckerwood Rick Santelli is in the pay of the ultra-rightwing Koch family and his TV rant was the opening shot of an astroturf campaign to stop Obama from fulfilling his campaign promises.
Holy cow! Here's one time when guys can say they read Playboy for the articles and mean it. A detailed article exposing how that business news peckerwood Rick Santelli is in the pay of the ultra-rightwing Koch family and his TV rant was the opening shot of an astroturf campaign to stop Obama from fulfilling his campaign promises.
02.27.09 1:40 PM CST • Politics • Playboy Staff
Backstabber: Is Rick Santelli High On Koch?
By Mark Ames and Yasha Levine
...
What we discovered is that Santelli’s “rant” was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a “Chicago Tea Party” was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing
John Birch Society.
As you read this, Big Business is pouring tens of millions of dollars into their media machines in order to destroy just about every economic campaign promise Obama has made, as reported recently in the Wall Street Journal. At stake isn’t the little guy’s fight against big government, as Santelli and his bot-supporters claim, but rather the “upper 2 percent”’s war to protect their wealth from the Obama Adminstration’s economic plans. When this Santelli “grassroots” campaign is peeled open, what’s revealed is a glimpse of what is ahead and what is bound to be a hallmark of his presidency.
...
So today’s protests show that the corporate war is on, and this is how they’ll fight it: hiding behind “objective” journalists and “grassroots” new media movements. Because in these times, if you want to push for policies that help the super-wealthy, you better do everything you can to make it seem like it’s “the people” who are
“spontaneously” fighting your fight. As a 19th century slave management manual
wrote, “The master should make it his business to show his slaves, that the advancement of his individual interest, is at the same time an advancement of theirs. Once they feel this, it will require little compulsion to make them act as becomes them.” (Southern Agriculturalist IX, 1836.) The question now is, will they get away with it, and will the rest of America advance the interests of Koch, Santelli, and the rest of the masters?The full article: http://www.playboy.com/blog/2009/02/backstabber.html
Friday, February 27, 2009
Energy, Is It Clean OR Safe Just Because PR Guys Say So?
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But not to be out done by the Clean Coal people, the Nuclear Power people have come up with the phrase "carbonless energy parks" to describe four unfinished nuclear plants left mothballed from the costly WPPSS fiasco. And they've enlisted 40th District Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon to the cause.
Get clean coal clean! (NEW Air Freshener)
http://www.thisisreality.org/ In reality, there's no such thing as clean coal. Learn more. Join the campaign.
But not to be out done by the Clean Coal people, the Nuclear Power people have come up with the phrase "carbonless energy parks" to describe four unfinished nuclear plants left mothballed from the costly WPPSS fiasco. And they've enlisted 40th District Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon to the cause.
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