Democrashield
emmagold
Filed under: Conservatives, Economics, Government, House, Progressives, Senate | Tags: Congress, Democrats, Economy, Filibuster, Jobs, Obstructionism, Party Of No, Republicans, Unemployment
Even though unemployment dropped to 9.7% last month, the economy is still suffering.
We need to do more to put Americans back to work, which is why President Obama is urging Congress to pass a jobs bill full of tax breaks for small businesses and other incentives for job creation.
But now there are reports that the GOP may–surprise surprise–filibuster the President’s proposal. Even though millions of Americans are out of work, the GOP wants to stay true to their obstructionist roots to block the creation of millions of new jobs.
My message to Democrats: if the GOP wants to filibuster the jobs bill, let them.
Look, there’s no sense in going to the negotiating table–the GOP will never, ever support a Democratic policy, particularly a policy designed to help millions of Americans. They want to deny President Obama and the Democrats anything even approaching a political victory and they will throw the American people under the bus to do it.
Try to negotiate, Democrats, and you will spend months making concession after concession–and, in the end, you still won’t get any Republican votes. And, by then, the jobs bill will be unpopular simply because the process dragged on for so long–just look at health care reform.
Democrats should just put together the jobs bill they want, and when the GOP tries to filibuster it, let them. And if they succeed, then Democrats should hit them–hard–for killing millions of new American jobs.
Then Democrats should re-introduce the same exact bill and let the GOP filibuster again. And then they should hit the Republicans, again, for killing millions of new American jobs.
And keep doing that, for as long as it takes. Propose the jobs bill, let the GOP filibuster it and then hit the GOP for that filibuster, because it’s time the Republicans started paying a political price for their obstructionism.
Like President Obama said during his State of the Union, if the GOP is going to filibuster everything than they need to take some responsibility for governing this country. If the GOP blocks the jobs bill then they should get the blame for keeping millions of Americans out of work. Democrats should shame them into passing it.
The GOP is playing hardball. It’s about time Democrats started playing hardball, too–especially since Democrats are on the side of the American people, here, and the GOP is out for nothing more than political power.
Filed under: 2010 Election, Conservatives, Corruption, Government, Governors, Progressives, Senate, Terrorism | Tags: 2010, Al-Qaeda, Ambassador, Bill Clinton, Congress, Dan Coats, Democrats, Evan Bayh, George W. Bush, IN-SEN, Indiana, Lobbyists, Republicans, Virginia
Former Indiana Senator Dan Coats (R) is jumping into the ring to take on Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh.
After a decade in the Senate, Coats retired in 1998–ironically while being challenged by Bayh, who at that point was Governor of Indiana.
The GOP sees Coats as a recruiting win, but I don’t exactly know why since Coats hasn’t held elected office in more than a decade and doesn’t even live in Indiana–he lives in Virginia and has been voting there since at least 2000.
In addition Coats, who served as Ambassador to Germany for George W. Bush, is currently a federal lobbyist.
So I don’t get why a Washington lobbyist who lives in Virginia is supposedly the GOP’s savior in Indiana–particularly since he’s up against Bayh, who has been a Senator for the past decade and was Governor for the 8 years before that.
Plus, Bayh has $13 million in the bank–that’s a massive warchest, particularly in Indiana.
Of course, nothing is impossible; if I were Bayh I wouldn’t take anything for granted. But something tells me that Coats’ career as a lobbyist and his sudden return to the state he abandoned more a decade ago could dump some water on the GOP’s ambitions.
UPDATE: And this probably won’t help Coats’ campaign:
Flashback: GOP Senator Challenging Bayh Questioned Clinton’s Motives For Targeting Bin Laden
[...]
[B]ack in 1998, Coats questioned Bill Clinton’s motives in ordering air strikes targeting Osama Bin Laden and associates, in the wake of the bombing of U.S. embassies in east Africa.
Coats hinted it was a wag-the-dog effort to distract from the Monica Lewinsky scandal:
“The president has been consumed with matters regarding his personal life. It raises questions about whether or not he had the time to devote to this issue, or give the kind of judgment that needed to be given to this issue to call for military action.”
This was something of a radioactive position even at the time, and those who voiced similar sentiments came under severe criticism for undermining efforts to counter a genuine terrror threat.
[Emphasis mine]
Filed under: Conservatives, Government, International, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Rights | Tags: Colin Powell, DADT, Democrats, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Mike Mullen, Military, Military Commanders, Naval Academy, Republicans
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supports repealing it.
As does General Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
As do 104 retired military brass, including a former head of the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
In other words, the commanders on the ground are telling us that repealing ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ is the right way to go.
The right may continue slandering our soldiers by claiming that–despite going through the best training in the world and being deployed to some of the most dangerous battlefields out there–American soldiers just couldn’t handle having gay compatriots.
But most people–including an increasing number of military commanders–know that, if American soldiers can handle Al-Qaeda then they can certainly handle having some openly gay colleagues.
17 years of DADT is enough–it’s high time we let all of America’s patriots serve openly.
Filed under: 2010 Election, Conservatives, Economics, Government, Progressives | Tags: 2010, Barack Obama, BEA, Budget, Bureau Of Economic Analysis, Congress, Democrats, Economic Stimulus Package, GDP, Jobs, Republicans, Unemployment
From the Bureau of Economic Analysis:
Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.2 percent.
The White House puts this in context:
The data show that the total output of the U.S. economy increased strongly in the fourth quarter of 2009. Real GDP (that is, GDP adjusted for inflation) increased at an annual rate of 5.7 percent. The change from the first quarter of 2009, when GDP fell at an annual rate of 6.4 percent, is truly extraordinary; indeed, the three-quarter swing in growth rates was the largest since 1981.
[...]
[Click for larger]
This is, undeniably, good news for the country and the American people.
But this is particularly good news for President Obama and Congressional Democrats, since it shows that their economic policies are working. We’ll still have to wait and see how employment fares–since employment is a lagging indicator–but this much GDP growth is a good sign.
On the other hand, this is particularly bad news for Republicans, since they’re relying on continued economic stagnation to help them in the upcoming midterm elections. If Obama and the Democrats turn out to have been right and the economy continues to improve, then I don’t see what the Republicans are going to run on.
Dissatisfaction will only take you so far–if people stop being dissatisfied then Republicans are going to have to come up with actual policies to run on.
[All emphasis mine]
Scott Roeder, the confessed murderer of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, has been found guilty on all counts: 1st degree murder, and two counts of aggravated assault.
Will post a link as soon as I can find one.
Filed under: Breaking, Conservatives, Economics, Government, Progressives, Senate | Tags: Ben Bernanke, Confirmation, Confirmation Vote, Congress, Democrats, Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Chairman, Republicans
The Senate just voted 70-30 to confirm Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for a second term.
11 Democrats, 18 Republicans and 1 Independent voted against re-confirmation. Those 30 votes represent the largest number of ‘nay’ votes ever cast against a nominee for Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Bernanke’s second term will expire sometime in 2014.
Filed under: Conservatives, Government, Media, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Scandal, Senate | Tags: Crime, Democrats, James O'Keefe, Louisiana, Mary Landrieu, Republicans, Stupidity
We have an update this morning on the arrest of conservative activist James O’Keefe–apparently O’Keefe & co. weren’t trying to wiretap Sen. Landrieu’s phones. the Times-Picayune is reporting that they’re being charged with ‘entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.’
Still, a crime is a crime and a felony is a felony. But I expect that the right will complain about the allegations of wiretapping in order to draw attention away from the fact that O’Keefe and his friends quite possibly broke a number of federal laws.
The question is, though, if they weren’t trying to wiretap the Senator’s phones what exactly were they doing?
MSNBC’s First Read brings us this:
A law enforcement official says the four men arrested for attempting to tamper with the phones in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) were not trying to intercept or wiretap the calls.
Instead, the official says, the men, led by conservative videomaker James O’Keefe, wanted to see how her local office staff would respond if the phones were inoperative. They were apparently motivated, the official says, by criticism that when Sen. Landrieu became a big player in the health care debate, people in Louisiana were having a hard time getting through on the phones to register their views.
That is, the official says, what led the four men to pull this stunt — to see how the local staffers would react if the phones went out. Would the staff just laugh it off, or would they express great concern that local folks couldn’t get through?
[All emphasis mine]
So, James O’Keefe & co. quite possibly violated a number of federal laws so they could…break Sen. Landrieu’s phones to see what would happen.
Well, I certainly hope it was worth it…
And this is the guy who’s supposed to be the future of conservative journalism? Are you kidding?
UPDATE: And now some on the right are trying to brush this off as a prank.
Uh, no. ‘Entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony‘ is not a prank–felonies aren’t pranks.
And you know that if a group of progressives had done the same thing to a Republican Senator no conservative would accept ‘it was a prank’ as a defense.
The right’s golden boy caught quite possibly breaking federal laws (and for a pretty stupid reason to boot). Maybe they should stop trying to spin this away and just own up to the fact that James O’Keefe isn’t exactly the sterling anti-corruption crusader they made him out to be.
Filed under: Breaking, Conservatives, Corruption, Government, Media, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Scandal, Senate | Tags: ACORN, Congress, Crime, Democrats, Epic Fail, Fail, FBI, James O'Keefe, Joseph Basel, Lawbreaking, Mary Landrieu, Republicans, Robert Flanagan, Wiretapping
Remember James O’Keefe, the conservative activist who filmed those dubious undercover videos at various ACORN offices?
Well, he was just arrested by the FBI, apparently in an attempt to bug the offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA):
James O’Keefe, the conservative filmmaker who was behind the undercover operations that lead to the ACORN scandal last year, has been arrested with three others for allegedly trying to bug the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), the Times-Picayune is reporting.
[...]
FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes alleges that O’Keefe aided and abetted two others, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who dressed up as employees of a telephone company and attempted to interfere with the office’s telephone system.
[Emphasis mine]
So, apparently James O’Keefe is so concerned about government corruption that he had his friends dress up like telephone company employees and tried to illegally wiretap a United States Senator.
Remember, O’Keefe’s ACORN investigation broke a number of anti-wiretapping laws, so it looks like this publicity stunt is simply an extension of his lawbreaking MO.
The right touted James O’Keefe as a conservative anti-corruption crusader, but he’s looking more and more like a common criminal.
(Or maybe like a reality TV star, willing to go to any length for the limelight. O’Keefe should team up with Balloon boy’s dad–that is, whenever they’re both out of jail).
UPDATE: Andrew Breitbart, who was instrumental in publicizing O’Keefe’s dubious ACORN videos, had this to say:
I need to find information on this. I’m out of the loop on this. I will make my determination then on when to comment.
TPM’s headline for that piece was ‘More Liddy Than Woodward & Bernstein?’
Yeah, that’s what we on the left have been saying for a while now–and it’s about time O’Keefe’s underhanded tactics caught up with him.
UPDATE II: Read the FBI affidavit here.
UPDATE III: There might be more here than meets the eye–Jonathan Turley reports that one of the people arrested with O’Keefe, Robert Flanagan, is the son of William J. Flanagan, who is the Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana.
It’s kind of a big deal when the son of a US Attorney is arrested trying to wiretap the office of a United States Senator.
Filed under: 2010 Election, Breaking, Conservatives, House, Polls, Progressives | Tags: 2010, Beau Biden, Byron Dorgan, Chris Dodd, Delaware, Democrats, FiveThirtyEight, Joe Biden, Mike Castle, Primary, Republicans
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, has announced that he will not run for his father’s former Senate seat this year.
Despite being a statewide officeholder with a famous name, the younger Biden did not poll well against presumptive GOP candidate Mike Castle–Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight rated Delaware as the 6th Senate seat most likely to change hands in November. It’s quite possible that the appearance of nepotism was dragging the younger Biden’s numbers down.
But Delaware is also a small state, and there isn’t a very deep bench of potential Democratic candidates.
So, Biden’s announcement could be similar to Dodd’s retirement–where Democrats are better off without a big name in the race–or it could be like Dorgan’s retirement–where the Democrats’ one and only chance is walking away.
We won’t know for sure until both sides pick their candidates and we see some good, reputable polls.
Filed under: 2010 Election, Breaking, Conservatives, Government, House, Progressives | Tags: 2010, Arkansas, Breaking, Chad Causey, Congress, Democrats, Jason Willett, Keith Ingram, Marion Berry, Republicans, Retirements, Rick Crawford
Congressman Marion Berry (D-AR) will announce today that he will not seek re-election in the fall.
Chris Cillizza lists some of the potential candidates:
The field to replace Berry isn’t yet set although Democrats mentioned include state Rep. Keith Ingram, Berry chief of staff Chad Causey and Jason Willett, a former state party chair. State Attorney General Dustin McDaniel (D) is regarded as a rising star in the state and would be a favorite if he ran. On the Republican side, broadcaster Rick Crawford is in the race although the field is likely to expand with the Berry announcement.
And before anyone tries to dig up the “Democrats are dropping like flies” meme, keep in mind that Berry is the 12th House Democrat to retire this cycle–meanwhile, 14 House Republicans have declined to seek re-election.
Filed under: Breaking, Corruption, Economics, Government | Tags: Campaign Contributions, Campaigns, Constitution, Corporations, Elections, Money, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Wall Street
Some ominous news from Washington this morning:
The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.
The court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads. The decision almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns and threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.
The justices also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that barred union- and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.
That’s funny–I seem to remember the preamble of the Constitution beginning with “We the People of the United States,” not “We the Corporations of the United States”
I don’t understand the concept of corporate personhood–why should corporations allowed to advertise on behalf of candidates? For that matter, why are they allowed to set up PACs? They’re not allowed to vote, so why should they be able to spend tens of millions of dollars (often on misinformation) to tell the rest of us how to vote?
If the people who work for a corporation feel strongly enough about an issue or candidate, they can certainly spend their own money and campaign on their own time. But money is a massively corrupting influence in politics; letting corporations dump huge amounts of money into our political system is only going to make things worse.
This is why we need publicly funded elections–to prevent “We the People” from becoming “We the Corporations and Special Interests”
(And I like how they throw labor unions in there, as if labor unions will ever come close to being able to rival the profits of all of corporate America).
UPDATE: I had an idea of how to turn this ruling into a win-win situation:
Whenever a corporation spends money on the behalf of a politician, that politician should have to sew a patch bearing that corporation’s logo onto all of their suits, NASCAR-style.
On the one hand, that would provide corporate donors with free advertising–since their logo appears wherever a candidate goes–ensuring that those donors get their money’s worth.
And it also provides voters with insight into which corporations have bought which politicians–this way, we’ll know why the Governor with the ConAgra patch loves ethanol, why the Congressman with the ExxonMobil patch wants to ‘drill baby drill’ and why the Senator with the Blackwater/Xe patch doesn’t think we should leave Iraq anytime soon.
Filed under: 2010 Election, Conservatives, Economics, Government, Health Care, House, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Senate | Tags: Congress, Democrats, Economics, Epic Fail, Fail, Filibuster, Health, Health Care Reform, Jobs, MA-SEN, Massachusetts, Republicans, Special Election, Super Epic Fail, Unemployment
I had some difficulty putting my thoughts on the MA-SEN race in order–that is, until I went to Sadly, No! and found this:
Look, I think the “lesson” of yesterday’s election and voter discontent is pretty clear: Democrats badly underestimated how awful this recession was going to get and when they shifted their focus to health care reform they blithely assumed that the steps they had already taken, from the stimulus to HAMP to Geithner’s brilliant-still-to-be-revealed secret plan for fixing the banks, would start bringing unemployment down and would make for a more favorable political climate this year.
[...]
It’s damn simple — the economy sucks and the measures that the administration have taken have provided very little effective, immediate relief to the average person. So when the health care debate went into a Baucus-induced wankfest over the summer, the Democrats lost a lot of time when they could have been working harder on job creation. If somebody is really suffering, the first thing they want is help. They’ll become concerned about how to pay for it only after they’ve been rescued.
Or, as a famous Louisianan once quipped, “It’s the economy, stupid!”
The Democrats thought they had done enough to fix the economy, so they switched over to health care reform–unfortunately, the economy continued to stagnate.
I know that politics doesn’t happen in a vacuum and that our problems started long before January 20, 2009–but nobody cares about that, people only care that there is no relief in sight.
And, in spending so much time–the better part of a year now–on health care reform, Democrats are giving off the perception that they’re fiddling while Rome burns. They’re letting the economy stagnate while they focus on other things–good things, important things, but things that are not going to fix the economy.
At this point I don’t know what to do with health care reform. My advice to the Democrats would be to just pass whatever you can right now and worry about fixing it later. We’re not going to get a unicorn–or a horse, or a pony, or even an ugly mule–at this point, so we should just get the most we can (like banning discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and granting subsidies to the middle class) and move on. Health care reform has already eaten up far too much time and effort.
As Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wrote:
David Axelrod is right: the campaign against HCR has been based on lies, and the only way to refute those lies (and stop them from being rolled out again and again) is to pass the thing, and let people see it in action. It’s too bad startup is delayed under the Senate bill — but even so, that’s what you have to do.
The Democrats need to shift away from health care reform–their priority for the forseeable future should be the economy. If I were them, my top three goals would be:
- Pass a jobs bill.
- Recoup the TARP money.
- Pass regulatory reform, reigning in Wall Street and preventing the next collapse.
It’s going to be nearly impossible to govern this country now that the Republicans can filibuster everything. Democrats are going to have a tough time this year, and they’re probably going to lose some seats in November. But they can staunch the bleeding–and maybe eventually turn things around–if they make the economy their #1 priority.
UPDATE: Also, while Scott Brown may be the GOP’s golden boy of the moment, keep in mind that he’s up for re-election come 2012. In Massachusetts.
So, unless Brown is content being a partial-term Senator, I highly doubt he’s going to remain a right-wing darling for long.
In fact, Brown could end up being the Dems go-to guy when it comes to peeling off GOP votes in order to beat a filibuster.
If I were in the Senate Democratic leadership, I would go out of my way in order to get to know the junior Senator from Massachusetts and to help him feel right at home in Washington.
Filed under: 2010 Election, Conservatives, Economics, Government, Health Care, Polls, Progressives, Senate | Tags: 2010, Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, DADT, Democrats, Election, Health, Health Care Reform, Jobs, Martha Coakley, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Attorney General, Republicans, Scott Brown, Special Election, Unemployment
The last best hope
Today, everything hangs in the balance.
If Martha Coakley loses today’s special election in Massachusetts, the entire Democratic reform agenda will be jeopardized.
Health care reform–which will provide care to 31 million uninsured Americans, help the middle class buy health insurance with subsidies, and lower the deficit–will not happen.
President Obama’s plan to recoup TARP money–taxpayer money, our money–from the big Wall Street banks will not happen.
Financial regulatory reform–designed to prevent the next major economic collapse–will not happen.
A jobs bill–which will put millions of unemployed Americans back to work–will not happen.
The repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t tell’ will not happen.
These and other important reforms will. not. happen.
It’s hard enough for Democrats to govern as it is, with the constant threat of Republican filibusters hanging over Congress like the sword of Damocles.
If the GOP wins today, governing this country will become downright impossible.
The right-wing obstructionists will rule the day; the United States Congress will be paralyzed. Nothing will get done, nothing will get fixed; our country will remain severely damaged and in need of repair.
Progress is slow. I understand at, and I understand the frustration with the Democrats–I understand that people want everything fixed, now, today. But progress takes time–there’s still a lot of work left to be done.
Giving the Republicans power again will only move us bbck toward the right-wing mismanagement which put us here in the first place. If someone runs your car into a ditch you don’t give them the keys again–you turn to someone else to get you out. It’s common sense.
Politics didn’t start on January 20, 2009–we all remember exactly how we got here. You want America to get out of the ditch we were driven into? Then don’t give the keys back to the folks who put us here in the first place. Keep the Democrats in power. Vote for Martha Coakley.
If you live in Massachusetts get out and vote today. And if you know someone who lives in MA, tell them to go out and vote, too. We can’t afford to take anything for granted.
Because everything hangs in the balance.
[You can find your polling place here]
Filed under: 2010 Election, Breaking, Conservatives, House, Polls, Progressives | Tags: 2010, Arkansas, Congress, Democrats, Numbers, Republicans, Retirements, Tim Griffin, Vic Snyder
Arkansas Congressman Vic Snyder (D) just announced he will not be seeking reelection this year:
Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) announced tonight that he will be retiring at the end of his term, citing the difficult political environment that he would have faced to win an eighth term in the House.
“2010 will be a robust election year during which great forces collide to set the direction for our country for another two years,” Snyder said in a statement.
“I have concluded that these election-year forces are no match for the persuasive and powerful attraction of our three one-year old boys under the leadership of their three-year old brother, and I have decided not to run for re-election.”
He was one of the most vulnerable House Democrats up for re-election, with a SurveyUSA poll released today showing him trailing his Republican challenger Tim Griffin by 17 points.
[Emphasis mine]
For those of you keeping track, Snyder is the 11th House Democrat to announce his retirement this cycle.
To compare, 15 House Republicans have announced their retirements thus far.
Filed under: 2008 Election, 2010 Election, Breaking, Conservatives, House | Tags: 2006, 2008, 2010, Arizona, Congress, Fail, John Shadegg, Majority Leader, Minority Whip, Republican Leadership, Republicans, Retirements
Right-wing darling and GOP leadership also-ran John Shadegg (AZ) just announced that he is retiring from the House of Representatives.
Rep. Shadegg ran for Majority Leader and Minority Whip back in 2006; despite being the favored candidate of the far right, Shadegg lost both elections.
He previously tried to retire during the 2008 election cycle but the Republican leadership talked him out of it, leading to a somewhat-embarrassing flip-flop.
Rep. Shadegg becomes the 15th House Republican to retire this cycle.
Filed under: 2010 Election, Conservatives, Media, Polls, Progressives, Right-Wing Noise Machine, Senate | Tags: 2010, MA-SEN, Martha Coakley, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Attorney General, Massachusetts Senate, Numbers, Polling, Scott Brown
In the Massachusetts Senate special election, a new Research 2000 poll shows Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) beating state Senator Scott Brown (R) by 8 points.
Let’s recap the recent polling on this race:
A poll by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman has Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) beating State Sen. Scott Brown (R) by 14 points.
A poll by Republican pollster Scott Rasmussen has Coakley beating Brown by 9 points.
A Boston Globe poll has Coakley beating Brown by 15 points.
And a Public Policy Polling survey has Brown leading Coakley by one point.
And another, more recent Rasmussen poll has Coakley leading Brown by 2 points.
And in regards to that Rasmussen poll, it’s awfully convenient how, right when Republicans were using that PPP poll as proof their candidate was gaining, Rasmussen put out their own poll–contrary to nearly every other survey out there–showing exactly that.
Especially when you consider that producing polls that reflect the right-wing conventional wisdom (though not always reality) seems to be Scott Rasmussen’s MO.
To recap, we have 4 polls showing Coakley comfortably ahead and 2 (problematic) polls showing her within the margin of error.
And yet, the right has decided this is proof that their candidate is going to win on Tuesday.
You know, just like how Doug Hoffman was going to win in NY-23. And how John McCain was going to win in 2008. And how the Republicans weren’t going to lose Congress in 2006.
Then again, the fact that much of the conservative movement is entirely out of touch with reality isn’t exactly news.
UPDATE:
Filed under: Breaking, Environment, International, Media | Tags: Ban Ki-Moon, Doctors Without Borders, Earthquake, Haiti, Humanitarian Aid, Jean-Max Bellerive, Natural Disaster, Red Cross, Rene Preval, United Nations
The BBC reports:
Haitian President Rene Preval has said thousands of people are feared dead following a huge quake which has devastated the country’s capital.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the head of the UN mission in Haiti and his deputy were among more than 100 staff missing.
The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti’s worst in two centuries, struck south of Port-au-Prince, on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told US network CNN he believed more than 100,000 people had died.
The Red Cross says up to three million people are affected.
Donate to The Red Cross.
Donate to Doctors Without Borders.
Find other organizations currently providing humanitarian aid in Haiti.
UPDATE: Here are some pictures of the disaster from Daniel Morel via Twitpic:
UPDATE II: Here are more pics, this time from Lisandro Suero via Twitpic:
UPDATE III: Here is President Obama’s response to the disaster:
UPDATE IV: CBS brings us some raw footage of the earthquake’s aftermath:
CNN also has a list of organizations currently doing humanitarian aid in Haiti.
UPDATE V: Here’s a quick and easy way you can help out:
The State Department said those interested in helping immediately may text ‘HAITI’ to ‘90999′ and a donation of $10 will be made automatically to the Red Cross for relief efforts. The donation will be charged to your cellphone bill.
UPDATE VI: The UN Dispatch has more on Haiti’s coming challenges:
Once you’ve survived the earthquake, what happens? Haitians now face a daunting set of health challenges, including typhoid, dengue fever, malaria, and getting treatment for serious injuries.
While health information coming out of Haiti is still very sparse, data from previous earthquakes gives us a clear impression of what to expect in terms of health. The initial impact of an earthquake is catastrophic injuries – broken bones, crush injuries, dust inhalation, and burns predominate.
[...]
Social unrest often comes after earthquakes. People get angry with the government’s inability to respond, and fear and helplessness turns easily to violence. There are reports of looting in Haiti. That’s going to mean more injuries by violence.
After the injuries comes sickness. If stringent controls are not put in place, the combination of displaced people and damaged infrastructure will lead directly to epidemics of diarrheal disease over the next few months. In the case of Haiti, the risk is typhoid. It’s already present in the country, and it could spread rapidly if people are crowded together drinking contaminated water. We could also see spikes in dengue fever and malaria if people are living in temporary shelters with little protection from mosquitoes.
This is where disaster relief efforts make a huge difference. By the time the international teams get in, it’s too late to help the severely injured.
UPDATE VII: CBS brings us more raw footage, this time of a rescue attempt from a toppled building:
[All emphasis mine]
Filed under: 2010 Election, Breaking, Conservatives, Governors, House, Polls, Progressives | Tags: Republicans, Democrats, Congress, Governor, Retirements, Colorado, 2010, Bill Ritter, John Hickenlooper, Scott McInnis, Denver
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper (D) announced today that he will run for Governor:
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, will run for governor of Colorado, Democratic and Republican officials told The Associated Press Tuesday.
The officials disclosed Hickenlooper’s plans on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to pre-empt his announcement, expected later Tuesday at the state capitol.
Facing a tough re-election challenge, Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter abruptly announced last week that he would not seek another term. Hickenlooper made it known that he was considering a run, and he was encouraged by President Barack Obama to do so.
The likely Republican candidate is former Congressman Scott McInnis.
While preliminary polling (from Rasmussen, so take it with a large grain of salt) shows McInnis with a slight lead over Hickenlooper, it’s far smaller than the lead he would have had over incumbent Governor Bill Ritter had Ritter decided to run for re-election.
Filed under: 2010 Election, Conservatives, Governors, House, Media, Polls, Progressives, Senate | Tags: 2010, Approval, Byron Dorgan, Congress, Democrats, Earl Pomeroy, John Hoeven, ND-SEN, North Dakota, Numbers, Polling, Republicans, Retirements
North Dakota Governor John Hoeven (R) announced yesterday that he will run for the Senate seat being vacated by Byron Dorgan.
Unfortunately, that means the GOP is likely to win this seat–Gov. Hoeven is incredibly popular and, before Dorgan dropped out, polling showed Hoeven beating him handily (and keep in mind that Byron Dorgan is no slouch–he’s held statewide office in North Dakota since 1969).
If it was going to be hard for Democrats to keep this seat with Dorgan in office, it’s going to be nearly impossible without him.
I won’t write this race off entirely until we have a Democratic candidate and I see some reliable polling–perhaps someone like Rep. Earl Pomeroy could stand toe-to-toe with Hoeven–but I won’t believe it until I see it.
