Gettin' It Done - 40

Today's installment on what Obama's accomplished.

40. Expanded Hate Crimes Protections: Signed Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009), which expands existing hate crime protections to include crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, or disability, in addition to race, color, religion, or national origin.

Not crazy about this one.  I don't like the idea that we're creating categories of Thought Crimes.  If you commit a crime, what matters to me is that you're held to account for it, and your deep-seated motives are a matter for the prison psychologist to figure out.  If we learn something from it, then great; maybe the info is useful in preventing more of the same.  I just don't think having some sinister motive makes the crime worse, even tho' I do think having really good reasons for committing certain crimes can make a difference in what happens when you're being processed thru the justice system.

Gilligan And The Stench

Wasn't it about this time in 2008 that things started to fall apart for McCain and Palin?

“I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him,” Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa, told The New York Times on Sunday.

(more at Politico)

Everybody used to moan and wail about the impending death of the Democratic Party - now it's the GOP's turn.  How does any democratic organization fix itself?  What was the process that pulled the Dems up out of the abyss in the early 90s?  Much thinking and learning of new things are required here.

And with the recent news of how all the big money has shifted away from Obama and toward Willard, what am I supposed to conclude if Obama pulls it off and wins in spite of what looks like a concerted effort at a Corporate Takeover?

Today's Pic

via Democratic Underground

Oh, Sweet Jesus

I feel something like human compassion towards Joe Scarborough - or actually I would feel it if he wasn't such a partisan dick most of the time.

Yikes

I just hope nobody gets cocky.  This is exactly what certain bad guys wanna see because it makes good pretext for pulling some electoral shit.  ie: "See?  The librul media was in the tank for Obama all along, but the noble conservatives showed 'em what's what."

(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

Mike O'Brien ‏@mpoindc 

Oof. RT @Chris_Moody: New CBS/NYT poll finds Obama leading 53% to 43% in Ohio and 53% to 44% in Florida. 


Josh Marshall ‏@joshtpm 

This mornings new NYT/CBS polls devastating 4 Romney. Obama by 10 in Ohio, 9 in FLA, 12 in PA. http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/pollsters/quinnipiac-cbs-nyt … 


Chris Geidner ‏@chrisgeidner 

NYT: "Mr. Obama is leading Mr. Romney 53 percent to 43 percent" in OH. Bigger in PA, nearly that in FL.http://nyti.ms/Ql07CG 


National Journal ‏@nationaljournal 

Obama has six-point lead in new Bloomberg national poll. http://njour.nl/Sl5qhu 


Michael Tackett ‏@tackettdc 

New Bloomberg national poll +6 Obama. Romney dragged by negative perceptions @juliehdavishttp://bloom.bg/S4c8Jg 



POLITICO 2012 ‏@POLITICO2012 

Quinnipiac's jaw-dropping, eyebrow-raising swing-state numbers http://politi.co/SlxRAh by @aburnspolitico 


Josh Marshall ‏@joshtpm 

Must Read article on how early voting may mean Mitts goose is already half cookedhttp://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/early-voting-swing-states.php … via @TPM

Favorite comment:

Tough Crowd

The blue-hairs are all up in his grill an' shit.



I know - it's Daily Kos and all, and it's chopped neatly into little bite-sized chunks, but the guy got a pretty bad reaction from people whose votes he has to get if he wants to be Romney's veep.

I suppose it's possible he was sent in there to lay the groundwork for a "speak the painful truth" kind of message - I just can't help thinking these guys are so deep in the bubble that they don't believe any of the terribly bad shit that keeps happening to them is really real(?)

Gettin' It Done - 41

Obama's done some things.

41. Avoided Scandal: As of November 2011, served longer than any president in decades without a scandal, as measured by the appearance of the word “scandal” (or lack thereof) on the front page of the Washington Post.

Boykinism

The American Conservative is a pretty decent place to get some good old fashioned conservative info.  And who the fuck coulda seen that one comin'?

With the launching of the Global War on Terrorism, Islamism succeeded Communism as the body of beliefs that, if left unchecked, threatened to sweep across the globe with dire consequences for freedom. Those who Washington had armed as “freedom fighters” now became America’s most dangerous enemies. So at least members of the national security establishment believed or purported to believe, thereby curtailing any further discussion of whether militarized globalism actually represented the best approach to promoting liberal values globally or even served U.S. interests.

TeaBaggers and others who keep trying to pass themselves off as conservatives are little more than John Birch-style radical ass-hats wrapped in American flags and clutching their bibles - both of which they bought really cheap down at Wal-Mart who brought it all in from China.

A Quickie

Something's been buggin' me about the whole 47% thing - I mean something other than the douchebaggery of WIllard saying it, and the oral flatulence of Limbaugh and Noonan and Bobo as they try to pretend it was all about clumsy wording or inept campaigning or conniving libruls who like to play "gotcha games".  There was something else. Something very much in keeping with how Repubs do things, and it took me a while to figure it out, but here it is:

For a lot of people, Willard's attempts to dodge US taxes make him a bit of a hero.  Government is evil and all taxation is theft, so anything you do to screw the IRS is a noble gesture.  For these folks, Willard is the Self-Service version of Robin Hood.

So how come they don't see "the 47% who don't pay taxes" in the same light?

There's a guy flippin' burgers who used to work for the county as a civil engineer to keep the paving contractors honest, but he got laid off when they had to cut the budget to make up for tax cuts.  He doesn't pay Federal Income Tax because he doesn't make enough.  He'd love to get back to where he pays taxes again.  And there it is.  He wants to pay his taxes; he wants to pay the bloodsuckers their tribute; he's brainwashed; he's corrupt; he's not one of us.  And before you know it: "he must be eliminated"

So in GOP Oppositeland, you can't be virtuous if you're not out to fuck somebody over, and even tho' they actually believe the 47% are trying to do exactly that, the GOP must have an enemy, so the enemy is us.

Gettin' It Done - 42

Today's installment on what Obama's done.

42. Brokered Agreement for Speedy Compensation to Victims of Gulf Oil Spill: Though lacking statutory power to compel British Petroleum to act, used moral authority of his office to convince oil company to agree in 2010 to a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; $6.5 billion already paid out without lawsuits. By comparison, it took nearly two decades for plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez Alaska oil spill case to receive $1.3 billion.

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