Wednesday, April 18, 2012

New Poll, Many Link Weather Extremes to Climate Change

A tornado in Kansas last week. A new poll suggests the public feels
that global warming is real.

A poll due for release on Wednesday shows that a large majority of
Americans believe that this year's unusually warm winter, last year's
blistering summer and some other weather disasters were probably made
worse by global warming. And by a 2-to-1 margin, the public says the
weather has been getting worse, rather than better, in recent years.
By JUSTIN GILLISNYTimes Published: April 17, 2012
Graphic: Seeing a Global Warming Connection
Related
Surviving a Deadly Twister, Twice in 65 Years (April 17, 2012)
100 Tornadoes in 24 Hours, but Plenty of Notice (April 16, 2012)
A poll due for release on Wednesday shows that a large majority of
Americans believe that this year's unusually warm winter, last year's
blistering summer and some other weather disasters were probably made
worse by global warming. And by a 2-to-1 margin, the public says the
weather has been getting worse, rather than better, in recent years.
The survey, the most detailed to date on the public response to
weather extremes, comes atop other polling showing a recent uptick in
concern about climate change. Read together, the polls suggest that
direct experience of erratic weather may be convincing some people
that the problem is no longer just a vague and distant threat.

"Most people in the country are looking at everything that's happened;
it just seems to be one disaster after another after another," said
Anthony A. Leiserowitz of Yale University, one of the researchers who
commissioned the new poll. "People are starting to connect the dots."

The poll opens a new window on public opinion about climate change.

A large majority of climate scientists say the climate is shifting in
ways that could cause serious impacts, and they cite the human release
of greenhouse gases as a principal cause. But a tiny, vocal minority
of researchers contests that view, and has seemed in the last few
years to be winning the battle of public opinion despite slim
scientific evidence for their position.

The poll suggests that a solid majority of the public feels that
global warming is real, a result consistent with other polls that have
asked the question in various ways. When invited to agree or disagree
with the statement, "global warming is affecting the weather in the
United States," 69 percent of respondents in the new poll said they
agreed, while 30 percent disagreed.

Dr. Leiserowitz's unit at Yale, along with researchers at George Mason
University, commissioned the survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks.
That company surveyed 1,008 American adults by computer in the last
half of March, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3
percentage points.

While many online polls are not representative of the broad public,
Knowledge Networks is noted for its efforts to overcome this problem,
including giving computers to households too poor to have them. The
survey reveals public attitudes that are at least roughly consistent
with scientific understanding of how the climate is changing.

For instance, when people were asked whether they attributed specific
events to global warming, recent heat waves drew the largest
majorities. Scientists say their statistical evidence for an increase
of weather extremes is indeed strongest when it comes to heat waves.

Asked whether they agreed or disagreed that global warming had
contributed to the unusually warm winter just past, 25 percent of the
respondents said they strongly agreed that it had, and 47 percent said
they somewhat agreed. Only 17 percent somewhat disagreed, and 11
percent strongly disagreed.

Majorities almost as large cited global warming as a likely factor in
last year's record summer heat wave, as well as the 2011 drought in
Texas and Oklahoma. Smaller but still substantial majorities cited it
as a factor in the record United States snowfalls of 2010 and 2011 and
the Mississippi River floods of 2011. Those views, too, are consistent
with scientific evidence, which suggests that global warming is
causing heavier precipitation in all seasons.

One of the more striking findings was that 35 percent of the public
reported being affected by extreme weather in the past year. The
United States was hit in 2011 by a remarkable string of disasters
affecting virtually every region, including droughts, floods,
tornadoes and heat waves.

Dr. Leiserowitz said that recent events might be puncturing the
public's "very simplistic mental model of what global warming is
supposed to be."

Past survey work had suggested, he said, that people tended to see the
climate change problem as "distant in time and space — that this is an
issue about polar bears or maybe Bangladesh, but not my community, not
the United States, not my friends and family."

Because the survey questions are new, it is not clear how people's
views about weather extremes may be changing over time. However, more
general polling by the Gallup organization suggests that public
concern about climate change, which has waxed and waned over the
years, may be starting to rise again.

Since 1989, Gallup has asked, "how much do you personally worry about
global warming?" The percentage of people saying they were worried
peaked at 66 percent just before the recession, then fell to a low of
51 percent in 2011, as the economy overwhelmed other concerns.

Gallup's most recent survey, in March, showed an uptick to 55 percent.
"It's certainly possible that this is the start of a trend back up,"
said Frank M. Newport, Gallup's editor in chief, though he added that
another year of polling data would be necessary to be certain.

Advocacy groups seeking policies to limit climate change say that
extreme weather is giving them an opening to reach the public.

A group called 350.org is planning a worldwide series of rallies on
May 5, under the slogan "Connect the Dots," to draw attention to the
links between climate change and extreme weather. (The group's name is
a reference to an ideal concentration of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere.)

"My sense from around the country and the world is that people
definitely understand that things are getting freaky," said William E.
McKibben, the founder of 350.org. "During that crazy heat wave in
March, everyone in Chicago was out enjoying the weather, but in the
back of their mind they were thinking, this is not right."

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Raymond Taavel Murder: Prominent Gay Activist In Halifax Killed, Hate Crime Investigated

Raymond Taavel Murder: Prominent Gay Activist In Halifax Killed

HALIFAX - Police in Halifax are investigating the beating death
Tuesday of a prominent activist in the city's gay community and
haven't excluded the possibility that it could have been motivated by
hate.

Investigators say Raymond Taavel, 49, was attacked when he tried to
break up a fight between two men at 2:30 a.m. in the city's downtown.

"There has been speculation online and in the community that this was
a hate crime," Const. Brian Palmeter, a spokesman for Halifax Regional
Police, said in a statement.

"While we cannot provide specific information about the case, as it is
still under investigation, police have spoken to a number of witnesses
and are considering all possibilities with respect to the motive."

Barry Boyce, a co-worker with Taavel at Shambhala Sun magazine, says
police came to his office and said Taavel had been killed outside Menz
Bar on Gottingen Street.

"Raymond was just such a lovely person," he said. "He was an activist
without anger."

Taavel was assistant circulation manager at the magazine, wrote for
Wayves Magazine and worked with gay organizations both provincially
and nationally, Boyce said.

He described Taavel as a deeply reflective Christian who lived by the
biblical saying, "Love thy neighbour."

Taavel died at the scene, police said, and a man was later found in a
nearby alley and arrested.

Police said Andre Noel Denny is to appear in Halifax provincial court
on Wednesday to face a charge of second-degree murder.

Police also confirmed Denny had failed to return to the East Coast
Forensic Unit — a local psychiatric facility — after he was granted a
one-hour pass Monday night. The police statement says he was reported
missing at 8:47 p.m., and officers were dispatched at 9:01 p.m. to
look for him but were unable to find him.

An outdoor vigil was held Tuesday evening in front of Menz Bar, which
describes itself as the "Heart of Halifax's Gay Village."

Dozens of people packed the street, stretching a large rainbow flag
from one side to the other. They lit thin tapers and sang "Amazing
Grace" before holding a moment of silence.

Halifax councillor Dawn Sloane reflected on her long friendship with
Taavel, recounting stories of their hijinks on the dance floor and how
she admired his approach to life.

"He would have a philosophy of you can do anything if you try — be
meticulous, do it right," she said through tears as a crowd filled the
street outside the bar where Taavel died.

"And he would ask questions — lots of them — because he wanted to make
sure it was done right. And that's why I think having someone like
Raymond for a friend was a blessing."

Kevin Kindred, spokesman for the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project,
described Taavel as a "gentle and passionate" man who once served as
the co-chairman of the Halifax Gay Pride week festival.

"He was never shy about expressing his passionate views about what
needed to be done and, particularly, anything to bring a higher
profile to the existence of our community and the struggle for
equality," said Kindred, whose advocacy group is dedicated to
promoting equality for people of all sexual orientations.

"Raymond was friends with everybody. You could ... count on seeing
Raymond at any event, fundraiser, rally, seminar, lecture."

The board of directors of Halifax Pride issued a statement, saying
Taavel's death marked the loss of a "much loved and well-respected
member of our community."

The group's chairman, Krista Snow, remembered Taavel as a
"mild-mannered, friendly guy" who was deeply involved in many facets
of the gay community.

"To say he will be missed fails to do justice to his memory," she said.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/04/17/raymond-taavel-murder-gay-activist_n_1432157.html?ref=mostpopular
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Kenneth Weishuhn Suicide: Details In Gay Iowa Teen's Death After Allegedly Enduring Threats Emerge

Kenneth Weishuhn Suicide: Details In Gay Iowa Teen's Death After
Allegedly Enduring Threats Emerge

Poignant details about Kenneth Weishuhn, the gay Iowa teen who took
his own life after friends and family say his classmates sent him
death threats on his cell phone and made him the subject of a Facebook
hate group, are continuing to emerge.

Numerous media outlets are pointing to the 14-year-old's Pinterest
page. One section, titled "When I get married," features photos of
vintage menswear, candle centerpieces and wedding cake toppers
depicting two grooms. Another section, titled "Inspiration," includes
a number of anti-bullying sentiments, along with a quote attributed to
"Glee" actor Chris Colfer: "There's nothing wrong with you, there's a
lot wrong with the world you live in."

Sister Kayla Weishuhn said Kenneth was actually quite popular before
he came out last month. "He had a lot of friends but once they found
out he was gay a lot of them turned on him." Kayla, a sophomore, told
ABC 9 KCAUTV, before noting that many of her classmates also bullied
her brother: "I was just really mad because those guys were supposed
to be my friends and they were making fun of my brother. I tried to
stick up for him a couple of times but I guess it wasn't enough."

Weishuhn's death also prompted LGBT advocacy group One Iowa and Iowa
Safe Schools to issue a statement. "The loss of Kenneth Weishuhn is
both tragic and heartbreaking," wrote One Iowa Interim Executive
Director Calla Rongerude. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the
Weishuhn family and to the community of Primghar. We all have lost a
bright young man with a promising future."

Rongerude continued:

"What Kenneth endured is something that no one should have to go
through. Kenneth made the brave choice to live his life openly and
fully, and he was targeted at school with taunts, hurtful online
organizing against him and even death threats. No one, especially the
most vulnerable members of our community, should face bullying and
threats of violence simply for being who they are.
"We have a responsibility as a community to foster acceptance and love
for all of our youth. We need to make sure that students have the
support and resources they need to thrive and grow. One Iowa will work
towards the day when all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
people can live their lives openly and without fear."

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/18/gay-iowa-teen-death-details_n_1434899.html

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: The Impermanent Republican Majority

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 1:36 PM, Tommy News <tommysnews@gmail.com> wrote:

The Impermanent Republican Majority
By TIMOTHY EGAN

For those who believe that demography is destiny, there was no more
jaw-dropping figure from the 2004 presidential election than this
finding from the nation's far-flung metropolitan frontier: George W.
Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest growing counties.

You could look out from say, Riverside County, Calif., or Henderson,
Nev., to a vast, red-roof-tiled future. New century America was
pulling young families and newly middle class immigrants to the far
exurbs, creating a vibrant new habitat for the Republican Party.

Many of the cities, at least some of the more hollowed-out and aging
urban cores, were written off as inconsequential. The new electoral
game was in the places where farm fields were being plowed under for
asphalt. In Karl Rove's strategy for a "durable Republican majority,"
as he called it, lasting at least a generation, the exurbs were a key
component of his master plan.

After a monumental housing collapse, and eight years of
less-predictable changes in where Americans live, that thinking has
been thrown out.

Democrats made significant inroads in Rove's demographic sanctuary,
starting in the 2006 midterm election, which, it turns out, was the
exurban population's growth peak. In 2008, Barack Obama won 15 of the
100 fastest growing counties, including the three largest: Riverside
County, Clark County (Las Vegas) and the Research Triangle of North
Carolina, Wake County.

And now the population boom to the exurbs is over, at least for the
moment, according to Census Bureau figures released earlier this
month. An analysis of those numbers done by William H. Frey, a
demographer at the Brookings Institution, found that growth in the
cities, and densely-populated older suburbs, has eclipsed that of the
exurbs since 2010.

For political strategists reading the fine print in county-by-county
population shifts, Frey's point is one of several reasons to junk
Rove's majority scenario.

Among the factors driving the urban growth spurt are a desire by young
people to live closer to the urban core than the urban frontier, high
gas prices and the toxic housing and lending environment. More
American live alone than ever before — about 33 million people, 28
percent of all households — and most of them live in cities. Solitary
living and coupling without children are the top two residential
choices, according to the Census Bureau.

When Sarah Palin talked on the campaign trail about the "real
America," she was referring to a shrinking one.
All of which bodes well for Democrats, the urban party. Obama won 21
of the 25 largest metro areas in 2008. Among population clusters in
swing states, he carried the Denver metro area by 17 points, Las Vegas
metro by 19 points and Orlando, the fastest-growing urban area in
Florida, by 9. He also won the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, by five.
Each of these showings were big moves for Democrats.

By winning the urban vote — which made up 30 percent of the electorate
in 2008 – in such a lopsided manner, Democrats could afford to lose
rural areas, which were 21 percent of the overall vote. When Sarah
Palin talked on the campaign trail about the "real America," she was
referring to a shrinking one.

The biggest prize is the suburbs, where half of all voters live. In
2008, Obama carried the suburbs by two points. The trends since the
housing collapse have made older suburbs denser, and thus more likely
to vote Democratic in the minds of some strategists.

Racial diversity, and the need for more government services and
infrastructure, tend to make the older suburbs more like cities in
their voting behavior, said Ruy Teixeira, who has written extensively
about changing election demographics.

Teixeira has been predicting an emerging Democratic majority since
2002 – based on voting trends of young people, ethnic minorities and
white, college-educated city dwellers. In polling for this year's
presidential election, Obama is doing even better with Latinos than in
2008, and holding a strong lead (though down a bit) with the youth
vote. The new population figures have only fortified Teixeira's view.

At the same time, turnout in this year's Republican primary has been
dominated by aging white male voters, not exactly a roadmap for the
future, given the trends.

Republicans were crushed in the first two tiers of suburbia in 2008 –
that is, the more settled communities. Obama lost what Teixeira called
"emerging suburbs," places like Loudoun County, Va., outside
Washington, but made sizeable gains for his party from the 2004
election.

It was only in far exurbia that Republicans showed real strength in
any kind of urban setting. And exurbia, Teixiera said in an interview,
makes up only 3 percent of the vote.

But before these Home Depot-cluttered counties can be painted blue,
some caution is in order.

It's misleading to think the exurban frontier is closed, or even
emptying out. What has settled down is the growth rate. Americans have
always pushed out. Even if greater Phoenix is no longer growing at the
rate of an acre an hour, as it was during the peak of its expansion,
that particular phoenix will no doubt rise again, given the lure of
the Sunbelt.

Low interest rates, stable gas prices and a bounce back in the housing
industry could bring fresh life to the far fringes.

And Texas, the biggest and one of the fastest growing of
Republican-dominated states, defied the trends of other red states
that saw stagnant exurban growth. Of the 20 fastest growing metro
areas over the last two years, four of them are in Texas.

And don't forget the 2010 midterm election, when Tea Party fervor
overwhelmed many of the positive trends for Democrats and returned
Republicans to power in the House.

Still, for Democrats, the geography of tomorrow is the urban
renaissance – a boundary that now includes big parts of suburbia.

More:
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/the-impermanent-republican-majority/?ref=opinion
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

The Impermanent Republican Majority

The Impermanent Republican Majority
By TIMOTHY EGAN

For those who believe that demography is destiny, there was no more
jaw-dropping figure from the 2004 presidential election than this
finding from the nation's far-flung metropolitan frontier: George W.
Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest growing counties.

You could look out from say, Riverside County, Calif., or Henderson,
Nev., to a vast, red-roof-tiled future. New century America was
pulling young families and newly middle class immigrants to the far
exurbs, creating a vibrant new habitat for the Republican Party.

Many of the cities, at least some of the more hollowed-out and aging
urban cores, were written off as inconsequential. The new electoral
game was in the places where farm fields were being plowed under for
asphalt. In Karl Rove's strategy for a "durable Republican majority,"
as he called it, lasting at least a generation, the exurbs were a key
component of his master plan.

After a monumental housing collapse, and eight years of
less-predictable changes in where Americans live, that thinking has
been thrown out.

Democrats made significant inroads in Rove's demographic sanctuary,
starting in the 2006 midterm election, which, it turns out, was the
exurban population's growth peak. In 2008, Barack Obama won 15 of the
100 fastest growing counties, including the three largest: Riverside
County, Clark County (Las Vegas) and the Research Triangle of North
Carolina, Wake County.

And now the population boom to the exurbs is over, at least for the
moment, according to Census Bureau figures released earlier this
month. An analysis of those numbers done by William H. Frey, a
demographer at the Brookings Institution, found that growth in the
cities, and densely-populated older suburbs, has eclipsed that of the
exurbs since 2010.

For political strategists reading the fine print in county-by-county
population shifts, Frey's point is one of several reasons to junk
Rove's majority scenario.

Among the factors driving the urban growth spurt are a desire by young
people to live closer to the urban core than the urban frontier, high
gas prices and the toxic housing and lending environment. More
American live alone than ever before — about 33 million people, 28
percent of all households — and most of them live in cities. Solitary
living and coupling without children are the top two residential
choices, according to the Census Bureau.

When Sarah Palin talked on the campaign trail about the "real
America," she was referring to a shrinking one.
All of which bodes well for Democrats, the urban party. Obama won 21
of the 25 largest metro areas in 2008. Among population clusters in
swing states, he carried the Denver metro area by 17 points, Las Vegas
metro by 19 points and Orlando, the fastest-growing urban area in
Florida, by 9. He also won the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, by five.
Each of these showings were big moves for Democrats.

By winning the urban vote — which made up 30 percent of the electorate
in 2008 – in such a lopsided manner, Democrats could afford to lose
rural areas, which were 21 percent of the overall vote. When Sarah
Palin talked on the campaign trail about the "real America," she was
referring to a shrinking one.

The biggest prize is the suburbs, where half of all voters live. In
2008, Obama carried the suburbs by two points. The trends since the
housing collapse have made older suburbs denser, and thus more likely
to vote Democratic in the minds of some strategists.

Racial diversity, and the need for more government services and
infrastructure, tend to make the older suburbs more like cities in
their voting behavior, said Ruy Teixeira, who has written extensively
about changing election demographics.

Teixeira has been predicting an emerging Democratic majority since
2002 – based on voting trends of young people, ethnic minorities and
white, college-educated city dwellers. In polling for this year's
presidential election, Obama is doing even better with Latinos than in
2008, and holding a strong lead (though down a bit) with the youth
vote. The new population figures have only fortified Teixeira's view.

At the same time, turnout in this year's Republican primary has been
dominated by aging white male voters, not exactly a roadmap for the
future, given the trends.

Republicans were crushed in the first two tiers of suburbia in 2008 –
that is, the more settled communities. Obama lost what Teixeira called
"emerging suburbs," places like Loudoun County, Va., outside
Washington, but made sizeable gains for his party from the 2004
election.

It was only in far exurbia that Republicans showed real strength in
any kind of urban setting. And exurbia, Teixiera said in an interview,
makes up only 3 percent of the vote.

But before these Home Depot-cluttered counties can be painted blue,
some caution is in order.

It's misleading to think the exurban frontier is closed, or even
emptying out. What has settled down is the growth rate. Americans have
always pushed out. Even if greater Phoenix is no longer growing at the
rate of an acre an hour, as it was during the peak of its expansion,
that particular phoenix will no doubt rise again, given the lure of
the Sunbelt.

Low interest rates, stable gas prices and a bounce back in the housing
industry could bring fresh life to the far fringes.

And Texas, the biggest and one of the fastest growing of
Republican-dominated states, defied the trends of other red states
that saw stagnant exurban growth. Of the 20 fastest growing metro
areas over the last two years, four of them are in Texas.

And don't forget the 2010 midterm election, when Tea Party fervor
overwhelmed many of the positive trends for Democrats and returned
Republicans to power in the House.

Still, for Democrats, the geography of tomorrow is the urban
renaissance – a boundary that now includes big parts of suburbia.

More:
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/the-impermanent-republican-majority/?ref=opinion
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Ted rocks!!!

their leaders who've been selling them outPerhaps of greater concern should be Louis Farrakhan's recent comments posted on Breibart.com that tomorrow or maybe in a few days people were going to kill their leaders who've been selling them out. He has stated in the past that Obama has betrayed his people. Greater threat from him that Nugent.

From: "plainolamerican" <plainolamerican@gmail.com>
To: "PoliticalForum" <politicalforum@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 10:10:36 AM
Subject: Ted rocks!!!

It was no surprise that Ted Nugent's over-the-top comments ...
---
"Our government is wiping it's a– with the Constitution," Nugent said
before a gathering of NRA attendees this past weekend.
"We've got four Supreme Court justices who don't believe in the
Constitution. Does everyone here know that four of the Supreme Court
justices not only determined you don't have the right to keep and bear
arms, four Supreme Court justices signed their name to a declaration
that Americans have no fundamental right to self-defense?" Nugent
asked.
Nugent called on the NRA attendees to go home and recruit "everybody
in your lives to clean house in this vile, evil, America-hating
administration."
"If you can't galvanize and promote and recruit people to vote for
Mitt Romney, we're done. We'll be a suburb of Indonesia next year,"
Nugent said. "Our president, attorney general, vice president, Hillary
Clinton–they're criminals. They're criminals. Who doesn't know the
crimes our government are committing?"
"If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will be
either be dead or in jail by this time next year," Nugent added.
He concluded with a battle metaphor: "We need to ride into that
battlefield and chop their heads off in November! Any questions?"
Apparently, Ted Nugent's "in jail or dead" comment isn't sitting well
with Secret Service.
"We are aware of it, and we'll conduct an appropriate follow up," a
spokesman for the Secret Service told New York magazine.
In addition, the DNC has drafted an online petition demanding Mitt
Romney denounce "Nugent's hateful speech."
Nugent is definitely not backing down from his comments.
"I will stand by my speech," Nugent told Loesch, adding that Wasserman
Schultz as a "brain-dead, soulless, heartless idiot."
---

..... made at last weekend's NRA convention fueled the liberal media
and created hours of outrage on radio and television for both the Left
and Right. There were even some reports that Nugent was being
questioned by the Secret Service.

But what is the real story?

Has Ted Nugent been questioned by the Secret Service?
Were his comments actual "threats of physical violence" to the
president and Democrats?

Let's allow Ted to explain it all.

"First of all, I'm the master of metaphors," Nugent told radio host
Joe Pags, and then went on to take a shot at his critics: "…and nobody
needs an interpreter when i speak except [DNC Chair] Wasserman Schultz
and the Marxist czars in the Obama administration and the ultra-
leftist America-hating media out there. So I think everybody knows
what I meant."

"Obviously our American dream is dead if this president continuous to
spend our great great granchidlren's money at an irresponsibly and
uncountable place. And certainly we're be in jail because we'll become
subservient and addicted to Fedzilla — the wasteful, money-burning
monster that is the federal government right now."

He added: "When I say 'rip their heads off,' I'm talking figuratively
that we need to go to the voting booth and fire these people!"

Over the weekend, Nugent said "If Barack Obama becomes the president
in November, again, I will be either be dead or in jail by this time
next year," and "We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their
heads off in November! Any questions?" That sent Democrats like
Wasserman Schultz scrambling, and even prompted the Secret Service to
say it was probing Nugent's comments.

So has he heard from the authorities? Not yet.

"Whether there is an actual investigation on my speech at the NRA or
not, I will find out sooner or later. But I'm more than happy to talk
to the heroes of the Secret Service. … But I look forward to speaking
with them if they wish to speak with me, because I stand by my speech
at the NRA, and I stand by the fact that we have to go to the voting
booth and exercise out duty as citizens of America by voting our
conscience, whatever hat conscience might be."

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

ALEC Backs Down

ALEC Backs Down
By DAVID FIRESTONE

It's not often that a grassroots campaign against a well-funded
business organization actually works. But that may have happened
today. The American Legislative Exchange Council – responsible for
spreading "stand-your-ground" laws and voter ID restrictions to dozens
of states around the country –announced that it will disband its
Public Safety and Elections Task Force, the internal panel that was
the impetus for those kinds of laws. ALEC will now concentrate on
economic issues.

The announcement didn't say so, but the move was clearly a reaction to
the steady stream of corporate defections from ALEC by prominent
businesses that depend on consumer goodwill. In the last few months,
since liberal groups began pointing out the council's role in helping
disenfranchise millions of low-income and minority voters through
voter ID requirements, ALEC has lost funding from companies such as
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Wendy's, and Intuit.

The exodus accelerated when it became clear ALEC had helped implement
Florida's stand-your-ground law in 24 other states, through
conservative lawmakers who are affiliated with the group. The law
allows people to attack a perceived assailant if they believe they are
in imminent danger, without having to retreat, and was originally
pushed by the National Rifle Association, a longtime ALEC member.

Kaitlyn Buss, a spokeswoman for ALEC, said the group would no longer
work on issues relating to elections or guns. Given the controversy
surrounding those issues, she said, ALEC's legislative board had
decided to focus purely on issues such as taxes, fiscal policy, and
tort reform.

Writing prototypes of state laws in those areas could still do a great
deal of harm, reducing the power of public and private unions,
fighting minimum wage laws and tax increases on the rich, and
repealing environmental regulations.

But corporations sent a clear message to the right wing that they did
not want to be associated with laws that diminish democracy and anger
police departments. The question now is when state lawmakers, too many
of whom seem to take their directions from ALEC, will learn the same
lesson.

More:
http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/alec-backs-down/?ref=opinion

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Eugene Robinson in black and white

I hope you will keep us updated on Ed's progress on his new driveway!

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 6:13 AM, Bruce Majors <majors.bruce@gmail.com> wrote:

---------

Eugene Robinson in black and white

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFlStHdcqp8&sns=em

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Hey Tommy they gave you a day

(I literally laughed out loud!!)

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 9:07 AM, THE ANNOINTED ONE <markmkahle@gmail.com> wrote:

That IS funny!!!!

On Apr 18, 3:30 am, Bruce Majors <majors.br...@gmail.com> wrote:
> --------
>
> April 27th is Free Feral Cat Spay Day:
> Are you looking for a low-cost option for getting feral cats spayed or
> neutered?

> to find participating clinics go tohttp://www.saveacat.org/vetslocation.html

>
> __._,_.___
> Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic
> Messages in this topic (1)
> Recent Activity:
>
> Visit Your Group

> To unsubscribe, email WardOneDC-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com

>
> Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use
> .
> __,_._,___

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Senate Republicans Vote Down The Buffet Tax Rule, Vote Them Out of Office!

Assuming for a moment that the Republicans take back the Senate, I believe that the momentum is there for ObamaCare to be repealed in 2013. Gingrich, Bachman, Paul, Santorum, Perry, Cain and Romney have all made it abundantly clear what will be requisite to repeal ObamaCare. That is to say, it will require a unified effort by a Republican controlled House, and a Republican controlled Senate, (and again, I believe that this will happen this year); along with bi-partisan support from a hand full of Democrats who also realize that to NOT vote for repeal of ObamaCare will cost them their seat. Your reference to the twenty-five Senators is disconcerting, and I am aware of the lack of "enthusiasm" at this juncture.....You also have RINO's who have pussy-footed around and skirted the issue; the likes Judd Gregg from New Hampshire, and Asshole McCain from Arizona as well as others; some who thankfully are retiring. Others, like Asshole, will tow the Party line.

No question, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio Jim DeMint, Mitch McDonnell and others who are truly representing their constituency and see the true socialistic power grab by the Communist controlled Democrat Party will lead the charge and do away with this horse hockey.

Gingrich on Obamacare and the Individual Mandate

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/gingrich-obamacare-and-individual-mandate_607924.html

In his Fox News "Center Seat" interview last night, Newt Gingrich highlighted (from 18:30 to 21:00) that "the first item" on his legislative agenda is "repealing Obamacare," adding, "I think that'll be the campaign theme in September and October of next year."

Gingrich also addressed the individual mandate. He explained that "a mandate doesn't work in part because it means more and more and more government definition of, 'What are you mandating?'"

In response to a follow-up question from Charles Krauthammer about whether he opposed the mandate as a matter of policy or constitutionality, Gingrich replied, "I believe that it is unconstitutional for the Congress to require you to buy something…because then the Congress could require you to do anything." Krauthammer asked, "So, you're saying, in principle, it's a terrible idea, even if [as a matter of policy] it might work." Gingrich replied, "Yes." He added, "A lot of us, in '93, as opposed to Hillarycare, thought [the individual mandate] was a less destructive alternative. The longer we dealt with it, the more we concluded it was hopeless."

==================

Gingrich Can Repeal ObamaCare

Unlike Mitt Romney, who is burdened by his continued defense of RomneyCare, Newt can fully take on the president.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204555904577167234271547616.html

By BILL MCCOLLUM

As the attorney general who filed the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, I care deeply about repealing and replacing the law. For this to happen, President Obama has to be replaced. There is no other candidate as well equipped as Newt Gingrich to take it to Barack Obama in a health-care debate.

Contrary to what many pundits say, Newt Gingrich is the most likely of the Republican candidates to defeat Mr. Obama this fall. Why? Because he is the most able to articulate the conservative positions, is the most concise and convincing advocate when speaking and debating, and has the best and boldest plan to restore the economy.

Moreover, and unlike former Gov. Mitt Romney—who is burdened by his continued defense of RomneyCare—Newt has admitted the error of his earlier support of the individual mandate and can fully take on the president over the issue of ObamaCare. And after the economy and national security, this is the most important issue in the campaign.

In 2006, as governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney proposed and enacted the health-care law after which much of ObamaCare was modeled. RomneyCare contained an individual mandate requiring every resident of Massachusetts not otherwise insured to buy a health-insurance policy or pay a penalty. It embraced a regulatory framework that has suppressed innovation and competition and resulted in higher insurance premiums and a doctor shortage.

The average wait time for a routine checkup in Massachusetts has grown to 48 days, and many internists are not accepting new patients. Costs have soared and many remain uninsured. Quality, affordability and accessibility of health care have worsened, not improved.

Because he still supports the Massachusetts health-care law and its individual mandate, Gov. Romney will be unable to effectively confront Mr. Obama in debates or on the campaign trail with the full range of horrors that the president has foisted on the American public with ObamaCare. Mr. Romney won't be able to denounce the individual mandate, or the government regulations that will determine which health-care benefits are "essential" and thus available—a decision best left to patients or our doctors. He won't be able to connect ObamaCare to a growing shortage of doctors, or to the stifling of innovation and decline of the quality of our health care, or to the inevitability of rationing in order to control costs.

In any debate over ObamaCare, Newt would eviscerate Mr. Obama. He could easily explain how this law marches us toward single-payer universal health care and rationing in the name of cost-containment. And he can use the debate to enlighten, educate and gain support for market-driven alternatives to ObamaCare—alternatives that will provide coverage for more people and those with pre-existing conditions, while removing government impediments to medical innovation and doctor/patient choices.

Newt has the knowledge, leadership skills and vision necessary to restore our economy and protect us from our enemies. Our country needs a bold, decisive, inspirational leader dedicated to reducing the size and scope of the federal government, to enacting major pro-growth tax and regulatory reform, to replacing ObamaCare, and to strengthening our military and national security. Newt has all these qualities and would do all these things.

Newt is not without his faults—none of the candidates is—but his positives far outweigh his negatives. Over the last several weeks his critics have greatly distorted and exaggerated his negatives.

While I served with him in Congress in the 1980s, Newt was the central force in creating the Conservative Opportunity Society, which provided a platform for conservative Republican congressmen that had not previously existed. He founded GOPAC, which had an enormous impact on the development of conservative leaders and candidates at the local and state level across the nation.

From 1989-95, I served with Newt as one of eight elected Republican leaders in the U.S. House. He was the minority whip and I was the vice chairman of the Republican Conference. I helped write the Contract with America and campaigned in more than 90 congressional districts when Republicans took the majority in the House for the first time in 40 years. I know that this would not have happened without Newt's leadership and vision.

Under his leadership as speaker we enacted much of the Contract with America, achieved welfare reform, and balanced the federal budget. Newt is very good not only at coming up with ideas, but also at delegating and inspiring others to work together to solve big problems.

At this moment in history Newt Gingrich is the right person to lead our nation and the best candidate to defeat President Obama.

Mr. McCollum is a former Florida attorney general and U.S. congressman.

A version of this article appeared January 20, 2012, on page A13 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Gingrich Can Repeal ObamaCare.

=======================

House Republicans Vote to Overturn ObamaCare in Symbolic Move

Published January 19, 2011

FoxNews.com

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/19/house-poised-vote-health-law-repeal/#ixzz1sPdCzCak

===================

Re: A simple question for Tommy

Inquiring minds wanna know TommyTomTom!

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 9:24 AM, THE ANNOINTED ONE <markmkahle@gmail.com> wrote:

I am betting he can't or won't give a serious direct question a
serious or a direct answer.

Dearest TommyTomTom,

If your little "News Service" were to take off next year and earn 2
million dollars (not unheard of for blogs and within the realm of
possibility) that would mean that it is worth 10 million on the
market.

Would you give 5-6-7-8 million of that money to the government,

OR would you give it to charity (and deduct from taxes)

OR would you take every tax exception and loophole there was to keep
as much as you legally could?

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Ted rocks!!!

Well you can yank me, and you can crank me, but don't ya wake up Mama and don't ya try to thank me". Nuge Again

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 10:32 AM, GregfromBoston <greg.vincent@yahoo.com> wrote:

"People come to my concerts to roast marshmellows on the flames coming out of my ass" - Nuge

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Negro mob goes "shopping"

Hoodies? Boy, what a surprise! I'm sure this was just an isolated incident......Sort of......

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 11:54 AM, Travis <baconlard@gmail.com> wrote:

Negro Mob goes "shopping" for hoodies at Nordstroms
Date: 2012-04-14, 9:50AM

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Police are investigating another flash mob theft by a group of teens, this time at Nordstrom at the Lloyd Center.

Last week, a group of 16 teens converged on a Southeast Portland convenience store and stole merchandise and then ran out. Police are still investigating the incident.

Friday's incident happened just after 8 p.m. Police interviewed employees of the store who said a group of approximately 10 black male teenagers were in the store and began taking items and putting them in bags before they ran out the southwest doors of the store toward Northeast 9th Avenue.

Police who checked the area recovered some of the stolen clothing, but did not find the teens, who were between 13 and 19 years old. They were all wearing hats and hoodies with their faces covered.

__._,_.___

.

__,_._,___

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Americans Finally Discover that Obama Eats Dogs

Sniffs their arses when he bends over.

New post on Doctor Bulldog & Ronin

Americans Finally Discover that Obama Eats Dogs

by doctorbulldog

This seems to be making the rounds this morning. I don't know why it took so long for Americans to realize that Obama ate a dog or two back in the day. After all, his---or, dare I say, his ghost writer, Bill Ayers' ---book was a bestseller. You would think that with all those copies floating around on the coffee tables of PETA hardened, simulated tortoiseshell frames wearing Libtardettes everywhere that at least one or two of them would have cracked that venerated book open and have been shocked, as I was a few years ago, to discover that Obama eats dogs!

I've been waiting years for this story to hit the limelight. Now, with all the jabs at Mitt Omni for taking his dog on vacation by strapping it on top of his car, it looks like the story is finally getting some traction.

But, if I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the day PETA douses Obama with simulated blood. It's just not going to happen. The hypocrisy and favoritism of the Left is deafening:

Obama bites dog
Jim Treacher - The Daily Caller

Hey, if we're going to talk about how presidential candidates treated dogs decades ago, let's talk about how presidential candidates treated dogs decades ago.

Can you name the author of this quote?

"With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share."

Well, if a man takes on the powers of whatever he eats, it kind of makes me wonder then why the self-described mutt, Obama, gets so upset when people treat him like the dog he is...
Yep, that's Barack Obama, writing about his childhood with his stepfather Lolo Soetoro in Indonesia, from Chapter Two of his bestseller Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.

"So what? It was a long time ago," you say. "He was a lot younger. Customs are different there. He was just doing what his stepfather told him. And hey, you can't even prove that the dogs were ever left on top of a car, you racist."

Hey, whatever you have to tell yourself, libs. Say what you want about Romney, but at least he only put a dog on the roof of his car, not the roof of his mouth. And whenever you bring up the one, we're going to bring up the other.

It's no fun when we push back, is it? That's why it's so much fun.

Update: I know the Secret Service has a lot to deal with right now, but are they protecting Bo? From Obama, I mean.

doctorbulldog | 18 April, 2012 at 8:51 am | Categories: politics | URL: http://wp.me/p1NPg-7FK

Comment

See all comments

Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions.

Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/americans-finally-discover-that-obama-eats-dogs/

Thanks for flying with

WordPress.com

Dutch dept. store with a sense of humor

Dutch dept. store with a sense of humor

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926,

in Amsterdam . Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands .

Take a look at HEMA's product page. You can't order anything and it's in Dutch, but

just wait a couple of seconds while it loads and watch what happens.

*****Don't click on any of the items in the picture, just wait and see what happens..

This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer.

Must see more than once.

Click here or http://producten.hema.nl/

Negro mob goes "shopping"

Negro Mob goes "shopping" for hoodies at Nordstroms
Date: 2012-04-14, 9:50AM

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Police are investigating another flash mob theft by a group of teens, this time at Nordstrom at the Lloyd Center.

Last week, a group of 16 teens converged on a Southeast Portland convenience store and stole merchandise and then ran out. Police are still investigating the incident.

Friday's incident happened just after 8 p.m. Police interviewed employees of the store who said a group of approximately 10 black male teenagers were in the store and began taking items and putting them in bags before they ran out the southwest doors of the store toward Northeast 9th Avenue.

Police who checked the area recovered some of the stolen clothing, but did not find the teens, who were between 13 and 19 years old. They were all wearing hats and hoodies with their faces covered.

__._,_.___

__,_._,___

U.S. Condemns Photos of Soldiers Posing With Body Parts

U.S. Condemns Photos of Soldiers Posing With Body Parts
By GRAHAM BOWLEY and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: April 18, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — Photographs apparently showing United States
soldiers posing with body parts of dead insurgents drew strong
condemnation on Wednesday from American officials including Defense
Secretary Leon E. Panetta and the commander of international forces in
Afghanistan.

The Los Angeles Times published on the front page of its early
editions a photograph of what it described as a soldier from the
Army's 82nd Airborne Division with a dead insurgent's hand on his
shoulder. It said the photograph was one of 18 of soldiers posing with
the corpses of insurgent fighters given to the newspaper by a soldier
who served in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne's Fourth Brigade
Combat Team from Fort Bragg, N.C. The newspaper said the Afghan died
planting a bomb, citing police.

The story was later posted to the newspaper's Web site with another
photograph of American soldiers and Afghan security forces posing with
the dismembered legs of another insurgent held upright by ropes.

The photographs were believed to have been taken in 2010, according to
a spokeswoman for international forces in Afghanistan. She said it was
not yet clear where the photographs had been taken, the number of
service personnel involved nor whether they were still serving in the
military.

According to the newspaper, the photographs were taken in Zabul
Province in 2010. Zabul is a particularly impoverished province in the
south of the country, and the Taliban has maintained a strong presence
there.

The story said in one photograph two soldiers posed holding a dead
man's hand with the middle finger raised.

The revelation of the photographs followed video uncovered in January
of four American Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters and
appeared likely to complicate an already tense atmosphere for American
forces in Afghanistan. There is a military investigation under way
into the burning of Korans at Bagram Air Force base in February that
touched off deadly riots. The military is also investigating the
killing last month of Afghan villagers, including women and children,
by a rogue American soldier in Kandahar Province, also in the south.

The hostility over those episodes has redefined the already-strained
relationship between the United States and Afghanistan, and has added
urgency to talks under way to lay out a long-term strategic
partnership between the two countries — a critical step before the
troop withdrawal deadline set for 2014.

Mr. Panetta said in an e-mailed statement that the photographs did not
represent the "professionalism of the vast majority of U.S. troops
serving in Afghanistan today." He also voiced displeasure at the
newspaper for publishing the images, saying he was "disappointed that
despite our request not to publish these photographs, the Los Angeles
Times went ahead."

Gen. John R. Allen, the senior allied commander in Afghanistan,
condemned the actions apparently depicted in the photographs. "The
actions of the individuals photographed do not represent the policies
of ISAF or the U.S. Army," he said in a statement, referring to the
NATO coalition in Afghanistan. "This behavior and these images are
entirely inconsistent with the values of ISAF and all service members
of the 50 ISAF countries serving in Afghanistan."

Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker also said in a statement: "The U.S. Embassy
strongly condemns the actions depicted in photos recently made public,
which appear to show members of the U.S. military committing
disrespectful acts with the bodies of insurgents, killed in their own
suicide attacks in 2010." He said such actions were "morally
repugnant, dishonor the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of U.S.
soldiers and civilians who have served with distinction in
Afghanistan, and do not represent the core values of the United States
or our military."

General Allen said the military would collaborate with Afghan
authorities to investigate the photographs.

The strongly worded statements seemed to be in part an attempt to head
off reaction in Afghanistan to the photographs. The photograph — along
with a story under the headline "U.S. troops posed with body parts of
Afghan bombers" — showed a young soldier posing with what seemed to be
a hand on his right shoulder. What appears to be the body of a dead
insurgent lies in the background.

Nadir Nadiry, an Afghan human rights activist in Kabul, said Afghans
would likely react negatively because similar photographs had surfaced
before and despite military investigations the latest pictures
suggested the actions continued to be perpetrated.

"It gives them a sense of, 'Oh they are continuing to do this,' " he
said. "Each time they say they will conduct a thorough investigation,
but these investigations are not being made public so the results are
not known to the Afghan people. So it's hard for them to believe the
investigations were real and that measures were taken to change
things."

Hamidullah Tokhi, a member of the parliament from Zabul Province, said
in a telephone interview that while there may not be any large
outpouring of outrage over the photos, episodes like this do
contribute to a worsening of the already poor image of the American
military among Afghans.

"This kind of degradation and dishonoring of the human corpus is not
bigger than what the foreign forces have done to the people in their
houses," he said, speaking of the night raids that have enraged
Afghans. But he added, "All this dishonoring and disrespecting of the
people religion and tradition is not acceptable at all. All these were
the reasons motivate peoples to go to the mountain and join Taliban."

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/world/asia/us-condemns-photo-of-soldiers-posing-with-body-parts.html?google_editors_picks=true

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Most Conservative Congress in How Long? At Least a hundred years!

I never told anyone to lie. Not a single time. Never. -- Bill Clinton, Press Conference, January 1998
-----------------------------------------------------------

Didn't THAT work out well?

Want a list?

Ahem...He copped!

Re: Ted rocks!!!

"People come to my concerts to roast marshmellows on the flames coming out of my ass" - Nuge

Ted rocks!!!

It was no surprise that Ted Nugent's over-the-top comments ...
---
"Our government is wiping it's a– with the Constitution," Nugent said
before a gathering of NRA attendees this past weekend.
"We've got four Supreme Court justices who don't believe in the
Constitution. Does everyone here know that four of the Supreme Court
justices not only determined you don't have the right to keep and bear
arms, four Supreme Court justices signed their name to a declaration
that Americans have no fundamental right to self-defense?" Nugent
asked.
Nugent called on the NRA attendees to go home and recruit "everybody
in your lives to clean house in this vile, evil, America-hating
administration."
"If you can't galvanize and promote and recruit people to vote for
Mitt Romney, we're done. We'll be a suburb of Indonesia next year,"
Nugent said. "Our president, attorney general, vice president, Hillary
Clinton–they're criminals. They're criminals. Who doesn't know the
crimes our government are committing?"
"If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will be
either be dead or in jail by this time next year," Nugent added.
He concluded with a battle metaphor: "We need to ride into that
battlefield and chop their heads off in November! Any questions?"
Apparently, Ted Nugent's "in jail or dead" comment isn't sitting well
with Secret Service.
"We are aware of it, and we'll conduct an appropriate follow up," a
spokesman for the Secret Service told New York magazine.
In addition, the DNC has drafted an online petition demanding Mitt
Romney denounce "Nugent's hateful speech."
Nugent is definitely not backing down from his comments.
"I will stand by my speech," Nugent told Loesch, adding that Wasserman
Schultz as a "brain-dead, soulless, heartless idiot."
---

..... made at last weekend's NRA convention fueled the liberal media
and created hours of outrage on radio and television for both the Left
and Right. There were even some reports that Nugent was being
questioned by the Secret Service.

But what is the real story?

Has Ted Nugent been questioned by the Secret Service?
Were his comments actual "threats of physical violence" to the
president and Democrats?

Let's allow Ted to explain it all.

"First of all, I'm the master of metaphors," Nugent told radio host
Joe Pags, and then went on to take a shot at his critics: "…and nobody
needs an interpreter when i speak except [DNC Chair] Wasserman Schultz
and the Marxist czars in the Obama administration and the ultra-
leftist America-hating media out there. So I think everybody knows
what I meant."

"Obviously our American dream is dead if this president continuous to
spend our great great granchidlren's money at an irresponsibly and
uncountable place. And certainly we're be in jail because we'll become
subservient and addicted to Fedzilla — the wasteful, money-burning
monster that is the federal government right now."

He added: "When I say 'rip their heads off,' I'm talking figuratively
that we need to go to the voting booth and fire these people!"

Over the weekend, Nugent said "If Barack Obama becomes the president
in November, again, I will be either be dead or in jail by this time
next year," and "We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their
heads off in November! Any questions?" That sent Democrats like
Wasserman Schultz scrambling, and even prompted the Secret Service to
say it was probing Nugent's comments.

So has he heard from the authorities? Not yet.

"Whether there is an actual investigation on my speech at the NRA or
not, I will find out sooner or later. But I'm more than happy to talk
to the heroes of the Secret Service. … But I look forward to speaking
with them if they wish to speak with me, because I stand by my speech
at the NRA, and I stand by the fact that we have to go to the voting
booth and exercise out duty as citizens of America by voting our
conscience, whatever hat conscience might be."

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Most Conservative Congress in How Long? At Least a hundred years!

What -- exactly -- does 'conservative' mean/entail?
Thanks!

Regard$,
--MJ

I never told anyone to lie. Not a single time. Never. -- Bill Clinton, Press Conference, January 1998

A simple question for Tommy

I am betting he can't or won't give a serious direct question a
serious or a direct answer.

Dearest TommyTomTom,

Would you give 5-6-7-8 million of that money to the government,

OR would you give it to charity (and deduct from taxes)

OR would you take every tax exception and loophole there was to keep
as much as you legally could?

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Most Conservative Congress in How Long? At Least a hundred years!

Dearest TommyTomTom,

If your little "News Service" were to take off next year and earn 2
million dollars (not unheard of for blogs and within the realm of
possibility) that would mean that it is worth 10 million on the
market. Would you give 5-6-7-8 million of that money to the
government, would you give it to charity (and deduct form taxes) or
would you take every tax exception and loophole there was to keep as
much as you legally could?

On Apr 17, 11:16 am, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/most-conservative-congres_b_14...
>
> Mike Lux
>
> Most Conservative Congress in How Long?
> Posted: 04/16/2012 11:18 am
>
> There is a new study out by a pair of political scientists saying that
> the current Republican caucuses in Congress are the most conservative
> in a hundred years. I think they are underestimating.
>
> The 1911-12 congressional Republicans, after all, at least had some
> Teddy Roosevelt Republicans still in the Congress, so while a distinct
> minority, the party had some reformers and moderates in their
> caucuses. No, I think you would have to go back into the 1800s, into
> the Republican Congress swept into power with William McKinley's 1896
> election, to find a party as thoroughly reactionary as this one. This
> is somehow appropriate, because these Republicans clearly do want to
> repeal the 20th century. Starting with the early Progressive movement
> reforms Teddy Roosevelt got accomplished, the tea party GOP is trying
> to roll back all the progress our country has seen over the last
> century plus.
>
> Let's go back to those late 1890s Republicans -- who they were, what
> they believed, how they operated. This was the heart of the era
> dominated by Social Darwinists and Robber Baron industrialists, and
> the McKinley presidency was the peak of those forces' power. The
> Robber Barons were hiring the Pinkertons to (literally) murder union
> leaders, and were (literally) buying off elected officials to get
> whatever they wanted out of the government: money for bribery was
> openly allocated in yearly corporate budgets. These huge corporate
> trusts were working hand in hand with their worshipful friends in the
> Social Darwinist world, the 1800s version of Ayn Rand, who taught that
> if you were rich, it was because that was the way nature meant things
> to be -- and if you were poor, you deserved to be. Any exploitation,
> any greed, any concentration of wealth was justified by a survival of
> the strongest ethic. It was an era where Lincoln's and the Radical
> Republicans of the 1860s' progressive idea of giving land away free to
> poor people who wanted to work hard to be independent farmers through
> the Homestead Act was being overturned by big bank and railroad trusts
> ruthlessly driving millions of family farmers out of business. The
> Sherman Anti-Trust Act was being completely ignored by McKinley. And
> of course, none of the advances of the 20th century were yet in place:
> child labor laws, consumer safety, the national parks or later
> environmental laws, consumer safety, popular election of Senators,
> women's suffrage, a progressive tax system, decent labor laws, a
> minimum wage, Social Security, Glass-Steagall, the GI Bill, civil
> rights laws, Medicare, Medicaid, Legal Services, Head Start. None of
> it existed.
>
> Flash forward to today. With the exception of women's suffrage (and
> given the gender gap, I have no doubt that secretly Republicans would
> be happy to get rid of that), various high-level Republicans from this
> session of Congress have argued for the repeal or severe curtailment
> of all of those advances. This is not just Conservative with a capital
> C, but Reactionary with a capital R.
>
> This is why the worship by so many pundits and establishment figures
> of bipartisanship and meeting in the middle as the all-around best
> value in American politics is so fundamentally wrong as a political
> strategy for Democrats. With the Republicans in Congress actually
> wanting to repeal the gains of the 20th century, for Democrats to meet
> them halfway becomes a nightmare strategy. Repealing half of the 20th
> century is just not a reasonable compromise, even though that would be
> meeting the Republicans halfway. What we need to do instead is to
> propose our own bold strategy for how to move forward and solve the
> really big problems we have. Our country needs to have this debate,
> and I am confident once people understand the two alternatives, they
> will choose our path forward rather than the Republicans' path
> backward.
>
> Ultimately, this is a debate about values. Conservatives believe in
> that old Social Darwinist philosophy: whoever has money and power got
> that way because nature intended it, and they ought to get to keep
> everything they have and to hell with anyone not strong to make it on
> their own. Selfishness is a virtue, as Ayn Rand said; greed is good,
> as Gordon Gekko proclaimed in the movie Wall Street; in nature, the
> lions eat the weak, as Glenn Beck happily proclaimed to a cheering
> audience. That is the underlying ethic of the Ryan-Romney Budget. What
> progressives argue is the opposite: that we really are our brothers'
> and sisters' keepers; that we should treat others as we would want to
> be treated, and give a helping hand to those who need it; that
> investing in our citizens and promoting a broadly prosperous middle
> class that is growing because young people and poor people are given
> the tools to climb the ladder into it is the key to making a better
> society and growing economy.
>
> The debate is well worth having. The good news is that the Republicans
> are hardly shying away from it: by embracing this radically retrograde
> Ryan-Romney Budget, they are wearing their hearts on their sleeves and
> openly yearning to return to 1896. The Democrats should welcome this
> debate with open arms.
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.