Month: March 2010
Conservative Polling Firm Admits Consumer Confidence is Way Up
In what must have been painful to report, conservative polling firm Rasmussen announced today that consumer confidence is the highest it’s been since Sept., 2008.
The index is up two points from yesterday, up eight points from a week ago and up ten points from it’s (sic) reading last month. Consumer confidence is up 29 points from its level measured this time last year.
Nationally, 32% of adults say the U.S. economy is getting better these days, but 42% say it’s getting worse. A year ago, just 12% felt the economy was improving, and 72% thought the economy was getting worse.
Investor confidence is up as well.
Among investors, 40% say the U.S. economy is getting better these days, while 40% think it’s getting worse. Those figures are down significantly when just 8% of investors felt conditions in the country were getting better and 75% thought they were worsening.
Rasmussen is comparing confidence levels to Sept., 2008 because, as you will recall, that was when it dawned on Sen. John McCain that the economy was in the toilet, and he announced he was suspending his presidential campaign to horn in on negotiations by the Bush administration to bail out Wall St. McCain asked for a delay in debating Obama, canceled his appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, and instead appeared on CBS News with Katie Couric.
GOP CA State Senator Comes Out – Says 100% Anti-Gay Record Reflects Constituents’ Wishes
| PART I | PART II |
Sen. Roy Ashburn, the GOP California state senator who was arrested for driving under the influence after leaving a gay club in Sacramento, came out today on a local right-wing radio show in Bakersfield, his home district. In the interview, Ashburn said objective in voting 100 percent against gay interests was simply to reflect the wishes of “the vast majority” of his constituents.
Maybe, but more often than not “I’m just a vessel of the people” really means “I will do and say whatever it takes to keep my job.”
Ashburn, a 55 year old, divorced father of four, has served as Kern County supervisor, state assemblyman and now senator from the 18th District, one California’s most conservative precincts. His guise as a sheep in wolf’s clothing worked flawlessly until now — he was reelected in 2006 with 70 percent of the vote — but he is term-limited out this year. Earlier this year, he abandoned plans to run for the U.S. Congress. Too bad. He would have fit right in.
Roy Ashburn is a career politician who built his career on a lie. To cover his tracks, he allied himself with the homophobes in his party and became one of the oppressors of his own kind — a fact preserved in his voting record. Ashburn not only voted against every gay rights-related measure that came up, he was even one of just 13 senators, all Republicans, who voted against establishing May 22 as an annual memorial day to honor Harvey Milk, the state’s martyred gay leader.
Until the drunk-driving incident, Ashburn hosted a weekly show on KERN AM, a hate radio outlet in Bakersfield. Within hours after he resigned, the station had expunged all references to his show from its website.
Nonetheless, he went on KERN’s Inga Barks Show Monday to announce that he is gay. Here’s a rough transcript of the interview — picks up at 06:40 in Part I of the audio above:
ROY ASHBURN: Well, I’ve always believed that I could keep my personal life personal and my public life public. But through my own actions I have made my personal life public, and I owe explanation to my constituents and to the people who have been kind to me through the years.
INGA BARKS: I want to offer you the opportunity to give that explanation. Do you want me to ask you the question, or do you just want to tell people?
RB: Well. I am gay, and, uh, so — I … those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long. Uh. But I am gay. But it is, it is something that is personal. And I don’t believe — I felt with my heart — you know, being gay did not affect, would not affect how I do my job.
Again, what happened through my own actions the other night changed all that.
IB: You know, I’ve never felt it relevant about people’s private lives, about their sexual orientation. It’s never been relevant to me, but for many this has been relevant. They felt that you were contradictory if it were true because of your votes. I would love for you to respond to that.
Part II:
RA: Well, I mean it’s interesting to me because I have, according to the — my votes reflect the wishes of the people in my district. And I have always felt that my faith and allegiance was to the people there in the district, my constituents. And so as each of these individual measures came before the legislature, I cast “no” votes, usually “no” votes, because the measures were almost always about acknowledging rights or assigning identification to, to homosexual persons.
IB: Did you agree with those votes?
RA: Um, I felt my duty — and I still feel this way — is to represent my constituents… There’s never been a doubt in my mind on the position of the majority — the vast majority — of people in my district — on these different issues. So I voted as I felt I should on behalf of the people who elected me.
IB: Now you’ve been taking criticism the last couple of days from the gay groups that say it’s hypocrisy that you voted that way. I personally take an insult to that. That’s like saying every black person should vote for Obama, right?, and every woman should be pro-abortion. I don’t care for the stereotype myself, but I have to ask you, Roy, now that you have told us that you are in fact, um, gay, is it going to change the way you vote?
RA: Again, I believe firmly that my responsibility is to my constituents. On each measure that may come before me, uh, I will take a careful look at it and apply that standard — how would my constituents vote on this? How would they have me vote on this? … I don’t think anyone misunderstands what I mean.
As of Monday afternoon, there was at least one Facebook page advocating Ashburn’s recall.
Poll Shows “Most Vulnerable” Democrat is Popular with Republicans
A poll commissioned by U.S. Rep Alan Grayson (D-Orlando) shows he is the unlikely pick among Central Florida Republicans in the race for the Florida District 8 seat. Yes, the man named “most vulnerable” by national Republicans after announcing on the House floor that the Republican plan for health care is to not get sick, and if you do get sick, to die quickly, is actually preferred by 27.8% of registered Republicans.
…Grayson is far and away the leading choice among registered Republicans in FL-8. In fact, he has almost twice as much support among Republicans as all his Republican opponents combined.
In the poll, Grayson won the support of 27.8% of registered Republicans. None of Grayson’s 13 opponents scored higher than 3.7%. Their combined performance was only 14.5%. The remaining 57.7% of registered Republicans were undecided.
30.1% of registered Republican women support Grayson. And Grayson has the support of 25.5% of registered Republican men.
Grayson also has an enormous lead in name recognition. 76.9% of Republicans know Grayson; none of his opponents scored higher than 15.1%. 81.4% of Republican men know Grayson, and 72.4% of Republican women know him.
While there is some mystery around the methods of Middleton Market Research, which produced the study, analysts agree it uncovers a problem for the GOP: a lack of credible candidates.
Grayson, of course, claims the results show that people not only know who he is but that they support his efforts.
Grayson received high marks from Republicans for his Constitution initiative. Over half of all Republicans said that they were more likely to vote for Grayson because he passed a resolution urging high schools to teach the Constitution, and he had distributed tens of thousands of copies of the Constitution throughout the district…
Asked to comment, Congressman Grayson said, “it’s like I’ve been saying: People like a Congressman with guts…People of every political persuasion want to see action to help solve their problems, and that’s what they’re seeing from us.”
When asked if he might run in the Republican primary, Grayson said, “as this poll shows, if I did, then I would win.”
There was one more piece of bad news in the research, at least if you’re Gov. Charlie Crist.
…Grayson is more popular among Republicans than Republican Governor Charlie Crist is. 42% of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of Crist, far more than those who have an unfavorable opinion of Grayson.
Oscar Ennui
While watching the academy awards,
The elegantly coiffed beaux and broads,
I wasn’t excited,
Or thrilled or delighted.
I was just so incredibly — bored.
Contract Pulled After Businessman Sends Email Insulting First Lady
In what can only be called a recurring theme, another Republican/teabagger/conservative idiot has failed to recognize that racism against black people is not a universally accepted tenet, and that not everyone welcomes emails depicting the Obamas as pimped-out, watermelon-eating, simian-looking members of a race too lazy to flee from hurricanes. It’s happened in California, Florida, Texas, and now, Tennessee.
This go-round featured the following email from Walt Baker, CEO of the Tennessee Hotel & Lodging Association and Principal of a group called MERCATUS Communications, going out to “[Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau Pres. Butch] Spyridon, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean’s legislative liaison, public relations executives and members of the Nashville media.”
From: Walt Baker < wbaker@mercatuscom.com > To: Albie DelFavero, Bruce Dobie, Butch Spyridon, Joe Hall, Peter Heidenreich, Terry Clements, Toby Compton, Chuck Creasy, Rob Moorefield, Ken Whitehouse, Paul Brown, Bob Davis Date: March 4, 2010 9:18:29 PM CST
Quoting Larry the Cable Guy…I don’t care who you are, this is funny…
I was at the store yesterday, and I ran into Tarzan! I asked him how it was going and if he was into anymore movies.??
He told me that he could no longer make any more movies as he had severe arthritis in both shoulders and could no longer swing from vine to tree.
??I asked how Jane was doing, he told me she was in bad shape, in a nursing home, has Alzheimer’s and no longer recognizes anyone, how sad. I asked about Boy, and he told me that Boy had gone to the big city, got hooked up with bad women, drugs, alcohol, and the only time he heard from him was if he was in trouble or needed something.?
I asked about Cheeta, he beamed and said she was doing good, had married a Lawyer and now lived in the White House!!!
And here are the accompanying graphics.
Turns out he should have cared who you were. Despite his defense of the email as “political humor,” Baker’s company has been dumped by the Convention Center.
The Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau on Saturday dropped its contract with Baker’s marketing firm Mercatus Communications. The firm had received almost $50,000 to market the new convention center and money that came indirectly from Metro to market the annual Music City Bowl.
In his “apology,” Baker, who showed true obliviousness for a man with a porcine countenance in comparing the First Lady’s face to a chimp’s, demonstrated how profoundly he doesn’t get it.
In an e-mail sent to Metro Council members Saturday, Baker suggested the message was intended as a joke but was misinterpreted:
“I did not think or consider its implications, other than that it was political humor. I am saddened that anyone misinterpreted the sentiments behind the e-mail.
“I deeply apologize to anyone who is offended by this action. I hope that those who know me realize that the message was not intended to be malicious or hurtful in any way and can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”
If there was a shred of political humor in this gag, I missed it. The punchline says Michelle Obama is a chimpanzee. The attached photos compare her to a chimpanzee. And the political aspect in that is…? Didn’t think so.
Baker wrote the five-year marketing plan for the State of Tennessee in 1986, under Republican Gov. (now Senator) Lamar Alexander.
