Day: October 18, 2011
The First #OccupyWallStreet Tweet was Posted by a Canadian
Dear Americans, this July 4th dream of insurrection against corporate rule http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/95/revolution-america.html #occupywallstreet
— The very first #OccupyWallStreet tweet, posted July 4, 2011, by Canadian (yes, this movement was sparked by Canadians) anti-corporate magazine Adbusters (@adbusters).
Republicans Accept $18 Million Government Bailout for Convention Expenses
You know how Republicans are always telling the rest of us that we need to get by without federal assistance, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, to pay our own way, and to just generally be self-sufficient? Well when it comes to throwing parties, forget all that!
Republicans are helping themselves to $18 million of the public dole for party planning for their 2012 national convention in Tampa. Let the good times roll!
Let me beat FOX News to the false equivalence punch by acknowledging that Democrats will likely accept funding for their convention in Charlotte. But there’s a difference.
Organizers of the 2012 Republican National Convention have received a $18 million grant from the Federal Elections Commission for planning and preparation…
The money, which comes from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, had been anticipated and is intended for payroll for staff members, travel, office supplies and other convention-related expenses.
While charges of hypocrisy might apply to the GOP for accepting the grant, that case certainly can’t be made concerning Republican deficit handling. The first use of quite a few of those many, many benjamins is paying off debt racked up in the past few years, when fundraising didn’t keep pace with spending.
It’s Super Lucrative!
At first we were made to feel pity
For the poor souls on the congressional super committee.
But as it turns out,
In addition to clout,
It’s a great way to raise PAC and lobby money.
John Edwards’ Enduring Political Message
At its heart, ‘Two Americas’ was an economic populist paean — driving home the sense that the distance between the haves and the have-nots was not only widening, but also that the system was somehow rigged to favor those with money and power… Those sentiments are perhaps more relevant today than when Edwards first uttered them nearly seven years ago. The decline in the American economy has stretched much of the country thin and contributed to an increasing sense that the game is rigged. That appears to be the central animating principle of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement and the other gatherings it has spawned across the country and across the world… And it’s that sentiment that the White House is hoping to tap into as President Obama tries to find a way to re-energize the Democratic base in advance of 2012.
— Although John Edwards’ political career is dead and buried, Chris Cillizza notes the enduring influence of the embattled former presidential candidate’s “Two Americas” message.
Cain Keeps Up Ungrammatical But Quotable Quips
I don’t talk politician.
— Herman Cain, quoted by Reuters, which described his presidential campaign as a “fly by the seat of your pants” operation with thin staffing in early voting states.
Most Americans Blame Government for Economy
64%
Of Americans name the federal government when asked whom they blame more for the poor economy and 30% say big financial institutions, a new USA Today/Gallup poll finds.
Axelrod: Obama Was Prepared to Be Prez
Maybe you should go ask Osama Bin Laden if he thought he was prepared.
— David Axelrod, on Morning Joe, pushing back against the charge Barack Obama was ill prepared to be president.
Racists for Cain: Why Are Tea Party Voters Giving His Plan to Raise Taxes a Pass?
It is a sign of the times that an African-American Republican, Herman Cain, is leading by double digits in South Carolina, the heart and soul of the Old Confederacy, a hotbed of the Neo-Confederate tea-party movement today and an early primary state next year.
According to an InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research poll [PDF] of likely South Carolina voters conducted for the Augusta (S.C.) Chronicle on Oct. 16, Cain leads second-place candidate Mitt Romney 32-16 percent. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a sometimes advocate of secession, is a close third with 12 percent, while also-rans New Gingrich, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmman and Jon Huntsman bring up the rear in single digits. Rick Santorum, the single-issue, anti-gay candidate, failed to muster even 1 percent support.
(It is unclear why 17 Democrats were included in a poll about the Republican primary, but Cain led among these Democrats with nearly 55 percent while Michele Bachmann trailed among Dems, with 22.5 percent.)
So what does Cain’s ascendancy say about the Republican Party and its tea party base, with its nearly all-white, mostly middle-aged demographics? […]
