Month: May 2010
Arkansas Candidate Gets It, Even Facebook
I admit the first thing that attracted me about Arkansas Dist. 1 candidate Ben Ponder (D) was his name. But after I “liked” him on Facebook, I was impressed, even inspired, by his campaign.
He’s funny (just watch the video), he’s smart (because you can’t be truly witty without some gray matter), and he does something almost no one running for office does: he says what he thinks. Yes, if he wins, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL8) would actually have some company!
Ponder’s notes from the campaign trail: “Never underestimate the South’s ability to deep fry things that were already bad for you”
Jon and I were lamenting earlier around the virtual water cooler the lack of leaders within the Democratic party. One reason for that, I think, is that Pres. Obama is the party’s leader and anyone offering up their take on issues could be seen as competing. But the other reason is people just aren’t willing to tell it straight anymore. Like U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), they’d rather play it safe by offering voters biography, biography, biography. And with tea bagger hostility staying just this side of lethal, who can blame them?
Uncertain Seats
Pundits are generating content,
Parsing potential voter intent.
One thing’s for sure
In this midterm year,
Nobody wants to be an incumbent.
GOP CA Gov: Poizner Attacks Whitman’s Record of Voting Zero Times over 28 Years
Good job. Let’s hope Jerry Brown steals this idea from Poizner if Whitman beats him in the GOP gubernatorial primary.
Verbatim
It could take years, possibly decades, for the system to recover from an infusion of this quantity of oil and gas. We’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s impossible to fathom the impact.
— Samantha Joye, marine science professor at the University of Georgia, explaining that oxygen levels in some parts of the Gulf of Mexico have dropped 30 percent, but more decline is expected
Tea Bagger Sen. DeMint Single-Handedly Killed Bipartisan Bill to Increase Senate Transparency
Secret holds allow senators to indefinitely prevent a presidential nominee from coming up for a vote, without ever having to provide a reason or identify themselves. Senate Republicans have used secret holds to an unprecedented degree under President Obama, and are currently anonymously blocking at least 52 nominees, all of whom were “noncontroversial in committee debate.”
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) proposed new rules to rein in secret holds, but “Republicans thwarted” the bipartisan effort yesterday when Sen. Jim DeMint attached a poison pill amendment.
The usually mild-mannered Wyden was apoplectic:
Jobs Picture Brightened in April
The economy added 290,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported, far more than analysts had expected. The figure was embraced by economists who have lamented that the improvements in the economy, including in the housing and manufacturing sectors, had not been accompanied by encouraging news about the workforce. U.S. employers have added jobs for the past four months, according to the government survey.
At the same time, the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 9.9 percent last month … Employers have added more than 500,000 jobs this year, not nearly enough to compensate for the more than 8 million lost during the recession, but a step in the right direction, economists said.
Poll Shows Abrupt Shift toward Dems in Generic Congressional Preference
AP-GfK :
Americans want Democrats to control Congress after this fall’s elections, a shift from April, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released Saturday. But the margin is thin and there’s a flashing yellow light for incumbents of both parties: Only about a third want their own lawmakers re-elected.
“I’m a new Democrat,” said Harley Smithson, 51, of Baltimore, who said he had recently switched from the GOP. “I want to be with a party that’s for something instead of against everything.”The tenuous 45 percent to 40 percent preference for a Democratic Congress reverses the finding a month ago on the same question: 44 percent for Republicans and 41 percent for Democrats. The new readout came as the economy continued showing signs of improvement and the tumultuous battle over the health care law that President Barack Obama finally signed in March faded into the background…
Compared with the last AP-GfK poll in April, the survey showed Republicans losing some support among married women, a key component of many GOP victories. Democrats picked up ground among young and rural voters.
“I’m a new Democrat,” said Harley Smithson, 51, of Baltimore, who said he had recently switched from the GOP. “I want to be with a party that’s for something instead of against everything.”
Flashback 1969: Joni Mitchell, Mama Cass and Mary Traverse Sing ‘I Shall Be Released’
This was filmed for the pilot of the “Mama Cass Television Program” in 1969. Cass also sang “Both Sides Now” with Joni. The show is available on DVD.
