Month: June 2010

Verbatim

Jon Ponder

You are asking for substantiation. I can’t go to a page in the bill but what I can tell you is the country is over $13 trillion in debt.

– Dan Fanelli, a Republican opponent to Rep. Alan Grayson, the liberal firebrand who represents Florida’s 8th district, responding to Politifact.com after they’d rated his ad as a “Pants on Fire” lie. In the ad, Fanelli falsely claimed that under the new health care law, the elderly will be denied care when they have “passed the age limit for treatment.”

Poll: Democrats on Track to Lose Control of House – Get Used to It Now: ‘Speaker Boehner’

Jon Ponder

Speaker-to-Be Boehner
Speaker-to-Be Boehner
Yesterday, Buck found a slight uptick in approval of Democrats in congressional races in a new Public Policy Polling survey. According to PPI, Democrats are preferred on a generic ballot, 43-41 — an improvement from March, when Republicans were preferred 46-43.

But now a new poll of specific House battleground districts conducted by Democrat Stan Greenberg and Republican Glen Bolger for NPR suggests that Republicans are well within strking distance of regaining control of the House:

For this poll, Bolger and Greenberg chose the districts where incumbents are considered the most vulnerable, and, in the case of open seats, the ones most likely to switch party control in November. Sixty are currently held by Democrats — many of whom won these seats even when voters in the same district preferred Republican John McCain for president in 2008. The other 10 districts are the flip side — held by Republicans in the House, even though their voters went for Barack Obama in 2008.

These are this year’s swing seats — the political terrain where the battle for control of the House of Representatives will be won or lost. In this battleground, voters are choosing Republicans over Democrats 49 percent to 41 percent.

Another dire indicator for Democrats is that Pres. Obama is unpopular in the battleground districts, where his disapproval rate is 54-40, according to the pollsters.

Separately, here’s yet more evidence that MSNBC’s White House correspondent Chuck Todd is fully in the bag for the GOP this year. He promoted this NPR poll showing Dems in trouble on his aptly named “Rundown” show this morning, while ignoring the PPI poll results showing improvement in Dem chances.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

The president has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race — on the side that favors the black person.

— Rep. Steve King (R-IA), quoted by The Hill, on President Obama’s attitude towards race.

Rand Paul Exaggerated Medical Board Certification

Buck Banks

Rand Paul
Rand Paul
U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul claims he is a “board certified” ophthalmologist, and he is, kind of, but then, he owns the board called the National Board of Ophthalmology. Paul incorporated the NBO in 1999 and serves as president. His wife is vice president.

According to the Louisville, Ky., Courier-Journal, Paul’s board is not nationally recognized:

But that entity is not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, which works with the American Medical Association to approve such specialty boards.

Lori Boukas, a spokeswoman for the American Board of Medical Specialties, said her organization considers certifications to be valid only if they are done by the 24 groups that have its approval and that of the AMA.

Boukas of the American Board of Medical Specialties said its 24 member groups, including the widely recognized American Board of Ophthalmology, have stricter standards for board certification than the other groups.

The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure does not verify doctors’ specialty training and instead directs people to the American Board of Medical Specialties to determine if a doctor is board-certified.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology recognizes board certification only by the American Board of Ophthalmology.

Shortly before the May 18 primary, Paul told the Courier-Journal that he was certified by both boards.

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CA Sen: By Refusing to Apologize, Fiorina Keeps Her Catty Hair Comments in the News

Jon Ponder

Fiorina making light of her chemo-related hair loss
Fiorina making light of her chemo-related hair loss
What Californians and the rest of country have learned about GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina since she got caught trashing the hairdo of her opponent, Sen. Barbara Boxer, in front of a live camera — five days during which she has blamed others (“I was quoting a friend of mine” about the hairstyle) and adamantly refused to apologize (although she “regret[s] this whole situation”) and even tried to deflect criticism of her tacky behavior by bringing up her own treatment for cancer — is that her personality can be summed up in a single word:

Asshole.

[…]

Poll: Democrats Making Gains in Generic Balloting

Buck Banks

For the first time since December Public Policy Polling finds Democrats leading on the generic Congressional ballot by a slim margin of 43-41. The shift appears due to the fact that the party is becoming more unified. Democratic voters are planning to support their candidates by a 76-point margin, 84-8. That represents an 11-point increase since March.

Since the March survey, when the GOP had a 46-43 generic ballot advantage, independents have started to swing away from the GOP. They still lean Republican by a 36-21 margin, but the previous gap was 44-26. More important, 43 percent of independents are now in the undecided column compared to 30 percent during the winter. Those voters are back up for grabs for Democrats to win.

[…]

Mr. President, Please Appoint Sarah Q. Palin Gulf Disaster Czar

Jon Ponder

See the rest of the conversation between the president and Sarah Q. here.
Art by Betty Cracker at Rumproast.com. Click the image to see the rest of the strip.
While regular Americans see the Gulf oil spill as a tragedy that is devastating the lives of people and animals as well as the economy, ecosystems and natural beauty along the shores of five states, Republicans see the disaster as just another opportunity to play political games and criticize the president.

The problem with putting Sarah Q. Palin in charge of anything is that “Quitter” is her middle name.

From day one, the Republicans’ approach to the crisis has resembled a mob of howler monkeys tossing poo at firemen trying to put out a fire at the zoo. Last week, Sarah Q. Palin, the GOP’s putative 2012 presidential nominee, piled on by flinging her poo at the president in the guise of offering advice via her Facebook page:

[…]