Tag: California

Another Tea Party Birther Republican Exposed as Racist

Trish

racistemail

It’s deju vu all over again during the Obama years, as yet another Republican party official has been caught sending blatantly racist emails about the president. Marilyn Davenport, a tea party activist and member of the central committee of the Orange County, Calif. Republican Party, sent the image shown with the caption, “Now you know why no birth certificate.”

Davenport defended the email, as have all her predecessors that we know of, by saying it’s not really racist, it wasn’t meant to be seen by you, and it’s the fault of the press for blowing up a minor matter into something bigger.

I actually kind of agree with Davenport on that last point. The only reason these stories continue to be publicized is because so many members of the media deny that the tea party Republican movement is racist at its core. If we could all just acknowledge that and move on, there would be no need to keep proving it by showing direct evidence.

Post-Convention Wrap-Up: California GOP Said to Be on the Verge of Extinction

Jon Ponder

GOP Fate? A mammoth faces instinction in the La Brea Tar Pits
GOP Fate? A mammoth faces instinction in the La Brea Tar Pits
“Like a herd of wooly mammoths at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, the California Republican Party is on the verge of extinction,” writes CalBuzz, one of the best and most irreverent political websites in the Golden State.

That assessment came after CalBuzz spent the weekend covering the state GOP’s biannual convention.

A former Republican leader agreed. “It’s on life support,” he said.

But why is the California GOP in decline at the same time that the tea party has invigorated the the party just about everywhere else? CalBuzz suggests that the root of the party’s problem is its self-delusion — they think their candidates have not been conservative enough — as well as their dim view of, well, people:

The prevailing attitude at the convention seemed to be the Republicans lost every major statewide race and have been reduced to a strident minority because Republican candidates were too weak on conservative principles and besides, people are lazy and stupid.

The convention was notable for a couple of things that did not happen:

[…]

Gov. Brown Offers To Send His Dog to Debate Grover Norquist on Proposed Statewide Vote on Tax Hike Extension

Jon Ponder

Sutter, with Jerry and Anne Brown
Sutter, with Gov. Brown and his wife Anne
Should a set of tax hikes in California be allowed to expire, or should they be extended in order to help pay down state’s Texas-size deficit?

In his campaign for governor last year, Gov. Jerry Brown promised to put that question on a ballot measure so that California voters could make the decision. Brown won in November with a 13 point margin.

Voters like the idea. A Field Poll released last week found that 61 percent of registered voters favor putting the measure on the ballot.

And, really, who would oppose such a small-d democratic move?

[…]

Lockyear on Texas’ Hidden $27 Bil Deficit: Someone Turned on the Lights in the Bar and Texas ‘Doesn’t Look So Pretty Anymore’

Jon Ponder

Someone just turned the lights on in the bar, and the sexiest state doesn’t look so pretty anymore.

– California Treasurer Bill Lockyear, a Democrat, reacting to news that Texas had been hiding a $27 billion deficit for over a year while both Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry and California GOP candidate for governor Meg Whitman lambasted California’s deficit and touted Texas as a “miracle” of fiscal responsibility.

The Reagan Legacy: Can We Talk?

Trish

reaganWhile folks born from the late ’70s on reflect fondly on the 100th birthday of Pres. Ronald Reagan, I wanted to inject a little reality on the subject of the Gipper.

As someone who was already around when he was in office, I have a different view of the golden age conservatives now see as the greatest in our country’s history, except of course, for the halcyon days of 3/5ths personhood and what-not at our country’s founding. Reagan gave us:

  • Voodoo economics, aka trickle-down economics, aka supply-side economics, aka tax breaks for the rich
  • Tripling the national debt within two years (see “voodoo economics”)
  • Just Say No
  • Creating a new demographic of Americans: The Homeless
  • A 4,370-piece set of dishes (19 pieces per setting), costing $209,508
  • Bombing Libya and killing 60 people, including Leader Muammar al-Gaddafi’s 15-month-old daughter
  • Ketchup as a vegetable in public school lunches
  • Lt. Col. Oliver North
  • Selling arms to Iran and using the money to overthrow the government of Nicaragua
  • Using astrology to plan presidential trips, functions, speeches, etc.

    • […]

CA Gov: Despite What You Heard on ‘Meet the Press,’ Meg Whitman Did Not Win Registered Independents

Jon Ponder

Calbuzz is one of the go-to sites for straight-shooting journalists’ insight into California politics. Earlier this month, they nailed the campaign of Republican Meg Whitman — who lost by a whopping 13 points on Nov. 2 — for what they referred to as post-election “bullshit” coming from the campaign’s top operative, Mike Murphy:

[When] we saw meathead David Gregory interviewing our friend Mike Murphy, the $90,000-a-month campaign guru for Meg “Biggest Loser” Whitman, on “Press the Meat” the other day, we felt compelled to get up off the floor and say something.

“We got beat and, you know, I ran the campaign, and I take responsibility for it,” Murphy said, at least acknowledging that he had been in the neighborhood. But then came excuse, No. 1: “It’s a very blue state and it’s getting bluer. As the red, you know, wave kind of went one way, there was a bit of a blue riptide coming the other way.”

And then, excuse No. 2: “CEO candidates who are doing kind of a tough medicine message . . . Meg and Carly Fiorina in California, they weren’t buying it. So we just couldn’t get there. We could win the Republicans, win the independents, but in California if you don’t win a lot of Democrats — you don’t win and we did not.”

Whoa there, big fella. “Win the independents?” If Meg and Carly had actually won the actual independents, they would be governor- and senator-elect.

[…]

Prop 19: Pot Prop Lost But Got 350K More Votes Than Meg Whitman, 258K More than Fiorina

Jon Ponder

350,000 Votes

Despite receiving 3,477,746 “yes” votes, Proposition 19, the ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana in California, lost. Paradoxically, Prop 19 received 350,000 more “yes” votes than total votes for losing GOP governor candidate Meg Whitman (3,152,366) and 285,000 more than losing GOP U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina (3,219,797).