Tea Party goes down hard

[Sandy]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/09/politics/ ... ?hpt=hp_t2

The Ohio vote is considered a bellwether regarding the upcoming primary season and the presidential election. The vote bodes well for the President.

I'm shocked, frankly, that Mississippi rejected the bill that would have defined life as beginning at conception. That is a surprise. Though there are some far reaching implications of that proposal that would have created some complicated legal issues, it is, after all, Mississippi, and it is surprising that there was not enough voter support for the measure to pass. I'm also surprised that an African American Democrat came within a hair's breadth of winning the governorship. I'm also shocked that an incumbent Democrat won handily in Kentucky, and that four of the five statewide offices went to Democrats. Perhaps the biggest shocker of the whole evening was the defeat of Russell Pearce in Arizona. Pearce was the legislator who authored Arizona's controversial and extreme immigration bill. What is shocking is that the Tea Party raised and directed a fortune into his campaign, and Sarah Palin invested a personal endorsement and a major amount of time and energy helping his campaign. He was also a protege' of Maricopa County's ultra right wing, gun totin', rip-roarin' Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

[Dave Roberts]

Looking at the votes, I'm not so certain what it bodes for 2012. It seems that even some of the pro-life community in MS saw that the proposal there could even be applied to some, if not all, birth control. Some were claiming that if all life was protected from the point of conception, then the prevention of either fertilization or the implantation in the uterus could be conceived as a violation. It seems that the vote died because it was too extreme.

Local races are not good indicators of whether a national trend is there. For example, the Democratic state legislator won here largely because the Republican opponent was from the other end of the district and hardly was seen up this way. He simply conceded the African-American majority communities. By the same token, a white county official was elected over a Black sitting official because she did a better job campaigning. Local elections usually are not strongly influenced by the parties.

2012 should be interesting for lots of reasons.

[Hal Eaton]

'Tis the season of . . . blather and bluster.

I've spent several days getting over Rick Perry's promise to eliminate three departments of the Federal goverment -- that was Education, Commerce, and -- uh -- oh yeah, Energy. And it took much searching to find the number of people who would be joining the unemployed if Rick's campaign oratory became reality. The employment numbers for the three departments totals almost 60,000!!! (That's a rather small number when you compare the total U.S. Government employment at about 2 mil.) No commentator mentioned such results regarding Perry's promises.

My attempt to find the numbers led me to research the various goals of each of the departments, a very satisfying project. Check Wikipedia for a short course in gummint goals, however inefficient the effort might be. (Try it, you'll like it.)

A small explanantion of Perry's blunderbuss approach to political power: I think he meant the NEA (which is not a governmental entity)instead of the Department of Education ; I think he meant the Environmental Protection Agency instead of the Department of Energy; and I don't know what he intended for the Department of Commerce, unless he thought it was to blame for the current economic situation.

The current approach by most of the wannabes is attack, attack, attack; no plan for recovery, improvement, or salvation is required.

[KeithE]

[Stephen Fox]

The analysis on which the election should turn

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... h-20111109

[Ed Pettibone]

[KeithE]

[Gene Scarborough]

Politics is politics and it's not pretty these days. Whatever happened to reasoned debate and compromise???

Our system seems to have 2 major flaws right now:

*Division beyond reason
*A tax code becoming more and more rediculous

The cause is big money put into the hands of those running in an attempt to favor those with big money to start with. I has to end and government has to shrink in proportion to our economic status.

I am confident that, just like small businesses which react more quickly with the economy (alongside individuals), if we are to sustain a goverment it requires a 50-70% reduction in cost. Alongside that must come a new ethic of real representation.

The "quick fix" making most sense to me is TERM LIMITS.

KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid!!!

[Stephen Fox]

Scarborough may benefit from a closer reading of the Tim Dickinson recent piece easily googled in Mother Jones on how The GOP in last 15 years or so became every morethe Party of the Rich.

Not class warfare here, honest look at the numbers and evolutionary party. How Richard Land justifies his work with Karl Rove to make it so in light of the teachings of scripture; you have to believe even Walley Amos Criswell himself would wince a little; on the other hand, maybe not

[Gene Scarborough]

Stephen---

I don't need to read any article which says in words what I have observed in life: the richer the South has become, the more Republican it has voted!

I came into this world in 1946. The War had ended and we had won. We had also overcome the Great Depression and war expenditure was a large part of it. Women had gone to work with men overseas. The South was solidly Democratic and my grandfather always checked the box at the top of the ballot = All Democrats.

Atlanta and GA where I grew up was unquestionably Democrat. Seldom was there even a Democrat running! My father wisely observed: The real difference between a Democrat and Republican is that a Republican is just a former Democrat who has made much money AND WANTS TO KEEP IT ALL!

When Title XX funded the poor, white folks were mad---including me. When it has gone on now for 5 generations without any real change and a terrible drag on the Federal Budget, the majority of white working folks are mad and formed the Tea Party to express it. There are few black faces among Republicans and NONE in the Tea Party. Still race and class are feeding the hate in America today.

What amazes me is that Republicans applaude Herman Cain and hate Obama. Obama is half white, but nobody seems to recognize that. Cain is all black and they see his blackness as an asset in 2012. In addition, the Moslem bull still is coming across my emails = total distortion. Additionally, the white Republicans still try to claim he isn't even an American-born citizen. All this "stuff" is nothing more than unadulterated name-calling and distortion. They are living in a nightmare they have created and continue to promote.

The "bottom line" on the economy is that Republicans refuse to do anything real about it in hopes that will help them in 2012. We need to significantly reduce entitlements and war abroad. We can no long sustain such expenditures of public money while our infrastructure is collapsing around us. We can no longer let the rich and corporate powers pay little or no taxes under the pretense "they will use the saved money to hire more people an expand = total

Public healthcare is another major boondoggle. It is in place from the first part of the Obama Administration, but Republicans are trying to beat it to the point we just had last week's refusal to resolve it. Same with the Super Committee on spending.

As long as hate and non-cooperation exist we will sit in the eye of the storm. Storms usually pass overhead. The current Congress is only seeking to keep us following it as it trys to move off our heads. Total lack of statesmanship and compromise exists so why don't we put in TERM LIMITS to change the heads in all Federal and State government????

[Stephen Fox]

That was interesting, Gene.
I was looking to see how you treated the Ga Democrat Lester Maddox, but I'm sure you will catch him next time around.
Still the Rolling Stone article is time better spent going forward for this discussion if it came down to navigating your personal experience and analysis vs something that could actually inform the conversation.

And let the Bush tax cuts expire. From Fareed Zakharia to right thinking people everywhere, that is consensus.

For what it's worth, best I understand the situation, I'm with Baptist GOP US Senator Lindsey Graham of near Pickens County, S.C.: adopt Bowles Simpson

[Gene Scarborough]

Lestor Maddox! I know him well with his Picrick Restaurant in downtown Atlanta! He was a total racist of the George Wallace mindset. He even sold ax handles there in honor of his threat to beat any "******" in the head who tried to come inside!

I moved to Wake Forest the same year he became Georgia's governor with great relief. Then I turned on WRAL (Channel 5 Raleigh) to find his first cousin of conservatism spouting his editorials at the end of each newscast: Jesse Helms! It was about "conserving what?" Jesse valued all things racist and backwards. He went on to be elected Senator and brought his conservatism to Congress. Thank God my grandaddy was dead when Strom Thurmund switched to Republican! Even more so when it was disclosed he had a child by his black housekeeper.

Will schizophrenia ever cease in the South????? It is now extended to the Tea Party and current mess in Washington.

[KeithE]

[Gene Scarborough]

Tax the rich bastards!!!!

[Stephen Fox]

had an interviewon Meet the Press this morning, transcript should be easily googled by day's end.
And Sour Kraut Hammer had a syndicated column on him this morning.

I think Grover is the problem and his Tea Party minions.

[Hal Eaton]

A personal musing on the sitch-e-ation:

Every time ai hear a sound bite from Boehner, I wonder anew if his first name is "Carmine."