Gingrich Condemns Conservative Leaders For Driving Moderate GOPer Out Of NY Race
Sign of the times. Newt Gingrich, himself long considered a leader of the GOP’s conservative wing, is now condemning conservative leaders for driving moderate GOPer Dede Scozzafava out of the race for NY-23, warning that if national conservatives keep bigfooting local races the GOP will continue to wander the wilderness around the country:
“This makes life more complicated from the standpoint of this: If we get into a cycle where every time one side loses, they run a third-party candidate, we’ll make Pelosi speaker for life and guarantee Obama’s re-election,” said Mr. Gingrich, who had endorsed Ms. Scozzafava…
“I think we are going to get into a very difficult environment around the country if suddenly conservative leaders decide they are going to anoint people without regard to local primaries and local choices.”
Gingrich had endorsed Scozzafava, so this was in some ways to be expected. But it’s interesting that someone once considered a spokesman for the fire-breathing right is now condemning conservative leaders for mounting ideological purges.
And right on cue, DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse sends over a statement using Scozzafava’s decision to drop from the race to elevate Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, who endorsed conservative Doug Hoffman, as the face of the harsh, uncompromising opposition:
What this says — emphatically — is that the true leaders of the Republican Party like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Tim Pawlenty have said to all moderates and independents — when it comes to being part of our party you need not apply. The only acceptable Republicans these days are those who subscribe to division, obstruction and a rigid far right wing ideology.
The NRCC and the House GOP leadership, meanwhile, put out a joint statement backing the conservative: “We look forward to welcoming Doug Hoffman into the House Republican Conference as we work together for the good of our nation.”
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Politics is better known by Newt;
But The Inquisition owns The Truth.
I love the way Brad Woodhouse helps the Republicans frame their own debate while pushing them deeper into the corner of conservatism.
I’m going to watch Lieberman on Face the Nation today, can’t wait to see that interview. Alos Zakaria at CNN will have Matthew Hoh on, that should be interesting as well. And Fox “News” will have Rush baby.
This from Frank Rich regarding NY23. Pretty funny.
“BARACK OBAMA’S most devilish political move since the 2008 campaign was to appoint a Republican congressman from upstate New York as secretary of the Army. This week’s election to fill that vacant seat has set off nothing less than a riotous and bloody national G.O.P. civil war. No matter what the results in that race on Tuesday, the Republicans are the sure losers. This could be a gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats through 2010, and perhaps beyond.”
And then there’s this from Bill Hennessey regarding NY23, famed author of “The Conservative Manifesto”/1993. The entire post is worth the read but this is his contribution.
“Before the polls open in upper New York on Tuesday morning, thousands of Tea Partiers from states as far away as California will have had an impact on what might otherwise have been an unnoticed special election. …
Those patriots will soon conduct perhaps the strongest get-out-the-vote campaign ever targeted on a single Congressional election. …
It’s as if God has given Tea Partiers the lever that controls the course of the sun. If they all pull together, they make it Morning in America.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/bias-media-dirty-tricks-a_b_341141.html
Religious Conservatives suspected that Dede Scozzafava was a Witch. So, on Halloween they tied Abortion and Gay Rights Stones around her neck. When they tossed her in the river, and shedid not float, they proved that Dede was indeed A Heretic.
The Banish Inquisition Is Everywhere!
DeDe enocuraging her supporter to vote for Owens.
Watertown Times has changed its endorsement from Scozzafava to Owens
“During the day Saturday, she began to quietly and thoughtfully encourage her supporters to vote for Democrat William L. Owens.”
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20091101/OPINION01/311019918/-1/OPINION
This should be fun.
Newt is scared s*** that Hoffman will win that election, since that will only act as throwing gas on the fire to the fringe.
If Hoffman wins, the right will start running more bats*** crazy right-wingers in districts that they can’t win (NY-23 has been GOP since the 1800’s), and oh please oh please in some Senate races…drawing a chuck of normally locked GOP votes and most of their grassroots energy.
I love the way Brad Woodhouse wrapped Tim Pawlenty into the cocoon with Palin and Beck. Nice touch. And very smart.
Does anyone here with Frank Rich’s claim ?
“Barack Obama’s most devilish political move since the 2008 campaign was to appoint a Republican congressman from upstate New York as secretary of the Army. This week’s election to fill that vacant seat has set off nothing less than a riotous and bloody national G.O.P. civil war.”
Surely even Obama couldn’t have seen this coming.
lmsinca–that thing you quotes is really, um, something. I am sure I am sure I don’t want to read anymore just after that short taste.
@Amk,
I would not be too surprised if such a thought had crossed the minds of David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel.
I am hoping for the Far Right winger to win. We need to let them purify their party of heritics, and we have enough blue dogs already.
Purge Purge Purge.
The Banish Inquisition Is Every Where!
lfo
Well it is Sunday and they are God’s chosen apparently.
How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/77791.html
Excerpt:
“November 01, 2009 01:17:44 AM
WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.
Goldman’s sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation’s premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.
Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman’s failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.”
“Surely even Obama couldn’t have seen this coming.”
No, but it sure is fun for the rest of us to capitalize on.
lmsinca: yeah I guess they are feeling anointed right about now. I wonder if they will feel the same way for long though
My Question Of The Day:
Do Creationists/Evolution Deniers; get Flu-Shots, and if so, why?
Liam – A hoffman (he does look like a nazi thug) win is a double edged sword. It will be a ’shot’ in the arm for tea-baggers and more violent & still crazier rhetoric might ensue. Who knows where that will lead.
I, for one, don’t think america has lived down its racist past. Remember, even with the economy in the toilet and the disastrous shrub presidency, close to 46% americans voted for the old guy and that twit from tundras. Never underestimate the american voters’ intelligence.
Liam
Are we on hypocrisy watch today?
“This from Frank Rich regarding NY23. Pretty funny.”
Love it.
“Do Creationists/Evolution Deniers; get Flu-Shots, and if so, why?”
That is a very good question.
Here’s another good quote regarding NY23 from Jon Walker at FDL.
“Hoffman may win this time, but what about the dozen potential conservative third party candidates who will be inspired to become the next Doug Hoffman? He’s shown them that they can run and win. The number of Republicans who rallied to Hoffman even before Scozzafava dropped out is a bad precedent. It sends the message that candidates having nothing to fear from trying to tear down Republican nominees. If they can hurt the Republican candidates enough, the national party will embrace the cause of their own downfall with open arms.”
“It’s as if God has given Tea Partiers the lever that controls the course of the sun. If they all pull together, they make it Morning in America.””
The Tea Partiers are controlling the sun? Somebody better tell God he just lost his job.
Looks like H1N1 vaccines got diverted to Gitmo instead ..
“Detainees at JTF Guantanamo are considered to be at higher risk and therefore they will be offered the H1N1 vaccination,” Haynie said.
“JTF Guantanamo conducts safe, humane, legal and transparent care and custody of detainees. As such, we must provide detainees the medical care necessary to maintain their health,” she said.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/30/guantanamo.h1n1.shots/
“Looks like H1N1 vaccines got diverted to Gitmo instead ..”
Dude = the first vaccines shipped to Texas went right to the Dept. of Corrections.
You want an epidemic in the prison system? Those people have no where to go – one gets sick, they all do.
Yes, that is really a very big complaint. A few hundred flu shots given to detainees, to prevent an outbreak that might kill our military personnel also. Some detainees have already been released because they were innocent people who should never have been rounded up in the first place. Right wingers have gone stark raving mad. Some of them do not want to give the H1NI shots to their children, and others of them are whining because a few hundred doses were sent to Gitmo.
“Yes, that is really a very big complaint. A few hundred flu shots given to detainees, to prevent an outbreak that might kill our military personnel also.”
I guess Americans really are idiots.
As long as we have people lockedup – guess what, trolls? We’re responsible for them. That’s how it works.
They always vaccinate prisoners first.
Convicted felons actually have single payer health care, as long as they are prisoners.
LOL!
Why do freepers like freehold care about where the H1N1 vaccine goes ? After all, didn’t glenda and her ilk say it’s a gobinment conspiracy to kill amurikans. By that reason they should be jumping with joy that the gobinment killing teh muslins at qb. What a set of complete CD afflicted morans.
ABC said: “I love the way Brad Woodhouse wrapped Tim Pawlenty into the cocoon with Palin and Beck. Nice touch. And very smart.”
Was just going to make the same observation.
“Why do freepers like freehold care about where the H1N1 vaccine goes ?”
So far as I can tell, there isn’t one thing that wingers can’t make into some kind of outrage, I tells you – outrage!
Freehold said: “Looks like H1N1 vaccines got diverted to Gitmo instead”
Aside from Tena’s point, one might ask how many flu shots would that be?
A night of candy makes everyone quick, I see.
We’ll recall that the Weekly Standard’s Goldfarb tweeted…”What a friday afternoon news dump…I tried to warn you, America. Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers!”
And here’s his tweet after somebody pointed him to page one and the fact that it wasn’t who he thought… “Way too good to check, and you’ll never convince me it ain’t true.”
“Aside from Tena’s point, one might ask how many flu shots would that be?”
Does anyone know how many people are still there? I mean, besides the people in charge…
Several thousand, I would guess, Bernie.
Good catch from Think Progress…quoting Limbaugh from his interview with Wallace on FOX news this morning. That’s FOX news which is different from FOX commentary, of course…
“And now, look, now look what’s out — all this conservative media. Conservative talk radio, television, Fox News, the conservative blogosphere. I mean, in one way, I could, if I wanted to have my ego be as big as Obama’s is, I could say, look what I created.”
you’ll never convince me it ain’t true
When you’re so busy creating your own reality while the rest of us watch you do it you don’t have time to bother with the one the rest of the world lives in.
Tena – closer to 500 as near as I can determine
Bernie- I was thinking about it and I think you’re right – there aren’t a thousand there.
There are several hundred thousand inmates in Texas, I’m sure. They got the first shipment, as the local news reported last week.
As I said = freehold just hasn’t been paying any attention to real life: prisoners always get the first vaccinations. Always.
PS – if I wasn’t so lazy, I’d google up the correct numbers, but I don’t think it matters, really.
It is what it is, for all that someone wants to complain.
I am pleased that the present events are happening within the conservative movement. It isn’t merely that what we are witnessing will hurt the Republican brand even more (though that’s a good thing for now).
In my view the more positive end is that American citizens will get a more honest perspective on how extreme key influential figures in this movement have always been.
It will be very difficult now for the party to continue it’s traditional cover-story that it is a big tent party with moderate ideas and goals.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8336343.stm
“There are now 215 detainees remaining at the prison camp, which President Barack Obama has pledged to close by 22 January. ”
This is the most up to-date count.
Ooooh. Those 215 H1NI doses would have ended all the long waiting lines, in the USA.
It would be just like the The Miracle Of The Loaves And Fishes.
Jeepers would have turned those 215 doses into millions, for the multitudes.
Why he could not just kill the virus instead, or just have made the multitude’s hunger pangs go away, is a mystery.
Then again, who am I to be asking such questions. It is not as if I have been made The Miracle Czar!
Tena – no problem. I was just poking Freehold for tossing in an unusually weak rightwing talking point. I’d seen it made earlier (again, without noting the number) and knew it would pop up here.
Thanks Liam. Those 215 shots could have gone to one/twentieth of the population of Wasilla. It’s a national disgrace.
I thought all politics were local. Guess not in the NY-23. I can’t wait to see if the citizens of NY-23 will really vote in someone who knows nothing about the local issues at hand.
I concur precisely with this from Steve Benen (and note Yglesias’ comment which forwards the argument of Drew Weston)…
But I think the fact that Grayson doesn’t pull left jabs is what makes him unusual. We’re just not accustomed to liberal Democrats playing by these rules, and when it happens, the political world just doesn’t seem to know what to do about it.
Matt Yglesias recently argued that Gray is “breaking one of the unspoken rules of modern American politics. The rule is that conservatives talk about their causes in stark, moralistic terms and progressives don’t. Instead, progressives talk about our causes in bloodless technocratic terms…. [M]oralism from the left is very unfamiliar to American political debates.”
Grayson doesn’t see the value in the usual model, so he’s playing by a new set of rules. After the “die quickly” story, instead of showing contrition, he went on CNN and called Republicans opposing health care reform “foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.” It’s one of those things the left just isn’t supposed to do.
Not surprisingly, then, the conduct generates a variety of competing opinions. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who can probably be described fairly as a liberal, said Grayson risks contributing to a “corrosive process that drives reasonable people away.” He added, “It breaks my heart.”
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) offered a different take: “I welcome Grayson’s taking the fight to them. I think he has got to be a little more careful about his punches, but I am glad he’s throwing them.”
Sounds right to me. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
This is lovely…
“As The Hill reported a month ago, NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsay said that Scozzafava was the right candidate, who was picked by the local party leaders and had an appeal to the district’s voters.
As for Lindsay’s view of Hoffman, who had also interviewed with party leaders for the nomination: “Fortunately, the local Republican county chairs had the foresight to see that Doug Hoffman lacked the integrity and qualities needed to be elected to anything — let alone Congress.” http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/flashback-gop-used-to-badmouth-hoffman-said-he-had-no-integrity.php
“the political world just doesn’t seem to know what to do about it.”
Its a damned odd phenomenon – the Alan Combes liberal – i.e. weak. IT’s about time some liberal climbed back up on his hind legs like Grayson, and breathed a little fire. It’s good to have Grayson. It’s good to have Franks – we have room in this tent. WE don’t all have to be fire-breathers; we don’t all have to be squirmy surrender-monkeys.
The normal Democratic tapestry has always looked more or less like this – limosine liberals down to Woody Guthry union workers. We got ambushed and then silenced. Atwater started it; Roe-Cheney perfected it (Cheney was going to hunt us down with dogs, remember?) They took it all the way, they had quite the partay, and it’s long past time to call it a day. hee!
Yea, there have never been very many folks at Gitmo, I think the max was high hundreds. So this (obviously) doesn’t matter in practical terms, but its bad PR.
We used to have a much more robust vaccine development and manufacturing base (over 2 dozen suppliers), but Hillary and Bill pretty much cratered that back in about ‘93 IIRC … for the children, of course
“) doesn’t matter in practical terms, but its bad PR. ”
Here’s the thing about that – it’s only bad PR when the majority of people are idiots who don’t pay any attention; don’t watch the news,ever, or read newspapers. Because there is nothing new or shocking ahout this, freehold.
You can pretend there is, but there isn’t. This is always the way vaccines are handled and anyone who pays any attention or has paid any during their lives, should have gotten that by now.
And may I just roll around in the lovely catnip of schadenfreude for a moment and enjoy a GOP where one of the sane moderates (and self-identified member of the conservative intelligensia,) is Newt Frakking Gingrich.
Hillary is on a roll …
Palestinian anger as Hillary Clinton praises ’settlement concessions
“The negotiations are in a state of paralysis and the result of Israel’s intransigence and America’s back-peddling is that there is no hope of negotiations on the horizon,” said Nabil Abu Rudeinah, a spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6898430.ece
“Not surprisingly, then, the conduct generates a variety of competing opinions. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who can probably be described fairly as a liberal, said Grayson risks contributing to a “corrosive process that drives reasonable people away.” He added, “It breaks my heart.””
I am on the side of Congressman Grayson in this debate. I believe in giving as good as we get, from those Swift Boating cretins.
Turning the other cheek, with that gang, only gets you slapped silly.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.),
what I find heart breaking is the fact that too many of our elected Democrats, are so eager to engage in unilateral disarmament. Try fighting back for a change, instead of chastising one of the few members who is.
And I just have to say that the Right trying to turn the flu into a political issue – and it is trying as hard as it can – is a symptom of the Right’s own terminal illness.
Ya don’t try to turn the frakking flu into a political issue unless you were the ones responsible for electing George W Bush twice. You have nowhere to go after that, nothing to stand on, all you can do is attack the left and you’ll use anything, including the flu.
The Right is still falling down that well and it may be bottomless. Every time I think they’ve hit the ground,finally,they fall another several thousand feet.
Apparently Freehold feels that the Gov. should have left the US Military in Gitmo,at risk of dying from an HIN1 outbreak, because that would avoid bad publicity. Bad publicity that only The Stark Raving Mad, Right Wingers are trying to drum up, that is!
This is always the way vaccines are handled and anyone who pays any attention or has paid any during their lives, should have gotten that by now.
I’d be surprised if very many people at all are aware of vaccine distribution policy beyond a vague “children and old people first” tilt. Maybe your criminal justice background has provided more exposure to this, but I’d never heard of priority for prisoners.
This will come across in the news as “terrorists before my kids”. I know that is unfair and cursory, but hey, that’s the emotional level of debate Liberals have encouraged for two generations (see the recent “Republicans want you to die” comments by your hero of the day as a recent example).
Liam – freehold is making the kind of argument that is made by one of those Americans who think that all the “towelheads” are “turrists. So let them die, soonest. OR he thinks most Americans are like that – can’t quite tell.
Dude – Let me tell you what the local frakking news said about this the other night:
The first shipments of h1N1 have arrived in Texas. The first to be vaccinated will be be prisoners and then it will become available for the rest of the public.
OR words to that effect. It’s not a big deal unless someone like you repaints it and has it detailed with flames down the side.
I wonder if the “fair and balanced” Fox News organization will now be fair and give some balance to the 30 minutes of Rush they aired today. I am sure they have Maddow lined up for next weekend.
Looks like a lot of people think this is a bad idea …
Those tax-free spending accounts that you and your co-workers use to help pay for dental work, insurance copayments or over-the-counter drugs face a hit under the health overhaul bills in Congress — unless a coalition that includes a powerful union, insurers and others can stop it.
Bills in the House and Senate would cap at $2,500 an employee’s allowable annual contribution to a health care flexible spending account.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-health-overhaul-flexible-spending,0,4790434.story
From Reagan through Bush 2, Republicans never made any attempt to Reform Health Care Coverage, and When President Clinton tried, The Republicans worked with The Private Insurance Syndicate, to make sure no reforms were enacted.
From 1981 to the present day; The Republicans health coverage policy has been; Don’t Get Sick, and If You Do, Die Quickly.
Their history shows that is the truth.
I am off to watch some NFL games.
There is a dramatic confrontation coming up in the second game of the day;Brett Favre leads the Vikings into Greenbay.
It may not be popular, with some, but it helps pay for HCR and keeps the plan deficit neutral.
“Capping contributions to the accounts would raise more than $13 billion over 10 years to help pay for Democratic health care legislation because it would limit the amount of employees’ income that is exempt from taxation.”
Reality is starting to intrude …
Faced with anxiety in financial markets about the huge federal deficit and the potential for it to become an electoral liability for Democrats, the White House and Congressional leaders are weighing options for narrowing the gap, including a bipartisan commission that could force tax increases and spending cuts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/us/politics/01deficit.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
freehold – can you tell me why you think the Right has only one strategy: play to people’s worst instincts? Because trying to make an issue out of Gitmo’s 215 prisoners getting vaccinated for H1N1, whether they get it first or last, is exactly that – it’s trying to incite the worst in us. It’s trying to stir up resentment against the people we have locked up.
The Right is still just Karl Rove’s puppet theater.
It’s about time we address the deficit. Since it’s been ignored for the last 8 years, now it’s a huge problem. It will get fixed through more taxes and spending cuts and in the end the country will be better off.
Which is what President Obama had planned to do all along. Of course the Bush Finacial meltdown, and the Bush bail out of Wall St. and The Bush Two Trillion dollars onto the deficit, for his Iragmire Lunacy, and The Bush Jobs Depression required President Obama to transfuse the economy to keep it breathing, so he had to defer on his intend fiscal policy.
Bush set the house on fire, and now the Lunatic Right Winger are complaining that The Firefighters should not be using so much water on the Bush Fire.
Interesting analysis of California vs. Texas …
William Voegeli writes in today’s Los Angeles Times, “The Golden State isn’t worth it.” Voegli compares California to Texas, “Our high-benefit/high-tax model no longer works, especially compared with low-tax states like Texas.” Voegeli says, “These alternatives, of course, define the basic argument between liberals and conservatives over what it means to get the size and scope of government right….[T]he superior public goods that supposedly justify the high taxes just aren’t being delivered.”
http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/12777-Whats-wrong-with-California-is-also-wrong-with-much-of-the-US.html
edit;
Which is what President Obama had planned to do all along. Of course the Bush Financial Meltdown, and the Bush bail out of Wall St. and The Bush Two Trillion dollars onto the deficit, for his Iragmire Lunacy, and The Bush Jobs Depression, required President Obama to transfuse the economy to keep it breathing, so he had to defer on his intended fiscal policy.
Bush set the house on fire, and now the Lunatic Right Wingers are complaining that The Firefighters should not be using so much water on the Bush Fire.
Yes, yes, “ideological purges.” Quite unlike the treatment of, say, Joe Lieberman.
babbleth Tena:
“Ya don’t try to turn the frakking flu into a political issue unless you were the ones responsible for electing George W Bush twice.”
The enormous chutzpah of a moonbat lecturing ANY other political party on turning a disease into a political issue,(remeber AIDS?), is too astounding for words.
Well Bilgeman, I’ll say this = I may babbleth, but you apparently always readeth it.
Mr. Sargent:
“What this says — emphatically — is that the true leaders of the Republican Party like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Tim Pawlenty have said to all moderates and independents — when it comes to being part of our party you need not apply. The only acceptable Republicans these days are those who subscribe to division, obstruction and a rigid far right wing ideology.”-Brad Wodehouse
Mr. Wodehouse knows perhaps some quanta just barely above “zero” about conservative and GOP politics, and he amply demonstrates this by his copy.
What NY-23 clearly says is this:
“If you want the conservative constituents of this district to vote for a Republican, you’d better nominate someone who accurately reflects this district’s values rather than someone more amenable to the County and State GOP Campaign Committees.
‘Your’ Party had better represent US, or you AND ‘your party’ can take the Express Train to Nowhere.”
And to give credit where it’s due, ex-Governor Palin has shown true leadership on this.
Her early endorsement of Hoffman was “firstest with the mostest”.
Now we’ll see Tuesday if the general electorate in NY23 likes the choice that Conservatives have offered them, or if they will vote for the bucket of rancid chicken gizzards.
What a moonbat calls a moderate is only relevant to other moonbats, and NY23 just demonstrated the veracity of that statement.
Newt Gingrich?
He didn’t do his own homework on Scozzafava.
He did some good work back in Clinton’s day, but you can’t keep eating lunch from your past laurels forever.
I didn’t expect Newt to get so pissy about something so easily explained as a simple oversight.
Tena:
“I’ll say this = I may babbleth, but you apparently always readeth it”
I’m having that comment of yours carved into marble and placed in the GOP Wing of the National Political Museum so that future generations of GOPers and Conservatives can stand awestruck at the wondrousness of it’s utter hypocrisy.
Aaaand stoopid bilge is back.
Oh…and the H1N1 vaccine…it’s all very well to vaccinate prisoners first, but I’m on a 420′ long ship with 300 people aboard…closer quarters than many prisons…and we haven’t had the H1N1 vax yet.
Maybe we should commit some crimes…
I’ve been on a ship when half of us went down with flu…that was NOT FUN.
But I’d rather the first vaxes go to those most vulnerable, the asthmatics and suchlike in this particular instance seem to be those most in mortal peril.
But that’s .gov for ya.
Deny a vaccine to an asthmatic toddler by giving it to convicted murderer on Death Row.
Until your state gets its own navy and can give the people in their navy the vaccine first – then you really haven’t much of a point.
I suspect the US military already got theirs.
Freehold-
Before you go thinking that Texas’ model constitutes something to be proud of, I suggest you think about the *fact* that fully one in four Texans lacks health insurance; for being one of the most populous states, ranks near the bottom for mental health services; etc. Don’t even get me started on public education and the TAKS testing…
@ Chuck
The link to the underlying LA Times article is broken, so I’ve included it here. But from the LA Times ..
These judgments are not based on drive-by sociology. According to a report issued earlier this year by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., Texas students “are, on average, one to two years of learning ahead of California students of the same age,” even though per-pupil expenditures on public school students are 12% higher in California.
I think the point is not that Texas is perfect, but that many of the approaches being proposed for national adoption have already been piloted in California, with results worse than those achieved with other approaches in Texas. An imperfect crystal ball, but still …
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-voegli1-2009nov01,0,825554.story
Freehold-
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/lrcpubs/RR345.pdf
“However, as a previous report by the Office of Education
Accountability (OEA) has noted, “efforts to rank the states on educational performance and resource allocation are controversial because the evaluations depend upon the outcomes examined, the statistical methods used, and the ways in which measures are standardized so states’ performance can be compared. Therefore, the same state can appear to perform well on one organization’s rankings
and poorly on another” (Commonwealth. Legislative 19-20).
Now that Scozzafava has supported Owens, could this be the first shot of the internecine war between the buffoonery of the wingnuts and the remaining moderates within the Republican Party? Will the less rabid Republicans in the 23rd district vote for Owens or just stay home to spite Hoffman and his carpet bagger/tea bagger crowd of supporters?
Curiouser and curiouser.
Gasman-
This is one Blue Dog I hope will hunt!
Hoffman answering a couple of questions. Then a few comments from The Blue Texan. This guy Hoffman sure has some original ideas.
“Would you vote for higher taxes to help pay for the deficit?
President Ronald Reagan said it best: “The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.” Before we even consider raising taxes we must first bring spending under control.
What spending would you cut?
I would cut the pork and wasteful earmarks.
Hoffman, like John McCain — who ran on exactly the same bullshit — clearly can’t add.
One last time: earmarks account for about 2% of spending. Pork barrel projects, pretty much the same.”
“Yet Hoffman claims cutting $36B out of the $3T budget, while his nutty flat tax slashes federal revenues, somehow all adds up to a lower deficit. Making him either a liar or an idiot.”
Tena:
“Until your state gets its own navy and can give the people in their navy the vaccine first – then you really haven’t much of a point.”
US ships don’t HAVE states, they are Federal territory.
(I guess your legal education didn’t include any Admiralty or Maritime Law…not surprising, since it’s pretty arcane stuff).
But just FYI…I’m off the Texas coast, and we helicopter in and out of Galveston.
Ah-chooo !!!!
Re California/Texas on education… I come from a family where almost the whole shebang of us are or were educators. A single study from a business-oriented consulting firm will constitute a very small fraction of research findings re comparative outcomes and not necessarily a dependable fraction. It may be but there’s nothing like a guarantee here that they’ve got it right.
We not only ask a lot of our educational systems (true anywhere) but different portions of our communities often ask quite different things (good behavior, virtue, comprehension of some curricula, instilling traditional values, zest for learning, etc) and however anyone of us might delineate those things, others will delineate them in some other fashion.
There are ways to wend through the conversation and gain some rough consensus but it’s a romanticism to imagine this a simple task either culturally or intellectually.
Woo-HOOO!
The Confederacy just got itself a Boeing 787 aircraft assembly line.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aZ1HFngU5bX8
South Carolina gets a new factory, and Washington state gets trees and taxes and IAM union dues!
Woo-hoo!
“Ohhhh, I wish I was in the Land of Cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Fly away…fly away…fly away
Dixieland!”
That snazzy new aircraft plant will look perfect next the BMW auto assembly facility up in Spartanburg.
Yeah…Americans still build plenty of cars…in Dixie.
What a cool post thanks for sharing.
I guess Newt’s head will explode now that Dede has endorsed the Democratic Canditate in NY-23.
Limbaugh’s thirty minutes on FOX news surely has nothing to do with fears he is being outpaced by Beck.
“Richard Viguerie, the legendary hard-right activist who spent much of the past decade arguing that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were too liberal, now declares that the days of even the most minimal moderation are now over in the Republican Party.
“Tea Party Activists Are the New GOP,” says Viguerie.
There is little reason to argue with the man whose direct-mail campaigning funded the rise of the Republican right in the late 1970s and who grumbled loudly when Newt Gingrich, Bush, Cheney and Republican leaders tried to soften the party’s roughest edges.
Viguerie isn’t grumbling now.
He’s celebrating. And rightly so…” http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/490865/tea_party_activists_are_the_new_gop
I sometimes liken Gingrich’s fall from power to Nikita Khrushchev’s… except that in this case the people who unseated him did it not out of fear that his adventurism might start another world war, but rather out of the belief that his ineptitude had blown their best chance to do so.
I guess Newt wasn’t the only who did not do his home work on dede.
“Clearly she would be on the left side of our party,” said Boehner, who had financially supported the campaign of the New York assemblywoman.”
So Boehner financially supports her campaign BUT… she may not be the right fit for the party. And yet he goes on to say we want moderates in our party.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/65749-boehner-stresses-big-tent-in-wake-of-scozzafava-shakeup
This is typically clueless liberal “analysis” of conservative and Republican politics of which they have no comprehension.
Scozzafava is a hard liberal. There’s nothing moderate about her. If she could even beat Owens — highly unlikely — she would just be another “Republican” vote for Pelosi and crew. Her election would arguably be worse than Owens’ election, because she would just be another “bipartisan” sellout and phony Republican, taking up a seat and giving cover to the left.
Kind of like how you liberals all have no use for the “Blue Dogs” — who aren’t even conservative. According to you liberals, your desire to purge moderates is God’s work (if you believed in God), but conservative opposition to a hard liberal “Republican” is wild-eyed extremism.
Scazzafava’s withdrawal in the face of opposition and imminent failure doesn’t send any message to “moderates” across the country, though. Most people won’t even pay attention to it, and those who do will be fine with it if their are actually within the conservative to moderate mainstream of the GOP. And it isn’t “interference” by outsiders — polls have consistently shown Scazzafava coming in third among the district’s voters.
As for Newt, he does flaky things now and then. That’s Newt. His comments are pretty ignorant for him, given that the third parties in NY are a long-standing phenomenon on both sides. Sensible conservatives like Rick Brookhiser (a long-time resident of upsate NY) saw it as a no-brainer to support Hoffman. Newt was out on his own limb on this one.
Bilgeman-
Your point being what about Dixie getting assembly plants?
Oh, I get it…no evil unions to interfere with and possibly more lax environmental laws to deal with?
Thank Buddah we kicked Lee’s booty in Petersburg, and Sherman bested Johnston *in the Carolinas*, eh?
Andrew Sullivan quotes from a Kos poll and comments…
“A now familiar but still remarkable fact about 21st Century America:
*Obama’s favorability-unfavorability rating in the South is 28-67, while it is 68-23 in the rest of the country.*
America is not just two countries right now; it sometimes feels like two universes.”
Hoffman hearts Glenn Beck…
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/35051_Doug_Hoffman-_The_Glenn_Beck_Candidate
h/t on that last to John Cole at Balloon Juice
And some more from Balloon Juice…
“About That Big Tent Party
by John Cole
You know the thing that I find most amusing about the NY race is that what they are basically telling every moderate Republican across the country is that it doesn’t matter if you’ve been a loyal Republican for decades, it doesn’t matter if you know the district and the people, it doesn’t matter if you fit the district, and it doesn’t matter that you have given decades to the party. It just doesn’t matter. If the teabagging wingnuts and the shrieking lunatics like Malkin don’t like you, high profile crackpots like Palin and Dick Armey and others are going to swoop in and back some clown who doesn’t even live in the district and then **** all over the area’s voters, telling them their interests are “parochial.”
Now that is how you build a sustainable party!” http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=29162
All, morning roundup posted, dig in:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/the-morning-plum-2/
Inane and childish commentary from balloon juice.
Scazzafava isn’t a moderate. She is far left on all significant issues.
Polling shows Scazzafava would come in third in the district. So much for this being national bullying from “shrieking” crazies.
Hoffman will caucus and vote with the GOP, and run GOP for reelection.
The third parties in NY are long standing.
Grow up.
Bernie
Those favorability, unfavorability numbers are even more dramatic than I thought they would be. It’s wierd to think that an entire section of the country actually thinks so little of the President only 9 months into office.
I know it’s a red state, blue state thing but it sure seems that all the Anti-Obama, he’s a socialist Kenyan Muslim rhetoric plays well in the South. They’re strengtening the base but alienating the rest of us and then accusing us of doing the same thing.
Looks like Hoffman will win, he wants to cut the deficit by cutting pork and waste, which amounts to about 2% of deficit spending and doesn’t say cr@p about the needs of his constituents.
@Imsinca – the strategists know their base and how to manipulate them.
ChuckinDenton:
“Oh, I get it…no evil unions to interfere with and possibly more lax environmental laws to deal with?
Thank Buddah we kicked Lee’s booty in Petersburg, and Sherman bested Johnston *in the Carolinas*, eh?”
Seems to be working out well.
Henry Kissinger once related that he had a discussion with a North Viet Namese official, (may have been General Giap, not sure), where he told the guy:
“You never beat us on the battlefield”
And the Viet Namese replied:
“That is true, but it is also irrelevant.”
See…the USA did, de jure, recognize our Secession because our states and citizens, (which you claimed were YOUR states and citizens), did not regain representation in the Congress fully until 1870.
The US Government disenfranchised all of it’s “citizens”, (even the loyalist ones), who lived in the Confederacy.
You have had to maintain an occupation in the South for over 100 years, and you still pour tax money,(that you can’t afford) down here also.
So now you’re sending down your industries as well.
Yes, we lost the war for Southern Independence, but that is irrelevant.
For we won the Peace that followed.
Bernie Latham:
“Andrew Sullivan quotes from a Kos poll and comments…
“A now familiar but still remarkable fact about 21st Century America:
*Obama’s favorability-unfavorability rating in the South is 28-67, while it is 68-23 in the rest of the country.*
America is not just two countries right now; it sometimes feels like two universes.””
Really? You don’t say!
People still don’t get it. More and more people on the “right” finally figured out that party ideology is really not a smart way to vote. They’re looking for politicians who still have the balls to respect the constitution. Hopefully, at some point people on the left will realize that. There is no constitution as far as the left is concern. Not even sure if half of them knows why it’s important.
quarterback,
You claim, “Scazzafava (sic) isn’t a moderate. She is far left on all significant issues…” Scozzafava had the backing of the NRA. Name any other “liberal” backed by the NRA. She also had the backing of the Republican Party in a district that was about as Republican as any in the history of this nation. It is not credible to claim she is not really Republican because you don’t agree with her on some, or even any issues.
I thought one of the principles of conservatism was local control. How is it that national voices from AK, TN, MS, MN – all way outside upstate NY – know about local NY politics better than the candidate backed by local Republicans?
Conservative hypocrisy is why conservatism is the fetid, moribund bag of bones whose stench is polluting our political discourse. It has accomplished little except inciting lies, vitriol, racism, homophobia, and brainless hyperventilation of the idiot wingnuts.
Hoffman is a carpet/tea-bagger from outside the district who has displayed nearly total ignorance concerning local issues. What will it say about your much vaunted conservatism if Hoffman loses?
Win or lose for Hoffman, it does not bode well for the GOP if they fracture over ideological purity. If the GOP isn’t conservative enough, do they think going independent is going to amass political power?
Gasbag,
You are not one who should opine about lies and vitriol. If anyone else would like to see a demonstration of Gasbag’s mendacity, and his reckless indifference to facts and logic, they should go back to the 10/30 thread about Fox and see how I eviscerated Gasbag’s vile lies there.
Gun rights aren’t a terriblly “significant” issue these days, because Dems seem finally to have learned that their penchant for unConsitutional gun grabbing is a political loser on the national stage.
But congrats, Gasbag, you found one are of Scozzavav’s record that is arguably “conservative” — just like many Democrats.
That leaves her still far outside the mainstream of Republicanism. It isn’t just national figures or me who say that. The polling in her own district showed she would lose miserably to the more conservative Hoffman. So much for your faux concern about “local control.”
Your commentary is inane and pointless. It’s not a matter of ideological purity. Her ideology and positions are anathema to conservatives. Scozzafava is welcome to stay a Republican, but she shoed her true colors by endorsing Owens.
You people should talk — Stalinists like you, Gasbag, who demand Democrat fealty to your own radical extremism.
quarterback,
“It’s not a matter of ideological purity. Her ideology and positions are anathema to conservatives.”
And conservatives ideology and positions are anathema to America. The latest polls show a scant 20% declaring themselves Republican. Conservatives, at least those “pure” enough to pass the Palin/Limbaugh/Beck litmus test would be but a fraction of that.
Hoffman might win, but I wouldn’t be willing to bet on it quite yet. Even if he does, I fail to see how the circular firing squad within the GOP benefits conservatives. The Dems don’t need to worry about your side because you are too busy with the self immolation contest you are presently waging. Do you need a match?
Now you have declared me a Stalinist. How am I a Stalinist? It is you that is so fond of torture, one of Stalin’s favorite hobbies. You have that in common with the murdering dictator, while I do not. I’m also afraid that my devotion to the Constitution precludes me as a Stalinist.
Less brainless hyperbole makes for a more convincing post.
Republican’s have prove to
be America’s worst enemy.
Ever since Newt couched with Pelosi on the climate change BS he has shown his true colors. I’m sick and tired of RINOS that are afraid that somebody won’t like them. Not everybody has to like you. Doing the right thing is what matters.