republicans

If you can’t beat them, change the system so you can!

Here’s the story. The electoral college is mandated by the Constitution as the way to determine the winner of presidential elections, but it’s up to each state to decide how to apportion their electoral votes. Traditionally, states have chosen a winner-take-all system, because that maximizes the state’s clout. Indeed, that’s why large and close states such as Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio are so important in presidential elections.

But now, as Nick Baumann reports, Republicans who control Pennsylvania government after the 2010 elections are pushing a scheme to apportion electoral votes by Congressional district (as Maine and Nebraska currently do). The effect would be to basically make Pennsylvania a marginal player in the 2012 election. After all, most House districts (including those in the Keystone State) have lopsided partisan majorities, so they wouldn’t be in play, and parties would be unlikely to devote serious resources to try to pick off a couple of electoral votes in the swing districts — and even less unlikely to devote the massive resources it would take to capture the two remaining at-large votes, given that it would be far more efficient to use the money in much smaller states with more (winner-take-all) electoral votes up for grabs.

Well when you read headlines like this, you realize that the GOP has degraded into nothing but a classroom full of pre-pubescent children:

John Boehner On Jobs Speech: Republicans, Be 'Respectful' And Attend

That’s right – John Boehner had to slap the wrists of his caucus and tell them to act like grown ups. That’s pretty bad for leaders in the most powerful nation in the country. Of course that’s hard to believe when you consider the circus Boehner caused last week over scheduling of the speech. Perhaps he should lead by example from now on.

If you watch Fox news or read the right wing blogs, that’s exactly what you would think. Yesterday Fox ran this clip of Hoffa warming up the crowd for President Obama:

The “let’s take these son of a bitches out” is the big part the right is focusing on. You can see that by just looking at this thread on memeorandum or by reading Drudge:

But is that what Hoffa really said, or did Fox go into some creative editing? If you guessed creative editing, then you are the winner. Here’s the context Hoffa was talking in, which was conveniently edited out by Fox:

HOFFA: Everybody here's got to vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize,let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much!

Hurricane Irene is continuing to gain steam in the Atlantic and is now predicted to reach Cat-4 status late Thursday, right before it hits the eastern seaboard of Florida. It will continue up the coast and weaken to a still strong Cat 3 as it hits Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. Here is the current path projection from the NHC:

This storm has the very real possibility of causing serious damage. Given the struggling economies of the states, it's a safe bet that they will request federal aide to recover. That makes me wonder about a representative from one of the targeted states, Eric Cantor.

Remember back in May when Joplin, Mo. was flattened by an EF-5 tornado? An entire U.S. town was devastated, but when it came time to help we saw Eric Cantor use the disaster to push a poetical agenda. 

The No. 2 House Republican said that if Congress doles out additional money to assist in the aftermath of natural disasters across the country, the spending may need to be offset.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said “if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”

A new poll by the New York Times finds very bad news for Congress:

A record 82 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job — the most since The Times first began asking the question in 1977, and even more than after another political stalemate led to a shutdown of the federal government in 1995.

More than four out of five people surveyed said that the recent debt-ceiling debate was more about gaining political advantage than about doing what is best for the country. Nearly three-quarters said that the debate had harmed the image of the United States in the world.

A poorly rated Congress was one of the key talking points of the 2010 mid-terms. Republican candidates and pundits constantly talked about the poor ratings of Congress and how they would work harder for the people and turn that around. Well guess what? We have another broken promise. While the public views both parties very unfavorably in the debt crisis, the GOP does get more of the blame:

Republicans in Congress shoulder more of the blame for the difficulties in reaching a debt-ceiling agreement than President Obama and the Democrats, the poll found.

The Republicans compromised too little, a majority of those polled said. All told, 72 percent disapproved of the way Republicans in Congress handled the negotiations, while 66 percent disapproved of the way Democrats in Congress handled negotiations.

But the biggest part of this poll gives bad news to the Tea Party:

A majority of people are against the handling of the debt crisis on the part of every party, but the vast majority disapprove of the way the Republicans are handling the issue than anyone else a CBS News poll finds.

This really comes as no surprise given the melodramatic way GOP leaders like Eric Cantor have acted during the talks. On top of that, the GOP has constantly changed their goal posts. It's becoming more and more obvious that the right is playing politics with this issue while ignoring the financial security of our nation.

So what will happen if the negotiations fail and we don't raise the debt limit? My guess is that the GOP will way dearly for it and the best way to make sure of that is for the Democrats to pounce on it. They don't need to spin or stretch the truth. Just remind the American people of some simple facts:

Bob Cesca has posted the following chart, showing how the share of income labor sees is at a historic low:

What's interesting is how much the share dipped during the Bush years. During Clinton's term, the rate was on the rise, after a substantial fall during the Reagan and Bush 41 years.

So what does all that mean? Trickle down works!

Of course the trickle down I'm talking about isn't the one Republicans push. Instead it's one that see's the wealth of America rapidly decrease as the money trickles down to the mass population.

And speaking of Republican economics, this highlights another problem. Look again at the big dip in the Bush years. Republicans constantly told us how bigger tax cuts to corporate America would mean more jobs and better wages. Care to re-think that position?

In a world of supply side economics, the equating factor is simple - if the people have more money then they will buy more goods. Instead Republicans want you to think that if the big corporations have more money, they'll hire more people and put out more goods, even if those goods won't sell. It's that kind of thinking that will keep us in a recession and cause our middle class to keep declining. It's that kind of thinking that the media and right wing has pushed for years and so many Americans now buy into it, despite the historic numbers showing something totally different.

Just check out the anger that is brewing over at townhalls:

Of course my headline is totally misleading. Instead of Healthcare and Democratic Townhalls, it's actually Republican Townhalls and the issue of taxes, but my headline might get the media to actually notice that the Republicans are getting heat at townhalls over taxes and Medicare.

So, in this case, Rep. Dan Webster (R-FL) was confronted by many angry voters over the denial of raising corporate taxes or taxes on the wealthy. At one point he even threatened to kick out a voter, who kept pushing him on a question he refused to answer.

Where's the media outrage? Where's the flashing red light on Drudge or hours of "First Amendment violation" rhetoric on Fox?

Simple - the media don't care! Think about why. All the media people stand to lose if corporate taxes are raised or the top 2% end up having to pay their fair tax burden. They don't want people to know that there is a majority of Americans who are frustrated with the lower 98% paying for everything and getting more and more taken away.

If we can't get news of this outrage out in the open, then people will continue to be complacent and think they are in the minority. We really need to push these stories so that everyone can take notice and the Republicans are forced to change their tune.