Evangelicals Undertow Drowning Republican Bastion

This video interview of author Frank Schaeffer by Rachel Maddow is worth a listen to if you want some insight into the Evangelical power hold over the Republican Party.

It was aired back in September in the lead up to the November election. In it, the former Evangelical turned critic Schaeffer describes the cultish undertow drawing the Republican Party away from what many of us call reality into "La-La land." Schaeffer says he knows of no Republican brave enough to bark down the mad dogs for whom anything good is bad because they seek negative feedback to reinforce their belief that America is being punished for its "sinfulness".

Congressman Cao Breaks from Republican Ranks Even Before Election

Polidoc interviewed Representative Cao (R-LA) on the day of his election last December and snatched a quick interview with him in this video. (this is a revised video from one posted earlier today)

Joseph Cao, Congressional Representative from Louisiana has an independent streak and won't buckle down to Republican Party rhetoric. As seen in this video on the day of his landmark election in December 2008, this lawyer hopes to represent his community even in areas that aren't considered Republican today.

On November 7, 2009, Cao, a lawyer and the first Vietnamese Representative in the history of the United States, demonstrated his willingness to break from the Republican Party rhetoric by voting for a landmark healthcare reform bill. While progressives suspect the bill will be a boon to the healthcare industry rather than the reform it had hoped, Cao's break sharpens points of difference between the teabagging Constitutionalist Party leaning Republicans from more moderate voices who might be willing to consider a different definition of conservative.

Cao, who ran as independent in a previous election, was the first Republican to win this district since Reconstruction. As the Representative of a majority black community, Cao had asked to join the Black Caucus but was denied.

Van Jones Says We Should All Stand Up and be A**holes

Van Jones, Barack Obama's czar of green jobs, handed in his resignation on a quiet Labor Day weekend, on the eve of two of President Obama's speeches, after talk show host Glenn Beck targeted the civil rights activist for attention.

Jones, an eloquent and charismatic spokesperson who, last year alone, won high profile recognition as one of Times magazine 100 most influential people, considered himself "radical" as a young man. Since then, he adopted a pro-capitalist perspective focused on elevating the working-class poor through the employment in green jobs. Then, in 2004, Jones, along with many other Progressives, signed a petition calling for a public investigation of the events of 9/11. The controversy regarding the petition surrounds the 9/11 Truthers, considered broadly to be a conspiracy group who suspect a degree of federal administration culpability in the attacks of that fateful September.

Using these elements of Jone's life, Beck, with McCarthian hysteria, decried Obama for having "invited" a "radical" "Communist" into the White House. To those of us leaning towards progressive values, terms like "radical," "communist," and "socialist" are not scary, but a part of the glossary of words, including "libertarianism" "patriotism" and "capitalism" with which we can evaluate a government's responsiveness to its people.

In this report, The Young Turks, a progressive news/op ed channel, air a "controversial" piece of video which Fox News and Beck has used to hammer Jones' reputation. While at a public forum, a progressive in the audience asked Jones why Republicans were able to see their policies enacted but Democrats were not able to assert their policies despite holding the majority power in the two houses as well as the executive. Jones' asserted that the Republican party gets its policies through by sheer brute force that Progressives have to stand unyeildingly and that a man named Barack Hussein Obama could not do that for them. He called the Republicans a dirty word but also applied the same term to himself and suggested that we all toughen up.

Referring to the wailing Republicans, Young Turk host, Cenk Uygur said "They're not interested in being polite."

Brave New Nation presents this background interview of Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club and Van Jones at the Ella Baker Center. Jones describes the fight he pursues as "not left vs. right but right vs. wrong."


references:
Huffington Post: "Thank you Glenn Beck"
Fox News: "Obama 'Green Jobs' Adviser Van Jones Resigns Amid Controversy"

Fair Elections Now Act in Deliberation

Americans have lost faith in the political system because of the influence of big money. An elected freshman spends 20 per cent of their time trying to raise money for the next election, rather than doing their job of legislation.

The Fair Elections Now Act is currently being deliberated in both houses. In a citizen-funded "Fair Elections" system, qualified candidates who take no contributions larger than $100 can run for Congress on a blend of small donations and public funds.

The system has been tested with great success in three states: Arizona, Maine, and most recently Connecticut. Altogether, seven states have implemented Clean Elections for some of their statewide offices.

For decades, big business money fawned over Republicans. Democrats raised money from ordinary voters and labor. However, after the Democrats lost both the Presidency and the majority in the Senate in 1980, the DNC opened the way for big PAC money to waltz in. Since then, campaigns have gotten longer, more expensive and less substantive, offering fewer and fewer truly liberal candidates and pulling the center more to the right.

References:
Common Cause
Open Congress

Giacomini Fired Up About California's Need for a Constitutional Convention

Giacomini Forsakes Party System to Fight California's Legislative Inertia from Polidoc on Vimeo.

The empowered parties and lobbyists have wreaked havoc on California government and nothing short of a Constitutional Convention can create a long-lasting solution to this state's problem, according to Andrew Giacomini, lead counsel for the organization Repair California. Giacomini hopes that the populist rage and involvement will fuel voters to adopt Repair California's strategy to create a people's convention.

For more information, go to RepairCalifornia.org

Future Meet-up dates:

Thousand Oaks Constitutional Convention Town Hall
Monday August 3, 2009
8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

San Francisco: Repairing California: Time for a Constitutional Convention
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Orange County Constitutional Convention Town Hall
September 2, 2009
7:30 a.m. Breakfast | 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Program

Sierra Nevada Constitutional Convention Town Hall
August 21, 2009
9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (tentative)

Just Another Brick in the Wall of Underfunded Education

The Senate has moved along in shaping the stimulus bill which President Obama urged naysayers to accept in all due haste. However, getting those needed votes has required cuts coming mostly from budgeted school construction, teacher funding and higher education. More cuts to come. That said, a $15,000 tax credit for new home purchases proposed by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) remains in the measure.

Republicans Adjust Brand to Absorb Alienated Moderate Conservatives

Is Black the new Black?

When Barack Obama won the Presidential election, a shift occurred around the world. Suddenly, a black man attained the highest position of power in the United States and arguably the world. People across America said they had not believed that they would live to see the day when a "black man" would win the Presidency.

In response to President Obama's surprising and effective campaign, delegates of the Republican National Committee selected former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele as its new chairman, hoping to change its brand from that of extreme Limbaugh loving conservatives to that of minority embracing pro-economic moderates.

Former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan responded to the news by declaring, "Obviously the winds of change are blowing." Duncan had hoped to have been re-elected.

"It's time for something completely different," Steele said at his acceptance speech. "We are going to bring this party to every corner, every board room, every neighborhood, every community, and we are going to say to friend and foe alike, we want you to be a part of us. We want you to work with us. And for those of you who want to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over."

"The RNC isn't diverse yet," said CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder. "When people speak of broadening the party's geographic diversity, they are speaking in code. They mean that the party needs to welcome more moderates; needs to be more forgiving of departures from orthodoxy; needs to be less antagonistic to pro-choicers and gays."

House Judiciary Committee Holds Rove in Contempt

Move on Move-On. Progressive groups like "Brave New Films" are out in force raising attacks on a "He-who-should-not-be-Named"using storytelling and the Internet to spark some fire in the beltway.

Brave New Films pushed to petition that Impresario Karl Rove be held in contempt by the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) for his part in spilling the beans on undercover agent, Valerie Plame and the subsequent executive privilege dance. The organizations that got behind BNF's lead are: CREDO Mobile, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, The Nation, Campaign for America's Future, Progress Now, and People for the American Way, adding tens of thousands of names.

While it did pass the HJC, it still has to go through the whole house. Brave New Films is encouraging people to keep up the pressure.

Aside from using media in their activist efforts, Brave New Films has produced the following documentaries, amongst others:

• Outfoxed
• Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
  
• Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price

Congress to Grant Immunity to Telecoms

In a hurry to take their summer recess, the Democrats have capitulated again to the Republicans.

Democracy Now reports:

Leaders in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate have agreed to rewrite the nation’s surveillance laws and to give what amounts to legal immunity to phone companies that took part in the Bush administration’s secret domestic surveillance program. The bill has been described as the most significant revision of surveillance law in three decades. The legislation gives the government new powers to eavesdrop on both domestic and international communications. One provision would allow the government to wiretap Americans for up to a week without a court order. The House is expected to approve the measure today. The Senate will vote next week. Several prominent Democratic Senators criticized the bill. Senator Russ Feingold said, “The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation.”

House Approves $162 Billion War Funding Bill

Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “So, let us think and hope that this is the last time that there will ever be another dollar spent without constraints, without conditions, without direction. Why should we trust the same judgment that got us here in the first place in this war?”

Indeed, and why should we trust the judgment that continues to allow the same behavior. A psychologist would define this behavior as co-dependent....

The Incredible McCain Girl

Gotta Love Them Texas Cowboys

Those Texas legislators, most of whom are Republicans, know how to wrangle in the straying herd - just cut 'em off at the knees. Ballot Access Laws in Texas require that petitioners collect signatures within a 10 week period.

The hitch is, petition signers must not have voted in the primary and the 10-week period is after the primary. Green Party Presidential candidate and Texan Kat Swift said that it is impossible to accumulate the necessary signatures this year. Record breaking turnout for the primary made finding qualified signers a mission of finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. However, she did seem to find a good deal the day she went to her neighborhood fiesta dressed as her childhood hero Wonder Woman.

Ralph Nader has complained that those rules are keeping him (and others) off the ballot, but Texas Representative Leo Berman thinks it's just fine.

Just to show how things work in the Texas legislature, take a look at this house session vote. Good for a laugh.




For more info:

Dallas News: "Nader Says Texas Law Keeping Him Off Ballot"

Ballot Access News does a great job of reviewing some of the gerrymandering that goes on down there in the Lone Star State.

Former Green wins upset victory in Republican Montana US Senate primary

After years of absorbing Republican led tax relief programs for out-of-state corporations and absentee land owners, Butte, Montana's Republican voters are ready for a Green leaning Republican. Fiscally conservative and locally fixated, this is where the Greens and state focused Republicans meet.

Bob Kelleher has run as both a Democrat and a Green in the past. His support of gun-control is a little out of step with the state's Republicans, but his emphasis on local control and local care holds interest for the working class of Montana. He goes up against Democratic incumbent Max Baucus, a five-term U.S. Senator who had more than $6 million in the bank in May and has raised more than $10 million since he was last re-elected in 2002. Kelleher criticizes Baucus for not challenging Bush on his tax cuts or at least bringing something home for social services.

The Great Falls Tribune ran the results yesterday. With less than $5000 in his pocket, he'd have to do some amazing grassroots dancing to be seen or heard.

According to Ballot Access News, Kelleher, an attorney sued the Montana University System in 2004 for excluding Libertarian and Green nominees from the Gubernatorial race debate. The case lost in Montana Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear it. Kelleher was the Green Party nominee in that election, but he modestly named the lawsuit Jones v Montana University System, placing the Libertarian nominee first in the caption. Kelleher polled 1.88% of the vote for Governor as the Green nominee in 2004. He had been the Green nominee for U.S. Senate in 2002, polling 2.34%.Greens lost ballot access after 2004, forcing Kelleher to forge a path amongst the major two parties.

For more on the story:
Kelleher's website
Great Falls Tribune: "Kelleher wins Upset Victory in Republican US Senate Primary"
Daily Show (2002): Story on Green vs. Libertarian candidates

Gore Vidal Speaks Frankly to BBC About the US 2008 Election

Presidential Primary Campaign Ads 2008

All the ads, collected in one place. Remarkable, frankly, but a "must bookmark" for the poligeeks on your card list, so forward them the link. Get the straight scoop on who did and/or didn't have their poop straight when they flung it!

read more

Jib-Jab: Obama and Hillary Fight Off the Republicans

Jib Jab is always good for a laugh. This animation shows the perils faced by the intrepid duo of Obama and Hillary as they face the attacking zombie-like Republicans. I actually thought that Ralph Nader might appear at the end - that might have made for a more poignant and ultimately humorous end, since the Democrats have so demonized the Independent candidate over the last 7 years.

Ralph Nader continues to lave pending lawsuits against the DNC and a select group of Democratic leaders. We'll be writing more about those ballot access/harassment lawsuits in the near future.

Ballot Access Laws Challenged State by State

Ballot Access News has reported that the most outspoken left Democrat, Kucinich, filed a ballot access suit in Texas, where he was kept off the Democratic party ballot for not pledging his support to whomever the Democrats nominated. Texas party and state ballot access rules are the toughtest in the U.S. - for a reason. No other party or state, BTW - requires such an oath.

Richard Winger, Editor of Ballot Access News also reports about a McCain case in Indiana which sets a new and perhaps unanticipated legal precedent beneficial to all petitioners. While wishing to not deprive voters a chance to vote for McCain over "meaningless technicalities," a stringent rule was rescinded. The board cannot do that for McCain without all parties making use of that decision.

The General amongst ballot access lawsuits has got to be Ralph Nader, who in 2oo7 filed a lawsuit against the DNC and several Democratic leaders, for their flagrant and harassingly unfounded lawsuits against the 2004 Nader-Camejo Presidential campaign. In Hawaii, progress seems to have been made. On the East Coast, several different suits are being combined into one and will be heard later this month or in April in Washington D.C.

Read more from Ballot Access News

Mike Gravel Supports Jesse Johnson's Campaign

Jesse Johnson, Green Party Presidential Candidate met with Democratic Presidential candidate, Mike Gravel in which they agreed that the two major parties block third party voices at the expense of the people and nation and that must change.

Gravel said, "If we want to end the war in Iraq, provide health care to all citizens, educate our young people, we’re going to have to start not only working together with these alternate parties: but literally working to support them. That's why I'm supporting Jesse Johnson's campaign for President."

That support plays as a bonus boost for Johnson, whose recent attainment of the West Virginia ballot line for the Green Party is earning the relatively new Green Party member some clout in the party. Johnson, who plans to do a whistlestop tour through the United States via train, will be meeting up with Gravel for public presentations from time to time throughout the campaign.

Johnson comes from a long line of police officers and grew up as a Republican, but one whose compassion was apparent through his work as an EMT, youth educator and film maker. However, as he witnessed what the Bush Administration's "Open for Business" policy meant to West Virginia's Governor Joe Manchin, he rushed into environmental activism. Just a couple of miles from his ancestral home and throughout the mountain region, coal companies began to blast off whole mountaintops with high-grade explosives in a high-speed effort to extract as much coal as quickly as possible. In the wake of these continuing explosions, the air and water has been contaminated and the socio-economic conditions have plummeted. These are the same mountains about which John Denver sang, "ripped up by greed," said Johnson. He is also concerned that in the process of mountaintop removal, no attempt is made to capitalize on the potential economic benefit of farming the lumber prior to the blows or trapping the natural gasses from within.

Recently, the Greens have seen a number of former Republicans join their ranks. The Green' strong plank on old-time Republican values such as conservation, fiscal responsibility, decentralization and local control holds interest for those who have lost faith in the Republican Party of today, according to a Green Party Political Director Brent McMillan. "Greens are the most frugal people you'll ever meet," he said. "Once people see them in office, they begin to realize that."

The Green Party has also seen a number of disenchanted Democrats join their party as well, Cynthia McKinney, former Democratic Congresswoman of Georgia, most notably. She is also running for President on the Green Party ticket and has accumulated a lot of support amongst many Greens. Members of the Green Party have tried to recruit her to run for spot for years. She now says, "I’ve come home to the Green Party."

There are also two Grassroots Green candidates, Kent Mesplay of California and Kat Swift of Texas, also running for the seat of Presidential nominee. While neither has previously held office, their party-building work is notable.

The Sweet and Sour Sauce of Blogs in Politics

Washington Post Opinion

Howard Kurtz: Coulter Rips Bush

Oh - how the sharks are circling, killing their own in a frenzy.

Howard Kurtz op-ed today in the Washington Post cites Ann Coulter's comment referring to President Bush:
We're all just waiting for this nincompoop to be gone. I think we're all finally on the same page on that.
Kurtz retorts: If "we're finally all on the same page," didn't it take a helluva long time for her to get there?

This article is a great read and continues to cover the machinations of other pundits and their effects on the public opinion of various Democrat and Republican Presidential Candidates.