A woman featured prominently in Michael Moore's 2007 health-care documentary, "Sicko," is running as a Democrat this fall against Republican Livingston County Commissioner Dave Domas.
Adrian Campbell Montgomery, a 2000 Hartland High School graduate, moved from Oakland County back to Hartland Township this year and is already hoping to make an impact locally.
"One thing is the roads — I think that they need major attention, as well as our health department. Of course, that's obviously in my heart," said Montgomery, 26. "Another thing is the senior centers in the county. I really feel that they need more focus on expanding some of them, the buildings, if possible."
She already has a platform (infrastucture and health care)! Too cool.
Forget the Polar Bears; the way things are going, George W. Bush may have to list the Republican Party as endangered. Short of resurrecting Ronald Reagan, it looks like the GOP won't be able to avoid a total collapse.
And they know it.
Who would have thought that labeling Barack Obama as an elitist militant Christian Muslim terrorist sympathizer would backfire? That "supporting" Hillary Clinton after years of labeling her (and her husband) a monster would be met with skepticism? That the countless scandals, the dismissal of domestic issues and the transparent lipservice paid to our brave troops would have more of an impact on voters then lapel pins, gay marriage and playing the "Greatest Hits of 9-11" 24/7?
As I was watching one of my favorite non-Transformers: The Movie movie, I came to realize that there's some eerie similarities between what's been going on in politics and a movie where Kurt Russell played a legitimate badass.
MR. GIBSON: And Senator Obama, I want to do one more question, which goes to the basic issue of electability. And it is a question raised by a voter in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a woman by the name of Nash McCabe. Take a look.
NASH MCCABE (Latrobe, Pennsylvania): (From videotape.) Senator Obama, I have a question, and I want to know if you believe in the American flag. I am not questioning your patriotism, but all our servicemen, policemen and EMS wear the flag. I want to know why you don't.
Thanks to Crooks & Liars (and in truth Jon Stewart) I've come to realize that President Bush's biggest Iraq problem is that he can't define "victory" as well as he can define "failure."
In regards to ending the occupation of Iraq, he's essentially said it won't happen until there's victory. What's "victory?" Hard to say, since he's claimed military success regardless of whether the number of US soldiers killed goes up or down.
In the wake of seeing people fawn over that fact that Sen. John McCain dusted off a ten-year-old idea, I thought I'd list some reasons I'd never, ever ever vote for the guy...
John McCain doesn't believe in anything but winning.
Tomorrow will be the closest America will get to having a cross-party primary debate (even if it is about one issue). As the Washington Post puts it:
When Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker travel to Capitol Hill tomorrow, they might be the ones before the microphones, but the cameras will be trained on three of their inquisitors: Sens. John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
The hearings before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees promise to be as much about presidential politics as about the past six months of military and diplomatic progress in Iraq. All last summer, Washington anxiously awaited the September appearances of Petraeus, the commanding U.S. general in Iraq, and Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad, anticipating that their testimony could determine the political viability of continued war.
Long before taking office as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke wrote an article with some other academics calling for the Fed to demystify its actions and pronouncements.
"The ‘just trust us’ approach may work in a period when the chair and the board of governors command widespread support," he and three colleagues wrote in Foreign Affairs. "But the happy state of affairs will not last forever."
It certainly did not survive beyond last month. That was when the Fed played midwife in JPMorgan Chase’s absorption of the investment firm Bear Stearns, while accepting $30 billion worth of questionable mortgage-related assets as collateral for a Fed loan that enabled the deal.
My, my, my...how did we get to this point? When the Democratic Primary began, race, religion, gender and other such things didn't matter as much as a person's stances on the issues and their legislative and/or executive record.
As a participant on this site, my primary concern was finding a Democrat who was both progressive enough to set a new path for this country and moderate enough to get the crucial independent, undecided and Frustrated Republican votes. When the field was narrowing down, I kept my "criteria" and eventually made my choice electorially. I've stopped short of saying "I can't vote for candidate X" because as I've always believed our "worst" is ten times better than their "best."
St. Louis area's unemployment rate jumped to 6.3 percent in January, up from 5.5 percent in January 2007 and 0.9 percent higher than the national unemployment rate of 5.4 percent, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.
The St. Louis area's unemployed numbered 90,700 in January, up from 78,800 in January 2007 and 78,900 in December 2007. St. Louis once again had the highest rate of unemployment of any metropolitan area studied in the state. Columbia, Jefferson City, Joplin, Kansas City, St. Joseph and Springfield are the other Missouri cities the Bureau of Labor Statistics studies.
As a whole, Missouri's unemployment rate reached 6.0 percent in January, an increase from the January 2007 rate of 5.2 percent. Illinois' unemployment rate reach 6.2 percent in January, up 1.0 percent from the January 2007 rate of 5.2 percent.
I checked to see if this was diaried already, and then it occurred to me: this is one of those things that needs to be diaried as frequently as possible.
In fact, you don't even have to read anymore of this diary. Go to Leading to War, watch the free video, and pass the site on.
I admire the serene assurance of those who have religious faith. It is wonderful to observe the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.
-- Mark Twain
For at least eight years and for at least two election cycles, this has been an accurate desciption of the Republican Party. They were confident not because of their alleged faith, but because they held all the cards.
In a similar fashion, we have had several Democratic Candidates who were confident that their own "aces" would win them the (White) House. Sen. John Edwards was banking on his previous run for office, his populist message, and his early start on the campign trail. Gov. Bill Richardson was sure his smorgasbord of experience would make him a no-brainer. Rep. Dennis Kucinich figured that if President Bush and VP Cheney has such low approval numbers, calling for their impeachment would make him a shoo-in.
They were all right in their own way, but as we are all aware it wasn't enough. Truth be told: they all had good hands, they just didn't have the "aces."
Trying to find a proper analogy for non-political people is hard. Not "George Bush hard," but real hard.
You can use something like sports, but that doesn't always address the personalities involved. Someone tried to relate the Democratic Primary to the 2004 NBA Finals (Lakers vs. Pistons) but I still think that's a stretch.
But I think I finally stumbled on a good answer for people who ask me to summarize the differences between the remaining presidential candidates, other than, "Seriously, you need to do more research."
As we go back and forth with our conservative counterparts, I find it almost a relief that the best they can do say that Sen. Clinton is a woman and Sen. Obama is black. Sure, there are degrees to these attacks, but when you boil it down, that's all they have: "The Democrats aren't running a White Male this time, so let highlight this to our base and to the voters."
It's not like they have too many options. The economy isn't on their side. Just about every champion they've endorsed has turned out to be at best a hypocrite, at worst shamelessly corruptable. The "God, Guns and Gays" formula appears to be worn out this election cycle.
In the recent past, there was one issue that the Republicans and their base could have used to save their collected asses. It's worked with mind-boggling sucess time and time again. But for some reason, even this tried-and-true tactic, this ace in the hole, has begun to fail them.
Maybe it was the American People finally waking up. Maybe it was just the natural passage of time; they say it can heal all wounds. I honestly have no idea when it happened.
But I do remember when we were given one public, jaw-dropping confirmation that the page was turning...
