Retired CC Professor and Public School teacher living in Western Michigan. I am an avid recumbent bicyclist and my wife and I ride between 2000 and 3000 miles per year.
Boycott the companies that run ads on "Path to 9/11
The most effective way to slap ABC for running this wingnut propaganda during election season is to announce all over the blogisphere that we progressives will simply boycott any company or product that places ads during this show. ABC/Disney is in the business to make money and if it becomes clear that taking out ad time on this show will cause a significant section of the population, and especially the coveted 24 to 50 crowd, to boycott your products, these corporations will run from this turkey faster than an elephant from a mouse. Remember, the Rethugs have viewed the progessive blogisphere as insignificant, but they are finding that we are "The Mouse that Roared" and now the GOP Elephant is running scared.
Jennifer Granholm has YET TO RUN AN AD, the ad that people are referring to was put together and paid for by Michigan State Central (Democratic Party). They are trying to answer the $7 to $8 million ad bliz by Tricky Dicky DeVos. Gov Granholm has stated that since her funding is limited, not unlimited - like the heir to Alticor (Amway's new name) and his wife, who is heir to the Price fortune (Holland Michigan auto parts company that the family sold to Johnson Controls) - she plans to save her money for the fall when voters are thinking about the coming election. We may not all feel that the Gov is the strongest candidate for Michigan Governor, but then you may forget that four years ago when the chips were down, she came out from behind and beat another Grand Rapids favorite son, Postumus, handily.
Dick DeVos' (Tricky Dicky II, Nixon was TD I) campaign for Governor in Michigan has spent about $7 million and he has gained name recognition now. But, none of his ads mention that he is a Rethug (Republican)! None of his ads mention that he and his family made the largest contributions to the election and re-election campaigns of GWB. They also have been the biggest supporters of the Rethug party, and Rethug 527s. If Tricky Dicky is spending his money on his campaign who are the Rethugs going to go to to replace his contributions?
The real question is why is he ashamed of being a Rethug? Could it be that he is afraid of having the taint of all the corrupt pols that he has helped put in office.
Just a thought, If the, now Rethug packed and controlled, Supreme Court were to rule that Tom DeLay's "Texas Midterm Redistricting" is constitutional it might not be the defeat that I origninally though it was.
If we can convince the people that they have had enough of this repressive corrupt Rethug government and are able to gain control of some of the state houses and the Supreme Court makes that decision, why couldn't we redistrict evey state that we gain control of to assure that Rethugs will only run in competative districts and Dems take over the safe districts.
Just a dream, but even an oft defeated Dem out here crying in the Rethug wilderness can dream, can't I?
Today's <italics>All Things Considered</italics> carried a nice piece on the YKos convention in Las Vagas. If you didn't catch it or were at the YKos you can go to http://www.npr.org/... and listen to the report over the net.
With this kind of coverage the Rethugs in the House will try to gut the NPR budget again so that the really source of "fair and balanced" news will be taken off the air. If NPR and its affilates are closed due to lack of funding, that will open their frequencies (reserved for educational and religious broadcasters) would be assigned to such fair and balanced broadcastors as Pat Robertson, Dobson, and Farwell.
I just finished teaching the last of my community college classes tonight and have the tests graded and grades done so I can return to the real world, and get back to watching and commenting on the state of Democratic politics as I seem them.
I am catching up on my reading by reading April 2006's The American Prospect, which has an excellent article on Al Gore's rebirth as a ecologist and innovator and a "Special Report" on "After Oil" that includes an article by Bracken Hendricks "A New Prairie Populism" in which Hendricks asserts
As clean energy begins to transform economies in America's heartland, it creates fertile ground for a new progressive politics.
Tomorrow is May Day (May 1) and it has traditionally been the day that oppressed workers around the world demonstrated for their rights and the right to organize and form unions.
Tomorrow the current group of oppressed workers, their families, and supporters will be demonstrating across the nation. They will leave their jobs, everything from minimum wage (or even piece-work non-minimum wage) jobs to highly paid skilled trade and professional positions. They will not be buying goods or selling goods. They are doing this to show the rest of the nation, especially the rabid Red States, how much the nation needs these honest people and their labor.
As a second generation, on one side, and third generation on the other I will be supporting these demonstrations.
Reading the posting Know Your Creationists: Bill Dembski I did a little research (at http://www.designinference.com/...) of my own to see if Dr. Dembski actually had experience with having his work "peer reviewed" for publication or not. Although his works have been published by well known publication houses, they have been books related to the Intelligent Design and Creationist controversies. But, books like this are not subjected to the rigorous peer review process that articles published in scientific journals are subjected to. Books are usually only submitted to an editor selected by the publisher (or the author) and as such are not peer reviewed. Here is what the biographical sketch on the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky. supported site states the following about Dr. Dembski's educational backgroud.
I posted the quotation in the extended body on the MichiganLiberal website in response to a discussion of Dicky DeVos' claim that he is a "job creater" and his attack on "Lansing" (meaning the current office holders in the State Government, including the Republican majority in the state house, state senate, and the state supreme court!) Dicky is the big money man (family) in Rethug politics here in Michigan and the Rethugs don't dare refuse him the candidacy because that would endanger the cash flow (especially the "soft money" used to fund the DeVos' Mackinaw Center and other 536s) and weaken their abiltiy to stay in power. But, he is now attacking the political leadership of his own party for not doing anything about creating jobs.
NPR anounced today that the Supreme Court is hearing arguements today on the Vermont campaign spending limit. Vermont passed a law setting a maximum spending limit on what cadidates for governor may spend. The Rethug party is challenging the state saying that this limit descriminates against an individual spending his/her personal wealth to campaign for governor, thus limiting his/her freedom of speech.
Let's hope that the Rethug dominated Supreme Court, which claims to be in favor of "States Rights" decides that the state of Vermont has a right to set limits on the spending for campaigns within its borders. This is a case that establishes a clear contest between the right of states to establish rules for state wide elections against the Rethug big money guys spending their own money.
In today's GR Press, Pete Luke, points out that although Dick DeVos' campaign needs full support from the Rethug members of the State Legislature, they are actually primarily interested in getting re-elected and to to do that they will continue to work witn Gov Granholm. Tax receipts are improving so both the Gov and the Legs will agree to increase spending for schools. They will also agree with the State Board of Education's call for a tougher curriculum standards for high school students to provide the well-educated work force for tomorrow's jobs. Pete also says that the Legs will not object to accelerating the highway construction projects this summer which will provide jobs and continue through the election. All this runs counter to Dick's campaign.
Just saw that "I'm a manufacturer" or "I'm a job maker not a politician" ad that Dick DeVos has been running this month. One of the opening visuals shows an old furniture factory that has a for rent sign and "Antiques" spelled out in the windows. The ad implies that this building is a recently closed factory (having closed during the Granholm Administration). This is a lie! That "plant" has had the for rent sign on it and has been used for small manufacturing and warehouse since before the Engler Adminstration. If I remember correctly it is along the US 131 freeway across the street from a restored steam engine named after one of the politicians that the DeVos money helped put in office, "John Engler." The building the engine sits in front of is a newly built warehouse/manufacturing building which also has signs on it offering space for rent.
Dick DeVos Jr. has made a huge ad buy here in Michigan showing locked and empty factories, implying that this is the fault of the current Democratic Governor, Jennifer Granholm. The real cause of this problem has been the policies of the Governor who preceeded Gov. Granholm, John Engler, and the Rethug controlled state legislature which has bucked every program or tax reform that Gov. Granholm has suggested during her term.
Although Dicky Jr. claims to be a "job creator" and successful businessman, he actually out-sourced American jobs to Asia and expanded the Amway sales pyrimid system into Asia, where at least Japan is currently raising legal questions to their methods.
Dick DeVos Jr. (son of a founder of Amway - Now called Alticor) began running the first ads of his campaign for the Governorship of Michigan this weekend. These are the trickist ads I have ever seen this early in a campaign. They begin with views of closed factories, some of which have been closed for years, and then imply that Governor Ganholm is responsible for all the factory closing here in Michigan.
He than states that the "next governor of Michigan" will have to do something about it. Then he states that he has been an entrepraneur, not a politican, his whole life, and is a job creater! What a laugh. When he was in charge of Alticor he cut US jobs in Ada and sent them to China. He and his wife have been state office holders and Rethug party office holders.
In yesterday's (Feb 8, 2006) Grand Rapids Press there was an exclusive article by Steve Harmon which states that the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Pete Hoekstra, of Holland, still believes GWB's "Big Lie" that Saddam had "Weapons of Mass Destruction" that were either flown to Syria or buried in the desert!
Hoekstra told Fox News that
I've not heard the tapes, but Saddam's voice has been verified .... I'm waiting for the completed transcripts.
Steve Harman continues:
What the tapes indicate, Hoekstra said, is that Saddam was talking about concealing the weapons from UN inspectors.
There is a lot of discussion on this site about the possibilities of the Dems mounting a filibuster agains Alito's confirmation to be a justice of the Supereme Court. Unfortunately much of it misunderstands "Parliamentary Proceedure" or what is called here in the US "Roberts' Rules Of Order," which are based on the rules used in the US House of Representatives and US Senate. The houses of Congress do have a number of special rules that are difficult to follow unless you are a true scholar of Parliamentary Proceedure, which I don't feel that I am. However some of the terms people are tossing around need to be defined:
Congressman Vern Ehlers said he will try to help lift the ethical cloud that hovers over Republicans in accepting the job as acting chairman of the House Administration Committee.
. . .
At least temporarily, the Grand Rapids Republican replaces U.S. Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, who Sunday vacated the chairmanship until he is cleared of bribery charges or indicted.
"I think it's something I have to do for the Congress," said Ehlers, previously the second-highest ranked lawmaker on the panel.
How dare defenders of people who got five deferments or who used daddy's connections to get into a National Guard Unit that could never be deployed, went AWOL, was assigned to the Guard Unit that was an immediate deployment unit, and yet never was deployed, attack a life long Marine who volunteered to serve in Vietnam? I don't care if he got the PH for a hangnail or paper cut, at least he volunteered, served, and served in Vietnam. Murtha served, that is better than can be said for most of the Repug Thugs that are in the Administration or Congress. They forced out the only high level member of the Administration who had real military experience, Powell.
