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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
November 27, 2012
Posted by alvinmcewen at 4:43 am
November 27, 2012
Three reasons why anti-gay group failed to divide the black and gay communities on election day
In regards to the recent election when voters approved marriage equality measures in Maryland, Washington state, and Maine and defeated an anti-marriage equality constitutional amendment in Minnesota, the one thing that will not be talked about but needs to be discussed is the utter failure of the National Organization for Marriage's attempt to play the black and gay communities against each other.
We've witnessed the organization garnering much success with this tactic in the past, most recently in North Carolina. However on election day, the tactic failed miserably. The following are three reasons why NOM's strategy failed:
1. The wedge strategy becomes public - Ironically enough, the seeds of yesterday's embarrassment were sowed in March of this year when lgbt bloggers (myself included) published a secret memo from the National Organization of Marriage detailing how the organization plotted to specifically divide the gay and black communities by seeking out black spokespeople to publicly speak out against marriage equality in hopes of using these spokespeople as targets for the ire of gays:
Marriage equality supporters long suspected that the partnership between NOM and the black leaders who supported their cause was less noble than suspected (at least on NOM's part) and this memo confirmed it. While the revelation was too late to save NC from falling to an anti-marriage equality vote, the constant mention of this memo in later articles and interviews every time NOM trotted out a black leader to speak against marriage equality could have proved ultimately devastating because it was a constant reminder to the African-American community that NOM was using them. ........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/alvinmcewen/three-reasons-why-anti-gay-group-failed-divide-black-and-gay-communities
Three reasons why anti-gay group failed to divide the black and gay communities on election day
Posted by alvinmcewen at 4:43 am
November 27, 2012
Three reasons why anti-gay group failed to divide the black and gay communities on election day
In regards to the recent election when voters approved marriage equality measures in Maryland, Washington state, and Maine and defeated an anti-marriage equality constitutional amendment in Minnesota, the one thing that will not be talked about but needs to be discussed is the utter failure of the National Organization for Marriage's attempt to play the black and gay communities against each other.
We've witnessed the organization garnering much success with this tactic in the past, most recently in North Carolina. However on election day, the tactic failed miserably. The following are three reasons why NOM's strategy failed:
1. The wedge strategy becomes public - Ironically enough, the seeds of yesterday's embarrassment were sowed in March of this year when lgbt bloggers (myself included) published a secret memo from the National Organization of Marriage detailing how the organization plotted to specifically divide the gay and black communities by seeking out black spokespeople to publicly speak out against marriage equality in hopes of using these spokespeople as targets for the ire of gays:
The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks - two key democratic constituencies. We aim to find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; to develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; and to provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots. No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of the party.
Marriage equality supporters long suspected that the partnership between NOM and the black leaders who supported their cause was less noble than suspected (at least on NOM's part) and this memo confirmed it. While the revelation was too late to save NC from falling to an anti-marriage equality vote, the constant mention of this memo in later articles and interviews every time NOM trotted out a black leader to speak against marriage equality could have proved ultimately devastating because it was a constant reminder to the African-American community that NOM was using them. ........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/alvinmcewen/three-reasons-why-anti-gay-group-failed-divide-black-and-gay-communities
November 27, 2012
(HuffPost) If you liked Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary, then you're going to absolutely love Jamie Dimon in the role, according to Warren Buffett.
Last night America's beloved grandpa investor -- and lover of chocolates, Coca-Cola and equitable taxation -- told Charlie Rose in a PBS interview that he thought the JPMorgan Chase CEO would make a great Treasury Secretary, particularly in a crisis.
“If we did run into problems in markets, I think he would actually be the best person you could have in the job,” Buffett said, according to Bloomberg. “World leaders would have confidence in him.”
This echoed comments yesterday by less-famous bond-fund manager Bonnie Baha, of Doubleline Capital, who said she admired Dimon's panache in handling JPMorgan Chase's London Whale debacle and his "ability to communicate ideas," qualities that would make him perfect to run Treasury. Never mind that the London Whale debacle happened on Dimon's watch, leading to questions about whether he should even continue to run his own bank, much less the entire Treasury Department. "We all have issues that happen on our watch that are regrettable," Baha said. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/warren-buffett-jamie-dimo_n_2197455.html
:barf:
(HuffPost) If you liked Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary, then you're going to absolutely love Jamie Dimon in the role, according to Warren Buffett.
Last night America's beloved grandpa investor -- and lover of chocolates, Coca-Cola and equitable taxation -- told Charlie Rose in a PBS interview that he thought the JPMorgan Chase CEO would make a great Treasury Secretary, particularly in a crisis.
“If we did run into problems in markets, I think he would actually be the best person you could have in the job,” Buffett said, according to Bloomberg. “World leaders would have confidence in him.”
This echoed comments yesterday by less-famous bond-fund manager Bonnie Baha, of Doubleline Capital, who said she admired Dimon's panache in handling JPMorgan Chase's London Whale debacle and his "ability to communicate ideas," qualities that would make him perfect to run Treasury. Never mind that the London Whale debacle happened on Dimon's watch, leading to questions about whether he should even continue to run his own bank, much less the entire Treasury Department. "We all have issues that happen on our watch that are regrettable," Baha said. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/warren-buffett-jamie-dimo_n_2197455.html
November 27, 2012
from truthdig:
Alito Rising: What to Expect From the Supreme Court’s New Alpha Conservative
Posted on Nov 27, 2012
By Bill Blum
“The Supreme Court follows the election returns,” or so opined satirist Finley Peter Dunne in 1901 in language purged of its original Irish brogue (see Chapter 3 of Dunne’s Mr. Dooley book). Back then, the court was headed by Melville Weston Fuller, its eighth chief justice, under whose enlightened stewardship it handed down Plessy v. Ferguson, the infamous decision that upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring people of different races to use “separate but equal” public facilities.
What Dunne meant, of course, was that the court was a partisan political institution, often less dedicated to following constitutional values than currying favor with the nation’s elites, and that it was also capable of responding to shifts in public opinion. So it was at the turn of the last century and so it is today.
But exactly how the court reads and reacts to elections is by no means a given. Thus we must ask whether the court’s current ultraconservative Republican majority will interpret Barack Obama’s re-election as a call for reflection and moderation or as a signal to lurch even harder to the right. At least one member of the Republican majority—Justice Samuel Alito—has answered that he sees no reason to do anything but double down on past practices.
Speaking in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 15 at a Federalist Society convention dinner, Alito delighted an estimated throng of 1,500 with a self-righteous defense of the court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which overturned decades of federal campaign finance law, ushered in a new era of corporate personhood and unleashed an orgy of political spending through super PACs and thinly regulated nonprofit organizations. Rebutting criticisms of the decision leveled by many liberals, lawyers and the president, Alito praised Citizens United as a common-sense ruling that merely extended the same First Amendment rights to corporations that had been long accorded to individuals, newspapers and media companies. “Surely the idea that the First Amendment protects only certain privileged voices,” he declared, “should be disturbing to anybody who believes in free speech.” .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/alito_what_to_expect_from_the_supreme_court_new_alpha_conservative_20121127/
Alito Rising: What to Expect From the Supreme Court’s New Alpha Conservative
from truthdig:
Alito Rising: What to Expect From the Supreme Court’s New Alpha Conservative
Posted on Nov 27, 2012
By Bill Blum
“The Supreme Court follows the election returns,” or so opined satirist Finley Peter Dunne in 1901 in language purged of its original Irish brogue (see Chapter 3 of Dunne’s Mr. Dooley book). Back then, the court was headed by Melville Weston Fuller, its eighth chief justice, under whose enlightened stewardship it handed down Plessy v. Ferguson, the infamous decision that upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring people of different races to use “separate but equal” public facilities.
What Dunne meant, of course, was that the court was a partisan political institution, often less dedicated to following constitutional values than currying favor with the nation’s elites, and that it was also capable of responding to shifts in public opinion. So it was at the turn of the last century and so it is today.
But exactly how the court reads and reacts to elections is by no means a given. Thus we must ask whether the court’s current ultraconservative Republican majority will interpret Barack Obama’s re-election as a call for reflection and moderation or as a signal to lurch even harder to the right. At least one member of the Republican majority—Justice Samuel Alito—has answered that he sees no reason to do anything but double down on past practices.
Speaking in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 15 at a Federalist Society convention dinner, Alito delighted an estimated throng of 1,500 with a self-righteous defense of the court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which overturned decades of federal campaign finance law, ushered in a new era of corporate personhood and unleashed an orgy of political spending through super PACs and thinly regulated nonprofit organizations. Rebutting criticisms of the decision leveled by many liberals, lawyers and the president, Alito praised Citizens United as a common-sense ruling that merely extended the same First Amendment rights to corporations that had been long accorded to individuals, newspapers and media companies. “Surely the idea that the First Amendment protects only certain privileged voices,” he declared, “should be disturbing to anybody who believes in free speech.” .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/alito_what_to_expect_from_the_supreme_court_new_alpha_conservative_20121127/
November 27, 2012
Why is the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers Helping the Republicans?
Monday, November 26, 2012
Why is the White House trying to scare average people about the consequences of the “fiscal cliff?”
If the President’s strategy is to hold his ground and demand from Republicans tax increases on the wealthy, presumably his strongest bargaining position would be to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire on schedule come January – causing taxes to rise automatically, especially on the wealthy.
So you’d think part of that strategy would be reassure the rest of the public that the fiscal cliff isn’t so bad or so steep, and that at the start of January Democrats will introduce in Congress a middle-class tax cut whose effect is to prevent taxes from rising for most people (thereby forcing Republicans to vote for a tax cut for the middle class or hold it hostage to a tax cut for the wealthy as well).
But today (Monday) the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers issued a report today warning that if Congress allows the Bush tax cuts to expire January 1 and the Alternative Minimum Tax to kick in, the middle class will face sharply-rising taxes. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/36593702879
Robert Reich: Why is the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers Helping the Republicans?
Why is the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers Helping the Republicans?
Monday, November 26, 2012
Why is the White House trying to scare average people about the consequences of the “fiscal cliff?”
If the President’s strategy is to hold his ground and demand from Republicans tax increases on the wealthy, presumably his strongest bargaining position would be to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire on schedule come January – causing taxes to rise automatically, especially on the wealthy.
So you’d think part of that strategy would be reassure the rest of the public that the fiscal cliff isn’t so bad or so steep, and that at the start of January Democrats will introduce in Congress a middle-class tax cut whose effect is to prevent taxes from rising for most people (thereby forcing Republicans to vote for a tax cut for the middle class or hold it hostage to a tax cut for the wealthy as well).
But today (Monday) the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers issued a report today warning that if Congress allows the Bush tax cuts to expire January 1 and the Alternative Minimum Tax to kick in, the middle class will face sharply-rising taxes. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/36593702879
November 27, 2012
AlterNet / By Thom Hartmann
Grover Norquist, Enemy of the State?
Norquist has connived over the years to get hundreds of members of Congress to violate their own oath of office by pledging to keep billionaires' taxes low.
November 26, 2012 |
Is it possible that Grover Norquist, the multi-millionaire K-Street lobbyist long funded by billionaires, is an enemy of the state?
Pretty strong language, but consider that he has connived over the years to get hundreds of members of Congress to violate their own oath of office by pledging a higher oath to keep billionaires' taxes low than their pledge to the Constitution itself.
The requirement for Members of Congress to swear an oath to our country is in the Constitution itself, in Article Six: “The Senators and Representatives … shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution…”
So, starting with the first Congress, in 1789, members were sworn in by saying, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.” ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/grover-norquist-enemy-state
Thom Hartmann: Grover Norquist, Enemy of the State?
AlterNet / By Thom Hartmann
Grover Norquist, Enemy of the State?
Norquist has connived over the years to get hundreds of members of Congress to violate their own oath of office by pledging to keep billionaires' taxes low.
November 26, 2012 |
Is it possible that Grover Norquist, the multi-millionaire K-Street lobbyist long funded by billionaires, is an enemy of the state?
Pretty strong language, but consider that he has connived over the years to get hundreds of members of Congress to violate their own oath of office by pledging a higher oath to keep billionaires' taxes low than their pledge to the Constitution itself.
The requirement for Members of Congress to swear an oath to our country is in the Constitution itself, in Article Six: “The Senators and Representatives … shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution…”
So, starting with the first Congress, in 1789, members were sworn in by saying, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.” ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/grover-norquist-enemy-state
November 26, 2012
Same Day Voter Registration a "Problem" Scott Walker Intends to Fix
Published on Monday, November 26, 2012 by PR Watch
Same Day Voter Registration a "Problem" Scott Walker Intends to Fix
by Brendan Fischer
As the final votes are tallied, it is becoming clear that Barack Obama won reelection November 6, 2012 with a higher popular vote than Ronald Reagan enjoyed in 1980, thanks in part to near-record turnout from young people and people of color. High voter turnout is celebrated in some quarters as a sign of a vibrant democracy, but among Wisconsin's GOP leadership, the state's consistently high voter participation rate is apparently viewed as a "problem" that needs fixing.
With Wisconsin's voter ID law blocked by two judges as an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, Governor Scott Walker appeared before a sold-out crowd at the Ronald Reagan Library in Los Angeles on November 19, just weeks after his state reelected President Obama and elected Tammy Baldwin to the U.S. Senate, and announced his plan to end Wisconsin's 40-year-old same-day registration law. "States across the country that have same-day registration have real problems," he explained to the crowd.
Same Day Registration Helps Voter Turnout
Those "problems" appear to include high voting rates. Nine states, including Wisconsin, allow voters to register on election day, and these states are among those with the highest turnout in the country. According to a study at George Mason University, the top six turnout states in the 2008 election were Minnesota (where 77.7 percent of all eligible voters cast a ballot), Wisconsin (72.1 percent), New Hampshire (71.1 percent), Maine (70.9 percent), Colorado (70.2 percent) and Iowa (69.7 percent). All but Colorado had election-day registration.
Students, people of color, and the poor are most likely to register on election day -- largely because they are more likely to have moved since the last time they voted -- and would be most affected by eliminating the same-day registration law. Those populations tend to vote for Democrats. In 2008, fifteen percent of all Wisconsin voters (approximately 460,000 people) registered on election day. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin's largest city and the state's highest concentration of people of color, 48,000 voters took advantage of same-day registration, helping boost turnout in that city to 87 percent. Wisconsinite and Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan blamed GOP losses on "surprise" turnout "in urban areas." ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/26-5
November 26, 2012
(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein is among the executives scheduled to meet with U.S. House Republican leaders on the so- called “fiscal cliff,” according to a House aide.
House Speaker John Boehner will host the meeting Nov. 28 in the Capitol building. Others invited include Thomas Wilson, the president and CEO of Allstate Corp., Doug Oberhelman, the CEO of Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), David Cote, the chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc. and Mark Bertolini, the chairman and CEO of Aetna Inc. (AET), according to the aide who asked for anonymity because the meeting hasn’t been announced.
Lawmakers, executives and interest groups from across the ideological spectrum are meeting in Washington as policy makers confront more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to begin in January.
Blankfein was among the Wall Street executives who signed an Oct. 18 letter to President Barack Obama and lawmakers warning that the inability to address the cuts and tax increases would result in something “the still-fragile U.S. economy cannot sustain.” ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-26/blankfein-said-to-be-headed-to-hill-for-cliff-meeting.html
Financial terrorists meeting in D.C. Wednesday
(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein is among the executives scheduled to meet with U.S. House Republican leaders on the so- called “fiscal cliff,” according to a House aide.
House Speaker John Boehner will host the meeting Nov. 28 in the Capitol building. Others invited include Thomas Wilson, the president and CEO of Allstate Corp., Doug Oberhelman, the CEO of Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), David Cote, the chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc. and Mark Bertolini, the chairman and CEO of Aetna Inc. (AET), according to the aide who asked for anonymity because the meeting hasn’t been announced.
Lawmakers, executives and interest groups from across the ideological spectrum are meeting in Washington as policy makers confront more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to begin in January.
Blankfein was among the Wall Street executives who signed an Oct. 18 letter to President Barack Obama and lawmakers warning that the inability to address the cuts and tax increases would result in something “the still-fragile U.S. economy cannot sustain.” ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-26/blankfein-said-to-be-headed-to-hill-for-cliff-meeting.html
November 26, 2012
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/wildmon-theres-nothing-gop-can-do-win-over-black-and-hispanic-voters
from Right Wing Watch:
Wildmon: There's Nothing GOP Can Do to Win Over Black and Hispanic Voters
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 11/26/2012 2:10 pm
This morning on AFA's "Today's Issues," Tim Wildmon took issue with the prevailing wisdom among conservatives and Republicans that the party needs to do a better job of reaching out to minority voters if it wants to win future elections, saying that there really isn't much point in trying to do so because African American voters will always vote Democratic and there is nothing the GOP can do to change their minds.
As for Hispanic voters, Wildmon asserted that most of them care mainly about getting amnesty for their fellow Hispanics ... plus, "they are used to a socialist form of government in Mexico, which is big government welfare programs, so that is what they're going to vote for":
AFA looney inadvertently admits the GOP is f**ked, in his own crazy-ass way
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/wildmon-theres-nothing-gop-can-do-win-over-black-and-hispanic-voters
from Right Wing Watch:
Wildmon: There's Nothing GOP Can Do to Win Over Black and Hispanic Voters
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 11/26/2012 2:10 pm
This morning on AFA's "Today's Issues," Tim Wildmon took issue with the prevailing wisdom among conservatives and Republicans that the party needs to do a better job of reaching out to minority voters if it wants to win future elections, saying that there really isn't much point in trying to do so because African American voters will always vote Democratic and there is nothing the GOP can do to change their minds.
As for Hispanic voters, Wildmon asserted that most of them care mainly about getting amnesty for their fellow Hispanics ... plus, "they are used to a socialist form of government in Mexico, which is big government welfare programs, so that is what they're going to vote for":
November 26, 2012
TORONTO -- Justin Bieber faced a hostile homecoming at the 100th Grey Cup on Sunday, with the jeering capacity crowd at the raucous Rogers Centre providing the teen idol with a reception as unyieldingly cold as a long Canadian winter.
The 18-year-old grew up roughly 150 kilometres down the road in Stratford, Ont., but that didn’t help his cause with the rowdy crowd on hand, who took aim at the ubiquitous pop star whenever possible.
They booed when his face popped up on the JumboTron. They booed when a host spoke his name at the onset of halftime. And they booed with extra glee as he took the stage and throughout his medley of the finger-snapping, chart-topping hit “Boyfriend” and the disco-inflected club come-on “Beauty and a Beat.”
If Bieber was bothered by the boo-birds, it didn’t show. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/justin-bieber-booed-by-crowds-during-splashy-grey-cup-halftime-show/article5661114/
Justin Bieber booed by crowds during splashy Grey Cup halftime show
TORONTO -- Justin Bieber faced a hostile homecoming at the 100th Grey Cup on Sunday, with the jeering capacity crowd at the raucous Rogers Centre providing the teen idol with a reception as unyieldingly cold as a long Canadian winter.
The 18-year-old grew up roughly 150 kilometres down the road in Stratford, Ont., but that didn’t help his cause with the rowdy crowd on hand, who took aim at the ubiquitous pop star whenever possible.
They booed when his face popped up on the JumboTron. They booed when a host spoke his name at the onset of halftime. And they booed with extra glee as he took the stage and throughout his medley of the finger-snapping, chart-topping hit “Boyfriend” and the disco-inflected club come-on “Beauty and a Beat.”
If Bieber was bothered by the boo-birds, it didn’t show. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/justin-bieber-booed-by-crowds-during-splashy-grey-cup-halftime-show/article5661114/
November 26, 2012
from the Toronto Star:
Rob Ford has achieved what no previous Toronto mayor could accomplish — being booted from office, by court order, due to his own pig-headed bumbling. And he can thank no one but himself.
Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland had little choice. Ford blatantly broke Ontario’s conflict-of-interest law when he voted on a city council motion that saved him from paying $3,150, from his own wallet, to return some improperly-raised donations. And the automatic penalty for such violations is disqualification from office.
The judge’s ruling, released Monday morning, put the result bluntly: “I declare the seat of the respondent, Robert Ford, on Toronto city council, vacant.”
That humiliating blow must surely penetrate even through Ford’s notoriously thick hide — especially since this is all Ford’s fault. Had he simply declared a conflict in this matter, and refrained from speaking and voting on the issue, there would be no case against him. The irony is that Ford didn’t even need to enter this particular fray, council ended up voting 22-12 to let him keep his money in his pocket. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1293251--star-s-view-toronto-mayor-rob-ford-brought-ouster-on-himself
Toronto's clown mayor given the boot
from the Toronto Star:
Rob Ford has achieved what no previous Toronto mayor could accomplish — being booted from office, by court order, due to his own pig-headed bumbling. And he can thank no one but himself.
Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland had little choice. Ford blatantly broke Ontario’s conflict-of-interest law when he voted on a city council motion that saved him from paying $3,150, from his own wallet, to return some improperly-raised donations. And the automatic penalty for such violations is disqualification from office.
The judge’s ruling, released Monday morning, put the result bluntly: “I declare the seat of the respondent, Robert Ford, on Toronto city council, vacant.”
That humiliating blow must surely penetrate even through Ford’s notoriously thick hide — especially since this is all Ford’s fault. Had he simply declared a conflict in this matter, and refrained from speaking and voting on the issue, there would be no case against him. The irony is that Ford didn’t even need to enter this particular fray, council ended up voting 22-12 to let him keep his money in his pocket. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1293251--star-s-view-toronto-mayor-rob-ford-brought-ouster-on-himself
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