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The approval tag for political commercial will have little impact. Many brands that we are fimiliar with are owned by investment groups that will conceal the product. Philip Morris is owned by Altria. If Altria's CEO approved on add for a Republican from North Carolina, would you make the connection to the tobaco industry?
Bernie calls himself a democratic socialist, not a socialist. The problem with being called a socialist, it raises the image that we should nationalize all industries.
re: 2nd Amendment: I have the perfect solution; since I believe in the doctrine of "original intent",naturally, I believe you should be able to bear as many muzzle-loading flintlocks as you can carry.
***
If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
- George Carlin
@MArk- well...if someone is voting Republican because they truly understand what they are voting for, but these teabaggers are so Rush Limbaughed out that they do not get the connection:
Unethical* Corporations and big money> buy politicians> rig the game for the rich only at the expense of destroying the planet > creating 3rd world country> creating slavery and poverty.
* Due is respect to the gem wealthy and ethical corporations. They do exist.
Barack Obama by trying to get the Republicans into the boat is now losing most of his passengers on the boat.
It is impossible to try to sway Thom's mind on the teabaggers. The truth of the matter is that regardless of what Dale Robertson told Thom, what he advocates on his Tea Party.org website is somewhat different (as I pointed out last week in a post). He does support Republican--and only Republican--candidates. That is if they are far enough to the right for his taste.
The TEA Party was an attempt to start a 3rd party. Look what's happening to it now. Big money interest is pushing it into the Republican Party.
@Glenn Why don't we all just join Senator Sanders Socialist Party?
Dang. I thought brackets still worked for html coding.
Perhaps the question is not "Should an 11-yr-old be [i]tried[/i] as an adult?" but "Should an 11-yr-old be [i]sentenced[/i] as an adult?" There's wiggle room in sentencing anyway, why not include provisions in that for under-age convictees, rather than have a different trial system?
Kenneth Starr was just put in charge of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He's my second cousin. All my life, I had to listen to my mother brag about his accomplishments. I remember him as a kid from a few family reunions. He was a couple of years younger than me and my little brother. He was a jolly little kid whom we kept laughing.
At least I'm not related to Karl Rove.
"I don't believe in reincarnation (but I did in previous lives)." -harry ashburn
The problem with the Citizens United decision is that Republicans AND Democrats will become puppets for big money and giant corporations. Maybe it is time for a political revolution, and formation of a third party. One that can unite the "progressives", the "independents, the "democratic socialists", and the tea party members (the sane ones)....the P.A.C.E. party.....Party Against Corporate Excess. Thom, if you lead us, many will follow.
'Bin Laden' also remarked when President Obama was elected that he was essentially only an N_____ in the Whitehouse taking orders. Does anyone else remember this?
@harry lol ha ha
Barack will have to put pot and pans lids over his elephant ears!
Thom at the White House! I hear a lecture on tariffs coming.
@KMH re: ". Nuclear power belongs in a museum "
Sounds like a good idea, but won't all the exhibits become radioactive?
"It doesn't matter what he does, he will never amount to anything."
- Albert Einstein's teacher to his father, 1895.
Barack Obama to open Nuclear Power Plant in Augusta. GA. Nuclear power belongs in a museum
http://bit.ly/14PGeV
OMG!!! just heard Thom say he was invited to a meeting regarding economics in Washington, DC?!!!
I have been emailing and blogging about how Mr Big Ears obviously little environmental vision in the Whitehouse NEEDS to listen to THOM> OMG I woke up so angry and have been such a bitch lately. But knowing the Whitehouse and Thom have a connection and that maybe they will listen to Thom relieves some very deep furrows developing in my forehead.
GO THOM!
no reason for impeachment of any of the rightwingers?
i beg to differ.
clarence thomas lied during his confirmation hearings.
the specifics have been detailed in at least a couple of books,
the issue has not been whether he was untruthful during his hearings, the issue has been whether dems had the political will to confront thomas about the fact that he lied during his hearings.
lying during the course of a confirmation hearing is absolutely grounds for impeachment.
other grounds?
the 2000 bush v gore decision, where several justices did not recuse themselves despite clear conflicts of interest.
scalia and thomas, specifically had family members with direct interests in the outcome of the decision and that alone was enough to warrant recusal.
(sandra day o'connor supposedly made specific comments concerning her desire to have a republican - bush - in office, before the decision, so that she could retire.)
the conflicts of scalia and thomas are unquestionably clear conflicts that merit, at the very least, investigation.
(o'connor's is less obvious, but still should have caused investigation. while she is no longer on the court, getting the record straight would be worthwhile, historically.)
Bayh would rather spend his $3 million launching a Presidential campaign than dropping it on his presumed re-election to the Senate.
I'm of the opinion Evan Bayh will run in 2012. Over the last couple of weeks I have heard Gibson and others in the administration comment "If the President decides to run again". Bayh spoke with Obama before he made the announcement. Is a deal in the works?
If corporations are people, and no person shall be denied Equal Protection, then natural born people have all the rights of corporations. No person arrested after this ruling can be jailed, because we all now have limited liability. The worst thing that you can do to a person is fine them. Every person gets the same tax status as a corporation. We get to write off all expenses.
If corporation want to be people, then they have to have all the responsibilities of people. They lose any special tax status, and liability. You can't have it both ways, that's not Equal Protection.
I have to partly disagree with Thom on the origins of revolutions. The French, Russian and various Mexican revolutions were induced by extreme economic and social inequality, punctuated by wide-spread starvation. The American Revolution, the English and American Civil Wars (and arguably what is going on today) were power struggles between competing ideologies. In countries today where extreme inequality exists, revolutions are not occurring because those in power have all the guns.
According to a progressive website called ProgressivePunch (“Leading with the Left—Pow!”) The number one progressive member of the U.S. Senate is not Bernie Sanders. It’s, it’s…drum roll…it’s Roland Burris! Progressive Punch gives Burris a “lifetime” progressive voting score of 99.32 percent. Cynics might say that Burris has been a reliable Democratic vote because he “owes” Harry Reid for letting him join the club without too much fuss; on the other hand, why should we be surprised that an African-American Democratic senator who is not half-Caucasian vote more progressively than his white counterparts?
Burris’ principle “crime” in the eyes of white leftists is that he was shoe-horned in by the embarrassing former governor of Illinois, and didn’t have the “good manners” to refuse the job. But what if the lieutenant governor was a Republican? I somehow doubt they’d be making as big a stink about it. You think that the Republicans weren’t laughing while the left (but not all of us) was gleefully slaughtering one of their own? You think the white “progressives” on the radio and MSNBC who belittled Burris—who are in my mind often arrogant, insufferable and sometimes even a little dumb (I’ll refrain from the “R” word)—have no responsibility in his approval rating in the teens, which in the end may wind-up hurting the Democratic senatorial candidate in 2010, whoever that may be?
Be careful for what you wish for, Thom—you might just get someone far worse than Burris (like a Republican), since you won’t get anyone better on the progressive vote.
Also:
According to a story in an eastern Washington newspaper, the work force of local apple growers were subject to an audit by the ICE; one of the larger companies was given a list of 550 names that they had determined did not have the proper papers, and had to be fired—about a quarter of its workforce, with more to come. The local Minutemen are ecstatic, although they apparently have no interest in working in the orchards themselves. Local growers say they don’t want to hire undocumented workers, but they say that the current guest worker program is cumbersome and expensive, and altogether inadequate for their needs. Despite 10 percent unemployment, they don’t see any white Americans banging on their doors for jobs. Many people wonder why the bigots even care who’s doing the picking, if these hypocrites don’t feel like doing the work themselves.
The question is why is the ICE wasting time raiding orchards instead of investing in a practical guest-worker program grounded in reality and not racist fantasy, particularly since growers have to compete with cheap imported produce from other countries. Since eastern Washington is Republican territory, and at least one Republican member in the House representing the area agrees with growers on the need for reform, perhaps this is the Obama administration playing “chess” to see if enough Republicans whose districts are affected by the nonsensical immigration policy will support immigration reform.