This was sent along to me, and it really is quite brilliant in its simplicity:
Be nice if Democrats running for Congress could figure this out.
by John Cole| 29 Comments
This post is in: Election 2010
This was sent along to me, and it really is quite brilliant in its simplicity:
Be nice if Democrats running for Congress could figure this out.
by Kay| 92 Comments
This post is in: Election 2010
On Tuesday, in a break with tradition, our local Democratic group voted to open a headquarters in a rented storefront on the town square as a campaign headquarters.
Ordinarily, both Republicans and Democrats here rent a storefront only in Presidential election years.
It’s an unusually aggressive posture for the local Democrats, who are in the minority here, and generally very low-key and accommodating people.
Maybe this new attitude comes right from the top, as illustrated by this great catch by the always-funny Jim Newell:
Ohio’s Democratic party chairman, Chris Redfern, recently said at a campaign event what most Democratic chairmen dream of saying: He is sick of these Tea Party “fuckers.”
So he’s on board.
In the past, our headquarters has served not just as a place for people to pick up a yard sign or volunteer, but also as a place to go and vent.
I’ll make sure there’s no video available.
This post is in: Election 2010, Open Threads, Flash Mob of Hate
E.J. Dionne Jr., in the Washington Post, on a “Tempest in a Very Small Teapot“:
Is the Tea Party one of the most successful scams in American political history?…
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Do the math. For weeks now, our national political conversation has been driven by 86,441 voters and a margin of 5,548 votes. A bit of perspective: When John McCain lost in the 2008 presidential race, he received 59.9 million votes…
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Even in larger states, the Tea Party’s triumphs were built on small shares of the electorate. Rand Paul received 206,986 votes in Kentucky, where there are more than 1 million registered Republicans and nearly 2.9 million registered voters. Sharron Angle won with 70,452 votes in Nevada, a state with more than 1 million registered voters.
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Last April, a New York Times-CBS News poll found that 18 percent of Americans identified as supporters of the Tea Party movement, but slightly less than a fifth of these sympathizers said they had attended a Tea Party rally or meeting. That means just over 3 percent of Americans can be characterized as Tea Party activists. A more recent poll by Democracy Corps, just before Labor Day, found that 6 percent of voters said they had attended a Tea Party rally or meeting…
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And where are the progressives? Sulking is not an alternative to organizing, and weary resignation is the first step toward capitulation. The Tea Party may be pulling a fast one on the country and the media. But if it has more audacity than everyone else, it will, I am sorry to say, deserve to get away with it.
This post is in: Election 2010, Assholes, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Bring on the Brawndo!
The GOP has released their new “Pledge for America,” and surprising no one, it looks like the prescription for the future is tax cuts, missile defense, gay-bashing and fetus worship, and investigating ACORN the White House.
You know what they say:
Sadly, America no longer listens to the Who. I, for one, look forward to the new regime of tax cuts for Jesus.
by John Cole| 24 Comments
This post is in: Election 2010
Howie Klein and John Amato are teaming up with folks, trying to raise enough loot to air an anti-Joe Miller ad in Alaska, and the place to donate is here. I’m a little late to the party, but here is the ad they want to try to run:
You can see Howie’s thoughts here.
by Kay| 60 Comments
This post is in: Election 2010
This is a hard slog to read, and I apologize for that, but I think the best way to find out how states see health care reform and Medicaid expansion is to ask the people responsible for putting it in place.
This report is based on a structured discussion with the Executive Committee of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NASMD), and selected additional Medicaid directors, in late May 2010.
The Executive Committee of NASMD is comprised of eleven leading Medicaid directors, including two each from four geographic regions of the country (the Northeast, Midwest, South and West) plus the Chair, Vice Chair and Immediate Past Chair. The views expressed in this report reflect the discussions with these directors, who represented a total of 11 states.
Beyond the challenges of implementation tasks, Medicaid leaders perceive that reform is deeply transformative for the Medicaid program.
Officials said that Medicaid has come to be regarded more as a health coverage program, and health reform reinforces this trend.
By enrolling more and higher income members and increasing integration with the commercial market, Medicaid will move farther away from being a welfare style or social program.
This development has implications both for organizational culture within Medicaid agencies and sister agencies and for the public’s perception of Medicaid. As one example, one Director suggested there could be a move in his state to integrate Medicaid with health coverage for state employees to be able to leverage even greater purchasing power in the health care market.
One director envisioned a future fully integrated health plan system where individuals and small employers accessed a single front door for Medicaid, CHIP and exchange coverage and would not need to be aware of whether they were on Medicaid or not.
The shift in public perception described by the state directors is the same thing that happened with S-CHIP, in my (admittedly) limited, anecdotal experience.
Parents here don’t perceive S-CHIP as welfare, probably because most of them are working. They see it as a health insurance plan for their children, period. That insulates the program, politically.
Conservatives knew that would happen, which is why they fought like hell to stop it.
by DougJ| 17 Comments
This post is in: Election 2010
As long as you’re calling Congresspeople, why not drop a few ameros in the kitty?
FWIW, I am giving to the DCCC because I don’t know which House candidates to give to.
Giving ends to my friends and it feels stupendousPost + Comments (17)