Tuesday Afternoon Thread: Merry Christmas Baby

FunnyPicsDepot‏@FunnyPicsDepot
Mitt Romney’s reaction to the Pacquiao fight.. http://twitpic.com/bkwciz

https://o.twimg.com/1/proxy.jpg?t=FQQVBBgpaHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0cGljLmNvbS9zaG93L2xhcmdlL2Jrd2Npei5qcGcUAhYAEgA&s=YUbS8hKNwlARFGZhWS975BuYK-1mgJbz5oXZN7RNSxk

McConnell is Least Popular Senator in the Country

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Kentucky finds Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) with a lowly 37% to 55% approval rating, the worst favorable/unfavorable numbers of any senator the country.

Nonetheless, he leads all of the Democrats tested against him in a 2014 race: Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson (D), Attorney General Jack Conway (D), and actress Ashley Judd all trail McConnell by four points, 47% to 43%.
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I’m fascinated that Judd seems to be competitive right now.

Hey peeps!

It is a shame how this beautiful, professional woman was treated by her local news affiliate in Louisiana..

Meteorologist Fired for Responding to ‘Racist’ Facebook Post

puppet ass mofo

Gov. McDonnell staff to make Norquist pilgrimage

RICHMOND

Emissaries of Gov. Bob McDonnell are heading to Washington today to meet with anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist ahead of the 2013 General Assembly session, when adjustments to Virginia’s gasoline tax could be in the offing.

Today’s meeting comes a day after Norquist in a letter told state lawmakers that his group, Americans for Tax Reform, opposes “any proposal to index the gas tax to inflation because simply, this proposal is a job-killing tax increase.”

“For those members of the Virginia Legislature who have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” his letter added, “voting to index the gas tax to inflation, without any complete offsets, would be in clear violation of the promise you made to your constituents and the people of Virginia to oppose any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2012/12/gov-mcdonnell-staff-make-norquist-pilgrimage

Barbara Streisand, Elvis and Diana Ross- all came from public housing

November 20, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — For some, music lifts the soul. For others, it lifts them out of poverty.

“The Sound, The Soul, The Syncopation” is an exhibit at Expo 72 that explores the connection between public housing and legendary musicians — like Barbara Streisand, Dinah Washington, and Elvis Presley.

“I think a lot of people would expect an exhibit about music and public housing to have a lot of hip hop,” Todd Palmer curator said. “And while we are certainly including hip hop artists, the surprise is that country musicians, pop musicians, Broadway, even punk have actually come out of public housing.”

The exhibit tells the international story of those who survived tough beginnings in public housing and rose to the top of the charts. The National Museum of Public Housing is sponsoring the event.

read more: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/mathie&id=8893034

On debt ceiling, GOP is defining extortion down

Posted by Greg Sargent on December 11, 2012 at 4:57 pm

Until today, it was not certain whether Republicans would stage another showdown over the debt ceiling. They were said to be thinking about it, but reports carefully noted no decision had been made. However, as Brian Beutler reports, Mitch McConnell today publicly confirmed that it’s on.

“I think I can speak for every single Republican that we think a request of any president to raise the debt ceiling in the future should involve a discussion with whoever the president is about what we might do about the debt,” McConnell said, adding: “We are going to insist that we have another discussion about the future of our country in connection with the request of us to raise the debt ceiling.”

As Beutler notes, this is not an explicit declaration that Republicans will refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless they get the spending cuts they want. But it is certainly a threat to do this.

Pay close attention to how this is covered. In a very general sense, the shrugs that greet the prospect of another debt ceiling fight suggest Republicans are successfully redefining the withholding of support for a debt limit hike as not agreeing to concessions requested by Democrats. In other words, Republicans won’t give Democrats the debt ceiling hike they want unless they get spending cuts in return.

But raising the debt ceiling is not merely giving Democrats something they want. It is averting a threat to the economy and to the whole country. Top Republicans have admitted this. As Steve Benen recently documented, during the last debt ceiling battle John Boehner readily admitted that default would mean “financial disaster” for the global economy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2012/12/11/on-debt-ceiling-gop-is-defining-extortion-down/

December 11, 2012 1:24 PM
Simple Query

By Ed Kilgore

I’m sure I am not the first to have this insight, but it’s worth underlining: if right-to-work laws are indeed, as supporters claim, a “liberty” issue for workers who are otherwise slaves to “union bosses,” then why are Gov. Rick Snyder and Michigan GOP legislators denying these “rights” to the most esteemed workers under their purview, police officers and firefighters? Do GOPers actually despise these workers, or are their justifications for taking this step a bit dishonest?

I think we all know the answer to that question.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_12/simple_query041719.php

Americans For Prosperity Fake an Attack On Their Tent at Michigan Right to Work Rally

By: Sarah JonesDecember 11th, 2012

Prepare to be confronted with yet another example of right wing deliberate deception. Today at the Right to Work protest in Michigan, an Americans for Prosperity tent came down with people inside of it. Naturally, Fox was there to capture the scene and AFP were quick to blame it on violent union supporters. Also, Breitbart had a video, naturally, blaming the tent falling on violent union supporters, with a video that doesn’t start until well after the melee (of course).

But as you have learned, all is not what it seems in Right Wing world.

A protester of the anti-union law passed today, Tom Duckworth, saw a man he’d spoken to earlier in the tent, wearing NRA garb, kick the tent poles from the inside of the tent. Duckworth thought they must be getting ready to leave, until he realized there were people inside the tent. So, basically, a person described by Duckworth as “clearly a member of Americans for Propserty” kicked the tent down and then AFP blamed it on the unions.

December 11, 2012: Tom Duckworth explains what he saw at the Americans for Prosperity tent earlier today. Watch here via ProgressMichigan:

Duckworth says that when the tent came down, people cheered, but nobody “rushed the tent” for about 30 seconds. Sure, they cheered – AFP are the people funding the death of a globally recognized human right. After about 30 seconds, the protesters did trample the fallen tent in their pleasure, cheering its demise

Obama Administration Stimulus: White House Sees Fiscal Cliff Deal As Last, Best Hope

Posted: 12/11/2012 4:41 pm EST | Updated: 12/11/2012 6:23 pm EST

The conventional wisdom on the White House’s opening offer to resolve the fiscal standoff treats one particular element of that offer — the stimulus proposals — as a less-than-serious addendum that will be traded away in the end. It’s wrong.

Senior Democratic officials on Capitol Hill and in the White House say that the media and Republicans are mistaken to assume that the stimulus measures were included as mere bargaining chips. In fact, the Democrats say, they’re important building blocks for President Barack Obama’s second term in office.

That’s because the “fiscal cliff” deal may be Obama’s last, best chance to win spending or tax-code concessions from Republicans. Democrats and the White House know this, which is why they have chosen to draw the ire of conservatives by jacking up the short-term cost of their fiscal cliff proposal.

The specific measures — extension of unemployment insurance benefits ($30 billion) and the payroll tax cut ($115 billion), infrastructure spending ($50 billion to $75 billion), and a series of other tax cut extenders ($27 billion) — hardly constitute a robust stimulus package, particularly considering all the spending cuts likely to surround them in any final deal. Yet top Democrats view these measures, drawn from the president’s proposed American Jobs Act, as an essential component of that deal.
……………………………….

A top Senate Democratic aide — speaking about the talks, like many others, only on condition of anonymity — was blunter in his assessment. “The idea of extending UI [unemployment insurance] is not a trade-away chip. That’s essential. The idea of replacing payroll with something is something they feel very strongly about,” he said. Another top Senate aide said that the stimulus is “very real” and that it has consistently been a part of every proposal Democrats have made. A top GOP aide said he wasn’t sure how serious the White House is, but the stimulus has “been on every piece of paper they’ve sent us.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/11/obama-administration-stimulus_n_2279182.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

The Right to Work Shot Heard Around the World Won’t End Well for Conservatives

By: Sarah JonesDecember 11th, 2012

The people calling themselves ‘conservatives’ are full of glee over what Americans for Prosperity (the same Koch-funded group behind Walker’s assault on workers) is calling the “shot heard around the world” – also known as the Michigan Republicans shoving an ALEC/ Koch funded kill unions bill down the people’s throats in the heart of the American union.

They gloat. It’s what they do. But what they don’t see the long-term impact of what they’re doing.

The unions have been dying for years. The orchestrated ALEC-based hits on collective bargaining in Republican-led states was no doubt meant to be the deathblow.

But instead, it has sparked ongoing debate about the point of unions. Many Americans who never had a reason to think about unions before are now aware of the issue. So while it pains me personally that Republicans did this in my home state, taking aim at all my Grandfather worked for his entire life just weeks after he passed away, I see an opportunity here.
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Worker-friendly states (those without “right to work” laws) have higher incomes on average and better working conditions. An NEA study concluded, “Eleven of the 15 states with the highest poverty rates are RTW, while nine of the 11 states with the lowest poverty rates are worker-friendly.” If that doesn’t get it, how about a discussion regarding productivity? An analysis of gross domestic product per capita shows that worker friendly states “appear to be significantly ‘more productive’ than the RTW states.” Furthermore, “12 of the 14 most productive states are worker-friendly states, while five of the six least productive states are RTW states. The median GDP per capita for the worker-friendly states is $41,529.50, compared to $38,745.50 in RTW states.”

http://www.politicususa.com/shot-heard-world-shooting-conservatives-foot.html

uh huh…fauxgressives spent the last 4 years having hissy fits and emotional eruptions over PBO (and still are), and republicans are still wrecking havoc from 2010 gains in statehouses everywhere, while everyone looks away, distracted by the whining.

Legislative leaders hand out hefty raises to top staffers

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s new legislative leaders handed out hefty pay raises to many of their top staff and newly-hired talent, even as thousands of state workers went for a sixth year without a boost in pay.

Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford, who were sworn in last month, immediately hired new chiefs of staff and paid them more than taxpayers pay elected state Cabinet members. They are paying 62 top policy advisors and staff directors more than $100,000 a year each, and they gave pay raises totaling $252,000 to their 17 highest paid employees.

,,,State workers, by contrast, have not had a pay raise in six years. Last year, the Legislature also tapped into their take-home pay by trimming three percent to pay their annual contributions to the Florida Retirement System. The result is a 15 percent drop in earning power for most state workers, labor unions say.

read more; http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/gubernatorial/legislative-leaders-hand-out-hefty-raises-to-top-staffers/1265704

Bringing over an interesting convo from the morning thread. There was a quote from an article in which Scalia engaged in a classic far right rant against gay Americans, likening them to murderers. In response, a commenter mused notwithstanding Scalia’s nonsense, it would be interesting if the Supreme Court upheld gay marriage and used that as cover for destroying the voting rights act. That really got me to thinking that such a possibility isn’t unlikely, and that due to a very subtly racist form of activism which has exploded in popularity “on the left,” I wonder just how genuinely outraged some folks would be…

To be frank, from what I’ve seen of Maddow and a few others post-Prop8, I don’t think that such an outcome would genuinely upset some people one bit. The thinking is that us black folks are not entitled to rights unless every and anyone else has first attained full rights. It’s a subtle, subconscious thinking which expresses itself in myriad ways—the racist scapegoating of black people post-Prop8 being simply one of the more famous examples. The underlying (and often unpacked and unacknowledged) attitude is that we are not entitled to control even the vernacular of our struggle (which many of our ancestors paid a huge price, even death, for); we are not entitled to focus upon our issues and our quest for liberation unless we are willing to allow our voices to be stolen by privileged liberals who cannot participate in any coalition unless they set the agenda. This definitely doesn’t describe all, but just keeping it real in terms of what has taken place these past four years and the complete cannibalization (not a respectful nod to, but a cannibalization) of the civil rights movement by some people who don’t quite totally respect us. And their own racism is given cover by the pernicious and largely overblown media meme that black people are “obsessed” with gay issues or exotically homophobic (has been belied by polling for years and years). Food for thought.

Pam and Tommy way better than Martin & Gina. I’m just sayin’

miranda – — -UPDATE on MRS Sandi JACKSON – –SHE WON’T RUN :>) -

– - – -Jesse Jackson Jr.’s wife won’t run for his US House seat – -

- – – - -The wife of Jesse Jackson Jr. said Tuesday that she’s not interested in running for the U.S. House seat her husband held for nearly 17 years, ending talk that she was eying the Chicago-area district.

“No. I am not a candidate for Congress,” Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson told reporters. “I intend to remain an alderman.”
THERE IS MORE.

– -LOL. Somebody – –musta – -HOLLA’D – –at her. LOL – —

Movin’ FORWARD – - – -> LOL

miranda – —-WAY-ELL – —DA SssssssNAKE STRUCK!! – — –

– - –Michigan Governor Signs Union Busting Bills Behind Closed Doors – - – -

– - – -Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) announced during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that he had privately signed into law so-called “right-to-work” legislation, despite mass protests from unions. The measure would allow public and private union members to opt out of paying union dues, while benefiting from union contracts. It does not apply to existing union contracts.

Challenged by a reporter as to why he signed the right-to-work legislation behind closed doors, Snyder again faulted union organizers. “It’s one of those things, there were a number of people out protesting. So I don’t see the need to have a public ceremony to over-emphasize that.”
THERE IS MORE.

– - – — DISGUSTING —COWARD!! —Ugggg – — -

miranda – - —LOL – –Mr. Harry KNOWS – - -NO BOUNDS — –LOL – –

– –Reid praises Sen. Nelson’s “mop of real hair” – –BWAHAHA!

- – - -He OWNS —that SENATE FLOOR!! LOL –

WHEN – - -Mr. Harry SPEAKS – - – -ERYBODY – –LISTENS! – -LOL – - -

– - – -Dear POU FAM♥ – -G’NIGHT. :>) – -MAY U HAVE BLESSED SWEET DREAMS – -♥ – ♥ :>) – –

– - — -CONTINUE YOUR PRAYERS ♥- – -:>) – —

– - -AN – -OLDIES –Jackson 5 – CHRISTMAS: – :>)

– -☻– The Jackson 5 – Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town – :>)-

– –☻The Jackson 5 I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus – –:>) – –

– — ☻ -The Jackson 5 – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – -”>) [RIHEP - MJ♥]

– - –UNTIL THE MORNING LIGHT ♥ :>) – - -