Party Politics Videos

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. I wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday. I hope that you re able to spend it with your loved ones. This is short list, it is not exhaustive. This is what I m thankful for: I m thankful for a wonderful, loving wife and family. I could not be more blessed. I m thankful that I m not writing George Bush s autobiography. How do you make eight years of failure sound good? I am thankful for our wonderful troops overseas here at home. I m hopeful that the troops at Fort Hood are getting the support that they need. I m thankful that Bernie Madoff got none of my money. I m sad that Wall Street CEO s didn t personally invest in his schemes. I m thankful that Joe the Plumber s 10 minutes is up. I m thankful that neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin became president. I m thankful that Barack Obama is our president. I m thankful that the House has passed healthcare legislation. I m glad that Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson don t represent me or my state. I m glad that progressives rejected Joe Lieberman. I m just sorry they couldn t convince the rest of the state not to vote for him. I am thankful for Senator Al Franken who has stood up for working women and against big corporations. I am thankful that I belong to a party that does not hold litmus test for entry. I am in thankful that the economy is improving. I m extremely hopeful that the economy will begin making jobs in the first quarter of next year. We need jobs. We desperately need millions of jobs. We need slow, and stay sustain growth not for two or three years but for an extended period of time. We need green jobs. We need jobs that cannot be shipped overseas. We need American companies to begin to invest Americans again.

American politics is always been a contact sport. Heck, even the founding fathers didn t agree on many things and that s what caused the original founding party to break up but what we re seeing today is a little bit different. It started with Richard Nixon. He learned the art of divide and conquer. He used in California politics in the late 40s and again in the 60s. He used it to get elected to Congress in the early 50s. He was able to use the Vietnam war and patriotism to get elected president in 1968. So, I can think of no better expert to talk to than Rick Perlstein, author of the book, Nixonland. It was Nixon who taught Ronald Reagan. More correctly, Ronald Reagan learned from Richard Nixon. I decided to post my interview with Rick Perlstein, again. It seems we needed the perspective after the elder former President Bush decided to personally attack Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. This wouldn t be any big deal if the President wasn t calling for civility not five minutes before attacking them. What I find most reprehensible is not that he questioned the reporting or their delivery of their commentaries or even their shows but instead it was a personal attack. There are a couple of sick puppies. I think you ll find this interview informative and enlightening. Enjoy!

Republicans and conservatives have been trying to scare the beeswax out of Americans.  They have lied about the Healthcare plan from day one. A couple of days ago, the lie was that Democrats were going to kill off the elderly. President Obama had to debunk that in a townhall meeting. Now we have a new Harry and Louise -type commercial, which is designed to scare the elderly. A government paid for healthcare plan would deny seniors the surgery that they need while providing abortions to the young. This piece of goodness is served up by the Family Research Council (if you are not familiar with FRC here are a couple of posts as background - here, here and here):

The Tonight Show with Conan O Brien has figured out Sarah Palin. I think they deserve an Emmy for this, because I have been read her speeches and I just get a headache. (The headache may or may not come with nausea.) O Brien believes that Palin is poetry. This explains a lot. I didn t understand half of the poetry that I read in college. I think that he may be on to something. William Shatner reads Palin:

Oh, this is a very good show. (At the end of this post, if you can answer a simple question, you could win a $50 or $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com.) SARAH PALIN STEPS DOWN - In a very rambling speech that beat up the press, Sarah Palin announced that she will not run for re-election and is stepping down as Alaska s #1 point guard. Very Confusing. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! The economy shed another 467,000 jobs in June!  There are now 14.7 million unemployed workers in this country, up 7.2 million from the start of the recession.  The picture changes dramatically, though, when considering the broader measure of underemployment. If the ranks of the marginally attached (jobless workers who want a job but are not actively seeking work and so are not counted as officially unemployed) and involuntary part-time workers (those who want full-time jobs but can t get the hours) are added to the mix, the figure rises to 25.9 million, which means nearly one in six U.S. workers (16.5%) is either un- or underemployed. While all groups have experienced large increases in unemployment during this recession, some are feeling the effects of the downturn more than others.  In June, unemployment was 14.7% among black workers, 12.2% among Hispanic workers, and 8.7% among white workers (increases of 5.8, 6.0, and 4.3 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession).  Male unemployment increased to 10.6% in June, compared to 8.3% for women (increases of 5.6 and 3.5 percentage points).  For workers with a college degree, the unemployment rate is 4.7%, and unemployment among those with only a high school diploma, at 9.8%, is more than double that of college-educated workers.  Workers with less job experience are also particularly hard hit -  those age 16-24 face an unemployment rate of 17.8%; 25-54 year olds are seeing 8.5%; and those over 54 are at 7% (up 6.2, 4.5, and 3.9 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession). HEALTH CARE NOW Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd outlined a revised health care plan Wednesday night that includes a public plan, costs less, and covers more Americans than previous versions. The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In my Dare to be Stupid segment - Seriously, trying to rob a cab driver? Police in suburban Chicago say a taxi driver who didn t have Mace handy when he was attacked by a knife-wielding passenger instead disarmed the man with a can of aerosol deodorant. Elgin Deputy Police Chief Jeff Swoboda says the 51-year-old cabbie picked up the male passenger early Thursday outside a casino. Swoboda said the driver grew suspicious when the man offered several destinations, so he surreptitiously placed the small can of deodorant between his legs. Shortly afterward, the passenger put a knife to the driver s neck and demanded money. The cabbie sprayed the deodorant in the man s eyes, causing him to drop the knife. Hagan Comes Out In Support Of Public Option The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee unveiled its plan for a public health insurance option after a weeks-long delay, and leaders announced that it had the support of every Democrat on the panel including Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC). Last night, Hagan made it official in a joint statement with committee members. My colleagues and I on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have been working on a plan to reform the health care system in this country, Hagan said. We have crafted a plan that will stabilize health care costs and includes a Community Health Insurance Option, which I support. This clears the path for the legislation to be moved out of committee. Until now, her objections to the public option were blocking it. That raised the ire of liberal groups like MoveOn, which targeted her directly. Now, everyone s friends again. MoveOn commends Senator Hagan for deciding to support the health care reform bill that the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee released today, which includes a national public health insurance option, MoveOn Executive Director Justin Ruben said in a statement. Please stay with us. We have Larry Fulcher,two-time Grammy award- winning bass player who is here to chat with us about the origins of funk!  Larry Fulcher has played with Smokey Robinson, The Crusaders, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, The Wailers and Willie Nelson. This guy is more than qualified to chat with us. So, don t move. Now, that you have listened to this podcast, if you can remember who I wished a Happy Birthday to (not the US but who was the person) and place that in you comments, you can win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com. If the 50th comment contains the correct answer, you win a $50 gift card from Amazon.com. If the 100th comment contains the correct answer, that person will win $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com.  Now, more rules.  None of my friends or relatives are eligible.  If you have already won one of my contests please give someone else an opportunity. The contest winner will be announced no later than Friday July 17, 2009. If 50 comments have not been posted by July 17th then I will donate the money Democracy for America.

On 6/25/09, Bill O Reilly had a Talking Points commentary which dealt with the celebrating the destruction of others. Of course, O Reilly is talking about the news covering South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford s debacle.  Celebration?  I don t think so.  I haven t seen any evidence of celebration.  Not in the mainstream media.  I haven t seen it on any of the major liberal blogs either.  It isn t that Mark Sanford hasn t given many critics adequate ammunition.  That s not the problem.  The problem is Governor Sanford s complete inability to come up with a coherent story and stick with it.  His story has been evolving ever since we first thought he was missing two weeks ago.  We don t need to celebrate.  When a political rivel is stabbing himself multiple times, all you need to do is get out of the way. Bill O Reilly states, as fact, the left has been especially vicious of late.   He gives us no information or data to support this wild allegation.  This is a Bill O Reilly trademark. He then compares the wild left celebration to the restrained coverage of the John Edwards affair.  Of course, he doesn t mention that John Edwards had already dropped out of the presidential race.  His presidential bid was in the toilet when the story broke.  John Edwards was holding no public office.  Finally, the fact that John Edwards had a extramarital affair with a woman, did not fit with the frame that the conservatives were painting John Edwards as a closet homosexual. Remember Ann Coulter s disgusting refrain? Again, Bill O Reilly then gives this sweeping statement Fox news did not celebrate or dwell on the Edwards affair.  Really?  Where is the data to support this?  How do you define dwell?  A simple search of the Fox news website, using Google,  reveals 1940 references to John Edwards and Affair.  So what do you think maybe a thousand of them are real and pertinent? Bill O Reilly, who regularly likes to attack even the New York Times or the Washington Post, on this particular occasion chooses the Post.  (The Washington Post has plenty of problems of its own. It was revealed that the Post was selling access to its Op-Ed columnists and reporters. That can t be good for unbiased journalism.) Bill O Reilly chose to single out Eugene Robinson who is a Pulitzer prize-winning columnist.  Instead of playing Eugene s video clip in which he and Keith Olbermann were talking about Eugene s unique qualifications to talk about this particular situation (the fact that Mr. Robinson had lived in Argentina while he covered South America and grew up in South Carolina).  Eugene Robinson was clearly joking when he said that he was grateful to the governor for doing this.   This was a quote that was clearly taken out of context and Bill O Reilly doesn t seem care.  (See the video below and decide for yourself) Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Bill O Reilly then singles out several other people to prove his case that the far left was celebrating.  By the way, where is the far left?  Is the far left people who believe that the government should not decide who can and cannot marry whom (outside of medical restrictions)?  Is the far left people who believe the government shouldn t torture and should not have invaded Iraq?  If this is the far left then more than 50% of this country is far left. Anyway, he eventually winds his way around to attacking Christine Pelosi, the daughter of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, she is a filmmaker and outspoken critic of many conservative policies that we ve seen over the last 8-20 years.  Somehow, Pelosi mentioning the hypocrisy that many of these family values Republicans have shown to the American people is un-American in Bill O Reilly s book.  Somehow, criticism, without name calling (pinhead, moron, baby killer, etc.) has become un-American and vicious. Bill O Reilly concludes his incoherent rambling by comparing those who reported Mark Sanford s adultery and subsequent lies to Muslims who believe in stoning criminals.  He says, apparently some in the USA believe in stoning as well, only with words.   Maybe I need to go back to college but that doesn t seem to make any sense.  When you stone somebody you kill them.  Valid criticism is somehow equated to stoning or a death sentence?  I don t understand.  Then again, after listening to several of Bill O Reilly s Talking Points Commentary I m usually more confused at the end than I was at the beginning.

This video ties in very nicely with one of my earlier posts on the Pittsburgh shooting. Leaders on the Right are taking advantage of the fear and isolation some on the Right are feeling. There is a huge difference between wanting to regulate assault weapons and taking everyone s gun away. Watch the video (From Media Matters): Charles Blow from the NYT spend a good deal of time absorbing right-wing media. Here s what he found: Lately I’ve been consuming as much conservative media as possible (interspersed with shots of Pepto-Bismol) to get a better sense of the mind and mood of the right. My read: They’re apocalyptic. They feel isolated, angry, betrayed and besieged. And some of their “leaders” seem to be trying to mold them into militias. At first, it was entertaining — just harmless, hotheaded expostulation. Of course, there were the garbled facts, twisted logic and veiled hate speech. But what did I expect, fair and balanced? It was like walking through an ideological house of mirrors. The distortions can be mildly amusing at first, but if I stay too long it makes me sick. But, it’s not all just harmless talk. For some, their disaffection has hardened into something more dark and dangerous. They’re talking about a revolution. Some simply lace their unscrupulous screeds with loaded language about the fall of the Republic. We have to “rise up” and “take back our country.” Others have been much more explicit. (more )

I thought that Jindal was completely out of step with what Republicans could have said. I was very surprised to see that many Republican commentators were very unhappy with Jindal in including David Brooks from the New York Times.

Happy Valentine s Day! I start by talking about peanuts not Charlie Brown, but that plant in Georgia. The association of this plant and salmonella is the result of a government that loves business more than it loves it people. This didn t start with George W. Bush, but with Ronald Reagan. Remember James Watt? Think about the last eight years. Bush put people in charge of departments they hated. Remember when he nominated John Bolten, who hated the UN, to be the UN ambassador? This is why we have toys from China that have been dipped in lead. We had a government that cut regulations or simply didn t enforce them. Such is the case with the peanut.  There have been no inspections and no fines. They had a plant in Plainview, Texas open four years ago. It has NEVER been inspected. It is this kind of craziness which has caused over 800 people to get sick and nine people to die. This is the result not just of careless and uncaring CEOs, but of people who hate government being placed in responsible positions within the very government they hate. It s just a bad plan.  Today, I talk with Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a great friend of the show, along with Yolanda Pierce. These professors from Princeton University have started a blog called The Kitchen Table. We talk about the blog, the inauguration and discuss whether Lincoln s job was easier or harder than Obama s. We also cover Obama s first press conference. It s an outstanding conversation.  Enjoy this show!

Jerome Corsi s book Obama Nation will debut at #1 on the NY Times best sellers list. As with his previous book Unfit to Command (a swift full of lies), a coordinated effort has been made to made this book look like it is very popular. There are huge bulk sales. I m not sure if each republican state party or county party are required to buy the book but one or more groups have bought this book. In the following clip Corsi continues to push the notion that Barack Obama s birth certificate that is one his web site is a fake. There is no data that he presents except that he knows it is fake. From Media Matters: Additionally, Politifact.com, in a June 27 article, quoted Okubo (Hawaii Department of Health spokeswoman) stating of Obama s posted birth certificate: It s a valid Hawaii state birth certificate. Noting the unfounded internet rumor that Obama s birth certificate is Photoshopped and a wholesale fraud, PolitiFact concluded: There is not one shred of evidence to disprove PolitiFact s conclusion that the candidate s name is Barack Hussein Obama, or to support allegations that the birth certificate he released isn t authentic. And that s true no matter how many people cling to some hint of doubt and use the Internet to fuel their innate sense of distrust. (more ) I feel very confident that the Right Wing will find something else wrong with Obama s birth certificate. ShareThis

Maybe I m getting old but some of these new tunes are starting to sound the same. Chris Brown. Forever. ShareThis

I have talked about the press love for John McCain on a number of occasions. Paul Waldman and I discuss John McCain and the press on my radio show last week. Media Matters has put out this nice video. ShareThis

There has been this dust up over Wesley Clark s comments. So, I figured that I would go to CBS news and find out what he said. So, what did General Clark say that was bad? General Clark is correct. Being in the Vietnam, doesn t make anyone more qualified to be president of the US. I continue to say that the qualifications for president are written in our Constitution. From Article II, section 1 - No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. For this election, those are the qualifications. You don t have to be in the military. You don t have to believe in X, Y or Z. I think that this is the republicans again trying to distract us for the real issues. ShareThis

Author: davidgrimes Added: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:49:35 -0800 Duration: 18An Oscar Levant quote about the difference between Democrats and Republicans.