The Bachmann Explanation

Political Cartoon is by David Horsey in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Hillary Would Trounce Any GOP Candidate

I thought this was a fun and interesting poll by Time Magazine. It compared how Hillary Clinton would do against the leading Republican candidates to how Barack Obama is doing against those same people. It turns out that the poll shows that Clinton would do much better against all of them than the president.If the president would just pay attention to that, it should tell him something.

The people want change. They're just not sure he can deliver it after the many times they've seen him give in to the Republicans. And they don't want Republicans, because Clinton trounces every one of them. The president needs to stop trying to be bipartisan and kick some Republican butt (like Roosevelt did). It's what he was elected to do in the first place. Here are the poll results:

Clinton..........55%
Romney..........38%

Obama..........46%
Romney..........43%

Clinton..........58%
Perry..........32%

Obama..........50%
Perry..........38%

Clinton..........56%
Cain..........34%

Obama..........49%
Cain..........37%

The poll was done on October 9th and 10th.

The One Percenters

Pundit Kitchen reminds us that the 1% are happy with things as they are.

Green Party May Have Excellent Candidate

A recent Democracy Now Poll showed that President Obama has lost support from his 2008 base of voters. About 21% of Democrats disapprove of the job the president has done. Most are disappointed over his general abandonment of progressive principles to accomodate the right-wing in Congress (even though those right-wingers have refused to compromise and have taken every opportunity to demonize the president). Recently the president has shown a little more backbone and began to challenge the Republicans on jobs, home foreclosures, and student loans -- and hopefully he will continue down that path.

The president still has time to try and win back the full support of the progressives in the Democratic Party (and Independents who would like to see progressive change in economic policy), but so far he has just taken progressives for granted. His handlers figure the progressives will have to come back and vote for him since the alternative is to have a far-right-wing conservative get in the White House. That's a dangerous assumption, since even if they did wind up voting for him it doesn't mean they will do the hard work of knocking on doors and making phone calls and ferrying people to the polls.

And now it looks like the Green Party may be nominating a very appealing candidate. The picture above is of Jill Stein, who recently announced she is running for the Green Party's presidential slot. This is not some wild-eyed radical. Stein is a married mother of two living in Lexington, Massachusetts. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1973, and from Harvard Medical School in 1979. She has been a practicing physician (as is her husband) for many years, and has written two books. She also has a solid background of supporting and fighting for progressive causes.

All Hat And No Cattle

Political Cartoon is by John Cole in the Scranton Times-Tribune.

Guns In America

The is a new gun bill winding its way through the U.S. House of Representatives. It is House Resolution 822, and it would force all states to accept the concealed-carry permits of all other states for out-of-state visitors --even if they have not met the licensing and training requirements of the state, and even if the person carrying the concealed weapon would be barred from possessing a gun in that state. This is a very bad bill, especially considering that some states require little more than the paying of a fee to get a concealed-carry permit and will license even people not living in that state.

This is not a Second Amendment issue over whether a person can own a gun or not. It is pretty much settled law that Americans with no criminal record or dangerous psychological problems have the right to own one or more firearms. The passage or defeat of HR 822 would not infringe on the right of anyone under the Second Amendment.

Instead, this concerns the right of every state to determine who can and who cannot carry a concealed (or hidden) gun in that state. And the crazy thing about this is that the supporters of this new gun law that would infringe on a state's right to make their own concealed-carry law are the same people who scream for state's rights in other areas. They obviously only care about state's rights when it comes to something they don't like. This is a bill that needs to be defeated, but it will probably pass because politicians are afraid of the gun lobbyists.

What Country Do They Want Back ?

Political Cartoon is by David Horsey in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

New CBO Figures Verify Income Inequality

A couple of days ago the Congressional Budget Office released figures that showed that the gulf between the richest 1% of Americans and the rest of America has grown much larger since 1979 (about the time that "trickle-down" economics was instituted). It shows that the after-tax income of the richest 1% has increased by 275%, while the bottom 80% had less than 50% growth (and the bottom 20% grew only 18%).

The CBO said, " As a result of that uneven income growth, the distribution of after-tax household income in the United States was substantially more unequal in 2007 than in 1979."

When you check the rate of inflation (using the LaborDepartment's figures based on the Consumer Price Index) you find that what could be bought for $10.00 in 1979 now costs about $27.54 in 2011. That means while the richest Americans have more buying power than ever, most other Americans have less buying power than they did in 1979 -- the rich have moved forward substantially while everyone else has gone backwards.

Debit Fees

Political Cartoon is by Dan Wasserman in The Boston Globe.

Border Wall Is Still A Stupid Idea

In an obvious effort to appeal to the anti-immigrant and racist wing of the Republican base, several of the GOP presidential candidates have revived talk of building a wall between the friendly nations of Mexico and the United States. This is especially dumb considering the fact that President Obama's administration has deported more undocumented immigrants than the Bush administration did, and the number of immigrants trying to enter the United States has fallen drastically due to the deplorable American economy.

I have discussed in the past about how the border fence is an unworkable solution to immigration problems, that is an insult to our Mexican neighbors and an environmental and economic disaster for both sides of the border. It now turns out that the fence can cause or exacerbate flooding problems in the border area -- flooding problems that are totally unnecessary. before any more building is done, those wanting the silly fence should read this article by Scott Nicol in the Rio Grande Guardian. Nicol says:

"They Are Stupid"

GOP Race Is Still Anybody's To Win

We're only about 9 weeks away from the Iowa caucuses, the start of the primary season, and there is still no real clue as to who the Republican presidential nominee is going to be. No one candidate has come forward to stake a real claim to being the odds-on favorite. Michelle Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll, Herman Cain did the same in Florida, and Ron Paul finished first in the California straw poll. Meanwhile, Romney, Cain, and Perry have all had their turn in leading the national polls, but none of them has been able to get above the twenties in national poll support.

A new New York Times/CBS News Poll shows just how unsettled the race still is. The poll was conducted between October 19th and 24th of 455 Republican primary voters, and once again no candidate was able to get more than 25% voter support. Here is how the poll showed the candidates standing right now:

Perry Tax

Political Cartoon is by Mike Keefe in The Denver Post.

Right-Wing Commenter Says Teabaggers Are Not Racists

Yesterday I refused to publish a comment from a right-wing reader of this blog (and yes, this blog does have some right-wing readers, although I don't know why -- they won't find anything they like here), because the comment was just an attempt to smear all of the Occupy Wall Street protesters with the actions of a few. He sent a second comment, which I also refused to publish, but I am posting part of it below because it needs a response:

"After years of you yourself smearing the Tea Party with spurious accusations of racism, you're now shocked, shocked to discover that someone would actually cite documented news reports from reliable outlets of illegal behavior on the part of the Occupiers. . .While we're on the topic of alleged racism in the Tea Party, did you see today's CBS News/New York Times poll regarding Tea Party Supporters and the 2012 GOP Nomination for President?. . .Thirty-two percent support for the only African-American in the race among Tea Partiers. . .Yeah, those "teabaggers" sure are racists, aren't they?"

First of all, I have never said that ALL of the teabaggers are racist. I do however believe that a large part of them are racists, and I have said that many times in the past. I still believe that.

Second, I think the signs pictured above, found at teabagger rallies around the country, proves my point more than any words could. Frankly, I have to wonder not only about the people who made and carried those signs, but also the other people who silently assented to their appearance at the rallies. They had to know the impression those signs would leave with the American public. Did they not care that they were being presented to the world as racists?

Third, does 32% support for Cain really prove that a large segment of the teabaggers are not racists? What about the other 68%?

Fourth, it's easy to say you would vote for an African-American to a pollster but another matter to actually vote that way on election day -- it's called the "Bradley effect". I don't think Cain will wind up with anywhere near 32% of the teabagger vote on primary/caucus day, in spite of the fact that he has embraced all of their ridiculous ideas.