Medical Marijuana

Political Cartoon is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

There Is A Better Way To Cut SNAP (Food Stamp) Spending

(This cartoon image is by Rob Rogers in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.)

Ever since they crashed the American economy and sent it into recession (while destroying or shipping overseas millions of jobs), the Republicans have been whining about the increasing enrollment in the SNAP program (food stamps) and its rising cost. Seemingly oblivious to their own responsibility for the growing need, the Republicans have only one solution for it -- cut the money for the program, thus taking food out of the mouths of the hungry. But they aren't even serious about saving this money, because they turned right around and gave it to rich agribusiness interests.

While the Republicans weren't able to get the huge cuts they wanted (more than $20 million), they were able to con the Democrats into agreeing to about $4 billion in cuts for the SNAP program. The sad part of all this is that there was a way to save even more in SNAP spending -- and do it without taking food away from the hungry. It turns out that simply raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would save $4.6 billion in food stamp spending -- and indexing it to inflation would extend those savings for years ($46 billion in the next 10 years).

And it gets even better, because the SNAP program is not the only government program that would save substantially by raising the minimum wage. The government would also save big money through a reduction in the amounts spent on Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The Republicans will be quick to tell you that businesses couldn't afford  to pay more than the current minimum wage, and that forcing them to do so will cause them to lay off workers or go out of business. Nonsense. Study after study has shown that there is no significant job loss after a rise in the minimum wage -- and any business that cannot pay its employees a livable wage is probably destined to fail anyway.

The truth is that far too many businesses are passing their own labor costs on to the American taxpayers -- by paying such a small wage that those employees must seek help through government programs (like food stamps, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit). It is time for businesses (many of them giant corporations like Wal-Mart) to pull their own weight and pay their own labor costs.

Any business that hires a full-time employee should assume the responsibility for paying that worker a livable salary. It is just wrong for that employer to expect the American taxpayers to pay for any part of those labor costs. The minimum wage needs to be raised immediately to $10.10 an hour (which would only be about $21,000 a year, or less than half of the U.S. median wage), and it should be indexed to the inflation rate (so it won't immediately start to shrink again).

Bigoted Selfie

Political Cartoon is by Nate Beeler in The Columbus Dispatch.

Texas GOP Is The Teabagger Party

Yesterday I remarked about a New York Times article that said the establishment Republicans in Texas had held off the teabaggers in the recent primary. I said it just showed that they didn't understand the Texas Republican Party -- because there are no "establishment" Republican elected officials in the Texas GOP (either on the state or national level). All Texas Republican elected officials campaign on teabagger values, and when elected vote the teabagger wishes.

Whether they do that because they are teabaggers themselves, or whether they are afraid to cross the teabaggers does not matter -- because if you campaign and vote as a teabagger, then for all intents and purposes you are a teabagger. The truth is that an "establishment" (or somewhat moderate) Republican could not survive a GOP primary in Texas, because the teabaggers control who gets elected to the Republican ticket.

This is illustrated by the chart above from the Rasmussen Poll (done on March 3rd and 4th of 500 likely voters in Texas, with a margin of error of 4.5 points). Note that the favorability rating of teabaggers in Texas is a whopping 39% -- far above the national favorability of teabaggers, and also above the percentage of Texans who self-identify as being Republican. That means the huge majority of Republicans in Texas are teabaggers.

Add to this the fact that slightly less than 10% of registered voters in Texas voted in the Republican Party primary this year, and the fact that teabaggers are an energized group who tend to vote regularly, and it's easy to see why only teabagger candidates can get elected in a Texas Republican primary. Anyone who tries to run as a moderate will not only be defeated, but will probably be run out of the party.

If you find this hard to believe, just pick a Texas GOP elected official (any of them) -- then check their campaign rhetoric and voting record. They're all teabaggers. They couldn't have gotten elected if they weren't. The teabaggers are in firm control of the state party, and everything it does.

Listening

Political Cartoon is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Only 20% Of Americans Want Abortion Banned Completely

Right-wing Republicans across the nation (both on the state and national level) have been hard at work trying to deny American women the right to control their own bodies (and get an abortion if needed). But they are representing only a tiny minority of Americans. As this chart shows, only 20% of Americans want to ban abortions. About 78% think abortion should be legal in at least some instances -- and most of those are happy with the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.

The chart is made from information from a recent CNN / ORC Poll (taken between January 31st and February 2nd of 1,010 nationwide adults, with a margin of error of 3 points).

Stoned Bunny ?

Four-twenty.

Random Thoughts On The Texas Primary

The Texas primary is over. There are still a few races that will have to be determined in a run-off election (for both parties), but basically the parties now know what their ballots will look like in November.

The most interesting run-off for the Democrats is in the race for Agriculture Commissioner, where the two candidates who will face off in a run-off election finished in pretty much a dead heat on election night. Entertainer and political maverick Kinky Friedman got 38% of the vote, while virtual unknown Jim Hogan got 39% of the vote. This race could still go either way, depending on whose supporters show up at the polls. I give Hogan a slight edge, since run-off elections are participated in mostly by party regulars (and many of them are upset that Kinky tends to think for himself instead of toeing the party line) -- but I hope I'm wrong.

The other run-off for Democrats is in the U.S. Senate race. This will be between rich "blue dog" David Alameel (who got 47% on election night) and nutty LaRouche-supporter Kesha Rogers (who wound up with 22%). I expect Alameel will easily win the run-off, but will do nothing to bring voters to the Democratic ticket in November.

I won't comment on the Republican run-offs, except to say that there is very little difference between the candidates. Whoever wins will be a far-right-winger, because that is the state of that party right now in Texas. I saw an interesting article in the New York Times yesterday that said establishment Republicans had beaten back teabagger challengers in Texas. While I respect the New York Times, this just shows they don't really understand the political landscape in Texas.

There are no "establishment" Republicans in Texas holding elective office. The teabaggers have won in Texas, and have a stranglehold on the party -- with all GOP elected officials following the teabagger lead. Just because a few insane teabaggers ran against some far-right teabaggers in the primary doesn't change this fact (and doesn't mean any of the current office-holders are "moderate" or "establishment").

I don't know yet what effect the new (and unnecessary) Voter ID law had statewide, but in my own heavily Republican precinct it worked against the GOP. I worked the polls, and we only had two people show up without a picture ID. Both were Republicans. They were allowed to cast a "provisional" -- which will probably not be counted since they only have six days to show picture ID to the county elections administrator.

And finally, election day showed I may actually live in the reddest precinct in the country. My precinct had a combined election with the Republicans (to save money). Each voter, after being verified, was asked to choose which primary (Republican or Democratic) they wished to vote in. Out of about 451 votes cast, only 38 were cast in the Democratic primary (about 8.4% of the total precinct votes).

Justification ?

Political Cartoon is by Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Support For LGBT Equal Rights Continues To Grow

A new Washington Post / ABC News Poll (released just yesterday) shows that 59% of the general public now supports the legalization of same-sex marriages. This is the largest percentage of support ever recorded in this particular poll -- and shows that support for same-sex continues to grow in the United States.

It is also interesting that much of this growth in support has come in the last decade. Back in 2003, this same poll showed that only 37% of the public supported legalizing same-sex marriages, while 55% opposed it. Those numbers have now flipped, and about 6 out of every 10 Americans now support it (while only slightly more than one out of three oppose it).

The demographic breakdown of the support is also telling. Only two groups show a majority opposing same-sex marriage -- Republicans and those over 65 years old (and both of those groups have significant support for it, with 40% of Republicans and 47% of seniors saying they support it). Even people in the South are starting to come around -- with 50% now supporting same-sex marriage and only 42% now opposing it. All other groups and regions show significant majority support.

Although the radical religious right continues to fight against same-sex marriage, they are fighting a battle that has already been lost. There is no longer any question of whether same-sex marriage will one day be legal across this nation. The only question now is when this will happen, and I believe it will be sooner rather than later.

Here are the results of some other questions about LGBT rights asked in this poll:

The Washington Post / ABC News Poll was conducted between February 27th and March 2nd of a random national sample of 1,002 adults, and has a margin of error of 3.5 points.

Then And Now

Political Cartoon is by Nick Anderson in the Houston Chronicle.

What The American Public Thinks About Hillary Clinton

It's pretty obvious that if Hillary Clinton wants to run for president the Democrats are ready to give her that opportunity -- with poll after poll showing she is the overwhelming choice of Democrats across the nation. This brings up the question -- what does the general public think of Hillary?

The Pew Research Center tried to answer that question with a new survey (taken of 1,002 nationwide adults between February 27th and March 2nd -- with a 3.2 point margin of error).

The numbers didn't turn out to bad. In fact, I think most politicians would be happy to have equally good numbers. Most people find her likable, with only 36% saying she is hard to like. In addition, 49% say she is tough and has new ideas. But perhaps most important, 56% say she is honest. As expected, the worst numbers are from Republicans, but even among them about 55% view her as tough.

It is also interesting that fewer people think her gender will be an obstacle for her. Back in 2008, 35% thought being a woman would hurt Clinton, while 60% said it would not. But now only 20% say her gender will hurt her, while 77% say it won't. It looks like the idea of a woman being president has grown on people in the last six years.

The most amusing part of the survey (at least for me) was when the respondents were asked if they knew how old Hillary Clinton is currently. While a majority were able to at least put her age in the right decade, a surprising 40% could not do that. About 6% thought she was under 50, while 31% said she was between 50 and 59. About 3% said she was 70 or older.

The group that really had little clue as to her age was the younger people (18 to 29). About 16% said she was under 50, and 53% said she was between 50 and 59. Older people were the best at knowing her age, with 71% of 50 to 64 year-olds and 70% of those 65 or older putting her age as between 60 and 69.

Also amusing was the fact that more Republicans knew Hillary's age than Democrats. While 67% of Republicans got it right, only 60% of Democrats did.

For those of you who don't know -- Hillary Clinton was born on October 26,1947 and  is currently 66 years-old.

WWJDA

Political Cartoon is by Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

A Question For The Religious Right