Happy new year everyone - will catch up later today 
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1st?
back at ya ms. chips! sending you much love and energy and inspiration so you keep going all the way through 2012! we are all ready to go each step right alongside you!
Congratulations! Happy New Year to all!
Happy New Year, Chipsticks and TOD family!!!
To quote ML:
” I think this is going to be a year of praise and celebration. I think God is holding President Obama and his family-His hand is upon them. I think we are going to work hard and be strengthened and uplifted. I thank God that he has provided such a man as this to guide our country. I thank God for Chipsticks, Donna Dem and every other person who is working to keep our President in office. We will lift each other up and we will neither falter nor fail. President Obama is doing the Lord’s work, taking care of ‘the least of these’, believing that there are opportunities for everyone, and treating all with respect despite the disrespect that is shown him. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred, only love can do that.” This will be a year of praise and celebration and victory.”
By ML at The Obama Diary
Fired up and ready to GO!!!
AMEN TO THAT! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE…OFF TO CHURCH THIS MORNING! MAY GOD DEEPLY BLESS PBO!
Thanks for that Eve. This is just what we needed to start the new year. Bless you.
beautiful. thx eveinga
Thanks for posting that. Great way to point us in the right direction in 2012!
(Still tired after the wine and fireworks last night, but fired up and ready to GO!)
AMEN !!! I pray in agreement!
My thoughts exactly!
Happy New Year All….. FIRED UP READY TO GO #2012
Love it; thanks for reminder!
This sent chills down my slightly hungover self.
I just logged on and watched that video. Great memories and and I got chills also Theo67.
It did the samething to us here sent chils to our spine, and yes we have a very lovely hungover
and we are geting ready for 2012 big time, Yes We will re-elect you Mr President, so now I’am
ready for a tall glass of Champagne!!!!!!!!!! have a lovely day TOD people.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Chips Chica!
[I'm not really shouting, only emphasizing because I'm SO happy! There's SO much that 2012 will clarify for America & the world.]
Are we ready? Are we really, really ready? I think we are!
HAPPY NEW YEAR to EVERYONE in TODville!
I don’t think I’ve EVAH started a New Year with such STRONG, VERY STRONG positive buoyancy. That entire quote shared from ML just nails it for me, but I’m going to repeat a little piece….
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred, only love can do that.” This will be a year of praise and celebration and victory.” Yep!
That is such a beautiful quote to start the new year! I so believe it’s true!
I do, as well. Happy New Year, everybody!
Happy first day of 2012 (aka re-election year) TOD!
I was really glad to see that Michelle Obama is being recognized as a “game-changer.”:
“She’s best known as America’s First Mom, the First Beekeeper, and Veggie Gardener-in-Chief. But first lady Michelle Obama is also getting quite a name in military circles: First Booster for the troops.
“Certainly other first ladies and presidents have taken an interest,” says Joyce Raezer, executive director of the National Military Family Association. “But to make supporting military families [a priority], and not just to make it one of the things you do, this is a game-changer,” adds an appreciative Raezer.
Often teamed with her lieutenant, Jill Biden, the vice president’s wife, Obama has organized and attended more events for and with military veterans and their families than any previous first lady, according to veterans groups. This year alone, for example, she’s participated in 50 events, many out of the eye of the media, and even dedicated the White House Christmas tree to supporting veterans. “There is this sense that this is genuine,” says Raezer. “We haven’t had this kind of visibility from the White House—ever.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/12/30/vets-michelle-best-ever-first-lady
Great way to start 2012 #TheCloser #Barack’sRock
I’m not sure the military vote will be a lock for the GOP this year.
Guess well see…
Didn’t Pres.Obama get the most votes from the military in 2008?
I wish all military families who appreciate the work of FLOTUS and VPFLOTUS would get out and work hard for them in the next year. There are tens of thousands of military families they can reach and their opinions and support of PBO can have a dramatic effect. I want it to be made obvious to the dimmest wit in the country that while Republicans talk about how great the military is, only our Democratic president and his beautiful wife DO something for the military besides send them into war.
I remember in 2000, we heard the final tally for the Florida presidential election was waiting on the military votes to come in. And when they did come in, they went for the Republican Bush, the so-called tough guy. (Not that it mattered once the Supreme Court threw the election). I hope we never have that knee-jerk military vote again. When they cast their votes this year, I want each of them to consider which one actually helps them and takes the time to care about their families and which one sees them only as canon fodder in another misbegotten war with Iran. Our Democratic president brought them home, is helping them and their families get jobs and an education and is providing them with better than ever health care. Romney wouldn’t spend an extra dime on their welfare if it didn’t line the pockets of a military contractor? He’d tell them to suck it up and go shoot some Iranians.
My anecdotal evidence—just paying attention to comments and written works—-is it’s the same as in the rest of the population. The older generation military tend to be and vote Republican, as they were taught. But with the current military, the younger generation, it is a different story. And I credit President Obama’s initiatives and all the attention, time and devotion to their interests by Michelle and Jill for making a difference, for at least beginning to turn the tide.
Yes, and even some of the more senior military have spoken out about what an astonishing leader he is, so other hearts and minds have been won over among that group. Love it.
Of course its genuine. Just look at the steps Pres.Obama has been taking in addition to FLOTUS. Veterans have been getting short changed in this country and its time they got what they deserved.
I am so proud of our both Michelle Obama and Jill Biden for their active support of our military families; they deserve our support and thanks. So much is sacrificed by so few. I am so glad the two of them are working this with true conviction!
Thx Fired Up: Tweeted it and looked into the comments section - Of course negative comments were there but many positive ones too. I decided to add my own comment address it to the lurkers, cuz the haters are already just going to hate. It’s the lurkers that you gotta try to change by offering something else for their consideration.I think I might paste this off and use it in the comments sections of other blogs just for this purpose: to enlighten lurkers cuz there are way more of them then there are posters.
So here’s what I wrote. If anyone finds this helpful pls take and mash as you see fit:
“Now I’d like to say something to the lurkers, you know, the people that are just reading and trying to get a gist of what’s going on by looking at the comments section. There’s WAY more Lurkers than there are posters. Lurkers, the ppl that are the haters are just going to hate for whatever reason that’s their gig and it’s too bad because I can’t imagine going through my day being as ticked off as these guys seem to sound. Can you? Anyway, if you’re so inclined, please check out these web sites. One is ‘What the Heck Has Obama Done so Far?’: http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com/?q=30 it’s fun and informative; and the other is: ‘Obama’s Achievements Center’ http://obamaachievements.org/ I think you will find that there is good information there without having to slog through the haters and the trolls.
I’m not staying to listen to the guys that we already know hate PBO. These websites will give them heartburn because they don’t want you to see what good that he’s done and they’ll probably have a few acid laiden trollish things to say in my direction. Just check it out…. Have a great new year and peace be with you.”
Well done! Brava!
This is great - and a good motto for this coming year. Don’t waste time with the haters, focus on educating those who still need real information and still have an open mind. There’s just too much to do. If I ever respond to negative blogs or spend time correcting journalists like Chuck Todd or Mark Knoller, it will only be for the purpose of reaching the lurkers, then I’m out of there! Good advice. There was way too much attention paid to people like Glen Greenwald (or however he spells his name) last night for some reprehensible stuff he said, and yet, he’s far gone and will never change. And all his nonsense was retweeted over and over and over last night, amplifying his message. Better to have spent the night cheering in 2012, and focusing on the battle in front of us.
Happy New Year to all and may you be blessed with health, happiness, and a prosperous New Year.
This is a great way to reach others, instead of responding to hate, speak directly to lurkers, (that’s how I arrived here, thank the good Lord).
How about, what is working too?
yep Linda’s site is wonderful! Great resource I tweet her whenever she posts stuff here.
The other side know FLOTUS is a game changer, that is why every change they get they are attacking her.
During the Barbara Walters interview with the Obamas, one of the things which impress me the most were the Gold Star Christmas tree. I think it was such a wonderful ideal to have a tree in the White House remembering the troops who were killed. I also remember when FLOTUS and Dr. Biden when to nascar and some of the nuts in the crowd booed them, but they went their for the troops and their families, not to watch some race.
Wonderful 2012.
Need help asap-address for Obama campaign hq for contribution in the mail. thanks guys.
You can probably find it on the google.
Here you go:
Obama for America
P.O. Box 802798
Chicago, IL 60680.
Telephone: 312-698-3670
Byo, Happy New Year! Here is the Address for the campaign where you can send contributions:
Obama for America
130 E. Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60601
Happy New Year to all at TOD. This is a wonderful site. I learn so much and am happy I found it. Thank you Chipsticks for your great contribution to the re-election of President Obama. Yes we can!
Happy New Year, Diane! I was born in NJ, so keep the home fires burning (Obama-Biden) for all of us!
Last night Isonprize introduced me to ‘Sweet Honey in the Rock’ [Thanks again, Ison
], so I am exploring some of their videos. Don’t worry, I’ll only share one because it’s the short story of the ‘history’ of one of the singers in the group.
Sweet Honey in the Rock! They have such an amazing repertoire. I saw them in person several times years ago and they just give you the chills. Sort of in the same way that the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater thrilled when Judith Jamison was the principal dancer. OMG.
Yep. And their concerts for children are awesome. I’m from DC and met these ladies there in the 70′s. Talk about “unsung”. It’s a shame that they are not as famous as, say a ‘Paris Hilton”. It’s our priorities in this country. I sincerely believe that if people had been exposed to Sweet Honey over all these decades they would love them.
Oh Meta, you bring back so many wonderful memories when you speak about the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Judith Jamison. I saw the AAADT at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in L.A., and they performed ‘Revelations.’ Yes, OMG!!! I later to a small group of my students and parents to an evening performance at a later date, and what an experience that was.
I met Ms. Jamison later in Orange County when she was in the capacity of the Artistic Director, and oh what an elegant lady she is. Very gracious. I have a painting of her in my music/library dancing “Cry.”
I hope that when POB wins this year, our TOD family can meet up together all in one place or by states and just have an elegant dinner together and enjoy the many things we all have in common. Thanks for sharing that. HZ
Oh, HZ, THANK you so much for sharing that memory. I saw AA dance troupe many times and I just always left so invigorated. Truly stunning dance, sets, costumes. Among the many spellbinding events in my life. Along with seeing Rudolf Serkin perform and Baryshnikov each at the Opera House here in SF…….. I could go on and on but the point is how much the arts enrich our lives.
How incredible to meet Judith Jamison!! Magnificence in human form. YES, we must find a way to celebrate our next win with some sort of meet-up. Oh, the enjoyment for all of us!!
Oh my what a song and story. Now I am off to find more. That was soul stirring!
Tears bubble up from my soul!
Louise Robinson, a member of Sweet Honey is a friend of mine. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Barnwell and Carol Maillard when they performed in Santa Fe about 3 years ago.
Meta, I used to see Alvin Ailey almost every year that they performed at Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley. I really miss that!
Me, too!!
Wow! Maybe I saw you there! LOL!
They are perfect and uplifting to start 2012 with! Thank you
I discovered them when FLOTUS Michelle invited them to the white house to perform in 2009. It was very powerful!
VC. So glad that you now know about this amazing group. The founder, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, has now retired from the group. She was one of the original “Freedom Singers” who sang during many of the civil rights marches and events in the 50s and 60s.
She, along with the Freedom Riders, sang at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama, and Vice President and Dr. Biden. What a force of nature she is!!!
The Freedom Singers Perform at the White House: 8 of 11 - Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round
We ain’t gonna let no Republicans turn us around….We’re marching to re-election land for President Obama.
That was great! Thanks for posting! I like what you added too anniebella!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, TODVILLE!!!!
What a magnificent day to be here. Lots of love to all and warmest greetings and gratitude to all who de-lurked to say hello. Please join the conversation. We’re going to need all boots on the ground in our campaign. FIRED UP!! READY TO GO!!
Good Morning and Happy New Year to Everyone.
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
Jimi Hendrix
Happy New Year Chips and all at TODville! What a wonderful way to start the new year and the new day. Our light is going to shine this year!
Happy New Year to one and all! This will be a great year for all Americans… Be safe and have faith!
Happy new year!!
Should have kept the add after the last contact. Thanks Meta.
Morning everyone and Happy New Year!
My anthem for the year: Be Not Afraid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqCYFpUAJ2Q
This is why she is called THE CLOSER. #ObamaBiden2012
I cannot watch that and not be moved… every single time. She is so passionate AND so sincere. AND still right!
pssst! pssst! I’m pulling myself away to go to NYDay lunch with another family, so PLEASE tell Ms Chips not to add too many extra joys while I’m away, and the rest of you please TAKE IT EASY ON THE COMMENTS! When one returns to TODville, it’s so hard to catch up while trying to stay current when there are hundreds of comments!!!
ENJOY!!
Thanks! Hope you have an enjoyable day too.
YES.WE.CAN…DO.(Much)More, Together!
YES.WE.CAN, Again…Obama/Biden 2012!
FIRED UP & READY TO GO!
PRESS ON!
Tweet from Meta:
Happy New Year to everyone at TOD. I am so thankful for a new year and this spectacular place. I remember reading the blog from OFA in 2008, never felt free to join in, but received much encouragement from reading it. This place has been so welcoming, that I was able to find a voice. I think that is true for many lurkers who became contributors. I do remember going to the OFA site last thing before bed many nights for encouragement so I could sleep through the night! I’ve learned to not let every negative remark get me down. The President just keeps “pressing on” and we will too. Thanks to everyone, and especially Chipsticks.
Happy New Year, Carolyn! It is great to have a place for encouragement and open sharing and I look forward to all of us ‘pressing on’ as the election swings into full gear…
OFA knew it all along.
Intrade:
Romney 77.2%
President Obama 51.4%
Romney 38.9%
Happy New Year all! Now that is good news! Let’s make this a reality! #PRESSON!
I don’t get it. What does Romney 77.2% mean
He’s favored to win the Republican nomination by 77.2% at Intrade.
Gotcha, Thanks.
The winner in the primary!
The other two numbers are the GE!
The GE nos.look great. Hope it happens and we have a raygunesque landslide in 2012.
I hate to link to Old Orange, but this is the only way to allow folks to see the vile tweet sent out by a Texas Frat boy on New Year’s Eve. He has since scrubbed the tweet, but you can see what he posted here. For those of you who still visit Old Orange, I recommend rec’ing and/or tipping the diarist for his vigilance and good sleuth work. These incidents need to be taken seriously and the more people who are aware of them, the better.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/01/1050482/-Texas-Frat-Boys-New-Years-Resolution-Murder-Obama!?via=siderec
That needs to be reported ASAP.
Apparently he didn’t even scrub the tweet - it’s still there.
And one of his friends responded:
PLEASE re-tweet to @SecretService
not only retweeted Meta also sent to attackwatch. Jumpin Jehosaphat that is no joke. I get that they are college age and probably dumb as a bag of rocks but you do NOT threaten the President of the US
Thanks, a4alice. It’s truly horrifying that this is how people think they should start off the new year. I’m sure the SS will be in touch.
of course now that i just published this comment I did NOT mean to imply that ALL college age kids are dumb as a bag of rocks. It’s just I was remembering myself as that age and I’ll tell ya…..I did not do very smart things way back then……although not this stupid……
You don’t threaten anyone!period
Vile and ugly. The young ones emulate their elders. They can’t match him in any way — whether it is on the issue of family values (which they try to claim and fail miserably at), ethics, humility, or just being himself — so, they want to kill him. These people need to be reported.
I can’t believe this…..there’s some sick people out there…..I hope the SS visit him soon!!
hopefruit2, We know we live in a world of crazy stupid racists people like these people who are tweeting about killing. God watch over our President and his family, keep them safe.
Unbelievable !
This is true we need to take this crap seriously. I’m glad the guy contacted the Secret Service. I wouldn’t want to be ol dumb was TBone just about now, cause real soon he will haz a major sad!
This is the hate we are fighting, and the reason we must never grow complacent.
Exactly. I refuse to be drawn into the hatred, but I will work as hard as I can to get President Obama re-elected.
Bill you are so right, it is hate, racism.
Haapppy New Years Day Everyone.
Obama/Biden 2012
Question for others regarding OFA web site access. Sorry to ask here, but can’t get on to do so on OFA site.
I know many of us here have also been frequent OFA participants and believe we will want and need tools of web site to fully participate in the 2012 campaign. I truly look forward to again making calls across the country and enjoying your support, ideas and encouragement.
About 2 months ago, I started not being able to get a ‘log in’ ; would try to post and it would just send me into a perpetual log in — never had a problem before. I wrote to OFA several times with no response and don’t know how to fix it.
Tried to stay ‘in’ through the blog changes and issues with negative ‘posters’ and feel we need to keep that site as viable of our success in the campaign. I finally gave up trying to get in and figured I’d have better luck contacting someone after they got better settled with the ‘new site’.
Anyone else have the same problem? Any ideas? Thanks
Hi Cathy. It’s DonnaNoShock from the OFA blog. Others have apparently had this problem. You may want to setup a new email (ex. gmail) account to log in. They tend to deactivate accounts at random over there. I cannot use my old “NoShock” account any longer. All of a sudden one day I could no longer access it for no apparent reason.
The blog administration of that site was horrible for the better part of 2011. It does seem to be improving of late. Good Luck.
I was just there today to look at how they’re setting up the tools. It’s a very busy page but I managed to locate everything I wanted. I do hope they figure out how to get everybody’s login straightened out but for now I think your solution for Cathy is the only way to go.
Why they radically changed the site that was once the envy of all politics is beyond me. It seems they are “building out” to quote that moderator the 2012 site to do most if not all of the same things the original site had. Talk about going around in a circle.
Oh, gawd, wasn’t that a TRIAL. GF, nearly lost my mind over that mess.
I have been there recently with my old log-in and noticed that all the trolls were gone. Hope it is. Is moderated. Happy New Year. My resolution: to talk to everyone and participate in OFA events. We must reelect our president. Yes we can. H
Thanks for the advice; quite frustrating as we are all long standing users. I have to say I find it a bit depressing that one of our best tools has been made so difficult for so many.
I get all the communications from OFA, so know I am not off of their list, but no luck accessing. Given the level of activity in 2008 and truly sound web site functionality, I find this quite amazing.
I find it particularly conceding that my numerous (and very polite) requests for assistance have gone unanswered; does not seem a good sign. It is easy for them to look at any of our historical information.
I remain hopeful this will be remedied as the campaign gets going; we truly need it to be the powerful tool it was during 2008….
Appreciate the support, as always!!!
***concerning (not conceding)
Hi, Cathy - I think it may be a good idea for those still able to access OFA to plant the seed there that TOD is also a good place to come for other insights (even insights on how to access OFA!). Some people don’t spend as much time online, and may not know this gold mine is in existence.
Agree with Axelrod’s assessment on twitter—-this is the most significant and disturbing story of this election season—-frightening—-elections being bought across the country—-the huge amounts of corporate and billionaire money unleashed by the Sup. Ct. decision—-ending a decade of protections of big money in our politics. As I have stated, this election is going to be for all the marbles:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-money-election-20120101,0,4157616,full.story
That and voter suppression by new laws aimed at restricting access to voting…this is going to be a battle!
Huge battle. Good thing we’ve all been trained as “warriors for the middle class”!
This is why the grassroots effort is so important. The only way to combat these lying ads is to reach individual voters by people they trust. An informed electorate can’t be easily deceived. People only fall for deceptive ads because their minds are closed, they’re uninformed and/or they are too lazy and apathetic to dig deeper.
In CA Meg and Carly both had lots of money but we had OFA, won even close districts. Media ignores grassroots because not flashy. We can defeat their lies but we can never be complacent.
Priceless https://twitter.com/#!/paulfreid/status/139196246932996097
u bet tulips! retweeted! bah ha ha
Happy New Year to The Obama Diary and Chips and everyone who populates the pages.
I’m looking forward to re-electing President Obama and to voting a lot of republican butts out of DC.
As I listen to the repub candidates I am horrified at their cavalier attitudes towards war and the needs of we the people. These people, any of them, would be bad news for the USA. Mitt would veto the DREAM act, Santorum would bomb everybody, Paul would gut the government depts, and Newt would talk in circles while letting the Congress destroy the country. No thanks.
I know we can do it, there are Obama supporters out there that we can reach out to and GOTV. That Hope and Change…..I’ve still got it!!!
Fired up again! PRESIDENT Barack Obama - There is NO substitute! Happy Re-election Year!
Happy New Year everyone and good morning…..
The pot calling the kettle ‘nasty’
By Steve Benen
========================
Kevin Drum flagged a Newt Gingrich quote yesterday that’s almost hard to believe. In fact, I watched the video just to make sure the Republican wasn’t misquoted in the print piece.
“Politics has become a really nasty, vicious, negative business and I think it’s disgusting and I think it’s dishonest,” Gingrich told ABC News aboard his campaign bus in Iowa.
I’d genuinely love to know whether the disgraced former House Speaker is so far gone, he literally doesn’t remember his own record. As Kevin noted a month ago, Gingrich is largely and personally responsible “for the poisonous state of partisan politics in America today.”
========================
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/the_pot_calling_the_kettle_nas034444.php
Oh yes, coming from them is really hilarious…..he only complains when it’s directed to him….hypocrite!
I didn’t forget that:
Newt Gingrich: Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?” Gingrich asked. “That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”
“This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president,”
Newt is trying everything and it ain’t working, not even crying!!
Just heard 45% of all ads in Iowa were the Romney pac’s anti-Gingrich ads—-dark and nasty. Reporters there said Romney people were quoting them word for word as it was kind of a brainwashing as they ran constantly on every TV station. No love lost for Gingrich certainly, but it is still a frightening prospect what these negative ads can accomplish in a short period of time. They took him down—-boom! Romney has the Willie Horton ad guy working for him, an old Atwater protege’, the vilest of the vile.
Newt had no ground game and no money to push back.
Bingo! no money to push back.
Newt ain’t worth dog doo.
Interesting and true, in my opinion, piece on the sociopathic 1%, who feel no responsibility to this country because they live on the outside—-sometimes literally and almost always outside of the normal decencies of caring about what’s best for the U.S. and the American people because none of it affects them—-they live in a different world—-they are without consciences, driven by abnormal greed and narcissism:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/12/26/rolling-stone-the-1-are-not-citizens-of-the-united-states/
wow. yep this totally makes sense a must read i think - thanks Dot
Very good article. These uber-rich see us as ants - the way we see real ants as we walk don’t the street.
Bear in mind that Bill and Malinda Gates and Warren Buffett have pledged the vast majority of their fortunes to charity… and are in the process of giving those funds away.
And reportedly, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett assembled a large number of billionaires in the last few years to urge them to pledge to give away at least half their wealth.
Matters are not always as clear cut as some would have you believe.
Hey family bookmark this healtcare fact. click the year to see what law will take effect for 2012. Put this info in your arsenal. http://healthreform.kff.org/timeline.aspx
Thanks Tulips. More facts mean less hysteria. Happy New Year to you!
Obama/Biden 2012
Same to you sis. Im excited this is where you will see President Obama wise decision on health care.
Thanks Tulips. Great tool to share. Happy New Year to you, Tulips. Thanks for all that you do on Twitter.HZ
Happy New Year to you and your family. Fired Up and ready to go. LOL!
Saw Chuck Todd really hyping the Sup. Ct. case on health care reform today. He said it will be HUGE, that if it goes against Obama, it will mean the admin. wasted a whole year on this initiative which was declared unconstitutional. Todd was over the top and breathless and spitting on this, but I am a bit apprehensive because I don’t trust this Sup. Ct. to do the right thing. See: Citizens United decision.
At least 5 to 4 in favor of upholding the ACA.
sent this bookmark to my family. thx!
Great resource, thanks for the tip.
Thanks, Tulips
Thanks tulips for this bookmark. I’ve already emailed it out to others to use as a resource.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TOD FAMILY all over the World.
Blessings, happiness, strength and courage to our leader, Chipsticks!
FIRED UP/READY TO GO!!!!!!!
Thanks Tulips…actually Kaiser has been on top of favorable coverage for ACA for some time. So has AARP.
Barack Obama is going to win.
This interview with David Gregory and santorum is funny!
Gregory is blocking for Romney and he is personally trying to end santorum, right there on mtp.
Santorum should not have taken this interview, very hostile! Lol!
Santorum has zero chance to win the nomination. Gregory knows that……
He wouldn’t be hostile if it was Chris Christie or Romney. Gregory is a Republican hack and the worst hypocrite
The clip I saw of Santorum was classic Rove——disgusting to the max—-calling Obama the Big Divider etc., saying that Obama was causing huge racial, ethnic and religious chasms. And of course, he, Santorum, would bring us all together. Accuse the other of your serious faults. Every one of these Repub candidates is chronically dishonest and without any kind of moral decency.
Happy New Year, TOD fam!! May this one be the best one yet.
Happy New Day everyone.
Just want you all to know that when I come here I feel the power of love.
Keep on keeping on and we will win the vote in November.
Happy New Year to you sonjiaduncan. I feel the same. It is a powerful family to be in. Thanks to Chips who sets the bar high. I love our haven. Have a very enjoyable day.HZ
How lovely, sonjiaduncan! Love does prevail.
Btw- my libertarian brother and cousin was arguing with me and my sister last night.
This was a little touchy.
They kept saying government is evil and the CONSTITUTION blah blah !
Then, they brought up taxes and that all this spending is unconstitutional.
My sister and I then turned Snarky.
She said, so the AA should be only 3/5ths of a person because that was in the Constitution?
Then, I got snarky.
Oh, and our fax dollars should never got to the AA community, afterall they were tested so fairly by our Founding Fathers, whom they worked for free for.
They, of course shut up.
But, you know what, it’s what the libertarians feel, and I am sure my sister/myself and my brother/cousin were not the only ones to have this argument, over the. Holidays!
LOL! Families always quarrel during holiday time…politics, religion, finances, relationships, work…food…pets…flies..you name it. Families can find just about anything to turn into an argument.
Indeed!
Both my brothers are not supporting PBO. One was always a redneck Republican and the other I convinced to vote for PBO last time but he is a longtime Ron Paul supporter and said he’d vote for RP this time even if he is not on any ballot. My redneck brother started to go political with a comment about this Chicago thug President. I said don’t even go there and I didn’t want to hear political talk. He stayed at my place with all of my Obama knick knacks at Thanksgiving with his wife so he KNOWS how I feel. The conversation stopped.
Jovie, tell them that in a Democracy we are the government. Ask them if there is e-coli in the lettuce don’t they depend on the “government” to take care of it? Of if they drive over a bridge don’t they depend on the “government” to maintain it? There have been tremendous technological advances through programs like NASA that we wouldn’t have without our government. They’ve developed mobile solar packs for our soldiers in desert areas to provide power. It’s a tremendous savings because they don’t have to risk lives bringing fuel across the desert, but we will all benefit from whatever advances come from such a portable solar invention.
Most of the libertarians in my family have died, but I heard it all when I was growing up. What they want is to feel free, but that comes from inside of them. It’s not possible to not have a government — there would be a king or tyrant or warlord or someone in charge and he would have people supporting him to manage everything.
The libertarian argument didn’t make any sense to me as a child and it still doesn’t. In my family they wanted some kind of wild west freedom, but even in the wild west there was a sheriff who kept order. We just need to be as informed as we can be as voters to make sure our government is working for us. We have been the freest people on this planet and this country has been a mecca that millions wanted to be a part of. And one of the big reasons for that is because of our government.
Wishing you a fabulous New Year, Jovie.
good morning TOD family and Happy Happy Blessed New Year to each and everyone of you
May God bless;guide;protect our President as he has to make tough decisions on our behalf.May he be blessed with great health;calm;focus and may he keep our country absolutely safe.May the Holy Spirit make those decisions for him.
Bless;protect and guide our FLOTUS and Malia and Sasha
May God take the wheel of our President’s campaign from start to finish
THANK YOU Chip for this site as because of you we have our sanity still
to each and everyone who has had kinds words for my family and I and especially for my mom I want to say thank you and THANK YOU to HZ.May God bless you and my TOD family
Fred
Happy New Year, Fred. Hope all is well with you!!
Happy New Year, Fred!! And the very best to your mom and family. I truly hope everything gets better and brighter for you.
Ah Fred! Good to from you again! May God bless and keep you as well.
Morning, Fred! Happy New Year….nice to see you when you can pop in
Hope all is well on the homefront.
Oh my, it is so beautiful to hear from Fred today. I went to bed this morning but had my ‘meditations and prayers for the New Year, and I was praying for my TOD family and the different needs that have been shared here within our family, and ofcourse, you were there in my thoughts and prayers, Fred.
I will continue to do that for you and your Mom and family. You keep thinking of good thoughts, get some rest when time permits and know that you are so loved. Be good to yourself today, okay. (((((((((Hugs coming to you, Fred))))))))))HZ
Fred, Happy New Year and God Bless You and Your Family.
Happy New Year Fred and may God rain blessings down on you and your family.
Love that!
Ha! I did something similar on Facebook when Cenk made that stupid request of voters in the Iowa Caucus. I told them if anyone on my FB Friend list thinks they need to “teach PBO a lesson” unfriend me immediately. We are in an election year and I just don’t have time for their foolishness.
The response was overwhelmingly positive and in total aggreement with me. I didn’t lose a single FB Friend.
BreakingNews
Israeli, Palestinian negotiators to meet in Jordan this week; 1st meeting in more than a year - @AP on.msnbc.com/t3M4JC
But but but John Bolton said…
Thanks, Meta for this infor. HZ
I am not one to use the Hitler Nazi card very easily but this quote from Santorum would make Hitler proud. Do people like Santorum understand history?
What planet are these people from?
Joe Klein said it best:
“Diversity has been written into the DNA of American life; any institution that lacks a rainbow array has come to seem diminished, if not diseased.”
Rick S you are socially diseased!
Well said.
Love that quote. I see an illustration of the “DNA of American life” in the crowds that volunteer for and in those who come to see/listen to our president. Additionally, many modern families (mine included) look much like PBO’s: multi-cultural.
Diversity is how a species survives and thrives. Countries that have a steady flow of new blood and fresh perspectives tend to thrive. Santorum is a living example of how fear clouds the mind.
And they are fighting a change that is inevitable, that is happening. I commented to my sister that one of the things I noticed from all my family photo xmas cards is all the cultural diversity in the younger generations—-lots of adorable little black and brown and Asian grandkids pictured with their white grandparents.
“Diversity is like a beautiful array of gloriously gorgeous, and lovely, petals of beautiful blooming flowers arranged by the Creator’s hands to be received by those who desire to behold the elegance of a rich and loving society.” BY HZ,2012.
Nice, HZ.
You know Ricky Santorum is like the ghost that keeps reappearing after you exorcize it. We worked so hard in Pa to get that guy defeated in 2006 and I remember my husband saying he hoped Ricky’s resounding defeat would kill any hope the guy had that he would ever be president. Then here he is popping up again, not making anymore sense than he did six years ago. This guy is long overdue for retirement from the political stage. He needs to barricade himself in a white enclave of like-minded nutcases where he can live out the rest of his days building fantasy universes.
WHAT THE HELL IS HE TALKING ABOUT…SANTORUM MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL…YUCK!!!!
I would say that Santorum is primed and ready to be recruited by a cult but he’s already in one - The Republican Party.
Ha. True enough!!!
Perhaps he might enjoy life more if he moved to North Korea, as one of the little people.
I think he really would.
Ugh, Buddy Roemer is now following me on Twitter
OUCH!
This psycho has to be stopped. To think that Chris Hayes and Maddow are big fans. It can explain a lot about their bashing of the President. No wonder his followers hate President Obama with passion…..with that kind of hyperbole!
I checked his latest article because I saw a lot of pushback on twitter:
”The candidate supported by progressives — President Obama — himself holds heinous views on a slew of critical issues and himself has done heinous things with the power he has been vested. He has slaughtered civilians — Muslim children by the dozens —
He has sought to overturn a global ban on cluster bombs. He has institutionalized the power of Presidents — in secret and with no checks — to target American citizens for assassination-by-CIA, far from any battlefield. He has waged an unprecedented war against whistleblowers, the protection of which was once a liberal shibboleth.”
Here if you want to see where that RW libertarian lives, it’s not that he’s critical of President Obama, he wants to destroy him,…
JeffersonObama C Gauvin
CATO Blogger Glenn Greenwald’s $5 Million 4 story house in the super rich Gávea enclave in Rio de Janeiro
http://yfrog.com/ny6q9lej
Good tweet from Shoq
Shoq Shoq Value
Funny how responsible coverage of a complex issue doesn’t rely on the same hysteria & BS that Greenwald does.
Sounds like the rantings of a hate-filled man, so over come with the bile.
Emilia’s article opened my eyes a lot more about that sociopath….I didn’t know that he was a supporter of Bush at some point and even after, he was never as vicious with him as he is with President Obama and that from day 1.
The President didn’t start those wars!
It’s too bad that he has many followers and is invited to many venues, like MSNBC…..it’s sick.
On an happier note:
Happy New Year to you africa! I wish you all the best for 2012.
Read this, Christi…it’ll make your head snap back!
http://sadredearth.com/christopher-hitchens-glenn-greenwald-and-the-war-of-ideas/
check this chirstory out. Greenwald put his foot in his mouth this time. They blasted him on high levels for this nasty statement. http://chirpstory.com/li/3666
I’m not surprised. The guy’s a cretin and a charlatan. For anyone to stand and defend that POS, is repulsive.
He has done one thing, influenced Chris Hayes.
Hayes is now a desciple of greenwalds!
Can’t you tell?
Yep! Chris Hayes is a big fan of Greenwald….he is making him proud with his crap and hysteria
Happy New Year everyone. Isn’t it great to be alive? I received the following e-mail from one of my buddies and thought that some of you might enjoy it.
THOUGHT YOU MIGHT ENJOY THIS:
‘Someone asked the other day, ‘What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?’
‘We didn’t have fast food when I was growing up,’ I informed him.
‘All the food was slow.’
‘C’mon, seriously. Where did you eat?’
‘It was a place called ‘at home,” I explained!
‘Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn’t like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.’
By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn’t tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it :
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears & Robuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow)
We didn’t have a television in our house until I was 19. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national ant hem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.
I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called ‘pizza pie.’ When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It’s still the best pizza I ever had..
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn’t know weren’t already using the line.
Pizzas were not delivered to our home but MILK was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers — my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning. On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.
If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren . Just don’t blame me if they bust a gut laughing.
Growing up isn’t what it used to be, is it?
MEMORIES from a friend :
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother’s house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it.. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea.. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to ‘sprinkle’ clothes with because we didn’t have steam irons. Man, I am old.
How many do you remember?
Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering (hair curling rods too) irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals..
Older Than Dirt Quiz :
Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about.
Ratings at the bottom.
1 Blackjack chewing gum
2.Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7 Party lines on the telephone
8 Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels [if you were fortunate])
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S & H green stamps
16. Hi-fi’s
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19. Blue flashbulb
20. Packard’s
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers
If you remembered 0-5, You’re still young
If you remembered 6-10, You’re getting older
If you remembered 11-15, Don’t tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25, You’ re older than dirt!
I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.
LOL! I scored 4 but I’m not that young! #24 I know today as a submetering water company in MD.
#20 AND #24 were automobiles.
OMG !
# 10 is the only one I do not remember .
Yikes….
Butch wax was hair wax for a “Butch” haircut. Black folks had no use for it.
Linda, for being such an astute observer and commentator, I am shocked, shocked you were not aware of “butch wax”. In all honesty it was nasty stuff.
oh dear Yardarm I don’t feel that old but I remember 18 of them myself…… ha! let’s see - the ones I DON’T remember are 24, 22, 20, 13, 12 and 10
Have a great New Years Day!
Whiper-snapper!
I must be as old as dirt, I remember all of them.
Just remember, you said that. i didn’t.
I’m older than dirt. But I feel younger than I should
So am I DF, but I know we are younger than springtime in our hearts! LOL!
Yes we are!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can’t keep a good woman down
Thanks for sharing the list, yardarm - I remember all 25. And - to be a little nostalgic on New Year’s Day - I remember the 50-pound bicycle (ha!) my two sisters and I shared. And it was given to my mother after somebody else outgrew it. She painted it a fresh green for us (she painted everything green - a color I do not use today!). One of my fondest memories is when I was a young teenager, I was outside our (what would be called a city townhouse, today) rowhouse, riding my bike, on our dead-end street, next to the railroad tracks. (We didn’t have much money, but my mother never shared that with us.) The sun was shining, no one else was on the street, and I rode my bike around and around (we weren’t allowed “off the street” much, even as young teenagers!). During that ride, I remember thinking what a WONDERFUL world it was.
That day in time still seems to me as though it were yesterday, and I’m 65. I STILL think it’s a wonderful world. Alas, I can get on a bicycle but my left knee refuses to ride - my right leg could, however, run a marathon! None of today’s realities were ever in the brochure for getting older!
OMG, my two older sisters and I shared one blue bike. We still laugh about that. The black and white tv that all the men came on Friday night to watch the fights. Saturday all day serial movies for 14 cents. So many memories.
Love it, yardarm756. I remember all of them. Yes, I am almost in the ‘dirt age’ but remember when we even made mud pies out of it and ate them in the yard? Love it!! Would not take any of them from my memory. Love you for sharing with us, Yardarm756!! Happy New Year. Great to be here to share the memories and laughs.HZ
All of the above, but I sure don’t feel old! Just growing into my Soul!
Guess I am older than dirt, I remember all of them. I did love growing up and I just want everyone to remember the past. Not relive it. That was fun.
Guess only missing four means I’m older than dirt too! I’m also 65.
When I was teaching fifth grade towards the beginning of the 2000s I remember taking a 33 rpm record into the classroom to play a song on it for a writing lesson prompt. I heard one comment from the kids as to Wow! What a big cd. Most of the kids did not know it was a record. I thought that was indeed strange.
Sadly—-or happily if I want to be optimistic—-old as dirt. Familiar with all—-some intimately—like the Studebaker—1st teenage car—-and roller skate key—-hung around my neck for about 7 straight years—round and round the block I’d go. Husband just reminded me of record stores that had the sound-proof booths for your listening pleasure-to spin those 45′s. Owners would sometimes have to kick kids out of there ’cause they would hang there all day. Simpler times.
oh my! i knew i was ‘getting older’ but it seems i’m actually ‘older than dirt’. i remember them all, and we not only had milk delivered every morning, the vegetable truck came around once a week, and the bread truck too, for the housewives (synonym for women as far as i knew at the time, unless you were a school teacher or a nurse) who had no access to a car (that was, again, everybody) didn’t have to leave the baby (everybody had several) to go to the market.
here’s another old timer memory: ink well in the desk at school!
thanks for the laughs, and happy new year to us every one!
You’re qualified all right!
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
I remember 16, so I’m older than dirt
Happy New Year yardarm.
I remember using, eating, riding, playing with all of these. Boy, those milk bottles with the cardboard tops gave me the fits! The roller skate key was a status symbol. I could go on and on.
Thanks for the trip down memories of my youth.
Oh , Yardarm, you brought back so many memories and I AM older than dirt. I remember it all-the party lines, the phone operators, the milk deliveries, the ice box, “watching” the radio when the good shows were on, dresses for school, even poodle skirts. There were no McDonald’s and no Barbies in those days and I never felt deprived.
Like Gramdma said, “Never forget where you come from.”
Did anyone have a Tony Doll?
Look at halperins headlines?
I told you Gregory got Santorum good! He is a gotcha journalist and very biased!
I remember/experienced 18 of them. I also ate “slow food”, had to be excused from the dinner table, had to sit there even if I didn’t like the food (which was often). I am from the South so we said “Yes, Maam and No Sir” and wore hats and gloves to church. So, in years, I am older than dirt, but as one who was born in the waning of the Boomer years, I am still rocking.
I’m an original boomer, and I am still rocking, too. Ha!
MSM WILL DO ANYTHING TO MAKE ROMNEY THE NOMINEE! DICK GREGORY IS EXHIBIT A!
“David” Gregory….Dick Gregory is a bigtime President Obama supporter
Me thinks, Halo was calling Gregory a Dick?
Yes, that works for David, “but for” what Donna said!
Donna - Remember when Dick Gregory “apologized” to Bill Clinton at one of the Tavis events for allowing him to think he was the “first black president”? I’ve watched that on YouTube a gazillion times.
New Year’s Day Feast Is Ready!
All are invited
Honey spiced meatballs
Fried party wings
Steamed Shrimp
Veggie Tray
Steamed Kale
Black Eye Peas and Rice
Deviled Eggs
Cheese Nachos
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Sweet Potato Pie w/whipped cream
Traditionally black eye peas are eaten on New Year’s Day for Luck and Greens are eaten to bring you money in the new year.
Bon Appétit!
Donna, you’re the best. Just looking at that list makes me hungry. I’m a vegetarian, so I’ll take everything from the veggie tray on down.
Donna, all I can say is YUM. I had never heard of the black eye peas until I met my husband. So we are having those tonight for dinner as well when he gets home from work. Have a great day!
Man! You guys ALWAYS have a feast! That looks divine
Happy New Year Donna! Yes, blackeyed peas are a tradition in my family too. The greens, not so much. Maybe I should start so it will bring us money to donate to the campaign!
Don’t forget the rice symbolizes abundance! Your menu sounds dee-lish! Enjoy!
Love all of the delicious dishes, Donna. I coming over in a few minutes. Oh, that menu sounds sooooooooooooooooo good!!!!HZ
I am coming over in a few minutes.
And noodles signify long life.
Uh, Donna, what time shall I arrive, and what may I bring?
Thanks Donna for reminding me to eat. I’ve got lots of what you have and I know we’re gonna be “eating good” today.
18 OWS Protester were attested Saturday.
You see, they went to the campaign HQ of all the candidates, because they were angry, about money from wall street in our politics!
Everyone, except Romney and Ron Paul got protested against.
Everybody but Romney and Ron Paul? Really?
Link please?
http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/31/at-least-five-arrested-at-protest-at-bachmann-office/
I guess they like Romney and Ron Paul?
Jovie I’ve been trying to post a response to you for the longest while and it’s not going through for some reason. Anyway thanks for the link. The gist of my unsuccessful post is that the Des Moines Register has endorsed Mitt Romney, so their reports are slanted accordingly - which is why I was so interested in knowing the source of this report. I did a simple google search and came up with several other local media outlets reporting on Romney’s (and Ron Paul’s) headquarters being targeted by occupiers in the last couple of days. So always consider the source of the report!
They protested at the Ia. Dem HQ this week. Already forced Obama’s office to close. Misguided and uninformed.
Test
http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/31/at-least-five-arrested-at-protest-at-bachmann-office/
Hey Jovie thanks for the link I’ve been trying to post you a response that’s simply not going through no matter what I do. I’m very puzzled by this.
Thanks Jovie!
There is a reason I asked for the link. This report was from the Des Moines Register (the official endorser of Mitt Romney), so of course they would NEVER report that their candidate was also the target of the occupiers, in their attempts to make the other candidates (including the President) look bad relative to Romney.
Other local news outlets without vested interests in Mitt Romney’s candidacy were free to tell about Romney being the target of Occupiers, as in this report here.
// Ten protesters were arrested Wednesday outside GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s Des Moines, Iowa campaign offices and a nearby Wells Fargo bank branch, the Des Moines Register reported. The protesters, all of whom were affiliated with the Occupy Des Moines movement, demanded Romney and Wells Fargo release their tax returns and that Romney return campaign contributions from the bank and bank employees, the newspaper said. The doors to Romney’s office were locked by the time about 50 or so protesters arrived Wednesday afternoon, according to the New York Times. Protesters banged on the glass windows and demanded they be let inside. They shouted anti-Romney chants and sang songs about corporate greed. //
Moral of the story: Always consider the source of your reports.
If they skipped Romney, they destroyed their credibility as well as got themselves arrest. Willard is Mr. Wall Street personified. He’s such a Wall Street tool, it should be stamped on his forehead. Wall Street Willie-that’s his name.
We’ve got to spread your “Wall Street Willie” all around! Perfect.
Just so you are aware, they didn’t skip Romney.
// Ten protesters were arrested Wednesday outside GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s Des Moines, Iowa campaign offices and a nearby Wells Fargo bank branch, the Des Moines Register reported. The protesters, all of whom were affiliated with the Occupy Des Moines movement, demanded Romney and Wells Fargo release their tax returns and that Romney return campaign contributions from the bank and bank employees, the newspaper said. The doors to Romney’s office were locked by the time about 50 or so protesters arrived Wednesday afternoon, according to the New York Times. Protesters banged on the glass windows and demanded they be let inside. They shouted anti-Romney chants and sang songs about corporate greed. //
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/occupy-protesters-arrested-outside-romney-iowa-campaign-office/
They didn’t skip Romney. They protested his HQ on 12/29. Do a google search and see. Word Press for some reason is blocking my posts with links about this.
The OWS movement/structure is null and void in my eyes. The message is good, the shit they’ve been pulling in regards to PBO isn’t.
With you all the way on this one, Lisa. They served a purpose initially of getting people to understand the difference between the rich one percent and the rest of us. But they have stayed too long at the party and now seem irrelevant. We got big fish to fry and we don’t need any more distractions from people who won’t do the important work of getting people to register and vote.
lisa, I agree with you 100% about OWS.
Paul got protested about gay rights.
I believe Paul did get protested by OWS, I remeber him saying to them to Shave and take a bath or something like that.
I’m not totally sure, but I think ugly Gingrich mentioned they should take a bath. Who knows? All of their words are interchangeable.
Romney’s HQ also got protested on 12/29, and I tried to post a link but it got blocked by WordPress.
E, was Kelly Clarkson there singing leave my racists, gay hating, smaller government candidate only.
Yes, omg, let’s rock with Sweet Honey in the Rock.
My 70-year old face is smilin’ about this, tears comin’ outta my eyes.
Awesome. Let’s channel this energy, peoples . . . . with love . . . .
Happy New Year TOD family
We are having Christmas 2 with all the boyfriends and our 3 daughters.
Will be thinking of you all today.
My first good news story of the year…..
Once-homeless Miami man earns master’s degree
http://www.whatisworking.com/2012/01/once-homeless-miami-man-earns-masters.html
Another encouraging story about teachers
Teachers union leads effort that aims to turn around West Virginia school system
http://www.whatisworking.com/2012/01/teachers-union-leads-effort-that-aims.html
Old Growth Redwood Forest Protected in the Santa Cruz CA
http://www.whatisworking.com/2012/01/old-growth-redwood-forest-protected-in.html
xcellent WiW tweeted them all thx for all you are doing it’s so positive
OK allright, I gotta get going here and get some chores done! Time to take down the Christmas tree. Hey VC if you’re around - thx for the snow! I woke up this morning and we got some! yippee
Inspirational OFA story for the day
Because of You :: OFA CA
“The aide next to me motioned me forward and announced, “Mr. President, this is Juan Penalosa.” The President of the United States of America and I made eye contact and I walked forward in a daze. I had spent the night before practicing what I would say and had it down to a polished 15 second sound bite. But, as I walked forward, I had drawn a blank.”
http://www.whatisworking.com/2011/12/because-of-you-ofa-ca.html
Thank you Linda. What a moving story.
Very touching.
JOHNSTON, Iowa — In the corner of a Panera Bread café, five campaign volunteers are hard at work, dialing likely caucus-goers and urging them to turn out on Tuesday.
These folks aren’t calling on behalf of Mitt Romney or Michele Bachmann or any of the other Republican primary candidates participating in the nation’s first nominating contest. Their candidate is President Obama. And even though Obama is an incumbent running unopposed, Democrats are using Tuesday’s caucus as a test run to prepare for the 2012 general election.
“No matter what happens on Jan. 3, on Jan. 4 we will have the strongest campaign infrastructure in place, no question about that,” said John Kraus, a spokesman for the campaign in Iowa. “All the Republicans will leave town for New Hampshire and we’ll still be here.”
http://mobile.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/unopposed-obama-aims-for-good-showing-in-iowa-caucuses-20111231
saw your comment jovie - had to agree. left one too - it is ‘awaiting moderation’
If one woman votes for this idiot, she needs to have her head examined. KELLY CAN YOU HEAR ME?
Paul: We Shouldn’t Make A Federal Case Out Of Sexual Harassment
Presidential Candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) doubled down on statements made in his book that didn’t just downplay the idea of sexual harassment laws in the workplace — he said we really don’t need them at all.
“Because people are insulted by behavior, I don’t think we should make a federal case out of that,” Paul said on FOX News Sunday.
Men get harassed, too…and they should NEVER be. But by far, women take the brunt of this. He is SO ANTI EVERYTHING…it disgusts me. Shame on you RP supporters! Shame on you!
Anti America. Me thinks, the ghost of Benedict Arnold posesses him!
Either Kelly Clarkson is a dam idiot, or she agrees with Ron Paul on more things than smaller government. Now her man is against sexual harassment. I’m trying to figure out why all these young people support someone like Paul, is it because Paul want to legalize drugs? To me it just shows the double standard in this country, if President Obama had beliefs like Ron Paul, the media would be eating him up alive. Just look how they did with the Rev. Wright story, it was over and over and over on tv, everyday and night.
Something doesn’t add up. I remember in 2008 that the there was virtually no doubt that whomever ended up as the Democratic nominee, they would be elected the next President of the United States. That’s how dismal and weak George W. Bush had made the GOP brand.
So here we are in 2012, at the beginning of another Presidential election year and despite 350 billion Republican debates and as many anti-President Obama polls, the GOP electorate is still skittish about choosing the guy they believe can unseat the President.
If it’s going to be such a close election and such a cakewalk for the GOP as the media and the polls insist, then why are GOP voters still so timid about who they’re going to pick to go against President Obama?
Like I said, something doesn’t add up. If he’s as weak as they keep insisting, this election shouldn’t be close. There should be overwhelming enthusiasm and a groundswell on their side, like it was on our side.
Where’s the Mittmentum?
That’s it, exactly. Media types like to compare this year’s GOP nomination battle to Hillary/Obama battle of 2008, but it is completely different: both Hillary and PBO had incredibly passionate supporters that were willing to fight to the bitter end for their candidate. Conversely, there is NO PASSION whatsoever for ANY of the potential GOP nominees. It’s Mitt (kinda, up to 25%) vs. The Non Mitt of the Moment.
Where is the passion of the GOP? It’s only one place: their hatred of PBO. That will not be enough to win. People want to vote FOR someone, not against someone. Independents don’t vote hatred.
Yardarm……I remembered all 25! I think I’m about your age,and proud to be so! However, I also remember painful visits to the dentist, LONG hospital stays for surgeries and two months recoveries, death from heart attacks, no medicine for cancer, people having to go to the back of the bus, separate drinking fountains and restrooms, separate schools, bad dentures on my grandfather! These mentioned were wonderful, but time does move on.
My father died of his second heart attack at 56, but my husband just survived VERY WELL, his second heart operation. The first was a triple bypass 22 years ago, and the one just passed happened two weeks ago, two stents, and he is 81 and thriving. Of course we know much of this advance has been because of government funded research!
Ever had gall bladder surgery…..mine was a day surgery, in by 8 a.m. out by noon. No drains, no big incision……that one surgery used to be life threatening and took a minimum of 6 weeks in bed.
I am also old enough to cook the slow way. Today I am baking scalloped potatoes by my mother’s depression/WWII recipe…..absolutely delicious. I use a lot of her recipes. They are thrifty and delicious….a tribute to the above list!
You are absolutely right carolyn. The list didn’t include a lot of things but it was only a memory jogger for us ole heads.
Hell, the biggest thing for me was the rationing of WWII.
My job as a kid used to be to squeeze that orange food dye thing, or whatever it was, in the plastic bag of white shortening and work it through the bag till it all looked yellow, like butter?
Ooooo. i remember that and collecting tin foil from cigarette packs, metal coat hangers and old newspapers so we could get enough money to go to the picture show. The show was 3 features, 15 cartoons, a serial, and a news reel. It cost 15 cents and popcorn was a nickel. Twenty-five cents would make my day. And if me and my buddies planned it right, we could get 10 White Castle hamburgers(w/coupon)with our left over change.
Happy 2012 everyone. Let’s start off the new year with a candle.
Please join me in lighting a candle for our wonderful President, First Family and the Nation.
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=PBO
Thank you.
Thanks, Jackie. I’m so grateful you post the candle reminder!
Oh, Jackie, I LOVE going there!!! It’s a wonderful meditation and moment of appreciation and peacefulness. I love that feeling of joining in with everyone in loving thoughts. You may have pointed it to me in the first place, I saw it one time at TOD. I really appreciate it.
LOVE THAT! thx Jackie
Thanks, lit!
YES.WE.CAN…DO.(Much)More, Together!
PRESS ON!
Thanks Jackie for the reminder.
I’m good with this…we can’t do this unless the Republicans are but a bad memory. Let’s make this happen!
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/01/396028/seven-economic-policy-goals-for-progressives-in-2012/
nice. tweeted
Happy New Year, Chips! Thanks for helping us ring in 2012!
I had one suggestion, for anyone interested. In addition to donating to the President’s campaign throughout the year via Chips or DonnaDem or OFA (and the DNC, if you like), perhaps we should also make small donations to the various union organizations around the country. We saw what they helped do in the Midwest. Since they not only have the infrastructure in place, but also can get on the teevee to tell the truth about Republican policies, they will be a big part of fighting voter suppression with us. They are going to be the biggest force - next to President Obama - to making sure we don’t lose the middle class in its entirety. SEIU, in particular, comes to mind.
Anyway, that’s my New Year’s suggestion, since my only resolution is to re-elect Obama-Biden!
Good idea. Also Bill Burton’s pac is going to need a lot of dough to fight back against the gazillions in the corporate-fueled Romney pac. Can’t remember the name right now. Anyone?
Priorities USA. Just google it. It has a donation link and all ads and press releases.
Newt is a GOP insider and he knows how GOP dirty trick is played. Says Mitt will buy presidency.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GINGRICH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Another reason for us to remain vigilant. If Romney’s mouth is open, you know he is spewing lies. The man has no integrity and will do anything to get to the WH.
To Leroy— “No shit sherlock.”
Another MUST READ from Smartypants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excellent.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/01/id-like-to-introduce-glenn-greenwald-to.html
Yes its a very good read.
yep. it was tweeted that to ggreenwald. lets see what he might do. probably nothing
Happy New Year, everyone! Here is some good news….
New US hotline for immigration detainees
Samantha Stainburn| December 30, 2025 17:23
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has launched a toll-free hotline for individuals detained for being illegal immigrants by state and local law enforcement agencies, the agency announced today.
Detainees who “believe they may be US citizens or victims of a crime” may call (855) 448-6903 to talk to ICE personnel who “will collect information from the individual and refer it to the relevant ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Field Office for immediate action,” the agency said in a press release.
The hotline will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with translation services in several languages provided from 7 am until midnight EST, the agency said.
~snip~
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/111230/ice-hotline-immigration-detainee-illegal-immigrant
Especially important in Arizona !
In my opinion this election is not going to be close, just follow the money. President Obama has set the record for money donations each and every filling quarter since he first announced his bid for the Presidency back in 2007. He has not lost his base, in fact his base keeps expanding just by the number of people that have for the first time ever donated to a Presidential campaign, and I’m talking about this year only. Show me the list of campaign donors for anyone in the Republican field and any of them don’t come anywhere near President Obama’s campaign donor list. Even if you add all the donors of the Republican field together, it will still fall far short of President Obama’s list. So let the MSM continue to push the flavor of the month as much as they want to. At the end of the day whomever is left standing at best will be the sacrificial lamb. The confusion is that the Republicans aren’t looking for someone to beat President Obama, they are looking for someone to make the race look somewhat respectable. For the Republicans, the end game is 2016.
But they have citizens united on their side!
Jovie, don’t worry too much about citizens united. We are going to be oversaturated with negative ads this year and it will probably back fire. With the internet, facebook, twitter, movies/tv on-demand, DVRs and just living our lives, how many people do you think are really going to waste their time watching these ads??
The problem is, if they watch TV they will be watching the ads—-non stop. Reporters in Iowa said people were quoting them verbatim—-as reasons they were supporting Romney. The one thing that people said they hated the most though was robo calls. Every single person said they hated them in the extreme—-they were inundated from every candidate.
I think the non-stop ads will have the same effect as the robo calls. The super pacs have barely gotten started. Also negative personal attacks on the President will not go over very well. My elderly neighbors, both republican foxnews viewers told me about a year ago that they were so disgusted by the terrible things that “cable news” said about the POTUS they stopped watching fox, haven’t watched any cable news since. Whether they agree with PBO’s politics or not most seniors do believe that the Office of the President should be respected. The only people who will be watching all these ads are the ones like those you said are repeating ads verbatim who are wing nut and tea party republicans.
Bingo Debz. People shouldn’t worry too much about superpacs or negative ads, imo.
The negative ads may work in the GOP race, but I don’t think they will in the general race. People want answers, they don’t want to see you tearing down your opponent, but then giving them no answers as to how you would create jobs, fix the economy.. The Republicans will eat up the negative ads because they are fill with hate for this President. But I hope the rest of the people will use some common sense.
Republicans Try To Fool America With The Canard That Democrats Support The 1%
By Rmuse| December 13, 2025
There is a perception by many Americans that there is very little difference between the two political parties, and that all Congressional representatives should share the blame when something goes wrong in the country. Other Americans place all the blame on the president because their ignorance of the legislative process and powers granted by the Constitution prevent them from recognizing that the executive branch of government does not mean the president is a monarch or dictator. America’s two party system gives voters a clear choice between a backward-looking, conservative group intent on taking the country back to early 20th Century, or a liberal, forward thinking party that strives to improve peoples’ lives now and in the future.
~snip~
http://www.politicususa.com/en/republicans-fool-america-one-percent
creolechild, here’s the reason that won’t work. The Democrats feel that the one percent should pay just alittle extra, the Republicans have fought that all the way. Not one dime extra for folks like Mitt Romney.
I agree with you anniebella, which is why we have to be more determined than they are to changing the status quo and voting them out of office!
I thought it was a good read tweeted it to keith eliison and al franken. dang i wish the rest of my reps would get on twitter!
Happy New Year, TOD Family!!!
Fired up? YES!!! I’m so excited. POTUS has been laying the groundwork. The DNC and Nancy Pelosi and the DCCC have been having a great time with Republican antics. Everyone, including low-information voters, are aware of the issues involved and it’s becoming clearer all the time. We are on our way!!! Obama/Biden 2012!!!
Worst Congress Ever?
Steve Benen - Political Animal
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
Worst Congress ever, indeed it is. Their agenda has been to stop, prevent, block anything the President try to do to make the economy better. Boehner is the worst Speaker in my lifetime.
I am glad Benen wrote, it’s “ultimately the American people” who are to blame for the mess. It is about time that voters and the majority of Americans who can’t be bothered to vote, are called out.
Happy New Year everyone!!!!!
my tweet
Testing
For some reason three of my posts didn’t go thru, but this is a response to Jovie’s comment about OWS above. I’m hoping it goes through.
Thanks Jovie!
There is a reason I asked for the link. This report was from the Des Moines Register (the official endorser of Mitt Romney), so of course they would NEVER report that their candidate was also the target of the occupiers, in their attempts to make the other candidates (including the President) look bad relative to Romney.
Other local news outlets without vested interests in Mitt Romney’s candidacy were free to tell about Romney being the target of Occupiers, as in this report here.
// Ten protesters were arrested Wednesday outside GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s Des Moines, Iowa campaign offices and a nearby Wells Fargo bank branch, the Des Moines Register reported. The protesters, all of whom were affiliated with the Occupy Des Moines movement, demanded Romney and Wells Fargo release their tax returns and that Romney return campaign contributions from the bank and bank employees, the newspaper said. The doors to Romney’s office were locked by the time about 50 or so protesters arrived Wednesday afternoon, according to the New York Times. Protesters banged on the glass windows and demanded they be let inside. They shouted anti-Romney chants and sang songs about corporate greed. //
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/occupy-protesters-arrested-outside-romney-iowa-campaign-office/
And there are many other reports of Ron Paul being targeted - just do a google search.
Moral of the story: Always consider the source of your reports.
hopefruit2, here’s another report about ows in Iowa:
‘Occupy The Caucus’ Activists Target Iowa Campaign Headquarters
By Zaid Jilani on Jan 1, 2026 at 11:30 am
99 Percenters allied to Occupy Wall Street have launched what they call “Occupy The Caucus” to protest against corporate influence in American politics by occupying the offices of various campaign headquarters in the state of Iowa.
Scores of protesters marched on the campaign headquarters of candidates including Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich (the “lobbyist” of the one percent). Eighteen demonstrators were arrested on Saturday, as demonstrators called for kicking money out of politics. In the coming days leading up to the caucus, protests will continue to escalate.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/01/01/396163/occupy-activists-iowa-campaign/
KANEOHE BAY, Hi. — The president is starting the new year with a workout on Marine Corps Base Hawaii here.
No word yet from the White House on what else he’ll be doing today.
-Jennifer Epstein
When will the President and his family be coming back to Washington?
DC Schools re-open Jan 3rd.
Monday!
I wonder if they had their traditional New Years Eve talent show with family and friends. I wonder if that’s why President Obama said he regretted not learning to play a musical instrument, so he would have something to show off at Talent Show Night in Hawaii.
If I was invited, I could twirl the baton—-not many opportunities to show off that “talent” these days—-only the grandkids think it’s impressive 
-or I could lead a cheer, but my cartwheel would be rusty and really really funny at this point. What would y’all show off?
dotster, you and I may be the only 2 people on the planet with baton twirling skills
Sorry…add me to the mix…I got my picture on the front page of a Miami Paper at the age of 6. I was chasing my dropped baton …I guess it was the 6th or 7th time I dropped it in that same parade. It was all swimming and horses after that.
There’s 3 of us!!
If all 3 of us were at the Talent Show party, that might have been a little too much baton twirling for everyone. Maybe I would switch to accompanying a John Sousa march on the drums—-everyone would really enjoy that!
Thanks to Chipsticks for bringing us all around this beautiful table of love, creativity, intelllectual insightfulness, fun and laughter, a core of respect for each other, and lots of family love to sustain all of us.
I thank you all for allowing me to be a part of this beautiful TOD Family. May we all have a very Happy 2012, and go on and do the great work of reelecting President Obama for 4 more for 44!!!!!!!! I really do love you all very much.
A Blessed and Happy New Year for you, Mr. President, our Elegant First Lady, and our wonderful VP, Joe Biden and our Dr. Jill Biden. God Bless all of you and your families. We Have You Backs, Mr. President!!!! 2012 is ours.HZ
It’s the Inequality, Stupid - Eleven charts that explain what’s wrong with America.
—By Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot| March/April 2011
HOW RICH ARE THE SUPERRICH?: A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.
WINNERS TAKE ALL: The superrich have grabbed the bulk of the past three decades’ gains.
OUT OF BALANCE: A Harvard business prof and a behavioral economist recently asked more than 5,000 Americans how they thought wealth is distributed in the United States. Most thought that it’s more balanced than it actually is. Asked to choose their ideal distribution of wealth, 92% picked one that was even more equitable.
CAPITOL GAIN: Why Washington is closer to Wall Street than Main Street.
WHO’S WINNING?: For a healthy few, it’s getting better all the time.
AVERAGE CEO PAY VS. AVERAGE WORKER PAY: 2009 Data. Source: Economic Policy Institute.
A MILLIONAIRE’S TAX RATE, THEN AND NOW: 1913- 2010 Source: The Tax Foundation.
YOUR LOSS, THEIR GAIN: How much income have you given up for the top 1 percent?
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR GAINS: Productivity has surged, but income and wages have stagnated for most Americans. If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000.
MEET THE ELITE: Occupations of Taxpayers in Top 1 Percent of Income.
ONLY LITTLE PEOPLE PAY TAXES: 400 Taxpayers with Highest Incomes.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph
San Francisco Becomes First in Nation with $10 Minimum Wage (and the Sky Isn’t Going to Fall)
By John Schmitt
On January 1, the minimum wage in San Francisco will cross the psychological threshold of $10 an hour. An automatic cost-of-living adjustment built into city law will raise the wage floor 3.2 percent, from its current $9.92 to $10.24. Predictably, employers have been warning that the increase will cost jobs. In fact, a great deal of economic evidence suggests otherwise.
~snip~
http://www.alternet.org/story/153620/san_francisco_becomes_first_in_nation_with_10_minimum_wage_and_the_sky_isnt_going_to_fall
I was only in San Francisco once for a glorious week, and I think I left my heart there.
So MSNBC is tied to Bain Capital and now this? who’s shocked?
You should have seen their “We LUVS US SOME MITTt” headlines yesterday.
No, thanks.
Aol bough them! Not surprising!
I agree Jovie, MSNBC’s connection to a Republican(Bain Captial) shouldn’t be surprising, just like Huffo supporting Republicans.
Must have money to waste
Hey, is it 2013 yet?
’11 have turned to ’12: Happy New Year everyone. And many blessings throughout 2012, including the Re-election of our great President.
Chips thank you so very much for this wonderful website and for all the hard and wonderful work that you do-everyday. Thank you!
Obama/Biden 2012
Ummm…why am I not feeling “reassured, given the Citizens United ruling? With all due respect, Justice Roberts, color me unconvinced!
Justice Roberts defends Thomas, Kagan on healthcare recusal issue
Saturday, December 31, 2025
Chief Justice John Roberts expressed confidence on Saturday in the decisions by his Supreme Court colleagues on when to recuse themselves, an issue that has emerged in the legal battle over President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul law. In recusal questions, he said longstanding judicial ethics guidelines state a judge “should not be swayed by partisan demands, public clamor or considerations of personal popularity or notoriety, nor be apprehensive of unjust criticism.”
Roberts said his colleagues were jurists of “exceptional integrity and experience” whose character and fitness have been examined during a rigorous appointment and confirmation process. “We are all deeply committed to the common interest in preserving the court’s vital role as an impartial tribunal governed by the rule of law,” he said.
~snip~
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/31/justice-roberts-defends-thomas-kagan-on-healthcare-recusal-issue/
Oh, yes, Roberts - your guys are all so above-board on their recusals, or lack thereof, as well as their dinner partners.
tweeted all i can think of is that in the next term there could be 3 even 4 SCOTUS appointments. Who do you want for President when that happens?
Not.
Apparently, there are few limits, or boundaries, on the capacity of some to wreak havoc on the environment for the sake of financial gain and/or pure, unadulterated greed!~
Amazon rainforest imperiled in gold rush
Simeon Tegel| December 30, 2025 14:48
Record gold prices are claiming an unlikely victim: the lush, spectacularly biodiverse rainforests of the Peruvian Amazon. Since the global economy fell off the edge of a cliff in 2008, sending investors scrambling to put their money into the ultimate safe haven, gold, thousands of illegal miners have flooded into the Madre de Dios region of central Peru.
Now they are ravaging its pristine tropical rainforests and river systems, including some of Peru’s most important nature reserves, using primitive mining techniques to churn through vast quantities of the region’s rich, sandy soils, sparkling with specks of the precious metal. As the do so, they poison the water table with mercury and carve out vast, toxic holes in the virgin jungle.
Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/111229/amazon-rainforest-imperiled-gold-rush
Happy New Year Everyone! Let’s get busy so we can have our president in the white house another 4 years.
Notice any familiar names on the archive page of individuals who have appeared on this particular radio show? To be continued…
Ron Paul Was Scheduled to Appear on a White Supremacist Radio Show in 2006
Charles Johnson • Fri Dec 23, 2025 at 3:44 pm PST
The New Republic has made available a collection of Ron Paul’s ugliest newsletters, and if you haven’t seen how bad this stuff is yet, you may be shocked. And now there’s still more evidence of Ron Paul’s connections to the white supremacist far right. The story so far: apparently Ron Paul was scheduled to appear on the notorious radio show “The Political Cesspool,” a talk show in Tennessee connected to the white separatist Council of Conservative Citizens and the Holocaust denial group Institute for Historical Review. The announcement of Ron Paul’s appearance was posted on the blog of Political Cesspool co-founder Austin Farley: Congressman Ron Paul TONIGHT On The Cesspool.
~snip~
If true, this would be the most direct connection yet between Ron Paul and the kind of people who cheer for David Duke. But as Adam Holland and I both discovered, the archives of The Political Cesspool radio show have apparently been scrubbed of this episode. Here’s the archive page with the missing day.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/39664_Ron_Paul_Was_Scheduled_to_Appear_on_a_White_Supremacist_Radio_Show_in_2006
WUH?!!
Eastern Ohio hit with 4.0-magnitude earthquake
Lillian Rizzo| December 31, 2025 18:43
Eastern Ohio was hit by a 4.0 magnitude earthquake on Saturday, just a week after smaller tremor struck the region, CNN reported. The earthquake struck 1.4 miles deep just outside of Youngstown. The epicenter of the earthquake is 55 miles southeast of Cleveland and 145 miles northeast from Columbus. Residents said they heard a loud boom along with the shaking, although the sheriff’s dispatchers from several counties said there were no immediate reports of damage, the Associated Press reported.
~snip~
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/111231/eastern-ohio-hit-40-magnitude-earthquake
More
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/01/01/state-links-quakes-to-work-on-wells.html
That’s hyperbolic…Hit by an earthquake? 4.0? I’d wager most didn’t even feel it. We’re going to be hearing a lot about these fracking quakes. I visit this site every day: http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/ and have been watching as these new quakes keep happening in places where they just should not be happening. Even still, being ‘hit’ by an earthquake really doesn’t happened until at least 5.0.
This is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!~
Tutankhamun – the secrets of the tomb go online
Jo Marchant| The Observer, Saturday 17 July 2025
Howard Carter spent years documenting the thousands of artefacts from Tutankhamun’s tomb. Now, thanks to the efforts of an Oxford archaeologist, this remarkable archive of pictures and notes can be viewed online.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jul/18/tutankhamun-website-howard-carter-tomb?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Happy New Year TOD family, may God’s blessing and favor be with you all and with our beloved president Obama.
Thank you, and the same to you.
Whoa, hold up! A slight adjustment in the article is needed; namely, “The FIRST goal for Americans should be to re-elect President Obama to help boost the economic recovery next year.” There…MUCH better now!
Seven Economic Policy Goals For Progressives In 2012
By Travis Waldron on Jan 1, 2026 at 9:25 am
At best, 2011 can be described as a middling year for progressives when it comes to the economy. Though the economy continued its modest recovery, and despite recent positive signs of improvement, many progressive goals went unfulfilled. Thanks to GOP obstruction, no widespread jobs package passed, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is still without a director, and important areas of investment faced unnecessary budget cuts on both the state and federal level.
Progressives were, however, able to block much of the House GOP’s radical agenda — preventing Republicans from gutting Medicare and thwarting repeated efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Wall Street reform laws. With that in mind, ThinkProgress compiled a list of seven goals for progressives that could boost the economic recovery over the next year:
~snip~
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/01/396028/seven-economic-policy-goals-for-progressives-in-2012/
THIS! http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2011/12/mitt_romney_running_to_stand_s034416.php
The weak field of GOP candidates is still on track to produce an Iowa winner with the lowest vote share of any winning candidate from either major party in the history of the caucuses. Historical comparisons of Iowa performance are even more unflattering if they are made specifically about Governor Romney.
In 2008, Romney secured 25.2 percent of the votes in the GOP Iowa Caucuses. He has been running hard for the intervening four years, spending tens of millions of dollars, giving hundreds of speeches and interviews and logging thousands of hours of retail campaigning. The result? The proportion of Iowa caucus-goers who support him today is even lower than it was in 2008.
Surging Wave of Santorum
by mistermix
The new Des Moines Journal Register poll shows Rick Santorum surging into third place, tying up the votes of the evangelicals:
What makes Santorum’s growth spurt particularly striking is his last-second rise: He averaged 10 points after the first two nights of polling, but doubled that during the second two nights. Looking just at the final day of polling, he was just one point down from Romney’s 23 percent on Friday.
The Republican party in Iowa reminds me of a patient with a terminal disease (Romneyitis) desperately turning to alternative medacine. They’ve cycled through homeopathy (Bachmann), naturopathy (Cain), chelation (Perry) and aromatherapy (Paul). Now they’ve hit the final frontier—urotheraphy. I’m glad that I’ve never been so desperately ill that I’ve contemplated drinking my own piss, but I can imagine what it might feel like if I consider the level of desperation needed to vote for Rick Santorum.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/01/01/surging-wave-of-santorum/
Someone on twitter said that Santorum’s surge is thanks to those Iowans who believe that Adam and Eve rode a dinosaur to church.
More This!!!!!!!!!
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2011/12/my_fearless_prediction_of_the034194.php
Given the evident inability of any of the current candidates to generate enthusiasm in even one third of Iowa Republicans, and the fact that the caucus “winner” could well be someone that 3/4 of the voters rejected, I am comfortable predicting right now the winner of the GOP Iowa Caucuses: President Obama.
Newt says Obama seeks to steal elections with ID ruling
Republican presidential hopefuls spent Saturday crisscrossing Iowa Saturday ahead of Tuesday’s caucuses, but some candidates had one eye towards South Carolina’s Jan. 21 primary and an issue that might help them gain traction in the Palmetto State.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., used a stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to accuse the Obama administration of trying to “steal elections” in the wake of the Justice Department’s rejection of South Carolina’s voter identification law.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division determined that the state’s law requiring voters to show photo ID at polling places was discriminatory against minorities.
“…You have to ask, why is it that they are so desperate to retain the ability to steal elections and I think that what it comes down to,” Gingrich said.
On Thursday, former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., also blasted the Justice Department ruling, accusing the administration of pursuing “common-sense anti-fraud measures that states have put in place all because they believe it’s a partisan advantage for them to get people who probably shouldn’t be voting to help them and their political cause.”
South Carolina is one of more than a dozen mostly Republican-controlled states that have approved new voting laws that include requiring government-approved photo ID to register or vote; shortening early voting periods and curtailing voter registration efforts by third-party groups like the League of Women Voters or NAACP.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/31/134540/newt-says-obama-seeks-to-steal.html#storylink=cpy
Even for Newt, that comment is “rich.” He is a dark human being, if he has any humanity left.
Romney would veto immigration “dream” act
- Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said on Saturday he would veto a proposal granting U.S. citizenship to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children, a pledge that won hearty applause from Iowa conservatives he hopes to win over.
A young woman asked Romney about the bipartisan proposal known as the Dream Act, during an appearance at a crowded restaurant in Le Mars, a conservative Republican stronghold in western Iowa.
“The question is if I were elected and Congress were to pass the Dream Act, would I veto it and the answer is yes,” Romney said.
“For those that come here illegally, the idea of giving them in-state tuition credits or other special benefits, I find to be contrary to the idea of a nation of laws,” Romney said.
“If I’m the president of the United States I want to end illegal immigration so that we can protect legal immigration. I like legal immigration.”
http://news.yahoo.com/republican-candidate-romney-veto-immigration-dream-act-023856783.html
Sunday, January 1, 2026
The End-Of-Year Emopants Blowout
Posted by Zandar
Both Glenn Greenwald and Taylor Marsh saw fit to end the year with massive anti-Obama rants where they basically announce openly their opposition to the President for 2012. Not that their opposition didn’t exist before, it’s just now official. First, Double G defends Ron Paul’s “effect” on our political discourse:
There are very few political priorities, if there are any, more imperative than having an actual debate on issues of America’s imperialism; the suffocating secrecy of its government; the destruction of civil liberties which uniquely targets Muslims, including American Muslims; the corrupt role of the Fed; corporate control of government institutions by the nation’s oligarchs; its destructive blind support for Israel, and its failed and sadistic Drug War. More than anything, it’s crucial that choice be given to the electorate by subverting the two parties’ full-scale embrace of these hideous programs.
I wish there were someone who did not have Ron Paul’s substantial baggage to achieve this. Before Paul announced his candidacy, I expressed hope in an Out Magazine profile that Gary Johnson would run for President and be the standard-bearer for these views, in the process scrambling bipartisan stasis on these questions. I did that not because I was endorsing his candidacy (as some low-level Democratic Party operative dishonestly tried to claim), but because, as a popular two-term Governor of New Mexico free of Paul’s disturbing history and associations, he seemed to me well-suited to force these debates to be had. But alas, Paul decided to run again, and Johnson — for reasons still very unclear — was forcibly excluded from media debates and rendered a non-person. Since then, Paul’s handling of the very legitimate questions surrounding those rancid newsletters has been disappointing in the extreme, and that has only served to obscure these vital debates and severely dilute the discourse-enhancing benefits of his candidacy.
He spends the rest of the article saying the President Obama is just as bad if not worse overall than Paul, and far worse than Paul on the specific issues that matter to him. He then proceeds to attack President Obama supporters as evil hypocrites who “don’t want to hear” his “truths”, accusing them of being stuck in Bush-era binary worldviews but then weasels out of endorsing Paul with constant whining about how nobody but Glenn Greenwald is smart enough to understand his carefully nuanced argument that he’s not endorsing Paul, he just wants someone like Paul to win over the hated, evil Obama. (Apparently that other person is Gary Johnson.)
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2012/01/end-of-year-emopants-blowout.html
*Emopants*
Perfect.
TM has never ever been able to let 2008 go.
SORRY, A LITTLE LATE FOLKS. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! PEACE ON EARTH!! THIS IS THE YEAR OF MORE CHANGE AND CONTINUED SUCCESS IN OUR NATION AND THE WORLD. WE WILL RE-ELECT BARACK OBAMA. LETS GET THE ENGINES ROARING. KEEP HOPE ALIVE!!! YES WE CAN!! OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
hey Keith happy new year to you too!
January 01, 2026 8:10 AM
Where things stand in Iowa
By Steve Benen
We talked last night about the sought after results of the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll, which, not surprisingly, continue to show a competitive contest. Let’s briefly revisit where things stand just two days before caucus-goers make their preferences known.
The DMR poll effectively shows two tiers: three top-tier candidates who stand a chance of winning in Iowa (Romney at 24%, Paul at 22%, and Santorum at 15%), and three second-tier candidates who hope Iowa doesn’t derail their entire campaign (Gingrich at 12%, Perry at 11%, and Bachmann at 7%). It’s counter-intuitive, but the order of the bottom three may very well end up mattering more than the order of the top three — Santorum will get a boost no matter where he ends up in the top tier, while poor showings among the second-tier candidates may knock one or more candidates out of the race altogether.
Full post here: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/where_things_stand_in_iowa034442.php
January 01, 2026 8:45 AM
Finger-pointing begins inside Perry camp
By Steve Benen
It’s never a good sign when a presidential campaign’s insiders begin dishing dirt on their colleagues before voters start expressing their preferences. Take Rick Perry’s team, for example.
Four months ago, the Texas governor was the frontrunner and expected to excel in Iowa. Today, Perry appears likely to finish fourth or fifth, and may soon face questions about the long-term viability of his campaign.
It’s against this backdrop that Politico has a fairly-long piece on Perry’s advisers who’ve “begun laying the groundwork to explain how the Texas governor bombed so dramatically in a race that he seemed to control for a brief period upon entering the race in August.”
Their explanations for the nosedive come against the backdrop of a campaign riven by an intense, behind-the-scenes power struggle that took place largely between a group of the governor’s longtime advisers and a new cadre of consultants brought on this fall. In the end, the outsiders won out — and ever since have marginalized Perry’s longtime chief strategist while crafting a new strategy in which the Texan has portrayed himself as a political outsider and culture warrior.
…………………………………………………………………………………..
In a blistering indictment, sources close to the operation describe a new team that was stunned to arrive in October and find a campaign that wasn’t executing the most rudimentary elements of a modern presidential campaign: no polling or focus groups, no opposition research book on their own candidate to prepare for attacks and debate prep sessions that were barely worth the name.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/fingerpointing_begins_inside_p034443.php
Iowa and New Hampshire imo don’t matter to Perry. The South is going to be the make or break place for him and Romney.
Just getting here today. I remembered 24 and appreciate the memory nudge. This a.m. I checked c-span and they were in a church that Michele B. was attending. I listened to the preacher’s talk and it was “I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, but you need to follow the Bible for salvation and the Bible tells you to vote for Ms. Bauchman”. Well, he didn’t exactly say that, but that was the message.
That’s exactly what happens in Mormon Utah, auni. Members of the Mormon Church will get highly indignant at the implication that The Church tells its members how to vote. They DO NOT, they say. The democrats in the membership point out that they preach, HOWEVER, that its members are to follow the dictates of the Bible — the Old Testament mainly. And they can find myriad verses outside of the reality that modern people have to live in.
My, my…it seems like some Libertarians are distancing themselves from Ron Paul. Who could have imagined that this would occur…from the Cato Institute? Notice though how the author classifies individual who revealed the newsletters in 2008 as “an anti-Paul jihadi.” What’s that all about? ANYWHO, this is the same organization that Glenn Greewald has some “interesting” ties with…
Ron Paul and the Libertarians
Posted by David Boaz
The New York Times editorializes that if Ron Paul can’t separate himself from his unsavory writings and supporters, “he will leave a lasting stain on his candidacy, on the libertarian movement and, very possibly, on the Iowa caucuses.” Certainly it’s a problem Paul is struggling to deal with. As for the Iowa caucuses, if they could survive strong votes for Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan and an actual win for Mike Huckabee, I dare say they can survive Ron Paul. But should these things “stain . . . the libertarian movement”? Not in a rational world.
~snip~
As the Times notes in a dispatch from Iowa, Paul “is drawing supporters for his libertarian and antiwar views. …For the students, much of Mr. Paul’s appeal derives from civil libertarian views like ending the federal ban on marijuana and other drugs, as well as his desire to end foreign wars and his small-government credo.” That’s the message that has moved Ron Paul to the top of the polls in Iowa.
Still, he did allow associates of his to write racist and homophobic screeds in “The Ron Paul Political Report” and other newsletters. And that has created a stench around his candidacy. Some people want that stench to envelop and stain the libertarian movement. Jamie Kirchick, the anti-Paul jihadi who brought the newsletters to light in 2008, asks, “Why Don’t Libertarians Care About Ron Paul’s Bigoted Newsletters?” But of course many libertarians have expressed revulsion at the newsletters. Ilya Somin noted at the Volokh Conspiracy (one of the few conspiracies not denounced in the Ron Paul newsletters) that he himself had condemned the newsletters in 2008, as had his co-blogger David Bernstein. And Virginia Postrel, the former editor of Reason, and various current writers at Reason. And a leading Austrian economist, Steven Horwitz. And Ed Crane, the founder and president of Cato.
~snip~
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/ron-paul-and-the-libertarians/
So, CNN is having a 2 hour infomercial for the republicans, tonite at 8!
Boy, they are really trying, aren’t they?
Department of Predictions
by Kay
From this morning’s Toledo Blade:
Investment from resurgent American automakers made big news in 2011, with General Motors and Chrysler announcing multiple large projects in Toledo and northwest Ohio that together total nearly $1 billion and should create or help preserve almost 3,400 jobs.
Promise for the future of manufacturing in northwest Ohio was one of the brights spots in a year that saw many changes to the business landscape in the region.
The big bucks in manufacturing are coming from Chrysler Group LLC. The automaker last year committed $500 million to its Toledo Assembly complex. That investment, which will go toward updating the line that ultimately will build Jeep’s new sport utility vehicle in 2013, will add a second shift to the plant, and lead to more than 1,100 jobs. Chrysler also said it planned to invest $72 million in its Toledo Machining Plant.
General Motors Co. announced plans for two investments totaling $343 million in its Toledo Transmission plant for upgrades and a new line for an upcoming eight-speed transmission. It also plans to pump $47 million into its Defiance Powertrain plant.
“We’re seeing a tremendous amount of capital investment in our traditional manufacturing sector around the automotive industry,” said Ford Weber, president and chief executive officer of the Lucas County Improvement Corporation.
Full post here: http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/01/01/department-of-predictions/#comment-2962321
http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/campaign-finance?hp&ref=politics#canda=barack-obama&candb=mitt-romney
President Barack Obama has a new, moneyed supporter in this new year — a super PAC dedicated to mobilizing black voters in key swing states.
Calling itself 1911 United, the super PAC is aiming to raise $1.5 million during the election cycle and train its efforts on Colorado, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, committee treasurer Sinclair Skinner told POLITICO.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/70987.html
That is fine with me!
This is really good news, and it sounds like they’re going to be really focused on getting first time AA voters to the polls early.
Ah, Newt! You’re such a joke! http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/12/31/396180/gingrich-explains-why-hes-now-a-climate-denier-im-an-amateur-paleontologist/
NEWT SAYS THERE’S INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, CITING HIS EXPERTISE AS “AN AMATEUR PALEONTOLOGIST” | At a town hall in Atlantic, Iowa, Saturday afternoon, Gingrich gave an unusual reason for his present denial of man-made global warming. “I’m an amateur paleontologist,” Gingrich said. “I spend a lot of time looking at the Earth’s temperature for a very long time. I’m a lot harder to convince than just looking at a computer model.” Professional paleontologists, who have spent a lot more time than Gingrich looking at the Earth’s temperature, are convinced. “Few credible scientists now doubt that humans have influenced the documented rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution,” the American Quarternary Society wrote in 2006.
Hmmm … historian, paleontologist, lying politician, woman-hater, media whore …
Okay, I’ll stop.
No, please….there’s more! Backstabber, whiner,hypocrite,insider,grifter,panderer,louse…..
And pig!
And all you Tweeters can peek in on old Rupert Murdoch now…he joined Twitter! Fire at will!
BREAKING: RUPERT MURDOCH JOINS TWITTER, EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR SANTORUM | A couple of hours ago, Rupert Murdoch joined twitter. His verified account is here. In one of his first tweets, he expresses support for Rick Santorum in the upcoming Iowa caucus.
Rupert Murdoch
✔
@rupertmurdoch
Good to see santorum surging in Iowa. Regardless of policies, all debates showed principles, consistency and humility like no other.
1 Jan 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
no kidding. huh. off to check it out!
ha. it’s true. he’s tweeted 14 times when i checked he already has 35,000 + followers and he’s following 4 people. why bob’s not one of them I don’t know. that is crazy. he sounds like he’s talking to himself. a lot.
I think you should follow him and keep an eye out
Pass that to Bob, and Rock ! Then he’ll get LOTS of corrections to his stupid, if you know what I mean!
John Huntsman really does put out some great political ads. Too bad that he’s too sane enough to be considered by Republicans.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/updates/3302 This one takes on Ron Paul…in the Twilight Zone!
Trust me. Huntsman is only 1 degree less crazy than his opponents.
I am hoping he takes votes away from Mittens in NH, though. I want to see Mittens go down any way possible.
When you think of any of them, there’s reason to cringe. I look at Huntsman as a despicable traitor to his former boss, while still a part of the administration. I can’t abide his lack of integrity. Romney has no core, and says things about President Obama that I’m not even sure he means - but they are vile. Gingrich is a big blob of talkative humanity, who even looks dirty, and who needs to go away soon (no doubt, wallowing in his own tears). Paul needs to be brought kicking and screaming into the 19th century, and then tried and convicted. Bachmann, Perry, Santorum - not worth mentioning. I may have forgotten somebody, and - actually - I can’t wait for the day when we can forget about each of them. I refer to Election Day, when President Obama will be re-elected by a landslide! That’ll put the happy back on our faces after the upcoming campaign!
LOL “big blob of talkative humanity”
Yes they will all be forgotten when President Obama wins!
“big blob of talkative humanity?” more like a big blob of talkative excrement, Newt is what happens if s#!t could talk, just sayin’
i know.. I think he amped up the crazy because I think he thought he had to…to appeal to ANY REPUBLICANS. I won’t defend him, I just think that he continues to put out good ads against his opponents…not that it will matter.
http://ap.stripes.com/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SAUDI_LIBYA?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-01-13-54-41
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia and Libya have agreed to restore full diplomatic ties and exchange ambassadors now that longtime Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi is no longer in power.
The Saudi Press Agency said Sunday that ties between Riyadh and Tripoli would be restored and that the Saudi Embassy in Libya would be reopened.
The kingdom recalled its ambassador to Libya during the civil war that began in February. Gadhafi was captured and killed in October.
The official news agency said Saudi Arabia wishes to have good relations with Libya’s new leaders after years of tension with Gadhafi.
Saudi officials have long accused Gadhafi’s regime of trying to assassinate Saudi King Abdullah when he was crown prince in 2004.
Hopefully, this is progress that will benefit the region for a long time.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/01/iran-defiant-as-u-s-unleashes-new-sanctions/
US President Barack Obama on Saturday signed into law the latest such package, measures targeting Iran’s central bank and financial sector.
Iran’s currency, the rial, slipped to a record low Sunday on that news.
The state news agency IRNA and an Iranian website tracking the currency said it slid to around 16,000 to the dollar.
Signed it while he was goofing off on holidays at home in Hawaii, with his family, instead of toughing it out in Iowa like poor stupid Willard the Billiard Ball!
Yeah, I know
What a slacker!
Governor Scott Walker Raises Taxes..
Posted on 12/30/2011 at 5:00 pm by JM Ashby
..on low-income, working families.
In other words, the wrong people.
As Wisconsinites await W-2 forms and related tax documents, hundreds of thousands of low-income families are bracing for a state budget change that will mean less money in their wallets next year.
Last summer, the state Legislature reduced the amount of money low- income families can receive in tax credits by $56.2 million.
That places Wisconsin among only a handful of states that will effectively raise taxes on their poorest residents in 2012, according to a recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit think tank. [...]
The 2011-2013 state budget reduces the percentages for families with two or more children, which the state Legislative Fiscal Bureau considers a net tax increase.
Starting next year, low-income families with two children will be capped at 11 percent of the maximum federal credit, or $562, down from $716.
Families with three or more children will be limited to 34 percent, or $1,955, down from $2,473.
That may not sound like a lot of money unless you’re living paycheck to paycheck, and most of those who will be affected by this are.
Of course a modest tax increase would be easier to accept if, within the same budget, Scott Walker had not also instituted new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.
http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2011/12/governor-scott-walker-raises-taxes.html
His days are numbered. Tick.Tick.Tick.
Things to note:
@thinkprogressThinkProgress
AOL/HuffPost President Tim Armstrong donated the max to Romney in the current cycle http://thkpr.gs/s7dttf
4 hours ago via TweetDeckFavoriteRetweetReply
——————————————————————————
@UosdwisSimon Byrd
Rick Santorum on Meet the Press: “President Obama did not help Iran overthrow its democracy.” Overthrow its democracy. Let that sink in.
5 hours ago via TweetDeckFavoriteRetweetReply
Oh wow Santorum.
The stupid, it burns!!!
Just made my first purchase at the Obama Store: how cool are they… Free 2012 calendars included with every purchase over $20.12! (so, Chips, more calendars for those lovely Canadians!)
Court challenge filed to Wisconsin anti-union law
Friday, December 30, 2025
The Wisconsin Supreme Court should void a controversial state law curbing the power of public sector unions because a judge who ruled on the law had a conflict of interest, a county attorney said on Friday. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said in a court filing that Judge Michael Gableman should have recused himself from the case. The court filing on Friday said that Gableman should have recused himself because a lawyer who represented the Republican-led state government in the case had represented Gableman on a personal issue.
~snip~
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/30/court-challenge-filed-to-wisconsin-anti-union-law/
Cenk Uygur Comes Out of the Woodwork
By Emilia 1956
I’m old enough to remember ratfuckers. They appeared, as if from nowhere, during the 1972 election year – young Republicans, mostly college students, trained to look and act like young Democrats of the day (the forerunners of today’s EmoProg Puritopians), to infiltrate the offices and campaigns of the major Democratic Presidential contenders with the one aim of delivering Richard Milhouse Nixon the weakest possible Democratic candidate for the Presidential election of that same year.
They achieved their goal. They infiltrated the campaigns of Edmund Muskie, Henry Jackson and others, played their practical jokes and dirty tricks and effectively handed the nomination to George McGovern, whose disorganised and uncompromising campaign, run by people who, four years previously, were found in the streets of Chicago virulently protesting the Democratic convention of that year, resulting in the biggest defeat of a Democratic candidate in the history of the party. McGovern lost 49 states, carrying only Massachusetts (by dint of having Sargent Schriver, a Kennedy inlaw, on the ticket) and the District of Columbia.
The entire face of the Democratic party was altered after that. McGovern’s campaign manager, Gary Hart, set about changing it from a party which fought for union rights and for the working class and working poor into a bi-coastal cocktail party comprised of educated elitists who had nothingn in common either with labor history or the working class. Most shunned the poor. All were idealists. When it turned its back on the Southern and Midwestern rural working classes and the Rust Belt unskilled workers and their unions – as soon as Hart proclaimed these people herd followers and “little Hubert Humphreys”, the stage was set for a Republican takeover of the South and the rural Midwest and all points inbetween by the Republican party, thanks to the idealogical purity of Gary Hart and the ratfuckery, developed by Donald Segretti and enhanced and strengthened in subsequent years by two of Segretti’s most apt students, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.
You might say, along with Hart, who began so earnestly but ended in a welter of sordid “Monkey Business”, that Atwater and Rove are responsible for what the modern Democratic Party is today.
Ratfuckery has reached a new level of sophistication. Coincidental to its further rise was the advent and enhancement of cable and internet media political discourse – the celebrity political pundit, or the Professional Left, along with the 24-hour news cycle – and the election of the first African American President.
http://www.osborneink.com/2011/12/cenk-uygur-comes-out-of-the-woodwork.html
Thank you for that excllent expose of the ratfucker, cenk, by Emilia, rikyrah! That should go VIRAL!
All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup
—By Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery| July/August 2011
Webster’s defines speedup as “an employer’s demand for accelerated output without increased pay,” and it used to be a household word. Bosses would speed up the line to fill a big order, to goose profits, or to punish a restive workforce. Workers recognized it, unions (remember those?) watched for and negotiated over it—and, if necessary, walked out over it. But now we no longer even acknowledge it—not in blue-collar work, not in white-collar or pink-collar work, not in economics texts, and certainly not in the media (except when journalists gripe about the staff-compacted-job-expanded newsroom).
Now the word we use is “productivity,” a term insidious in both its usage and creep. The not-so-subtle implication is always: Don’t you want to be a productive member of society? Pundits across the political spectrum revel in the fact that US productivity (a.k.a. economic output per hour worked) consistently leads the world. Yes, year after year, Americans wring even more value out of each minute on the job than we did the year before. U-S-A! U-S-A! Except what’s good for American business isn’t necessarily good for Americans. We’re not just working smarter, but harder. And harder. And harder, to the point where the driver is no longer is no longer American industriousness, but something much more predatory.
Read more: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speed-up-american-workers-long-hours
Iran test-fires missile near Strait of Hormuz
News Desk| January 1, 2026 08:07
Iran on New Year’s Day said it had successfully test fired a medium-range missile during military exercises near the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian naval commander Mahmoud Mousavi said the surface-to-air missile was equipped with the “latest technology” and “intelligent systems,” the BBC said, citing a report by the official Irna news agency.
According to the Associated Press, Iranian state TV said the missile is designed to evade radars, and was developed by Iranian scientists. The TV report did not say when the missile was tested. Iran’s 10 days of war games exercises began last week and are taking place in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman, to the east of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
~snip~
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/120101/iran-strait-hormuz-missile-tests-us-sanctions
What a wonderful day!
Happy New Year TOD family.
This is NOT good news!~
Court delays strict new federal pollution rule at last minute
Friday, December 30, 2025
The U.S. District Court of Appeals granted a request to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) pending further court review. The EPA finalized the rule in July, setting much stricter limits on sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants in 27 states to protect the health of residents in states downwind from the emissions. Power generators said the January 1 implementation date was too soon to allow the design and installation of pollution control equipment to meet the rule, forcing a number of units to shut or to run only part of the time.
Other states challenging the Cross State rule were Louisiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio and Wisconsin. The EPA estimated that the Cross State rule will save up to 34,000 lives, prevent 15,000 heart attacks and prevent 400,000 asthma attacks each year, providing $120 billion to $280 billion in annual health benefits for the nation.
~snip~
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/30/court-delays-strict-new-pollution-rule-at-last-minute/
Hi everyone, new post here:
http://theobamadiary.com/2012/01/01/through-her-eyes/
,
Happy New Year TOD Family!!! It’s the year of RE-ELECTION!! Let’s make it happen once again.
Much Luv
Obama/Biden2012
HONOLULU — After visiting his grandfather’s grave here, President Obama took his family to the East-West Center, which is hosting an exhibit on his mother’s anthropological work.
“Through Her Eyes: Ann Dunham’s Field Work in Indonesia” includes photos and artifacts from the years she spent conducting research there.
Pool-
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/01/id-like-to-introduce-glenn-greenwald-to.html?showComment=1325442996676#c1291901750581895775
Great post by Smartypants. It talks about how President Obama’s philosophy is based in the philosophy of Reinhold Niebuhr. It explains him so well! Here’s a quote but you really need to read the whole piece.
“Niebuhr would tell us that facing the world as it is involves giving up the comfort of surety and learning to live with the tension, doubt and collateral damages of our choices…all while remaining resolute in our commitment to our ideals. To me, that is the true calling of any liberal.”
Thanks a million for that Mary, just read it a few minutes ago, it’s SUPERB. Really love SmartyPant’s writing, so thoughtful and, well, smart!
Happy New Year to all the beloved TOD’ers!!