Day: August 5, 2015

Someone help me out. Specials are important, and Democrats typically suck at them. I don't know how to respond to the poll question on the right, should I pick "The Republicans" based on past performance? I have been invited to a fundraiser for Eileen O'Shaughnessy-Coleman, and haven't been invited to a fundraiser for David Bentz, but that doesn't tell me anything. (I think I opted out of the DelDem mailing list because the drivel was depressing, but stayed on the DEGOP mailing list because Copeland's drivel is hilarious.) So what's the scoop internet tubes? Work your crowdsourcing magic.

Details of today's shooting are still emerging, but these are the facts we have so far: 1) It is "too soon" to talk about how this shooting fits into our approach to gun control. 2) Our approach to gun control makes it easy for anyone [even people who “exhibited extreme erratic behavior and has made ominous as well as disturbing statements”] to get guns legally and kill multiple people. 3) In spite of the fact that every other western industrialized country manages to restrict criminals and the mentally deranged from obtaining guns, any changes (and I mean ANY CHANGES) in our approach to gun control are impossible because they would naturally and inexorably lead to tyranny. 4) Congress and the national headquarters of the NRA are both places which restrict 2nd Amendment rights. 5) The NRA took in over $300 million in revenue in 2013.

Katrina vanden Heuvel previews tomorrow's Republican debate and offers up a list of topics and questions:

Nervous Republican officials can take some solace that the debate is moderated by three Fox News stalwarts. They are unlikely to dwell on the irresistible questions raised by the absurdities that Republican candidates have offered up in the last months. Fox News anchors will no doubt try to get candidates to vent their venom on Hillary Clinton and President Obama rather than on each other. Candidates will have one minute to answer questions, time only for expressing an attitude, not a policy. [...] But my advice — neither solicited nor likely to be followed — would be to pose questions that explore the yawning divide between these candidates and the vast majority of Americans. For example: Inequality and stagnant wages: This is a central concern of Americans. The minimum wage today is $7.25 an hour, far below the poverty wage for a family of four. Cities and states across the country are acting to lift it. In 2014, voters in four red states — South Dakota, Nebraska, Arkansas and Alaska — passed referendums to hike their minimum wages. Seventy percent of Americans agree. Obama and all Democratic presidential candidates support raising the national minimum wage. Yet, Republican leaders in the House and Senate won’t even let it come to a vote in Congress. Wisconsin’s Walker has called the minimum wage a “lame idea” that he does not believe “serves a purpose.” A question on the minimum wage would be enlightening.[...] What’s the matter with Kansas?: Republicans have argued for decades that lower taxes, less government spending and less regulation would boost the economy. In Kansas, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback championed that program, promising that zeroing out taxes on most businesses, cutting top rates and slashing spending would generate growth, jobs and revenue. The result has been deficits as far as the eye can see, with Republicans in the state legislature now scrambling for ways to raise taxes. The candidates should be asked what’s the matter with Kansas — and how that has informed their agenda. Fair taxes: Most Americans are bothered by the sense that the rich and corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes. Obama has urged passage of the Buffett Rule that no millionaire should pay a lower tax rate than his or her secretary. Would these candidates be willing to raise taxes on the wealthy? Would they support a minimum tax on corporations like GE that often end up paying nothing in taxes while earning billions in profits? Would they act to shut down tax havens and tax multinationals at the same rate as domestic businesses?

"If Republicans were really concerned with reducing abortions, they would be for contraception. They'd be for reducing unplanned pregnancies. They be in favor of making abortion more rare, not in making it illegal. If they honestly wanted to reduce abortions, they would want to increase Planned Parenthood's budget. They don't care about things that have been proven to work thought because they really aren't concerned with stopping abortions. They are concerned with making noise and raising money."

[UPDATE]: This will teach me to read the full article that I am linking to first before posting. Apparently, according to unnamed sources in the Times article I link to below, Vice President Joe Biden considered resigning in the aftermath of Beau Biden's death to care for his grieving family. This further convinces me he is not running. How do you go from thinking of resigning because of family to running for President in a span of two months? The answer is you don't. What we are seeing is a pressure campaign put on by those like Dick Harpoolitan, Biden's South Carolina operative, to force Biden into the race. ---- The New York Times reports that friends and supporters of Joe Biden are concerned that a third run for the Presidency could harm his legacy. Consider me among them.

"Those supporters, in the White House and the Senate, and within the political circles he has moved in for decades, fear that the legacy Mr. Biden has built as an effective partner who took on tough jobs for President Obama, not to mention the deep reservoir of public good will and sympathy he has amassed in his poignant handling of personal tragedies, could be sacrificed in the pursuit of an unsuccessful challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination.” “They fret that Mr. Biden, as well known for his undisciplined, sometimes self-immolating comments as he is for his charm on the trail, could endanger Mr. Obama’s own legacy by injuring Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy and causing his party to lose control of the White House.”