“Bean Feed” GOP fundraiser flyer contained a drawing of a dancing bean…wearing a sombrero

“Bean Feed” GOP fundraiser flyer contained a drawing of a dancing bean…wearing a sombrero

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Perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe the GOP hasn't been taken over by the TeaParty. Maybe it has, in fact, been takeover by 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone?
A flyer distributed by the Republican Party of Garvin County, Oklahoma has engendered a significant amount of criticism for being incredibly racist, reports KFOR. How incredibly racist are we talking about here? So racist that Oklahoma’s Democratic Party initially assumed the flyer was fake, because it was so patently and incredibly racist.
M-town Seniors Angry at Possible Future Kids Who Might Tread on Their Grass

M-town Seniors Angry at Possible Future Kids Who Might Tread on Their Grass

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I can empathize with someone who bought a house having been told by a developer that they would be living next to "a mix of single family homes, townhomes, and apartments" only to find out that really that means apartments. But can't our seniors come off a little less like a Simpson-esque sendup of old folks?
Residents of Spring Arbor, a luxury community for people over age 55, showed up at the August 4 Middletown mayor and council meeting to object to proposed apartment buildings near their neighborhood.
They were concerned with the types of people the apartments would attract, the devaluation of their properties, and the children that would allegedly “run through their yards.”
Via the Middletown Transcript
Comment Rescue – “Politicians have gotten the message”

Comment Rescue – “Politicians have gotten the message”

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Geezer has posted a tidy summary of our current political situation:
"I don’t support the (cigarette) tax. The fairest way to tax people would be on wealth, not income, not sin taxes. But thanks to folks like you — the stupid ones who side with the wealthy instead of standing for the people — we’ve made that unacceptable. Politicians have gotten the message: People with money (and their broke-ass, brainwashed lackeys) will defeat you if you tax them; poor people don’t have the juice to do that."

Monday Open Thread [8.4.14]

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Larry Sabato looks at his Crystal Ball:
"2014 is no 2006. The [2006] electorate had turned off to George W. Bush and would never again turn on. The Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina were two principal reasons. The full Democratic wave emerged in the fall, after some GOP congressional scandals, but even at this point in 2006, we were just debating how high the Democratic tide would rise." "2014 is also no 2010. All of the energy was on the Republican side four years ago, as Obamacare bombed, the Tea Party arose, and the poor economy that helped elect Obama lingered. The building GOP wave was so impressive that the Crystal Ball was able to predict a House switch from Democratic to Republican control by Labor Day even though Democrats held about a 75-seat majority at that time."
No, 2014 will be most like 1998, where the incumbent White House party upends conventional wisdom and picks up seats in one or both Houses of Congress, mostly due to the overreach of the opposition party. And if the GOP goes full bore on impeachment, I am ready to predict that the Democrats will retake the House.
Is This What Jesus Would Do?

Is This What Jesus Would Do?

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The CNN Belief Blog ran an article over the weekend about U.S. Archbishops living lives of grandeur in huge, million $ plus estates whilst their flocks struggle to put food on the family table.
Liz Cheney has no idea what the word “disgrace” means

Liz Cheney has no idea what the word “disgrace” means

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The Cheney family is a pestilence. A curse on America.
Liz Cheney bashed President Obama Friday night for the way he characterized CIA interrogation practices after Sept. 11, 2001 as “torture.” “Even before I came into office, I was very clear that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks,” Obama said during a Friday press conference. We did some things that were contrary to our values.” Cheney said this was unacceptable.
Flowers winning the twitter primary?

Flowers winning the twitter primary?

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From reformed GOPer, Mike Stafford's FB Page:
Is the size of a candidate's Twitter following a good gauge of their electability? If so, as of right now Flowers has more than 800, Barney just passed 400, and Ken Simpler, well, at 73 I'm not really feeling the whole populist groundswell thing. Meanwhile, Sher Valenzuela's Twitter strategy is to be invisible- I guess that makes her the stealth candidate.
Obviously an incumbent is going to have a built in twitter base. So this isn't exactly scientific, but primaries are all about turnout, so if a candidate is having trouble attracting people to their twitter account, how much harder will it be to attract them to the polls?
USDA Approves Poultry Industry Self Inspections – Get ready for the diarrhea

USDA Approves Poultry Industry Self Inspections – Get ready for the diarrhea

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Diarrhea will actually be one of the milder outcomes, because all of the evidence provided by the history of capitalism says that this is going to fail, and fail catastrophically.
Poultry inspection, prepare to modernized. Or, if you prefer, privatized. The USDA late Thursday released its revamped poultry inspection rules, an overhaul to the 60-year-old system which, by allowing plants to self-inspect, it claims will simultaneously reduce the number of federal inspectors on site and incidences of foodborne illness.
No Tax revenue, no problem. Ultimately, you'll pay one way or another.