Category Archives: NADA – New American Dark Ages

New American Dark Ages

NADA - New American Dark Ages

Follow the Money to the Puppetmasters

E.J. Dionne Jr. – GOP’s election strategy lets others do its dirty work

By E.J. Dionne Jr.

Monday, October 18, 2010

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. The Republican Party is running a three-level campaign this year that gives its candidates a wealth of advantages — in flexibility, deniability and determination.

At the first level are the party’s candidates, who can be as reasonable or as angry, as moderate or as conservative, as their circumstances require.

Next come the outside groups that refuse to disclose their donor lists. They are doing the dirty work of pounding their Democratic opponents in commercials for which no one is accountable. The Republican candidates can shrug an innocent "Who, me?" Deniability is a wonderful thing.  [mjh: Thank the “Conservatives” on the Supreme Court for this.]

And then, on the far right, Glenn Beck and his allies cast President Obama as the central figure in a conspiracy against America itself, fueling participation by the most extreme 10 percent or 15 percent of the electorate.

Their crackpot ideas, as the historian Sean Wilentz documented in the New Yorker recently, originated in the 1950s and ’60s, in the paranoid theorizing of the John Birch Society. But whereas responsible conservatives such as William F. Buckley Jr. denounced the Birchers and the rest of the lunatic fringe back then, Republicans this time are riding the radical wave. In some cases (think Sharron Angle in Nevada), the extremists are their standard-bearers.

It’s quite brilliant in its way, and judging by the polls, it’s working out rather nicely for the Republicans. They are also profiting from the discontent bred by an economic downturn that began on their watch. …

E.J. Dionne Jr. – GOP’s election strategy lets others do its dirty work

Having had 14 to 18 years – hell, 30, if you want to go back to Raygun – to screw everything up, “Conservatives” now scream that every attempt to fix their own fuck-ups is a failure in less than 2 years. Assholes.

NADA - New American Dark Ages

Who Profits When Government Shuts Down? The Rich and Big Corporations.

If Republicans take the House – which they won’t succeed in doing – they’ll be fighting among themselves over which to do first: Undo everything Democrats have done or impeach Obama. And they will impeach him, the damn fools, as their last hurrah before the whole country slaps them down in 2012.

ThinkProgress » Rep. Steve King Blames President Obama For The Government Shutdown The GOP Wants To Orchestrate

In the absence of any tangible or new policy solutions, Republicans are promising one concrete action should they win a majority in Congress: government shutdown. Picking up on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s two-tiered strategy, many Republicans are supporting Gingrich’s call to defund “every radical bill passed by the [Democratic] machine,” particularly the health care reform law.

Government shutdown would seriously jeopardize aid to vulnerable populations like veterans, Social Security and Medicare recipients, and 33 million Americans in need of health insurance. To defend such a disastrous strategy, Republicans are now shifting the blame on to President Obama.

ThinkProgress » Rep. Steve King Blames President Obama For The Government Shutdown The GOP Wants To Orchestrate

NADA - New American Dark Ages

The Party of Oh No

Eugene Robinson – 2010: The year of politicking insanely

This isn’t politics, it’s insanity.

I know that O’Donnell is likely to lose to Democrat Chris Coons. But until Election Day — at least — we’re supposed to take her seriously as the Republican candidate for the United States Senate. Sorry, but I just can’t do it anymore.

Nor can I pretend that Carl Paladino, the raging bull from Buffalo, is qualified by experience or temperament to be governor of New York. Or that Sharron Angle, whose small-government philosophy is so extreme as to be incoherent, could possibly make a worthwhile contribution as a senator. Or that Rich Iott, whose idea of weekend fun is putting on a Nazi SS uniform and gamboling through the woods, is remotely acceptable as a candidate for the House.

When has there been an election with so many looney tunes running under the banner of one of our major parties? It’s not that they are ultraconservative, or even that some of them believe their psychic powers let them know what the Founding Fathers would have thought about, say, stem-cell research.

Eugene Robinson – 2010: The year of politicking insanely

NADA - New American Dark Ages

This Election is IMPORTANT – Vote!

ThinkProgress » ThinkFast: October 14, 2010

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) said this year’s midterm elections may tip the balance to the Republican Party for the next decade. Barbour suggests this midterm election will be one of the most important in recent memory due to both the effect of the 2010 U.S. Census and the number of gubernatorial seats that are up this cycle.

ThinkProgress » ThinkFast: October 14, 2010

Your vote is important. That said, I recall Karl Rove declaring a generation of Republican majority following 2004.

NADA - New American Dark Ages

Don’t Surrender and Don’t Accept Premature Reports of Defeat

Study says cell phones affecting polling « New Mexico Independent

By Matthew Reichbach 10/14/10 7:39 AM Digg Tweet

The amount of cell phone-only households is affecting the polls in electoral contests, a study released by the Pew Research Center suggests.

“In three of four election polls conducted since the spring of this year, estimates from the landline samples alone produced slightly more support for Republican candidates and less support for Democratic candidates, resulting in differences of four to six points in the margin,” Pew reported. “One poll showed no difference between the landline and combined samples.”

Pew says that the effect is even more pronounced when it looked at likely voters.

In that case, the poll without cell phones showed that 50 percent supported a generic Republican candidate while 43 percent supported a generic Democratic candidate. The same poll including cell phones is 47 percent to 44 percent in support of the Democrat.

This suggest that polling firms who do not include cell phone-only households could be understating support for a Democratic candidate.

Auto-dial pollsters like Rasmussen Reports, SurveyUSA and Public Policy Polling use this technology to keep down costs. This is why these pollsters poll more often than those who use live phone calls.

Study says cell phones affecting polling « New Mexico Independent

NADA - New American Dark Ages

VOTE!

Vote Again 2010 Urges Young People to Get Out the Vote – AppScout

The Vote Again 2010 Campaign is a non-partisan collaboration of 30 organizations all dedicated to a common goal: making sure that young people get out to the polls each and every November. The people behind the group were active in the 2008 and the 2006 elections, and they’re back this year urging young people to go to the polls on November 2nd, and share their stories and videos through the Vote Again 2010 YouTube channel encouraging them to vote.

Vote Again 2010 Urges Young People to Get Out the Vote – AppScout

NADA - New American Dark Ages, other voices

Repeating the Lie

Conservatives have come a long way. Back in John Birch’s glory days, they didn’t care whether they were the majority or not – their self-righteousness was all they needed to keep going. Barry Goldwater made extremism noble. However, ever since conservative marketers twisted “The Silent Majority” into something specifically conservative to sell us Tricky Dick Nixon and Spiro Agnew (the epitome of Mad Hatters and Angry White Men) conservatives have congratulated themselves time and again that they are the majority. Wrong. If there is a majority in America, they are apathetic, uninterested, or cynical, too busy or too lazy to get involved. Those who care enough about the country to vote are a minority. Those who care enough to do anything more than vote are an extreme minority. Ask yourself: Who is served by apathy.

Below, Paul Keaton trots out an un-cited statistic and twists 40 percent into majority rule. Then, he declares that any rule he doesn’t agree with is a coup. Time and again, the Radical Wrong practices the same adage: When you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Tea-Partiers Favor Mid-Road Values
By Paul W. Keaton
Santa Fe resident

It was never the goal of the Tea Party to put the Republicans back in power. We have tried to explain that to both Democrats and Republicans many times. Do you hear us now? [mjh: Hear? Yes. Believe, no.]

One might ask, "So, are the tea-partiers winning the hearts and minds of Americans?" But that is the wrong question. Tea-partiers are the hearts and minds of mainstream Americans. 

        For instance, polls show that the ratio of conservatives-to-independents-to-liberals in the United States is about 40 percent to 30 percent to 20 percent, respectively. Any political pundit who calls himself a pragmatist should know this and understand that mainstream America is represented best by moderate-to-right policies. Anything else can only be called a coup.

        And now, for the first time in many decades, we are awakened – no – alarmed and energized.

        One goal is to place in both parties, politicians with mainstream values so no matter which party wins, untested extremists— left or right — can’t destroy the country.

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Tea-Partiers Favor Mid-Road Values

It’s rather arrogant to declare yourself the majority. At least I have the sense and honesty to know I’m not in the majority – never have been, never will be, don’t need it or want it. I don’t think there is any meaningful majority in AmeriCo anymore. The Tea Party represents the ultimate Balkanization of Amerika.

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters To the Editor

Throw Bozos Out of Washington
        ISN’T IT IRONIC that none of the bozos that want to be re-elected has said one single word about what their platform is?

        They’re good at bashing their opponents; however, all liberals are good at that. … [mjh: Seriously, Ron? Do you think conservatives don’t ever bash their opponents. Look in the mirror.]

        Something these bozos don’t seem to understand: They work for us, not the other way around! I don’t want the government making my health care choices, I don’t want the government controlling my utilities; and mark my words, they want to control every single aspect of our lives! [mjh: Ron, et ilk, is actually saying he doesn’t want government to work at all – something conservatives demand and accomplish every chance they get.]

        It won’t be long and all our rights will be out the window. … I don’t want the government interfering with my life any more than they do already. I really hope the people wake up to what they’re trying to do to us. Let’s go green, and recycle Washington!
        RON ROSS
        Albuquerque

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters To the Editor

One thing the Right gets wrong stems from raging paranoia. The fearful Right is certain to the core that “they” want to control “us” and take freedom and everything else away from “us.” Oh, except for conservative candidates, somehow. Yeah, right. The most dangerously paranoid think there are no exceptions to the rule. They want anarchy but don’t have the brains to realize that’s what they’re calling for or the balls to go for it.

When the loud and angry mob gets me down, I return to Sherman Alexie’s optimistic view.

07/18/2003: An Interview with Sherman Alexie By Steven Robert Allen (alibi . july 17 – 23, 2003)

Alibi: [O]ver the last couple decades conservatism seems to have been in the ascendance. Do you still feel like the world is getting better, or do you feel like we’re drifting back into a dark ages?

Alexie: Well, conservatism hasn’t ascended. It wasn’t conservatives who got civil rights in place. All these things that are still happening are still very liberal. We can’t view a 20-year span or a 10-year span or Dubya’s administration in micro terms. If he does, and I don’t know yet, represent radical change, it’s still tiny compared to two centuries worth of this country’s history.

Alibi: The overall trajectory is liberal?

Alexie: Yeah, and the thing is people in this country continue, with every generation, to be more educated, more progressive, more diversely minded, more tolerant and more loving. At one point I say it in the book, about the average 20-something, graveyard-shift worker today being smarter than an opera-goer in New York in 1876. And it’s true. Health-wise we’re so much better off. Education-wise we’re better off. I mean, people say there’s an education crisis in the country, but go back a hundred years, go back 50 years, you know. Things were much worse. That doesn’t mean there aren’t problems we need to deal with, but there’s no need to run around screaming that the world is ending either. Dubya is a conservative, and he’s a Christian conservative. But he’s not as far right as many past presidents.

mjh’s Weblog Entry – 07/18/2003: "An Interview with Sherman Alexie"