Thursday, August 13, 2009
JACK AND JILL POLITICS
Um, Senator McCaskill, let’s get something straight
13
Aug
2009
Author: rikyrah
hat tip - parker404
from Politico.com
August 12, 2009
Categories: Health Care
McCaskill says Rep. Scott’s racism charge ‘irresponsible’
Sen. Claire McCaskill — who went through a pretty tough town hall herself today — told CNN tonight that it was “irresponsible” for Democratic Rep. David Scott to blame racism for some of the town hall anger across the nation.
“I think that is irresponsible to say,” McCaskill said on Anderson Cooper 360 Wednesday night. “There may be individual instances of that but there are a whole lot of people who are frustrated … but I’m not sure if it would be accurate to make that about race.”
Scott, who is black, had a fairly confrontational town hall earlier this week where he shouted back at a doctor in the audience who challenged him. The next day the sign for Scott’s Atlanta area office had a swastika painted on it.
WHEN A BLACK MAN…
FROM GEORGIA…
Gets a SWASTIKA painted on his office door…
and gets mail that calls him a NIGGA...
I think he knows RACISM when he sees it.
So, go somewhere and sit your ass on down.
Hell no…I don’t go for the okeydoke of racism only being valid when WHITE people think that it’s happened.
PHUCK THAT.
David Scott has been BLACK IN AMERICA longer than 3 weeks.
He KNOWS racism when he sees it.
And RACISM is all over this ‘protesting’ at town halls on healthcare.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
THE DAILY DISH
Geography Fail
by Patrick Appel
This is amazing:
According to Public Policy Polling (PPP), a North Carolina polling firm, only 24% of self-identified Republican voters in the state believe Barack Obama was born in the United States. 47% do not believe that Obama is American born, and 29% of Republicans aren’t sure. One part of PPP’s data might reassure sentient readers somewhat: 7% of those who voted for John McCain do not believe Hawaii to be a part of the United States. Now perhaps this is just another irrational expression of Obama hatred. But, it may also be older voters who never quite absorbed the news that our 50th state is indeed our 50th state.
by Patrick Appel
This is amazing:
According to Public Policy Polling (PPP), a North Carolina polling firm, only 24% of self-identified Republican voters in the state believe Barack Obama was born in the United States. 47% do not believe that Obama is American born, and 29% of Republicans aren’t sure. One part of PPP’s data might reassure sentient readers somewhat: 7% of those who voted for John McCain do not believe Hawaii to be a part of the United States. Now perhaps this is just another irrational expression of Obama hatred. But, it may also be older voters who never quite absorbed the news that our 50th state is indeed our 50th state.
SIMPLY PUT THIS GUY IS A RACIST
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Who was that gun-toting anti-Obama protester?
JOAN WALSH-SALON
AP Photo/Joel Page
William Kostric wears a 9mm pistol as he stands outside a town hall meeting on healthcare held by President Obama, in Portsmouth, N.H., Tuesday.
One of Tuesday's big mysteries was the motivation behind anti-Obama protester William Kostric, the man who brought a loaded gun to the town hall meeting and carried a sign referencing Thomas Jefferson's famous credo, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots."
On Tuesday afternoon MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked Kostric why he carried "a God-damned gun" to a meeting with the president, "given the violent history of this country with regard to presidents and assassinations," and whether he supported the Birther movement. Kostric insisted his intentions were peaceful, and that he's not affiliated with Birther groups.
But at least one of those statements doesn't seem to be true. A right-wing activist named "William Kostric," who's left a lot of footprints around the Web, is listed as a "team member" of the Arizona chapter of We the People, the far-right group best known for joining a lawsuit challenging Obama's right to be president based on his not being a U.S. citizen. Kostric told MSNBC he recently moved from Arizona to New Hampshire. (Kostric did not reply to Salon's e-mail request for an interview.)
And on his MySpace page (h/t Lavender Newswire), Kostric also lists as one of his heroes Robert Schultz, the anti-tax activist and We the People founder who spent a ton of his own money on ads promoting the Birther movement. At a press conference in December, Schultz told reporters: "This nation is headed towards a vortex of a Constitutional crisis. While on the one hand, the Obama citizenship issue is so simple a schoolchild could grasp it, if left festering and unanswered, it possesses the potential to send our nation into a time of great peril."
Kostric's MySpace profile also lists among his heroes Randy Weaver, the white supremacist and right-wing activist who survived the Ruby Ridge confrontation with federal agents, along with Ayn Rand's John Galt, Thomas Jefferson, libertarian/GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul and William Wallace, the Scottish resistance leader portrayed in Mel Gibson's "Braveheart."
The profile also includes, as one of Kostric's "Top 12 friends," the Free State Movement, a group organizing libertarians to move to New Hampshire and expand on the state's "Live Free or Die" credo, and ultimately secede from the union. A "William Kostric" also signed two pledges at PledgeBank, a site that lets people organize around various causes. Kostric's two pledges include: "move to New Hampshire by 12/31/2008 where I will work to bring about a society in which government’s maximum role is protecting life, liberty, and property" -- the credo of Free State Movement members -- and "refuse to accept a national ID card," a cause among many far-right libertarians.
There's no overt reason to conclude from his Web presence that Kostric is violent, although on the Web site of Reason, the libertarian magazine, someone posting under his name defends drug dealers who kill police officers who enter their homes to arrest them:
"If people can't wake up and see why it's immoral to trespass and destroy someones property, kidnap and lock them in a cage for growing a plant in their backyard then perhaps a body count is what's required for change.
"I personally feel zero sympathy for those cops. I reserve my sympathy for the victims of the nonsense they initiate."
If Kostric really believes "perhaps a body count is what's required for change" in the case of cops moving against drug dealers, it would be interesting to know what other causes he thinks a "body count" might hasten along.
The chances that the William Kostric who's left the Web footprints is not the William Kostric who became notorious Tuesday seem slim to none. Kostric told Chris Matthews that he protested the Obama event because the nation is "traveling down a road of tyranny."
Kostric's MySpace page features a few odd notes. His profile photo is a little boy crying next to a tombstone that reads "Santa Claus." He explains the picture this way:
"Poor kid. I feel his pain. Maybe it's about time as I've generally been short on empathy.
So Santa Claus is a metaphor for god, unconditional love or whatever we once believed in very strongly and now know to be false. Of course the intial realization causes some pain, disillusionment, insecurity, a laundry list of negative emotions.
The big one for me was anger. What was the point of the lie to begin with? Then perhaps fear. If I was so wrong on this point, what else am I completely mistaken about?
You begin to question everything and one day you realize that isn't a bad thing. You begin to enjoy the path of self realization. Or, you can choose to reject the real world and get plugged back into the Matrix, to go through life with your Eyes Wide Shut."
His introductory note closes with a quote from Jack London, which sounds a little more alarming coming from an admirer of Randy Weaver than, say, a lit major:
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist."
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
DAVID SIROTA-SALON
AUGUST 11, 2009 12:29PM
Conservative Idol: Health Care & the Fox News Incentive
Rate: 10 Flag Email.Click "Submit Abuse" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish. Cancel
UPDATE: Not surprisingly, just as I was writing this post, Fox News did a "breaking news" segment that showed a crazed protestor screaming at Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (D). Here's the screen shot from Fox's website. I'm sure the protestor will soon be an "exclusive guest" on a Fox News program. As I said, this is not merely a right-leaning news outlet - it is a partisan propaganda machine.
To understand how Fox News crosses the line from right-leaning news outlet into partisan propaganda machine (and there is a difference between the two), look no further than exactly how the network is driving (or at least trying to drive) the health care debate via the congressional town hall meetings.
As a PR tactic, Fox's three-tiered formula is absolutely ingenious:
1. First, Fox has given a huge amount of airtime to covering the lobbyist-organized protests at the town hall meetings, without, of course, mentioning that many of the protests are organized by lobbyists. Mind you, we know this interest in protest and "democracy" is completely politically motivated because we know it is completely new -- it's not some ongoing Fox News principle. This is the same network that regularly pilloried anti-war protests during the Bush administration, and gave them almost no coverage, much less positive, whatsoever. So it's safe to assume that Fox is only now interested in protest and democracy because it might hurt President Obama, Democrats and the progressive agenda.
2. Whenever one member of the protesters in the Khaki Pants Offensive makes an especially circus-like scene, Fox then has that particular protester on for an interview -- all under the pretense that the protester has made him/herself "news." In the last two days alone, I've seen Fox aggressively promote "exclusive" interviews with screaming protesters from Rep. John Dingell's (D-MI) and Rep. David Scott's (D-GA) town meetings. Fox dutifully promotes these people as persecuted martyrs, and their actual claims about health care are barely -- if ever -- explored for their veracity (or lack thereof).
3. Finally, after helping create the media image of mass protests, Fox has manufactured a reason to continue covering the supposed mass protests. And the cycle starts over.
What this does is create a vicious cycle whereby the small group of conservative activists who are terrorizing these town halls have an incentive to be more and more aggressive. They know that if they can go further than the last supposed martyr, they might get their mug on Fox News. In that way, it's a little like American Idol - only it's Conservative Idol. And so from protesters trying to shut down town hall meetings with screaming we get protesters shoving matches and then protesters arming themselves and then protestors making death threats. This is the Fox News Incentive System at work.
Let's be clear: I have absolutely no problem with conservative protesters -- even those organized by corporate lobbyists -- expressing their strong opposition to health care reform. While I happen to think most of these people are motivated from raw selfishness, and while polls show these people represent a tiny minority of Americans, I sincerely believe they have every right to make their voice heard. Indeed, my personal email signature is a Teddy Roosevelt quote which says, "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
However, just because you have a right to speak, doesn't mean you have a right to block/intimidate others from speaking or a right to shut down town hall meetings. That's what the Me-First, Screw-Everyone-Else Crowd is trying to do in starting its World War Z. And the Fox News Incentive System is rewarding them for it.
Conservative Idol: Health Care & the Fox News Incentive
Rate: 10 Flag Email.Click "Submit Abuse" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish. Cancel
UPDATE: Not surprisingly, just as I was writing this post, Fox News did a "breaking news" segment that showed a crazed protestor screaming at Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (D). Here's the screen shot from Fox's website. I'm sure the protestor will soon be an "exclusive guest" on a Fox News program. As I said, this is not merely a right-leaning news outlet - it is a partisan propaganda machine.
To understand how Fox News crosses the line from right-leaning news outlet into partisan propaganda machine (and there is a difference between the two), look no further than exactly how the network is driving (or at least trying to drive) the health care debate via the congressional town hall meetings.
As a PR tactic, Fox's three-tiered formula is absolutely ingenious:
1. First, Fox has given a huge amount of airtime to covering the lobbyist-organized protests at the town hall meetings, without, of course, mentioning that many of the protests are organized by lobbyists. Mind you, we know this interest in protest and "democracy" is completely politically motivated because we know it is completely new -- it's not some ongoing Fox News principle. This is the same network that regularly pilloried anti-war protests during the Bush administration, and gave them almost no coverage, much less positive, whatsoever. So it's safe to assume that Fox is only now interested in protest and democracy because it might hurt President Obama, Democrats and the progressive agenda.
2. Whenever one member of the protesters in the Khaki Pants Offensive makes an especially circus-like scene, Fox then has that particular protester on for an interview -- all under the pretense that the protester has made him/herself "news." In the last two days alone, I've seen Fox aggressively promote "exclusive" interviews with screaming protesters from Rep. John Dingell's (D-MI) and Rep. David Scott's (D-GA) town meetings. Fox dutifully promotes these people as persecuted martyrs, and their actual claims about health care are barely -- if ever -- explored for their veracity (or lack thereof).
3. Finally, after helping create the media image of mass protests, Fox has manufactured a reason to continue covering the supposed mass protests. And the cycle starts over.
What this does is create a vicious cycle whereby the small group of conservative activists who are terrorizing these town halls have an incentive to be more and more aggressive. They know that if they can go further than the last supposed martyr, they might get their mug on Fox News. In that way, it's a little like American Idol - only it's Conservative Idol. And so from protesters trying to shut down town hall meetings with screaming we get protesters shoving matches and then protesters arming themselves and then protestors making death threats. This is the Fox News Incentive System at work.
Let's be clear: I have absolutely no problem with conservative protesters -- even those organized by corporate lobbyists -- expressing their strong opposition to health care reform. While I happen to think most of these people are motivated from raw selfishness, and while polls show these people represent a tiny minority of Americans, I sincerely believe they have every right to make their voice heard. Indeed, my personal email signature is a Teddy Roosevelt quote which says, "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
However, just because you have a right to speak, doesn't mean you have a right to block/intimidate others from speaking or a right to shut down town hall meetings. That's what the Me-First, Screw-Everyone-Else Crowd is trying to do in starting its World War Z. And the Fox News Incentive System is rewarding them for it.
TOWN HALL CRAZIES
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Healther Skelter | ||||
| ||||
Monday, August 10, 2009
CONSERVATIVES ARE THE REAL JOKER-MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL
SOCIALISM is the tag line of a bizarre new campaign against President Obama. The word "Socialism" appears across an image portraying President Obama as Heath Ledger's Joker in last year's The Dark Knight. The Obama/Joker mash-ups have appeared on posters in Los Angeles, have gone viral on the Internet, and are available as t-shirts, mugs, and other political swag.
It seems that some elements of America's fringe Right have become embarrassingly Freudian. This is a clear cut case of projection. The Right is the Joker, not President Obama.
Heath Ledger's edgy, dark portrayal of the Joker was remarkable and disturbing precisely because it was rooted in irresistible chaos, not in tight control. If Obama's critics are trying to claim he is a big-government loving, bureaucracy building, state-control planning mastermind then they could not have chosen a worse image than Ledger's Joker.
Joker's evil is banal, random, gleeful and almost effortless. "Do I really look like a guy with a plan?" he asks.
If the current political moment were mapped onto The Dark Knight script, it would be the right wing fringe of the GOP cast as the chaos-inducing Joker.
Conservative tactics of social divisiveness feel distinctly Joker-like. Elected Republicans and conservative talk show personalities like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck used the Sotomayor hearings and President Obama's response to the Dr. Henry Louis Gates' arrest to claim reverse racism, stoke racial anxiety, and suggest that some citizens are more worthy than others.
In the film Joker rigs two ferries with bombs. One carrying ordinary citizens, the other carrying convicted criminals. Joker offers a terrible choice,
"Each of you has a remote... to blow up the other boat. At midnight, I blow you all up. If, however, one of you presses the button, I'll let that boat live. So, who's it going to be: Harvey Dent's most wanted scumbag collection, or the sweet and innocent civilians? You choose... oh, and you might want to decide quickly, because the people on the other boat might not be so noble."
By encouraging Americans to nurture fears of racial and ethnic competition, the Right similarly asks us to blow up one another. They ask citizens to see themselves as more worthy than their neighbor and to destroy others for the sake of self-preservation.
The Birther movement of the right wing is distinctly Joker-like in its sheer madness. By repeating their baseless claims, the Birther movement has managed to convince a sizeable portion of Southern, white Americans that President Obama may not have been born in the United States. As the bizarre strategy makes inroads into Americans' consciousness one can almost see some Birther leaders clapping their hands with the child-like mania of Ledger's Joker.
Nothing has been more reminiscent of Ledger's Joker than the current strategy of massive disruption at health care reform town hall meetings. The Joker blew up a hospital. The GOP is hoping to explode the effort for health care reform.
Our nation faces a crisis in health care. The massive economic downturn and rising unemployment make the limitations of employer provided health insurance clearer than ever. There is legitimate and reasonable disagreement on how we should address this problem. As legislators return home for the August break, town hall meetings are one forum for airing these disagreements and discussing alternatives.
Rather than organize Republican citizens to engage in thoughtful debate about an important political issue, GOP elected officials are supporting tactics of disruption and disturbance promoted by the insurance lobby. Their goal is to shut down conversation, confuse voters, and rattle members of Congress. To quote the Joker, "Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos."
The Dark Knight metaphor is completed by Blue Dog Democrats. Like the film's young politico Harvey Dent, they are turned by the Joker's chaos tactics into two-faced madmen wiling to leave the nation's future to chance.
Here the comic book ends. Unlike the Joker, the Right has goals beyond simple destruction. The GOP wants to win back Congressional seats and retake the White House. Rather than offer substantive alternatives, they are willing to flirt with the destructive forces of reckless chaos.
Americans cannot simply hope that a super hero is waiting to respond to the nation's distress signal. We will have to save ourselves. We can and must embrace the messy work of democracy and disagreement without descending into the destruction of meaningless chaos.
RETREAD NEWT
Monday August 10, 2009 09:10 EDT
Gingrich backs Palin on "death panels"
It gets sillier: Now we have two potential candidates for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, spewing the worst sort of lie about President Obama's health plan: That it will establish "death panels" to decide who deserves medical care and who deserves euthanasia.
Clearly the GOP has decided this issue is a winner. Older Americans are still more reliable voters than middle-aged and young voters, and Republicans are seeing political value in scaring them with threats of mandatory euthanasia and a Medicare collapse. It was amusing to see Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, no big Medicare proponent, warning hysterically Sunday that the Democrats want "a half-trillion dollars in Medicare cuts." This from the party that's also railing about how the Obama plan will add to the deficit, and is opposing every reasonable effort to curtail dangerously out of control health care costs, whether public or private.
On ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopolous," Gingrich was given a chance to reject Palin's false and vicious claims about "death panels." Part of me expected Gingrich to take that opportunity; whatever else he is, Gingrich doesn't seem demonstrably stupid, and the "death panel" rhetoric seemed beneath him. It also might have been a good way to distinguish himself from a possible 2012 rival.
Once again I gave too much credit even to a Republican I dislike. Gingrich declined Stephanopolous's generous offer, and instead allied himself with Palin's take on Obama's plan: “You're asking us to decide that the government is to be trusted…You are asking us to trust turning power over to the government, when there are clearly people in American who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.” Watch (text continues below):
More than once Stephanopolous reminded Gingrich such language wasn't in the bill; the controversial passage pays for voluntary counseling on living wills and end-of-life care. That's voluntary, as in voluntary, as in you decide whether you want it. Also your living will could say, keep me alive as long as possible, damn the cost. Oh, and did I mention it's voluntary?
A few days after publishing Stephen Pearlstein's excellent and sadly unusual takedown of GOP health care lies, the Washington Post apparently was striving for "balance" when it allowed "liberal" columnist Charles Lane to take up the Palin/Gingrich line, insisting he, too, worries that Obama's plan might push seniors unwillingly toward end of life decisions that hasten the end of life. Lane finds the voluntary counseling not entirely voluntary, because Medicare doctors will be encouraged to raise the issue themselves, not merely wait until a patient asks them about such assistance. "To me, 'purely voluntary' means 'not unless the patient requests one,'" Lane argues. Well, Chuck, to me purely voluntary means the patient is told of all his or her options, and is free to accept or decline.
What's rich about Lane's piece is that he ends it with a disclaimer that he thinks makes him look more reasonable, but in fact makes him look like the out-of-touch Beltway elitist that he is:
"As it happens, I have a living will and a durable power of attorney for health care. I'm glad I do. I drew them up based on publicly available medical information, in consultation with my family and a lawyer. No authority figure got paid by federal bean-counters to influence me. I have a hunch I'm not the only one who would rather do it that way."
Does the cosseted Chuck Lane really not understand that many Medicare recipients may not have access to costly lawyers and supportive, well-informed family members to help them with their living wills and durable power of attorney for health care? What a champion of the people.
This debate is getting dumber, not smarter. Although Obama already answered the "end of life" scare tactics once, he's going to have to do it again. I also think it's time for him to lay out his plan, exactly what he wants, and bring Democrats to heel. With Republican operatives and misinformed Americans shouting down the forces of reform at "town hells," it's going to take Obama's megaphone to cut through the lies, lay out what his plan would do, and remind people why they elected him: to make exactly the kind of change Palin and Gingrich are fighting with every lie necessary.
-- Joan Walsh
TELLING IT LIKE IT IS
HALPERIN'S TAKE: WHY EVERYTHING ABOUT THE HEALTH CARE MOBS IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE
GETTY
1. Coverage of the mobs is playing into the hands of the mobsters.
2. Coverage of the mobs is crowding out a needed national debate about health care.
3. The White House is understandably pushing back against and exploiting the mobs for its own political gain; while understandable, it has also been done at times using methods that are shameful in their own way.
4. It is very easy to disrupt a town meeting and the (apparent) reward is getting their requisite 15 minutes of fame on television news.
5. The president typically tries to treat America like a nation of grown-ups; this would seem to be a mistake when it comes to the mobs and the coverage thereof.
6. Debating whether a given mobster is "real" or "astroturf" is like debating who the third-best professional wrestler of the 1980s was.
7. Please stop saying that Matt Drudge has lost his influence -- or that those who point out his obvious influence are therefore celebrating his influence.
8. The abject weaknesses of the Republican Party and the conservative movement (in general and on health care) are on display in the reaction of their "leaders" to the mobs.
9. Ask Republican members of Congress who voted for President Bush's massive prescription drug entitlement law how many of them read that bill before they voted in favor of it -- or how many bills they EVER read in their entirety.
10. We have met the Freak Show, and it is us.
GETTY
1. Coverage of the mobs is playing into the hands of the mobsters.
2. Coverage of the mobs is crowding out a needed national debate about health care.
3. The White House is understandably pushing back against and exploiting the mobs for its own political gain; while understandable, it has also been done at times using methods that are shameful in their own way.
4. It is very easy to disrupt a town meeting and the (apparent) reward is getting their requisite 15 minutes of fame on television news.
5. The president typically tries to treat America like a nation of grown-ups; this would seem to be a mistake when it comes to the mobs and the coverage thereof.
6. Debating whether a given mobster is "real" or "astroturf" is like debating who the third-best professional wrestler of the 1980s was.
7. Please stop saying that Matt Drudge has lost his influence -- or that those who point out his obvious influence are therefore celebrating his influence.
8. The abject weaknesses of the Republican Party and the conservative movement (in general and on health care) are on display in the reaction of their "leaders" to the mobs.
9. Ask Republican members of Congress who voted for President Bush's massive prescription drug entitlement law how many of them read that bill before they voted in favor of it -- or how many bills they EVER read in their entirety.
10. We have met the Freak Show, and it is us.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
McFADDEN LOOKING FOR BREAKOUT SEASON
Posted by ESPN.com's Bill Williamson
The good news for Darren McFadden was that it didn't take him long to prove he could make an impact in the NFL.
In Week 2 last season, McFadden exploded for 164 yards on 21 carries, leading the Raiders to a win at Kansas City. McFadden had a 50-yard run and quickly displayed why Oakland took him with the No. 4 overall pick in the draft. It was a great start to his career.
The bad news: That performance was the last impactful game of his rookie season. He never ran for more than 46 yards or had more than 14 carries in a game the rest of the season. Because of nasty turf toe injuries, the former Arkansas game-breaker was unable to live up to expectations. He missed three games because of the injuries and had only 113 carries and 29 receptions.
"Last year wasn't what I expected," McFadden said recently at Oakland's training camp. "It was frustrating, but I know I can do it ... I think about that Kansas City game, because it showed what I can do. But it was just one game. I have to put it all together."
Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
Darren McFadden flashed his potential by gaining 164 yards on the Chiefs in Week 2 last season.
There is little doubt in Oakland that McFadden can put it all together as a second-year player. Health is the key and now McFadden is completely recovered from his injuries. He looked crisp and explosive in the training camp practices I saw. His speed is off the charts.
McFadden's true value is his versatility, and it's the primary reason why Oakland bypassed other pressing needs in 2008's draft. In addition to being a gifted runner, he is dangerous as a receiver and he can return kicks if needed. And don't be surprised if McFadden, who was a Wildcat star in college, is used in the formation more in his second year than the Raiders did last year.
Watch for McFadden to line up wide as a receiver in several formations. This can confuse opposing defenses, and with an unproven receiving crew, McFadden can help give life to the passing game.
It is clear that Raiders coach Tom Cable is counting the days to unleash the many faces of Darren McFadden.
"It's better for everyone," Cable said of McFadden's ability to play receiver. "It's a real key for us."
I simply get the feeling that the McFadden we all expected to see will show himself in his second season. If Oakland's offense makes significant strides, it will be because of a strong reliance on McFadden.
There are, of course, limitations. McFadden will make an impact but he is probably more Reggie Bush than Adrian Peterson. He would have a difficult time being a workhorse because of he isn't the biggest back in the league and he has a history of injuries. McFadden will be much more effective carrying the ball 15 to 18 times a game rather than 25 to 30.
That is a realistic proposition. Oakland is as deep as any team in the NFL at tailback. The Raiders also posses intriguing power back Michael Bush and yardage-eater Justin Fargas. The Raiders want McFadden to be the first option, but he'll have help.
McFadden believes the three-headed monster will work in Oakland after some rough spots last season.
"I love that we have three guys," McFadden said. "We can really throw different things at defenses. Plus, every running back in the NFL is going to get banged up. Having three guys will keep us fresh ... We can be really dangerous."
McFadden can be the most dangerous of all three. His performance thus far in training camp shows there could be many days ahead that will make people remember Week 2 of the 2008 season.
"That game gave me a good taste," McFadden said. "I can't wait to show people that I can do that on a regular basis. That's what I'm looking to do in 2009."
TRUE STATEMENT
Charles Blow:
Trapped in their vacuum of ideas, too many Republicans continue to display an astounding ability to believe utter nonsense, even when faced with facts that contradict it.
A Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll released last Friday found that 28 percent of Republicans don’t believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States and another 30 percent are still "not sure." That’s nearly 6 out of 10 Republicans refusing to accept a basic truth. Then again, this shouldn’t surprise me. According to a Gallup poll released last summer, 6 in 10 Republicans also said they thought that humans were created, in their present form, 10,000 years ago.
Let’s face it: This is no party of Einsteins. Really, it isn’t. A Pew poll last month found that only 6 percent of scientists said that they were Republicans.
Democrats should be leading this discussion. Instead, they’re losing control of it. That’s unfortunate because the debate is too important to be hijacked by hooligans.
Trapped in their vacuum of ideas, too many Republicans continue to display an astounding ability to believe utter nonsense, even when faced with facts that contradict it.
A Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll released last Friday found that 28 percent of Republicans don’t believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States and another 30 percent are still "not sure." That’s nearly 6 out of 10 Republicans refusing to accept a basic truth. Then again, this shouldn’t surprise me. According to a Gallup poll released last summer, 6 in 10 Republicans also said they thought that humans were created, in their present form, 10,000 years ago.
Let’s face it: This is no party of Einsteins. Really, it isn’t. A Pew poll last month found that only 6 percent of scientists said that they were Republicans.
Democrats should be leading this discussion. Instead, they’re losing control of it. That’s unfortunate because the debate is too important to be hijacked by hooligans.
Friday, August 7, 2009
SALON
Friday August 7, 2009 06:19 EDT
Our first black president is a Nazi?
Who'd have imagined that our first black president would turn out to be a Nazi? Just when you think political discourse can't get any uglier, Rush Limbaugh is comparing President Obama to Hitler and calling all Democrats Nazis, while the frothing right-wingers turning Democrats' town halls into "town hells" routinely refer to Obama and his supporters as "brownshirts." Right-wing blogger Steve Gilbert has transformed Obama's healthcare reform logo into a Nazi symbol by cleverly adding a swastika; meanwhile, some Republicans insist Democrats are lying about "town hell" rowdies carrying signs with swastikas, but they're the ones with a problem telling the truth.
If you thought right-wingers' claim that Obama is a racist was projection, here's another case study for psychology students everywhere. At district meetings Democrats are being shouted down by angry mobs inflamed by corporate interests spewing lies about healthcare reform -- Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hung in effigy. Rep. Tim Bishop needed a police escort to his car, Rep. Brad Miller reports death threats, while Republican Todd Akin of Missouri joked -- to cheers from his GOP audience -- that his Democratic colleagues "almost got lynched" by the "town hell" rowdies. Glenn Beck is joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi's wine -- but it's the Democrats who are Nazis, fascists and brownshirts. Got it.
It was just a few years ago that MoveOn was pilloried -- by the mainstream media, not just the right -- when a couple of filmmakers used Bush-as-Hitler imagery in a video contest. MoveOn quickly took the videos down and apologized, but the controversy boiled for days. Sure, some on the left continued to refer to the administration as fascists or as Nazis, but they were mostly marginalized. Now two of the biggest right-wing pundits, with huge megaphones on the radio and Fox News, call Obama Hitler, and the media mostly shrug.
It may be that the Republican Party has reached such an all-time rhetorical and political low that reporters and pundits are having outrage fatigue. Maybe depicting a black president as both a Nazi and a racist barely shocks anymore. But the rhetoric and hysteria are getting worse, and mainstream Republicans really need to call it out.
To her credit, Republican columnist Kathleen Parker did just that in the Washington Post Wednesday, noting the distortion and even racism behind the worst attacks on Obama. She blamed it on the fact that "the GOP is fast becoming regionalized below the Mason-Dixon line and increasingly associated with some of the South's worst ideas." Noting the prevalence of "Birther" sympathies in the South, she concluded: "Southern Republicans, it seems, have seceded from sanity."
I've seen Republican leaders -- and even some thoughtful folks in my letters -- try to argue that these town-hall protests are a spontaneous display of populist anger, but I don't think that's true. Even if they aren't being paid by the insurance lobby to turn out at these meetings (and some of them may well be), these angry citizens are being mobilized by lies and shrill rhetoric. At Blue Dog Rep. Mike Ross' town hall, he was shouted down by a woman insisting Obama supports a single-payer (government) insurance plan, which is simply not true. Another woman began sobbing, talking about what her country has become, ending, "I'm scared!" They're being terrified by false claims that Obama is promoting mandatory end-of-life "counseling" (read assisted suicide), mandatory gender-change surgery (!) and aiming to eliminate private insurance. (Let's hope the unhinged turnout gets Ross to support the president, not the people mobilizing the folks shouting him down.)
The "town hells," in short, don't represent populism, they're a display of hysteria fed by lies peddled by GOP leaders and corporate interests. And it's getting worse.
In a related tangent, I was stunned by Editor and Publisher's report that AP, the New York Times and other news organizations quoted liberally from Pittsburgh health club murderer George Sodini's diaries, but left out his racist diatribes against Obama. The diary in fact began the day after Obama was elected, and Sodini wrote, "Good luck to Obama! He will be successful. The liberal media LOVES him. Amerika has chosen The Black Man." He then goes on to complain that white "hoes" are choosing black men over him. In the last four months we've seen three mass shootings -- the Pittsburgh cop killings, the Holocaust Museum murders and now this -- in which the murderer has ranted crazily about Obama. I worry with good reason that the Sodini assault won't be the last.
-- Joan Walsh
Our first black president is a Nazi?
Who'd have imagined that our first black president would turn out to be a Nazi? Just when you think political discourse can't get any uglier, Rush Limbaugh is comparing President Obama to Hitler and calling all Democrats Nazis, while the frothing right-wingers turning Democrats' town halls into "town hells" routinely refer to Obama and his supporters as "brownshirts." Right-wing blogger Steve Gilbert has transformed Obama's healthcare reform logo into a Nazi symbol by cleverly adding a swastika; meanwhile, some Republicans insist Democrats are lying about "town hell" rowdies carrying signs with swastikas, but they're the ones with a problem telling the truth.
If you thought right-wingers' claim that Obama is a racist was projection, here's another case study for psychology students everywhere. At district meetings Democrats are being shouted down by angry mobs inflamed by corporate interests spewing lies about healthcare reform -- Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hung in effigy. Rep. Tim Bishop needed a police escort to his car, Rep. Brad Miller reports death threats, while Republican Todd Akin of Missouri joked -- to cheers from his GOP audience -- that his Democratic colleagues "almost got lynched" by the "town hell" rowdies. Glenn Beck is joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi's wine -- but it's the Democrats who are Nazis, fascists and brownshirts. Got it.
It was just a few years ago that MoveOn was pilloried -- by the mainstream media, not just the right -- when a couple of filmmakers used Bush-as-Hitler imagery in a video contest. MoveOn quickly took the videos down and apologized, but the controversy boiled for days. Sure, some on the left continued to refer to the administration as fascists or as Nazis, but they were mostly marginalized. Now two of the biggest right-wing pundits, with huge megaphones on the radio and Fox News, call Obama Hitler, and the media mostly shrug.
It may be that the Republican Party has reached such an all-time rhetorical and political low that reporters and pundits are having outrage fatigue. Maybe depicting a black president as both a Nazi and a racist barely shocks anymore. But the rhetoric and hysteria are getting worse, and mainstream Republicans really need to call it out.
To her credit, Republican columnist Kathleen Parker did just that in the Washington Post Wednesday, noting the distortion and even racism behind the worst attacks on Obama. She blamed it on the fact that "the GOP is fast becoming regionalized below the Mason-Dixon line and increasingly associated with some of the South's worst ideas." Noting the prevalence of "Birther" sympathies in the South, she concluded: "Southern Republicans, it seems, have seceded from sanity."
I've seen Republican leaders -- and even some thoughtful folks in my letters -- try to argue that these town-hall protests are a spontaneous display of populist anger, but I don't think that's true. Even if they aren't being paid by the insurance lobby to turn out at these meetings (and some of them may well be), these angry citizens are being mobilized by lies and shrill rhetoric. At Blue Dog Rep. Mike Ross' town hall, he was shouted down by a woman insisting Obama supports a single-payer (government) insurance plan, which is simply not true. Another woman began sobbing, talking about what her country has become, ending, "I'm scared!" They're being terrified by false claims that Obama is promoting mandatory end-of-life "counseling" (read assisted suicide), mandatory gender-change surgery (!) and aiming to eliminate private insurance. (Let's hope the unhinged turnout gets Ross to support the president, not the people mobilizing the folks shouting him down.)
The "town hells," in short, don't represent populism, they're a display of hysteria fed by lies peddled by GOP leaders and corporate interests. And it's getting worse.
In a related tangent, I was stunned by Editor and Publisher's report that AP, the New York Times and other news organizations quoted liberally from Pittsburgh health club murderer George Sodini's diaries, but left out his racist diatribes against Obama. The diary in fact began the day after Obama was elected, and Sodini wrote, "Good luck to Obama! He will be successful. The liberal media LOVES him. Amerika has chosen The Black Man." He then goes on to complain that white "hoes" are choosing black men over him. In the last four months we've seen three mass shootings -- the Pittsburgh cop killings, the Holocaust Museum murders and now this -- in which the murderer has ranted crazily about Obama. I worry with good reason that the Sodini assault won't be the last.
-- Joan Walsh
Thursday, August 6, 2009
IS HE CRAZY??????????
San Francisco 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree is prepared to sit out this season and re-enter the NFL draft in 2010, David Wells, Crabtree's cousin and adviser, said Thursday.
NFC West blog
ESPN.com's Mike Sando writes about all things NFC West in his division blog.
• Blog network: NFL Nation
"We are prepared to do it," Wells said. "Michael just wants fair-market value. They took him with the 10th pick and you have Darrius Heyward-Bey [the seventh overall pick by the Oakland Raiders] getting $38 million? This week is crucial. Michael was one of the best players in the draft and he just wants to be paid like one of the best players. This week is very crucial."
However, Crabtree's agent told ESPN.com that no such threat has been made on his part.
Addressing the report, agent Eugene Parker told ESPN.com on Thursday afternoon: "You've known me a long time and I'm not a guy who makes threats. Nor am I a guy who negotiates in the public. I don't know where this came from but no such threat has been made."
Wells said he believes the Niners have made an offer but that it is not acceptable. Wells said Crabtree is ready to start practicing and was held out of OTAs this spring by coaches only for precautionary reasons.
Crabtree, who turns 22 next month, also missed the 49ers' offseason minicamps and their organized team activities while recovering from a foot injury but was a regular presence at team headquarters for rehabilitation and strengthening workouts.
Crabtree caught 97 passes for 1,165 yards and 19 touchdowns last year during his sophomore season at Texas Tech. He finished his collegiate career with 231 receptions, 3,127 yards and 41 TDs.
THE ROLAND REPORT
August 04, 2009
Is the GOP re-calibrating the Southern Strategy?
Huffington Post has an interesting lead story today detailing the significant drop among white voters as it relates to President Barack Obama's approval ratings.
The article establishes the point of view that the GOP is defaulting to its long-established plan on driving a wedge between white voters and everyone else when it comes to politics.
When you watch the daily and nightly attacks on anything President Obama does on Fox News, especially cranks like Glenn Beck and Sean "Little Ball of Hate" Hannity, it's clear who they are targeting. It's not like a significant percentage of Fox viewers are Black or Hispanic, and to watch a fool like Beck call the president a racist is a joke. Then, of course, you have Hannity who loves to bring up Rev. Jeremiah Wright anytime he can.
Some tried to take me to task when I blasted a woman who stood up at a town hall meeting and ripped the president over his birth certificate, and then screamed that she wanted her country back!
And then there is Pat Buchanan, the resident village idiot at MSNBC who penned an open letter to President Obama that was so hateful, racist and paternalistic that it is beyond belief. He also advanced some of the most foul white supremacist talk during a recent Rachel Maddow segment. In his letter, this fool basically said African Americans should be grateful for slavery because white slave masters introduced Christianity to us.
What we are seeing, frankly, are conservatives and Republicans who are just flat out angry that this country is becoming less white. They slam federal judge Sonia Sotomayor, acting as if diversity has no value whatsoever. You see these wackos work themselves into a frenzy over the president's birth certificate. You see them ride the backs of Rush Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and the others, knowing full well they are trying to gin up fake controversies and get the white males they covet to raise their fists and rant at anything the president does.
The critics will say that the president's race has nothing to do with it, but his policies. They will say we're spending ourselves into oblivion, but conveniently not say a word about the spending habits of President George W. Bush.
The GOP doesn't give a flip about African Americans. But what's driving them nuts is what may happen with Hispanics. If and when most Republican senators vote against Sotomayor, they'll say it's because she's a judicial activist, as if John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia are not passive observers on the Supreme Court. The GOP will have hell to pay for their dissing of Hispanics, and you can bet Sotomayor's face will be in every ad against a Republican who didn't support her.
If the GOP wants permanent minority status, keep aligning yourselves with those ranting against African Americans and Hispanics. Keep siding with the crazies like the birthers. All you're doing is guaranteeing that you will be watching Democrats run Congress and the White House for a long time to come.
Posted at 02:10 PM | Permalink
Is the GOP re-calibrating the Southern Strategy?
Huffington Post has an interesting lead story today detailing the significant drop among white voters as it relates to President Barack Obama's approval ratings.
The article establishes the point of view that the GOP is defaulting to its long-established plan on driving a wedge between white voters and everyone else when it comes to politics.
When you watch the daily and nightly attacks on anything President Obama does on Fox News, especially cranks like Glenn Beck and Sean "Little Ball of Hate" Hannity, it's clear who they are targeting. It's not like a significant percentage of Fox viewers are Black or Hispanic, and to watch a fool like Beck call the president a racist is a joke. Then, of course, you have Hannity who loves to bring up Rev. Jeremiah Wright anytime he can.
Some tried to take me to task when I blasted a woman who stood up at a town hall meeting and ripped the president over his birth certificate, and then screamed that she wanted her country back!
And then there is Pat Buchanan, the resident village idiot at MSNBC who penned an open letter to President Obama that was so hateful, racist and paternalistic that it is beyond belief. He also advanced some of the most foul white supremacist talk during a recent Rachel Maddow segment. In his letter, this fool basically said African Americans should be grateful for slavery because white slave masters introduced Christianity to us.
What we are seeing, frankly, are conservatives and Republicans who are just flat out angry that this country is becoming less white. They slam federal judge Sonia Sotomayor, acting as if diversity has no value whatsoever. You see these wackos work themselves into a frenzy over the president's birth certificate. You see them ride the backs of Rush Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and the others, knowing full well they are trying to gin up fake controversies and get the white males they covet to raise their fists and rant at anything the president does.
The critics will say that the president's race has nothing to do with it, but his policies. They will say we're spending ourselves into oblivion, but conveniently not say a word about the spending habits of President George W. Bush.
The GOP doesn't give a flip about African Americans. But what's driving them nuts is what may happen with Hispanics. If and when most Republican senators vote against Sotomayor, they'll say it's because she's a judicial activist, as if John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia are not passive observers on the Supreme Court. The GOP will have hell to pay for their dissing of Hispanics, and you can bet Sotomayor's face will be in every ad against a Republican who didn't support her.
If the GOP wants permanent minority status, keep aligning yourselves with those ranting against African Americans and Hispanics. Keep siding with the crazies like the birthers. All you're doing is guaranteeing that you will be watching Democrats run Congress and the White House for a long time to come.
Posted at 02:10 PM | Permalink
STEWART BLASTS CNN AND FOX NEWS
ddle'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c William Jefferson Airplane
| Daily Show Full Episodes | Political Humor | Spinal Tap Performance |
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
JACK AND JILL POLITICS
144 CommentsTags: Afternoon Open Thread
Sixteen Democrats of No Worth
4
Aug
2009
Author: rikyrah
From BoomanTribune
Sixteen Democrats of No Worth
by BooMan
Mon Aug 3rd, 2009 at 03:14:59 PM EST
The last vote the House took before their August recess was on the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act (PDF). It passed 237-185. The bill gave shareholders an advisory vote on CEO compensation. Sixteen Democrats voted against it. Because this offends me, I want you to know who the sixteen Democrats were. Never give these people any support, financial or otherwise.
Marion Berry of Arkansas, Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Allen Boyd of Florida, Bobby Bright of Alabama, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Parker Griffith of Alabama, Debbie Halvorson of Illinois, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona, Frank Kratovil of Maryland, Betsy Markey of Colorado, Mike McMahon of New York, Harry Mitchell of Arizona, Glenn Nye of Virginia, Mike Ross of Arkansas, Vic Snyder of Arkansas, and Harry Teague of New Mexico.
Yeah, I know almost all of these members are newly elected from conservative districts. Those districts are conservative on social issues. Aside from Rep. McMahon, who represents Staten Island, none of these members represent a lot of corporate CEO’s. They’re all showing their true colors here. They aren’t voting their districts…they’re financing their next campaigns.
Expose the losers.
Sixteen Democrats of No Worth
4
Aug
2009
Author: rikyrah
From BoomanTribune
Sixteen Democrats of No Worth
by BooMan
Mon Aug 3rd, 2009 at 03:14:59 PM EST
The last vote the House took before their August recess was on the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act (PDF). It passed 237-185. The bill gave shareholders an advisory vote on CEO compensation. Sixteen Democrats voted against it. Because this offends me, I want you to know who the sixteen Democrats were. Never give these people any support, financial or otherwise.
Marion Berry of Arkansas, Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Allen Boyd of Florida, Bobby Bright of Alabama, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Parker Griffith of Alabama, Debbie Halvorson of Illinois, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona, Frank Kratovil of Maryland, Betsy Markey of Colorado, Mike McMahon of New York, Harry Mitchell of Arizona, Glenn Nye of Virginia, Mike Ross of Arkansas, Vic Snyder of Arkansas, and Harry Teague of New Mexico.
Yeah, I know almost all of these members are newly elected from conservative districts. Those districts are conservative on social issues. Aside from Rep. McMahon, who represents Staten Island, none of these members represent a lot of corporate CEO’s. They’re all showing their true colors here. They aren’t voting their districts…they’re financing their next campaigns.
Expose the losers.
GOOD OLE SOUTH CAROLINA
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Thank You, South Carolina! | ||||
| ||||
Monday, August 3, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
IS IT 2009 OR 1969???RACISM STILL EXISTS
By Edmund DeMarche and Chloe Melas
CNN
(CNN) -- Black employees at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, waste transfer plant were harassed, humiliated and discriminated against by their supervisor for decades, says an attorney representing two workers who filed a complaint against the city.
Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station's superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K. Trubman. The restroom -- which he called the "supervisors' bathroom" -- was supposedly for the sole use of upper-level officials with the city's Streets Department, Trubman said.
As far back as 1996, it became apparent to black employees that they were being slighted, said Trubman. They would watch white co-workers walk into the segregated bathroom, conveniently located one floor above Gill's office.
"If you tried to use the bathroom, you might get suspended," said Leslie Young, a former worker at the facility. Young, along with Gibson Trowery, who still works at the station, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in October 2007.
Young said he recalled that a lock was placed on the restroom door, with keys distributed only to white workers.
The restroom black workers could use was down five flights of stairs and was "not in the greatest condition," Trubman said. Some employees were forced to ask Gill's permission before they could make the trip, he said.
"It was very degrading and humiliating," said Young. "I saw it wreck peoples' home lives -- picking on you for nothing."
Gill, asked for comment Friday, referred CNN to his lawyers, saying, "If you want to write a fair story, wait for after the trial to finish writing it."
Don't Miss
Professor, officer plan to meet again
Latinos cite racial profiling by police
Officer denies being racist after sending slur in e-mail
The city solicitor's office, which is defending the case, said, "We don't comment on allegations. ... Based on what we know, we have no reason to believe there is any merit, and that will come clear as the litigation proceeds."
Because the human relations commission was unable to resolve the complaint within a year, Young and Trowery had the option of filing the complaint in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, which they did.
In May, a Philadelphia judge dismissed a separate suit against Gill, leaving the complaint filed against the city intact.
Trubman said they are seeking Gill's dismissal and monetary damages. He expects a trial to begin by next summer.
The issue didn't end with the bathroom at the facility, which is a transfer station where garbage trucks bring citywide waste to be distributed to various landfills.
Black employees complained that they were stuck with the oldest garbage trucks. Whites, they say, were frequently upgraded to newer vehicles.
"Gill would hide the white drivers' keys and pretend that he didn't know where they were," Trowery said. "But I saw him keep the keys in his drawer."
According to Young, in the sweltering summer of 2007, Gill would only allow whites access to a water cooler kept in his barricaded office. Black employees were forced to use a water fountain elsewhere in the building.
"It made me feel like less of a man," said Young. "But I got kids, I got a mortgage. I'm a trash man. I have no college degree -- not too many places I'm going to get a job."
Young said he was a shop steward in 2006 and 2007. It was his job to inform Gill about unhappy workers, he said.
When he told Gill about some resentment felt by some of the employees, he said, Gill launched into a diatribe, saying those unhappy at "the Northwest Plantation Station" could leave.
"As a man I would have put my elbow down his throat," said Young. "You're not going to talk to me like that."
Another former employee at the facility, Walter Bingham, who worked there five years, said that every year on December 31 white workers would be allowed to schedule their vacation times for the coming year, leaving black employees with limited choices.
The problems persisted for more than a decade, Trubman contends. Black workers, led by Young, began to document instances of discrimination in 1999, he said.
"We spent most of our day calming each other down," Young said. "We had people running to his office. [But] everybody has homes and pensions and kids."
Tension between white and black workers ran deep, Young said; the two groups would stick to themselves and hardly spoke.
CNN
(CNN) -- Black employees at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, waste transfer plant were harassed, humiliated and discriminated against by their supervisor for decades, says an attorney representing two workers who filed a complaint against the city.
Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station's superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K. Trubman. The restroom -- which he called the "supervisors' bathroom" -- was supposedly for the sole use of upper-level officials with the city's Streets Department, Trubman said.
As far back as 1996, it became apparent to black employees that they were being slighted, said Trubman. They would watch white co-workers walk into the segregated bathroom, conveniently located one floor above Gill's office.
"If you tried to use the bathroom, you might get suspended," said Leslie Young, a former worker at the facility. Young, along with Gibson Trowery, who still works at the station, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in October 2007.
Young said he recalled that a lock was placed on the restroom door, with keys distributed only to white workers.
The restroom black workers could use was down five flights of stairs and was "not in the greatest condition," Trubman said. Some employees were forced to ask Gill's permission before they could make the trip, he said.
"It was very degrading and humiliating," said Young. "I saw it wreck peoples' home lives -- picking on you for nothing."
Gill, asked for comment Friday, referred CNN to his lawyers, saying, "If you want to write a fair story, wait for after the trial to finish writing it."
Don't Miss
Professor, officer plan to meet again
Latinos cite racial profiling by police
Officer denies being racist after sending slur in e-mail
The city solicitor's office, which is defending the case, said, "We don't comment on allegations. ... Based on what we know, we have no reason to believe there is any merit, and that will come clear as the litigation proceeds."
Because the human relations commission was unable to resolve the complaint within a year, Young and Trowery had the option of filing the complaint in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, which they did.
In May, a Philadelphia judge dismissed a separate suit against Gill, leaving the complaint filed against the city intact.
Trubman said they are seeking Gill's dismissal and monetary damages. He expects a trial to begin by next summer.
The issue didn't end with the bathroom at the facility, which is a transfer station where garbage trucks bring citywide waste to be distributed to various landfills.
Black employees complained that they were stuck with the oldest garbage trucks. Whites, they say, were frequently upgraded to newer vehicles.
"Gill would hide the white drivers' keys and pretend that he didn't know where they were," Trowery said. "But I saw him keep the keys in his drawer."
According to Young, in the sweltering summer of 2007, Gill would only allow whites access to a water cooler kept in his barricaded office. Black employees were forced to use a water fountain elsewhere in the building.
"It made me feel like less of a man," said Young. "But I got kids, I got a mortgage. I'm a trash man. I have no college degree -- not too many places I'm going to get a job."
Young said he was a shop steward in 2006 and 2007. It was his job to inform Gill about unhappy workers, he said.
When he told Gill about some resentment felt by some of the employees, he said, Gill launched into a diatribe, saying those unhappy at "the Northwest Plantation Station" could leave.
"As a man I would have put my elbow down his throat," said Young. "You're not going to talk to me like that."
Another former employee at the facility, Walter Bingham, who worked there five years, said that every year on December 31 white workers would be allowed to schedule their vacation times for the coming year, leaving black employees with limited choices.
The problems persisted for more than a decade, Trubman contends. Black workers, led by Young, began to document instances of discrimination in 1999, he said.
"We spent most of our day calming each other down," Young said. "We had people running to his office. [But] everybody has homes and pensions and kids."
Tension between white and black workers ran deep, Young said; the two groups would stick to themselves and hardly spoke.
TIGER TAKES THE LEAD
GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Tiger Woods says he didn't like the way he hit in the third round of the Buick Open.
Buick Open Leaderboard
1. Woods (-17)
2. Letzig (-16)
3. Senden (-15)
T-4. Taylor (-14)
T-4. Bettencourt (-14)
• Complete scores
Woods was happy with how he scored, though, as a 65 Saturday put him at 17 under. It ended up being good enough for the lead because Michael Letzig double bogeyed the last hole.
Letzig hit a poor shot out of the sand at No. 18 and two-putted from 12 feet and fell to 16 under while Woods was on the practice range.
Second-round leader John Senden shot a 1-under 71 to fall to 15 under and in third place.
Woods, in his first tournament since missing the cut at the British Open, opened with a 71 after what he said was probably his worst putting day. He roared back into contention by going 9 under in the second round and 7 under in the third.
REAL CLEAR POLITICS
Early Stage Prostate Cancer | The RCP Blog Home Page | National Journal House Rankings »
July 31st, 2009
The Ongoing Misread of Obama's Poll Numbers
Posted by David Paul Kuhn | Email This | Permalink | Email Author
There is a need to correct some of the media misanalysis regarding Barack Obama's standing in public opinion polls.
First, let's clarify where Obama stands in the public's mind. Obama's approval rating has declined to the low 50s, according to several recent polls. The rate of that decline is larger and faster than many presidents, such as George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, as I detailed here. Obama's approval rating was average over his first half-year in office, and he stood eighth out of the 11 modern presidents on the date of his six-month anniversary in office, as I detailed here.
With this in mind, here is how respected reporters are digesting these numbers. One example from Politico's Ben Smith:
After months of showing sky-high job approval ratings, polls from major newspapers and from the Pew and Gallup organizations this week gave Obama the lowest numbers of his presidency…
The rub is that Obama has not had “months of showing sky-high job approval ratings.” Ben, who can turn a story faster and better than most anyone, is hardly alone in mischaracterizing the data.
Gallup polling is the historical benchmark. Based upon Gallup, I detailed here how Obama's approval rating was average on, and over, his first 100 days in office. To be even clearer, and to let the numbers talk, I did a second post here detailing his standing numerically at 100 days.
In fact, even after just one month in office, this was one of my column leads:
Here's a fact that will probably shock you: Americans today have the same level of confidence in President Obama as they had in W. after his first month in office. According to Gallup, Obama's public approval rating currently stands at 63 percent, only a point above George W. Bush in late February 2001.
I also wrote then, to be explicit about Obama's late February standing:
Obama's popularity today, by Gallup's measure, is a few points higher than Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan at the infancy of their presidencies. He precisely matches George H.W. Bush. And excluding Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson who took office amid tragedy, and therefore earned staggeringly high early approval, Obama is notably shy of other new presidents. Jimmy Carter and John Kennedy had more than seven out of 10 Americans behind them at the close of their first February in office.
The point was then, chill out on the Obama hyperbole. It was not true to fact. Ironically, I suspect Obama's strategic circle now wishes they helped tamp down that early hyperbole.
A couple weeks later, in mid-March, pollsters Doug Schoen and Scott Rasmussen reiterated the point in a Wall Street Journal column headlined: "Obama's Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth." Here is their blunt lead:
It is simply wrong for commentators to continue to focus on President Barack Obama's high levels of popularity, and to conclude that these are indicative of high levels of public confidence in the work of his administration.
A few days later, I first highlighted the public's partisan view of Obama. Below is the lead of that column:
The public approval of Barack Obama breaks along stark partisan lines, mimicking George W. Bush at the same point in his presidency.
The headline on that piece was: "Can Obama Hold the Center." It was clear in mid-March, due to this divide, Obama would rise and fall with independent voters (this too took awhile for the political press to digest).
About two weeks later, the Pew Research Center published a small report stating that the public had a more partisan view of Obama than of W. Bush.
In response, I attempted to sober some of that hyperbole; it was in this case over-critical of Obama. I detailed here how, in reality, Obama and Bush's partisan gaps were about the same.
Still, for those not paying attention, I noted:
It was indeed clear within weeks of Obama's presidency that he would not escape the gravity that grounded Clinton and Bush.
Now, let's return to the present. Time's Michael Scherer, another talented writer, followed up on Ben's post with a post titled “Barack Obama Polls Like Normal Presidents.” He generally agreed with Ben's take on the data.
The problem is that we have known Obama polls like "normal presidents" since late February.
I suspect that Dwight Eisenhower benefited a great deal from Harry Truman's plummeting poll numbers. In this same vein, Obama benefits from the decline of George W. Bush in the polls. This likely skews some of the analysis. That W. followed a president who was received through a highly partisan lens, and struggled early on, only further skews our frame of reference.
But the media played a big role in crowning Obama a historical figure. The political media played a big role in misinforming the American public of their purported lofty view of this president. Therefore, we are responsible for the supposed shock at Obama's average standing.
July 31st, 2009
The Ongoing Misread of Obama's Poll Numbers
Posted by David Paul Kuhn | Email This | Permalink | Email Author
There is a need to correct some of the media misanalysis regarding Barack Obama's standing in public opinion polls.
First, let's clarify where Obama stands in the public's mind. Obama's approval rating has declined to the low 50s, according to several recent polls. The rate of that decline is larger and faster than many presidents, such as George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, as I detailed here. Obama's approval rating was average over his first half-year in office, and he stood eighth out of the 11 modern presidents on the date of his six-month anniversary in office, as I detailed here.
With this in mind, here is how respected reporters are digesting these numbers. One example from Politico's Ben Smith:
After months of showing sky-high job approval ratings, polls from major newspapers and from the Pew and Gallup organizations this week gave Obama the lowest numbers of his presidency…
The rub is that Obama has not had “months of showing sky-high job approval ratings.” Ben, who can turn a story faster and better than most anyone, is hardly alone in mischaracterizing the data.
Gallup polling is the historical benchmark. Based upon Gallup, I detailed here how Obama's approval rating was average on, and over, his first 100 days in office. To be even clearer, and to let the numbers talk, I did a second post here detailing his standing numerically at 100 days.
In fact, even after just one month in office, this was one of my column leads:
Here's a fact that will probably shock you: Americans today have the same level of confidence in President Obama as they had in W. after his first month in office. According to Gallup, Obama's public approval rating currently stands at 63 percent, only a point above George W. Bush in late February 2001.
I also wrote then, to be explicit about Obama's late February standing:
Obama's popularity today, by Gallup's measure, is a few points higher than Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan at the infancy of their presidencies. He precisely matches George H.W. Bush. And excluding Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson who took office amid tragedy, and therefore earned staggeringly high early approval, Obama is notably shy of other new presidents. Jimmy Carter and John Kennedy had more than seven out of 10 Americans behind them at the close of their first February in office.
The point was then, chill out on the Obama hyperbole. It was not true to fact. Ironically, I suspect Obama's strategic circle now wishes they helped tamp down that early hyperbole.
A couple weeks later, in mid-March, pollsters Doug Schoen and Scott Rasmussen reiterated the point in a Wall Street Journal column headlined: "Obama's Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth." Here is their blunt lead:
It is simply wrong for commentators to continue to focus on President Barack Obama's high levels of popularity, and to conclude that these are indicative of high levels of public confidence in the work of his administration.
A few days later, I first highlighted the public's partisan view of Obama. Below is the lead of that column:
The public approval of Barack Obama breaks along stark partisan lines, mimicking George W. Bush at the same point in his presidency.
The headline on that piece was: "Can Obama Hold the Center." It was clear in mid-March, due to this divide, Obama would rise and fall with independent voters (this too took awhile for the political press to digest).
About two weeks later, the Pew Research Center published a small report stating that the public had a more partisan view of Obama than of W. Bush.
In response, I attempted to sober some of that hyperbole; it was in this case over-critical of Obama. I detailed here how, in reality, Obama and Bush's partisan gaps were about the same.
Still, for those not paying attention, I noted:
It was indeed clear within weeks of Obama's presidency that he would not escape the gravity that grounded Clinton and Bush.
Now, let's return to the present. Time's Michael Scherer, another talented writer, followed up on Ben's post with a post titled “Barack Obama Polls Like Normal Presidents.” He generally agreed with Ben's take on the data.
The problem is that we have known Obama polls like "normal presidents" since late February.
I suspect that Dwight Eisenhower benefited a great deal from Harry Truman's plummeting poll numbers. In this same vein, Obama benefits from the decline of George W. Bush in the polls. This likely skews some of the analysis. That W. followed a president who was received through a highly partisan lens, and struggled early on, only further skews our frame of reference.
But the media played a big role in crowning Obama a historical figure. The political media played a big role in misinforming the American public of their purported lofty view of this president. Therefore, we are responsible for the supposed shock at Obama's average standing.
AGAIN GLENN BECK NUTTY AS EVER
Beck conspiracy theory: "Cash for clunkers" site lets Feds control your PC
by Jed Lewison
Share this on Twitter - Beck conspiracy theory: "Cash for clunkers" site lets Feds control your PC Sat Aug 01, 2009 at 09:32:03 AM PDT
Before you play the video of Glenn Beck's latest loony-tunes conspiracy theory, keep in mind that it's totally nuts. Here's the key information debunking it:
1.If you are a consumer visiting cars.gov (the "cash for clunkers" website) the Federal government cannot take control over your computer, nor will it ask permission to do so.
2.The "Terms of Use" statement to which Beck refers in this clip is not from cars.gov. Rather it is a login page for dealer transactions located at esc.gov.
3.The only people who can get login credentials for the esc.gov site are dealers who have been screened and registered for the "cash for clunkers" program.
4.To summarize: the page in question isn't on cars.gov and can only be used by dealers who have already registered. Consumers won't be impacted by any of this.
With that out of the way, enjoy the crazy:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
