Winning And Managing Expectations

In politics, winning may the most important thing, but managing expectations is a close second. What’s really happening here is that the Dems are downplaying their chances in November for the same reason Barack Obama’s campaign team compared Sarah Palin to every orator short of Cicero in the run-up to her 2008 debate against Joe Biden: political results are only as useful as they are unexpected. Dig a little deeper at the DNC, DSCC, and DCCC, and you’ll find that the Democrats in charge are actually rather confident about getting their fellow Dems elected this year. The reason? They have a plan—a plan that they believe will produce much better results on Election Day than anyone expects.

Romano, on the Democrats’ plan to hold Congress

via newsweek.tumblr.com

The GOP will screw up anything they can. Add the 2010 Elections to the list.

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"Responsible For Spills"

via brooklynmutt.com

Sums up our society: individuals are responsible and are accountable, corporations [who enjoy rights of a person] somehow slip through with the most massive offenses.

Steal $5, get arrested, lose billions and get the benefit of a mega legal team and never see jail time.

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Hurts "Better Than Love"

Great tune. Band from Manchester, England. Enjoy the weekend.

Par For The Course In The South

"We already got one raghead in the White House. We don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion." -- Jake Knotts, South Carolina Republican Senator, referring to President Obama & gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley. Haley is Indian-American.

via realitychex.com

Strom Thurmond would be proud.

When is comes to the South, being an outright racist circa 1950 is just "keeping it real". Being a Republican and racist is almost redundant, not just for the politicians, but for the region at large for not caring about how offensive this shit is.

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The United States Of Amnesia

via brooklynmutt.com

The Southern Strategy AKA The Tea Party

From Lee Atwater to Karl Rove, and best personified by fake Christian George Bush, modern Republicanism is all about divide and conquer. From Willie Horton to Obama is a Muslim, race is always used to strike fear.

Plus, when it all your ideas go horribly wrong, you just blame it on someone else: 9/11 was Clinton's fault. Housing bubble was Clinton's fault, too.

The fact that we had the worst Administration ever followed by Obama's, it was a dream come true for the "some of my best friends have black friends" nouveau post-racial racists. All of Bush's mistakes get pushed on the new guy, who just happens to be the first black President, and the conservative governing charade moves on.

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BP Thanks David Vitter *wink*

via ryking.tumblr.com

The fake BP twitter account strikes again.

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George W. Bush Is On Facebook

George W. Bush is on Facebook. via @GregMitch http://slate.me/a72V41

via brooklynmutt.com

You don't have to use "The Google", the link is above.

Somewhere, I picture W. clutching his computer mouse in his hand, talking into it CB-style, looking for Laura to get him a Fresca.

"George W. Bush has a facebook page. I bet he’s clearing a lot of brush in Farmville" - Stephen Colbert

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BP: 690, Nature: 0.

BP is apparently barring cleanup workers from sharing photos of dead animals that have washed ashore. But whether we’re seeing them or not, the bodies are starting to add up.

continue reading…  motherjones 

via brooklynmutt.com

444 dead birds, 222 sea turtles, 24 dead mammals.

This is still early days. Denial is in full effect.

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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer On DADT And Civil Rights

via thepoliticalpartygirl.com

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s passionate speech on civil rights and repealing DADT. Take a history lesson.

“The Army is the wrong place for social experiments… Keep African Americans in their place.” Hear that language? That was used back in 1948 and read the transcripts today… Is there one of us — is there one of us that would say General Powell as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs undermined the morale and the effectiveness of the United States Army? Is there one of us? I’ll yield to anybody who wants to say that he undermined the morale of our services. No one? No one? This is not a social experiment any more than that was a social experiment, any more than in 1990 when we wanted to deal with those with disabilities. It was a social experiment. It was the bedrock of what America is."

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Newsweek: The Sum Of All Our Fears

via newsweek.tumblr.com

Fear motivates.

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David Vitter: Mental Midget

"By the same token, after every plane crash, you and I should both oppose plane travel".
-- Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), telling Candy Crowley why it's irrational to oppose deep-water drilling

via realitychex.com

via Swampland:

"What happens when you're a small government, pro-business conservative and your state gets pummeled by one of the worst man made disasters ever – not five years after getting pummeled by one of the worst natural disasters (Hurricane Katrina)? If you're Louisiana Senator David Vitter, you double down on offshore drilling and push for a liability cap for BP."

C'mon Dave, this is so weak. You have to try just a little. Your logic is weak and you appear to be the biggest corporate shill. You tried real hard to keep your mistresses and prostitutes in DC on the DL. You failed, but at least try like you did with that. A liability cap?

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Gores No More

Al and Tipper Gore, whose playful romance enlivened Washington and the campaign trail for a quarter century, have decided to separate after 40 years of marriage, the couple told friends Tuesday.

via politico.com

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What An Oil Man Does During An Oil Spill

Be critical, but have some context:

The number of times President George H.W. Bush, a wealthy oil man, visited Prince William Sound during and after the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989: ZERO. None.

W. learned well from Poppy.

Aquaman Vs. BP

Aquaman was kind of a wimp anyway. Still sad.

via oliverwillis.com

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Berghuis v. Thompkins

via ryking.tumblr.com

And America’s slow slide into a police state continues with Republicans Kennedy, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts voting in favor of it.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision Tuesday that suspects under interrogation must tell police that they wish to remain silent, as opposed to simply remaining silent.

Van Chester Thompkins challenged his murder conviction on the grounds that by remaining silent for most of his interrogation, he was invoking his right to remain silent. During his interrogation, he was read his list of rights as mandated by the Miranda Supreme Court ruling, but answered "yes" when a detective asked if he prayed for forgiveness for the shooting. He made the statement more than two hours into the interrogation.

The court reversed the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and upheld a Michigan state court ruling that rejected Thompkins' Miranda claim

You can read the decision in Berghuis v. Thompkins here.

In the opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy and joined by Justices Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia, the court ruled that by speaking to the police, Thompkins waived his Miranda right to remain silent.

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