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ABC's new poll on partisanship

post from AMERICAblog News on 09 February 2010 07:01:28 PM. © AMERICAblog News

Americans aren't thrilled with Obama and the Dems, but they're far less thrilled with the GOP. And this is what usually happens when the desperate party goes negative. Usually it happens in campaigns, at the very end - the candidate who's losing throws a hail (Mary) of negatives at the frontrunner. Often it damages the frontrunner, but it just as often hurts the instigator even more. I think that's what we're seeing with the public in this poll. The GOP has done a good job of hurting Obama, but they haven't done a very good job of helping themselves sin the process.

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anship.html

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Late afternoon/early evening open thread

post from Daily Kos on 09 February 2010 06:52:04 PM. © Daily Kos

ABC News explores whether the GOP has become the Party of No. You don't need a HandPrompter to know the answer is "yes, they have."

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evening-open-thread

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Craig Becker Nomination Defeated as Cloture Vote
Fails; Two Democrats Join GOP

post from Firedoglake on 09 February 2010 06:40:01 PM. © Firedoglake

The Senate voted against invoking cloture on Obama appointee Craig Becker, a nominee for the National Labor Relations Board. The final vote was 52-33, with all Republicans opposed, including Scott Brown, who claimed to be "undecided" last week. Among[...]

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http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/02/09/craig-becker-nomination-defeated-as-clotur
e-vote-fails/

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Sen. Kit Bond Wants To Privatize Medicare With
Vouchers

post from Think Progress on 09 February 2010 06:30:00 PM. © Think Progress

In his interview with CBS News’ Katie Couric before the Super Bowl earlier this week, President Obama said that he was going to ask Republicans to put their health care ideas “on the table.” “What I want to do is to look at the Republican ideas that are out there,” said Obama. “How do you guys want to lower costs?”

Just days before Obama made his call for GOP health care ideas, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) offered a radical proposal for reform in a conversation with the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. According to a blog post by the editorial board, Bond called on Friday for giving means-tested vouchers to Medicare enrollees:

Even before he asked, Missouri?s senior U.S. senator was outlining his: Privatize Medicare and limit benefits for upper-income retirees. Meeting with Post-Dispatch editors and reporters on Friday, Mr. Bond called for radical changes to the federal health insurance program that covers 45 million elderly and disabled Americans.
Since its inception in 1965, Medicare has provided the same basic package of benefits to everyone, regardless of income. On Friday, Mr. Bond called for giving Medicare enrollees a voucher to buy health insurance on their own. ?You?re going to have to means-test the benefits,? he said, adding that upper income retirees wouldn?t ?get much of a voucher.?

Though Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and RNC Chairman Michael Steele have made protecting Medicare part of their argument against President Obama’s health care reform plans, Bond isn’t the alone in dreaming of dismantling the system. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told ThinkProgress last weekend that Americans should be weaned off Medicare. In his recent alternative budget proposal and the one he released in April 2009, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) advocated giving vouchers to everyone 54 and younger instead of having them enter the traditional Medicare program. It is unclear whether Bond is referring to current enrollees or just future enrollees.

Bond also isn’t the only Missouri Republican with disdain for Medicare. In July 2009, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who is hoping to succeed Bond after he retires, suggested to a conservative Missouri radio host that the “government should have never” started Medicare or Medicaid.

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Backhanded Compliment

post from Talking Points Memo on 09 February 2010 06:16:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

TPM Reader JS cautions against the White House engaging Sarah Palin:A classic moment indeed: I think you must be very careful about encouraging the behavior manifest by Gibbs today.Obama and the White House (with the notable exception of Emanuel) have[...]

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At A Whole New Level

post from Talking Points Memo on 09 February 2010 06:07:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Chris Matthews has gotten to a whole new level on how crazy Sarah Palin is, calling her "frightening" a short while ago on Hardball for her discussing President Obama needing to "declare war" on Iran to buoy his political standing. An even more dramatic[...]

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Like we miss Cholera

post from AMERICAblog News on 09 February 2010 06:01:22 PM. © AMERICAblog News

A billboard someone set up in Wyoming.

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Look out below! Meghan McCain disses the Tea
Parties as a bunch of racist old people, Palin as a hypocrite

post from Crooks and Liars on 09 February 2010 06:00:25 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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Oh, man, is Meghan McCain ever asking for it:

In an appearance on ABC's The View, Meghan McCain also took issue with a number of recent statements from Sarah Palin, criticizing the former Alaska governor for defending Rush Limbaugh's use of the word "retard" and for suggesting that President Obama launch a war against Iran in order to win a second term.

McCain described Former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo's call for a literacy test for voters as "innate racism."

McCain obviously also has issues with Palin, but it was Tancredo's speech -- in which he thanked God that McCain's father lost the election -- that stuck in her craw:

"It's innate racism, and I think it's why young people are turned off by this movement," McCain retorted on The View.
"I'm sorry, but revolutions start with young people, not 65 year old people talking about literacy tests and people who can't say the word 'vote' in English," McCain added.
McCain, a self-described "progressive Republican," criticized Palin's assertion that President Obama could get himself re-elected to a second term if he launched a war against Iran.
"You should never go to war unless its the absolute last circumstance," McCain said.
As for Palin's defense of Rush Limbaugh for using the word "retard" after calling for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's resignation over the same word last week, McCain said it was a symbol of "exactly what is wrong with politics today.
"We can't placate and say Democrats can say one thing and Republicans can say another thing," she said.
McCain added that the rhetoric coming from the Tea Party movement and from Republicans like Palin "will continue to turn off young voters, and anybody who says different is smoking something."

Why, if she only watched Fox News, McCain would know that America loves this movement and it's full of revolutionary fervor and all kinds of vim and vigor and pep!

Translation: Intraparty heretics like Meghan McCain are political roadkill. Like her dad.

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http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/look-out-below-meghan-mccain-disses

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He Was Asked, He Told, He's Back

Interesting:

Army Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and Arabic translator who famously challenged ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ last year, has been recalled to active duty, according to The Advocate. That’s a strong sign that even ahead of a full repeal of the so-called gay ban, proceeding at a deliberate, year-long pace advocated by the Pentagon’s top leadership, relaxed enforcement of the policy is already in place.

... and good news (but not for John McCain) if this approach is an end-around to the ridiculously slow process to end this policy.

For more discussion, see calchala's diary.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/oNCdvG6aPR0/-He-Was-Asked,-He-Told
,-Hes-Back

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Staggering

I'm not sure how reliable this number is, or could be, but Haiti has raised the death toll from the January earthquake to 230,000.[...]

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