Songs to Fight the Plutocracy By: "Plow Under"

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 02 May 2012 12:00:00 PM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By @KYYellowDog

Uploaded by poordorianjones on Aug 11, 2009

video details and more

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheyGaveUsARepublic-FrontPage/~3/-rIA_W_Oysw/songs
-to-fight-the-plutocracy-by-plow-under

Digg this

Cartnoon

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 02 May 2012 11:47:07 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

The Film Fan [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.docudharma.com/diary/29767/cartnoon-by-ek-hornbeck

Digg this

Karl Rove helps Tim Kaine in Virginia

post from Daily Kos on 02 May 2012 11:42:48 AM. © Daily Kos

If you can't watch the ad above from Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS, this screen capture pretty much tells the whole story:

Crossroads GPS ad screen capture: Obama and Kaine, spot the similarities?

Yup, the whole ad is about how Tim Kaine is joined at Barack Obama's hip, because apparently Karl Rove still thinks Virginia is like Alabama. But in reality:

Public Policy Polling. 4/26-29. Registered voters. MoE 3.8%

Barack Obama 50
Mitt Romney 38

Indeed, Obama has consistently scored higher marks against Romney than Tim Kaine has against George Allen (essentially a tied race). And the higher a turnout the Obama campaign can generate this November, the better Kaine's chances will be.

That kind of ad might work in places like North Dakota, West Virginia, or Montana, where the Democratic Senate candidates will depend on ticket splitters to win their elections. But the more Kaine is attached to Obama in Virginia, the better he will do.

It's a curious strategy on Rove's part, until you remember that he's got his math, and it seldom has any relationship to actual arithmetic.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/o4ny5x4N-Zs/-Karl-Rove-helps-out-T
im-Kaine-in-Virginia

Digg this

Latest annual report on Social Security and
Medicare

post from Jutia Group on 02 May 2012 11:41:30 AM. © Jutia Group

In February, I explained why the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012″ simply compounded Social Security’s big-picture problems.

And now just two months later the program’s Trustees have released their latest annual report.

The … [visit site to read . . . → Read More: Latest annual report on Social Security and Medicare

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/20120502-latest-annual-report-on-social-security-and-medica
re/

Digg this

AngryArabiya In Court Today and Tomorrow

post from Firedoglake on 02 May 2012 11:40:17 AM. © Firedoglake

Zeinab AlKhawaja, whom many of you know from her twitter writing as @AngryArabiya, will face a Bahraini court today and tomorrow on "charges of obstructing traffic and insulting an officer in one case, and insulting at a security officer at a military[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/17REeACAX5I/

Digg this

Mitt Romney gushes over Papa John's founder's
pool and golf course

post from Daily Kos on 02 May 2012 11:39:58 AM. © Daily Kos

Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser last month at the house of Papa John's founder John Schnatter:

What a welcome, what a place this is. My goodness. Who would have imagined pizza could build this, you know that? This is really something. Don?t you love this country? What a home this is, what grounds these are, the pool, the golf course. You know if a Democrat were here he?d look around and say no one should live like this, you know? Republicans come here and say everyone should live like this, all right. This is a real tribute to America, to entrepreneurship.

Hey, Mitt, I'd love it if everyone could live well, if every job paid enough that people could not just keep their heads above water on their wages but have enough left over to eat out occasionally, maybe take a vacation. But while I'm actually not sure it would be feasible for everyone in the country to have their own private golf course, what I am sure of is that Mitt Romney's policies make it less likely that everyone will do well. Mitt Romney isn't supporting policies that would help lift up people clinging desperately to the middle class. He's supporting Paul Ryan's plan to massively cut services for low-income people and make 22 million people go hungry. Romney would cut taxes, though, for people who can already afford a pool or even a golf course.

So what Mitt is really saying is not that he wants everyone to have a private golf course. It's that everyone who matters to him is already close to being able to afford it, and he wants to pass policies that would put those people over the top. The rest? Well, he's "not concerned with the very poor," but his policies make clear he's also not concerned with the many, many workers who are getting by now but are just one disaster and less than three months away from poverty.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/k1pCdjFPruw/-Mitt-Romney-gushes-ov
er-Papa-John-s-founder-s-pool-and-golf-course

Digg this

Newt Gingrich prebutts his upcoming endorsement
of Mitt Romney

post from Daily Kos on 02 May 2012 11:36:00 AM. © Daily Kos

Newt Gingrich will officially suspend his campaign this afternoon, simultaneously announcing his intention to officially endorse Mitt Romney in the coming weeks. But while Gingrich's announcement won't come until 3 PM ET, the Obama campaign has already released a video prebuttal ... featuring the words of none other than Newt Gingrich himself:

So how could a guy who offered such a devastating critique of Mitt Romney so easily decide to endorse his candidacy? Well, there's about $4.3 million reasons why.

The Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee have offered to be helpful as Gingrich works to retire his campaign debt.

With millions of dollars of debt and a bankrupt lobbying practice, Newt Gingrich's endorsement of Mitt Romney was an easy choice. Frankly.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/AGF_5DFrou8/-Newt-Gingrich-prebutt
s-his-upcoming-endorsement-of-Mitt-Romney

Digg this

TV Ads Are Not All There Is to Presidential
Campaigns

Every election, commentators can be relied on to predict that this will be the most negative campaign in history. We've already heard such predictions this year, and we'll surely hear more. It almost certainly won't be true, but you can also predict that when one side attacks the other, the side being attacked will respond by saying, "Our opponent is just trying to distract Americans from the real issues/his failed record/that disturbing story about him and a goat." But we should keep things in perspective. It's possible to have a lot of negative ads and still have a relatively positive campaign, believe it or not.

That's because ads are not the only thing a campaign does. They're interesting to reporters for a number of reasons, including the fact that they synthesize the campaign's message neatly down to 30 or 60 seconds, and they contain pretty moving pictures. That makes them particularly compelling to television reporters and those who write for the web, because those reporters can add visual pizzazz to their stories by playing or embedding the ad. Television ads are the most expensive part of the campaign, it's true. But in terms of the aggregate effort and time the campaign spends, they're not as central as we sometimes make them out to be. Though both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will be spending millions on TV ads, they'll also be marshaling armies of volunteers, and desperately trying to spin press coverage to their advantage, and making hundreds of speeches, and engaging in a series of televised debates.

Putting on his political consultant hat (the secret desire of every campaign reporter), Chris Cillizza advises Obama to go negative on Romney over the air, in a post entitled, "Why President Obama shouldn't run any more positive ads": "The best way to frame that devil you know/devil you don?t know line of attack is through a sustained campaign of negative ads in swing states," Cillizza says. "While the risk of being hoisted on his own petard is real for Obama, it?s clearly outweighed by the benefit of the damage these ads will do to Romney?s image in swing states." And why not? It isn't as though Americans are unfamiliar with Barack Obama's presidency. Nor is it the case that Obama won't spend lots and lots of time going around the country talking to voters about all the good things he's done in his first term and all the good things he plans to do in his second term. So what would be so wrong with the Obama campaign saying, "We're going to use TV advertising to tell you why Mitt Romney is a bad, bad man; if you want some affirmative reasons to vote for the president, please listen to his speeches or visit our web site." The Romney campaign could do the same thing, and it wouldn't make the campaign much more negative than it would be otherwise.

Read The Full Article:
http://prospect.org/article/tv-ads-are-not-all-there-presidential-campaigns

Digg this

$Millions spent, no John Doe ads yet and Walker
still stuck at 50 percent

From to Scott Walker's campaign to
Scott Walker's criminal defense fund?The only governor in Wisconsin history who set up a criminal defense fund has not seen TV spots noting his rise to power detailed in the criminal complaints against his top aides in the John Doe probe.

Not yet.

But the hottest non-presidential race in the country will change dramatically after the May 8 recall primary when the Democratic nominee will have a sprint of 27 days to focus on Walker's naked corruption, job loss and his ideological and policy war on women and working families.

U.S. job creation nears a four-year high as Walker has not just dropped the ball on job creation at home, he has thrown the ball out of bounds into the hands of Wisconsin's border states.

Even after spending $millions on misleading TV spots in the air war that for months he had virtually to himself, Walker is still running only at a statistical dead-heat with Democratic opponents.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MalContends/~3/JgaPJUlxop8/millions-spent-no-john-
doe-ads-yet-and.html

Digg this

The Great Decoupling

This chart shows in striking fashion when the productivity gains of the U.S. economy split off from the growth in pay. Brian Beutler talked to various economists about why it happened. There's no simple answer -- and there's no prospect of the systematic[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/tg3yuGmQr-k/the_great_decou
pling.php

Digg this