Friday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 09 July 2010 11:53:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

Once again, if you want a cogent, thoughtful analysis of the day's events, turn to Jon Stewart (and I know some of this duplicates what I said earlier today, but I thought it was good)...

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cLatino 911!http://www.thedailyshow.com/Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

...and fifteen years ago today, The Grateful Dead played its last concert at Soldier Field in Chicago; Jerry Garcia died a month afterwards - here is a remembrance from 1980.

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Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 09 July 2010 11:30:36 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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Dudley Moore and Peter Cook (as Satan) in the wonderful "Bedazzled" from 1966.

Open Thread below...

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http://crooksandliars.com/bluegal/open-thread-412

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More truth telling from ousted GOP Senator

post from Daily Kos on 09 July 2010 11:30:05 PM. © Daily Kos

When we last left outgoing Utah Senator Bob Bennett, he was predicting that any Republican majorities earned this year would be short-lived, because the Republican Party is long on slogans, and short on ideas.

Remember, this is outgoing Utah Republican Senator Bob Bennett.

Well, he's talking again, and now he thinks that his party might have actually impeded their own chances to earn those majorities with the caliber of their candidates:

"With the tea party creating the mischief that it is in Colorado, we may not win that seat. My sources in Nevada say with Sharron Angle there's no way Harry Reid loses in Nevada," he said about the GOP challenger to Democratic Senate majority leader.

In Kentucky's Senate race, he said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been making strides to help tea party favorite Rand Paul avoid a loss there.

"Rand Paul — that's a seat we could lose in Kentucky, but McConnell seems to be helping stabilize Rand Paul and pulling back from some of his more dangerous statements," he said in the interview Thursday.

Of course, it needs to be stipulated that Bennett is out of a job next year because of the same teabagger animus that is propelling individuals like Ken Buck in Colorado, Sharron Angle in Nevada, and Rand Paul in Kentucky. Therefore, it is contemptibly easy for the right-wing to declare all of this sour grapes.

Perhaps, but the numbers don't lie. Harry Reid is in immeasurably better position now than he was in January, and Sharron Angle endangers her electability every time she opens her mouth. The same can be said for Rand Paul. Would Trey Grayson be dead-even with Jack Conway right now, as Paul is according to the latest data? Conway is a formidable candidate, but the combination of terrain and climate would seem to portend a GOP edge in a state like Kentucky. But Jack Conway is an excellent position to win, in part because he has run an excellent campaign, but in larger part because his Republican opponent has been something of a train wreck.

The Colorado picture is a little less clear, if only because the identity of both party nominees is still an open question.

What is clear, however, is that Bennett is telling a little more truth. And there is virtually no sign that the Republican Party to which he has belonged his entire career is planning on listening.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/XAfCgPTp3Ks/-More-truth-telling-fr
om-ousted-GOP-Senator

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Note to Gingrich: South Carolina Isn't the Place
for You

post from The Politics of Jamie Sanderson on 09 July 2010 11:01:27 PM. © The Politics of Jamie Sanderson

COLUMBIA- Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich will join the ranks of national Republican figures seeking votes and funding from the Palmetto State today. The 2012 presidential hopeful will attend fundraisers in Columbia and Charleston.

South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler said Gingrich's visit is a reminder that Republicans have lost touch with South Carolina. Gingrich has built his public profile up in recent years by issuing an entrepreneurship award to a porn studio, calling Democrats a greater danger to the country than terrorists, and using his nonprofit political groups to promote his own for-profit consulting firms.
"It appears that Nikki Haley's gubernatorial candidacy, Joe Wilson's national outburst and the SCGOP's gimmicks have attracted every Republican presidential reject to the Palmetto State. South Carolina shouldn't be the launching pad for a presidential run of failed ideas and retread politicians like Newt Gingrich. South Carolinians are tired of the Party that has preached morals and spending restraints but practiced neither," said Fowler.

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Ken Ard runs boldly on... Apathy

post from The Politics of Jamie Sanderson on 09 July 2010 11:01:27 PM. © The Politics of Jamie Sanderson

Republican lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Ken Ard is boldly standing by his haze-in-the-desert like voting record. In other words, it's great to be apathetic.

South Carolina's Republican candidate for lieutenant governor said Friday he's voted sparsely over the past six years because he never planned to run for office, adding that the state needs more of his political outsider approach.

Here's the thing: You're no outsider. You are a Republican. Again, who's been in control of this state? How many years? Ard thinks he's an "outsider" with his approach. Well, Ard... Why not approach at a Democratic point-of-view?

His Democratic opponent, Ashley Cooper, criticized Ard's disinterest, noting he's voted regularly since first casting a ballot in 1992 while a student at Clemson University.

"This is an example of what everybody's frustrated with - politicians only voting when it's in their direct interest," said Cooper, a 37-year-old Charleston lawyer. "We need to change the status quo, and we can't change if we keep electing the same self-interested politicians.

Ard said it's apathy. Well, that's already in the statehouse. So, Ard is more of the same.

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http://thepoliticsofjamiesanderson.blogspot.com/2010/07/ken-ard-runs-boldly-on-ap
athy.html

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It's time to hear from GCDP Chair Nancy Kolman

post from The Politics of Jamie Sanderson on 09 July 2010 11:01:27 PM. © The Politics of Jamie Sanderson

Friends, it's been since March of this year Nancy Kolman has been elected to chair the Georgetown County Democratic Party. Between then and now, I haven't heard too much going on. Have any of you?

Sure, there's been the monthly meetings. But, I haven't even seen minutes for any of those. They should be sent through a listserv or put up on a website.

Here's asking for Kolman to share what's planned for Democratic supporters this year. And please, let's not wait until after Labor Day to get busy. I want to be able to share with readers what the GCDP plans to do to get statewide candidates elected. I would like to see where people will be able to go to help volunteer. I would like to know a lot, actually.

I write this because it's time to get active. It's time to show willing volunteers reasons to volunteer their free time to get Democratic candidates elected.

I hope officials with the local party play a key role, starting now, in getting supporters active. I would also like to hear and see what Kolman has in store for the party faithful.

Using this blog to get information would help, for starters.

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http://thepoliticsofjamiesanderson.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-time-to-hear-from-gcd
p-chair-nancy.html

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AP: Ard Votes When He's On Ballot...Sometimes

post from The Politics of Jamie Sanderson on 09 July 2010 11:01:27 PM. © The Politics of Jamie Sanderson

LG Candidate Fails to Exercise Right Our Veterans Fought For, Even When He is the One On Ballot

COLUMBIA- South Carolina Democrats criticized GOP Lt. Gov Candidate Ken Ard today in the wake of an Associated Press story revealing that he failed to vote until 2004, and doesn't even consistently support his own election. The AP reveals that Ard, who was born in 1963, did not register to vote until he was 40 and running for office. Mr. Ard returned to the voting booth in 2006, when he was pushing a tax increase, but not in 2008, when he didn't have any opposition.

South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler criticized Ard as ignorant of the sacrifices made for him to have a voice in his government. "Ken Ard's voting record is the worst kind of hypocrisy. Americans have fought and died not just for our right to vote, but to provide that same freedom to people all over the world.Mr. Ard seems content to only register to exercise that right when it's it fits his own personal needs."

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http://thepoliticsofjamiesanderson.blogspot.com/2010/07/ap-ard-votes-when-hes-on.
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Money talks - but Wisconsin judges won't
necessarily have to listen

From the Brennen Center:

"Money talks - but Wisconsin judges won't necessarily have to listen." So states a Wisconsin Law Journal article published last week after the state Supreme Court issued a final order modifying the disqualification standards in the state's Judicial Code of Conduct. The order formally codified new recusal rules that the court initially adopted last October in a contentious 4-3 vote. Under the rules, a party's campaign contributions or independent expenditures, standing alone, cannot compel a judge's recusal.

The final order reflected the heated division on the court over the wisdom of adopting, verbatim, proposed rules submitted by two special interest groups that have been among the biggest spenders in Wisconsin's judicial elections, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association. In a stinging dissent, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley quoted comments submitted by the Brennan Center, which warned that the new rules "threaten to undermine public confidence in the impartiality of Wisconsin's judiciary, which is, and has traditionally been, accountable to the law and the U.S. and Wisconsin Constitutions, not to special interests that inject millions of dollars into campaigns for judicial office in the Badger State."

Peter Hardin, WI Justices Clash in Adopting New Recusal Rule, Gavel Grab, July 8, 2010; Jack Zemlicka, Contributions not enough for recusal, Wisconsin Law Journal, July 2, 2010.

Read The Full Article:
http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2010/07/money-talks-but-wisconsin-judges-wont.htm
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C&L's Late Night Music Club With Sharon Jones And
The Dap Kings

Title: Mama Don't Like My ManArtist: Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings
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I heard this song on the way home from work yesterday, and was sure that it was a classic that I had somehow missed hearing before. Lo and behold, this song wasn't recorded at Stax in 1966, but instead was released this year on Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings', I Learned The Hard Way. I had the pleasure of sharing a stage with this band at Bonnaroo in 2008, and was mesmerized by their musicianship and timeless sound. Dig it.

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http://lnmc.crooksandliars.com/jared-shade-reynolds/cls-late-night-music-club-sha

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The Week In Blog: Ann Coulter The Pacifist
Edition

The latest edition of The Week In Blog is up at BloggingHeads.tv featuring Matt Lewis and myself discussing blog reaction to Michael Steele's Afghanistan remarks, Kos v. MSNBC and Sharron Angle's futile attempts to scrub her website. Watch it below.

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http://www.liberaloasis.com/2010/07/the_week_in_blog_ann_coulter_t.php

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