Rand Paul Having Problems With Civil Rights

Wow, not a good start for the GOP candidate from Kentucky. On Rachel Maddow's show, he was asked no brainer questions about segregation. Simply put, he couldn't answer a question asking is it ok to refuse service to black people. He couldn't answer the question. Check it out.

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POTUS St Struggling With Leadership

When leadership is needed on a horrible new law, Obama View Blogseems to struggle.

"But as Obama returned to Washington from Illinois Wednesday night, he walked back to the press cabin on the presidential aircraft and, in an impromptu Q&A, essentially declared immigration dead.

Obama's retreat -- after encouraging senators only weeks ago to take up immigration reform -- clotheslined Senate Democrats. Since their proposal had already been leaked, they had no choice but to go ahead with the rollout of the plan Obama had just doomed. 'I don't know in what context the statement was made last night,' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters at Thursday night's rollout."

Again, leadership is needed, and Obama's struggling to provide it.

FBI Investigating Mine Owners For Bribery

Things just got hotter for the owners of the mine that killed 29 miners.

"NPR News has learned that the Mine Safety and Health Administration is one subject of a federal criminal investigation surrounding the explosion of the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia three weeks ago -- a disaster that killed 29 miners. The probe also looks at Massey Energy, the owner of the mine."

Obama's Bush Moment

From ThinkProgress, Obama's first Bush moment.

D'oh

GOP Moderates Head For The Doors

Charlie Crist has left the republican party to run for senate as an independent in Florida. This is just another case of the republican party expunging the moderates of its party.

"The more complicated truth, say top GOP officials from both wings of the party, is that an ornery conservative base is expressing its disgust for Republicans who have both flagrantly defied the party and represent a distrusted political establishment."

What is sad is that the GOP is a party of "if you are different, get the hell out." So many moderate republicans are on the verge of extinction. And the trouble for the GOP is that with the "anti-incumbent" atmosphere right now, the gains they get in november will only embolden the radicals. So come 2012, they are going to nominate, in their primaries, radicals that are unelectable.

GOP Sides With Wall Street

Is the GOP not worried about being the "party of no" and the "Wall Street Party?"

"Senate Republicans, united in opposition to the Democrats’ legislation to tighten regulation of the financial system, voted on Monday to block the bill from reaching the floor for debate. As both sides dug in, the battle has huge ramifications for the economy and for their political prospects in this year’s midterm elections."

Reid Getting Tough With GOP

Wow, who knew Reid could get tough. One of the biggest gripes with Reid is his unwillingness to challenge the GOP. It has been so bad sometimes, people have wondered if it would be better if Reid lost his reelection bid. I, myself, have thought similar things.

But when it comes to Wall Street Reform, Reid draws the line:

"fter quarterbacking health care reform through its tricky final moments in the Senate, Reid put the GOP on the spot yesterday, forcing them to filibuster a broadly popular Wall Street reform bill, and promises to do so over and over again."

Reid did just that. He made the GOP filibuster three times in a row. Which is extremely rare for the Senate leader. Who knows where it goes but I think he's been more combative because of his tight reelection bid. I hope he's remembering all of this so that, if he does get reelected, he'll know what people want from their senator.

Arizona Law Changes Dem Agenda

The horrible racist law coming out of Arizona has upended the dem senate agenda and now appears to be causing dems to rethink their agenda. Now, instead of taking on energy, Harry Reid seems determined to take on immigration.

This might be a move by Harry Reid because of his horrible polling showing him trailing his repub opponent.

I am not sure if that is Reid's agenda but this is a HUGE hot button issue and has to be done perfectly. If not, the American people will only become more angry and the government. Tread lightly Mr. Reid

Harry Reid Keeping Heat On GOP

The GOP has been trying to hijack the message for Wall Street Reform and last week they were doing a good job until Friday when:

"Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, was accused of securities fraud in a civil lawsuit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly intended to fail."

Then today, this comes from Harry Reid about the GOP's backroom talks with Wall Street Execs:

"Years of greed and excess on Wall Street cost 8 million jobs and trillions in wealth for middle-class families and small businesses. Since Republicans appear to be conducting backroom negotiations with these same people who took our economy to the brink of collapse, the public deserves to know what secret deals and carve-outs Republicans are offering Wall Street executives in exchange for their support."

How Goldman Sachs Screwed Its Investors

Good little tutorial about how Goldman Sachs created mortgage based investments for its clients which were designed to fail. They then bought insurance that paid Goldman Sachs if the people defaulted on their mortgages. Its amazes to me how people can lie, cheat and steal on such a grand scale.

How Wall Street Raped And Pillaged

This is a must read. How wall street execs screwed a small town and now everyone in the town has to pay for their greed.

"[Lisa] Pack got rudely introduced to life in post-crisis America last August, when word came down that she and 1,000 of her fellow public employees would have to take a little unpaid vacation for a while. The county, it turned out, was more than $5 billion in debt — meaning that courthouses, jails and sheriff's precincts had to be closed so that Wall Street banks could be paid."

You later learn, her livelihood was severely affected by the greed of corrupt politicians and lies of JP Morgan. The bank also bribed other banks to leave the county alone because they wanted to rape it for themselves then leaving once the poop hit the fan.

This whole deal reminds me of the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax.

SEC Charges Goldman Sachs With Fraud

The SEC has charged one of the bigger firms to almost bring down our economy with fraud. The nuts and bolts are:

"...which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly devised to fail. The move marks the first time that regulators have taken action against a Wall Street deal that helped investors capitalize on the collapse of the housing market."

The companies who profited from selling something designed to fail is very angering. These guys need to be heavily fined. These things cannot happen again.

Taxes Lowest In 60 Years

Why isn't this being talked about more. Again, dem messaging sucks!!

Obama Extends Gay Rights To Hospital Visits

While I feel sometimes Obama is all over the place. (Passing health care then a week later, opening up offshore drilling.) This is the direction the country needs to keep moving.

"President Obama on Thursday ordered his health secretary to issue new rules aimed at granting hospital visiting rights to same-sex partners."

While he can't change the laws now, this is the process to make gay rights the norm.

GOP Against Wall Street Reform After Meeting With Wall Street

Well, this looks just totally shady.

"As a financial reform bill starts to take shape in Washington, two key lawmakers came to New York City last week to explain what it means for Wall Street, and how financial executives might help prevent some of its least market-friendly aspects from becoming law by electing more Republicans, FOX Business Network has learned.

About 25 Wall Street executives, many of them hedge fund managers, sat down for a private meeting Thursday afternoon with two of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in Congress: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and John Cornyn, the senior senator from Texas who runs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, one of the primary fundraising arms of the Republican Party."

It blows my mind to think the GOP goes to the corporate executives, solicites their money, then comes out against the legislation that would prevent another deep recession. The same one we are just recovering from now.

They make me sick!!

Bart Stupak Retiring

Bart Stupak, dem from Michigan, the same dem who fought Obama on health care to have stricter abortion rules, is retiring from the House. While many in the dem caucus are not upset to see him go he comes from a fairly conservative district in Michigan. Which opens up this seat to a possible repub takeover come november.

I am a person who thinks a big tent is good. I think having many members with different views can only make a party stronger. I don't want to see him go. I feel the dems cannot afford to go down the same road repubs did and get rid of all of the "unpopular" opinions/views within the party.

John McCain Says He's Not A Maverick

It seems that maverick image was something McCain never thought it applied to him.

"I never considered myself a maverick,"

This is really confusing and I don't totally understand it. He's got a primary challenger and so he might be thinking he wants to appear as conservative as possible for the primary election. I don't think this is the best idea. All it does is just open him up for criticism. And that is just what Jon Stewart did. Check it out.

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Good News On Good Friday For Obama

Come November, jobs and the economy are the top items that could make or break the dems. This is an excellent start to turn the tide.

"President Barack Obama got the first unequivocally good news on the nation’s employment picture Friday, as new government figures showed the nation gained 162,000 jobs in March."

Most jobs came from the private sector and a third of the total number comes from census workers, but who cares. Work is work and people need it.

The dems do have the wind at their backs. With wall street reform around the corner, they have all their chess pieces where they need them.

Side note: This week is when most congressmen announce their retirement and we haven't had any announcements from the dems. Good news it is!

Quote Of The Day

"Can you imagine if some of these reporters were working on a farm? You planted some seeds, and they came out the next day, and they looked, and nothing’s happened! There’s no crop! We’re going to starve! Oh, no! It’s a disaster!”

President Obama speaking in Maine about how quick journalists and politicos are to critique the health care bill. He does have a way of putting things in perspective.

Watch the video. Very funny.

Republicans Hurt By Their Own Propaganda

It seems Michelle Bachmann's idea for repubs to not fill out their census form is backfiring bigtime.

"In Texas, some of the counties with the lowest census return rates are among the state’s most Republican"

So, let me get this correct. GOP big mouths preach about big government in your life. They then advocate for the illegal act of NOT filling out the census form and are then screwed by its affects. Now that there is such a low showing, the possibility of losing house members in GOP areas increases.

The other coin to this is the GOP is supposed to be fiscal conservative. The problem is that since there is such a low number of census forms coming back that the government then has to PAY people to go door to door to get the numbers.

"It costs taxpayers $25 per person to send a census taker door-to-door to collect the same information if they didn’t mail it back."

25$ bucks per person per house. Do the math on that one GOP. Their insane talking points are costing them seats and money. The GOP is a joke.