DemocracyNow.org - This is a summary of news headlines from the United States and around the world as reported by Democracy Now! on Thursday, August 18, 2011.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
NYT OpEd: Crashing the Tea Party
Professors David E. Campbell and Robert D. Putnam wrote an OpEd in the New York Times detailing that the Tea Party movement is made up largely of ultra-religious conservatives who insist America is a “Christian nation:”
Tea Partiers ... seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates.
...The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government. This inclination among the Tea Party faithful to mix religion and politics explains their support for Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.
...It is precisely this infusion of religion into politics that most Americans increasingly oppose. While over the last five years Americans have become slightly more conservative economically, they have swung even further in opposition to mingling religion and politics.
Now that America is catching on to this fact, the Tea Party people are much less popular than other groups who largely seek to mind their own business:
Polls show that disapproval of the Tea Party is climbing. In April 2010, a New York Times/CBS News survey found that 18 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of it, 21 percent had a favorable opinion and 46 percent had not heard enough. Now, 14 months later, Tea Party supporters have slipped to 20 percent, while their opponents have more than doubled, to 40 percent.
Of course, politicians of all stripes are not faring well among the public these days. But in data we have recently collected, the Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists” and “Muslims.” Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right.
So, the Tea Party "movement" is now officially less popular among Americans than Muslims.
But leading conservative strategist Karl Rove called the notion that the U.S. is a Christian nation “offensive” during a Fox News interview. “We are based on the Judeo-Christian ethic, we derive a lot from it, but if you say we’re a Christian nation, what about the Jews, what about the Muslims, what about the non-believers? I mean, one of the great things about our country is that the first amendment gives you right to believe or not believe as you choose."
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
It's All About the Messaging
From our friend John Aravosis over at AmericaBlog:
Ezra Klein has an interesting piece up, from yesterday, arguing that the White House should take a page from the GOP playbook in pushing for actions on jobs. And Ezra is right, to a degree. The Republicans are ruthless and the President has been somewhat spineless. I think Ezra is incorrect, however, in arguing that Boehner wouldn't have resorted to a PR campaign to get his way.
That's exactly what Republicans do. They grab a message, and beat it to death, again and again and again, until you're sick of it, but suddenly, one day the entire country is parroting the same message.So, yes, the GOP does take hostages, and it does all the other high-stakes things needed to pass legislation in this town, but they don't forgo PR as some kind of unnecessary politesse. It's key to their campaign, and always has been (e.g., death panels, Obamacare, the stimulus didn't create any jobs, if the deficit isn't addressed today we're all going to die, etc.) The GOP is great at PR. Our leaders in power need to learn their game.
Democrats, on the other hand, think that issuing a single press release [or sending a single email to an aging email address list] "is" a PR campaign.
Democracy Now Discussion On Gov. Perry With Bob Moser
Amy Goodman discusses Rick Perry's recent comments with Bob Moser, executive editor of the American Prospect and former editor of the Texas Observer
On Monday Perry accused Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke of treason and suggested he would face physical harm in Texas. His comments were widely criticized, from the White House to Republican key strategist Karl Rove.
Perry has also drawn criticism for calling Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare "a Ponzi scheme."
Perry’s record in Texas is also beginning to face increased scrutiny. He claims responsibility for the an "economic miracle" in Texas, but many have questioned the success of his economic policies.
We look at Perry’s recent comments and his past with Bob Moser, executive editor of the American Prospect. Moser is the former editor of the Texas Observer, where he spent the last three years covering Perry.
Texas Ranks Last In Job Creation, Among Many Lasts
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), since he launched his presidential campaign on Saturday, has paraded around the stat that “since June of 2009, Texas is responsible for more than 40 percent of all of the new jobs created in America.” Gov. Perry says he wants conservative governance to do for America what it has done for Texas. All of the Republican presidential candidates tout no taxes and no government as good for America. So, what has conservative governance given Texas?
Stellar job growth?
Between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than in Texas.
In fact, “Texas has done worse than the rest of the country since the peak of national unemployment in October 2009.”
The unemployment rate in Texas has been steadily increasing throughout the recession, and went from 7.7 to 8.2 percent while the state was supposedly creating 40 percent of all the new jobs in the U.S.
How is this possible, since Texas has created over 126,000 jobs since the depths of the recession in February 2009? The fact of the matter is that looking purely at job creation misses a key point, namely that Texas has also experienced population and labor force growth [unequaled in other states. A series of factors also come into play, including that Texas weathered the housing bubble reasonably well due to strict state of Texas mortgage lending "government regulations."] When this is taken into account, Texas’ job creation looks decidedly less impressive:
As Paul Krugman put it, “several factors underlie [Texas'] rapid population growth: a high birth rate, immigration from Mexico, and inward migration of Americans from other states," and more...
A Report from the Texas Legislative Study Group On the State of Our State released in February 2011, at the start of the 82nd Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, assesses Texas' ranking in a number of categories. According to the Study Group's report Texas ranks last in almost every category:
No End in Sight for Texas Drought
The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex heat wave returned with vigor this week.
The all-time record highest minimum temperature, set just last month, was tied again on the morning of Tuesday, August 16, 2011 when a low of 86 degrees was recorded.
The all-time record highest minimum temperature, set just last month, was tied again on the morning of Tuesday, August 16, 2011 when a low of 86 degrees was recorded.
The overnight lows have been exceptionally warm during the past few weeks. The old record high minimum of 85 from 1939 was first exceeded on July 26th was a DFW low of 86.
Overnight lows since July 26, 2011 have tied the new record 4 times, and the average low so far in August is 82.4 degrees, more than 6 degrees above the average.
The pattern ahead suggests very hot temperatures to persist with daily highs 104 to 110 and lows 80 to 85 through next week.
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) argues that climate science is a “contrived phony mess” based on “so-called science” in a “secular carbon cult.” Speaking at a Politics and Eggs breakfast in Bedford, New Hampshire Wednesday August 17, 2012 Gov. Perry said, Gov. Perry, who failed to stop the drought with his prayer proclamation, yesterday dismissed any worries about the Texas drought while speaking at the Iowa State Fair. Perry said, “we’ll be fine. As my dad says, it’ll rain. It always does.““There are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects,” the Texas governor told a group of supporters at the “Politics and Eggs” Breakfast in Bedford, New Hampshire.
“I think we are seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man made global warming is what is causing the climate to change,” Perry added. “Yes, our climate has changed. They been changing for ever since the Earth was formed.”
“But I do not buy into a group of scientists, who have been, in some cases, found to be manipulating this information. And the cost to the country and to the world of implementing these anti-carbon programs is in the billions if not trillions of dollars at the end of the day. And I don’t think, from my perspective, that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven, and from my perspective, is more and more being put into question.” (C-Span video)
See "Global Warming Is A Trick" Climategate claims proven untrue - Times of London Retracts its story. Also see Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. behind Climategate? And see The global cooling myth.
Perry believes that the climate is still normal, unaffected by the 30 billion metric tons of carbon gas human civilization pumps in the biosphere every year, a level expected to increase to 33.8 billion metric tons annually by 2020 and grow to 42.4 billion metric tons annually by 2035.
Texas has grown hotter and drier, with stronger wildfires and torrential storms as climate changing greenhouse gases build in the atmosphere. Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Texas Tech University Climate Science Center, has said
...this summer is very similar to what is projected under a [climate changing] +2°C global mean temperature increase. We typically average 9 days per year > 100°F in Lubbock; this year we are at 43 and counting.
As of August 2011, 99 percent of Texas was in drought, with a staggering 78 percent in exceptional drought. The state’s farmers and ranchers are expected to lose about $10 billion this year to the killer climate, the worst in history.
The driest 10-month period from late 2010 to August 2011, yet a fresh record for Texas, has devastated the state and its farmers and ranchers. But, there is more to come... The National Weather Service warned Monday:
"THERE IS LITTLE TO SUGGEST ANY END TO THE DROUGHT"
The U.S. Climate Prediction Center said that the La Nina weather phenomenon blamed for the crippling lack of rain over the last 10 months might immediately restart, just two months after the this La Nina cycle ends. If that happens, the drought would almost certainly extend into 2012.
The lack of rain has been made worse by stretch of triple-digit temperatures that started in June. The drought and extreme heat has caused reservoirs to evaporate, crops to wither and animals and fish to die off by the tens of thousands.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
TFN: Rick Perry - Politics, Faith And The Culture Wars
The culture wars will feature prominently in Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Over the past decade Gov. Perry has turned his office into a command post for "culture warriors" on the far right. The Texas Freedom Network has put together a primer on Gov. Perry’s record in the culture wars at www.tfn.org/rickperry.
The Texas Miracle That Wasn't
Paul Krugman asked in his recent NYT OpEd,
"so where does the notion of a Texas "job growth" miracle come from?" And, he answered, "Mainly from widespread misunderstanding of the economic effects of population growth … Texas tends, in good years and bad, to have higher job growth than the rest of America. But it needs lots of new jobs just to keep up with its rising population — and as those unemployment comparisons show, recent employment growth has fallen well short of what’s needed."
Nick Rizzo collated the data for this chart, taking employment figures from Google’s Public Data Explorer, and filling it out with population data from the Census Bureau and — for the 2011 population of Texas — the Texas Department of State Health Services. Here’s the result:
According to the figures we have for 2011, 44.7% of the total US population has a job, compared to 43.5% of the Texas population.
Perry inherited a ratio of more than 47% in Texas from George W Bush, and has presided over a steady decline ever since — including every year of the Bush presidency bar 2005.
Krugman: A Short Course in Miracles
Monday, August 15, 2011
Jailing Undocumented Immigrants Is Big Business
HuffPo: Over the past three years, immigration politics has seen more restrictive legislation at the state level and the unprecedented enforcement of current laws by the Obama administration.
Together, the laws and the stepped up enforcement have the potential to bring tens of thousands of individuals into for-profit jails.
The Department of Homeland Security pays between $50 to $200 per day per person to local, county and state prisons to house apprehended aliens.
Thanks to a concerted lobbying push from the corrections industry, growing numbers of undocumented immigrants could end up in private detention facilities.
Over the past three years, immigration politics has seen more restrictive legislation at the state level and the unprecedented enforcement of current laws by the Obama administration.
Together, the laws and the stepped up enforcement have the potential to bring tens of thousands of individuals into for-profit jails.
"Immigrants for Sale" by the activist group CuéntameThe recent animated video "Immigrants for Sale" by the activist group Cuéntame illustrates some facts behind the connection between the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration and the for-profit corrections industry.
The video follows the trail of money and political power behind this piece of the national immigration debate.
A Dominionist Movement For Theocratic Government?
By Michelle Goldberg - Of the three most plausible candidates for the Republican nomination, two are deeply associated with a theocratic strain of Christian fundamentalism known as Dominionism. If you want to understand Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, understanding Dominionism isn’t optional.
Put simply, Dominionism means that Christians have a God-given right to rule all earthly institutions. Originating among some of America’s most radical theocrats, it’s long had an influence on religious-right education and political organizing. But because it seems so outré, getting ordinary people to take it seriously can be difficult.
We [now] have the most theocratic Republican field [of Presidential candidates] in American history, and suddenly, the concept of Dominionism is reaching mainstream audiences. Writing about Bachmann in The New Yorker this month, Ryan Lizza spent several paragraphs explaining how the premise fit into the Minnesota congresswoman’s intellectual and theological development.
A recent Texas Observer cover story on Rick Perry by Forrest Wilder examined his relationship with the New Apostolic Reformation, a Dominionist variant of Pentecostalism that coalesced about a decade ago. In many ways, Dominionism is more a political phenomenon than a theological one. [Pastors in the movement believe themselves to be modern day prophets or apostles, directly linked to God.
Their aim, explained the article author Forrest Wilder, is "to infiltrate government, and Rick Perry might be their man."]
“What makes the New Apostolic Reformation movement so potent is its growing fascination with infiltrating politics and government,” wrote Forrest Wilder. Its members “believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to not just take ‘dominion’ over government, but stealthily climb to the commanding heights of what they term the ‘Seven Mountains’ of society, including the media and the arts and entertainment world.”
The "New Apostles" believe they're intended to lord over it all. As a first step, they’re leading an 'army of God' to commandeer civilian government.
Rep. Schakowsky Announces Bill to Create 2.2 Million Jobs
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of President Obama’s 18-member Fiscal Commission, announced she will introduce the Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act, a cost-effective plan to put over 2 million people to work for two years.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
The time has come for Congress to focus like a laser on the most pressing crisis facing our country – the jobs crisis.
With extended unemployment benefits scheduled to expire at the end of this year, 13.9 million people remain out of work.
The average worker who is unemployed has been searching for a job for more than nine months and recent reports reveal that private sector employers largely refuse to hire those currently jobless.
An additional 8.4 million are working part time because they cannot find a full-time job. In June 2007, 63 percent of adults were employed, now the percentage is 58.2 percent. Despite reports of a Congress immobilized and unable to address the jobs crisis– Congress can and must do something today.
Gallup Poll Has Good News For Democrats, Bad News For Republicans
Following a not some good batch of polling news for congressional Republicans, a new USA Today/Gallup poll finds that Democrats have taken the lead on the first generic congressional ballot poll of the 2012 campaign season.
The poll found that Democrats now have a 51 percent to 44 percent lead over Republicans among registered voters when asked which party's candidate they would vote for if elections for Congress were being held today.
The 7-percentage-point lead on the new poll isn't as strong as the Gallup polls that led up to the major Democratic swing elections in 2006 and 2008 (Gallup says Democrats averaged 11-point and 10-point leads in polls before those elections), but it was much better than most Gallup polls leading up to the 2010 Republican victory, which showed near-ties or Republican leads among registered voters.
Tea Party Endorsements Could Do More Harm Than Good
Gallup also asked registered voters how a Tea Party endorsement would affect their likelihood of voting for a congressional candidate. The effect is nearly 2-to-1 negative, with 42% saying they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate versus 23% saying they would be more likely.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)