Today, President Obama told the press that he will take Executive action in order to end discrimination against the LGBT community on the work floor. 16 million Americans working in one way or another for the Federal government will no longer have to go to work each morning fearing that they may be fired simply because of who they love. The decision came after Republicans in the House continued to block the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), bill introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) in April 2011.
As a June 2011 poll from the Center for American Progress has shown, 73% of likely voters support the bill, support that, moreover, cuts across political party affiliation, as 66% of Republican voters agree with workplace nondiscrimination laws for gay and transgender people (http://americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/news/2011/06/02/9716/polls-show-huge-public-support-for-gay-and-transgender-workplace-protections/ ).
Once again, Republicans are doing EXACTLY the opposite of what a majority of their own base wants them to do. And once again, they hope that ignorance will allow them to nevertheless keep their job, as 9 out of 10 Americans don’t even realize that in the 21st century you can be an American citizen and nevertheless be fired because of your sexual orientation. The vast majority of Americans believe that the Constitution itself makes such a blatant inequality before the law totally impossible. They are wrong, the GOTP knows it, and they prefer to cultivate this kind of inequality rather than to do their job and represent the people who elected them. Which is just one more reason why, come November, we should ALL stop voting along party lines and start looking at the record of our Reps and Senators, and replace every single Congressman and woman who consistently refuses to allow the majority a vote in Congress.
That being said, it’s NOT just Republicans who are to be blamed. It is well-known that part of the progressives in this country tend to stay home during congressional elections, allowing a minority of ultra right-wing citizens to dictate the balance of power in Congress, and, as a consequence, the nation’s legislative agenda. And WHY are certain progressives doing so? Because they tend to spontaneously believe the big headlines on ‘progressive’ newsblogs such as the Huffington Post, which have a reputation for cultivating cynicism.
The headline announcing Obama’s most recent Executive Order is only the latest illustration of that phenomenon. This afternoon, the HP wrote:
“At last: Obama taking action on LGBT discrimination” (www.huffingtonpost.com).
A headline like that suggests that during his more than five years in office, he didn’t do anything about LGBT discrimination yet, idea that is completely false. Here’s a comprehensive list of all the LGBT achievements of the Obama administration:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/lgbt_record.pdf
Of course, repealing DADT was only ONE of those achievements, even if it may have been the most ‘spectacular’ one until now.
The idea that Obama did NOT do anything on LGBT equality is something that the HP has been suggesting almost from the very beginning of his first term. The same goes for his record on job creation. At the very moment that the historic decisions taken by President Obama (the biggest stimulus package in history, for instance) were producing its first effects, the HP was eagerly joining the GOTP choir that was all of a sudden crying ‘Where are the jobs?’. The only big issue that the HP immediately got right was Obamacare. So WHY did they fail to see the truth when it comes to jobs and LGBT rights?
To me, the main reason why the HP often reacts in a very cynical way to things happening at the White House or on Capitol Hill, is because they lack a CLEAR conception of HOW progress can be made in a radical, non violent, democratic way. Many Republicans don’t have any idea of this kind of ‘strategy’ neither, nor do part of America’s progressives. As a consequence, each time ‘Washington’ is taking a SMALL step forward, they cannot but become even more desperate, fearing that if it’s a matter of small steps, we’ll never get to the finish. But that’s forgetting that people like Saul Alinsky, the intellectual father of community organizers, belonging to the great philosophical school of Chicago ‘Pragmatists’ (together with William James, John Dewey and others) have shown that the ONLY way to get to the finish is to have the courage and the guts to go standing in the mud and fight hard in order to achieve one small step after the other, all while keeping your eyes on the finish and not letting yourself be discouraged by those who stand at the sideline and start yelling as soon as you’re trying to move forward.
It’s because people don’t see HOW step by step change can result in a radical AND perfectly democratic revolution, that they react in a cynical way each time such progress is made.
The Huffington Post is led by a former Republican turned into a ‘progressive’. Maybe Arianna Huffington should study the books of community organizers a little bit more, if she really wants to THRIVE as a progressive, and use a newsblog to allow Americans to create a more vibrant and thriving democracy.
I am one of the progressives being complained about here. I want to make this clear: I did not expect Obama to immediately solve unemployment or turn swords into plowshares or fix immigration. I did expect him to give the single-payer advocates a place at the table when the ACA was being discussed. I did expect him not to cave on the public option. He had a huge accomplishment with passing the ACA. That I understand.
What I don’t understand are the things that are completely under his control that were botched. The banksters blew up some $22 trillion in home equity and pension funds and nobody’s ever been indicted. Holder won’t even indict over events on Obama’s watch such as LIBOR or the HSBC drug money laundering scandal. Obama’s energy policy is also same-old, same-old. No Democrat should be using the bromides ‘clean coal’ or ‘100 years of natural gas’, especially when his own energy department has debunked them. Ditto for appeals for new nuke plants.
The NSA. The prosecution of whistleblowers. Obama’s pressure on the Spanish government to drop prosecution of the Bush team for war crimes (reported in Wikileaks cables). The NDAA, which if it had been passed by a President Romney would’ve surely caused vitriolic editorials and protests. I don’t like HP and their headlines (which are all about clicks). But sometimes they were right.
As I agree with most of the comments below, I just wanted to add a couple of things.
The idea that Obama had “TWO FULL YEARS” to achieve his agenda (and, as a consequence, that all that wasn’t achieved during these two years could have only one possible explanation: “not caring”) is a myth that at times the HP took over too.
How many people know that at the end of Obama’s first year already, Ted Kennedy was replaced by ‘Teapartier’ Scott Brown? How many people know, for instance, that at the time the Dem had already a second stimulus ready, but that Scott Brown blocked a vote on it in the Senate?
The election of Brown gave the GOTP exactly the number of votes they needed to be able to block each and every vote through a filibuster, and that’s what they’ve done on almost all important issues NOT since January 2011, but ALREADY from Jan. 2010 on.
That means that Obama had exactly ONE year where he could work – in theory – on his own agenda. Which of course does NOT mean IMPLEMENTING that agenda each and every day, it means working with the Constitutionally INDEPENDENT Congress in order to find common ground on which moving forward can be possible.
Everybody knows that the Democratic party is a ‘big tent’. In the Senate for instance, there were more or less 15 progressive Dems, 30 moderate Dems, and 15 conservative Dems (Blue Dogs). Working as a Dem president with Congress, in such a circumstances, means trying to help create common ground among both aisles of your OWN party. THAT’s why the first stimulus was the biggest stimulus package in history BUT at the same time lower than what progressives wanted, AND higher than what Blue Dogs wanted. Obama got this through Congress in a RECORD time, fortunately, because when he came in, we were losing almost a million jobs a MONTH, GDP was at -9% (at -10% you have a depression), and became more negative each and every quarter.
And coming into office in the midst of the worst economic crisis in more than half a century, in other words in a state of EMERGENCY, is NOT exactly what you need to be able to start implementing your OWN agenda from day one.
These aren’t “excuses”, as some prefer to call them, it’s the very reason why Obama and the Dems achieved what they did (LGBT rights included). Which brings my to the second point I wanted to make.
In a democracy, the Constitution gives ordinary citizens the possibility to be part of the government – as a politician or as a mere citizen. But as we all know, it’s not because it’s written on a peace of paper that it will actually HAPPEN. Citizens still have to DECIDE to start engaging in the legislative process. Which means that somehow they have to at least understand a LITTLE bit how that process works. As a consequence, ‘activating’ the democratic potential of a constitutionally democratic country is only possible when newspapers, MSM and newsblogs invest considerable time and energy (read: money) in studying this process and explaining it to their readers/viewers.
Unfortunately, part of the reporters working for the HP do NOT seem to understand how the legislative process works. And as they’re nevertheless paid to explain what’s happening on Capitol Hill, they do what we all spontaneously tend to do (as some comments on this thread clearly show too): they ‘psychologize and moralize’, in other words, they try to explain complicated mechanismes by writing about the ‘character’ of this or that politician or person (WITHOUT even KNOWING him or her, of course, and often using merely pseudo-psychological concepts) … or reporter or CEO or whatever.
It’s when you start doing something like that that it’s very easy to become cynical, and once MSM start to cultivate cynicism, ordinary citizens don’t get informed about HOW a democracy works anymore, so they don’t see why they should go voting, and that’s how even ‘progressive’ newsblogs can become a HUGH factor in reducing voter turnout (especially on the left, as cynicism is playing a very different role in politics on the right).
If we strongly believe (as many of us clearly do) that getting the vote out is absolutely crucial in order to obtain a government ‘by and for the people’, then imho we have to urgently STOP playing the blame game, and start ANALYZING, calmly, the CONCRETE, non-psychological but fundamentally POLITICAL reasons why people stop voting, so that we can all together work on solutions that will have a real impact, rather than merely imagining that if WE go voting but they not, they must be ‘stupid’, point.
And I’m sure that somehow, Arianna Huffington might understand this herself. That’s why the end of my piece was referring to her new book: one of the wonderful things the HP has done is increasing awareness about the importance of meditation and mindfulness. But mindfulness means to constantly try to replace judging by non-judgemental UNDERSTANDING. Imho, that’s EXACTLY what we need on the left, today, when it comes to politics, and if we want to obtain bills that reflect the will of the majority of the American people.
On the other hand … practicing mindfulness means TRYING not to judge, and if you do, simply observing THAT you’re judging. So you cannot possibly tell someone else that he or she ‘should practice a little more mindfulness’ …
Beatriz, as much as we try, humans tend to be judgmental of others.Nothing Ariana writes, impresses me for I have learned how to observe her behavior and intentions.Human nature. Meditation and mindfulness? Big bs from Ariana.As usual. I am an atheist who happens to respect others beliefs and faith.
The reason many progressives stopped voting was clearly exposed here by MTS.Progressives behaved like children at the most diabolical place on earth: Disney World….They thought the moment President Obama walked in, he would be walking on waters….
As an European and knowing – humbly well – her history, anything that comes from her has big $$$$ behind it. PEACE.XX
Don’t forget too that Al Franken did not get sworn in til July as there was a dispute over that election….and Teddy Kennedy died in august. 2 whole years is completely a myth. IMO, most media are terrified of being labeled as in the tank for the liberals so they do not do their jobs. They say a bill failed to pass, instead of saying we did not even get to vote on it because the minority blocked a vote!.
See, this is why Bill Clinton is more popular than Barack Obama with liberals and moderates
1. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
2. Repeal of Glass-Steagall – Allowed investment firms and banks to become one again.
3. Commodity Futures Modernization Act – Which led to deregulation of credit-default swaps and toxic mortgages that nearly wrecked the earth’s economy –
4. Defense of Marriage Act
5. Work for Welfare Act
6. NAFTA / WTO
All of this explains why Clinton is still more popular with liberals than Obama is.
*Sigh*
Huh?
X2
LOL KT, you want context too? This was in response to a recent publication that shows Bill Clinton with a 55% approval rating and Obama with a 41% approval rating, and a higher approval rating among Democrats. Sorry for the seeming non-sequitur
See Murph’s post for a much better take on this.
You DO understand a trade agreement – NAFTA – would allow the US to export it’s products without heavy taxing?
FACT: with ALL democratic administrations – especially with Clinton – this country left a surplus.Which cannot be said about ANY republican one.Peace.NAMASTE.
Exfan, that sounds great. Do you think it was worth putting nearly 50% of Mexican farmers out of business and costing the US almost 700K jobs?
I was not aware of the Mexican unemployment.
EX, no worries. The challenge that NAFTA created for Mexican farmers is that they now had to compete on a level playing field with big agribusiness in the US….which still receive huge subsidies to produce crops that are staples in Mexico (especially corn). Very quickly they found that they couldn’t compete and the farms went out of business.
Now these farmers head north to work the fields in the US, creating an immigration problem where before there was less of one.
Its estimated that nearly 2 million farm jobs in Mexico were wiped out.
But gang and cartel violence also took a place on their migration to the north.I love Mexico and Mexicans too.They are hard working people who want to strive to make their families have better lives.I am not sure you watched Food.Inc, but most of the illegals coming here were previously “invited” by republicans.With promises and more promises till they become sick or a nuisance so the employers just call ICE and we, tax payers , have to pitch in to deport and their imprisonment and food/heath until they finally leave. I was reading earlier on, there are MORE then 55 million people displaced by territorial wars – more than after WWII.It’s very very sad.
EXFAN: Except for Truman, LBJ, and Carter you’d be right. Nor do I consider a surplus virtuous.
Thank you for correcting me. Life is a permanent learning center.
HP has used inflammatory headlines to promote clicks for a number of years now. I no longer have an interest in visiting that site, let alone analyzing any of their articles. I’m finding that I am very happy with the news aggregate apps that I’ve downloaded and I don’t feel the need to check in at HP at all.
I understand exactly what you mean seehowtheyrun, I feel exactly the same about HP. 🙂
That makes two of us..Clicking on their website is just like clicking on any trash tabloid like the Enquire whatever….
The impatience and unrealistic expectations of some of my progressive friends has been a source of irritation.
Many seem to have neglected the amount of obstruction President Obama has faced from a congress tat vowed to make him a one-term president, even while his hand was still on the bible taking the Oath Of Office…
And particularly since the 2010 midterms when we ALLOWED the GOP to reclaim The House, and narrow the democratic majority in The Senate.
As Beatriz points out in her article, these things don’t ‘self-correct’ overnight.
In most cases, it takes several election cycles.
We should not have false expectation for this year’s mid-terms.
In spite of almost single-digit approval numbers, due to gerrymandering, the GOP may in fact be able to hold on to The House, though their majority will diminish…
Likewise, democrats in The Senate.
It is imperative to vote this year in order for us to be well-placed for real success in 2016.
As for HuffPo, to quote an old blues number…
Arianne “Sold Her Soul To The Junkman”.
Kevin, very well stated.
We Democrats and Progressives simply MUST get out and vote EVERY TIME not just in Presidential election years.
It is really irritating when I consider just how much further along America would be if Democrats and Progressives actually voted every single election year – we would be LEAPS and BOUNDS beyond where we find ourselves today!
Excellent article. What concerns me is the unrealistic expectation of now. Rome wasn’t built in a day and it took the over 50 years to come up with Health Insurance for all. Even as we insisted, post WW2, that all rebuilding nations provide through taxation Health Care (note the difference) for all. Everything takes time and effort. We are changing and there is hope, patience should be an elementary school subject; along with critical thinking and debate.
Voting in EVERY election is not only a right, but an obligation. How can we call ourselves a government by the people, if the people don’t participate?
As to Arianna, I go by my Bill Maher rule of thumb. If he’s friends with a woman, she is largely as selfish as he is. Now that doesn’t keep me from watching his show. Anyone who was ever friends with Ann Coulter, has to have a screw or two loose. Arianna just wanted to invest her divorce money wisely. LOL. When she sold to AOL, she made a 450% return on investment. Not bad for someone who wrote about the pigs at the trough. Apparently she enjoys the company of those in the sty.
Interesting comment- quite comprehensive
Let me begin with the function of headlines- to draw in readers.
HP headlining has long been splashy, antagonistic, and sensational in its headlining. When I was active there I often commented on its tendency to accentuate the negative because as William Randolph Hearst said in the 19th century (and what remains true today) “if it bleeds, it leads”- a reference to his editorial policy that front page, top of the fold headlines and stories got the most attention if they were nasty, violent, negative.
This style, often referred to as “tabloid”, has expanded to include that which is sexy, NSFW, and celebrating celebrity status.
Now, having said that, I also regard HP headlining as whiny and complaining especially in regard to liberal/progressive priorities. In that world Obama has not done enough, moved fast enough, taken on the enemies of liberal causes enough etc.
This is the sentiment that retarded progressive/liberal turnout in 2010 and nearly killed Obama’s entire administration.
I tire of the mantra that “Obama has not done enough to keep his promises”….when liberals gave him TWO WHOLE YEARS, to get it all done in and then when he could not walk on water, turned their backs on him.
Thus, we got a GOP House, GOP governors and state legislatures, all in a Census year which ensure an uphill climb in 2012, 2014, and 2016.
Liberals and Progressives did not do enough.
SO, Libs and Progs (yeah, you know who I am talking to) quite yer bitchin and get your asses in gear OR you will have a GOP Senate, an Obama impeachment trial and even less getting done in DC.
Brilliant Murph! Absolutely 100% correct about the the mantra that “Obama has not done enough to keep his promises”…. Every time I read this thinking I found it very difficult to comprehend that this was coming from rational people who actually expected that every single issue was going to be solved on the turn of a dime.
I said in 2009 when President Obama took Office that no one should have unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved in a short period of time. Then we had the Midterms in 2010 and those very people with their unrealistic expectations stayed home! Shameful and may I say not too bright!
Thank you. In my experience, we on the left can be every bit as unreasonable and irrational as those on the right
I have several friends who either did not vote in 2010 or voted for a Republican or an alternative third party candidate “to send a message.” I never tire of reminding them that the message they sent is “We are stupid.”
What in the heck are you doing up so early (or is it early where you are)? In my world it is 5 AM but I am a farmer so that is my excuse.
Ha Ha Murph! I’m not up early at all. It’s 2030 Tuesday here in Melbourne, Aust. and just about to have dinner! I’m glad you explained why YOU were up so early though!
Be back later on the rest. Toodle pip!
In the land of Oz….ah hah!
Yes Murph, the land of Oz. Like you, I’ve been around a bit of the planet, studying, working, living and of course vacationing! I should remember what State you are in but I don’t. Virginia? Missouri? Apologies if I’m way off.
Like you, I was in boarding school in England for four years, Surrey and Oxford. We had a nice chat about that early on. I flew over from New York each September and back in June. Then on to San Francisco for College, worked in SF for an airline and then was asked to come to Sydney to help open their office. That was my mistake! Got taken for everything after 24 years. We now live in Melbourne but hope to relocate to Dublin, Ireland as soon as some health issues are resolved. We do not love Oz! Miss my beloved SF but can’t afford that now. Only good thing was that I met my darling here and no he’s not Australian either.
Hate Oz. Really. Few do.
I have not been there. I have been told that I would find new Zealand, especially ChristChurch much more to my liking.
You have traveled far and long and learned much.
Love SF but SOOOOOOOOO expensive now, more than NYC which is saying someting. I do not like Dublin- perhaps I have not given it a chance. Irish countryside is nice. Ireland is having a rough time of it now that EU boom went bust, yes?
Murph, there was an article written that Australia was the “Happiest Country”. Well the responses from those LIVING here states quite the contrary, sort of on the order of “you’re joking, right?” They echo what has been my experience on the whole.
This thread is now too narrow to list the pages of comments that I have already reduced by 50%! So I will comment in TO/OT and you’ll see my drift.
Yes, Ireland is in a spot of bother but all the people we know and love there are doing quite well, are happy and enjoy their travels all over. Sorry that Dublin wasn’t your cup of tea. It’s not ours either, but the comraderie and support is wonderful.
You wrote:
“Murph, there was an article written that Australia was the “Happiest Country”. Well the responses from those LIVING here states quite the contrary, sort of on the order of “you’re joking, right?” They echo what has been my experience on the whole. This thread is now too narrow to list the pages of comments that I have already reduced by 50%! So I will comment in TO/OT and you’ll see my drift. Yes, Ireland is in a spot of bother but all the people we know and love there are doing quite well, are happy and enjoy their travels all over. Sorry that Dublin wasn’t your cup of tea. It’s not ours either, but the comraderie and support is wonderful.”
YOU KNOW….that might make a good article/post here. We have a handful of Aussie on the Planet and I would be interested in the Happiet Country article’s argument and the responses it provoked.
Well, friends make deserts islands, oases. Got your point.
P.S. The way you deal with narrow threads is to jump up a couple of levels and do what I did here.
Murph, I guess that you have seen the responses that the “Happiest Country” provoked. I put some of the responses in OT/OT so as not to tie up this thread.
But the Full Article is :
http://www.smh.com.au/business/australia-the-worlds-happiest-nation-oecd-20130528-2n87z.html
I’m sure that you already know that in politics here the Liberal Party are the Concervatives/GOP and The Labor Party are the Democrats.
Murph, I did not know you were a farmer. I was a horse farmer after I retired.
Yep. I am a “gentleman famrer” i.e. I sell organically raised produce to small local markets and restaurants- mushrooms, tomatoes, squash, cucumber, peppers, eggplant and berries.
I raise the mushrooms in an enclosed, photo paper dark out large shed. The rest are in a dozen enclosed gardens – 15000 square feet worth.
I have been doing this since 2009.
What about your horse farm?
After 32 years of climbing telephone poles I worked at the high school as the disciplinarian for four years. Then I started our Morgan horse farm. Again four years. My knees gave out and my wife had a fall and hurt her back. That ended our farming.
I loved getting up and tending to the horses. My fencing was post and rail which I made from saplings on my land. I loved the routine up early and out every night to put them in the stalls. Now I have two new knees and do landscaping around my place and cut firewood for sale.
Try to work outside at least 3 or 4 hours a day now.
Telephone lineman
disciplinarian
horse wrangler
How are these connected?
Were you a certified teacher (to be in a high school admin)? What kind of school? What did your job entail. I taught in high school for 13 years. We had one Dean of Students who was a tyrant, ruled by fear, paddle and all. The next was a Socratic Logician, ruled by outwitting the crowd. Both were effective. Both were liked by some students and disliked by others. I suspect this related to the parenting styles in their homes. This was late 60’s and into the 70’s, very conservative town.
I loved my subject and those who love their subjects often migrate to higher ed but I also loved teaching so I went to a university where teaching was really emphasized and a key to promotion.
I fell into farming after my post retirement nest egg emploded in 2008.
My last two years with the phone company, I was the safety officer for the state of Vermont. Teaching safety classes of all types. From pole top rescue, first aid, aerial lift certification, overhead lifting with derrick, and so much else. I even went into Mass. , NH, and Maine to help teach.
I found that I had a knack for teaching. I am just a high school educated man but have lots of experience. I retired in “02 and went to be a sub at Montpelier HS. They offered me the discipline job and I did 4 years. I really liked the kids, they are willing to listen to life experiences and learn from them. I showed them respect and explained why rules have to be obeyed. The respect came back two fold. The four classes all asked me to chaperon their graduation overnight party they have.
I had a great time with them. Saw the freshmen graduate and called it enough.
My horse farm was intended to be a long term thing until my wife fell.
Do you actually make a profit farming? I always had a loss.
I could have jumped all the way up to here and gotten back most of the box….
Pity that I’ve recently – rather, quite a few months now – learned of this blog.
I clearly remember your posts there about the excessive and infantile expectations.Always thumbed you up ….. and I’ve lost the number of times I was called names whenever I disclosed similar arguments……
Many thanks EXFANOFARIANA for your support and compliment. Yes I sure did post constantly about unrealistic expectations. Very good of you to remember. Great to see you here at POV. We will have to think of a shortcut for your screen name perhaps! 🙂
Apologies for taking a few days to thank you. Been having a couple of MRIs done and they are enervating!
KT knows my moniker at HP: classicallady/But you can call me EFA….it’s easier..:) I hope nothing is wrong with your health.7 years ago, I’ve had a mole on one of my labia and went to the best GYN/OB in FLORIDUH.Yes I’ve been living here for almost ten years.Looking forward to go back to Europe, but my husband and I do have a contract.Cut a long one short, he observed me and without further exams, told me it was cancer….and that is had metathesis …WTF? Without a biopsy ??????Just a “look”? He told me “I’ve never seen anything like this”..Then I’ve asked him “so why on hell have you to decide for the worst”? “Because you are a smoker and very thin…But since my teens I have always be thin.I am a former ballerina and a professional swimmer!!!!!!LOLOLOL.Immediately after, the doc sent us to the FINANCIAL dept of the hospital to immediately start making decisions for my surgery.Evidently they were all about $$$$.So I hopped on a plane to Switzerland and the doc just asked me:”did you have a change in any kind of hygiene pads you wear? I’ve said YES..He told me: go back.You have nothing but an allergy”…..Alsmot 8 years later, yours truly is still here.But what a great pleasure it gave me to go back to the American doc and shove the docs on his face.
Sending you best vibes.Let us know how you progress for the better.Hugs.Tatiana
Big OOOPS here, Fergie.I am sorry for the mistake.I sincerely hope you are well and in good health.Unfortunately I’ve commented on MTS one. But it will serve you as weel.XOXOXO Read above.
Hi there EFA! Now I AM confused 🙂 What are you apologizing for? What mistake? The reply buttons can be a bit of a problem here on threads, so maybe I’ve missed something! I’ll have to go back and find what you’ve written in reply to Murph.
You are so kind, thank you for all you good wishes. Yes have had a “few” health issues! The MRIs this week were for hip/knee/leg issues. Nothing resolved as yet. Waiting for results and some cogent explantions!
I’ll reply properly to your other post below a little later. What a story. Wow!
Very best of my wishes to you. 🙂
Beatriz, You’re so right. Good article. If you want yet another example, check todays HP where the no longer relevant Sarah Palin is set to ‘renounce’ her Republican ties! Note that she hasn’t actually done that, but ‘is being driven’ that way because the GOP won’t do anything about the huge influx of children from Central America.
All I can say is, ‘Sarah, PLEASE don’t now turn Liberal/Democratic”! We couldn’t have her anywhere near reasonable dialogue. Still, it’s the mark of HP’s desperation that they keep trotting this has-been out for an airing. I suppose they’d feel they would hit the jackpot if they got a sideboob shot as well!
That whole spiel smelled like Sarah and the bottom of Tawds salmon boat. What a creepy fambly.
Hey pink! If nothing else, Sarah is a supreme opportunist and turns whatever way the political winds are blowing. She’s an egomaniacal fanatic in love with the media limelight. She always chides what she childishly refers to as the “lamestream media,” but she would be quite unhappy without their attention. She’s become a multi-millionaire thanks to that terrible media she always berates.
Cantor’s surprising loss has just given her another whine to whine about and get a little media attention while doing so. She has no future whatever in actual policy making. She has no chance of ever being elected to a position of leadership in national politics and she knows it.
Sideboob of the Tundra Tart? Glad I skipped breakfast…horrifying mental image, must gouge out eyes.
S-Man, hope you skipped lunch too!
Imagine Newtie and Callister on a moon base, running towards each other in slow motion, naked.
Sharp sticks for sale! $5 ea.
He’s still trying to find a parking lot and get her in the moon buggy.
Huffytoons doesn’t care about progress and Arianna is not a progressive. That website is a business and they want to make money. If sideboobs makes more money, then there will be sideboobs.
Beatriz, very nice post and all very much to the point.
All of us Democrats and progressives simply must get off our lazy behinds and vote all the radical GOPters OUT on the street where they belong! It is long past time to QUIT being complacent about voting just because it is a mid-term election year! ALL elections are CRITICALLY important.
Look how much the Koch’s are spending this year – to the tune of 290,000,000 just to keep their radical TP members in power. THEY know how important mid-term election years are…it is time we all face that reality as well and do something about it to end this tyranny of the radical right once and for all!!
And we need to continue to fight for a Const. amendment to overturn Citizen’s United and Mucutcheon.
Just completed a survey of the number of comments posted at HP. The aggregate number is down over 84% compared to the same time last year.
Miles “Now That’s What I Call A Winning Business Model” Long
Well now they have Facebook doing all the forum work for them. I just finally deleted my account.
Hey Miles,
Just out of curiosity, I paid HP a little visit this morning to check out the ‘state of affairs’.
Not only is the number of comments down dramatically, the quality of discourse is truly lacking.
One poster even called another a $#-ithead.
Made my day! Thanks Miles.
Republicans can no longer depend on ignorance to keep their dirty jobs. Because we won’t allow it. Using the web & networking tools, we are spreading the word on the hatred and darkness being spread by GOtP. And the web is everywhere: on computers, tablets, phones. And as we spread the word, the GOP’s idiot loops keep getting smaller and smaller. Even in GOP-dominated states, there are anti-GOP left wingers communicating with others on Twitter and elsewhere, knowing that they are not alone. For all it’s power, Fox News appears to be nothing more than an island of lies. Rush Limbaugh might as well give up and leave the business since all his employers are being boycotted.
Well spoken gentle friend Beatriz09. Thank you.
ST
“Love is love, and we are not its judge, or its master.”
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave
Thanks for a well thought out and well written article, Beatriz. Arianna is all about money and power. She also has a very cult leader like personality.
She will write, say, approve of anything that will further her twisted lust for riches and powerful friends. Her close friendship with Newt Gingrich speaks volumes on this fact.
President Obama risked great political “capital,” in fighting for the equal rights of the LGBT community, and continues to do so. It’s a shameless individual who would actually promote any uncertainty about this.
For the last mid-term elections, many people in the LGBT community stayed home, with feelings hurt, because they bought into this cynicism you so well describe. They were hurt because they believed the hype, and now look what they’ve got! I will recognize that many of the brighter, more well informed people within the LGBT community did recognize Obama’s actions and words promoting fairness in their lives.
I see things at HP as a natural progression that ultimately results from a lust for money and power. The sensationalist “rag,” that HP has become, is no real surprise to me. When a person abandons their principles for money, the quality of anything they may produce, deteriorates. It happens all the time in America, but what makes Huffington’s case so sad, is the real damage she is doing to a country she professes to love.
She is a Levantine Greek. She will always stand for $$$$$$
But killgoretrout… does that mean I won’t see you at the next Huffington/Brezinski THRIVE confab?? LMAO Where all of us 1%ers can pay to go to NYC and stay for 3 days and learn that we can be happy without money by only paying them $1,000 to learn how!? I read such good things about ‘thrive’ on HP but unfortunately those threads were closed for questions or comments after they ‘posted’ a few hundred or less glowing comments from anonymous people about how great it made them feel, not what they said or did there, just fake excitement like from those smarmy motivational speakers or the old Amway pitches. Anybody else notice that all the posters at HP are still anonymous fake names? huffington is a fraud.
Zsa Zsa really is a cult leader. Or at least a wealthy contributor to one.
A few years ago late one night someone wrote the truth on one of their behind the scenes threads about the workings of HP, which I copied and saved. He said that he was paid 15 to 25 cents a word by HP, depending on how many people reolied. Someone asked him how they could get a job like that. He said you have to know someone. They pay people to write controversial posts and get people to reply to them.
Well, Mairs, I think we have one of ’em here now. But the poor guy doesn’t realise that no money is paid for incendiary posts! He still does it, anyway. Glutton for punishment.
Go USA! They beat Ghana today at the World Cup! GOOD JOB GUYS!