Morning Must Reads: Public

Radiation Dose Chart

“–After ceding that short-term discretionary cuts are a good idea, Democrats chalk their weak negotiating position up to an ill-informed public.”
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BS when was the last time you heard from the Democrats? They are in bed with the GOP.

Obama on Non-Criminal Illegal Aliens: We Don’t Want to Deport Them; ‘We Want Them To Succeed’
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(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama on Monday told a student who has received a deportation notice that he does not want to deport her — he wants people like her to succeed.
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The exchange happened during a town hall event sponsored by the Spanish-language television network Univision at a Washington, D.C., school. A student, who appeared via Skype, asked: “My question for the president is, why [is the government] saying that deportations have stopped — or the detention of many students like me, why is it that we are still receiving deportation letters like this one?”
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Obama answered, “We have redesigned our enforcement practices under the law to make sure that we’re focusing primarily on criminals, and so our deportation of criminals are up about 70 percent. Our deportation of non-criminals are down, and that’s because we want to focus our resources on those folks who are destructive to the community.

“Education is Boring”…Obama Speaks Out On Education “Reform”
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“Too often what we have been doing is using these tests to punish students,” the president told students and parents at a town hall hosted by the Univision Spanish-language television network at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C.
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Obama, who is pushing a rewrite of the nation’s education law that would ease some of its rigid measurement tools, said policymakers should find a test that “everybody agrees makes sense” and administer it in less pressure-packed atmospheres, potentially every few years instead of annually.

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“Too often” it is politicians like Obama who want to dumb down America. The progressive agenda now for over 80 years.

Once again you’re the one who’s apparently “dumbing down.” High-stakes standardized testing for its own sake doesn’t give you any clearer idea whether kids are learning. And based on the USAT story about inflating grades, it’s pretty clear that it can be easily manipulated as well.

Exactly. “Dumbing down” is when teachers are forced to teach to a test without any regard for the students actually learning anything. I had friends in high school constantly complain about how various teachers apparently only taught what would be covered on the FCAT, Florida’s public school standardized test.
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Learning to take a test is indeed boring.
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Or as someone who is a better speaker than I am put it, (from Rusty’s own link)

“One thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching the test because then you’re not learning about the world, you’re not learning about different cultures, you’re not learning about science, you’re not learning about math,” the president said. “All you’re learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test and that’s not going to make education interesting.”

“And young people do well in stuff that they’re interested in,” Obama said. “They’re not going to do as well if it’s boring.”

Dessert! Dessert! ‘Bronx Zoo Cobra’ Is Still Misssing; Except On Twitter’

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/29/134946612/bronz-zoo-cobra-is-still-misssing-except-on-twitter?ps=cprs

Follow him. He’s hilarious.

BTW, the Bloomberg photo? Just plain scary.

Not to mention using FCAT to justify closing schools. The test scores from one group of kids in year 2 are compared against the scores from another group from year 1. No apples-to-apples stuff. You’re just not important to the test administrators.

“”Too often” it is politicians like Obama who want to dumb down America. The progressive agenda now for over 80 years.”
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yeah – like those stupid unionized Finnish teachers do that happen to be the gold standard in education that even ideologues talks about.
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Where the resources are concentrated on the students and their education and not standardized testing.

Samantha Powers Defends The Libyan War: “credits Obama for Libyans’ uprising”
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So now our future has been pre-determined. If there is a genocide underway, or the threat of genocide, then the U.S. “must attack” the aggressor.
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This is nothing more than a set-up for the U.S. to back future attacks on Israel, should Israel take action against Palestinian attacks. Nothing more, nothing less.
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The new Holocaust is about to begin. As Obama has circumvented our Congress by not going to them for approval, the stage is now set to use military force against ANYONE this President feels is committing “crimes against humanity”. Another step towards George Soro’s “Open Society”.

Godwin’d in 11 posts? Impressive.
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Also, OMG SOROS!!1!

Trifecta, a sometime poster here, just tweeted “Has anybody checked the Bronx Zoo’s mongoose to see if it’s belly was very full?”
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And, speaking of former Swampies, PourMeCoffee is on Time’s list of World’s Most Influential Tweeters.
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http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2058946,00.html

“TPM has learned, that would cut over $30 billion in current spending because of disagreements over whether the package should include cuts to mandatory spending programs. Democrats are pushing for such cuts, which include the big entitlement programs, though the specific cuts they’re proposing remain unclear. In an ironic twist, Republicans oppose those cuts and want to limit the negotiations to non-defense discretionary spending, a smaller subset of the federal budget.”
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What we learned is that once again TPM lies. This is a well practiced Democratic ploy to point blame at everyone but who is responsible–them!
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Seems Harry Reid has a different take and its not the Republicans fighting budget cuts to entitlements.

A handful of liberal Democratic senators pushed back against calls from Republicans and even fellow Democrats to reform the national pension system during a rally on Capitol Hill Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada joined Sens. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent, Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, and Al Franken, Minnesota Democrat, at a “Hands Off Social Security” rally where all of them insisted that Social Security — the nation’s largest program that costs about $700 billion a year — adds nothing to the deficit or debt.
“Back off Social Security,” Reid told a cheering crowd. “It’s in great shape for many decades. Let’s worry about Social Security when it’s a problem. Today it is not a problem.”
“Social Security has nothing to do with reducing the deficit,” Franken added. “Social Security benefits should not be cut at all, for anyone, as part of efforts to reduce the deficit.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/29/reid-vows-to-stand-in-the-way-of-any-efforts-to-reform-social-security/#ixzz1HzVpnCWi

Bill Kristol loved the speech.
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‘Nuf said..

The wackos on the left are descending upon Obama.
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So ask yourself: Who exactly is Gingrich’s ‘base’?

The Associated Press has a scoop: Newt Gingrich, who has not been in office for more than a decade after resigning from Congress in what could be construed as disgrace, has no real political support in his home state of Georgia, where he has not actually lived for years.
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Gingrich lives in a Washington, DC suburb, because your average ambitious politician would rather be in Washington than in whatever ugly backwater he or she “represents” in Congress. Gingrich hasn’t voted in Georgia since 2000, the year he and his third wife bought a presumably lovely house in McLean, Virginia. But because the Republican party platform is explicitly anti-elite and anti-Washington, the longtime member of the Washington establishment is having to pretend to be an outsider in order to maybe pretend to run for president. But no one in Georgia remembers or cares about him.

“He’s yesterday,” said state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, a veteran Republican state lawmaker, vocalizing a key vulnerability for Gingrich.
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Linda Douglas, a Republican from Gingrich’s former congressional district in Cobb County, shrugged at the mention of Gingrich’s name and said: “Newt was great in the ’90s but really, his time seems like it’s long gone.”

Actually, all that infidelity was a good thing, if you look at it from a certain angle and squint your eyes.

Chris Wallace questioned likely presidential candidate Newt Gingrich — who has placed social issues at the forefront of his emerging campaign — about his personal infidelities and multiple marriages. Gingrich has admitted to having an affair with a Congressional aide (his present wife Callista) while leading the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton and so Wallace asked the former Speaker of the House if he thought his actions were hypocritical. Gingrich said they weren’t, going so far as to suggest that his past divorce and experience with giving depositions helped him understand why Clinton should have been impeached…

“How modern buildings have been reshaped by labor activism”

When a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on March 25, 1911, overcrowded worktables, inadequate and locked fire exits, and narrow escape passageways created a fatal inferno for the 146 people–mostly women and girls–who died. In the aftermath of the fire, outraged New Yorkers, lead by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (now Workers United) fought for crucial regulations that continue to protect us on the job to this day…

(interactive graphic at link)

How’s that austerity argument working out?

Just ask the Irish, whose government — having taken on an unsustainable debt burden by trying to bail out runaway banks — tried to reassure markets by imposing savage austerity measures on ordinary citizens. The same people urging spending cuts on America cheered. “Ireland offers an admirable lesson in fiscal responsibility,” declared Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute, who said that the spending cuts had removed fears over Irish solvency and predicted rapid economic recovery.
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That was in June 2009. Since then, the interest rate on Irish debt has doubled; Ireland’s unemployment rate now stands at 13.5 percent.
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And then there’s the British experience. Like America, Britain is still perceived as solvent by financial markets, giving it room to pursue a strategy of jobs first, deficits later. But the government of Prime Minister David Cameron chose instead to move to immediate, unforced austerity, in the belief that private spending would more than make up for the government’s pullback. As I like to put it, the Cameron plan was based on belief that the confidence fairy would make everything all right.
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But she hasn’t: British growth has stalled, and the government has marked up its deficit projections as a result.

Violence kills 9, injures 16 in Iraq
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At least nine people, including an army officer, have lost their lives and 16 others have been wounded in separate attacks in different parts of Iraq.
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Gunmen killed six women, aged between 20 and 40, and a man in the northern city of Mosul, medical sources confirmed on Monday.
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In a bombing attack on Monday, an army officer and police officer were killed in the city of Mussayib, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Baghdad, a police chief told AFP.
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He added that 16 people were also wounded, among them three soldiers and two police officers, by roadside bombs in Mussayib and in different parts of Baghdad.
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According to Opinion Research Business, since the 2003 invasion, more than one million civilians have lost their lives and about five million children have been orphaned.

Iraq Eight Years Later: A Legacy of Shattered Lives
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On a recent trip to Iraq and neighboring countries where Iraqis have fled waves of violence since the U.S. invasion in 2003, my colleagues from the International Rescue Committee and I were struck by how little had changed in the last few years for those forced to flee for their lives.
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The threats continue, and the specter of violence looms constant in Iraqi cities..
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Making matters even worse are the deplorable conditions in Baghdad squatter camps where the poorest Iraqis have sought refuge. People live next to open sewer pits, and families sleep in makeshift shelters without access to the most basic of services, like clean water.
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One of my colleagues who has over a decade of experience responding to humanitarian crises said these were among the worst conditions he’d ever seen.

“Teaching to the tests” is happening in Ky too.
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And it’s NOT the unions that are the driving force behind the push to do so but the administrators.
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Our “score cards” will, unfortunately, be in the form of a loss of scientific and research leadership in the future.
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Scientific principles don’t care what your scores were when you took the standardized tests for your state. Either you can do the math… or you can’t. No bonus points forthcoming because your school district met its testing goals.
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If we teach the science and math he right way, the students will do well on the tests.
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The reverse doesn’t necessarily apply.

Covert warfare.

Richard Clarke, who served for both Democratic and Republican Presidents, including a stint as the cyber security czar for the Bush administration, denounced the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for plotting with a group of military contractors to hack into progressive groups. Clarke was in DC speaking at a cyber security conference hosted by Symantec. Although Clarke focused his remarks about the growing threat of global cyber terrorism, ThinkProgress spoke to the longtime public servant about the ChamberLeaks story we originally broke.
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According to documents first reported by ThinkProgress, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s attorneys began working with three military contractors — Berico, HB Gary, and Palantir — to come up with a proposal to discredit groups like ThinkProgress, the SEIU, StopTheChamber.com, MoveOn.org, and others. The tactics proposed included spying on families, using malware computer viruses to steal private information, using fake documents to embarrass liberals, and creating fake identities to infiltrate their targets.

Why Finnish schools out-rate US.
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“Delineated High School
While there is little grading and in essence no tracking in Finland, ninth grade does become a divider for Finnish students. Students are separated for the last three years of high school based on grades. Under the current structure, 53% will go to academic high school and the rest enter vocational school.
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Using that format, Finland has an overall high-school dropout rate of about 4%. Even at the vocational schools the rate of 10% pummels America’s 25% high school drop out rate.
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There is no silly “college for all” mantra and there certainly isn’t a push to have all students sit through a trigonometry class if that is not relevant to the student. More importantly, there is also no negative connotation to the concept of vocational school.
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We noted previously the writings of Charles Murray in an earlier post, Too Many Americans Are Going to College, that far too many people see such training as second class while college is thought of as first class. Julie Walker, executive director of the American Association of School Librarians, notes the obvious student responsibility results at this juncture.
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While “the U.S. holds teachers accountable for teaching” in Finland “they hold the students accountable for learning.”
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Perhaps more importantly, there is a realization of the realistic academic potential of the entire student population. As Murray notes in another article, “Half of all children are below average, and teachers can do only so much for them.”

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So in other words, Finland recognizes and only “promotes” those students with the highest scores, grades and achievement test scores. The rest go out to learn a “trade”, and do not have to go through the rigorous testing that a college student would go through. How much does this skew the results? But, also look at the size difference between Finland and the US. In Finland, the population is about the size of Wisconsin. Also, Finland has little to no immigrants to their country.
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Finland also does not begin “testing” of their students until the age of 15-16, just when they split up those who will go to college and those who will learn a trade. The trade school students are not tested and part of OECD numbers for the rankings.
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Apples and oranges again.

rusty hearts Farrakahn…

Cash for Clunkers, Part Deux
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2011/mar/29/cash-clunkers-2-dumped-capitol-hill/

“This particular model assumes students are commodities with identical learning styles and abilities. Profit centers, amortized over 12 years.”

Now, Tom Luna had one of the best-financed 2010 re-election campaigns I’ve seen for an office that oversees about 280,000 students. (For perspective, California employs more teachers than Idaho’s total number of students.) But to get Tom Luna elected in a Republican state in 2010 when the Tea Party was full of hubris and madness, donors gave $212,000 to his campaign, of which $132,000 was spent as of November 18, 2010. This is not counting PACs, or independent expenditures. That’s direct campaign donations. With the exception of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, no other candidate for state office came anywhere near the campaign donations that Luna received.
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Those donors didn’t give because they were feeling generous and loved Tom Luna. They loved Tom Luna’s plans for the state’s public education system, though.

If Luna’s “Students Come First” proposal passes the Legislature, online education will be mandated in Idaho and a laptop will be available to every high school student. That means 115 school districts, with 82,000 high school students, will be in the market for computers, software and online courses.

[...] I’ve given you all of this detail on Idaho because it’s a small enough state that the money flow really stands out like a sore thumb. Despite Luna’s insistence that he’s not beholden to those who bought his re-election, his “reform proposals” say otherwise.
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But it’s not just Idaho. It’s Michigan. It’s Pennsylvania. It’s Arizona. Florida. Ohio. Indiana. The names are different but the model’s the same. In Michigan, it’s the DeVos family who funds charter schools and “influences policy”. The corporate education firms have different names but the goal is the same: To break unions, get rid of as many teachers as possible, and force students into online learning courses which teach to a test but don’t necessarily educate students…

“According to a 2007 article in the Journal of Business Ethics, 31 of 34 corporate directors, each of whom served on an average of six boards of Fortune 200 corporations, agreed that their duty to shareholders would require them to cut down a mature forest or allow a dangerous, unregulated toxin into the environment, if that increased shareholder value.”

Shareholder value capitalism in the U.S. since the 1980s has even failed in its primary purpose — maximizing the growth in shareholder value. As Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman Business School at the University of Toronto points out in a recent Harvard Business Review article, between 1933 and 1976 shareholders of American companies earned higher returns — 7.6 percent — than they have done in the age of shareholder value from 1977 to 2008 — 5.9 percent a year.
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For his part, Jack Welch has renounced the idea with which he was long associated. In a March 2009 interview with the Financial Times, the former head of GE said: “Strictly speaking, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.”
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In the aftermath of the failed 40-year experiment in shareholder capitalism, Americans need not look solely to other democratic nations for models of successful stakeholder capitalism. The U.S. economy between the New Deal and the 1970s was a version of stakeholder capitalism, in which the gains from superior growth were shared with workers, CEOs were moderately paid and the rich engrossed far less of the economy.

China’s empty cities. Does this make sense?
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Apparently having a healthy well educated electorate is not good for America. The concept of a representative Government, one person, one vote, is not good for America. The Idea that our Political leaders should up hold the law, is not good for America. That the Press and you should even give a $hit, is not good for America.

Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn in Lebanon. “Cubans should be able to vote for U.S. President”. “Both parties are capitalists, both parties are the same. It is essential to build a social movement in America to stop American greed. Build a social movement on un-rulyness.”
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One World Order – Open Society – Why just let only Americans vote in American elections? Bill and Bernadine advocate for a World Government complete with a World citizen, not just America.
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“A Short History of Conservative Voter Suppression”

Thursday, ThinkProgress reported that the Ohio House had approved the most restrictive voter id law in the nation — a bill that would exclude 890,000 Ohioans from voting. Earlier this week Texas lawmakers passed a similar bill, and voter id legislation — which would make it significantly more difficult for seniors, students and minorities to vote — is now under consideration in more than 22 states across the country
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Conservatives have said voter id laws are necessary to combat mass voter fraud. Yet according to the Brennan Center for Justice, Americans are more likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning than commit voter fraud. And the Bush administration’s five-year national “war on voter fraud” resulted in only 86 convictions of illegal voting out of more than 196 million votes cast. Instead conservatives are employing an old tactic: using the specter of false voting to restrict the voting rights of minorities and the poor.

Are you saying they thin out the stupid and we don’t???

“Why Finnish schools out-rate US.”
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Note two things – they’re unionized and they don’t waste their resources on standardized test scoring.

“The new Holocaust is about to begin. As Obama has circumvented our Congress by not going to them for approval, the stage is now set to use military force against ANYONE this President feels is committing “crimes against humanity”. Another step towards George Soro’s “Open Society”.”
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The new holocaust?
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George Soro’s?
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And leftists are the stupid ones?
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Wow

Perhaps a “short history of a FUDGED voter fraud report”
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http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/3791
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You and Think Progress may want to read this article.

Food inflation disguised in smaller packaging.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/business/29shrink.html?_r=4&ref=business
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As an expected increase in the cost of raw materials looms for late summer, consumers are beginning to encounter shrinking food packages.
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With unemployment still high, companies in recent months have tried to camouflage price increases by selling their products in tiny and tinier packages. So far, the changes are most visible at the grocery store, where shoppers are paying the same amount, but getting less.
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For Lisa Stauber, stretching her budget to feed her nine children in Houston often requires careful monitoring at the store. Recently, when she cooked her usual three boxes of pasta for a big family dinner, she was surprised by a smaller yield, and she began to suspect something was up.
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“Whole wheat pasta had gone from 16 ounces to 13.25 ounces,” she said. “I bought three boxes and it wasn’t enough — that was a little embarrassing. I bought the same amount I always buy, I just didn’t realize it, because who reads the sizes all the time?”
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Ms. Stauber, 33, said she began inspecting her other purchases, aisle by aisle. Many canned vegetables dropped to 13 or 14 ounces from 16; boxes of baby wipes went to 72 from 80; and sugar was stacked in 4-pound, not 5-pound, bags, she said.

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Where are the jobs again?

Consumer confidence, PLUMMETS
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http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/nation/2011/03/inflation-worries-push-consumer-confidence-lower
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Shoppers’ worries about juggling rising gas and food prices and other household costs pushed the Consumer Confidence Index down sharply in March.
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The decline, which followed a three-year high in February and reversed five straight months of improvement, raises questions about shoppers’ ability and willingness to spend in coming months.
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The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell more than expected to 63.4 from a revised 72.0 in February. Economists expected a decline to 65.4, according to FactSet. A reading of 90 indicates a healthy economy. The index hasn’t approached that level since the recession began in December 2007.

Done…Tell me, Rusty: what do you think your article about one disputed study have to do with what I’ve posted?
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Are you saying that one possibly flawed study about voter fraud invalidates all claims of right-wing voter suppression? It’s kinda dumb if you are.

Portugal and Greece. Devalued yet again.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/business/global/30euro.html?src=busln
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PARIS — Standard & Poor’s said Tuesday that it had cut its sovereign credit ratings for Portugal and Greece, piling further pressure on the countries as they both seek to come to grips with a heavy debt load and weak economies.

S&P cut Portugal’s rating to BBB- from BBB, with a negative outlook — its second downgrade in less than a week. BBB- is the lowest investment grade rating at the agency, or just one notch above junk.

The Portuguese government collapsed last week after it was unable to push through Parliament further measures to plug its deficit and fend off the need for outside aid. The country now faces weeks of political uncertainty before general elections.
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S&P said the country would probably need an international bailout. Lisbon has about €9 billion, or $13 billion, of bond redemptions coming due in April and June. Analysts suggest that Portugal’s current cash position is sufficient enough to cover the April redemption, but not the one in June.

Rice: “We Have Not Ruled Out Using Military On The Ground In Libya”
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Hmmmm

Death To Christians In Pakistan – “You Burned The Koran”
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At least two Christians have been killed and multiple churches have been attacked in Pakistan, reportedly in response to a Koran-burning ceremony in Florida last week, says Asia News.
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According to the outlet, two Christians were killed last Friday when Islamic extremists attacked a Pentecostal church in Hyderabad. The group originally showed up to burn the church, but were unsuccessful. Instead, they confiscated copies of the Bible and burned them.
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In a similar attack, a mob reportedly attacked the Full Gospel Assembly Church, in the Badami Bagh area of Lahore. There, Asia News says, the attackers “threw copies of the Bible into the street and accused the Christians of blasphemy, claiming they found pieces of the Koran, not far from the church.”

hippooath@4.8,
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The fact that the population of Finland is homogeneous has nothing to do with it? One language, one culture, one race doesn’t make education simpler?

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=JVAhr4hZDJE&vq=medium#t=19

grapre_crush@25.2,
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Only if you consider requiring prospective voters to produce a photo ID voter suppression.

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/03/11/michael-waldman-at-brennan-center-smears-tea-party/
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Michael Waldman at Brennan Center smears Tea Party
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A whole industry is devoted to denying the existence of voter fraud. Leaders of this effort include the Brennan Center “for Justice” at New York University Law School. An article today at the usually credible Bloomberg News Service shows the libelous lengths that academics will employ to smear American citizens who believe in electoral integrity.
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Michael Waldman is a Brennan Center vote fraud denier. He described the True the Vote National Summit taking place later this month as a descent “into vigilantism.” He falsely reports that True the Vote wants to require voters to show proof of citizenship such as a passport to vote. This is an outright lie by Waldman and he should apologize.
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The True the Vote Summit has been covered at Pajamas here and here. Voter fraud deniers like the Brennan Center and Tova Wang at Demos loose all credibility when they deny the existence of voter fraud and smear good and decent American citizens who want to exercise legal rights to protect the integrity of American elections. Hopefully a credible news service like Bloomberg will remove the libelous claims of Waldman and disinvite him from publishing there again.

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But of course, a former Clinton aide, Waldman also uses the “flawed study” to back up his claims of voter fraud.
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Perhaps fraud is a mainstay at Brennan Center. What better way to make people think that voter fraud is not a big issue than to use the Government’s own flawed study to back up your claims. Isn’t that right grapey?

“yeah – like those stupid unionized Finnish teachers do that happen to be the gold standard in education that even ideologues talks about.”
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Comparing most of the teachers here with unionized FInnish teachers is another lie and delusion the left uses to perpetuate an educational infrastructure here that has failed. Its not money, they earn about the same. Results are miles apart. The difference is the teachers in FInland are held to standards not tenure. That is something liberals never accept unless of course you equate more money to standards.

Orwellian double-speak

How the game is played…
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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/on-a senate-call-a-glimpse-of-marching-orders/
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And you thought that these people were sincere.

http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/policy_brief_on_voter_identification/
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* Restrictive voter identification policies – especially those that require state-issued photo ID cards – threaten to exclude millions of eligible voters.
* As many as 10% of eligible voters do not have, and will not get, the documents required by strict voter ID laws. For some groups, the percentage is much higher.
* ID requirements fall hardest on people who have traditionally faced barriers at the polls.
* ID requirements are not justified by any serious or widespread problem.
* There is no reason for states to implement burdensome ID requirements.
* States that do require proof of identity at the polls should permit an expansive range of proof.
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And I’ll take the Brennan Center over Pajamas Media any day of the week, Rusty…

Oh, and again, Rusty: What does voter fraud have to do with voter suppression?
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Why are you trying to change the subject?

Another case of “But they do it too!!”

Here is Chuck pulling out the well worn page out of Team Donkey’s playbook- LIE!

Chuck can’t get through any topic without 1) blaming Republicans 2) using the word extreme no matter the issue. As long as we have willing accomplices (dupes) in the MSM, it will get at least some traction. No wonder the Soro’s back press wants to destroy Fox least the American public actually hear the truth about the disingenuous (SAT word for lying) left.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Democratic Senate leadership, got on a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning without realizing the reporters were already listening in. Schumer thought he was on a private line with four Democratic senators who were to talk with reporters about the current budget stalemate.

Schumer instructed the group, made up of Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Tom Carper of Delaware, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, to tell reporters that the GOP is refusing to negotiate.

He told the group to make sure they label the GOP spending cuts as “extreme.”

“I always use extreme, Schumer said. “That is what the caucus instructed me to use.”

Someone must have finally told Schumer that the media were listening and he stopped talking midsentence.

Here’s a bit more of what he said about House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, according to my notes.

“The main thrust is basically that we want to negotiate and we want to come up with a compromise but the Tea Party is pulling Boehner too far over to the right and so far over that there is no more fruitful negotiations,” Schumer said on the call. “The only way we can avoid a shutdown is for Boehner to come up with a reasonable compromise and not just listen to what the Tea Party wants. ”

Schumer described Boehner as “in a box,” over the budget negotiations.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/schumer-coordinates-dem-budget-attack-gop#ixzz1I0tBvLUR

Voter suppression is worse than voter fraud.

Voter fraud is just plain cheating.

Voter suppression is denying another person’s legitmate right to vote.

Photo IDs may sound simple and inocuous unless you can’t afford to get one. Not everybody has a driver’s license or a passport.

Newfree, your article @25.1 doesn’t say any report is “fudged” and Think Progress doesn’t mention the report in question at all.
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The article discusses a 2005 report submitted to the Election Assistance Commission that showed “some state laws significantly disenfranchise black and Hispanic voters”. The article focuses more on why the EAC sat on the report for two years rather than whether or not it is valid.
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The only criticism in the article was leveled by Caroline Hunter, “a Republican-nominated EAC commissioner”. She said:
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“It was a methodology that we had concerns with,” Hunter said. “The way that it was done, there were some concerns.”
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..and that’s it. The article suggests that it was the report’s results, rather than any questions about its legitimacy, that raised concerns in the bipartisan commission.

How is that spending and $14+trillion in debt working for you:

America could someday “fail” like Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire because of Washington’s response to the recession. We will work for China

Ah, glad you asked. They are coming back ever so slowly largely because 1) the GOP opposed the follow up Stimulus Package that would have dragged unemployment down a few points further as well the incessant campaign to throw as many public emplyees out of work as possible. Also 2) there is increasing evidence that the financial sector, which has recovered at a record pace and earned substantial profits in 2010, is in the process of not increasing hiring but engaging on yet another spree of pointless round of Mergers & Acquisitions with the new found capital. So, the Recoverey, while underway, is going up against some substantial headwinds, most of which your allies are blowing.

Wow, bad news indeed. Good thing our President was too intelligent to go down the “Austerity path” that was imposed on Portugal and Greece.

OMG!!! Life as we know will end because well, ……. it is Soros again!

Faux news is part of the LSM so just get over it already! They don’t report the news anymore than the other outlets do. Come to think of it, they don’t report any news, it is simply a GOP propaganda machine.

“The fact that the population of Finland is homogeneous has nothing to do with it? One language, one culture, one race doesn’t make education simpler?”
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I’m sure how this explain how a fully unionized teachers core without standardized test scores have anything to do with being ‘one nation’.
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I’m sure you will explain how our education used to be top notch with the influx of Irish, Swedish, Italian etc over a long period of time.
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Look – you can keep up your fantasy about the evil unions that doesn’t square with reality and I will watch you dance when whomever you get your sh!t from pokes you.
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Freeinpa,
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let me sum up your argument 4.10
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Liburls are lying to themselves and everyone else.
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Thats your argument.
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To everything.
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Regardless of context, facts, subject or anything.
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One day you will be able to complete a argument that deals with the subject and not what you have this irrational fear and hatred of.

This is just the Democrats co-ordinating their message in manner similiar to the way the Republicans have for decades. I am not a huge fan of co-ordinating language, but in the current media environment it is probably the best way of “getting one’s message out”. On this blog, one often hears the more leftist contributors complaining that the Democrats do not do nearly as good a job as the Republicans at bringing their message to the public at large. well, here is schumer trying to do exactly that. The Republican equivalent of Schumer is, of course, Frank Luntz who doesn’t just do phone calls but puts out entire memos on deceptive phrases to use. So your outrage is really . . . disingenuous.

freeinpa@33,
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That “cowboy poet” Harry Reid was pushing that same line just the other day. Can’t say that Dems don’t march in lockstep. These boys could give Goebbels lessons on propaganda and staying on message.

My, my…the natives do get really testy when politics is just politics. Too bad their side is just as ruthless and conniving as all the rest.
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You were saying Pelhemite?

It’s official. Democrats decry Republican budget cuts as “extreme.” They claim that a cut of $61 billion out of a $3700 billion budget will mean this…
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pelhamite1@33.2,
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When did Frank Luntz become a US Senator? Last I heard he was a pollster.

“Jack Welch has renounced the idea with which he was long associated”
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When Jack renounces the cash he collected let us know.

What we are seeing now is not an attempt at “stakeholder capitalism” but pure unadulterated re-distribution by politicians.

<When the buying and selling is controlled by the legislature, the first things bought and sold are the legislators"

“Restrictive voter identification policies – especially those that require state-issued photo ID cards”
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You need ID to cash a check, you need ID to drive a car, you need ID to get on an airplane. The ones most harmed. Liberal politicians trying to scam more votes.

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And the reasoning from the left gets more lame by the day.

Voter photo identification bills are advancing across the United States. Polls show more than 80 percent of Americans approve. Ruth Colker, a law professor at Ohio State penned an op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch arguing that it would be a burden on college students to obtain a photo ID. The reason? College kids are too busy! Really, truly. If this is the best talking point that voter ID opponents can find, expect to see legislation sweep the country by the 2012 election. I have more details here. Or, if you want to read up on the Bleacher Report giving the title of #9 Party School to Professor Colker’s employer, click here. Maybe a photo ID center can be set up in the Party Barn.

Well, it seems Chuck Schumer has taken a page out of the Newt Gingrich playbook. Hey if it worked for the Republicans in 1994, why not for the Democrats in 2012?

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/solar-energy-photosynthesis-artificial-leaf-renewable-energy,news-10645.html

One reason why I love science; some people don’t wait for people arguing that we can never create a alternative power source other than oil or nuclear. Incidentally – imagine if all we knew was creationism and that was the only thing we were taught. This would never be; we would never be able to figure out and copy this process. We would simply start and end with ‘god works in mysterious ways’.

To think that someone took the time to put together that ignorant sh!t.
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I’ve seen more productive pot smokers in my lifetime.

You need ID to cash a check, you need ID to drive a car, you need ID to get on an airplane.
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You don’t have a Constitutional right to do any of those things, Freeper.
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Not surprised that you have a problem with denying people their rights as long as it suits your political preferences…

And I am not surprised that you defend fraud and abuse of constitutional rights because as a rule that’s where liberals draw their power.

Can’t wait fo ryour next post spewing bile at those trying to take away my constitutional right to own a gun. Oh yeah some rights are more equal than others for the pathetic left.

Afraid of ID’s hmmmm seems to be a growing theme from Team Donkey

“This is just the Democrats co-ordinating their message in manner similiar to the way the Republicans have for decades”
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Co-coordinating a message to blame the Republicans for the Democrats willfully shutting sown the government. But wait, the Repubs have been accused of getting their marching orders and talking points from (pick your fav) Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, Tea Party. Who are the Democrats getting theirs?

STOP THE ROT, GREED AND CORRUPTION

America cannot go on with illegal aliens running the roost, with ICE unable to get this occupation under control. They just don’t have the manpower or the inducement from the leaders in Washington. Their hands are tied by the Leftist progressives, known better as administration czars. Nor can the Republicans remain ignorant; as they have been behind pushing for cheap labor for 30 years plus, that have now resulted in a kind of arrogance to circumvent the Rule of Law. Enter the Tea Party that is no longer a small unorganized congregation of people that the Liberal-Democrats want you to think. Thousands of groups are springing up across the country, to stop this country’s financial erosion, lead by the TEA PARTY.

AS ONE AMERICAN PEOPLE UNITED WE DECIDE OUR FUTURE, NOT THE SPINELESS, RELUCTANT LAWMAKERS WHO LIMIT OUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS AND LEGAL RESIDENTS. THE US GOVERNMENT HAS RENEGED ON KEEPING US SAFE FROM THE INFLUX OF CRIMINALS, BUT ALSO HAVE USED THE IRS IN PAYING FOR THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION INVASION.

The resounding motto of the TEA PARTY is resolute, Fiscal Responsibility, Limited Government, Fair Free Market and a Strong National Security. For our security we must eradicate the Liberal ideology of Political Correctness, a well spring of multiculturalism, multi-language, wide open border that is twisting our countries laws. The US government is full of copious, over-manned agencies and many could be absorbed in one agency. A good start would be dismantling the bureaucratic Dept of Education and return it to School districts and parents. Their main interest in border control, is building the double layer security fence, guarded in watchtowers by either 5000 National Guard troops or the US military.Leftist advocates say that building a barrier between us and an oppressesed people is too expensive. Yet if we could seal the borders cross examine tourists with one way airline tickets, the dollars saved would be astronomical. Far outweighing the dollar amount to support those who come here illegally. the Large corporate business will continue the fight against this, even though they brought this upon themselves by exporting hundreds of thousands of jobs abroad and importing cheap labor, instead of training their own countryman. YES! to top margins of scientists and engineers. NO! to the poor, uneducated who will become a taxpayers payout.

One of the determining things stressed by the TEA PARTY is national security and this doesn’t seem to be a priority, that’s why hundreds or perhaps even more middle Eastern from unfriendly countries have been smuggled into the US. Just like the Unions using threats to intimidate business in Wisconsin that spreading, taxpayers should boycott business or any entity hiring illegal workers; even blowing the whistle, so that dirty business gets audited. Say—NO—to any form, any secret or covert amnesties, Dream Acts, Chain Migration, Sanctuary Cities or the reprehensible Comprehensive Immigration reform that has dire financial consequence. The Tea PARTY and its propagating millions should be adamant to lawmakers, which E-Verify, Secure Communities and the 287 g policing action must be nationwide mandated. That covers a wide spectrum of issues that will illustrate Americans mean business; that has no intentions of compromising against the $100 billion in your dollars, to be cut from the US Treasury deficit

As yet we have a negative government fighting over the US budget, which amplifies the massive spending spree that the liberals have always promoted. It’s obvious that these people have no conception of what they have propelled into this great land. The immigrants of old didn’t scream and shout demanding welfare, unemployment benefits, health care, education, and Section 8 housing, food stamps, Wicca, Medicaid, or cash payments. Has any taxpayer thought about the hundreds of billions of dollars that goes out to support foothold babies? Not just the hospital deliveries, but until they reach their 18 birthday, with the rest of the family gripping onto every dollar received. They made their way here without any help and survived, bring America to a pinnacle of prosperity. The new illegal newcomers are destroying America from their demands and that is what the TEA PARTY is going to grind to a halt.

Our country is on the slippery slope of bankruptcy. My recommendation to all taxpayers is fill the ranks of the TEA PARTY, that even certain politicians are absconding. The TEA PARTY is the cement that is not going away and it’s turning into a real revolution against both parties that has determined our future for too long. Fight back or we keep adding to the 14 Trillion US treasury deficit.

ATTN: DONALD TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT: Stop the inexcusable trade deficits with China and other cheap labor countries.

Our voting laws are no longer fraud-free. Illegal aliens voted in Texas, New Mexico and possibly California and Nevada in the previous elections. Our countries voting laws were based on integrity and trust, but today that’s not possible anymore.

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