Gee, why might Conservatives Have a Problem Attracting Minority Voters?

From here

A mailer put out by a conservative group:

Now look at the photo that they used, and look at the original. Notice anything?

And, of course, the black male has been photoshopped out too:

This is why I (and many others) see US conservatives as racist.

CPAC….actually, some topics might interest me.

From the Washington Post:

This year, CPAC once again captures the mood of conservatism in America — bewildered, dysfunctional and struggling to find its moorings in the wake of two consecutive GOP presidential losses.

It remains the biggest event on the calendar for conservative activists.

“There will be somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 people here. When Reagan was president, 2,000 was a big meeting,” said Grover Norquist, an anti-tax crusader who is on the board of the American Conservative Union, which sponsors the conference. “This is like Woodstock for conservatives.”

But most of the early buzz around the conference has centered on who has been invited to speak, and who has been snubbed.

Ok; the article goes on to question the relevance of CPAC. But of interest:

But look beyond the lineup of big-name speakers, and the schedule reveals some surprising agenda items for such a gathering — propositions that organizers see as both a return to the roots of conservatism and a possible way forward.

On Thursday, for example, there will be a panel titled: “Too many American Wars? Should We Fight Anywhere and Can We Afford It?”

Also: “Should We Shoot All the Consultants Now?” And: “Budgets and Readiness: Can We Cut Defense Spending & Still Protect America?” And: “Accuracy & Innocence in the Criminal Justice System.”

I’d be interested in all of these (though I don’t like the title of the “consultants” one); especially the one about war and the one about accuracy and innocence in the criminal justice system.

There was a time when I subscribed to The American Conservative, mainly because it had some of the best anti-war writing.

Political Conservatives: Kos’ Handy Guide

From here.

Ok, back to work for me.

Grab the Popcorn; Republicans turn on each other…

I am loving this. Some Republicans think that it is ok, and possibly even a good idea, for Republican politicians to denounce Rush Limbaugh:

In February 19 columns for New York Daily News and Politico, MSNBC’s S.E. Cupp and Joe Scarborough had harsh words for major pieces of the right-wing noise machine.

Cupp was responding to a virulent conservative reaction to her past criticism of Limbaugh. On February 14, The New York Times Magazine reported Cupp’s statements on what the Republican Party needs to do to win:

“And we can’t be afraid to call out Rush Limbaugh,” said Goodwin’s fiancée, S. E. Cupp, a New York Daily News columnist and a co-host of “The Cycle” on MSNBC. “If we can get three Republicans on three different networks saying, ‘What Rush Limbaugh said is crazy and stupid and dangerous,’ maybe that’ll give other Republicans cover” to denounce the talk-show host as well.

Cupp wrote in her Daily News column: “Rush’s fans, who call themselves ‘Ditto-heads,’ did not appreciate this. … Some demanded I apologize. Others implied I just committed career suicide. Others still politely suggested I commit actual suicide.”

The MSNBC host refused to apologize and went on to slam Limbaugh for his infamous comments labeling Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” for speaking in favor of federal funding for contraception ….

Then you have the tea party zealots vs. the establishment Republicans. The tea party types are furious with Karl Rove because he is setting up a fund to get establishment types past the tea party types in Republican primaries:

A fundraising email from the Tea Party Patriots is causing a stir after it “accidentally” went out featuring a photo of Karl Rove in a Nazi SS uniform. The email, a portion of which can be seen below, issues an attack on Rove for wanting to “crush the Tea Party movement and protect the big-government status quo” directly beside the Photoshopped image.

This is hilarious! Of course, Karl Rove had a less than impressive record in 2012.

I think that, thanks to gerrymandering at the state level and thanks to the spread out nature of rural districts, in terms of population the Republicans will always be overrepresented in the House; our chances of winning that back in 2014 are tough. But unless the quit becoming the party of old men who yell at empty chairs, they are sunk at the national level.

There is a place for smart conservatives but the current Republican party isn’t it. Bring back the Whigs.

Why I am not so hard on John Boehner

About that fiscal cliff: getting a deal is all but impossible; the math just isn’t there.

That isn’t all bad:

To Sad Republicans

First, I meant what I said when I said that our country needs smart, principled conservatives. However, I’d like to remind you that running a business requires a completely different skill set than managing a national (or even statewide) economy. The principles are different. Please have the humility to admit that.

But to all of you who thought (and still think): Obama is a Muslim, Democrats are all moochers, Obama is from Kenya, Obama engineered a socialist takeover of our health care system (the plan came from the Heritage Foundation and was first presented by Senator Bob Dole (R-Kansas)! and enacted by Mitt Romney)….who think that atheists, non believers and believers in other religions are evil…who think that evolution and climate change are examples of hoaxes: turn off Fox News and talk radio! Your brains are being poisoned for profit.

I don’t expect you to agree with me on many issues but read (or watch) this. A snippet:

“Ohio really did go to President Obama last night. And he really did win. And he really was born in Hawaii. And he really is legitimately president of the United States, again.

“And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month. And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy. And the polls were not skewed to oversample Democrats. And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election to make conservatives feel bad. Nate Silver was doing math.

“And climate change is real. And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes. And evolution is a thing.

“And Benghazi was an attack on us, it was not a scandal by us. And nobody is taking away anyone`s guns. And taxes have not gone up. And the deficit is dropping, actually.

“And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. And the moon landing was real. And FEMA is not building concentration camps. And U.N. election observers are not taking over Texas. And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry and the financial services industry in this country are not the same thing as communism.

“Listen, last night was a good night for liberals and for Democrats for very obvious reasons, but it was also, possibly, a good night for this country as a whole, because in this country, we have a two-party system in government. And the idea is supposed to be that the two sides, both come up with ways to confront and fix the real problems facing our country. They both propose possible solutions to our real problems. And we debate between those possible solutions.

“And by the process of debate, we pick the best idea. That competition between good ideas from both sides about real problems in the real country should result in our country having better choices, better options, than if only one side is really working on the hard stuff.

“And if the Republican Party and the conservative movement and the conservative media is stuck in a vacuum-sealed door-locked spin cycle of telling each other what makes them feel good and denying the factual, lived truth of the world, then we are all deprived as a nation of the constructive debate about competing feasible ideas about real problems.

“Last night the Republicans got shellacked, and they had no idea it was coming. And we saw them in real time, in real humiliating time, not believe it, even as it was happening to them.

“And unless they are going to secede, they are going to have to pop the factual bubble they have been so happy living inside if they do not want to get shellacked again. And that will be a painful process for them, but it will be good for the whole country, left, right, and center. You guys, we`re counting on you. Wake up.

“There are real problems in the world. There are real, knowable facts in the world. Let`s accept those and talk about how we might approach our problems differently. Let`s move on from there.

What good are Republicans?

Well, some are pretty sharp. Dr. Andy sent me this link about Intrade; the idea is that a 17K bet can actually influence prices and that is what happened last night.

Also: some time ago I was yapping about high speed rail and how I wanted what China had. Dr. Andy sent me here.

Bottom line: the old, classical Republicans are the “hey, this might appear appealing but the math doesn’t add up” people. We need these types.

Most of the ones I rail against are the ones that, well, left the Democratic party when civil rights laws were passed.

More Republicans …….

If slavery was so bad, why didn’t Jesus denounce it? Yes, an Arkansas state representative asked that question, and believe it or not…that is a good question! The implication: The Bible is not a good guide to morality. Of course, I doubt if the holy rollers see it that way…

Someone asked why Republicans don’t denounce lunacy such as this. Easy.

If you are a wealthy Republican: you know that this is the kind of stuff that your low-information base eats up.
If you are a non-wealthy Republican: you actually believe this; after all it is just COMMON SENSE.

Presidential and Congressional races tighten…and dualism and football…

Football

I watched a bit of the Jets-Texans NFL game last night. I went to bed at the half (tired) but I wanted to see some of the NFL’s best team (IMHO) and I wanted to watch a former Illinois star play (defensive end). Well, the rookie didn’t play all that much (save special teams) though he was dominant in the college games that I saw. That goes to show you: to start in the NFL, you have to be “crazy-good”; heck you have to be awesome just to make an NFL roster.

And so, I have zero patience for someone who says “college team X could beat NFL team Y”. Forget it. College team X probably doesn’t have a single player who could start for an NFL team RIGHT NOW. They might have one or maybe two players who might work themselves into an NFL starting line up….AFTER months of mini-camps, training camps and the like (the Washington and Indianapolis quarterbacks come to mind). And remember, every NFL team has NFL starters at every position.

The Political Races
No doubt: the race has tightened:

(intrade: going between 60 to 64)

Iowa Electronic

And Nate Silver’s model has it at about 74-75.

This race was going to tighten anyway, but the debate helped Mr. Romney. I saw the debate this way:

(note: President O is left handed…but the cartoon is funny anyway)

But I have followed the race closely, watched the Republican debates and read Mr. Romney’s book. If this were my first introduction to him, I’d find him reasonable.

And yes, a recent poll put Mr. Romney in the lead (Pew Poll and a recent PPP poll). There has been a change in the campaign e-mails: The Romney campaign went to “hey, we can see victory we CAN DO THIS” whereas the Obama campaign e-mails went from “don’t get complacent” to “don’t panic; if we do our jobs and we show up with our best game, we’ll win this thing”.

All of this, with ALL of the battleground polling, points to a tight race where President Obama is the favorite, albeit not an overwhelming one. Mr. Romney could win. Silver lining: if Mr. Romney wins, he MIGHT govern like he did when he was governor and he might have political cover to improve Obamacare (he’ll make noise about “repeal” but he’ll tweak it and declare it to be completely different) and have the cover to pass a “conservative” stimulus package. At times, conservatives are better situated to make liberal tweaks and adjustments to policy…and visa versa.

At the IL-17 level, I got an e-mail from the Cheri Bustos campaign saying that there was a poll saying that she was leading. True, there was….but I want to see ALL of the polls (e. g., the other 9 or so that show Schilling ahead). Cherry picking polls makes for feel good fantasy, but that is about it. Basically, Ms. Bustos position in this race is roughly where Mr. Romney’s race is: behind, but gaining and far from hopeless.

My big error I admit that I thought that Mr. Romney was in a box; he turned so hard right during the primary I thought that he was stuck there for the general. But I completely underestimated how much Republicans despise Barack Obama; he is to them what George W. Bush was to us in 2004 (though we hated Mr. Bush for what he actually did rather than for imaginary reasons). Anyway, the Republicans are completely willing to overlook a bit of public moderation in exchange for winning….I just hope that Mr. Romney’s moderation is genuine (e. g., what he was when he was governor). Evidently Mr. Romney isn’t saddled with the purity trolls that we are saddled with.

Hurting your candidate
I wouldn’t be caught dead with this bumper sticker on my car:

I wonder if some wily Republicans put this one out. Talk about alienating people…..yes I can be a strident asshole at times. But I try to limit my attacks to attacks on IDEAS and not on people…ok, I attack people at times, but I only attack other well-off, well educated people who should know better and who can fight back (if they choose to do so). To look down on people who have had limited opportunities in life is just tacky.

Religion, spirituality and woo-woo

Yes….church billboards and “return to Jesus” signs and billboards abound…but if you have an atheist one that is Bad, Bad Bad!!!

Dualism
This is an interesting pair of videos that explains more or less what I believe about people having some sort of “dual” or “spiritual” nature.

Republicans: a lie is anything that doesn’t fit their agenda, even if it is factual…

Except that Krugman got it right about the Ryan Medicare plan.

These people lie as easily as most people breathe.