LGBT STRIKE GOLD WITH TIM COOK

Apple CEO Tim Cook

This is what Tim Cook told Bloomberg BusinessWeek, "Let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me." I do not know his professed party affiliation but there must be some liberal leanings there and hopefully this will send the LGBT community to the polls next week to support progressive candidates. There are 9 Democratic Senate seats up this year at risk: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina and West Virginia. Losing the senate wouldn't be a catastrophe for Democrats but would certainly put a current bungling Congress on the way to potential disaster.

Nate Silver in FiveThirtyEight says if the Dems win all the states they're supposed to, and lose four seats in Alaska, Louisiana, Montana and West Virginia, plus picking up Georgia, they would maintain a 51 to 49 seat majority. Should it end up 50/50, there is V.P. Biden for a tie-breaker. Some long shots perhaps but it all comes down to whether a sluggish group of progressives decides to buck past trends and out vote Republicans.

ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF TEA PARTY DECEIT

The Tea Party email headline said, "BREAKING NEWS! Obama May Have Been Elected With Illegal Votes…" Further, "Blockbuster study backs claim illegal ballots behind Obama’s 2008 victory." All typical TP bullshit! It concerns a study from Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) that evaluates non-citizens that vote, which, of course, is illegal. The inference from the Teapublicans is that Obama would not have won the 2008 election without the votes of this group. The study says nothing of the sort but does point out just how close some congressional elections might be with these illegals voting. The total in question based on 11 million illegal immigrants in U.S. is 700,000 (6.4%), and even if all had voted for John McCain would not have swung the election to his favor. 

Read Jim Geraghty in The Campaign Spot and you'll see how blatant the Tea Party can be with outright lies.

IS KACI HICKOX IN THIS FOR HER 15 MINUTES OF FAME?

I'm sick of hearing Kaci Hickox's incessant whining over the state of Maine trying to protect its citizens. Recently back in the U.S. from working with Ebola patients, she thinks she should be privileged in not having to serve a quarantine like others in the same position. Poor baby. On Thursday she and her boyfriend took an hour long bike ride and returned to a pack of journalists, which was no doubt her intention all along. There's too much at stake here to allow some publicity craving person to upset the apple cart. The woman is supposed to be a medical professional, although I wouldn't want her caring for me under any circumstances. Hopefully Maine will follow through on their promises and physically confine her.

IS AMERICAN PUBLIC ANGRY ENOUGH TO DELETE CONGRESS?

A CNN poll says 70% of the U.S. is angry at the direction of the country. The question is what percentage of that group is registered voters? Let's just hypothetically guess that all of the 70% are and they are mad enough to vote all the deadbeats in Washington out of office. I'm talking both parties, although the expunction would naturally apply mostly to the GOP. Yes, we have arrived at that point. But it probably won't happen because so many voters out there are simply unconscious and have no idea who or what they are voting for. The only thing they know for sure is what the negative advertising tells them and their decisions depend, for the most part, on which politician or political group spend the most money. Pathetic but true.

36% of Republican voters are extremely angry, compared to on 26% of Democrats. It makes sense that the GOP turnout would be higher because they have the Senate to gain. But what baffles me is why Dems don't understand that, while they do hold a majority in the Senate, they could lose it if they don't vote. Duh?

1st AMENDMENT DISPROVES 2nd AMENDMENT ABSOLUTISM

Cliven Bundy Ranch militia lunatics

Back to Barry Lyga and the barefaced fact that the history of the revisionism of the 1st Amendment proves without a doubt that the 2nd Amendment is not absolutist in its words or meaning. Just reading it alone illustrates how out of date the concept is:

2nd: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Most of the militias around these days, or patriot movements as they are also called, are those like the wackos in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, plus the fringes like Cliven Bundy in Nevada. All of them a bunch of crackpots that feed on those who worship the 2nd Amendment. In other words, outdated legislation. So how does the 1st Amendment shed doubt on the 2nd?

1st: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

First of all, there is nothing out of date, which might speak to the fact that the 1st Amendment has seen so many abridgements. Lyga says: "We have freedom of speech, yes, but we have still decided — as a society — that certain kinds of speech are illegal. For example, libel/slander are actionable. Speech, right? But illegal and punishable." In addition there's perjury and you can't lie under oath or  try to download child pornography. If you can amend so many aspects of the 1st, how can the 2nd possibly be a sacred document that cannot be touched?

Are the conservatives on the Supreme Court completely devoid of common sense, or is this just their ploy to cater to the NRA and the rest of the gun lobby? And why hasn't one of the gun advocate groups like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence taken this premise to court as a matter of precedent?

But then, maybe we should just repeal the 2nd Amendment.

Still more to come.

TEA PARTY EMAIL BLASTS FEAR MONGERING THEN ASKS FOR MONEY

Here's the text of an email I received from Tea Party radicals this morning:

Mad As Hell: Boldly, brazenly and in the cockiest manner possible Obama spits in our faces. He lies, creates then covers up scandals, protects those who violate the law and targets innocent conservatives and citizens for their beliefs. Our military has been decimated at a time when world tension is heating up. US sovereignty has been compromised. Terrorists have been put in White House positions. Americans are being forced to turn in their guns. Congress won't do anything so we MUST.

 

And then they beg for money. 

 

Half of the crap they are espousing doesn't make sense. Like decimating our military and terrorists in the White House. If there is anything this country could do to get completely back on tract it is to get rid of these double-digit IQ conservative extremists.

WANT A BETTER ECONOMY? FORBES SAYS VOTE DEMOCRAT

In 2012 the very conservative magazine, Forbes, said "...laissez faire policies [strongly opposing government intervention] had far less benefits than expected, and in fact produced almost universal negative economic outcomes for the nation!" This 80-year analysis is significant for such a right wing publication. Thus, the horrid results George W. Bush left for Barack Obama which the current President has turned around into an increasingly improving economy. Forbes examines the compelling positive results of Democrats over the GOP in personal disposable income, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), corporate profits, stock market return, reduction of national debt and avoiding Great Depressions and Great Recessions. With these facts, anyone voting Republican on November 4 wants to return to the days of GWB.