Daily Loaf

Well, it’s election day in St. Petersburg.  Foster or Ford?  Danner or Schmiege? Kornell or Rouson? We’ll mercifully know by tonight who’ll be governing St. Pete post Rick Baker.

There are state and local elections throughout the country, some said to have national implications.  I know Rush Limbaugh said  the other day that Barack Obama has a massive ego, but that still doesn’t mean that these races are necessarily about the President.

And the most interesting story of the day is that Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery will be entering the race for the GOP nomination for Governor.

Download the report here

There will be no runoff election in Afghanistan this weekend (I know, we were all looking forward to the revote between Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah).  Karzai’s in, but what, if anything, will this mean for the U.S. interests?  Reportedly President Obama will meet at least two more times with his advisers on the strategy going forward.

As those discussions continue, the  young State Department official whose resignation was made public is getting  lots of face time.  Matthew Hoh appeared this morning on The Today Show, and yesterday on CNN

St. Pete Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 released a series of polls over the weekend, and it’s policy more than policy-makers that is most provocative in those results.

And on Sunday talk, Fox News gave Rush Limbaugh a platform for the first half of their one-hour program yesterday.  Too bad nothing interesting came out of it, other than the odious comment that President Obama’s appearance at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware last week was nothing more than a publicity stunt, according to Rush.

Most interesting was Joe Lieberman on CBS, saying he’d rather have nothing happen with health care reform than to allow for a government-run public option.

Download the report here.

Dede Scozzafava officially suspended her campaign

Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava has officially dropped out of the race for New York’s 23rd Congressional district. Earlier this week, I reported that Conservative Party challenger Doug Hoffman was becoming increasingly popular due to his strong conservative values, especially against Scozzafava, whose record in the New York Assembly has been consistantly liberal.

Now, it appears as though the pressure put on by GOP figures such as Jim DeMint, Fred Thompson, and Sarah Palin, as well as media power plays like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, has forced her out of the race. This clears the way for Hoffman, who already was polling with nearly half of the district’s Republican support.

Read the rest of this entry »

Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for NY's 23rd Congressional District

As President Obama’s approval rating continues to slip, it is clear that he will face a much tougher race for re-election in 2012 than he ran last year. It’s like an overdue pregnancy; it’s been nine months, but he has yet to deliver. The markets are still fragile, and the dollar is going down while unemployment numbers are going up. Toss in our sky-rocketing debt and indecisive action in Afghanistan, and it starts to look like Obama isn’t the savior he was made out to be.

One can criticize the policies of Bush, but at least The Decider actually made decisions. Recent polls from a number of sources all show one undeniable trend  — the American people do not think we’re headed in the right direction.

Such a difficult time for Obama, and one might be under the impression that support for Republicans is on the rise. This isn’t exactly the case; CNN reported that approval for the GOP has hit 36%, down nearly 5% from the last poll taken in the summer, and almost at the same point it was in the last few months of Bush’s time in office.

Discontent with the major parties seems to be a growing phenomenon. Millions have attended “tea parties” all over the country, and the philosophy and wisdom of the Founding Fathers is a recurring theme in today’s political arena. Ordinary people are demanding that something be done; they demand accountability, fiscal responsibility and the protection of our most basic freedoms. Partisan bickering and the corruption that plagues Washington has made the American people feel alienated.

As a result, there has been a re-emergence of third candidates. Not long shots like Ralph Nader or Pat Buchanan, whose presidential runs seem futile, but viable and credible candidates with a fair share of support.

The press has taken notice. Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman is running for New York’s 23rd Congressional District, a seat up for grabs since Rep. John McHugh was appointed Secretary of the Army. Hoffman, a notable New York accountant, has shown favorable numbers in the polls at around 23%. This number is expected to grow as Hoffman continues to receive nationwide attention, thanks to interviews with Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.

His conservative principles have earned the endorsement of powerful Republican figures, including Fred Thompson and Sarah Palin, even against the GOP’s own candidate. Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava, a Republican with an endorsement from ACORN, has a liberal voting record and a platform that isn’t a far cry from the Democratic contender’s.

Hoffman isn’t the only third-party candidate to raise eyebrows; in Florida’s 2nd Congressional District, Modern Whig Party candidate Paul C. McKain has entered the arena in a bid for the seat occupied by Democrat Allen Boyd. McKain, a former firefighter and businessman, has gained a great deal of support among the Republican base as well as the conservative wing of the Democratic Party.

McKain promises to restore true citizen participation in government, pledging to act as a representative of the people, as intended by the Constitution, not as a mouthpiece for special interest groups. In a district where Democrats are a powerful majority, McKain fights an uphill battle, but it’s a battle that he believes he can win.

And with the growing discontent among American voters, it’s possible that he will.

Tom Bortnyk is a columnist for the political blog Informed Dissent.

After last night’s brawl following the controversial St. Petersburg City Council vote on vacating the sidewalk of BayWalk, St. Pete for Peace says they’ll demonstrate tonight.

The Public Service Commission today rules on whether to impose a $200 million front end hit to ratepayers in the state.

And the Wall Street Journal blasts the National Football League for rejecting Rush Limbaugh.

Also in the news, as Congressional Republicans continue to criticize President Obama for ‘dithering’ in his deliberations regarding a new strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan, now comes word that there’s a good chance that there will be a run-off in the disputed presidential election there.

That report comes as the deaths of 4 Americans in Afghanistan are announced today.

Oh, and Florida’s unemployment rate is now at 11%.

Download the report here.

Rush Limbaugh is getting more pushback in his purported bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams.  The Commish, Roger Goodell, a good corporate man if there ever was one, didn’t sound too enthusiastic about the possibility of the man with talent on loan from god being part of a group that buys its way into the National Football League.

As we recounted yesterday, several players and the head of the Players Association have already responded critically to the possibility of Limbaugh becoming part of the league.

Most of the articles written in the media in the past few days go back to Rush’s previous brush with the league, when ESPN hired him as a commentator for the 2003 season.  He lasted less than half a season after claiming that Philly QB Donovan McNabb was never really that good of a player, but more a wish fulfillment of “politically correct” white reporters.

But it shouldn’t take others to observe that the NFL players — who are the game — are 65% black, and Limbaugh has made racially divisive statements about blacks his entire career.  Who could forget his enthusiastic playing of the song “Barack, the Magic Negro” in 2008?

Indianapolis owner Jim Irsey said yesterday that he couldn’t consider voting for Limbaugh.  He  remarked:

”When there are comments that have been made that are inappropriate, incendiary and insensitive … our words do damage, and it’s something that we don’t need.”

By Catherine Durkin Robinson
PoHo contributor
Catherine Durkin Robinson is a handful, creating quite a scene over at Out in Left Field.

“Isms in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself.”
– Ferris Bueller

What if white, country-boy Kanye West had interrupted African-American, R&B singer Taylor Swift? Would this switcheroo have changed public sentiment after their now-infamous interaction at the VMAs?

I doubt it.

The only difference – Kanye West would have been called a racist and a bigot, his behavior used as evidence that we still have a long way to go.

Well. We can call him a racist anyway. And still agree that we have a long way to go.

My question is – who cares?

Read the rest of this entry »

Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow aside, Democrats aren’t always known for their sense of humor. But the Dems are taking full advantage of the Republicans’ latest wave of Rush-worship.

Echoing RNC Chair Michael Steele’s toadying apology to His Rushness, the Dems have created a web page — “the Secret Republican Apology Machine” — where you can mad-lib your own apology to Limbaugh. The New York Daily News quotes from a statement by Jennifer Crider, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, whose site houses the page, imsorryrush.com:

“If you’re one of the growing number of Republicans who need a quick and easy way to apologize to Rush Limbaugh after you cross him, look no further than ImSorryRush.com… Even if you’re not a Republican, this new site gives you the opportunity to apologize to Leader Rush just like the elected Republicans did.”

Here’s a compelling animation of the U.S. Airways Hudson River crash. Stay tuned for the end, where the passengers are revealed to be the cast of The Sims.

• Michael Steele apologizes to Rush, making Limbaugh the defacto leader of the Republican Party.
• R.I.P. The Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• Is this a Depression? What the hell is a “Depression,” anyway?
• How dangerous and out of control was the Bush Administration?
• Where in the world is Hillary Clinton?
• “Scientists make HIV strain that can infect monkeys.” What did the monkeys ever do to us?
• New iMacs today?
• The Bucs learn a thing or two about Karma.

The day after Barack Obama became our president-elect and delivered a moving, eloquent speech in Chicago, I decided get myself all riled up and read some right-wing rants. It worked:

After Obama’s big night, conservative pundit Michelle Malkin was her usual bitter self.

This jerk is predicting everything but doomsday under Obama (including a smug prophecy that there will be another terrorist attack on the U.S.)

McCain supporters at his Arizona rally already think the sky is falling.

And even though McCain lost, you gotta figure Rush Limbaugh must be feeling pretty darn good right about now.