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A Progressive Political Playground |
From the category archives:
Wow.
I just want to say it’s ironic that a markets guy is freaking out over a market downturn and wants a fed bailout when he’s regularly stated that layoffs are good. Oh, and that investing in sub-primes seems risky.
You can see The Daily Show’s take on sub-prime loans after the jump. [click to continue…]
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Wingnut bloggers are always looking for something to call treason. Bi-partisan trips to Syria is one that comes to mind. You want treason? I’ll give you treason:
WASHINGTON, June 14 — Senate Democrats, facing their first significant battle over a wide-ranging bill intended to reduce oil consumption, found themselves blocked by Republicans on Thursday and postponed all significant votes until next week.
Filibuster this. Filibuster that. It’s almost like they are pissed the American people spoke and gave the Congress a mandate to move away from disastrous Republican policy.
Treason.
We’re entrenched in a war in a part of the world we’d give two shits about if it weren’t for our dependence on oil. To filibuster measures to reduce our consumption – and dependence – on oil is stone cold treason.
This is not just a tree hugger versus SUV driver battle here. This is a national security matter. Blocking such is fucking TREASON. Real leadership would recognize the security and environmental reasons for diversifying our energy generation methods. It’s hard to display real leadership when you have a bunch of spoiled brats throwing fits in Congress.
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So everyone and their brother is commenting on the revelation that our beloved Phil De Vellis – I say beloved because for much of his time in Ohio he was pretty much hated among bloggers – is the supposed guy behind the Obama “Vote Different” ad. Jerid says “Wasn’t him“. The Politico weighs in after having phoned around Ohio a bit. Many are talking about it – won’t be hard to find! People will probably be talking about this one for a while – none of which will be very helpful.
Here’s the deal. Phil probably could have done the video work. I hear he is a huge mac fan and runs Final Cut Pro – it’s possible. I also hear he may have even done paid work in video editing at some point. The point isn’t whether or not “he did it”. The point is was he a lone actor and why the hell would a campaign hide from such an admittedly brilliant use of viral web ads?
I didn’t think anyone was going to pick up on all the Blue State Digital connections until I saw Cillizza’s stuff. He is on the right track, but doesn’t really dig enough. Sloat does, and gets today’s sleuth award by uncovering a very similar ad used in the Lamont campaign (to much lesser effect).
So 3 questions:
1. What are the BSD connections?
2. Why is the original story BS?
3. Why the hell pull this stuff and not just put the ad out?
1. Blue State Digital is a killer company. You don’t make Fast Company’s Fast 50 by not being. They also happen to be the technology provider for Progress Ohio. I’ve met most of them and they are damned smart people. The connection is simple. Joe Rospars is a founder and worked there until he took a job with the Obama camp (BSD did the Obama web site). Phil went to work with Blue State Digital just after I saw him at Rootscamp in DC. That might be enough to go “hmmm”, but when you consider the above Lamont video was done in July of ‘06 that takes Phil out of the picture for that one. So he either stole the idea or he improved upon it. I’m betting on the latter. Here is Rospars talking about how they turned down Lieberman, in part because they were already working with Lamont:
Joe Rospars, co-founder of Blue State Digital, also said that there would be a conflict of interest in running Lieberman’s Joe2006.com Web site, because they have already been contracted by Ned Lamont’s campaign. “We’ve been with Ned Lamont since the beginning, we’ve been his Web vendor, so it’s puzzling why they would call us,” he said.
So the ad concept was not new and had been around in Blue State Digital circles since at least summer of ‘06.
2. Why is the original story BS? Because first it just doesn’t “smell” right. Something is off. Like when your 8 year old explains how her sister got hurt and you get that feeling. The other reason is that they couldn’t even get their story straight. Phil says in his Huffpo outing piece: “I’ve resigned from my employer, Blue State Digital…”, yet Blue State says: “Pursuant to company policy regarding outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or otherwise, Mr. de Vellis has been terminated from Blue State Digital effective immediately.” This is the point at which you look at both of your daughters and say: “OK, somebody is lying here”.
Does Phil have the ability to do the video work? Sure. Did he concept this? Obviously not. Was it cooked up on a lazy Sunday afternoon in his apartment? Hell no. I’m not even sure if he has the oppo chops to come up with a nickname like “ParkRidge47″. Phil has used deceit before and I have no reason to believe he wouldn’t again. Seems pretty transparent to me.
3. Why the hell pull this stuff and not just put the ad out? I have no clue. The ad is great. It got a huge amount of play – and will continue to now. Why it can’t just be created and put out there without all the behind the scenes shenanigans is beyond me. Maybe everyone thinks now that you have to play these games instead of produce someting and own it.
Here is my message to all involved or allegedly not involved: Tighten the FUCK up! You do a disservice with this crap. As for Phil, my guess is that he is a continual pawn mucking about messing things up at every turn. I’d be very careful with Ohio. That goose is pretty well cooked.
Both videos after the break [click to continue…]
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Update: Jill clarifies her BI post here. No dark side for her.
Let’s cut to the point and get something straight here right out of the gate. The Buckeye Institute is not our friend – if you don’t consider yourself a conservative. Put a nice little period after that one and you can go about your day unless you want to hear me pound Jill Zimon for the next couple minutes.
Jill posted a nice little note on her blog making us all aware that The Buckeye Institute has a new blog designed to alert us of any “wasteful spending” at The Statehouse. It’s fun! It’s exciting! We can make our government better and the flowers will smell rosier and the sun will shine brighter. Jill, dear, what the FUCK don’t you get about the Buckeye Institute? First clue:
Right there above the link to your blog…see it? “…promoting free market ideas and limited government”. That’s code for “Right-wing intelligent design loving miscreants”. Is this new to you? Thankfully Jerid hopped on this and outed Carlo and friends. You really want to point people there and have us all hop on this illusion of a bi-partisan trainwreck? You really hat tipped Matt Naugle? Did i really just see that? There is a reason Russell and I used to give you shit about being a closet conservative. Then you let Matt get away with slamming Policy Matters and pretending that Buckeye Institute is “completely unlike Policy Matters, which is a group of liberal smucks and union cronies”. Pardon me, but What? The? Fuck?
Do some damned research. You normally do. Find out that while Matt is understandably trying to paint Policy Matters as partisan and Buckeye Institute as “representing the general interest”, nothing could be further from the truth. Second clue? They hired his ass to put the blog together! Ding ding ding! I think there is a knob behind your left ear labeled “conservative misinformation bullshit meter”. Turn that up to 11.
Business First got it right when they called BI “a conservative think tank in Columbus”. Duh. You might also find out that in January Deborah Owens (aka DeborahLOwens or Deborah Owens Fink) was named to the board. Wanna guess who she gave money to? Yup. Wanna guess what else she is involved in? You know, right? You quoted her once and I think even pounded on her a bit. She’s also the mouthpiece in Ohio for Seattle’s Discovery Institute – a so-called “public policy think tank”, but more aptly described as a “belief tank” (like a think tank without the doubt).
Blackwell, Loparo, Fink, Naugle. Yes! Let’s get behind that! Make no mistake here: The Buckeye Institute is the enemy. If No one is more concerned about Ohio’s future than you, then call bullshit on this instead of empower it. For the love of all that is good and right fight the good fight!
But hey, it’s a rough and tumble world out there in this political landscape. Charlatans everywhere. Be careful, kid. You need something just come see me at the pub. I’ll be in the back talking strategy with Vinnie.
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Some young women were studying in a dorm at Ohio State and had the gall to ask some young men to observe the quiet hours regulations. It was 2:30 in the morning on Monday. After a verbal confrontation (which included racial slurs) resulted in the men, who were not residents of the dorm, being ejected from the building, it appears that the incident wasn’t over yet…
According to Sparks, at about 4:45 a.m., 15 to 20 Post-It notes were discovered on the girl’s door. The messages read: “Nazis,” “Cotton gin n—–s,” “N—–s are farm equipment,” “Mexicans are better than (blacks),” and “You all are monkeys.”
How charming.
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I’ll come right out and say it. We are one of the highest per-capita energy consumers on the planet, and we are completely oblivious to what is going on in the world.
In North America which is the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions, 84% say they are aware of global warming, but less than half of them (43%) consider it’s a very serious problem. More worrying, 13% of North Americans said they had never heard or read anything about global warming and one in ten consumers said it was “not a serious problem at all.”
Our ignorance is not solitary. Just look at the august list of those least aware of the world climate!
The three lowest countries globally in terms of awareness were the UAE, where 16 percent of respondents said that they had not heard of global warming, followed by the US (13%) and Malaysia (11%).
Wait, there’s more!
One out of eight North Americans (12%) – the highest majority globally, thought global warming is caused by natural changes in the climate.
But there is some hope. At least the world’s biggest developing economies are aware of the problem – and thus more likely to do something about it.
“Those who believe global warming is a result of human actions are more likely to make changes to save the environment,” said Dodd. “In this case, its gratifying to see that those who believe that global warming is caused by human activities are the Chinese (73%) followed by 70% of Brazilians – two of the largest world developing economies.
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I am far too cynical for my own good. Embarrassingly so. I mean, someone you haven’t talked to in years calls you up out of the blue to catch up, and you assume there is an ulterior motive because said person is newly elected to government and you work at a government agency? And when you return the call, they really just wanted to catch up?
I’m a terrible, terrible person. If there was a hell, I would surely burn in it.
Post title courtesy H. L. Mencken.
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It almost worked on me – the GOP is busy distracting the nation and the media with a bunch of bullshit that doesn’t really matter, while yesterday the CiC abandoned a US serviceman to Shiite militia.
BAGHDAD, Oct. 31 — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki demanded the removal of American checkpoints from the streets of Baghdad on Tuesday, in what appeared to be his latest and boldest gambit in an increasingly tense struggle for more independence from his American protectors.
The 172nd Stryker Brigade took down a checkpoint in the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad yesterday in response to the prime minister’s orders.
Mr. Maliki’s public declaration seemed at first to catch American commanders off guard. But by nightfall, American troops had abandoned all the positions in eastern and central Baghdad that they had set up last week with Iraqi forces as part of a search for a missing American soldier. The checkpoints had snarled traffic and disrupted daily life and commerce throughout the eastern part of the city.
The language of the declaration, which implied that Mr. Maliki had the power to command American forces, seemed to overstep his authority and to be aimed at placating his Shiite constituency.
The withdrawal was greeted with jubilation in the streets of Sadr City, the densely populated Shiite enclave where the Americans have focused their manhunt and where anti-American sentiment runs high. The initial American reaction to the order, which was released by Mr. Maliki’s press office, strongly suggested that the statement had not been issued in concert with the American authorities.
The so called liberal media? Check out the front page of CNN at 10AM this morning:
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As tons and tons of great news pours in for liberal and progressive voters in Ohio, I find myself more and more disgusted with politics.
First, Strickland continues to pull away from the divisive Ken Blackwell, and the result we get is some really sleazy mudslinging from not just “conservative” bloggers, but from Blackwell’s campaign and the Ohio GOP.
Now, as we get news that Brown has opened a 20 point lead over DeWine, and that Fox is coming to support Brown, we get this tripe from RABid:
Mike Fox’s attack ad plays on the hopes and fears of Americans who want serious diseases to be cured. Now, Fox’s smear campaign is coming to Ohio to attack Mike DeWine. Fox should be ashamed for cheapening his cause with sleazy political activism.
Are you kidding me? Michael J. Fox isn’t the one politicizing science. He’s done ads supporting Republican candidates who support stem cell research. He’s been clear to note that the research doesn’t promise a cure – it gives hope. In fact, a number of prominent Republicans, including Nancy Reagan, Bill Frist, Mitt Romney, and Arlen Specter, support expanded embryonic stem cell research.
Do you want to know what politicizing science is? It’s stonewalling the approval of Plan B, in opposition to scientific research. It’s the entire push to put “intelligent design” into science classes. It’s Terry Schiavo, and the rush for specialized legislation. It’s trying to defund competitive research grants because you don’t like what they are researching. It’s voting to condemn a scientific study not because it’s bad science, but because you don’t like the conclusion that many children who have sexual contact with an adult go on to have normal adult lives.
It’s intentionally overlooking the fact that embryonic stem cells could be cultivated for research, with many extra to spare, simply by using the already discarded embryos from fertility treatments. It’s intentionally obfuscating the fact that virtually no “discovery science” is funded by private industry, only applied science. It’s calling an ad by a man suffering from a terrible disease asking for you to support candidates who support stem cell research a “smear campaign”.
Unlike Fox’s plea for the public to support candidates who support stem cell research, this kind of crap RABid is pulling really is sleazy and disgusting. They are wrong on the facts, most of America knows this, and so instead of arguing the facts (they can’t), they attack the messenger. It’s what they always do. And I’m tired of it.
And apparently so is the rest of Ohio.
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From majikthise:
Last month, feminist blogger Biting Beaver wrote about a nightmarish experience she’d had with a broken condom and a callous medical system that refused to give her emergency contraception over the counter or by prescription.
Instead of getting medical care during the critical 72-hour window of opportunity, BB was stalled, humiliated, scorned, quizzed, and deceived. A nurse tried to tell her that EC was “the abortion pill,” and other health care providers grilled her about her sexual history and her marital status. Her pharmacy wouldn’t sell it to her OTC, her doctor wouldn’t call in a prescription, and the local emergency rooms wouldn’t give her a ’scrip because she wasn’t raped or married.
Pat yourself on the back, culture of life, Biting Beaver is pregnant and she’s getting death threats.
Biting Beaver is a blogger here in rural Ohio. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not. I am angry, tho. The “Religious Right” has actually created an abortion that didn’t have to happen. Had this woman been able to get competent medical care and a prescription for emergency contraception – something that should not require a prescription and is not an abortifacient – the accident that resulted in birth control failure would have ended there.
Instead you’ve got an angry, bitter woman who has to face public shame (and online death theats!) because a condom broke and another child would be a serious hardship to her and her three existing children.
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My previous headline about this was “House approves torture“, but in reality it’s much more sinister than that. Glenn Greenwald points out that no longer is Bush simply assuming the legal authority to throw anyone – including US citizens who have never left the country – in a secret jail without the right to challenge in court, he now actually has that authority (or will, when the bill passes the Senate as expected).
This last point means that even if there were a habeas corpus right inserted back into the legislation (which is unlikely at this point anyway), it wouldn’t matter much, if at all, because the law would authorize your detention simply based on the DoD’s decree that you are an enemy combatant, regardless of whether it was accurate or not. This is basically the legalization of the Jose Padilla treatment — empowering the President to throw people into black holes with little or no recourse, based solely on his say-so.
To get down to brass tacks, all that crap from the right that liberals are “aiding terrorists” is now more than sufficient to justify the legal jailing of any of us, for an indefinite period of time, without access to legal council, and without recourse.
That’s it. It’s over. Freedom of speech is no longer a right, it’s a privilege granted by the state. Say something the state doesn’t like, and they have the legal authority to “dissappear” you. My gut feeling is to say that we’ve lost. And by “we” I mean Americans. Where do we go from here?
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Check out the latest issue of Newsweek, and note the different covers for different regions of the world.
Gah.
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Never let it be said that Republicans are anti-environment. It appears they really love PLANTS! OK, so maybe they are anti-environment. Turns out the kind of plants they like are the ones they mix in as “citizens” or “activists”, when their true identity is much more like “shill”, apologist”, or “donor”.
The biggest national story was that of Rockey Vaccarella, a Katrina victim who had a Sheehan-like trek to Washington to get a meeting with the President. Difference being ‘ole Rockey was a Bush ass-kisser and (shock of shocks) GOT A MEETING with der Bushmeister. Funny thing is Rockey is a Republican who ran for office. I wonder what his reward will be. What a joke. Good thing we got Media Matters. Mmmm, blog food. Yum!
There are some homegrown “plants” as well. First is Blackwell’s “registered nurse from Huber Heights”, who turns out to be a wingnut campaign manager. Next is Nathan Esruth, who “showed up at a park Saturday morning to hear the blue people“. Turns out Mr Estruth has given thousands of dollars to Ken Blackwell and Republicans according to SoS campaign finanace filings. (hat tip BSB)
Mmmmm…plants….
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Honor killings, torture, and the subjugation of women
by Brian on May 21, 2007 · Comments
GO READ THE REST. HT to Pandagon. And my apologies for the length of this on the front page. I just couldn’t find a way to make it shorter.
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