Republican National committee Chairman refuses to sign joint civility statement which includes condemnation of threats made to congress members

The Democratic National Committee says that Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has declined to sign on to a joint statement that condemns threats made to members of Congress from both parties. 

The draft text of the statement says that while Steele and Kaine disagree on the health care bill, they would together call on elected officials of both parties to set an example of the civility we want to see in our citizenry; and ask all Americans to respect differences of opinion, to refrain from inappropriate forms of intimidation, to reject violence and vandalism, and to scale back rhetoric that might reasonably be misinterpreted by those prone to such behavior."

A DNC spokesman told reporters that Kaine sent the letter to Steele on Friday and then phoned him asking the RNC chairman to release a joint bipartisan statement "condemning the threats and acts of vandalism over the past week, calling for an end to such tactics and urging a more civil tone in our politics." "This afternoon, Chairman Steele, through staff, declined Chairman Kaine's offer," the DNC spokesman said.

The Democratic National Committee proposed statement that the Republicans refused be a part of reads as follows:

“As leaders of our respective national parties, we want to speak to all Americans about the importance of conducting our political debates in a manner and tone that respects our political system and demonstrates to the world the strength of our democracy.

We have a system of government that allows the great issues of our day to be resolved peacefully and civilly and that serves as a beacon of hope to those around the world who yearn for political freedom, political stability, and governing without the threat of violence.

We have a system that allows people to express approval of their government or change the party in power peaceably through the ballot box.
Our Constitution affords Americans the right to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Clearly, we have different positions on the merits of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. However, we together call on elected officials of both parties to set an example of the civility we want to see in our citizenry. 


We also call on all Americans to respect differences of opinion, to refrain from inappropriate forms of intimidation, to reject violence and vandalism, and to scale back rhetoric that might reasonably be misinterpreted by those prone to such behavior.”

Nashville man and his 10-year-old daughter were victims of road rage because of Obama bumper sticker

A local Nashville, TN news station is reporting that a Nashville man and his 10-year-old daughter were victims of road rage Thursday afternoon, all because of a political bumper sticker on his car.

Mark Duren told News 2 the incident happened around 4:30p.m., while he was driving on a local road near Belmont University.

Mr. Duren said Harry Weisiger flashed him the middle finger and rammed into his vehicle, after noticing an Obama-Biden sticker on his car bumper.

Duren had just picked up his 10-year-old daughter from school and had her in the car with him. "He pointed at the back of my car," Duren said, "the bumper, flipped me off, one finger salute."

But it didn't end there. Duren told News 2 that Weisiger honked his horn at him for awhile, as Duren stopped at a stop sign.

Once he started driving again, down Blair Boulevard, towards his home, he said, "I looked in the rear view mirror again, and this same SUV was speeding, flying up behind me, bumped me."

Duren said he applied his brake and the SUV smashed into the back of his car. He then put his car in park to take care of the accident, but Weisiger started pushing the car using his SUV. Duren said, "He pushed my car up towards the sidewalk, almost onto the sidewalk."

Police say Harry Weisiger is charged with felony reckless endangerment in the incident.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow is demanding an apology from Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown for raising money on his false rumor that she will run against him in 2012

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow is demanding an apology from Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown for raising campaign money on rumors that she’s planning to run against him in 2012.

Maddow told the Boston Herald yesterday, “Scott Brown made this up in order to make money off my name and likeness and I think he should stop. And I think he should apologize.”

Maddow, who lives in western Massachusetts, called Brown a “creep” in an MSNBC newspaper ad scheduled to run in the Boston Globe  today and blasted him for sending out a nationwide fund-raising letter this week “smearing me to raise money for himself.”

Her full page ad begins: "Hi, I'm Rachel Maddow. I host a TV show on MSNBC. I also live in Western Massachusetts, in the beautiful hilltowns of Hampshire County. I'm not running against Scott Brown, I never said I was running against Scott Brown. The Massachusetts Democratic Party never asked me to run against Scott Brown. It's just not true. Honestly. I swear. No, really."

Maddow wrote that "it's standard now for conservatives to invent scary fake threats to run against," citing death panels and the birther movement. "Senator Scott Brown's only been in DC seven weeks, but he already seems to be fitting right in with how conservatives operate there."

The ad also notes Brown has refused many invitations to appear on Maddow's show.

"My show airs at 9PM Eastern in Massachusetts on MSNBC," she wrote. "So far, Scott Brown refuses to come on. Maybe he'll change his mind, I hope he does.”

The more likely reason Brown started this rumor is to deflect from the fact he could not stop health care reform from becoming law. The Tea Baggers are abandoning on him in droves. He got elected on one issue to stop the reform bill, now many are saying he's in way over his head. Many are looking forward to when MA Congressman Lynch runs in 2012 to bring the Senate seat back into Democratic hands.

See Rachel Maddow’s ad below:

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/03/26/4072494-maddow-takes-full-page-ad-in-boston-to-say-shes-still-not-running

Watch Rachel Maddow deny she’s running and inviting Senator Brown to come on her show:

http://vodpod.com/watch/3297043-no-scott-brown-rachel-maddow-is-not-running-for-senate

Former Bush speech writer says Fox network is harming the Republican Party

Former Bush speech writer David Frum without a doubt forcefully rocked the GOP boat earlier this week when he declared that the Democrats' passage of health reform amounts to the Republican Party’s waterloo.

On ABC's Nightline Monday night, Frum continued to show his trepidation with the hard right political direction that the GOP has taken.

"Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we're discovering we work for Fox," Frum told ABC's Terry Moran. "And this balance here has been completely reversed. The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican party." Moran responded, "It sounds like you're saying that the Glenn Becks, the Rush Limbaughs, hijacked the Republican Party and drove it to a defeat?"

Frum laid the blame for the anger of anti-health reform protesters not with the GOP, but with talk radio and Fox News, which he said was the "real leadership" in setting the terms of the political debate on health care.

As Frum noted in his earlier ‘Waterloo’ piece, the Republican defeat on health care reform is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody. They will be infuriated with all those except the very ones who gin up the anger to begin with. These conservative entertainers don’t allow opposing views to be heard because they know how easily it would be to discredit them. Without the fallaciously manufactured dissent that comes from their deceitful tirades and lies there would be no audience to keep tuning in.

Frum’s point had been previously affirmed by Fox News President Rogers Ailes himself when in an interview with the Huffington Post in February he said Fox was in the ratings business, not the politics business. The Fox position is ‘Country Last’; so what if health reform helps tens of millions of Americans; we must spin lies to keep the hate going so that our rabid audience buys our advertisers products, which in turn, shower us with untold wealth.

"The anger trapped the Republican leadership," Frum said, and "the leadership discovered they have no room to maneuver as a result of the anger."

Watch the Frum interview here:

http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/video/2010/03/23/abc-20100323-nightlinefrum.mov

Compilation video of Jon Stewart and the Daily Show’s coverage of the Tea Baggers this year

Here is a compilation of Comedy Central's the Daily Show coverage of the Tea Baggers over this past year courtesy of the Huffington Post. Jon Stewart is hilarious.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/23/jon-stewarts-best-tea-bag_n_509966.html

Potential New York gubernatorial Tea Bagger candidate compares health care reform to 9-11, mother of 9-11 victim says he's despicable

On Tuesday potential Tea-Bagger gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino compared the new federal health care reform lawl to the 2001 terrorist attacks on a local radio program according to the New York Daily News.

 Paladino told radio host Curtis Sliwa in an interview on New York’s AM-970 that the day the health care reform bill was passed will be remembered just as 9-11 was remembered in history. He said, “It was an attempt by these people in Washington to defy the Constitution", in a strikingly naive reference to the duly elected Democratic congressional majority lawfully passing the legislation as stipulated in the US constitution.

Paladino has pledged to spend up to $10 million of his own money on the GOP primary and also says he'll petition his way onto the ballot as a Tea Bagger candidate.

Donna O’Connor, a Syracuse mother who lost her 29-year-old daughter who was four months pregnant in the 9-11 attacks, told the Daily News that she’d never vote for Paladino for making this comparison.

“It is despicable if in someone’s mind those events are analogous,” Ms. O’Connor said. “That is not a person who should be a leader of our country, of a state, of a city, of any community. Once again 9-11 is being exploited for political gain. Our family members are tools, not human beings who lost their lives and left behind wounds that will never heal.”

Paladino has called on New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to join other states in suing to block the health care law.

Former General Electric CEO warned Republicans are in for a large shock this November

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch warned Republicans expecting big gains in the midterm elections this fall that they'll get a large shock on CNBC Tuesday.

Citing improved economic indicators, Welch said he doesn't believe the Democrats are going to be wiped out like the republicans think," and said he expects the Democrats to have enough votes in Congress following the election to move forward on other parts of their agenda, like cap and trade.

CNBC is the cable business news network that was the head media cheerleader for Bush's economic policies which brought the US economy to its knees. 

Vandals smashed doors and windows at Democratic offices in the days surrounding the US House health care reform vote

Vandals smashed doors and windows at four Democratic offices around the country in the days surrounding the landmark House health care vote Sunday night.

The Buffalo News reported early on the morning of March 19, someone threw a brick through the window of Rep. Louise Slaughter's office in Niagara Falls, New York, doing $350 of damage. Slaughter (D-NY) briefly attracted the ire of conservatives over the "Slaughter Solution," a procedural maneuver that was considered to pass health reform.

The Democrat and Chronicle reported that a brick was also thrown through the glass doors of the Monroe County Democratic Committee office in Rochester, NY over the weekend. A note attached to the brick included the quote "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice” from the late Republican Senator Barry Goldwater.

In the early hours of the morning on Monday just after the House health care vote, someone smashed the glass front door of the Tucson office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the Arizona Daily Star reported.

On Friday night or Saturday morning, a brick bearing unspecified "anti-Obama and anti-health care messages" was thrown through a floor-to-ceiling window at the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, CNN and the Kansas City Start reported.

Alabama-based blogger Mike Vanderboegh posted the following note on his blog on Friday: "To all modern Sons of Liberty: THIS is your time. Break their windows. Break them NOW." The Kansas City Star identifies Vanderboegh as a former leader of the Alabama Constitutional Militia.

Rep. Grayson (D-FL) calls Palin an inspiration to quitters all over the country

Appearing on CNN Monday Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) continued with his commentary on the divisive former less than one-term Alaska Governor and losing Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin following his biting response last week, after Palin campaigned in Grayson's Orlando-area district for candidates who want to run against Grayson in November.

When CNN Host Rick Sanchez asked Grayson about his labeling of Palin as a dingbat, he answered, "What I said was that scientists were studying very carefully the migratory patterns of the wild Alaskan dingbat."

He reiterated Monday that he would welcome the chance to debate her on the issues, “as soon as she learns anything about them.”

"I think that she's an inspiration to quitters all over the country," Grayson continued. "I think that she's an inspiration to every student in school who cheats, you know that hand writing businesses that was really original."

These were obvious references to Palin cutting and running from the governorship in the middle of her first term, as well as getting caught peeking at notes scrawled on her hand during last month's Tea Bagger Party speech.

The Florida Congressman rejected the idea that she's even a political figure anymore, calling her a reality show personality instead. He asserted that she just wants to make money.

Also Grayson spoke of the Public Option Act he introduced two weeks ago, also known as the Medicare You Can Buy into Act. He stressed that individuals must have the opportunity to buy into a public insurance plan.

Watch Grayson’s CNN interview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch=YVqUUlmFSeQ&feature=player_embedded

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says health care reform passage is a disaster for the GOP, and great business for Rush Limbaugh and Fox

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says it’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the GOP disaster. And he blames this “most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s” on conservatives and Republicans themselves, as he unmistakably points out his most recent blog post on health care reform.

Frum said at the beginning of this process Republicans made a strategic decision. They would make no deal with the Obama administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. The Republicans were going for it all. To use South Carolina Republican Senator DeMint’s term this would be Obama’s Waterloo, just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994.

Only, the hardliners ignored some important facts: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton’s 42%. The progressive block within the Democratic congressional caucus is bigger and stronger than it was in 1993-94. And of course the Democrats also remember their history, and also remember the consequences of their 1994 failure.

Mr. Frum says this time, when the Republicans went for all the marbles, they ended with none. He pointed out that conservative commentators have a huge incentive for the health care reforms to fail, regardless that these reforms will likely help middle and lower class Americans to secure quality affordable health care.

Frum noted that when Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was cleverly explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed, if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises, then Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads from his advertisers.

Frum concluded that the supposed defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For the conservative entertainment industry it is mission accomplished.

Read David Frum’s whole post here: http://www.truthout.org/david-frum-waterloo57875