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‘The New Republicans': ‘Drunken sailor' spending?
The NY Times editorializes: "The most striking thing about the new Republicanism is the way it embraces big government. The Bush administration has presided over a $400 billion expansion of Medicare entitlements. The party that once campaigned to abolish the Department of Education has produced an education plan that involves unprecedented federal involvement in local public schools. There is talk from the White House about a grandiose new moon shot. Budgetary watchdogs like the Heritage Foundation echo the Republican Senator John McCain's complaint about 'drunken sailor' spending." ...
Supreme Court to consider Cheney's secret task force
CBS Marketwatch is reporting: "The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the White House must reveal the energy-industry contacts that helped a task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney formulate an energy policy blueprint in 2001. The high court on Monday said it would hear a White House appeal of a lower court ruling that ordered the Bush administration to hand over details of the task force meetings to Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group, and the Sierra Club, an environmental group."
Just In: Stacking the Deck: 72 Legislative Candidates Sign "Lawsuit" Pledge
The October 2003 newsletter of Mississippians for Economic Progress, a group set up by industry groups, to limit lawsuits in the state, says that 72 legislative candidates in the state have signed a detailed pledge in support of further regulating the rights of citizens to bring lawsuits, and protecting businesses from liability claims. The candidates, if elected, pledge to support industry and the position of Barbour/Tuck that much more "reform" is needed in the state to help industry. The same forces, however, are not pledging to also look at potential reforms possibly needed on the insurance side of the aisle, or supporting hearings to find out whether insurance reform is also needed to help both citizens and doctors. (Click for full list.)
Barbour and the CofCC story taking off
Note that a number of national political blogs are talking about the Council of Conservative Citizens' endorsement of Barbour, and his picture on the racist group's site that first surfaced on the JFP Web site. Go see the links to the national blog chat, as well as the original posting on Haley Barbour's page on our site at:
Horse Race Politics—Whose Fault?
OK, here's a riddle: Why would political candidates talk about issues when the medium reporting them (the media) won't report them in any detail? The Clarion-Ledger today had a report saying that Mississippians want "more details and less rhetoric." Yes, I blame the candidates -- and have regularly on this blog -- for not talking more about issues. But we also have to examine the media's role here: how many publications and TV stations are running in-depth reports on the candidates' issues, fact-checking their statements, turning them inside out? Instead, they're covering the "horse race," as we call it in the journalism industry. That is, they covering the fight, the insults, the jabs back and forth. I guarantee that if reporters would try to sit down more with the candidates and ask them real questions, rather than simply seek out sound bites, then at least of the candidates would respond (at least the ones who have something to say). Worse, the quest for so-call "objectivity" means that if one candidate doesn't want to talk in-depth, the media outlet will shy away from real coverage of the other one in an attempt to seem "fair and balanced." This was a serious problem in the last presidential election and, I believe, why most Americans didn't know the established meaning of "compassionate conservatism" (nothing to do with bipartisanship or moderation) before the election. We talk a lot about how to avoid horce race coverage in journalism school, and then the reporters go to news outlets that tell them to cover the horse race. It's a vicious cycle.
God is not a right-wing zealot
A compelling story in Salon: "In the heart of the Bluegrass, a Bible Belt preacher is rallying people to political action around what he calls 'basic religious values.' Think you can describe his politics? Think again. This man of the cloth wants 'regime change' in Washington. The Rev. Albert Pennybacker, a Lexington, Ky.-based pastor, is head of the Clergy Leadership Network, a new, cross-denominational group of liberal and moderate religious leaders seeking to counter the influence of the religious right and to mobilize voters to change leadership in Washington. Pennybacker, affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and a pastor of 35 years, is tired of the conventional wisdom that equates religiosity with conservatism. Nationwide, he says, the religious right often squeezes out the left in public debate. The group is 1,000 members strong -- and growing.
Conservative Says Howard Dean Welcome Change
In his column today, conservative-but-independent columnist Charley Reese writes that Howard Dean is a real threat to the U.S. political establishment: "What people see is an intelligent man who isn't catering to the press, who isn't resorting to weasel words. This could be, and I pray it is, the start of a sea change in American politics. It could be that after so many disappointments, Americans are finally wising up to the professional politicians whose statements are manufactured for campaign purposes only."
Musgrove page updated on JFP Politics blog
The Musgrove page now contains a full interview, largely focusing on education and "tort reform," that the JFP did with the governor in August. We will also be updated this page with pertinent links to media stories and press releases between now and the election.
Dean Under Attack, Trippi Says
To watch the attack ad in Windows Media Player, click here:
E-mailed to Dean list this a.m. from Trippi: "A faceless group that the Washington Post calls 'despicable' is using hundreds of thousands of dollars to air vicious television ads that use pictures of Osama bin Laden to attack Howard Dean. Don't wait. We're under attack, and we need your help now.
Howard Dean on the race question
"'Dealing with race is about educating white folks,' [Howard] Dean said in an interview Tuesday on a campaign swing through the first primary state where African-American voters will have a major impact. 'Not because white people are worse than black people about race but because whites are in the majority, and therefore the behavior of whites has a much bigger influence on hiring practices and so forth and so on than the behavior of African-Americans.'"
Transcript of Tuck fund-raising letter on her JFP candidate page
Amy Tuck has not responded to requests for interviews or returned her voter questionnaire, but you can read the Sept. 11 fund-raising letter that is posted in its entirely on her candidate page on the JFP Politics blog.
Election Post-Mortem
Well, all, there weren't a lot of surprises Tuesday night, and a lot of our prayers about the state rising above the race game went unanswered ... for now. But I truly believe that this election is meant to challenge progressive Mississippians to do everything it takes to attract better candidates and increase the voter base. And that work doesn't start three years and six and a half months from now. It starts tomorrow. So buck up; we have hard, but satisfying work to do, and powerful coalitions to build. And it will be done.
Blackmon Challenges Tuck to Debate Issues
Oct. 3 statement (verbatim): Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor Barbara Blackmon today called on her opponent to agree to a televised debate focusing on jobs and Mississippi 's economy and to condemn the secret spending that has resulted in vicious negative attack ads that distort her record. "The unfair attack by Amy Tuck and her big buck backers are occurring because I have the strongest economic development message in this campaign," Blackmon said. "I have put foreword a detailed, multi-point plan to create jobs and to get the economy moving. On Amy Tuck's watch, the state has lost 44,000 jobs, and she has not spearheaded any major economic development efforts."
MoveOn.Org Irritates the Right
Michelle Goldberg writes in Salon: "Bill O'Reilly wants its nonprofit status revoked. Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie sees it as part of the 'Democrat plan to subvert campaign finance laws.' House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's office plays phone pranks on its staffers. ... Clearly, MoveOn.org has arrived."
Friedeman: GOP Will Sweep Tuesday
Ultra-conservative columnist Matt Friedeman argues today in the Clarion-Ledger that next Tuesday will be a sweep for the Republican Party. You have to give the guy points for forthrightness: "We say we want a so-called "color-blind" society but based on election results, blacks apparently also choose, in large measure, to vote as a block for one political party. In a state that is moving toward the other political party, it seems a bit disingenuous to cry racism when people have a problem with you and your party affiliation. Only a matter of race? By their platform and public pronouncements, Democrats nationally are the party of the homosexual agenda, gun control, abortion rights, the welfare state, big government and higher taxes. If your race votes nine out of 10 times for people pushing that agenda, don't be surprised when voters associate that agenda with the color of your skin."
Former FBI Agent Eyes AG Post
The GOP candidate for attorney general talked to the Jackson Free Press in his offices in Ridgeland. This is the full transcript of the interview.
Salter Defends Barbour, Again
OK, here's a riddle? Why should it possibly matter that a potential governor of the state went off to Washington once and helped sell out the state's jobs and economy to corporate interests that wanted to move outside the country, and take jobs with them? It's about integrity, stupid! And about whether the candidate is serious when he says that he cares, really cares about the state of Mississippi and its people, including the ones who lost jobs due to NAFTA. Salter is apparently worried enough that this issue is going to derail his candidate, as it probably should, that he wrote again today about why NAFTA doesn't possibly matter to Barbour's candidacy. Then, he complains at the end of the column that Musgrove couldn't produce "the first scintilla of evidence" to prove that he didn't once support NAFTA (but Salter doesn't produce "the first scintilla of evidence" that says he did). And he manages to argue, without logic, that both elephants and donkeys in Washington supported NAFTA in those dark days—which I would agree is a huge black mark against Clinton's so-called legacy, which is shot anyhow—and, therefore somehow, that means that Barbour is off the hook for making money trying to push the NAFTA agenda on both parties back then. Please. Of course this issue matters to Mississippians (and is certainly more relevant than either Tuck or Blackmon's take on abortion). The fact is, if Barbour was willing to sell his state out then to national and international (and personal financial) interests, what happens when/if he's in office here? Let me guess: He leads the charge to stop "lawsuit abuse" on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Ah. There's another charge for Real Mississippi.
Poet looking for reasons people don't vote ...
Pass it on: Poet looking for reasons people don't vote for big traveling project .... I just got this e-mail:
Bush's ‘Crimes Against Nature'
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. writes: "George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats."
Bush may veto overtime, media ownership rules
AP is reporting : "The GOP-run Senate voted in September to block proposed Labor Department rules that opponents say would make it easier for employers to deny overtime for millions of workers. The House, also run by Republicans, voted narrowly to support the rules, but later cast a nonbinding vote in favor of blocking them. The administration is insisting the proposed rules be allowed to take effect."