livealifethatscompletelyfree

Link 1
Notes

Posted 3 days ago

GOP problem: 'Their voters are white, aging and dying off'

From cnn.com

Washington (CNN) — When presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appears before Latino small-business owners in Washington on Wednesday, he’ll address a group whose explosive birth rates foreshadow a seismic political shift in GOP strongholds in the Deep South and Southwest.

“The Republicans’ problem is their voters are white, aging and dying off,” said David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, who studies minority political engagement.

“There will come a time when they suffer catastrophic losses with the realization of the population changes.”

Over the next several generations, the wave of minority voters — who, according to U.S. Census figures released this week, now represent more than half of the nation’s population born in the past year — will become more of a power base in places like Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. That hold will extend across the Southwest all the way to California, experts say.

The coming political revolution could result in a massive changing of the guard on nearly every level of government, potential cultural clashes, and the type of political alliances that are now considered rare.

Link 5
Notes

Posted 4 days ago

Want to win the WI Recall? Make sure this story goes as wide as humanly possible

more via dailykos, here is a taste

Certainly the litany of Scott Walker’s sins is long and varied: Gross mismanagement, worst in the nation Job numbers, union-busting, billionaire toadying, and good old fashioned political corruption and criminal activity. But the fact is, anyone upset about these things is already voting against him, and many polls still have the race tied or ahead. So to win this thing, we need a wedge issue that peels off some of his support, particularly in his Northern WI base areas. Fortunately Scott Walker has just handed us just such a wedge on a sliver platter in his appointment of Dr. James Kroll as the State’s “deer Czar”. You see Dr. Kroll considers allowing hunters to hunt for free on state-managed game lands, “the last bastion of communism” and want to do away with it altogether.

Even if you think this issue doesn’t matter because you’ve never shot an animal with anything other than a camera, if you want the Dems to win the recall election you need to spread this story as far and wide as possible. Because, trust me, there are people in WI for who this will REALLY matter, and they’re precisely the people we need to reach. Let me explain:

The first thing you need to understand, is that for a significant number of people in WI, deer hunting is less of a sport and more of a religion. I’ve spoken to a lot of people who grew up in WI, particularly the northern part of the state, who told me that growing up, most high- and even Middle-schools managed to make sure that the first day of whitetail season was some sort of school holiday, since they knew that huge percentages of their students wouldn’t be there anyway. It is a time when contractors turn down business, people take days off of work, shifts go unfilled and deliveries are delayed, because, hell, it’s deer hunting time.

And this is not merely some sort of blood-lust on these enthusiastic hunters’ part either. There are a lot of lower-middle and lower income people, especially in rural areas for whom successfully ”shooting for the table”, or freezer can make all the difference in their family’s food security for that winter, or even over the whole year. The 50-75 lbs of usable meet that a good-sized deer will yield goes a very long way to making up for the protein deficit many of these hunter’s families might otherwise face. It is also a generational tradition for these folks that helps bond families, an activity that helps give them a connection to the land that borders on spiritual, and powerful symbol of what they believe to be their independence and self-reliance.

Therefore anything that threatens that tradition or looks like it might take it away entirely, is likely to put them “up in arms”, almost literally.

Guess What Dr. Kroll wants to do?

Yep. He’s pissed off that people might be enjoying this activity (which also benefits the state since the excess deer population is a huge hazard to motorists and cause massive damage to forests. Since we kinda wiped out all the natural predators that pretty much leave hunters to take of the problem) without SOMEONE getting fabulously wealthy as a result and squeezing every penny out of the hunters first.

Video 312
Notes

Posted 4 days ago

(Source: fyjonstewart)

via unquietmindofamy

Photo 63
Notes

Posted 3 weeks ago

Zoom

kileyrae:

Ron Paul’s Delegate Antics Could Spell Trouble For GOP Convention

Hoarding delegates is the primary aim, but to what end? A month or two ago, when there was a distinct possibility Republicans could reach the end of the primaries with no candidate holding a majority of delegates, Paul’s team hoped to use a contested convention as leverage for their demands.

“Our goal is to accumulate delegates and hold the others under 1,144 to force a brokered convention and secure the nomination for Dr. Paul,” Paul spokesman Jesse Benton told TPM in March. “Short of that, fallback goals would be cabinet positions for our allies committed to free markets, major platform changes and perhaps the vice presidential nomination.”

That was then. Preventing Romney from powering to the nomination seems fantastical at this point. At best, they could offer an embarrassing sideshow by putting Paul’s nomination to a vote on the floor, where he’d likely be instantly crushed by Romney’s delegates. While a handful of state delegations could help put Paul supporters on convention committees that determine its platform and rules, they still would likely be swamped by Romney delegates and those of his former opponents. Still, the establishment’s desire to keep the convention orderly and unified in a high-pressure election — without, say, a bunch of motions about the gold standard — might be enough to extract at least some concessions.

“The Ron Paul campaign is trying to accomplish two things: force votes on their issues on the convention floor and in convention meetings and create controversy to help them advance their issues,” Soren Dayton, a Republican strategist who served as a delegate coordinator for John McCain in 2008, told TPM.

via fuckyeahliberalatheists

Text 877
Notes

Posted 3 weeks ago

Tumblr’s ideas for fired-up songs so far…

wilwheaton:

laughterkey:

lemon—lyman:

barackobama:

Tumblr’s ideas for fired-up songs so far:

We Will Rock You - Queen

Don’t Stop Believing - Journey

2 Legit 2 Quit - M.C. Hammer

500 Miles - The Proclaimers

Eye of the Tiger - Survivor

All Star - Smash Mouth

Valio la Pena - Marc Anthony

That’s Good - Devo (A. writes that the suggestion is inspired by this video: “Literally the most excited anybody has been about anything EVER in the history of America. Look at them go! So much clapping! So much SPANDEX!”)

“All of Kelly Clarkson’s songs. ALL OF THEM.”

Got more?

I approve of all of this so hard.

Also: Don’t Stop Me Now, because you can’t have too much Freddie Mercury on a playlist like this.

Yes, also Marc Broussard’s cover of “Yes We Can, Can”, because of course.

ALL STAR? FUCKING ALL STAR!? AND M.C. HAMMER?! Are you fucking kidding me right now?

Are you running for re-election in 2012 or 1994? And ALL OF KELLY CLARKSON’S SONGS?! Are you running for President of the United States, or President of 9th Grade?

Look, Barack Obama, I’m happy for you, and I’ma let you finish, but this bullshit is not the way to get fired up.

…well, I mean, unless you’re trying to make me do a stupid rant that is probably only amusing in my head. In that case, it’s perfect. Well played, sir.

(Oh, and while we’re talking, stop fucking murdering people with drone strikes, okay? We’re better than that in this country.)

These choices are all unbelievably terrible, well Queen is never terrible, but can we have some originality? I thought he was supposed to be the “cool” president. Why don’t we just add tubthumping by chumbawumba and call it a day.

via wilwheaton

Photo 9
Notes

Posted 3 weeks ago

Zoom

Photo 710
Notes

Posted 3 weeks ago

Zoom

(Source: stfuconservatives)

via vinylsticker

Photo 2
Notes

Posted 3 weeks ago

Zoom

Photo 5
Notes

Posted 4 weeks ago

Link 59
Notes

Posted 1 month ago

8 Reasons Why Mitt Romney Is More Right Wing Than George W. Bush

via thinkprogress.org

During the primary season, Mitt Romney was frequently derided by his Republican opponents as a “Massachusetts Moderate.” This isn’t true.

Last week, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee suggested the policies advanced this year by Mitt Romney and the Republicans would be like the “policies of the Bush administration…just updated.”

A close review of Romney’s positions shows that Romney has “updated” George W. Bush’s positions by moving substantially to the right in a number of key areas. As detailed below, compared to this year’s presumptive Republican nominee, Bush looks moderate:

1. Bush passed a huge tax cut plan, mostly benefiting the wealthy. Romney’s tax cut plan is four times larger, more heavily weighted to benefit ultra wealthy.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Passed $2.5 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years, 12.5% benefiting the top 1/10 of 1%. [ThinkProgress, 2/22/12; David Cay Johnston. 3/1/12]

MITT ROMNEY: Proposing $10.7 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years, 33% benefiting the top 1/10 of 1%. [ThinkProgress, 2/22/12; David Cay Johnston. 3/1/12]

2. Bush signed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Romney supports repealing virtually all campaign finance laws.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Signed into law the landmark McCain–Feingold campaign finance reform, which put restrictions on “soft money” and limitations on spending from outside groups. [White House, 03/27/02]

MITT ROMNEY: Strongly defended the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which overturned key provisions McCain–Feingold. Supports repealing virtually all campaign finance laws. [Mitt Romney, 2/18/10; ThinkProgress, 12/21/11]

3. Bush supported comprehensive immigration reform, a path to citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants and provisions of the DREAM Act. Romney opposes all of it.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Supported comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants and provisions of the DREAM Act. [Reuters, 6/29/07; White House, 10/24/07]

MITT ROMNEY: Opposes comprehensive immigration reform and opposes providing a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants and the DREAM Act. [Fox News, 04/03/12; ABC, 12/31/12]

4. Bush enacted a historic expansion of Medicare. Romney wants to end Medicare as we know it.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Successfully pushed for a major expansion of Medicare, providing seniors with prescription drug benefits. [CNN, 12/08/03]

MITT ROMNEY: Would end Medicare as we know it by turning into a voucher system. [TNR, 12/9/11]

5. Bush signed a substantial increase to the minimum wage. Romney opposes increasing the minimum wage.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Signed legislation increasing the minimum wage from $5.85 an hour to $7.25 an hour [Employer Advisor, 5/30/07]

MITT ROMNEY: Opposes increasing the minimum wage. [CNBC, 3/5/12]

6. Bush created higher fuel efficiency standards. Romney says even current standards are too high.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Signed higher fuel efficiency standards for cars into law, raising CAFE standards to at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020. [ThinkProgress, 3/25/08]

MITT ROMNEY: Opposes raising CAFE standards, saying existing standards have “hurt domestic automakers.” [Mitt Romney, 2/24/12]

7. Bush acknowledged global warming is caused by humans. Romney says “we don’t know.”

GEORGE W. BUSH: Acknowledged that carbon emissions by humans is causing global warming stating, “I recognize the surface of the earth is warmer and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem.” [NYT, 1/10/07]

MITT ROMNEY: Refuses to acknowledge that carbon emissions by humans is causing global warming, stating “we don’t know what’s causing climate change.” [CBS, 10/28/11]

8. Bush launched one of the biggest land conservation programs in U.S. history. Romney says the federal government owns too much land.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Used his executive authority to create the world’s largest marine preserve and considered “launching one of the biggest conservation programs in U.S. history” without congressional approval. [NPR, 5/23/08]

MITT ROMNEY: Questions the value of federal conservation, saying, “I don’t know why the government owns so much of this land.” [ThinkProgress, 2/2/12]

Romney is positioning himself as the most conservative Republican nominee since Barry Goldwater in 1964.