Rightwing Republican puts airports at risk because the TSA workers might unionize

The national news has been all over Michigan since the failed terrorist attack on Christmas day to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit Metro Airport.

“Twitter” Pete Hoekstra is shamelessly using the incident to fundraise for his Michigan Gubernatorial run, and right-wingers have used it to attack the President like they do everything. But MSNBC host and Rhoades Scholar Rachel Maddow reported on a very interesting tidbit over airport security last night.

Apparently, rightwing U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C, is filibustering the President’s nominee for the position of administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) because it could lead to unionizing the TSA workers who check bags and passengers for explosives and weapons.

In this guy’s warped mind, denying the people who keep passengers safe a decent wage, benefits and safe working conditions is somehow going to make them more motivated to do a better job. Is this guy for real?

He is holding up the nomination of counterterrorism expert Erroll Southers simply because the workers might be allowed to organize. Southers is a former FBI special agent, and he is currently the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department assistant chief for homeland security and intelligence. He also is the associate director of the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, and he served as a deputy director of homeland security for California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Two Senate committees have given Southers their bipartisan support, but one member of the minority party is putting the American people at risk for political reasons. All of this just to avoid giving workers a voice. The Republicans hatred of the American worker knows know bounds.

Vote for the top liberal talk show host of 2009

Like you, I love listening to liberal talk radio, when I can find it, but who are the best liberal talkers? The blog LTR: The Alternative Media Resource, is again running its annual contest to pick the top 10 liberal talk radio hosts.

The contest is pretty simple. Just go to the blog, and pick your top 10 from the list provided. The polls are open now until midnight on Christmas Eve. The results will be announced on the blog on January 1, 2010. So vote today.

Last year’s winner was Mike Malloy, followed very closely by Air America host Sam Seder and –one of my favorites – Thom Hartmann. In the early voting MSNBC and Air America host Rachel Maddow has an early big lead at 63 percent. She finished fifth last year. My favorite, Stephanie Miller, finished fourth last year, but is in sixth to date with a respectable 25 percent of the vote.

If nothing else, you will discover a great blog that does an excellent job of covering liberal talk, and it has links so you can listen to a wide variety of liberal and progressive hosts. Unfortunately, that’s the only way many of us can find quality talk radio.

Here in Michigan we live in a state that has been blue since 1992, but for some unknown reason there is only one station in mid- and Southeast Michigan that carries liberal and progressive talk on a regular basis.

We already know conservative hatemongers enjoy an unfair monopoly on talk radio, thanks, primarily, to media consolidation that has five mega companies owning almost off the 257 talk radio stations in the country. There are 10 hours of conservative talk for every one hour liberal talk. That’s not only unacceptable, but it makes no sense.

'Twitter’ Pete commits another security breach

There’s one thing for certain: if you want to keep a secret, don’t tell it to Pete Hoekstra.

Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, has a history of loose lips. Last February “Twitter” Pete revealed a secret congressional trip to Iraq on Twitter, and the breach of security put the aircraft and the people on it in danger. Putting the words intelligence and Hoekstra together in the same sentence is an oxymoron. But the latest breach of security by “Beadwindow” Pete was a major one. He compromised a sensitive National Security Agency collection program when he blabbed to the Washington Post that Ft. Hood shooting suspect Nidal Malik Hasan had been in e-mail contact with radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

MSNBC host and Rhodes Scholar Rachel Maddow really did a great job calling out Twitter Pete. She has been all over his miscues. I don’t know if this guy is just stupid, he’s trying to make a name for himself to win the Michigan GOP primary for governor or his ego is so large he revels in the knowledge he knows something we don‘t.

What’s amazing it that this guy still has a security clearance. This guy wants to be the Governor of Michigan?

Election roundup looks bright

Thank God for Rachel Maddow.

I was not feeling too well about Tuesday’s election. But I tuned into her show on MSNBC on Wednesday, and she put it in proper perspective. Now, I’m looking forward to the election in 2010.

Despite losing governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, there are still more Democratic Governors than Republican. The northeast part of the country is even bluer than before, thanks to the race in New York’s 23rd congressional district. Not only that, it shows how much in disarray the Republican Party really is. The extremist, rightwing tea baggers are not just satisfied with hijacking the party, now they want to drive out all the sane, moderates out of the party. Hey, we have a big tent.

Here in Michigan, the news is not as bad either. I’m disappointed that Rep. Martin Griffin, D-Jackson, lost the special election for the vacant 19th District Senate seat. However, Michigan Democrats did very well in municipal elections all across Michigan on Tuesday. Mayoral and City Council candidates backed by the Michigan Democratic Party won 65 percent of their races, or 44 out of 68. Ballot questions supported by the MDP such as the Kalamazoo antidiscrimination ordinance and the Macomb County Charter passed.

But the loss in the 19th District really hurt. I personally knocked on doors, he lost by a 2-1 margin and it will be a little harder in 2010 to take back the Senate with a 22-16 GOP advantage. But, after reading some post-election reports I feel much better.

In subscription only Gongwers, Matt Miner, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, was quoted as saying: “When Mark Schauer left, this was our number one priority.” That’s good to hear. Even though Griffin lost by a 2-1 margin, he was outspent by a 4-1 margin. The Republicans had to pay for volunteers, and if this is their best effort and number 1 priority, I feel very good about 2010. In a Republican leaning district, you had to outspend the opponents by a 4-1 margin?

That sure says a lot about the campaigning ability of Congressman Mark Schauer to win twice in that district.

It’s hard to explain how the Republicans are lying about the Michigan State Police HQ in just a sound bite, but we have almost a year to boil the truth down to a one or two sentence response. That’s their big issue.

It was gratifying for Mike’s Nofs own party to also call him out on his lie about the Cobo hall bills that saved the North American International Auto Show for Michigan. Nofs was making a victory lap in the Senate Wednesday, and, according to Gongwer, “He got a pat on the back and a handshake from his new boss, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop.”

“However, about 20 minutes earlier, in Bishop's first floor Capitol office, there was no back patting on the issue of Cobo Hall and the alleged corruption referred to in a widely seen Nofs TV commercial.”

"It is not the source of corruption," Bishop told WLNS TV-6, with Nofs standing to his left. "It is actually the one bright light in Detroit right now that we can all rally behind."

In fact, Bishop helped write some of the bills.

Sen. Tupac Hunter, D-Detroit, got it right: "If you're willing to play those types of politics, it tells me what type of legislator you'll be,” he said. “That means that you are being divisive. You are going into the old playbook of dividing the state. You are trying to gin up fears . . ."

I can’t wait until 2010.

Rachel Maddow continues to expose who is really behind the hijacking of townhall meetings

MSNBC host and Rhodes Scholar Rachel Maddow has been blowing the lid off the attempts by rightwing lobbying groups and think tanks to shut down townhall meetings hosted by Democratic members of Congress with some hard-hitting shows the last couple of days.

Right-wingers have been attending townhall meetings to shout down Democratic members of Congress so they cannot answer legitimate questions from constituents, and it has been organized and scripted to look like a grassroots effort, just like the fake Astroturf “tea parties.” In fact, it's the same players. These are professional, highly paid lobbyists stirring up the supporters with false rhetoric, and it includes instructions and scripts on how to hijack the meetings and stop the truth from getting out.

The primary focus of the thugs is health care where the insurance lobby is spending $1.4 million a day to stop real reform as 50 million Americans go without access to quality health care.

On Wednesday night, Maddow reported on a web site called “Recess Rally.com” that is supposed to give you the info on all the townhalls around the country so they can be hijacked by thugs. I have been unable to get on the web site, so hopefully, the publicity sent the snakes back under their rocks.

The false claim is that these "spontaneous” protests are grassroots efforts by regular Americans, and they are non-partisan. It’s true they may be regular Americans, but it is extremely partisan and highly organized by rightwing lobbyists. Maddow listed the supporters of “Recess Rally” on Wednesday, and they include the Republican movers and shakers in Washington and former Bush operatives; even the person behind the anti-troop smear boat veterans.

The right-wingers are pulling out all the stops to combat needed health care reform, and Maddow talks about one in the show. She explains how both Democrats and Republicans supported living wills and end of life decisions for more than 20 without controversy, but now it’s somehow government assisted suicide.

The Right wing PAC “Club for Growth” – you will remember them from when they flooded extremist right-winger Tim Walberg with money in the U.S. Congressional race in 2006 – is running adds pushing that false and ridiculous claim that the health care plan will kill grandma and grandpa.

There are already plans to disrupt and hijack townhall meetings in Michigan, including tonight’s townhall hosted by U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, at 6 p.m. at the Romulus Athletic Center, 35765 Northline Road in Romulus.

Get there early.

Dingell town hall on health care may disrupted by rightwing thugs

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, is holding a health care town hall at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Romulus Athletic Center, 35765 Northline Road in Romulus, and there are plans by right wing thugs, stealthy organized by a rightwing lobbyist group, to disrupt the meeting.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow reported last night on a plan by the Washington, DC-based, rightwing think tank and lobbying firm Freedom Works, chaired by former U.S. House Majority Leader and rightwing Republican Dick Armey, to disrupt town hall meetings as members of Congress return to the district for summer break and meet with constituents. You may remember this group from their organization of the so-called "tea parties" with another rightwing lobbying group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP).

Maddow reported on a leaked memo from a Freedom Works lobbyist that has a script and instructions on how to shout down the speaker, intimidate anyone objecting and how to disrupt the meeting.

I saw some of that this weekend by a similar group also targeting Dingell at the Monroe County Fair parade. The protest fizzled, but they were attempting to use similar tactics. Dingell is a prime target because he has been a champion for health care in his long public career. At the beginning of every session of Congress since 1955, Congressman Dingell introduced the national health insurance bill, just like his father before him did.

Maddow played videos of Democratic Congressmen getting leading questions, and when they tried to answer them they were shouted down and the mob refused to let them answer. The mob shouted down the lawmaker trying to speak, as well as anyone asking a legitimate question.

Dingell’s town hall meeting is already being advertised on some rightwing blogs here in Michigan, and it’s clear that these mobs are not interested in hearing what he has to say or even to have a civil debate. In fact, they even have a Facebook event page where they brag about disrupting past meetings. The thugs will try to do the same thing in Michigan.

We need to get supporters there or people who are neutral and just want some answers and are willing to act like decent human beings.
The meeting is set for 6 p.m. Thursday Aug. 6 at the Romulus Athletic Center, 35765 Northline Road in Romulus