Good news for progressives: Kloppenburg win and Beck demise

In a preview of the 2012 election, JoAnne Kloppenburg was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday over the incumbent in a backlash to the union-busting attempt by teabagger Governor Scott Walker.

In a usually slow March election, voter turnout was very high, and Kloppenburg unseated incumbent David Prosser, a Walker pal who made it very clear how he will vote when the hastily passed union busting bill makes its way to the court.

The election was a clear referendum on the union busting efforts by Republicans in the Midwest states, and it was the first election since last November; allowing people to turn protest into action.

Going into the race after the primary election in February, incumbent David Prosser was the hands on favorite, having pulled in 55 percent of the vote over Kloppenburg, his second highest leading opponent, who received just 25 percent of the vote. After Walker’s union-busting legislation that would kill collective bargaining rights for state workers, the race became a focus for the energized Democratic base. However, A recount is expected.

The Wisconsin State Journal is reporting that the high voter turnout, double for a normal March election, has been a boon for the recall attempt of eight Republican Senators. The Journal is reporting that recall leaders got plenty of signatures outside of polling places on Tuesday, so much so that they have enough signatures to put them over the top for a second Republican recall.

The close vote indicates that not all eight will be successful, but it can change the makeup of the body, as well as keep the energy going until next year’s election. A recall of two Michigan Senators for a tax vote in 1983 gave Republicans control of the Senate they have never lost, despite more people voting for Democratic Senators in 2006 than Republicans.

I am not normally a fan of recalls for a single vote, but when that vote required you violate the law, sneak in and out of the Capitol under armed guard to make the vote and lock people out of their Capitol to do it then I would make an exception.

There is also recall attempt against a couple of the heroic Wisconsin 14 Democratic Senators who left the Capitol to deny a quorum, but it does not appear to be much of a threat. In fact, the recall against Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, has only two signatures so far; the organizer and his wife, and the 60-day window to gather signatures runs out April 25.

I can’t wait for next year’s election, and we only need to limit the damage Republicans can do in the next 16 months.

Yesterday saw even more good news. Faux “news” madman Glenn Beck announced he leaving his show; a victim of falling ratings and disgusted advertisers. It’s unclear if it is voluntary.

The ratings for the first quarter of 2011 showed Beck's show had lost close to a third of its audience, especially among advertiser-prized viewers ages 25 to 54, where he was down almost 40 percent. But, it was the advertisers that really did him in, and they were leaving in droves because they did not want to be associated with his crazy end-of-world conspiracy theories and racist rants.

I expect his ratings to make a surge for next couple of days and maybe weeks because people want to see what conspiracy theory he whips up and who he blames for this.

MDP Convention energizes base

DETROIT – Reverend Wendell Anthony, the President of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP, fired up the crowd at Detroit’s Cobo Hall on Saturday at the Michigan Democratic Party Convention, giving the party faithful the zeal they will need to take back the country and the state in 2012.

“We are letting Glenn Beck steal the dream of Martin Luther King and turning it into a nightmare,” he said.

Thousands of people turned out fore the winter convention, and they spent the day in constituency and district caucuses, and they heard from Democratic leaders, both state and national. Party faithful had to get over their disappointment in November, and they talked about defending vital programs for the middle class and the poor and look to 2012 to re-elect President Obama and take back the Michigan and U.S. House.

“I say I’m the leader of the Senate Democrats not the minority leader because we are not the minority party in Michigan,” said Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing. “We don’t go from been an overwhelmingly blue state in 2008 to being the minority.”

Democrats simply did not turn out in 2010, and we have to do a better job energizing our base. The fact remains, when more people vote, Democrats tend to win.

“My opponent (in November) got four more votes; four votes more than the college kid who ran against me two years ago; I got 5,000 votes less this time,” said Rep. Mark Meadows,” D-East Lansing. “Now, that may be my fault, but there were 5,000 Democrats that did not come out to vote.”

Thursday will be, to quote extremist Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, like an atomic bomb was dropped in Lansing when Gov. Rick Snyder unveils his Top Secret budget recommendation. He has never said what will be cut, not during the campaign and not after elected, but pundits expect the cuts to be deep and extreme. His opponent in November, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, thanked people for supporting him, but he also said we must fight the cuts that mortgage Michigan’s future for some short term cuts.

“We are not going to let this crew come in and dismantle Michigan,” he said. “They say they are going to take back Michigan; they mean they are going to take it back to before the New Deal.”

Whitmer said the first goal is to defend against the elimination of the popular and effective Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), what former Republican President Ronald Reagan called “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”

They have established a web site to protect the tax credit Snyder wants to kill that helps reward 800,000 people who go to work everyday and helps families make ends meet by keeping more of their paycheck.

“He says it’s a handout, but it helps people who work 40 hours a week put food on the table,” Whitmer said. “He wants to take that and give it to his rich friends.”

The situation is not much different on the national level where Republicans want deep, damaging cuts after giving tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent that will deepen the budget deficit.

“Our Congress is in the mode of a reverse Robin Hood; they want to take from the poor to give to the rich,” said U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, said the situation is not much different in the Senate, but the good news is it is controlled by the Democrats.

“The party of nope has been happy just to stop progress; now, they want to turn back progress,” he said.

Levin also said Republicans are more interested in grabbing more power than solving the country’s problems.

“The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has said his top priority is to make Barack Obama a one-term president,” he said. “The top priority of Senate Democrats are jobs.”

Local teabgger group sponsoring false attack on the U.S. Constitution

Something called the “912 Liberty Tea Party of Western Livingston County” is bringing us nine straight weeks of misinformation, courtesy of Christian historical revisionist and Republican activist David Barton.

The counterfeit 9-12 movement is a political scheme hatched by deranged hatemonger Glenn Beck launched on Faux “news” in March 2009 , and the local group is holding a screening of Barton’s video series attacking the constitutional principle of separation of church and state that has given Americans more religious freedom than any people in world history.

Baron runs an outfit called “WallBuilders” where he makes a lucrative living traveling the right wing's lecture circuit “where he offers up a cut-and-paste version of U.S. history liberally sprinkled with gross distortions and, in some cases, outright factual errors,” according to Rob Boston, assistant director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The local teabagger group ran an ad in the Fowlerville News & Views touting a weekly, nine week showing of Barton’s revisionist history, calling him a historian and inviting people to “Come learn what was taught in our classrooms until the 1940s.”

According to SourceWatch, Barton “has teamed up with conservative radio and talk show host Glenn Beck. On July 7, 2010 Barton taught the first lecture in Beck's online seminar series entitled, "Glenn Beck University." His lecture, entitled "The Black-Robed Regiment," revolved around the idea of teaching the "true" history of America's founding. Beck’s Web site refers to Barton as “Prof. David Barton,” but Barton holds no advanced degrees and does not teach at any legitimate institution. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Christian Education from Oral Roberts University. While Beck is not an actual historian, he has posed as one since the 1990s.

Barton also has a wretched history of supporting racism and prejudice. According to Boston, “Barton addressed the Rocky Mountain Bible Retreat of Pastor Pete Peters' Scriptures for America, a group that espouses the racist "Christian Identity" theology that insist that white Anglo-Saxons are the "true" chosen people of the Bible and charge that today's Jews are usurpers.”

People duped into watching Barton’s “American Heritage Series” can expect, according to Boston, “a compilation of quotes from historical figures discussing the importance of religion or morality to government wrenched from their historical context, and, of course, outright lies; like the one that James Madison is claiming that the future of the U.S. government is "staked upon...the Ten Commandments" that does not appear in the body of Madison's writings.” Or the biggest lie that Thomas Jefferson, who coined the metaphor "wall of separation between church and state,” went on to add that the "wall" was meant to be "one directional," protecting the church from the state but not the other way around. “

Boston also says Barton’s favorite tactic is to “cite obscure legal decisions from state and federal courts in the 19th century that failed to uphold separation of church and state. These magically become "proof" that the concept is mythical. Again, no context is given, and needless to say, the voluminous court decisions that reached the opposite conclusion are not mentioned.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational organization based in Washington, D.C. founded in 1947 dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans.

The Center for Media and Democracy publishes SourceWatch, a specialized encyclopedia of the corporate front groups, PR teams, "experts," industry-friendly groups, and think tanks trying to influence public opinion on behalf of corporations or government agencies for citizens and journalists looking for documented information.

Palin wins tough fight to be named ‘Misinformer of the Year’

In a year of stiff competition, former half-term Alaska Governor and current Faux “News” contributor Sarah Palin was chosen as “Misinformer of the Year” by the media watchdog group Media Matters.

The rightwing has had a great year misinforming, lying and spinning, and it culminated in the November elections, but Palin stood head and shoulders above the usual crowed. Past “winners” include Faux “news” madman Glenn Beck and Faux “News” hatemonger Sean Hannity.

“This year, Palin stood out for her sheer ability to dominate our national conversation and draw the attention of the entire news media to her factually challenged claims and vicious attacks. She has blurred the line completely between media figure and political activist.”

“From spreading lies about "death panels" to cropping Obama's comments about "American exceptionalism," from her comfortable perch at Fox News to her self-promoting books and reality show, Palin has truly broken new ground in misinformation.”

To show how her misinformation has taken hold, just last night I got into a “debate” with a trio of vicious right-wingers on Facebook where “death panels” and health care rationing was claimed.

Last month the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that new evidence suggests the risks outweigh the benefits of Avastin for treating metastatic breast cancer, and the FDA has now begun the process of withdrawal of the popular advanced breast cancer treatment.

One right-winger used that as proof of death panels and rationing. But that’s not surprising, based on a recent study by scholars at the University of Maryland. They conducted a survey on the impact of the news business on good citizenship, and they found that viewers of Faux “news” were the most misinformed. Right-wingers prove that every day.

One reason they are so misinformed may be how Faux spins the news, and in fact they just got caught at it. Earlier this month the Fox News Washington managing editor was caught trying to slant the news in emails to staffers. It just happens it was two subjects right-wingers are the most misinformed on, health care and climate change.

Jewish leaders call Beck out on his false attack on George Soros

To quote a famous song from Sesame Street: “Three of these things belong together,” and the three things are unhinged, Glenn Beck and George Soros.

Anytime the name of the self-made billionaire and Soros is mentioned the right becomes unhinges, and Faux “news” madman Glenn Beck is unhinged.

With so few liberal billionaires around to attack, unlike the vast number of rightwing billionaires who are politically active, Soros is an easy target for the right. The name of Soros has reached the level of taking point to the right, and anything they want to discredit to their base they just add the words, “Soros-funded,” in front of anything.

Soros is a self-made man, something Republicans claim they admire, but in addition to his humanitarian giving, that includes helping end apartheid in South Africa by giving money for scholarships to black students there and helping end Communism by funding dissident movements behind the iron curtain, he also gives to Democrats.

That is his crime, or perhaps they hate him because he, unlike most GOP millionaires and billionaires, did not inherit his wealth.

But Beck went after Soros again this week with an hour-long smearfest against Soros with the ridiculous claim that he has somehow conspired with Democrats, progressives and the Obama administration to demolish the U.S. economy.

Media Matters, which finally received $1 million from Soros after the right falsely claimed he funded them for years, does another great job of debunking Beck’s lies. But the right will attack and try to discredit them because of the first and only contribution from Soros. It’s a good thing Media Matters lists its sources.

But the Jewish community reacted negatively to Beck’s over the top and false attacks and trivialization of the Holocaust to attack Soros.

Beck claims that as a child in Nazi-occupied Hungary, Soros survived by living with a non-Jewish family, “used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff.” He claimed Soros never had any remorse even ad an adult.

In an article in the Nov. 11 of the “Jewish Week,” Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman called Beck out on his rant, saying, “it was totally over the top.” Foxman is also a child survivor who lived only because his parents turned him over to his Catholic nanny. He said the issue of the Holocaust “is so sensitive that I'm not even sure Holocaust survivors themselves are willing to make such judgments.”

“For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say, there's a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, that's horrific,” Foxman said in the Jewish Week. “It's totally off limits and over the top.”

Even more Jewish leaders called Beck out.

Elan Steinberg, vice president of The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, called the Beck accusations “monstrous; you don't make such accusations without proof, and I have seen no such proof.” Beck's charges, he said, “go to the heart of the instrumentalization and trivialization of the Holocaust."

Even non-Jewish religious leaders called Beck out.

Interfaith Alliance President Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy said Beck's “use of the Holocaust to discredit George Soros is beyond repugnant. The Holocaust is one of history’s most tragic events and those who survived it are owed our enduring respect.”

Democratic candidates are ready to keep us moving out of the Bush recession ditch

DETROIT- It was a great weekend at the Michigan Democratic Party Convention this weekend, and the party faithful left energized and ready to elect the people that will help the state and country continue the move forward out of the Bush ditch.

Like at all conventions, all of the various constituency caucuses heard from the candidates, and there were so many great quotes and speeches that I eventually put my notebook down and just cheered with everybody else. We heard from many of the candidates at the Environmental and Energy Caucus, like Natalie Mosher, running in the 11th District against “Mad” Thad McCotter. He only won with 51 percent of the vote in 2008, but he outspent his opponent 33-1.

“My opponent, Thad McCotter, has an absolutely abysmal record on the environment,” she said.

Saturday also marked the anniversary Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic Washington, D.C. speech of August 28, 1963 that became famous as his "I have a dream speech." Many, myself included, took part in the massive commemorate march to celebrate the historic Walk to Freedom March that took place in Detroit in 1963 and to advocate for a number of progressive causes, like jobs, health care and worker’s dignity. Dr. Fred Johnson, a former Marine Corps office and candidate for the 2nd Congressional District, took offense at Glen Beck’s teabagger rally on that day.

“We have Glenn Beck in Washington, D.C. thumbing his nose, basically, at Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream speech’,” he said. “They have lies and fear; we have ideas and hope.”

Since it was the energy caucus, one man had a good theory on why Michigan is always the first state to feel a recession and the last to come out of it. He said in 2000 gas was $1.39 a gallon and 13.5 million domestic autos were sold. In 2008 gas was $4 a gallon and only 9.5 million cars were sold. Michigan imports 100 percent of its oil and coal and a majority of the natural gas.

In the Michigan Legislature, former State Rep. Kathleen Law, D-Gibraltar, is running a very active campaign for the Senate in the 7th District against a teabagger.

“It’s a big district, but I’m ready,” Law said. “We bought out all of the stamps at the Rockwood Post office; it’s a small post office, but I’m still proud of that.”

Like most teabggers, her opponent has some extreme views that are out of the mainstream, such as ending Medicare and Social Security.

“I don’t know what’s more frightening,” Law said. “That he wants to end those popular programs, or that he doesn’t know the Michigan Senate does not vote on it.”

Pam Jackson is also running for the Senate in the 15th District, and she is running against a candidate who also has some extreme ideas that will stall the hard fought gains Michigan has gained in recent months.

“We have to take back the Senate; his idea is he wants no tax incentives for new business,” Jackson said. “That would mean that the Ford Wixom plant would not be converted to a new use.”

Sen. Deb Cherry, D-Burton, who is term-limited, knows first hand how much good policy the Senate Republicans block, and even though she can’t run for reelection, she felt it was important to speak because the environment is so important.

“If we want to protect the Great lakes and make sure there is no drilling, we need to elect Democrats,” she said.

Amen.

Glenn Beck is his own favorite charity

While people all over the country are celebrating Christmas today with family in numerous and unique ways, one timeless way to make the day has been through giving: giving to family and friends and those in need. Somebody should tell that to rightwing wacko Glenn Beck.

Beck is begging people on his web site to give to him instead of their favorite charity so he can buy a new Mercedes. He is urging everyone in the household to send $1 to “Glenn Beck's New Car Fund.” Can this guy be anymore classless? Probably.

From his web site: “While Glenn Beck has meet (sic) with former Presidents, had dinners with Governors and played with dolls at a Super Bowl party - there is one thing he's never done, he's never been the owner of a Mercedes S600. Now is your chance to real make a difference in someone's life.”

Make a difference in someone's life? Unbelievable. You would think he might support the American worker and the country and beg for a domestic car, like the Cadillac CTS, bit not Beck.

The request was put up some time ago, so I don’t know if he raised enough money to actually buy the car. However, Pay Pal is still accepting donations.

Since 2003 he can afford to buy the car himself. It’s estimated he makes $23 million a year; at least before advertisers began deserting him like rats from a sinking ship after his racist remarks directed at President Obama.

Deranged Beck named 2009 Misinformer of the Year

In perhaps the easier pick in years, Faux “news” madman Glenn Beck was named Media Matters' 2009 Misinformer of the Year.

Media Matters always has a lot to choose from in picking its annual award - just from the Faux line up alone - from cable news to right-wing radio, from online publications to major newspapers. But, the former Morning Zoo shock jock's unique brand of vitriol, stage theatrics, and hyperbolic fright, make him an easy choice for Media Matters’ 2009 Misinformer of the Year.

When he wasn’t crying, going off on demented rants telling people to get off his phone or whipping up the corporate-funded tea-baggers he was calling the President of the United States a racist, saying he was a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred of white people.”

I would say the guy needs a straightjacket, but the reality is he may just have hit on the rightwing formula for success: say the most outrageous, false smears against any non-extremist tea bagger, and you can rake in the millions and be assured of success. It has worked well for the likes of Hanity, Coulter, O’Reily and Limbaugh.

Media Matters dug deep through the more than 3,500 detailed research items they released this year to select Beck as the annual "Misinformer of the Year.” He joins other past winners Bill O'Reilly, Chris Matthews, ABC, and Sean Hannity

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. They have earned the wrath of the likes of O’Reily for daring to smear him by putting the actual unedited, video of him up smearing himself.

Protest planned against rightwing whacko Beck

Rightwing whacko Glenn Beck will be the keynote speaker at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday Sept. 15 at the Kellogg Center on the campus at Michigan State University, 55 South Harrison in East Lansing, and the MSU College Democrats are sponsoring a protest of his appearance.

Faux “news” host Beck is becoming more and more unhinged, and he made the ridiculous claim that President Obama has “a deep-seated hatred for white people.” That means he hates his mother and his maternal grandparents who helped raise him. The good news is people are starting to see through him, and to date some 50 advertisers have chosen not to advertise on Beck’s show.

But that didn’t stop the chamber from paying Beck $25,000 to spew his hatred.

Beck is cut out of the same cloth as hatemonger Ann Coulter, but only worse. He has been one of the prime promoters of the fake, Astroturf “tea parties.” His heated anti-government rhetoric has already led to violence, and it reminds of the mid-1990s when the same anti-government rhetoric led to the worst case of domestic terrorism.

It’s not by accident that the Michigan Militia has made a resurgence, and all you need to do is exchange Obama for Clinton and it‘s 1995. But it’s even uglier, and we have white supremacists groups in the mix now. The Michigan Militia went underground after August 10, 1995 with the indictment of Timothy McVeigh for the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. But they are back, and Beck is a major reason.

If you choose not to attend the protest or are unable to make it, remember this when the chamber endorses Republicans candidates next year, Is this is the kind of racist, rhetoric the chamber supports?

Tell Beck to get off of your phone.