Why are Democrats resorting wedge issues?

Liberals are always accusing Republicans of promoting divisiveness and campaigning on wedge issues. But this election cycle it is Democrats appear to be doing the dividing and fear mongering; two Sacramento area Democrats in particular.

Assemblyman Dave Jones who is a candidate for insurance commissioner and Dr. Richard Pan have chosen to inject the controversial issue of abortion into the heart of their campaigns. One has to wonder why they have chosen to focus on an issue that has consistently ranked outside the top five issues concerning voters, especially during these trying economic times.

In this campaign speech, Asm. Jones is talking about how he plans to use the office of insurance commissioner to fight for government funding of abortions, an item that was so controversial it was removed from the national health care bill.

Dr. Pan has purchased millions on TV, radio and mail to emphasize the fact that his opponent, Andy Pugno is pro-life. This commercial is just one small example of how Pan is attacking his opponent on the issue of abortion.

So, one has to wonder why these Democrats are so focused on such a divisive issue that voters seem less concerned about than job creation and the economy? I believe it’s because they know that they are on the wrong side of the issues that voters are truly concerned about.

Voters don’t want higher taxes. Both Jones and Pan support higher taxes on Californian’s. Voters want to see government spending reduced. Both Jones and Pan support increased government spending. Voters want to see stranglehold that public employees have on our elected officials ended. Meanwhile, both Jones and Pan are running campaigns that are largely funded by these very same unions.

Dave Jones and Richard Pan are hoping that voters won’t recognize the fact that their campaigns do not speak to the issues Californians are really concerned about. This is because democrats cannot win on the issues. They can only win by demonizing Republicans.

Democrat consultants know that were they to campaign on the Stimulus Bill, Obama Care or tax increases they would lose most swing voters and many of their supporters. So instead, they are focusing on wedge issues and demonization of Republicans. This just goes to show how desperate they really are.

Governor blames GOP Legislators for his failings. Asm Kevin Jeffries sets the record straight.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger chose to use his weekly Raido Address to take aim at four Republican legislators who did not support his legislation that proportedly contained pention reform. Specifically he said"

"Maybe these Republicans just simply sold out because they got campaign contributions from the state prison guard unions,"

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/18/3111520/gop-foes-kindle-governors-wrath.html#ixzz12jks6OIu


Here is Assebmlyan Jeffries offical statement regarding the Governor's Remarks:

"I have enjoyed working with the Governor, and appreciate that he has finally decided to stand and fight for something – anything - even something he abandoned and apologized for after losing in the 2005 special election, leaving those of us who supported him and his efforts out to hang and dry.  And despite the misrepresentations in his remarks, it was very impressive to see that he was actually able to name six Republicans currently serving in the Assembly.   He has been a very entertaining governor and I wish him well in his renewed acting career"

Assemblyman Jeffries did NOT speak against the bill or vote to block it, even though the Governor was reportedly threatening to come campaign against those who opposed him in their districts.  Reports on the floor were that the Governor caved to a last minute threat from another large union (bargaining unit) that was going to fight and kill the pension reform unless he agreed behind the scenes to exclude them (nearly 100,000 employees) from the reforms.

At that point, he reportedly caved and decided to remove them from the bill. Now he is throwing a temper tantrum because some of the legislators didn’t agree to his last minute half-baked reforms?!   Had the Legislature been allowed to examine and discuss the bills in their entirety before they were voted upon in the legislature (as Assemblyman Jeffries’ ACA 8 would have required), perhaps the discrepancies between public safety employees and other state workers could have been explained and he could have supported the legislation.  But while some reform may be necessary in police and fire pensions, he will not cut them until all the other state employees have had their pensions modified as well.

Jobs - or the lack of them - Continue to Haunt Urban America

Highlights of the Urban League August 2010 Employment Report:

The economy lost a net 54,000 jobs in August, as large numbers of temporary Census jobs (-114,000) continue to wind down. Private employment increased by a modest 67,000. The labor market need to grow by 150,000 - 175,000 jobs each month to hold the unemployment rate constant.

The unemployment rate edged up slightly to 9.6% in August as labor force participation remained relatively stable. The black unemployment rate increased to 16.3% (from 15.6%) as the participation rate increased to 62.2% (from 61.5%). The unemployment rate for black men increased slightly (from 16.7% to 17.3%), as did the rate for black women (from 12.9% to 13.2%). The unemployment rates for whites (from 8.6% to 8.7%) and Latinos (from 12.1% to 12.0%) showed little change in August. Rates of teen unemployment were 23.8% for whites (from 23.5%), 45.4% for African-Americans (from 40.6%) and 33% for Latinos (from 35%). The rate of underemployment (including the unemployed, marginally attached and those working part-time for economic reasons) also increased to 16.7% (from 16.5%).

The ranks of long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks or more) continue to dwindle gradually - now at 6.2 million (down from 6.6 million) or 42% of all unemployed (from 44.9%). However, many of these workers may be settling for part-time rather than full-time jobs - the increase in the number of people working part-time for economic reasons more than offsets the decline in the number of long-term unemployed.

Health care (+28,000), professional & business services (+20,000), construction (+19,000), and mining (+8,000) all displayed modest growth in August as other sectors, including state government (-14,000) and local education (-10,400) jobs were lost.

The August 2010 Employment report, along with other timely reports on unemployment insurance, how job creation reduces the deficit and NUL's 6-point Job Creation Plan are available at the new State of Urban Jobs page.

N-----, N-----, N-----! Dr. Laura Loses Her Damn Mind!

Wow... Dr. Laura is trippin! Her nine million listeners got an earful when the good "Dr" (a dubious distinction at best) decided to take one for the team and try to fight the "white people can say the N-word, too" battle all by herself. She lost - and she lost BIG!

But its not just that she failed miserably, she punked out. If your gonna take on that battle, stand up and fight for your right to be ignorant. Sure, you have the right to use the N-word, but apparently your advertisers will have something to say about it.

A quick re-cap: earlier this week Dr. Laura fielded a call from an African American Listener who was concerned about commments from the friends of her caucasian husband. When the caller expressed her concern about Dr. Laura's response, the good "Dr" said that "Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you here is nigger, nigger, nigger." And then she REPEATED IT, as if to make a point.

I get that Dr. Laura was attempting to score one for post-racial America by taking the power out of the N-word, she did it in very poor taste and with little logic to back her up. To say that two black people using it amongst themselves makes it okay, or that hearing it on HBO makes it okay, are non-starters. HBO is a subscription service, and consumers pay for it. A radio show on the open airwaves are NOT the place for waging that touchy culture war.

What's Good For the Goose is Good For the Gander

Pres. Obama as a Witch Doctor

I cannot be the only one who is tired of the left trying to characterize any criticism of President Obama (no matter how legitimate) as racism.

This morning I received the following mass distributed email castigating the right for our unfair/racist treatment of the first black President of the United States of America:

Arogance of Being President While Being Black

I don't think anyone was under some real illusion that the election of Barack Obama actually means the end of racism in America . I'm pretty sure that the president-elect knew it better than anyone. After all, he saw it every day, from the moment he announced his candidacy. To some degree, he saw it within his own party during the primaries. And he saw it in all ugliness during the general election. For half of this country, he was "That One". No matter how big and clear his victory was. No matter how smart he is. No matter how decent he is. No matter what a true patriot he is. No matter how optimistic and positive his vision for America was. All that didn't matter. Because at the end of the day, he was still black.

Pres. Bush as a Witch Doctor

I'm quite old. I remember, vaguely, where my parents were on November 22, 1963. I've seen so many presidents. Some were feared, some were hated, some were adored, some popular and some not. But all of them, without exception, were treated with the highest respect deserving the office of the president of the United States.

That is until a black man won the right to occupy this office. It's been 13 months now, and in the eyes of so many, Barack Obama is still that one. He is being disrespected and at the same time being held to the highest standard of any president I've ever seen – and not just by the Republican side! He has to perform three times better than any president in history, and even that may not be enough.

Pres. Obama Compared to a Monkey

For the media, he is many more times just "Obama" than "President Obama". They create scandals out of nothing issues. It took them at least 6 years to start giving Bush a small part of the shit he deserved. It took them 6 months to begin crap all over Obama because he's yet to fix the catastrophe that was left for him.

Pres. Bush Compared to a Monkey

They use condescending tones when they talk about him, and only mildly less condescending when they talk TO him. With anyone else, CNN wouldn't dare go to commercials every time the president speaks, like they did during that summit on Thursday. They wouldn't dare be counting how many minutes George Bush or Bill Clinton were talking. Chris Mathews wouldn't dare make an issue out of Ronald Regan calling members of congress by their first name, like he is not actually the president. They fully cooperate with the Right-Wing smear machine when it comes to president Obama's national security performance – even if almost every independent and military expert actually thinks that he's a terrific Commander-in-Chief. You'll never see them on TV, and virtually no one from the Left, in congress and outside, defend the president on this matter.

Pres. Obama as a Pimp

I don't care about the Far-Right. They're just crazy ignorant Neanderthals. It's the way the beltway and the mainstream treats this president that is shocking. On Thursday, almost every Republican had no trouble interrupting him in the middle of a sentence. They looked like they're going to vomit every time they had to say "Mr. president". They all had this Eric-Cantor-Smirk whenever he spoke. Then they went out and started to spit their stupid talking points, to the delight of the media. Sarah Palin, a woman who can hardly read, thinks that he was "arrogant" towards John McCain, and somehow this is an important news. Because you see, "Obama's Arrogance" is the talking point of the day.

Pres. Bush as a Pimp

Oh, those talking points. He is arrogant (because he knows the facts better than all of them combined). He is an elitist (because he uses big words that they don't understand). He is weak on national security (because he actually thinks about the consequences). He divides the country (well, he did that the day he had the audacity to win the election). Worst of all, he actually thinks that he's the president. He even dared to say so on Thursday. How arrogant of him. You'd think that previous presidents didn't have any ego. Somehow it turned out that the one president who treats even his biggest opponents with the utmost respect – is the arrogant one. I wonder why?

Pres. Obama as a Muslim

I expected that his winning the Presidency would bring out some ugliness, but it's been far worse than I imagined. The racism coming from the Right is obviously clear and shameless, but there's also some hidden and maybe subconscious and disturbing underline tone behind some of the things that I read here and throughout the Left blogosphere, even before the end of Obama's first year - 'He's weak, he's spineless, he's got no balls, primary him in 2012'. It'll be dishonest to deny that.

The fact is that for millions in America , Barack Obama is this uppity black man (Not even a "real" black), who received good education only due to affirmative action, and has no right to litter the sacred Oval Office with his skin color. They just can't accept the fact that the president is a black man, who unlike his predecessor, was actually legally elected. But what's really sad is that it's not just the fringe, its deep deep in mainstream America.

Barack Obama's ability to remain above all this slob, to keep his optimism and his strange and mostly unjustified faith in people, while continuing to gracefully deal with an endless shitstorm – is one of the most inspiring displays of human quality I have ever seen. And I can only hope that the Cosmos is on his side because God is and He never makes a mistake.

Pres. Bush as a Muslim

Well here was my reponse...

I’m sorry… This email is a bunch of crap!

President Barak Obama has been subjected to no more criticism than his predecessors President George Bush or President Bill Clinton.

The left compared President Bush to Hitler, Bull Connor and even likened his re-election to dragging a black man to his death. Many of the caricatures of President Obama that the left complain about are nothing more than remakes of those the left created to mock President Bush. You know… a Nazi, a terrorist and even a witch doctor. And the right didn’t treat President Clinton any better. Heck…. They impeached the guy!!!

Pres. Obama as The Joker

The truth is that over the top criticism of political figures (including the president) has been a practice dating back to our nation’s founding. And the advent of new communication and media tools have only added to it’s escalation. I’m not saying that it is a good thing or that it hasn’t gone too far. But please stop acting like this is something new created just to undermine the first black president.

Furthermore, it appears that it’s not only the over the top caricatures that offends the left, but any criticism no matter how legitimate. The man has tripled the national deficit to $1.5 trillion. Unemployment continues to rise, despite his promises. He bows down to our enemies, while at the same time slapping our allies in the face. Why do you think his approval ratings are sinking like a rock? And that is not just with those on the right who voted for him. Independents who supported him overwhelmingly are now against him two to one!

Pres. Bush as The Joker

President Barak Obama is not being criticized because he is black. He is being criticized because he is doing a poor job.

But ask your self this… Are defending him because he is black? Did you come to the defense of President Bush when he was treated the same exact way? I doubt it. Otherwise I would have received an email like this one in his defense.

It is hypocritical to ask that President Obama be treated fairly and then turn around and complain when he is treated like every other president before him.

As the saying goes, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”