Ideology Over Results, A Liberal Tradition

[3rdnlng]

Debbie Wasserman Schultz: ‘Senseless’ and ‘Wrong’ to Punish Men Who Slip Women Abortion Pills

 

Did you catch the story about those conservative Republican male chauvinist pig politicians in Florida who think that it was a waste of time to pass a bill which would make it a crime for a guy to secretly administer an abortion-inducing drug to a spouse or partner he impregnated?

 

How utterly outrageous ... Wait a minute ... It was Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz who said that? C'mon, that's not possible. What? There's audio of her saying that on a Florida public radio station? Get outta here. If that were true, the press would be printing and broadcasting stories on her outrageous statement 24/7 ... wouldn't they?

 

 

Well, no. The audio of Wasserman Schultz can be found here at WFSU in Tallahassee. Excerpts from the related report by Sascha Kordner follow at the link

 

 

“Instead, Florida Republican lawmakers have wasted taxpayers time and money by passing these extreme bills that further limit women’s reproductive rights. It is senseless and it’s wrong,” said Wasserman Schultz.

 

Here is the "logic" to which Wasserman Schultz has apparently signed on:

 

Critics argued that the bill would confer “personhood” on all unborn babies, from the moment of conception, perhaps leading to a ban on abortions and many forms of birth control.

 

 

In other words, "We can't allow anything to happen which could in any conceivable way recognize the a pre-born baby's humanity, even if it means that fathers or others can get away with killing an unborn child the mother has chosen to carry to term."

 

So much for the term "pro-choice." Thomas Lifson at American Thinker money line: "The mind boggles at this war on women."

 

Indeed.

 

 

 

 

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/#ixzz31tZiDfa2

 

 

 

I'm outraged. This should have its own thread.

[B-Man]

Here We Go Again: WH Says They First Heard of VA Failures Through News Reports

 

The White House says that it first heard about the waiting-list scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs like much of the rest of the American public: from television news reports.

 

During Monday’s daily press briefing, press secretary Jay Carney told CNN’s Jim Acosta that the president and his staff were first made aware of the scandal through his network’s coverage of the matter.

 

The White House has said similar things regarding other controversies involving the administration, including the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS and the Department of Justice’s monitoring of reporters.

 

“I believe we learned about [the deaths on VA waiting lists] through the reports,” Carney said Monday. “I’ll double-check if that’s not the case, but that’s when we learned about them.”

[DC Tom]

Here We Go Again: WH Says They First Heard of VA Failures Through News Reports

 

The White House says that it first heard about the waiting-list scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs like much of the rest of the American public: from television news reports.

 

During Monday’s daily press briefing, press secretary Jay Carney told CNN’s Jim Acosta that the president and his staff were first made aware of the scandal through his network’s coverage of the matter.

 

The White House has said similar things regarding other controversies involving the administration, including the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS and the Department of Justice’s monitoring of reporters.

 

“I believe we learned about [the deaths on VA waiting lists] through the reports,” Carney said Monday. “I’ll double-check if that’s not the case, but that’s when we learned about them.”

 

That actually doesn't surprise me this time around. This really does look like the work of a single office, not the whole VA, and not something that would necessarily cross the President's desk.

[TakeYouToTasker]

That actually doesn't surprise me this time around. This really does look like the work of a single office, not the whole VA, and not something that would necessarily cross the President's desk.

Especially from an Executive which is reportedly openly disdainful about bad news crossing it's desk. This, combined with incentive bonuses for reporting shorter wait times, and better outcomes, appears to have created a culture in which accountability is devalued, falsification is required, and a "don't report poor results upwards" policy is established.

Edited May 19, 2014 by TakeYouToTasker

[Tiberius]

 

Especially from an Executive which is reportedly openly disdainful about bad news crossing it's desk. This, combined with incentive bonuses for reporting shorter wait times, and better outcomes, appears to have created a culture in which accountability is devalued, falsification is required, and a "don't report poor results upwards" policy is established.

 

What are they doing? I'd like to see that, got a link?

[3rdnlng]

Google "VA scandals" and learn about them.

[B-Man]

RULES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE:

 

Judge Rules Conyers Can Be on Primary Ballot Despite Not Meeting Signature Requirements.

 

 

please note: “In 2012, Michigan Republican representative Thad McCotter was kept off of the ballot because of invalid signatures.”

 

 

 

 

 

also:

Harry Reid Bows Down To Trial Lawyers And Big Pharma In Killing Patent Reform.

[DC Tom]

RULES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE:

 

Judge Rules Conyers Can Be on Primary Ballot Despite Not Meeting Signature Requirements.

 

 

please note: “In 2012, Michigan Republican representative Thad McCotter was kept off of the ballot because of invalid signatures.”

 

 

Signatures discriminate against minorities who are more likely to be functionally illiterate for lack of educational opportunities.

[B-Man]

New York City Council Asks Walmart to Stop Donating to NYC Charities

 

Twenty-six of the 51 members of the New York City Council have written a letter to Walmart and the Walton Family Foundation demanding that the company stop making donations to New York City charities. “Stop sending your dangerous dollars in our city,” the letter orders. “Your toxic money is being rejected by New York City today.”

 

Walmart donated $3 million to charities in the city last year, it announced last week. These donations go to groups like the New York Women’s Foundation (which received $1 million) and Bailey House, an organization that brings groceries to low-income city residents.

 

The city-council members see these donations as a scheme to gain entry into the city’s market, from which it has been blocked by union opposition. “We know how desperate you are to find a foothold in New York City to buy influence and support here,” the members write.

 

more at link:

[B-Man]

Obama and Hillary: pioneers of post-achievement politics

American Thinker, by Thomas Lifson

 

Original Article

 

Daniel Greenfield has put his finger on an important strategic dimension of politics today, as exemplified by the careers of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Both have accomplished little in their jobs, and have created serious problems, yet both enjoy continuing enthusiastic support from a large core group. Greenfield calls it “post-achievement politics,” and he is correct.

 

Obama and Hillary don't just suffer from a shortage of accomplishments. They're also burdened with a surplus of failures. Benghazi worries so many Hillary supporters because there is nothing to balance it against. There is no, "But look at all the good she did." Hillary didn't do any good. She didn't do much of anything except tour countries and pose for photos.

 

As a Secretary of State she made a perfectly adequate First Lady.

 

Obama talks the teleprompter talk, but when you look at the results they're universally awful. Whether it's the things that he only pretends to care about, like the VA, or the things he does care about, like Obamacare, after the splashy ribbon cutting ceremony comes the disastrous mess.

 

Like every other summer blockbuster, it's great marketing for a terrible product. And just like the summer blockbuster, Obama's actual policies are treated as disposables to be forgotten about. Scandal management consists of Obama making a serious face and promising to take this serious problem very seriously before heading out for a round of serious golfing.

 

Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the VA; he is just as angry about it as you are. All he's really doing though is matching your emotional tone to dampen your response. It's something that everyone from call center operators to customer support executives dealing with angry clients are taught to do. It means as little from Obama as it does from Kathy in Des Moines saying, "I understand you're angry."

 

(snip)

 

Millions of voters will see it that way. And if you don't, it's probably because you're old-fashioned enough to believe in accomplishment.

 

More at the link

 

 

Unfortunately, perhaps, Republicans and other opponents of progressive politics are left with the role of being the grown-ups in the room, the ones who point out the unpleasant realities. That doesn’t win a lot of good feeling from an electorate increasingly comprised of adolescent-minded voters who pull the lever for the candidate they have a good feeling about.

 

But to paraphrase a bumper sticker the left flaunted a couple of decades ago, reality bats last. Some unpleasant manure is heading for the fan in the domestic economy and overseas, where all the power-mad tyrants and tyrannical regimes see that they have a but more than 2 years to let their ambitions run free secure in the knowledge that Obama’s red lines mean nothing.

 

I hate to count on bad news as the oath to political victory, for it hands the other side an easy talking point: that we are “rooting for” failure. And nobody likes Cassandras. On the other hand, Obama is just about the worst crisis manager ever, and he is setting us up for more crises ahead.

In a contest between the party of illusion and the party for reality, reality does bat last.

 

 

.

[OCinBuffalo]

More at the link

 

 

Unfortunately, perhaps, Republicans and other opponents of progressive politics are left with the role of being the grown-ups in the room, the ones who point out the unpleasant realities. That doesn’t win a lot of good feeling from an electorate increasingly comprised of adolescent-minded voters who pull the lever for the candidate they have a good feeling about.

 

But to paraphrase a bumper sticker the left flaunted a couple of decades ago, reality bats last. Some unpleasant manure is heading for the fan in the domestic economy and overseas, where all the power-mad tyrants and tyrannical regimes see that they have a but more than 2 years to let their ambitions run free secure in the knowledge that Obama’s red lines mean nothing.

 

I hate to count on bad news as the oath to political victory, for it hands the other side an easy talking point: that we are “rooting for” failure. And nobody likes Cassandras. On the other hand, Obama is just about the worst crisis manager ever, and he is setting us up for more crises ahead.

In a contest between the party of illusion and the party for reality, reality does bat last.

 

 

.

Not for nothing? Douchy article.

 

Sorry, but I hate the "blame the voter" mentality on display here almost as much as I hate the "blame the customer" mentality.

 

Any politician, especially an R one, is a fool if he subscribes to the mentality above. Why especially an R? If they are smart, the Rs can be the "party of competence". They can turn this whole thing on its ear.

 

Can Greenfield honestly say that Rs have put forward a kick ass, "party of competence product" in John McCain, and Mitt Romney? Can they say they've supported that product with excellent services? Well, they can say that they stopped the Obama bleeding. That's important, and that's not nothing to independents, who've seen the bleeding clearly(every poll says so).

 

However, whoever is up in 2016....needs ideas. If you're actually going to be the "grown up in the room"? You don't say it. If it is true, you don't need to say it. Real grown ups: lead, and have no time/tolerance for identifying who is a grown up and who isn't, because they spend all of their time on the work in front of us.

 

No "speechifying". We already have a speaker-in-chief who apparently finds out about his organization's problems from the media, and not his managers.

 

What Rs need is better ideas, and then, the courage to go out and win with them. Frankly, that's precisely what Chris Christie and Scott Walker did. There's that word again: courage. Christie/Walker had a ton of courage to take the approaches they did. Courage begins with self-control. Self-control is not saying: "47% of Americans"....are essentially losers, or, calling people "adolescent-minded".

 

That's for us, here, at PPP. A presidential candidate shouldn't be looking to win PPP. That's precisely what Obama's been trying to do.

 

IF voters are "idiots" ? That's an opportunity, not a threat. "Adolescent minds" have a tendency to oversimplify, because they have knowledge, but little experience. Good. Then, Rs should say: "It's simple. We are the Party of Competence. The Democrats are the party of something else. We come from business, and therefore, we are about results. The Democrats are the party of something else, largely having to do with not knowing very much about any industry, but then declaring themselves fit to tell it how to operate."

[B-Man]

AFSCME: Yes, we will waste young black minds to attack Koch Brothers

 

One of the most powerful political and financial supporters of progressive politics and Barack Obama’s campaigns over the last decade has been the public sector union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

 

On Thursday, AFSCME made a remarkable announcement — that it would will end its support for the United Negro College Fund after the group accepted $25 million from the conservative Koch Brothers.

 

In June, Charles and David Koch made a big $25 million donation to the College Fund (UNCF). The UNCF is the largest provider of scholarships to black college students in the U.S. and also supports historically black colleges and universities. The $25 million donation is one of the highest donations ever received by the UNCF.

In a letter made public Thursday, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said it will no longer partner with or raise funds for the fund, known for its iconic motto, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

 

AFSCME President Lee Saunders said the actions of the college fund’s president “are not only deeply hostile to the rights and dignity of public employees, but also a profound betrayal of the ideals of the civil rights movement.”

 

more at the links

[Koko78]

AFSCME: Yes, we will waste young black minds to attack Koch Brothers

 

One of the most powerful political and financial supporters of progressive politics and Barack Obama’s campaigns over the last decade has been the public sector union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

 

On Thursday, AFSCME made a remarkable announcement — that it would will end its support for the United Negro College Fund after the group accepted $25 million from the conservative Koch Brothers.

 

In June, Charles and David Koch made a big $25 million donation to the College Fund (UNCF). The UNCF is the largest provider of scholarships to black college students in the U.S. and also supports historically black colleges and universities. The $25 million donation is one of the highest donations ever received by the UNCF.

In a letter made public Thursday, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said it will no longer partner with or raise funds for the fund, known for its iconic motto, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

 

AFSCME President Lee Saunders said the actions of the college fund’s president “are not only deeply hostile to the rights and dignity of public employees, but also a profound betrayal of the ideals of the civil rights movement.”

 

more at the links

 

What a sad development. Unfortunately, those union dipshits likely think they're heroes "sticking it to the man" by refusing to send their paltry sum (in comparison to Mr. Koch's donation) to the UNCF every year.