For far too long, progressives have been known for not punching back. That has changed. And of course the right wing is whining, bullies and cowards that they are. But the point is, progressives are fighting back. Oh hell, are they fighting back. Last night’s DNC was a thing of beauty to watch. All these strong people standing up, unafraid to take on every issue that the right has tried to drag through the mud. The military, the working class, education, immigration, women’s rights, LGBT rights, and on and on. Absolutely fearless.
• Deval Patrick: My message is this — it is time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe. Quit waiting for pundits or polls or Super PACs to tell us who the next President or senator or congressman will be. We are Americans. We shape our own future.
• Kal Penn at the DNC: You don’t even have to put pants on.
• Obama and Kal Penn ad
Other Speakers
• Stacy Lihn on Her Daughter Zoe and Why She Supports Obamacare
• “Mitt Romney has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport,” charged former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland in his fiery speech Tuesday night. “It summers on the beaches of the Cayman Islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My friends, any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America. And it’s well past time for Mitt Romney to come clean with the American people.”
• CNN caught up with outgoing Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): George Bush came to us on the Democratic side in late ’08 and said, we’re in a crisis, we need your help — and we gave it to him, very openly, very fully. Then Obama comes in to try to deal with the terrible situation he inherited from bush and the republican media went into full partisan attack.
• 2012 Democratic National Convention: Jeff Bridges and the Abiders perform on the main stage at the Carolina Fest street fair before rain cut the concert short, on the eve of the convention.
• Coincidence? I don’t think so: Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has no public schedule for Wednesday, his schedule indicates. No Convention Bounce for Romney. Early indications are that the Republican National Convention was mostly a dud and did almost nothing to change the state of the Presidential Race.
• The right wing whines that the DNC platform doesn’t talk about god – forgets that the Constitution doesn’t either. The United States Constitution — the foundation of our government, the basis for our laws, and a model for democracies around the globe for generations — includes no references to God. Literally, not one. If the Constitution doesn’t mention God, I think the political world can probably keep its apoplexy in check over the Democratic platform. Unless Republicans and news organizations are going to start condemning the Constitution, too, demanding an explanation for its secular nature, let’s relax a bit.
More Right Wingers Behaving Badly:
• Mitt Romney’s Tax Loopholes
• Said nobody, ever: “New Morning” anti-gay ad by Gary Bauer. I can’t imagine real people having this conversation, and I kinda feel sorry for people that do.
• The Covenant Christian Academy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania fires teacher Sharon Wright after her son (attending the school) comes out as gay. He was suspended and not allowed to return. She was told “your son is broken, and it’s your job to fix him” and that this was a “battle for his soul.” Charming people.
• During an appearance on CNN’s Starting Point on Tuesday, Tea Party Express Chairwoman Amy Kremer refused to condemn the deficit increase that would result from Mitt Romney’s proposed tax cuts, suggesting that the group is more concerned about acting as a surrogate for the Republican candidate than promoting fiscal responsibility.
• Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND), the candidate for Senate from North Dakota, once voted for a bill that would have made any woman who obtained an abortion guilty of a homicide crime — even if it were in the case of rape or incest. Indeed, the bill Berg supported does not even contain an explicit exception if an abortion is necessary to save the woman’s life.
• Jon Husted, Republican Secretary of State in Ohio, is refusing to change his restrictive early voting schedule even after a federal court restored in-person early voting to all Ohioans during the three day period before the general election.
International:
• MONTREAL — A gunman was arrested after shooting two people, one of them fatally, at the victory speech of Quebec’s Pauline Marois, whose separatist party is projected to win polls in the Canadian province. Another person was seriously wounded in the incident late Tuesday, as Marois was hustled offstage by bodyguards. She later returned to the podium, visibly shaken but unharmed, and quickly concluded her remarks.
• World’s most awful women gets worse: The world’s most wealthy woman is warning that firms are in danger of having to abandon iron-ore mining in Australia if wages are not cut, pointing out that African miners are “willing to work for less than $2 per day.” In a video recently posted on the Sydney Mining Club website, 58-year-old Gina Rinehart — who has amassed a $18 billion fortune through iron-ore prospecting — said that Australia could be more competitive by emulating Africa.
• Military officials from Russia are moving to prevent anthrax from spreading to a Russian air base in Kyrgyzstan after an outbreak occurred nearby. Military officials from Russia’s Central Military District said that one of the outbreaks occurred within 20 kilometers of the country’s Kant Air Base in the Chui region of Kyrgyzstan. All military buildings, including officer and family apartments, have been disinfected. Food supply safety checks have also increased, Itar-Tass reports. Last week, Kyrgyzstan health officials announced that multiple anthrax cases were confirmed in the northern region of Chui and the southern regions of Jalal-abad and Batken. Officials said that at least nine people may be infected with anthrax.
F.D.Brightly
Fearless
Shorter Question Everything
For far too long, progressives have been known for not punching back. That has changed. And of course the right wing is whining, bullies and cowards that they are. But the point is, progressives are fighting back. Oh hell, are they fighting back. Last night’s DNC was a thing of beauty to watch. All these strong people standing up, unafraid to take on every issue that the right has tried to drag through the mud. The military, the working class, education, immigration, women’s rights, LGBT rights, and on and on. Absolutely fearless.
DNC:
• Watch DNC Live
Deval Patrick
• Gov. Deval Patrick: This Is ‘Election of a Lifetime’
• Deval Patrick: Mitt in Mass. was ‘more interested in having the job than doing it’
• Deval Patrick: My message is this — it is time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe. Quit waiting for pundits or polls or Super PACs to tell us who the next President or senator or congressman will be. We are Americans. We shape our own future.
• Deval Patrick’s speech
Julian Castro
• San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro: ‘Opportunity Today, Prosperity Tomorrow.’
• Julian Castro’s Speech
Michelle Obama
• First Lady Michelle Obama’s Remarks at the 2012 Democratic National Convention
• Michelle Obama: “I have seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are – it reveals who you are.”
• Michelle Obama’s speech
Kal Penn
• Kal Penn at the DNC: You don’t even have to put pants on.
• Obama and Kal Penn ad
Other Speakers
• Stacy Lihn on Her Daughter Zoe and Why She Supports Obamacare
• “Mitt Romney has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport,” charged former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland in his fiery speech Tuesday night. “It summers on the beaches of the Cayman Islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My friends, any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America. And it’s well past time for Mitt Romney to come clean with the American people.”
• CNN caught up with outgoing Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): George Bush came to us on the Democratic side in late ’08 and said, we’re in a crisis, we need your help — and we gave it to him, very openly, very fully. Then Obama comes in to try to deal with the terrible situation he inherited from bush and the republican media went into full partisan attack.
• 2012 Democratic National Convention: Jeff Bridges and the Abiders perform on the main stage at the Carolina Fest street fair before rain cut the concert short, on the eve of the convention.
Right Wing Pity Party:
• Right wing specializes in whining: RNC Chair Reince Priebus, known of late for his racist attacks on President Obama, tweeted about the video in anger: The video prompted Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to tweet: “Classless Dems use tribute video of deceased Ted Kennedy to attack Mitt Romney.” Right. Because the guy who planned on using a hologram of deceased Ronald Reagan at last week’s Republican Covention would know anything about class.
• Coincidence? I don’t think so: Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has no public schedule for Wednesday, his schedule indicates. No Convention Bounce for Romney. Early indications are that the Republican National Convention was mostly a dud and did almost nothing to change the state of the Presidential Race.
• CNN contributor, and right wing blogger, Erick Erickson is finding himself in some hot water after his tweet about tonight’s Democratic Convention speakers, many of whom were women: “First night of the Vagina Monologues in Charlotte going as expected.“
• The right wing whines that the DNC platform doesn’t talk about god – forgets that the Constitution doesn’t either. The United States Constitution — the foundation of our government, the basis for our laws, and a model for democracies around the globe for generations — includes no references to God. Literally, not one. If the Constitution doesn’t mention God, I think the political world can probably keep its apoplexy in check over the Democratic platform. Unless Republicans and news organizations are going to start condemning the Constitution, too, demanding an explanation for its secular nature, let’s relax a bit.
More Right Wingers Behaving Badly:
• Mitt Romney’s Tax Loopholes
• Said nobody, ever: “New Morning” anti-gay ad by Gary Bauer. I can’t imagine real people having this conversation, and I kinda feel sorry for people that do.
• The Covenant Christian Academy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania fires teacher Sharon Wright after her son (attending the school) comes out as gay. He was suspended and not allowed to return. She was told “your son is broken, and it’s your job to fix him” and that this was a “battle for his soul.” Charming people.
• During an appearance on CNN’s Starting Point on Tuesday, Tea Party Express Chairwoman Amy Kremer refused to condemn the deficit increase that would result from Mitt Romney’s proposed tax cuts, suggesting that the group is more concerned about acting as a surrogate for the Republican candidate than promoting fiscal responsibility.
• Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND), the candidate for Senate from North Dakota, once voted for a bill that would have made any woman who obtained an abortion guilty of a homicide crime — even if it were in the case of rape or incest. Indeed, the bill Berg supported does not even contain an explicit exception if an abortion is necessary to save the woman’s life.
• Jon Husted, Republican Secretary of State in Ohio, is refusing to change his restrictive early voting schedule even after a federal court restored in-person early voting to all Ohioans during the three day period before the general election.
International:
• MONTREAL — A gunman was arrested after shooting two people, one of them fatally, at the victory speech of Quebec’s Pauline Marois, whose separatist party is projected to win polls in the Canadian province. Another person was seriously wounded in the incident late Tuesday, as Marois was hustled offstage by bodyguards. She later returned to the podium, visibly shaken but unharmed, and quickly concluded her remarks.
• World’s most awful women gets worse: The world’s most wealthy woman is warning that firms are in danger of having to abandon iron-ore mining in Australia if wages are not cut, pointing out that African miners are “willing to work for less than $2 per day.” In a video recently posted on the Sydney Mining Club website, 58-year-old Gina Rinehart — who has amassed a $18 billion fortune through iron-ore prospecting — said that Australia could be more competitive by emulating Africa.
• Military officials from Russia are moving to prevent anthrax from spreading to a Russian air base in Kyrgyzstan after an outbreak occurred nearby. Military officials from Russia’s Central Military District said that one of the outbreaks occurred within 20 kilometers of the country’s Kant Air Base in the Chui region of Kyrgyzstan. All military buildings, including officer and family apartments, have been disinfected. Food supply safety checks have also increased, Itar-Tass reports. Last week, Kyrgyzstan health officials announced that multiple anthrax cases were confirmed in the northern region of Chui and the southern regions of Jalal-abad and Batken. Officials said that at least nine people may be infected with anthrax.