Tag Archives: Tim Pawlenty

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weekend views &some News …


The weather is just as mad as what is going on politically No?

With a couple of days, left in February the countdown to March Madness and the NCAA championships begins by those devoted college bb fans. The crazy climate(changes) around the country are just as mad but the madness in Washington, DC and specifically on the floor of the Senate begins on Monday the last day of February.

Last year at this time, President Obama was in Philadelphia talking about what HCR will do for everyone what the exchanges will offer when implemented. Though if you listened to the Media garbage back then, we were supposed to believe that it is his last ditch effort to push, jam, ram and or dupe Senators to get HCR through; but contrary to what Republicans and or “the Media” says the debate on HCR took about a year. I don’t know about you but that hardly qualifies for ramming or rushing in my opinion. The biggest issue for me about HCR was that Congress did not listen to the people and of course, “the media” kept the public from hearing all of what HCR could you for us personally. Now, after a few months of media network staff shake-ups we find out that FOX was NOT the only station with a strategy to limit the information “We the People” received by the bigwigs like Murdoch and the Koch brothers. The fact is there were more people who wanted a Public Option back then but apparently little or no airplay. Finding out that the 24/7 news cycle is actually manipulated to the extent that it is should make us all give pause and question what we see or hear on the television machine.

Most of us agree that the television machine and cable stations should not be allowed to just give us what THEY want us to hear see and use to judge how those bills will not only affect us but how it might affect our voting, but if we take the November elections into account, it worked . The information coming out of the airwaves was deceptive back then when Congress was trying to pass legislation before the midterm elections and now that Congress is getting back to work next week we all need to push for better, more accurate ok demand the truth when reporting opposed to what most if not all are delivering to us currently. In addition, if being manipulated by those in the News biz industry wasn’t bad enough those guest spots are now such jokes because they seem sound and act scripted. I want the real news fair and balanced on all stations whether owned by right or center politically or on the extreme right.

It would be great if left of center, the Democratic Party in both chambers of Congress actually conceives some sort of plan and or strategy and start calling the bluffs of the Republican Tea Party. The fact is the public deserves to know what kinds of disgusting amendments the Republican Tea Party tries to attach to reasonably fair and balanced bills in order that no one could vote for them. I admit I have yet to understand why the House and Senate adjourn early or take breaks so often leaving the people’s business until the last minute. It worked during the lame duck session but you have to wonder if they are dedicated public servants or a bunch of politicians who have no plan and just avoiding the obvious for as long as they can blaming the President for his lack of leadership. The lack of leadership in Democratic Party in Congress worked for two years; seemingly distracted by their election campaigns. The lame duck session was constructive their lack of good strategy bit us back with tea party members being elected and some of them extreme with the so-called mainstream conservatives trying to keep up in order that they keep their seats in Congress and that worked too. I thought the tea party was bad and they are but they have also given a few negative blows to their Republican sub-group voting against them which was unexpected by Republican led leader of the House. There were promises made in that so called “Pledge to America” that has yet to —– and is being questioned more and more and because of the tea party, folks right of center, think John McCain, Tim Pawlenty and a few others who use to be considered reasonable have now chosen to lean even farther right, practice exclusion, are seemingly birthers. If you pay attention to what Pawlenty has been saying, if elected President will reenact dadt at least who knows what else he will promise, maybe strip the constitution of the 14th and 17th amendments. Well, calling March mad because of college basketball is mild considering the madness that is in the political air definitely applies to what we will probably see on the floor of Congress for the next two years and it will probably make us all mad. Unless of course hearing about a completely new round of offensive gossip, promotion of falsehoods and outright lies about the President’s beliefs and or if he is an American is not enough. It seems like strategically filtered blips put into interviews by potential Presidential candidates and talking heads, which makes me mad because really it just does not belong on the airwaves in any form especially in the news. Most people expect truthful news maybe some spin but these days the spin is laced with some truth or maybe it’s the Republican truth accepted pushed at us by not just right wing stations but by seemingly progressive stations who actually are owned by righties definitely limiting left of center news get on the airwaves.

Last… as February leaves let the madness of March begin …Talk about March Madness, last March Republican Senator Paul Broun, from Georgia; stated that all you had to do was read it for yourself; he knows for sure President Obama was a Socialist. A reporter asked if he thought President Obama was born in the US, Broun stated he did not know but frankly as someone in public office, he should have said yes. It might just be me but isn’t that the response birthers usually give, maybe a tea party member. It is amazing to know that this kind of behavior is what we get and accept from people holding public office that we pay to do the business of the people. If Barack Obama were white, there would be absolutely no questions about his beliefs, race, and or religion. It’s offensive that a Public Servant would behave in such a way; but then the list of Senators behaving like Broun are many and should make people outraged or at least question his competency. It is ironic that a year ago Broun was acting out, still got elected, the charade is over and the truth of what the Republicans have planned for Americans is out.

What happened, the end results of the November elections is a warning to those who stayed home to protest, voted right of center for whatever reason and for registered Republican voters. I have a question for all those above -is this what you want and voted for yourselves or the future of your children because what I see spreading all over the country, mostly the south does not fit what less government has always been described as by any stretch of the imagination.

 Other News …

**Reports of a 2week compromise by dems&repubs in the Senate which might help avoid govt shutdown

**Tripoli braces for even more deadly clashes

**NFL mediations take place on Tuesday

**Security forces switch sides in Libya -join protesters

**Shuttle docks with space station for last and the 13th time

**83rd annual Acad Awards tonight

**will cnn back off the major coverage they planned of the tea party or will they show how right of centr they truly are

**Governors will make that trip to Washington, DC minus Scott Walker who is trying to figure out how they will get the dems at the table only to proceed with dismantling the unions with a quick vote -they just have to be in the room and the vote taken -and it’s all over –

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tim Pawlenty Moves to the right …


Today, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) will address the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual DC gathering of political activists and potential Republican presidential hopefuls. On Monday, this moderate Republican governor from a heavily Democratic state was brandishing his conservative credentials by appearing at a Presidential Lecture Series in Iowa sponsored by The Family Leader. That group is a “Christ-centered organization” which “champions the principle that God is the ultimate leader of the family” and is leading the campaign to repeal marriage equality in the state. The organization’s president, Bob Vander Plaats, is a former high school principal and failed gubernatorial candidate who recently led a successful campaign to unseat three of Iowa Supreme Court Justices for overturning the state’s marriage discrimination law. Vander Plaats has since embarked on a 99-county tour of Iowa in which he presents The Family Leader as a traditional religious group that is more interested in restoring biblical values than slandering gay people. But the group’s materials describe homosexuality as a public health crisis akin to smoking, and endorse scientifically discredited ex-gay reversal therapies.

PAWLENTY ON DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL: Last month, Pawlenty made waves when he suggested that he would reinstate the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy if elected President. At the Family Leader forum, Pawlenty went a step further, saying that he would support rescinding the funds necessary for the Department of Defense to implement a repeal of DADT. In response to a question from ThinkProgress, Pawlenty reiterated his argument for why the policy should not have been repealed and then, when pushed, agreed that taking away the funding “would be a reasonable step.” In a separate, recent interview with ThinkProgress, Pawlenty refused to say whether gays should be allowed to serve in the military at all, explaining, “I really defer to the military leaders to a large degree on this issue. I supported maintaining Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Pressed again on whether he would be “comfortable with gays being able to serve in the military as long as they aren’t public with their orientation,” Pawlenty wouldn’t answer, saying, “I really would defer to the military leaders and military more broadly.”

PAWLENTY’S FAITH: During the forum — which featured three separate stops across the state — Pawlenty repeatedly emphasized his Evangelical Christian faith, even going so far as to suggest that his opposition to expanding marriage to gays and lesbians was a “universal” value that was “embedded in our culture.” Asked by a reporter if it was “appropriate for policy to be driven by values that are not necessarily shared by everyone, yet have a very significant effect on everyone,” Pawlenty said that he was respectful of different beliefs, before insisting that his values are universal and that “we’re going to make sure we respect traditional marriage.” But Pawlenty hasn’t always been this convinced of the righteousness of his anti-gay beliefs. In 1993, Pawlenty, then a state legislator, voted to extend protection to gays and lesbians under the state Human Rights Act, effectively banning discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation as well as race, religion, ethnicity and physical or mental disability. By 2002, he expressed regret for the vote, but a year later, suggested that nobody should be discriminated against for a job or housing simply because they are gay. In 2009, however, Pawlenty told Newsweek’s Howard Fineman that the 1993 act was “overbaked” and “not worded the way it should be” because it protected cross-dressers “and a variety of other people involved in behaviors that weren’t based on sexual orientation.”

PRESERVING ‘TRADITIONAL’ MARRIAGE: While Pawlenty did not directly address Iowa’s ongoing legislative effort to rescind marriage for gay and lesbian couples, he repeatedly reiterated his support for “traditional marriage” and “values.” Iowa Republicans were more direct about taking away rights from gays and lesbians. Following the Presidential Lecture Series, ThinkProgress spoke with Iowa State Rep. Dwayne Alons (R) — a co-sponsor of Iowa’s anti-gay marriage equality bill — in the state capitol and asked him if he agreed with the Family Leader’s characterizations of homosexuality as a public health crisis. Alons did, reciting some bullet points from the Family Leader’s “fact sheet” and suggesting that defining marriage between a man and a woman would correct “problems to society.” “Well, look at all that has been spent, you know, with the AIDS and with the issues related to the dying at an early age. I think life, longevity, of a lot of these folks is below 50, when you know, the normal people that do not enter into that kind of relationship, they’re either late into their 70s or early 80s for longevity,” Alons said. “A lot more actual productive years and contributing to society.” The story, which was picked up by KTIV News Channel 4, has sparked some controversy for Alons, who has chosen to stand by his remarks rather than to apologize for them.