Kevin Shaw's blog

Sometimes it is known as the "publishing business" but ethics-challenged rightwingers appear to find book sales to be a great source of untraceable cash that they can put to use to defeat candidates they don't like.

Today's NYTimes contains an article describing how Republican operatives Mary Matalin and Jerome Corsi have teamed up to market a smear piece on Barack Obama titled The Obama Nation. (Clever, doncha think?)

Of course, the NYT is only mentioning the book because it it is now on their Best Seller list for nonfiction, as was Corsi's previous work of fiction Unfit for Command which was cowritten with John O'Neill and lent credence to the whole Swiftboat phenomenon that sank John Kerry's campaign in 2004. Even though they provide the evidence, the Times' writers, JIM RUTENBERG and JULIE BOSMAN, fail to draw, or at least mention the possibility of, the conclusion that is obvious to me.

No, not that The Obama Nation is actually fiction, which it is. They actually do a pretty good job of pointing that out:

After a hiatus of almost a year, I'm going to start blogging regularly again. I'm writing for a living now and am in word-crafting mode much of the day, so it seems to be a natural extension of my normal activities. I'll probably crosspost a lot on Blog for America and MontcoDFA in an effort to expand the audience and get more feedback.

People often think blogging is an activity that any monkey with a keyboard and an Internet connection can participate in. Well, I suppose that's true if your plan is to simply parrot what you read on other blogs. But that's not true if you have any personal standards and only want to take up people's time if you have something original or important to say. So I promise only to post when one of those two tests can be passed.

 I hope you'll  participate and comment occaisionally. It's also important to me to know that soemone is looking. So don't be bashful. Leave a note even if it's just to say "Hi."

"Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact."
- Lyndon B. Johnson (1908 - 1973) 36^th U.S. President (1963 - 1969)

http://stephenviewsthenews.blogspot.com/

In his swan song, Romney makes it clear that he and his elites want to continue pressing their "shock therapy" on the American people as well, rolling back the very mild attempts in the past to ameliorate, slightly, some of the worst excesses and inequities of unhinged corporate greed. In fact, Romney identifies these tepid measures as dire threats to "American culture" itself:

The threat to our culture comes from within. In the 1960s, there were welfare programs that created a culture of poverty in our country. Now, some people think we won that battle when we reformed welfare. But the liberals haven't given up. At every turn, they tried to substitute government largess for individual responsibility. They fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid, and remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever. Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is culture killing. It's a drug. We've got to fight it like the poison it is.

The ignorance -- and inhumanity - of this statement is breathtaking. Think of it: there was no poverty in the United States until "liberals" came along in the 1960s and "created" it with their welfare programs. (Before this "culture of poverty" was created, apparently, the few poor people in America just died off discreetly, like Russians, instead of hanging around a bit longer on government handouts, the way they do now, the shiftless, no-good wretches. Oh yeah, and they breed a lot too, more than white folks.) And even though Bill Clinton (uncredited here, of course, but the elite are well aware of his sterling services) finally drove the stake through the welfare program, these evildoers will still not rest. Just look at what they want to do: "put more people on Medicaid," and "remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever." (Wait a minute; I thought red-meat-chomping CPACkers were in favor of people paying no taxes. I guess that only applies to the right sort of people.)

Charles Pierce subbing for Erica Alterman on Media Matters does a good job of voicing the reasons for impeachment:

Interested in who the Democratic party has to challenge U.S. Rep. Phil English, Erie, for his 3rd Congressional District seat in the fall? The first nearby debate is next week.

Sharon, PA residents wil have an opportunity to hear from all the Democratic candidates for Phil English's PA-3 seat on Saturday, Feb 9...

At 2 p.m. Feb. 9 in Slippery Rock University’s Advanced Technology and Science hall’s auditorium, four Erie-based candidates will have a chance to show district voters what they’re all about.
Erie County Councilman Kyle Foust, lawyer Tom Myers, lay-minister Mike Waltner and businesswoman and arboretum director Kathy Dahlkemper will be answering to Greenville’s Mayor Dick Miller, debate moderator.

Wireless company gives liberals new outlet

By: Aoife McCarthy and Ryan Grim
Jan 31, 2008 06:07 AM EST

Cell phone users can now choose a company that will donate some of its profits to liberal causes (courtesy DFA).

If ever there was evidence that the nation is becoming increasingly polarized, it’s this: Cell phone users can now choose a company that will donate some of its profits to liberal causes — and refuse to cooperate with the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

Credo Mobile, a division of the liberal firm Working Assets, has partnered with Democracy for America, a progressive political action committee born of Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, to create DFA Wireless.

When subscribers make a call on a DFA Wireless phone, 10 percent of their monthly charges will go to Democracy for America.

The Federal Election Commission signaled approval of the transactions because they are considered individual political contributions.