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Since Thing1 has claimed the first weekend thread post, we get to see his gross cartoon all weekend. I thought I'd pin some Ebola myth-busting to it.
Ebola myth and fact 1:
Myth: Ebola is transmitted via air, as in the cartoon. This myth feeds fear of Africans, immigrants, and fear in general.
Fact: Ebola is only transmitted via direct contact with an infected person's body fluids. The two Dallas nurses who cared for Mr. Duncan during his first two days in hospital were not furnished with hazmat suits, nor respirators. While Mr. Duncan was vomiting, bleeding, and having diarrhea, the nurses were protected only with double gowns, gloves, and face masks, and became infected, probably via droplets of fluids. This is per the reporting of the Dallas Morning News.
Ebola Myth 2:
People infected with Ebola are coming across our southern border.
Fact: There has not been one case of Ebola originating in the Americas. This myth spreads fear of immigrants, and racism, and is being shamelessly exploited to create support for right wing "strong man" candidates who claim to want to increase border security. Per New York Times article and graphic.
While immigrant children are in fact dying from preventable diseases like enterovirus, pneumonia, and the like, they are not carrying Ebola virus.
Ebola Myth 3:
Myth: We can stop Ebola in the Americas by banning all West African flights.
Fact: If all West African flights were banned, Ebola-infected people could still find an alternate route to their destinations, thus spreading the geographic area of the infection. As President Obama said, the key to containing this outbreak is to contain it in Africa, and we are very far from that today.
Common Dreams writer Sonia Kolhatkar has an excellent article on how the excesses of corporate capitalism have contributed to this Ebola outbreak. The spread of the virus could have been contained with proper healthcare infrastructure. Budget cuts to the Center for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, as well as refusal to confirm a Surgeon General nominee are contributing to the lack of leadership and direction in the United States response. And, yes, climate change is a factor – droughts, floods, changed rainfall patterns, and refugee displacement all contribute to the spread of this deadly disease.
Mistakes have been made in the containment of the virus on American soil. But the greatest mistake would be to give in to the hateful, politically motivated fearmongering of our corporate media trolls.
I've decided that The Assworm may actually perform some valuable public service here . . .
. . . he's a strong reminder of just what kind of fucking nitwit it actually takes to be a party Republican these days.
He really is the perfect poster child (emphasis on child) for his deeply disturbed ilk and their vile, racist, anti-American "causes."
Oh, the irony that their political success hinges on voter suppression of almost-exclusively people of color and now, the death and despair of Africans. If there is a God and there is a judgment day, I hope I'm around when the big (wo)man asks these vile creatures, "is that your final answer?"
Michael, he will also ask you if you were honest about the things that you wrote and said.
The success of Republicans does not turn on voter suppression. Did everyone get a mail ballot in Colorado, regardless of color?
Nobody wants there to be more death and despair of Africans. Some just put minimizing the likelihood of death and despair of Americans as a higher priority for America.
Now, if the African's had oil, then we could invade them!!
An idea my state-senator- turned-Governor-wanabee fully embraced during the Darfur genocide….
Yes, WIF, everyone in Colorado gets a ballot, thanks to both legislative chambers being controlled by Progressives. You might recall that effort came to fruition without a single Republican supporting the measure in the Senate. (that would include that special little watermelon sniper). So spare me your disingenuous platitudes.
Lest we forget the face of Colorado voter suppression…
"Wee GeeOhPees kaint hav to menny uv them thar kulert fokes, them wimmins, or them thar durtee Meeskins a-votin, dontcha no. Nosiree bob"
So, you're for giving all Americans access to the health care the need? 🙂
Bite your tongue, good sir! Those despicable "takers" deserve nothing, I tell you — NOTHING!
B-b-but, ACHole said, "Some just put minimizing the likelihood of death and despair of Americans as a higher priority for America." So, Health Care is a priority for him, right?
….right?
<crickets> … the cognitive dissonance of the WIF is stunning.
“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it.”
–Stephen Colbert
First,I like your work here. "mistakes have been made" Patient #0 kicked to curb with 103F Temp .Hospitals, as it turns out are the one of the last places for this could be epic battle to fought. Search " deaths caused by US medical error" Underestimated at 300,000 more likely 400,000 per year. Third leading cause of death. They are ill equipped to handle an influx of sick people,
Bio containment facilities from what I've seen mentioned are about 20 bed max. Interesting fiction reading;" Nightwing" by the always superb Martin Cruz Smith. set in the American South west, Vampire bats that cross the border . IN the foreword, Author supplies info 'bout bats 5th most populous mammalian genus, also, the shift of power in feudal balance of Labor dramatically reduced by the black death.(bacteria)
.Recently. CSU prof opines on the TV that bats may have been the animal vector that launched current outbreak "jungle meat" . Outbreak, BTW, a good Kevin Spacey movie resembles this current virus,
Thanks, Dan. Yes, "mistakes were made" is an understatement, given that at least two nurses are now infected with Ebola. However, their prognosis, given how early the disease was diagnosed, and that they are being given state of the art care, is probably positive.
Duncan's family is questioning why he was turned away when he first showed up. It was a private for-profit hospital in Texas, which has not expanded Medicaid under the ACA, and he was a black man. These are relevant facts.
My immune system's pretty robust, as I am exposed to most germs hundreds of adolescents can carry, but if it were not robust, I would avoid hospitals due to the medical errors and germy environment you mention.
Bats, specifically certain fruit bats, are seen as the likeliest vector of ebola infection in West Africa. I don't know where they go with that – but it's amazing that they have traced it that far. Vox has a great summary of how one can and can't get Ebola.
Like AIDS, which was traced originally to chimpanzees, apes, and eating "bushmeat", Ebola is now mostly transmitted human to human. AIDS is now mostly under control in the United States – that is, there are a great number of people living with HIV/AIDS, but very few new infections. Per CDC Gov publication. But it is still very much a pandemic in
After 30 years of AIDS, there are drugs which both prolong life and prevent transmission – however, these are not generally available to people in the African countries which need them most. So poverty, sexism, corruption, exploitation by corporations are still taking their toll.
This map shows which countries still have high AIDS infection rates. Asia and Russia were surprising to me.
Wouldn't it be amazing if we could learn from the 30 years HIV/AIDS epidemic to do a better job containing Ebola? How about if we started by not stigmatizing and overgeneralizing about African people, the way that gay men were stigmatized and stereotyped during the height of the AIDS scare? Already, little African kids from countries with no Ebola infections, thousands of miles away from West Africa, are being called "Ebola kids". Can we do better this time, please?
KIds orphaned outright by the death of their parents are being cared for by survivors of the epidemic. Not much there in the way of care. Bribes need to be paid to unlock containers of medical supplies sitting on docks of coastal countries. recommendations for the 2nd attempt to combat this in its early stages. Backhoes perhaps? for grave diggers, plus provide stable sanitary quarters for those disposing of the dead. . Cell phones given to patients in isolation was a good move and could further belay the inherit mistrust of health workers process.
As to Russia the cascading effect of record Afghan poppy production has resulted in increased IV drug use within Russia, along the northern corridor of smuggled heroin. To the best of my knowledge, Russia still allows US war material in support of its operations to cross into Afghan.
Alas, many orphans are not being cared for, even after 21 days in quarantine, because of the fear and stigma attached to anyone connected in any way to Ebola. In such a low education/information atmosphere survivors are often shunned. Many people aren't seeking treatment because they and their families want to keep the illness secret for fear of being shunned whether they recover or remain healthy or not. We will never know the real death toll or how many people could have been saved absent the ignorance and hysteria at an earlier stage of the epidemic.
Our Rs aren't helping by encouraging as much ignorant hysteria here as they can muster. What we do know is that the illness is connected with fruit bats in the forest and used to be confined to limited outbreaks in isolated forest villages but the now enormous scale timber industry is bringing hordes of workers in and out of the forest into larger towns and cities. This has altered the old pattern into a new far more sinister one of mass infection.. Another unintended consequence of massive deforestation.
R pols actually sound as if they're rooting for the Ebola virus to mutate, after existing mostly unchanged for as long as we've known about it, into a more contagious form for political utilization. Since mutations do proliferate more quickly in larger populations, though this one has shown no signs of going airborne, wonder what Rs would think if they got their sick wish?
Somehow I suspect they'd be the most hysterical, ignorant and least useful members of society in such an event. I picture them as divided between those who would try to protect themselves with ruthless, merciless violence and those who would just give up and comfort themselves with belief in end times and the coming Rapture. The GOTP has truly become the party of the lowest common denominator.
the GOP are smearing whatever crap they can everywhere, lying about their own intents while turning any and every issue into a scary situation that only they can address!
EBOLA-BOLA: Stop all flights from any other country!
Build the DANGED wall!
Boots on the ground! Stop the ISIL Air Force!
PUTIN!!!!!!
Mexican children with cantaloupe calves! THE GAYz and the WAR of Christmas!!!
….eeekk
PS: thus it is no surprise they send the feces-smearing AChole over here to do its turdish-trolling.
They don’t control the White House so they can’t raise the terror threat. They are stuck with .Ebola.
Don't forget Benghazi…..
…we won't do better if our thrice-married drug addict has anyting to say about it.
Check your work.
The study your link discusses is a literature review aggregating four studies which searched for indirect markers of factors "contributing" to deaths, not "causing" them as you claim.
It includes hospital acquired conditions such as pneumonias in patients on ventilators. If you're on a ventilator, you're already critically Ill. These numbers have always been dubious
My 1st post gave the search parameter of; Death caused by US medical error, which brought a Bernie Sanders senate hearing finding, or if you are a NPR kinda guy, this one. I ask in turn support your assertion that" these numbers have always been dubious" The US medical structure could n't come up with "best practices" on their own. The original post point is that hospitals are mired in astruggle and an epidemic is the last event to bring to their door. . Did you or a friend ride a meat wagon for a living?
That's a re-hash of the other link. By looking at Medicare patients (older, sicker) you think you can extrapolate that to all hospitalizations? And again contributing to is not causing in patients who are already sick, but both your links make that logical leap. I don't care what you plug in to a Google search you have to look at what the source material says. People who would otherwise be healthy and well are not being cut down by medical mistakes in these numbers.
Vampire bats that cross the border??? So in addition to Tancredo's big fence, we need to put a big net up too?
Question: Why don't we work with people in other countries to fix the problem at the root?
Answer: That would cost money which can better be spent on giving tax cuts to rich people.
People biting bats, not bats biting people, is the likely original Ebola vector.
Don't feed the hysteria. Tancredo would be delighted to promote a "bat net" to increase border security. If it would get him eyeballs in the media, at least.
It looks as though the other West African countries are in fact doing well in keeping Ebola contained in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Senegal and Nigeria, which had isolated cases, quarantined them, traced their contacts, and eliminated it in their countries to date.
And, yes, they did close their borders and ban travel. That is common sense for a West African nation – not so much for those on the other side of the ocean.
Wouldn’t Tanc fear that the bat net would be dropped over him and his followers?
ct, send up the batshit signal! We've got crossings over the borders of political insanity!
Waitwaitwait…. do the bats have little Muzlim prayer rugs, too???
Update on National Senate Races from Daily Kos:
Udall has a 22% chance.
I like Sam Wang better – how's that rash?
A Few Front-Runners in Close Elections Will Lose on Election Day
Josh Katz at The New York Times' The Upshot has analyzed the performance of Senate polls since 2004. He found that the predictive accuracy of polls depends on how soon the election is and the size of the front-runner's lead. For instance, if the election is three weeks away and the front-runner leads by 3 percent or less, that candidate will still lose 38 percent of the time—nearly two times out of five.
In the period Katz analyzed, only three or four Senate races in each election were decided by 3 percentage points or less. But as of Tuesday, such narrow margins existed in six races:
Data as of Tuesday, October 14, via the Princeton Election Consortium.
Udall will still win. You keep forgetting several demographics who Gardner pissed off…
How about this achole troll http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2014-colorado-senate-gardner-vs-udall
ColPols, Can we get rid of this fruitcake? Seriously…. He contributes virtually nothing to ColoPols except reminders that there are morons like him out there that needs to get out of the gene pool.
something for the righty hand-wringers….
The Tide Slowly Turns in Kobani
Less than two weeks ago, the newly announced American-led airstrikes against ISIS already appeared destined to fail. An Islamic State siege of the Syrian town of Kobani was about to give way to a massacre of Syrian Kurds providing early and salient proof of the airstrikes' fruitlessness. Then, something strange happened, the massacre never came.
The month-long battle for Kobani is by no means over and the death toll is by no means small, but for those administration officials beseeching the American public for both faith and patience, the past few days have given some provided some breathing room. As Reuters notes, coalition airstrikes surged on Wednesday and Thursday to the tune of 14 raids, which are said to have halted the Islamic State advance.
http://news.yahoo.com/tide-slowly-turns-kobani-211202102–politics.html
I understand the ISIL group is training some pilots to fly those three Syrian jets they captured. I am sure the US F-18 pilots can hardly wait to see them airborne….
The, courageous, competent, reliable Kurds deserve our support first and foremost before anyone else in the region. Shame on us if we fail the Kurds.
Agreed, The Kurds have been forced by their circumstances to have experienced fighters, boot on the ground so to speak.
On the other hand ISIS threatens Baghdad and it looks like we will need to be increasing our boots on the ground there (we already have about 1,500). But all of that will wait three more weeks.
About that Colorado Dem Turnout Machine?
Udall is down in the polls. Heck, even the last poll he was ahead in he trailed with Independents. So if he is going to pull it out, it will have to be by the grace of the great Dem Turnout Machine.
So how is that working?
Numbers as of 10-17 from the Colorado Secretary of State's office:
Statewide Total: 27,640
Statewide Republican: 12,766 46%
Statewide Dems: 8,714 32%
Some counties have not reported so perhaps a look at a couple key counties are in order:
Jefferson Total 6,126
Jefferson Republican: 2,670 44%
Jefferson Dems: 1938 32%
Arapahoe Total 5,312
Arapahoe Republican: 2,379 45%
Arapahoe Dems: 1744 33%
If the Republican turnout is anywhere near 10% greater than the Dem turnout the election will be a rout.
It appears that Republicans are more enthusiastic than the Dems and the voter turnout is not going to save Udall or for that matter many other candidates flying under the Dem banner.
Didn't you also post a while back that more Republicans than Democrats voted in 2010? How did that work out for senator buck? You are a pathetic joke. Even the republican "wave" of 2010 couldn't save your extreme right wing candidates. This year there is no wave, except to wave bob ways bob and con man cory goodbye.
How about this achole http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/politics/midterm-elections-neil-newhouse-republicans-senate-polls.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0 I liked this part the best : For any Republicans who do not, he advises not to pin hopes on historical midterm turnout patterns. Democrats’ electoral machinery in battleground states, he explained, can offset traditional drop-offs among friendly constituencies such as blacks, Hispanics and single women. Or this :
“I’ve become skeptical about how much voter enthusiasm really plays into turnout models,” Mr. Newhouse said. “Romney voters were much more enthusiastic, much more excited. We saw Obama’s approval numbers slipping. Disappointment in his performance was palpable.”
In the end, Mr. Newhouse lamented, “The other side turned out low-enthusiasm, low-propensity voters, and their votes counted just as much.”
You got it.
Key quote from GOP pollster Newhouse (emphasis mine): "This is as close as we've gotten to a presidential-style campaign in those states. We're assuming that the 2014 electorate is going to look more like 2012 than 2010."
And how did that election turn out? ADVANTAGE DEMS.
The GOTP is in for a very nasty bunch of surprises very shortly.
In a lot of states where they thought they were "safe".
I can see some changes in KS, KY, MS (yes, you heard me), GA, and many others. All Democratic incumbents will retain their seats. Republicans will not.
With 0.01546% of the vote counted, our WIF, with his Ph.D. from Dumphuckistan University, has declared a "trend". Akin to Dubya declaring a trend on "Mission Accomplished" after dropping the first bomb in Iraq.
I think we are in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.
From early voting authority Michael McDonald:
CO #earlyvote added, Rs lead 27,640 46/32; Rs expected to lead & these 1st numbers, so sit tight http://www.electproject.org/2014_early_vote
So in other words, this pattern is absolutely to be expected, the Dems will catch up, and the WIF is attempting intentionally to mislead everyone yet again.
What a surprise.
Everyone loves an optimist, but this seems a lot like premature ejaculation to me…
In ac's case it's premature ejerkulation
nice.
Let's hope he doesn't make us watch him try to put "the toothpaste back in the tube…."
Personhood: the GOP's worst nightmare:
This conservative cause is the GOP's worst nightmare | MSNBC
I am thrilled to see that the GOP still thinks that GOTV is something that ends when the very first ballots are returned.
Or ancient scared people have nothing to do but watch for their SS check and ballot and send them back in lickity split.
So, the dwindling demographic votes more quickly. They ought to, on the decline and all, what if they don't make it until Nov 4?
Me, I'm just getting started with my GOTV.
Republican arithmetic https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1505417183049281&set=a.1417794705144863.1073741828.100007430400837&type=1&theater
You were the bottom of the election part of the thread, denverco, so my 2 cents gets tacked on to yours. Is it just my part of the state (south Denver) or is a there a paucity of yard signs this year? By now our neighborhood is usually a veritable forest of issue and candidate signage. Not only have I not seen a one, but we live on a major thoroughfare and are usually prime targets for campaigners looking for yards to plant them in.
There are many Democratic signs all over the place, but I have yet to see one supporting any republican and this is coffman's home district.
We have one guy whose yard always spouts a dozen signs, all Repub, which is nice, telling me who to vote against, and a few scattered Repub signs elsewhere. But this year, one of our neighbors has signs out for Hickenlooper and Udall and i saw a sign for Nancy Cronk. Go Nancy!
Nancy is a great lady – she will be very good in the state legislature.
Good luck, Nancy!
Nancy even got (apparently) the Denver Post's endorsement last July 🙂
http://www.denverpost.com/News/ci_26147576/Elect-Nancy-Cronk-in-Colorado-s-House-District-37
"Elect Nancy Cronk in Colorado's House District 37"
There is no bigger misconception in the energy debate than the notion that natural gas is a "clean" fuel. Research has shown that there is little difference between coal and natural gas when the "cradle to grave" aspect of natural gas production is taken into consideration.
Of course, the American Petroleum Institute would have you believe "the Big Lie"…but then…they are the ones telling it…
Scientists: Why Natural Gas Will Not Help Save the World From Climate Change
By Kristine Wong | Takepart.com
http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-why-natural-gas-not-help-save-world-183550237.html
Great post, Duke. Natural gas is becoming a climate 'gang plank', not a 'bridge'.
Good Stokels piece on the great ground game shaping up for Senator Udall:
Udall needs Democratic ground game to come up big again | FOX31 Denver
As Halter debates, the taxpayer-funded El Paso Einstein is, uhm….sitting at home.
Let 'em eat cake…
The greatest resource on the net for the initiatives!
I like it. Doesn't advocate for one position or the other. Just tells you what each does and leaves it to you to decide whether or not what it does is what you want.
From you that is major praise – thank you.
That's sweet, David. You're welcome!
Mark Uterus makes the Washington Post:
One Democrat whose gallantry toward women is monomaniacal, Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.), is now uncomfortably known here as “Mark Uterus.” He is seeking a second term by running such a relentlessly gynecological campaign that the Denver Post, in endorsing his opponent, Rep. Cory Gardner, denounced the “shocking amount of energy and money” Udall has devoted to saying that Gardner favors banning birth control.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-mark-udalls-overheated-war-on-women-in-colorado-senate-race/2014/10/17/84506456-5562-11e4-ba4b-f6333e2c0453_story.html
Having your campaign mocked as a laughingstock in the Nations capitol is not a good sign.
From the pathetic, "once was somebody" George Will…
Did that morning ejerkulation sap you of your strength to do Google searches?
very nice – geroge will – LOL
George Will – just another right wing hack like you achole. You sounf even more desperate than yesterday. It will be a repeat of 2010. say hi to senator buck. This is why Jindal called his party – the stupid party http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/17/dennis-ross-ebola-flight-ban_n_6002730.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
We're anxiously awaiting his links from NewsMax and RedState any moment now, similarly assuring us of our imminent doom!
LMFAO at the pathetic loser and his reality-free closed right-wing information feedback loop! This is what happens when a nothing like him thinks everyone is as ignorant and gullible as his own racist dim-bulb constituency.
Gee, I was all set to vote for Udall but then I read the George Will column and I'm conflicted. Perhaps Moderanus and the Librarian can explain to me what I should do…..
Nothing like a DC-inside-the-beltway Septuagenarian lifer in a bow tie who dies his hair to appeal to the youngsters telling Colorado women what they think.
Like being raped is a status symbol:
I'm guessing 100% of the people denigrating Senator Udall that way are male. Funny you don't hear women complaining about that focus.
Well, I complained about it…so did Bluecat. But only because we thought it would narrow his appeal too much.
Now that Udall is finally promoting his pro-privacy, anti-NSA, pro-immigration reform, pro-minimum wage, pro-renewable energy, and other stances, he is much more appealing to a broad swath of the electorate.
All the opposition has, you've heard from Thing1 and Thing 2 trolls here: Udall voted for Obamacare (which people like), and with the President (who people, by and large, still like). That's literally all they have, and it only excites their 25-30% base.
Yeah, keep using that "Mark Uterus" bit, ACHole…and then sit around wondering why them womenfolk won't vote for you creeps.
I actually prefer whorey gardner – has a nice ring to it no?
Mockery by George Will is a given – he's a political hack, and so anything less would be a disappointment.
There's a limit to how much mileage an evil, immoral, hate-filled, lie-spewing racist group like the GOP can get out of their filthy, despicable tactics. Here's one more reminder of those inherent limitations:
Republican's Blame Ebola on Obama Ploy Backfires | Earl Ofari Hutchinson
GOP Fear-Mongering — 2014's Greatest Hits: The face of evil, from a party who can't win without suppressing votes, engaging in fraud, deception, misinformation and overt racism, and attempting falsely to scare the sh-t out of ignorant people for personal gain
7 instances of blatant GOP fearmongering this election cycle – Salon.com
Great article and very accurate.
fox "news" caught spreading lies https://www.facebook.com/groups/393404990755034/permalink/705372009558329/
I sure hope you are right. If that lying Gardner wins, it tells us that the electorate is dumber than we thought. We filled out our ballots Thursday and they have been delivered. I am thinking that the electorate might surprise the hateful GOP and come out in large numbers.
gardner's momentum vanishes, so does his lead https://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50742/images/COSenatePollMemo.pdf
And on sam wang – two polls in a row for Udall http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2014-colorado-senate-gardner-vs-udall
Mr. Wang appeared on UP with Steve Kornacki this morning. He said nothing that made me less confident and several things that made me feel more confident that Republican hopes based on polling are likely to be wrong.
The most important thing he said was that RCP, the Upshot, 538, and the others all use the same polling for their models. If then, there are junk polls that are being thrown into the mix, all of the prognosticators will be similarly wrong. He says he uses a median instead of an average, which minimizes the effect of junk polls.
An excellent interview, it was.
denverco, is it me, or do those huffpost polls always look like a squirming sperm? Is there a subtle Personhood message in here somewhere?
Regardless, it's good news for Udall.
Udall fight off being down in the polls commissions 2 in-house polls that (wink, wink) find him in the lead.
Keepin' hope alive, for the true believers so they will do their masters work for a couple more weeks.
No one cares what you think…or what you say…
Wait Duke, do you smell something? Did someone hit a skunk?
What the odiferous one cannot understand is that his bullshit only motivates Democrats more…not less. What kind of arrogance convinces someone that fear of them will cause an opponent to give up? The same arrogance that doomed the Philistines….
Smells like skunk in my neighborhood. Oh wait, never mind. That ain't skunk.
Quinnipiac has been one of the worst pollsters in Colorado the past 6 years and Faux News is Faux News – those two polls (showing leads of 6-8 points) drag of the average of polls up to show Gardner with an outsized lead. Be my guest thinking Gardner has a 4 point aggregate lead (Ken Buck led 18 out of 19 polls right before the election) – on the flip side, that "lead" only motivates the Dem turnout effort to work even harder. Try as the GOP spinsters might – to throw garbage polls into the aggregator mix to try to create the perception of inevitability – everyone has seen this movie before … and it doesn't end well for the GOP.
I find that Democrats are not always 100% right, and Republicans are not always 100% wrong (I'm registered as a Dem, but vote independently for the best person/issue.)
For example, while I realize that Mary Landrieu has an election to win, I disagree with many of her votes. And…I kinda liked Jon Huntsman for the 2012 GOP presidential ticket, but he got run over by the political machine that nominated Mitt Romney.
Are you good for the people, the country, and the world? If you can answer 'yes' to most/all of the above, you've probably got my vote.
Mark Udall sponsored legislation to clean up old abandoned mines in Colorado that were leaching poison into Coloradans drinking water – that's good for Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Mark Udall is the one senator who has stood up to domestic spying more than any other senator – that's Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Mark Udall, in my humble opinion, is more of a centrist than Cory Gardner – who voted with Ted Cruz to shutdown the government and who hypocritically supports a Federal personhood bill that would ban birth control and abortion – who is more of an ideologue.
Udall is more of a centrist than Cory Gardner. Gardner is a righty zealot cum corporate water boy cloaked in the guise of a cherubic and bland new guy.
And that's not contradicted by his voting with his party 99% of the time while Gardner only voted with his in the mid 90 percents. The Democratic party is the centrist party while the GOP has become the extremist obstructionist party. So, for Udall, voting with his party is voting for centrist solutions.
Besides that, Corey Gardner is rated among the most conservative members of his party (something like 4th or 5th most conservative in the House) by voting record which means where he has deviated from the obstructionist/extremist party line, it hasn't been to reach across the aisle but to join the most extreme fringe who don't think their far right party's far right leadership goes far enough in resisting all compromise and forward movement in the legislature.
At this point the idea that any vote for any R candidate is a vote for less polarization and a better functioning congress is absurd. Udall has often worked with Rs on legislation. Gardner has gone along with every extremist scheme to block anything that any Dem would support. The letters to the Post, 5 against their endorsement and supporting Udall against 2 for the Gardner endorsement in print with another 3 against to 1 for in the online only letters, show that most remaining Post readers are not delusional.
Yep, the "bland new guy" is a right wing robot created out of what once was flesh and blood.
Huntsman, in the eyes of the true believers in the GOP, committed the unspeakable and detestable crime against God, country and party. He actually accepted an appointment in the Obama administration as ambassador to China.
I would've voted for Huntsman. Hell, I would have voted for McCain, until the GOP put that hateful, stupid grifter on the ticket in an effort to bring in the fringe vote.
I'm a big fan of Buddy Roemer…but they won't even let him on the stage…
That's nice, Mr. Twain, but the fact is, in today's political landscape, which party holds the majorities and executive positions is the most important thing. Give even the rare exceptional 21st century decent Republican a vote at this point in time and you are contributing to majorities at the federal and state level who are devoted to taking away freedom of choice, suppressing the vote, increasing the wealth gap, decreasing funding for every agency that protects our health, security, environment, wild lands, children, poor, seniors and students.
Your exceptional R will not stop an R majority from putting awful Rs into leadership and in control of every committee that decides whether anything is even allowed to come to a vote and what gets investigated and what gets a free pass. In 2014 any vote for any Republican is a really, really stupid vote. Period. The tiny number of elected Rs who aren't just as bad as Corey Gardner has no power within the the universe of elected GOTP pols but adds to the head count that hands the 21st century GOTP control.
If you are a liberal, called here progressive, Udall is right in the middle to you. If you are a conservative, Gardner is right in the middle to you. The reality is, given our system of choosing candidates, there is no middle candidate.
Save the Eggs!
Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive and a Republican – he was the centrist wing of the Republican party. There is a difference between liberals and progressives and, the GOP no longer has any progressives, they can only be found in the Dem party, along with the liberals.
But didn't Teddy leave the GOP in 1912 because (brace yourselves) they were conservative for his taste?
Frigging RINO! Get out of the way and make room for Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover…….
Yep the 20th Century has been a split between progressives and conservatives … progressives in the Republican party became the moderate wing and for those who couldn't tolerate the conservatives, they created third parties or went Dem.
Then in the 1960s as the progressive push ended Jim Crow for good with the Civil Rights Acts, the conservative backlash grew with southern Dems bolting to the GOP and the rest is, as they say, history – we get the Kochs/John Birch Society/Tea Party rising to power in the GOP over the past 30-40 years.
Where does this group want to take the country? Pre Teddy Roosevelt and the progressive movement – the 1800s is their model for the United States, child labor, no labor unions, property rights, monopolistic big business, trash the environment, open National Parks to resources exploitation.
It's not any secret – Karl Rove says as much, he looks to William McKinley's presidency for inspiration, that's over 100 years ago, and before Teddy Roosevelt pushed for progressivism.
While not quit a Mea Culpa, the Denver Post today did a fairly decent job printing letters to the editor blowing holes in the Editorial Board's tortured rationale for endorsing Whorey Gardner (hat tip to DawnPatrol if I recall ;-).
And I thought Senator Michael Bennet's guest column refuted the Post's endorsement with a strong case in favor of Senator Udall.
At least there must be some sensible editors remaining at the Post.
They did the same thing following their notorious non-endorsement endorsement of GW, publishing lots of letters deploring the endorsement. But that just shows they haven't changed their practice of publishing letters, pro and con, in proportion to the pro and con letters they receive.
Since they also endorsed Coffman, albeit in a less full throated manner and with less (pretty much no) strong criticism of Romanoff, this would be a good time to get busy writing letters disagreeing with that one and supporting Romanoff. The more they get in proportion to letters in agreement, the more they'll print and put on line in proportion to the back pats. So every letter, even those not published, in support of a particular point of view, helps.