RandySF
RandySF's JournalTea Partyers shout racist slur at White House cops: “Looks like something out of Kenya”
Wow. I’ve been to many a protest at the White House, and I’ve never seen people belittle the police like the Sarah Palin / Ted Cruz Tea Party protesters did today. There’s video, and it’s awful.
Calling the police protecting the White House “brownshirts,” laughing at them, and then one guy says “looks like something out of Kenya.”
The fanciful notion that President Obama was born in Kenya – he was in fact born in Hawaii – is a common racist slur that Tea Party adherents and other conservative Republicans use against the President.
Keep in mind these are the same people who brought confederate flags to the protest. As Peter Sylwester noted on Twitter, “Perhaps the Confederate flag mob will move next to reopen the Lincoln Memorial.”
http://americablog.com/2013/10/tea-partyers-shout-racist-slurs-white-house-cops-looks-like-something-kenya.html
Report: Donor Thought McDonnell Was Helping Company Get State Funding
The wealthy Virginia businessman and political donor at the center of the federal investigation of Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has told prosecutors he believed the governor was helping his company get research funding during the time he was providing McDonnell and his family with tens of thousands of dollars in money and gifts, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
In its article, The Post cited two people familiar with the account of Jonnie Williams, the CEO of a dietary supplements company called Star Scientific. The Post also obtained emails from researchers and scientists working with the company, which show that they thought McDonnell and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, wanted Star Scientific to get funding from Virginia's tobacco commission.
The tobacco commission distributes funds from Virginia's share of the 1998 legal settlement with the major tobacco companies. But, according to the Post, records show that Star did not receive any funding from the commission, and the McDonnells maintain that they never tried to help William's company get the funding.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/report-donor-thought-mcdonnell-was-helping-company-get-state-funding
What Monica Lewinsky can teach about Ted Cruz
What do American voters pay more attention to – spectacle or substance? The ascendancy of Senator Ted Cruz has been one of spectacle. Melissa Harris-Perry describes what the Monica Lewinsky spectacle of the 90’s can teach about Ted Cruz.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/mhp/53270434/#53270434
At tea party-like rally, Obama told to 'put the Quran down'
Washington (CNN) - Angered by the closure of national landmarks due to the partial government shutdown, a crowd of conservatives removed barricades Sunday at the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial as they rallied against President Barack Obama and Democrats for their role in the ongoing stalemate.
High-profile speakers with close ties to the tea party appeared at the event, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
The rally, billed as the "Million Vet March on the Memorials," drew far fewer than a million people and evolved into a protest that resembled familiar tea party events from 2009, with yellow "Don't Tread On Me" flags throughout the crowd and strong anti-Obama language from the podium and the audience.
One speaker went as far as saying the president was a Muslim and separately urged the crowd of hundreds to initiate a peaceful uprising.
"I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up," said Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, a conservative political advocacy group.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/13/at-tea-party-like-rally-obama-told-to-put-the-quran-down/
SF Bay Area: Strike deadline looming; BART, unions return to talks
OAKLAND, Calif. — After 153 days of contract talks, BART and its two major unions went back to the bargaining table again Sunday with just hours remaining before the transit system’s second major strike in three months.
The two unions -- the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which represent which represents 1,430 mechanics, custodians and clerical workers, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, which represents 945 station agents, train operators and clerical workers – have said they will walk off the job if a deal has not been reached by midnight.
“We’re trying to keep the trains running,” said Union negotiator Chris Finn. “The unions are trying to do everything we can. We feel they could have met us earlier, but that wasn’t the case. We are putting in some creative effort to see what will work for them. “
BART’s chief negotiator Thomas Hock said he feels the transit agency has gone beyond half way in trying to reach a deal.
“From our standpoint, we are more than half way,” he said. “We been more than half way for a while. “
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local/strike-deadline-looming-bart-unions-return-talks/nbMzs/
SF Bay Area: Few options for BART riders who aren't S.F.-bound
When BART went on strike in July, Patrick Sanders' options for getting to work vanished. Sanders, 45, a corporate chef who lives in North Oakland and works in Pleasant Hill, doesn't own a car and commutes on BART. He tried without success to find public transportation that would get him to work by 6 a.m. Except for BART, it doesn't exist.
So Sanders took the advice of transportation officials and tried to find a carpool. No luck. Still not ready to surrender, he tried to make his own casual carpool, standing by the side of Broadway, near the Highway 24 on-ramp with a sign reading "Walnut Creek." But no one stopped for him. Sanders called his boss and told him he wouldn't make it in to work. He did the same on the second day of the strike.
Finally, with no other options and not wanting to continue calling in stranded, Sanders rented a car and drove to work during the final three days of the strike.
While more than half of the 400,000 trips taken on BART each weekday pass through the Transbay Tube, with most beginning or ending in downtown San Francisco, tens of thousands of commuters like Sanders travel elsewhere on the system: from Walnut Creek to Berkeley, Oakland to Fremont, San Francisco to Pleasanton.
Regional transportation officials have plans, admittedly inadequate, to provide a modicum of service if BART shuts down again Monday. But those plans, which include 200 charter buses from several BART stations, bigger transbay buses and more ferries from the East Bay, focus almost entirely on hauling commuters to and from San Francisco.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Few-options-for-BART-riders-who-aren-t-S-F-bound-4891337.php
Lee Atwater on the Southern Strategy
"You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”"
http://www.thenation.com/article/170841/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy
Joe the Plumber: America Needs a White Republican President
Wanting a white Republican president doesn’t make you racist, it just makes you American.
In the pre-black president era, criticizing the president was simply the American thing to do. An exercise of one’s First Amendment right. Criticism had nothing to do with color, because there had never been a black president, or at least one whom people recognized as black.
So to criticize the president meant that you didn’t like his policies.
The election of a recognized black president was not supposed to change anything. In fact, it was supposed to (1) ease any perceived racial tensions, and (2) allow the government to focus on legislating without race. So America would be more free than ever to discuss the issues.
Not the case. And that is why having a white Republican president is best for the country.
http://joeforamerica.com/2013/10/america-needs-white-republican-president/
San Francisco school reintroduces auto shop class
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- We're going to take you down memory lane when high schools offered auto shop as part of the curriculum. One high school in San Francisco is revving up its program and encouraging other students to sign up.
Few schools in the Bay Area encourage high school students to get down and dirty to repair cars. George Washington High in San Francisco is reintroducing car shop as part of its curriculum.
"I just like the feeling of messing with cars and you can tweak cars and all of that," said student Derek Kwan.
"I feel girls should know. If your car breaks down on the side of the road, you should know how to get out and fix that, you know," said student Adina Vasquez.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/education&id=9243648
PPP--"GOP could lose the House in 2014"
If the 2014 elections were held today, Republicans would be in grave danger of losing control of the House of Representatives, according to a series of 24 surveys conducted byPublic Policy Polling in Republican-held House districts over the past few days. The surveys challenge the conventional wisdom that gerrymandering has put the House out of reach for Democrats.
The surveys, commissioned and paid for by MoveOn.org Political Action, showRepublican incumbents behind among registered voters in head-to-head contests with generic Democratic challengers in 17 districts. In four other districts, the incumbent Republican falls behind a generic Democratic candidate after respondents are told that theRepublican incumbent supported the government shutdown.
In only three districts do Republican incumbents best generic Democratic challengers after voters are told theincumbent supported the government shutdown.
Democrats must pick up 17 seats to win control of the House. These poll results makeclear that if the election were held today, such a pickup would be well within reach.
The districts where a generic Democratic challenger leads prior to any information being provided about the shutdown are:CA-31, CO-06, FL-02, FL-10, FL-13, IA-03, IA-04, IL-13, KY-06, MI-01, MI-07,MI-11, NY-19, OH-14, PA-07, PA-08, WI-07
http://www.scribd.com/doc/173826158/GOP-could-lose-the-House-in-2014
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