A Pennsylvanian's Thoughts On Specter's Defection

A Pennsylvanian's thoughts on Specter's Defection

This morning, I saw something hilarious on YouTube. Senator Inhofe (R-OK) went on Fox "News" to talk about how since Specter jumped ship to avoid certain death in a Pennsylvania closed Republican primary, the Republicans can mount a counter-offensive in the 2010 elections because ideological purity somehow gives them legitimacy. It seems to me that the Senator from Oklahoma needs a lesson in recent PA political history.

Pennsylvania is a political double-stuffed oreo. Blue on the edges, with a big creamy red center known fondly as Pennsyltucky. One need only ask Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pennsyltucky) to find out that the "Hillary Democrats" of this area are terrified both of black people and the government coming to their doorsteps trying to take away their guns. Imagine the terror a black secret islamo-fascist gungrabber must inspire!

Despite having vast swaths of red through it, Pennsylvania had millions of democratic crossovers this year, enough to make the GOP preemptively cry voter fraud. While there were concerns that a lot of these new registrations were to boost Hillary, and that the white creamy center of the Pennsyltucky Oreo would never vote for Obama, on election night my home state went firmly blue (Solidified by Obama calling for NCAA football playoffs on election eve, something Penn State fans have been after for decades. No surprise I didn't see much about that in the MSM).

The point is that most of these new democrats (barring the Operation Chaos bozos) didn't change their registration back. Turns out that mixed in amongst the racists, militia nuts and teabaggers were a lot of reasonable people who happen to have centrist political views, who might just be registered Republican because all their neighbors are. Perhaps these people have even been nudged a little left of center by the epic failure of the Bush administration, and are now open to ideas they found reprehensible when Clinton proposed them with Reagan's "golden age" in recent memory.
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Why Did Specter Defect?

Arlen Spector who was a long time Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, became a Democrat. Why? Is it only because he couldn't win reelection as a Republican against Toomey? Is it only survival or ideological? Is it a cold, clinical calculation or thoughtful progression toward the obvious? Real question: why is the GOP is such disarray? They are falling out with each other. They appear petty and petulant. They are no longer a national party. One thing for sure, this is only temporary. Politics creates unexpected opportunities. What do you say?

NY Church Quarrels Over New Pastor's Pay

Longstanding tensions among parishioners at the renowned Riverside Church erupted again this week as a group of congregants went to court to stop the installation of a new senior pastor whose compensation package, they say, exceeds $600,000 a year.

In a motion filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the group said that the new pastor, the Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton, and the church board that selected him last September after a yearlong search, had dismissed their calls for transparency in financial matters. They also complained that Dr. Braxton was moving Riverside away from its tradition of interracial progressivism and toward a conservative style of religious practice.

On Tuesday, a Supreme Court judge, Lewis Bart Stone, effectively denied the motion by adjourning the case to the end of May, a month after Dr. Braxton’s installation, which is scheduled for Sunday. The judge urged both sides to reach an accommodation in the case, which was reported on Wednesday by The Daily News.

The church, a Gothic cathedral built in 1930 by John D. Rockefeller at 120th Street and Riverside Drive in Manhattan, stood for many decades at the most heavily trafficked juncture of religious faith and social activism in the United States. Its pastors were early civil rights advocates who marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and invited him to speak in the pulpit. Its best-known leader was the fervent civil rights and anti-Vietnam War activist, the Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin Jr.
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ction: should u still vote 4 him bcuz he is against abortion? Just asking.

A serious question 4 my Catholic friends: If a presidential candidate condones torture, starts a war using lies, and helps 2 ruin the economy through ina

Dick Cheyney Appears Desperate

Lately, former Vice-president Dick Cheyney has been forced to defend the Bush-Cheyney legacy admit revelations of torture memos. These memos document the cruel and harsh interrogation techniques authorized by the Bush White House. How conservatives can support the use of torture is beyond belief. Although then President Bush said that America does not torture, the recently released memos betray the apparent lies.
Question: “Does Cheyney and Rove really want to defend this”? They must because the Department of Justice provided cover after the fact and because the scrutiny of time will reveal even more falsehoods.
Larger question: “Is the Obama administration ready for the investigation that will ensue”? And an even deeper question is: “Will the country be able to handle the truth”?

A Repudiation of Conservative Politics

President Obama appears to be a pragmatic progressive. Maybe he is not as publicly attached to ideology as some liberals would like. In his first 100 days, the country has experienced a repudiation of the conservative spin on politics in America.
1. Reaganomics is Out. The idea that wealth will trickle down from the top has been repudiated. The country only saw the gap between rich and poor grow wider.
2. Deregulation is Out. The push to deregulate the financial markets has almost caused a “depression”. At least this recession is in part to blame on the push to “get government out of the markets” because “the markets will regulate themselves”.
3. Government is bad is Out. The idea that government is bad is no longer accepted by the mainstream public. The American public understands bad government is bad, but good government is necessary. Libertarians will need better arguments for their hands off approach. The average American is hurting and is counting on good government to rescue them.

The Larger Question: “Is this a genuine realignment of politics? Or a temporary swing to the left”?

This is a test 4 mobile text blogging. Thx 4 understanding.