Uppity Wisconsin

Democrats still have a shot at taking 60 seats in the Senate.

538.com reports that Democrat Mark Begich has taken the lead over Republican Ted Stevens, and that many "remaining votes come from Begich-friendly districts. Mark Begich is now an overwhelming favorite to win the Alaska Senate seat."

I find it curious that John McCain and Sarah Palin have latched unto Barack Obama’s response to Joe the Plumber as a negative and a cause for criticism.

Calling Obama’s desire to spread the wealth around “socialist,” is telling of how detached McCain and Palin are from the American people and the quest for the American Dream.

An essential part of the American Dream is the notion that if you work hard enough, you can get ahead.  Inherent in that belief is the idea that you can share in the bounty of your labor—and you can use this new-found wealth to purchase and own your own home; create a better future for your children by sending them to college; and live without fear and want.

I thought we'd heard the end of this punkass, but here he is, lecturing Americans about the reason for Obama's popularity being the result of "white guilt."

Get over yourself.

One look at this man, and you know he’s never gone hungry his entire life.

So, add this to the growing number of reasons 40-year-incumbent Jim Sensenbrenner needs to face retirement this fall.

His solution to hungry people needing food, hungry people who were not impacted by recent floods, but part of a growing hunger crisis, is to create a bureaucracy to deny them food.

According to Wisconsin’s Hunger Task Force, Milwaukee is the 8th poorest city in the nation, and the 4th highest with children in living poverty.

It came as a big surprise to Sensenbrenner that a bunch of those folks stood in line as early as 5 a.m. to get food vouchers intended for flood victims.

“ … we saw a waste of federal resources that mocked a program designed to help people in dire straits … when it comes to federal funds and federal programs, there needs to be more verification and guidelines when handing out taxpayers’ money,” said Sensenbrenner. 

How much money would you pay, if any, to see Tony Blair play guitar in an Awesome Fun War Band with George Bush Jr.?

You can get it free courtesy British band Coldplay's latest video. Worth watching.

Update: John Nichols: A Baldwin shift to Obama could send crucial message

So, why is Wisconsin's most progressive elected official and superdelegate still declared, alone among elected state officeholders, for Hillary Clinton?

Good question for Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison).

What does it take from Clinton for Baldwin to jump ship?

Updated - An afterthought on Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania is a quasi-Democratic machine state. Thus one expected the machine-backed candidate, Hillary Clinton, to do well with the most established demographics there: Whites and older citizens.

No doubt then that Hillary's expected win on Tuesday (nine points) and her turning-the-tide spin generated a round of media ridicule and explicit reference to the Pennsylvania machine-state status, minimizing the significance of the Clinton victory. Not what happened.

As Chuck Todd: (Hardball, April 7) had put it, "...Pennsylvania is a machine state. You know it‘s a machine democratic state. It is an old school machine state and she has the entire machine behind her, other than the Casey family. She‘s got the state party officially behind her."

via MAL Contends

When an American politician in the presidential general election campaign says his/her opponent is out-of-the-mainstream, it's a lie.

The losing opponent will garner at least some 45 percent of the vote, disconfirming out-of-the-mainstream status, though election votes are imprecise indicators of public opinion.

The complex reality of the American political culture sees support for universal health care, social security for our seniors, full employment, as well as a mass base for fascism, racist policies at home, a decided antipathy to civil liberties, and near-genocidal wars of aggression abroad, amid what can most accurately be described as a depoliticized electorate.

But the he's-not-like-us charge is aimed at the person; a personal attack that the opponent is somehow alien, out-of-touch, different, elitist, not-of-this-culture, even malicious and the related charge that he/she is dangerous and unpredictable.