Friday, November 22, 2013

Dynamics of U.S. Senate race take shape in Mississippi

by Bobby Harrison
JACKSON
"In recent years, Republicans’ efforts to take over the United States Senate have been thwarted at least in part by the ultra-conservative wing of the party – i.e., the Tea Party.
In Nevada, Delaware, Missouri, Indiana, Alaska, to name a few, the Republicans have lost what at one time were considered likely victories by nominating candidates the general election voters viewed as too conservative, out of the mainstream.
PPP, a national polling firm that is viewed as having allegiances to the Democratic Party, recently polled the 2014 Senate race here in Mississippi.
The poll revealed that in Mississippi – viewed as a safe Republican seat in national and most state elections – at this point in time a Democratic candidate would be competitive with state Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, who is the only candidate yet to announce he is seeking the seat in 2014.
McDaniel, who can be seen statewide in television commercials being paid for by national Tea Party-related political action committees, leads by slight margins two big-name Democrats – former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and former U.S. Rep. Travis Childers of Booneville. He trails by a slight margin current Attorney General Jim Hood – Mississippi’s only statewide elected Democrat.
In all three instances, the races are statistically dead heats, meaning the results are within the poll’s margin of error.
It would be interesting to see how Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley would have fared in the poll.
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a possible candidate for the Senate seat, polls better than McDaniel against the three Democrats – though there is only a one-point difference in a head-to-head with Hood.
PPP polled 502 Mississippi voters, “including an over sample of 422 Republican voters,” making the strong showing of the Democrats mentioned in the poll even more surprising.
Of course, the question is whether six-term incumbent Thad Cochran will run again. The veteran Republican has said he will announce a decision this month.
The poll indicates that Cochran is vulnerable. He leads McDaniel by only 6 percentage points and 55 percent say they would prefer a candidate more conservative.
At this point, the smart money might be on Cochran not running. Normally, if a politician plans to seek re-election, that person does not give any potential challenger an opening by wavering.
If Cochran does run, none of the aforementioned Democrats will enter the race, though, surprisingly, according to the poll, Hood would be competitive against the incumbent.
But still, regardless of the poll, it is difficult for daily observers of the Mississippi political scene to imagine a scenario where a Democrat could defeat Cochran in the general election.
If Cochran does not run, though, look for big-name Republicans and at least one Democrat to enter the race.
The PPP poll shows McDaniel, who has received a great deal of statewide attention since his announcement, with a slight lead in a crowded Republican field, which might include U.S. Reps. Greg Harper and Steven Palazzo, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, Auditor Stacey Pickering and Hosemann.
Interestingly, Reeves polls at the bottom of the Republican field with only 3 percent support.
But the interesting proposition for state Democrats, who have been beaten up and are at a low ebb, is whether a candidate could emerge from the Republican primary that even by Mississippi standards might be viewed as too conservative.
That has happened in other states, costing Republicans a chance to garner a Republican Senate majority.
Many might argue that the general electorate is much more conservative in Mississippi, meaning that a candidate who is too conservative, say in Indiana, would not be in Mississippi.
Is that correct?
We might see next November."
Bobby Harrison is the Daily Journal’s Capitol Bureau chief. Contact him at (601) 353-3119 or bobby.harrison@journalinc.com.
Comments: Read more including an excerpt  from  the New York Times on Mississippi Senator Chris Mc Daniel's campaign to unseat incumbent Senator Thad Cochran here:



Wednesday, November 13, 2013

What Religious Liberty Is... and Isn't | Rev. Susan Russell

People Are Asking: What Is Religious Liberty That Has Some Folks, Tupeloans Included, All Upset?

The best answer I've come across to the question of Religious Liberty is offered up, rather well I think, by Rev. Susan Russell in her latest article link below:

What Religious Liberty Is... and Isn't | Rev. Susan Russell



Friday, November 1, 2013

Spotlighting The AFA "Dark Side" Of Tupelo MS An Otherwise All American City

Spotlighting A Revised Edition of The 'Dark Side' Of Tupelo, MS.....--Al Bratton, Tupelo, 11-28-13

Open letter to Tupelo Daily Journal Editor, Joe Rutherford:

Citizens of Tupelo and North Mississippi should be made aware of activities of  their Tupelo-based, Tim Wildmon managed, American Family Association.--Al Bratton

"The AFA is a notorious anti-gay hate group.": A link to SPLC outlining AFA's "Hate Group" designation.
"The problem with the claim [from the American Family Association] is that it just isn't true. Charisma News just took the AFA as a legitimate source, which it isn't. Religious fundamentalists believe AFA legitima[cy] simply because it tells them what they want to hear. Truth and accuracy has nothing to do with it."
 "The Religious Right assumes certain things true. Anything substantiating these beliefs is assumed accurate and reported as such -- no matter how flimsy or implausible."...--James Peron
Read the complete link below:
Anatomy of a Smear: The Religious Right vs. the American Psychiatric Association | James Peron




Thursday, October 24, 2013

California Settles 'Dark Money' Case: Source


My comment on Huffington Post that was moderated out:

"Any other American would do time for this scheme. When are the Krotch Brothers going to do their time in the slammer? When is the real justice going to start? It will be left up to the American People. I'm ready to do my part to see these crooks put where they belong like any other crook!"--ABratt

Read the HP article from the link below :             

California Settles 'Dark Money' Case: Source

Monday, October 21, 2013

outlandish: If it wasn’t for gerrymandering and strategic disenfranchising the Democrats

*America is rejecting party politics based on strict religious dogma, politics of exclusion, politics of fabrication of facts and politics driven by who doesn’t deserve to be given a share of the pie which is all modern Republicanism is selling.

outlandish: If it wasn’t for gerrymandering and strategic disenfranchising the Democrats

ttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/20/democrats-take-back-house_n_4133836.html

ni·hil·ism

 noun \ˈnī-(h)ə-ˌli-zəm, ˈnē-\
: the belief that a society's political and social institutions are so bad that they should be destroyed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it wasn’t for gerrymandering and strategic disenfranchising the Democrats would have the house now and the destructive economic vandalism that came from the tea caucus wouldn’t have happened.Democrats in the house vote in 2012 received around 1.5 million more votes yet Republicans lost a few seats but kept the house.Republicans had no honest mandate and the irony is that all the seats they lost in 2012 were held by Tea Party dormice, while in what should have been close races the Tea people spiraled out of contention by being so far over the top and so ignorant of facts that they flamed out and crashed to earth. 


Yet the Tea nihilists(1) who had even less of a mandate caused more economic and political destruction than imaginable. They are nothing but scorched earth destructionists that nearly threw America of a steep, undermined and crumbling cliff over the past month and their only regret is that they didn’t succeed and in the midst of pure unfettered nihilism the old guard Republicans only managed to prove how spineless and ineffectual they are. Republicanism unless it finally tries to enter the post civil rights era is an essay in diminishing returns. 


They’ve lost all of the ethnic voters and it was only 70 years ago that blacks voted in the majority for Republicans but  beat down after beat down, they fled the party of Lincoln as it morphed into first the party of the rebel south and more recently the party of the John Birch conspiracy central, non science believing fundamentalist, literalist bible party. Hispanic are gone after being vilified and the faux post outreach program devised and rolled out soon after the 2012 election proved to be nothing but smoke and mirrors, the mirrors were shattering as Reince Priebus was laying out their new direction. 


Forget about young voters, who are far less complacent about politics than previous generations and are pushing for change that is the antithesis of all things Republican, they [young voters and old voters] want a more diverse, more cultured, more inclusive, far fairer and more egalitarian America, none of which Republicans have to offer. The Generation X and Millennial voters are much further left than their parents and further left than the Democratic Party and I wouldn’t surprise me if the 2 party system morphs into the Democratic Party middle and a workers, social democratic Party on the left but right wing extremism will fade with the end of the me first, last and only generation that is the core of the Republican base.  *America is rejecting party politics based on strict religious dogma, politics of exclusion, politics of fabrication of facts and politics driven by who doesn’t deserve to be given a share of the pie which is all modern Republicanism is selling.

Read the complete article:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/20/democrats-take-back-house_n_4133836.html