- GOP Senator: Cuba-China Oil Drilling Pact "Akin to Urban Legend"
Republican leaders are known for trafficking in myths and alternate realities: "Climate change is a hoax. Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were classmates and best friends in the 3rd grade. John McCain would make a good president." The usual stuff.
But with John McCain flip-flopping on the off-shore drilling moratorium, Vice President Dick Cheney and a slew of House Republicans decided to add yet another myth to their bag of tricks.
What do the following Republicans have in common?
Vice President Dick Cheney
Representative Michele Bachmann (MN-06)
Candidate Brian Davis (MN-01)
Candidate John Gard (WI-08)
Representative Sam Graves (MO-06)
Candidate Melissa Hart (PA-04)
Candidate Luke Puckett (IN-02)
Representative Jean Schmidt (OH-02)
Representative Tim Walberg (MI-07)
They're all making the same false claim that China is drilling for oil off the coast of Florida in Cuban waters.
It is silly, I know, but that is the latest talking point Republicans are pushing. Even former Republican National Committee chair and sitting Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez knows just how silly that claim is:
The renewed efforts prompted Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who opposes drilling off Florida's coast, to take to the Senate floor Wednesday to -- as his office put it -- ''debunk the myth'' of China drilling in Cuban waters.
''Reports to the contrary are simply false,'' Martinez said, his remarks delivered just before Cheney spoke. "They are akin to urban legends. China drilling off the coast of Cuba only 60 miles from the Keys, that is not taking place. . . Any talk of using some fabricated Cuba-China connection as an argument to change U.S. policy has no merit.''
- DNC Statement on Indiana Voter ID Law Ruling By the Supreme Court
This morning, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling upholding Indiana's undemocratic and restrictive voter identification law. The Supreme Court acknowledged that "The record contains no evidence of any such [impersonation] fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history," and acknowledged the law's burden on the elderly, low-income voters and other classes of voters covering hundreds of thousands of Indiana citizens. Yet this Court, ignoring the realities of life for the less affluent and powerful of the state's citizens, shrugged off these burdens and found that the law should stand. [New Republic Blog, 4/28/08]
After the ruling, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and DNC Voting Rights Institute Chair Donna Brazile issued the following statement:
"Today's decision by the Supreme Court is deeply disappointing and not justified by the facts. It is an affront to our nation's ideal that all people, regardless of their background or beliefs, have the right to vote and have that vote counted. This case has never been about securing the right to vote. Instead, it has confirmed the lengths Republicans will go to in their attempts to limit voting rights in order to win elections. This decision runs counter to the principles on which our great nation was founded, and we will not let them get away with it.
"But this ruling, while disappointing, will not halt the Democratic Party's efforts to promote and protect the right to vote. No one should mistake this decision for an invitation, let alone a requirement, for other states to impose new photo ID requirements at the polls. The DNC and state Democratic parties will redouble our efforts to block any new measure that seeks to strip any of our fellow citizens of the precious and fundamental right to vote. And we will fight in all states to remove existing obstacles to the right for all eligible Americans to vote and have their votes counted.
"As part of our efforts, the DNC's Voting Rights Institute and National Lawyers Council will work to ensure that voters in all states are educated about what is required. And looking toward November, the DNC and state Democratic parties will continue our voter protection program and field operations to make sure voters get practical, real-time assistance about securing the necessary documentation they need to vote in this critically important presidential election."
- Democratic Voter Registration Off the Charts
Democratic enthusiasm is off the charts this election year. Going as far back as Iowa, Democrats turned out at the polls and caucus sites in record numbers.
Another sign of the incredible energy expressed by Democrats are the record voter registration numbers.
The past seven states to hold primaries registered more than 1 million new Democratic voters; Republican numbers mainly ebbed or stagnated. North Carolina and Indiana, which will hold their presidential primaries on May 6, are reporting a swell of new Democrats that triples the surge in registrations before the 2004 primary. - Plant Closing Puts 896 Out of Work But Don't Tell Mitch Daniels
Nearly 1,000 employees at the General Electric refrigerator plant in Bloomington face losing their jobs when the company announced the plant's pending shutdown.
General Electric could close its Bloomington refrigerator plant late in 2009, dealing another setback to an industrial state trying to build a new tech economy even as factory jobs vanish.
GE announced the pending shutdown of the 896-employee plant in Southern Indiana on Thursday, while in metropolitan Indianapolis, student lender Sallie Mae idled 117 workers at its Fishers loan and service data center because of the nation's credit crunch.
America's ongoing credit crisis has raised fears that the national economy will tip into recession and take Indiana with it.
Republican Governor Mitch Daniels, however, could not be reached for comment. Pity. Surely the 896 employees in Bloomington wanted to hear more of that 'things are great' talk from Gov. Daniels' State of the State Address.
In a statement, Indiana Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker took Gov. Daniels to task:
Mitch Daniels delivered a lovely version of revisionist history to the people of Indiana tonight, but he failed to take into account his own record on property taxes, job growth and outsourcing.
Mitch Daniels wants to take credit for all the good while ignoring his past. [...]
[T]o hear Mitch Daniels spin it, we're living in a land of chocolate rivers and unicorns.
President John F. Kennedy once quoted "an old saying" at a press conference in 1961, "Victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan."
Shorter Mitch Daniels on his abysmal record: "I don't know that kid."
- Dean: Restrictive Indiana Voter ID Law Is a Manufactured Problem by Republicans Based on Fear Not Facts
Today, the Supreme Court heard arguments on Indiana's undemocratic voter identification law. While there has never been a report of voter impersonation fraud in Indiana, real voters - seniors, students, veterans, minorities and low-income families -have been disenfranchised at the polls because of this restrictive requirement.
Indiana's voter ID law is a manufactured problem by Republicans based on fear, not facts -- just another example in a long list of Republican efforts to suppress the right to vote. Republican strategist and Mitt Romney advisor Paul Weyrich was honest about the Republican tactics, telling a training session for 15,000 conservative preachers in Dallas:
"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." [http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=22222]
"This case underscores the lengths to which Republicans will go to manufacture a problem based on fear, not facts," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. "Undemocratic voter ID laws are just another part of a broad Republican effort to undermine our fundamental right to vote. For years, Republicans have orchestrated voter purges, inconsistently ad
