November 05, 2014 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized
Welcome to The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.
I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.
A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.
This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
1Joe Hill “Don’t mourn Organize!”
2Or as President Obama has said often: Don’t boo, VOTE!!
3Until Hell freezes over. And then on the ice.
4Going grass roots, people, not Monsanto Koch fueled village idiot candidates. Unless he retires, Harry Reid is up for reelection in 2016. It was time to replace him in 2010, but not with the Koch selected Sharron Angle. The power brokers are attempting to tell us Brian Sandoval, current NV governor is our next pick. That is just so wrong on so many levels; that he is an “R” is just the beginning. We’ve been looking around to pick our own candidate. If he accepts, the plan is to hit the ground running and never look back. Small groups building and already active with a renewed voter registration drive. If our favorite declines, we’ve a short list of candidates acceptable and won’t stop until we have our candidate, not some stooge that requires holding one’s nose to vote.
5PKM: You may be my new hero!
6One victory for Alaska or at least it’s looking that way now…we will get rid of Parnell and get an Independent, (not-left-over-from-Sarah-Palin) Governor and a Democratic Native Alaskan Lieutenant Governor. We are going to lose Mark Begich I’m sorry to say, but he was a good man caught between a rock and hard place and not able to keep either R’s or D’s happy. Oh, yeah, and lots of Koch Brothers money bringing him down.
On another happy (high?) note, marijuana, increased minimum wage, and increased protections for the Bristol Bay salmon fishery all won. And Anchorage repealed some local union busting legislation.
7PKM–I have to agree with djw…hero, and perhaps YOU should run!
8“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” — William Butler Yeats
9This was the Republican’s election to lose, and they did not lose it: 1 running against the President proved hugely successful, but where that leads them remains to be seen, 2 the Democrats, particularly in senate races were more exposed to loss. 3 it was an off year election with a lame duck president, 4 Democrats were unlucky with so much bad news, particularly ebola and Isis, occurring when they did, and 5 Obama is the antithesis of the “Great Communicator” who also suffered losses at this point in his presidency.
So how do Democrats respond? Our legislators on both federal and state levels need to counter-punch during the next two years, taking advantage of the GOP’s lack of an agenda other than being against the President. And we need new leaders, with new ideas.
10djw and Elise Von Holten, thank you, but back up the train. Other than being too young, the lack of experience dealing with scoundrels renders me ineligible. Let’s get to 2016 with candidates we chose, while grooming more candidates for 2020.
The evangelicals have spent years creating tools at their alleged universities. We need to turn that around to nurture real people who run for office prepared to battle scoundrels, without becoming one.
It was a sad night for Texas, when Senators Davis and Van de Putte were not elected. Positive people, pro education, pro equality with experience and ability to govern. Sincerely hope the political @#&* storm doesn’t discourage those two fine ladies from winning in 2018.
One more disqualifier for me becoming a politician, I’m a guy. We’ve tried that for 250 years or so. It’s time for us to be the good men behind the great ladies.
11Dave, I agree with you. We need new leaders from the top down in Congress. Every day our in-box fills with the same crap from DCCC. I don’t even know who the Chairman is, and all they want is money. Why haven’t they been on TV supporting Dem candidates??????? Why haven’t they been to the states to help support candidates? They don’t have to be raising money, just go and let voters see that we still have a party so get out the vote.
Only a little over 3 million even voted in Texas. Each of the major cities have over 2 million population. Four of those should have at least 500,000 voters we are not reaching. It’s not what the block walkers haven’t done, its money. The DCCC national organization will have to find money for us in order to start efforts right now for 2016.
So the big question is what can we do against Koch money?
12Did anyone have to go to paper ballots in the election? Can anyone tell me what the info below means? It was posted on our local newspaper website in Hood Co., Granbury, Tx.
13—————-
“Chris Tackett won 56 percent of the vote to defeat fellow Granbury High School graduate Virg Thomas for the Granbury School Board. Results weren’t known until 3:30 a.m. Wednesday because ballots were being hand counted after the county had gone to paper ballots because the Congressional challenger was listed as a Democrat instead of Libertarian. Tackett, senior human resources manager at the nuclear plant, succeeds retiring Don Walton.”
Only half of the Obama voters voted for Davis.
14and now the inmates continue to run the aslyum
15I’m listening to Thom Hartmann as we speak, and he’s pointing out the dichotomy that progressive ballot initiatives won while the candidates lost. My opinion? The DNC sucks. They need to stop supporting Republican Lite candidates and go with true Progressives. Start by giving the boot to Debbie Wasserman and bringing back Howard Dean.
16Couldn’t stand watching the results last night and watched PBS instead. Woke up this morning, knowing there would be disappointments. Holy. Mother. Of. God.
Hoping if there is a recount here that Hickenlooper retains as Governor. All other hope is lost, except for the fact that we defeated, yet again, another personhood amendment. Some other good legislation but a raft of losses in Fed representation.
The show I watched on PBS was interestingly about women in the Senate and Congress and if it hadn’t of been for them that G.D. shutdown might have gone on longer. And this, regardless of political affiliation. Hmmmm, maybe we should now concentrate on more women in those areas, they seem to be able to get past some pretty ugly stuff coming out of those Old White Men.
I believe it’s way past time we started to support all those who are working for the good and not grandstanding. Time to take down names and kick butt in 2016.
Shake it off!
17Two suggestions… for what they are worth.
1) Just as you comment on this “non-blog” …. please also write a letter to your local paper…. Never mind…. if they publish it…. keep them aware of your politics, and what you expect from people who run for office. Keep writing.
2) Find out who is your local “precinct judge…. when your local precinct convention is held, and where….. Go….. and speak up. Precinct conventions are usually held at your polling place….. after the polls have closed. Make your voice heard there also….. even if you vote by mail…. or if you vote early. These people take your opinions to their state conventions….. let them know what they are.
All politics REALLY ARE LOCAL.
18@JaneE … I watched the same PBS program last night … right after Finding Your Roots. I’ve really enjoyed the Makers series so far and last night’s Women in Politics was especially good. We definitely need more women like that in our politics and, hopefully, we’ll be getting them.
19Just saw the preliminary results from my precinct — essentially the entire township. 52% turnout — not bad for a by-election but still on the pitiful side. None of the 4 offices got more D votes than R votes although the Governor was the closest where Corbett (R) got 364 and Wolf (D) 320. The D candidate for Congress got a mere 31% of the votes cast which is respectable in this township. I’ll have to look at a few other precincts to see how well things went “up ta Collich” which is traditionally a strong area for D’s.
20This is a lovely little story about Harry Potter and the 2014 Elections.
21http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2014/11/05/harry-potter-and-the-2014-election/
There was a story/theory on NPR this morning that all the D Senators who lost were moderated. That’s a crime, both morally and politically.
22What we need to find is a presidental candidate for 2016 with the drive and the fund raising ability to succeed, despite all Turd Blossum and the Nazi supplier Kochs can throw at him/her.
In addition, 10 million people giving $10 to $100 each can beat those mentioned above. We need to energize the base and get people giving small amounts of money where it will do the most good.
I HATE attack ads. Lets get some really appealing platform/policy ads.
PKM-
23I too, kept using the phrase, “hold my nose” in this election about everybody but Dave Loebsack.
I have never known how to stop.
24I hardly slept last night; my brain was on overload. This morning i woke up to find junk from four different Tea Party lists in my mail. How’d they do that? Did anyone else get those? How about all of us who did, find something outrageously liberal (from a list we like) and send it back the other way?
25And re: precincts, that is right except now our precinct conventions are held at the county convention. Is that just Travis County or all over Texas?
and re: fighting, we need to have a strategy.
and has anyone had involvement with WOLFPAC with Young Turks?
PKM, you get to organize Nevada. Texas is about all we can handle, and we hafta get a Constitutional amendment first or some other way of getting rid of CU.
One thing to mull over: the Senate still does not have the Super Majority they so much wanted. That would be a locked down 61 votes by the Republicans.
26Marge Wood, you brought out a great point. Each state has individual needs which need to be addressed by the state. Although we could share some ideas on saving and maintaining clean water during a drought and fr the future.
However, regarding candidates seeking national office, those candidates need to be able to address the concerns of their constituents, while staying focused on “the common good.” The bad news is that too many candidates this cycle had tunnel vision on the tree and missed the forest. The good news is that Republicans do not have the words “the common good” in their reactionary rhetorical arsenal, which should be their downfall in 2016.
There are more issues, but for brevity, consider water and war. Even the dumbest will figure out the water thing, hopefully before dying of thirst. Bombs and war, such a waste of money fighting ‘the terrorist of today,’ while creating terrorists for the next 3 generations. The simple message, kill my kid or grandmother and expect me to be your friend?
I’ll keep NV, Marge, you can have Texas. We managed to corral Sharron in 2010, Louie is still out there flapping his gums. j/k Very much aware our problems are myriad, too.
27Here’s my 2 cents worth: pick a simple theme – get behind the theme – don’t debate other things. Sometimes this approach makes the Republicans look stupid, but the reason they win elections is that many people in America don’t look beyond the sound bites. The Dems need more of those folks to vote for them.
28BOHICA: “Bend Over Here It Comes Again”
More of the same. The Republican voters of Texas, and those those that stayed away from the polls, deserve what they get. Ranked 51st in the number of non-elderly women with health insurance, as well as in voter turnout among women. Last in the percentage of pregnant women who get prenatal care in the first trimester and near the bottom in the number of women who’ve seen a dentist in the past year, or women older than 44 who have received a mammogram. Texas ranks number one in the “amount of hazardous waste generated” and first in carbon dioxide emissions. Also in the top five for states who release a bunch of cancer-causing carcinogens into the water. Second highest percentage of uninsured kids. They lead the nation in both uninsured adults and uninsured elders, and rank dead last, once again, in per capita mental health spending. Ranked 43rd in spending per student at the K-12 level for those public schools (in other words, more students, but less money being spent on their education). Texas also ranks dead last in the percentage of the state population who have graduated from high school. There are still areas in which Texas continues to lead the nation: They’re still first in executions and fourth in overall incarcerations. The birth rate and teen birth rate are also still impressively high. Also, the bridges are very safe. Second best in the nation. So there’s that.
29I’m a Texas Democrat, I’m used to losing!!
Veto, Baby, Veto!
30http://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/
pretty much sums up how I feel today.
31I live in Kansas, and can empathize with those of you in TX.
Jan Grebe, congratulations to those of you in Kansas who fought a good fight. Living in ground zero Koch country obfuscated the battle.
Shame on those Koch suckers who wheeled out former Senator Dole to use him; seriously, they should be charged with elderly abuse. Pat Roberts stabbed Senator Dole in the back when they served in the Senate together, yet had the chutzpah to have a defenseless old man wheeled out to utter words he didn’t understand to support a man he probably can’t stand, if he were still sentient.
In a word, Republicans are shameless.
32Man. I grew up in Wichita.
33The republicans say they want to “work with democrats” … which is pure bull…. they want to drag this country into an unregulated, fracked out, creationist theocracy for the plutocrats, they can do that all by themselves.
34Only 1/3 of the people who could vote did so.
35Could we have some smart funny ads (like Mac vs PC) instead of the attack ads (which all sound alike: a low bass note and a deep voiced man direly delivering some info.)
Elizabeth Warren’s issues were overwhelmingly passed in R states … what does THAT tell us ?!?
xoxo to y’all.
Two quotes come to mind.
Abraham Lincoln: The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even one hundred defeats.
And Mother Jones: Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.
36http://www.stonekettle.com/2014/11/ted-nugent-is-just-fine-and-so-are-you.html
37Yes, Sarah… we all need to read, consider and absorb the wisdom of Jim Wright at stonekettle.com. Thanks for posting the link there.
38I just noticed this tonight:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/05/steve-israel-dccc_n_6111222.html
“Steve Israel Out As DCCC Chair”
I don’t recognize the name of this guy who is now resigning. Surprise, surprise… ?
Maybe someone more memorable and effective will assume the position and do something productive with it in the coming years.
39Thanks, Sarah, for Jim Wright. I linked it to my FB page.
40Oops. My bad. I figured out the connection of Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) to the DCCC… I was tired and didn’t correctly process the information in front of me earlier. Not the first time; probably not the last one, either. My apologies.
41Well, it’s been more than 24 hours, and this Republican is still in shock at just how badly the Democrats were beaten. I had hoped for some outbreak of intelligence in the country, but nope… the idiots and lunatics of my (former) party not only won, they’ve got control now, driving the train like drunken engineers and preparing to switch it onto a dead-end track.
I do feel for you folks, I wanted intelligence to win out over fear and hate, but it’s clear that for now fear and hate has control over the public. So what do we do now? We keep fighting against the fear and hate with the truth. There is no Ebola epidemic, there is no invasion by ISIS, the PPACA is working, the economy is improving, unemployment is decreasing, and companies are starting to invest again. And shine a massively bright light on all that dark money, find out where it’s coming from, and choke it at the source. And keep fighting for the truth!
42A bit more thoughts post-election . . . there were two other things on the VA ballot worth noting. One was a tax exemption for the survivors of veterans. The other was a bond issue for transportation needs. Both passed, as they should. There was no way any living human being could vote against a veteran’s widow. As for transportation, northern VA is really up against it when it comes to getting from Point A to Point B in a population now over a million. The subway system originally started to service only D.C. is trying very hard to expand to such places as Dulles Airport which is closer to Ashburn, VA than D.C. Fort Belvoir, now bursting at the seams after taking in thousands of civilian employees and military from other closed bases has caused an awful lot of road construction and restructuring int he area but the idea of extending the subway, possibly as a monorail, to the base hasn’t received any money, but the push is not going away. As for Mark Warner’s “slim” lead, can’t believe that almost 17,000 votes is considered slim!!! Take heart, people. All politics really is local.
43