Political News & Info

High-maintenance, tech-savvy and outspoken are just a few of the terms describing Generation Y. But car free? According to Ad Age , the millennial cohort is laying off the gas pedal when it comes to driving with a third fewer 17-year olds driving now than 30 years ago. Theories abound on why this shift is occurring, but no one can explain it with certainty. While I can’t claim to have the answer, I do know one thing – youth are on board with public transportation . We’re seeing it time and time again in the Golden State of California. In 2008, 50 CALPIRG students were so excited about the prospect of a bullet train that they gave up the usual spring break trip to Mexico for an alternative trip . They toured the projected route of the rail line, holding 9 press events with elected officials along the way, to show how enthused young adults were for the proposal. They held visibility events across the state and got out the vote. As one of the few groups organizing around Proposition 1A , it was the high-hopes of youth that helped pass the crucial ballot measure. We’re seeing it again, this time in the country’s “autotopia” of Los Angeles. In the face of endless traffic and smog, two-thirds of young and older Los Angeles County voters passed Measure R. This half-cent, 30-year sales tax will generate up to $40 billion with 65 percent of this revenue expected to fund an ambitious expansion of the region’s subway, light rail and bus services. Through the 30/10 initiative , Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa is working to build 12 Measure R funded public transit projects in just 10 years, rather than the planned 30 years, by leveraging again long-term Measure R funds. This policy is so sound that both Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina have endorsed it . It garners support from other strange bedfellows including labor and business groups, environmentalists and people in the entertainment industry, largely due to the organizing achievements of groups such as Move LA . And once again, youth are biting at the bit to push this great initiative forward. CALPIRG students at Santa Monica College, University of Southern California, and University of California Los Angeles have held press conferences , secured small business endorsements, turned out to Metro Board meetings, published letters to the editor, and gathered hundreds of written comments of support from their peers. The charge is on amongst young Angelenos to build the region’s public transit now. This growing support could not have come soon enough. We’re in a jam literally and figuratively. We need efficient ways to travel around the state that cut traffic and pollution, but we have far too few transportation options today. Investing in clean and modern public transportation projects, from rapid buses to high-speed rail, is critical to keeping our country moving in the 21st century. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another generation before America invests in first-class public transportation. The California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) is a statewide non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. CALPIRG is one of 26 state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) a part U.S. PIRG, the federation of state PIRGs .

Read more here:
Erin Steva: In The Public Interest : Public Transportation, The Wave Of The Future

The Texas jobless rate rose to 8.3 percent in August after a large loss of government jobs fueled by a purge of temporary Census workers, the state employment agency said Friday. The unemployment rate jumped from 8.2 percent in July, mostly because of a loss of 35,300 government jobs after Census workers were…

Read the original here:
Texas jobless rate jumps to 8.3 percent in August after Census-fueled loss in government jobs

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will head to Australia in November for strategic and security talks aimed at strengthening the alliance between the two nations. Hillary Rodham Clinton – United States Secretary of State – United States Secretary of Defense – Robert Gates – Australia

Read the original post:
Clinton, Gates going to Australia in November

The primary victory by Tea Party – backed candidate Christine O’Donnell in the Delaware Republican US Senate primary Tuesday probably diminishes the GOP’s chances of flipping a Democratic seat to a Republican one in the fall election, since she knocked out a moderate who was popular among the state’s broader electorate. That the same scenario is playing out elsewhere across the country points to a Republican Party in disarray. Republican – Christine O’Donnell – United States Senate – Delaware – Politics

View post:
A new Grand Old (Tea) Party

The Bay State will probably remain blue (Democratic) in the 2012 presidential contest. But if the red team (Republican) wins this year’s races for governor, treasurer, and auditor, and one or more of the 10 congressional seats, the state’s political coloration will turn purplish. AD: HBO: Real Time with Bill Maher Real Time With Bill Maher Fridays at 10PM ET/PT. New season begins September 17 on HBO. Get news, clips and photos

If Americans are sick of seeing Westboro Baptist Church members at the funerals of dead soldiers, they can rest a little easier. While they are not entirely retiring picket signs reading “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” church members have recently printed a few different ones: “The Jews Killed Jesus” and “Israel is Doomed.” These placards signal a slight change in focus that may become more prominent in the coming months or years: warn members of the Jewish community that it is time for them to repent for the killing of Christ . “Now that you’ve got the beast in the White House,” says Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of Pastor Fred Phelps, “and the destruction of this nation is almost upon them, God is going to return to the Jews. God is going to have mercy on them and restore them.” President Barack Obama, who they believe is the Antichrist, has made this shift in focus necessary. I ventured to ask how they can be sure that Obama is the Antichrist. “It’s a secret, but I’m going to share it with you,” she tells me. “First, I can read! Second, I can see! The scripture describes him, and he fits perfectly.” Westboro members see themselves as prophets ordained by God to warn an unaware and unrepentant generation. “We are called Watchers, and we’re watching. We saw this amazing phenomenon called Obama,” she tells me. “We know the time is right and all of a sudden this guy rises out of relative obscurity.” She points to Revelation 13:5, which states that the beast will be given a “mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words.” “He is the king pin on the blasphemy front — calling himself a Christian — and these dumb, gullible, doomed American brutes believing him!” she says. “He’s not a Christian, he’s a Muslim. He’s going to use the White House to promote murdering babies and fag culture.” According to Westboro members, shortly after Obama came to power, they realized that they had to shift some of their focus to the Jewish community. “With the beast in the White House, you got a short timeline,” Shirley says. According to Rebecca Barrett-Fox, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kansas who has been doing extensive research on the Phelps family since 2004, Westboro members believe, like many conservative Christians, that Jews are hell-bound unless they convert to Christianity. The attention that Westboro is paying to the Jewish community may lead some to conclude that they are associated with Christian Zionists. Nothing is further from the truth. Christian Zionism, a term given to a particular worldview within evangelicalism, places an enormous amount of cosmic importance on the Jews and the state of Israel. The birth of the state of Israel as well as the Israeli victory in the Six-Day War, in which Israel gained control of several sites of Biblical importance, were significant periods in the evolution of Christian Zionism in the twentieth century. For Christian Zionists, the fate of America is intimately tied to the state of Israel. As Jerry Falwell declared in 1980, “God has blessed America because America has blessed the Jew. If this nation wants her fields to remain white with grain, her scientific achievements to remain notable, and her freedom to remain intact, America must continue to stand with Israel.” Westboro members, in stark contrast, would declare that both countries are doomed. They are highly critical of contemporary Christian Zionist figures like John Hagee, the founder of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, who they believe is falsely telling the Jews that they have a right to the land. According to Westboro members, all the Jews who remain in America and most of the Jews who live in Israel during the end times will be killed. “Because they broke the covenant, and walk in the ways of their fathers in disobedience, and because they killed their Messiah, they have got a final indignation coming upon them,” Shirley tells me. Whereas Christian Zionists give blessings and support to the state of Israel and the Jewish people as a whole, Westboro members believe that only the elect mentioned in the book of Revelation will be saved. As the end times near, Westboro members are on a new quest to find the 144,000 Jews who will convert in the last days (Revelation 7:4). “They go to Jewish events to find them,” says Barrett-Fox. In an open letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on their website, they implore him not to be swindled by President Obama. “Rather than see him for the Beast he is, you foolish Jews will call him Messiah! … You will literally place Beast Obama into your temple and call him god,” the letter reads. With this embracing of Obama, the destruction of Israel will be assured, according to Westboro. However, the 144,000 elect Jews will see the error in their ways and repent for the killing of Christ, and thus they will be saved. “[W]e at Westboro Baptist Church know that among your Jewish brethren are 144,000 souls who will be given a spirit of grace and supplications,” the letter reads. “Those will mourn over their sins — the chief of which was the murder of the Messiah — and will turn their hearts to preparing the way for the return of Christ in power and glory.” As prophets of God, Westboro members feel it is their duty to warn the elect of the Jewish community before it is too late. “We realized that we had to start talking to these Jews,” Shirley tells me. “They are going to have to repent for killing Christ and for breaking the covenant.” After demonstrating in front of many Jewish places of worship, especially over the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah, Shirley is only slightly optimistic about discovering the Jewish elect. “I don’t know what we’re going to find. We’re looking, but they are no stinking good. We only find cursed Jews walking in gross, horrible darkness. That’s what we’ve found so far,” she tells me.

Read this article:
Amarnath Amarasingam: The Westboro Baptist Church’s Search for the Jewish ‘Elect’

North Dakota businesses must file paper forms and endure processing delays because Secretary of State Al Jaeger mishandled a technology project that would have allowed online filing of routine paperwork, Jaeger’s Democratic opponent said Wednesday. Jaeger, a Republican, has spent more than $2 million over six…

Originally posted here:
Democratic rival: ND business suffers because Sec. of State Al Jaeger bungled tech project

Here, via Gates of Vienna , and with subtitles by Vlad Tepes, is video of Filip Dewinter speaking against the GZ mosque on September 11, 2010 in Brussels. As usual, the socialist mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, prohibited the anti-GZ mosque 9/11 demonstration by Vlaams Belang and Cities against Islamization. As usual, the mayor cited the threat of violence — not violence on Filip Dewinter’s part or that of any of his supporters, but violence that would or just might be the response of that which now controls political discourse in Brussels and much of the wider West — Islamic mob rule. Indeed, Thielemans wrote as much in a letter to Filip Dewinter, describing the impossibility of keeping “the predictable violent outburst under control.” (Thielemans’ letter –  a dhimmi capitulation to a specifically Islamic blackmail through the flaccidly totalitarian powers of his office — is also translated at GoV.) As usual, VB demonstrated anyway in a valiant showing of civilized opposition to this sanctioned assault on freedom of expression. All in all, Dewinter’s is a vastly underappreciated, effort. I deeply appreciate it. Indeed, this website has long had its hat off to Dewinter’s steadfast and courageous life’s work to stem the Islamization of the Western world, which manifests itself in, among other things, the erosion of freedom of speech. In years past, violence has marred VB 9/11 demos –  not jihadist and illegal violence, but Socialist and official. Repeatedly, we have seen VB-led memorials on 9/11 met by the force of the Belgian state, sometimes with crushing savagery. Seeing is believing, so here is a picture of Filip Dewinter on 9/11/07 : Here is Frank Vanhecke, then Vlaams Belang chairman and a member of European Parliament at the same 2007 event. This year’s event was a small affair, and from what I can tell, went off without State incident. Why? There has been no return to reason by the State (see the Brussels mayor’s pusilanimous letter described above), but I think the State has arrived at a status quo that uneasily brooks a smallish amount of outspoken dissent because the larger population has learned something from rebel Vlaams Belang’s punishing experience: not to take back its freedoms, but to behave itself in the name of “peace.”

Read the original here:
Meanwhile, Back in Brussels …

FOLLOWING on my colleague’s post , after last night it’s safe to say that Republicans will lose several seats they otherwise should have won by nominating tea-party candidates. The question is how many Senate seats this includes—and especially whether it costs the GOP a Senate majority. The clearest example is Christine O’Donnell’s win over Mike Castle in Delaware last night. The tea-party favourite opposes abortion and even spent years campaigning against masturbation; has shallow roots in the state (having moved from Philadelphia only seven years ago); and talks fire and brimstone on taxes and spending. Mr Castle has held virtually every office in the state over a long career, and is a centrist in a Democratic-leaning state. Rasmussen’s last poll showed him 11 points ahead of Chris Coons, the Democrat. Rasmussen also showed Ms O’Donnell 11 points…behind. Democrats are jubilant. To the extent Democrats deserve a chastening, Republicans may fail to deliver it by indulging their id to the extent of nominating unelectable people. As Norm Coleman, the moderate Minnesotan senator said , Ms O’Donnell’s win made it likely the Republicans just won “100% of nothing” in Delaware. Two other seats the Republicans could have won in a walk are instead competitive: Nevada (thanks to the crackpot Sharron Angle) and Florida (thanks to the shunning of Charlie Crist). Republicans want to dethrone Harry Reid as majority leader. They could have also almost certainly rendered him a private citizen had not Ms Angle won the primary. She may win, but there is no guarantee. Meanwhile, Marco Rubio has siezed the lead in Florida’s election, but with Kendrick Meek looking unelectable, many Democrats may bolt to vote for Mr Crist to deny Mr Rubio the seat. What if the nominations of Ms O’Donnell, Mr Rubio and Ms Angle cost Republicans the Senate majority? We’ve often heard from the party faithful that they’d rather be a pure minority than a debased majority. But with control of Congress temptingly just out of reach, would they still think that come January? How would barely failing to grab the Senate affect the party’s approach to the more crucial elections of 2012? (Photo credit, top to bottom: Getty, AP, AP)

See the original post:
100% of nothing

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday said Israeli and Palestinian leaders are “getting down to business” on core issues of renewed peace talks, but gave no sign they are any closer to resolving a looming crisis over Israeli West Bank settlements.

More here:
Clinton: Israel, Palestinians Serious About Peace