The Smithian

March 29th, 2013

thesmithian

We used to hire 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes…

Rep. Don Young, Republican, Alaska

February 9th, 2013

thesmithian

‘the bipartisan consensus that supported the Voting Rights Act for nearly fifty years has collapsed…’

…and conservatives are challenging the law as never before. Last November, three days after a presidential election in which voter suppression played a starring role, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to Section 5 of the VRA, which compels parts or all of sixteen states with a history of racial discrimination in voting to clear election-related changes with the federal government. The case will be heard on February 27. The lawsuit, originating in Shelby County, Alabama, is backed by leading operatives and funders in the conservative movement, along with Republican attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas. Shelby County’s brief claims that “Section 5’s federalism cost is too great” and that the statute has “accomplished [its] mission.” The current campaign against the VRA is the result of three key factors: a whiter, more Southern, more conservative GOP that has responded to demographic change by trying to suppress an increasingly diverse electorate; a twenty-five-year effort to gut the VRA by conservative intellectuals, who in recent years have received millions of dollars from top right-wing funders, including Charles Koch; and a reactionary Supreme Court that does not support remedies to racial discrimination.

more.

September 29th, 2012

thesmithian

Zoom

The safe (or safeish) G.O.P. states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Together they account for a hundred and ninety-one votes in the electoral college. The safe (or safeish) Democratic states are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington—plus the District of Columbia. Together they account for two hundred and one electoral votes.

more.

The safe (or safeish) G.O.P. states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Together they account for a hundred and ninety-one votes in the electoral college. The safe (or safeish) Democratic states are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington—plus the District of Columbia. Together they account for two hundred and one electoral votes.

more.

July 17th, 2012

thesmithian

…nations are staking out territory to scavenge for the world’s remaining energy resources. The Arctic is proving particularly contentious. As climate change melts the ice caps and allows for exploration, the Arctic powers—Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the U.S.—are aggressively laying claim to an area estimated to contain one-fifth of the world’s undiscovered oil and natural gas. Britain and Argentina are quarreling over resources near the Falkland Islands. China and Japan are embroiled in a dispute over natural gas in the East China Sea. Malaysia and Indonesia are squaring off over deposits in the Celebes Sea. And long dormant Alaskan border disputes among the United States, Canada, and Russia are stirring again. With its tales of rising tensions and shrinking resources…It is a sweeping account of the world’s energy dilemma…

more.

…nations are staking out territory to scavenge for the world’s remaining energy resources. The Arctic is proving particularly contentious. As climate change melts the ice caps and allows for exploration, the Arctic powers—Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the U.S.—are aggressively laying claim to an area estimated to contain one-fifth of the world’s undiscovered oil and natural gas. Britain and Argentina are quarreling over resources near the Falkland Islands. China and Japan are embroiled in a dispute over natural gas in the East China Sea. Malaysia and Indonesia are squaring off over deposits in the Celebes Sea. And long dormant Alaskan border disputes among the United States, Canada, and Russia are stirring again. With its tales of rising tensions and shrinking resources…It is a sweeping account of the world’s energy dilemma…

more.

May 26th, 2011

thesmithian

'...Sarah Palin will begin a bus tour of the East Coast on Memorial Day weekend, the latest and most significant evidence that the former governor of Alaska is still seriously considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination this year.'

May 9th, 2011

thesmithian

[Bristol Palin] 'The show will follow "the most famous single mother in America" from Wasilla to Los Angeles.'

April 20th, 2011

thesmithian

'[Palin and Trump's] ... non-political, entertainment careers have been developed by the same reality show producer, Mark Burnett, who created both "Sarah Palin’s Alaska" and "The Apprentice." Like the Palin and Trump relationship, Burnett’s ties to his stars do not appear to have anything to do with the issues. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Burnett is a big Democratic campaign donor, having given both to Hillary Clinton’s campaign for President in 2008 and the Democratic National Committee, for which he wrote a $30,400 check in 2009, the maximum allowed by law.'

February 20th, 2011

thesmithian

'A leaked manuscript by one of Sarah Palin's closest aides from her time as governor charges that Palin broke state election law in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign and was consumed by petty grievances up until she resigned. The unpublished book by Frank Bailey was leaked to the media and widely circulated on Friday. The manuscript opens with an account of Palin sending Bailey a message saying "I hate this damn job" shortly before she resigned as Alaska's governor in July 2009, less than three years into her four-year term. The manuscript goes on for nearly 500 pages, a mixture of analysis, gossip and allegation. Copies of the manuscript were forwarded around Alaska political circles on Friday. The Daily News received copies from multiple sources, the first from author Joe McGinniss, who is working on his own Palin book. McGinniss didn't respond to a message asking where he obtained the manuscript and the reason he circulated it.'

January 28th, 2011

thesmithian

'...Alaska officials must release by the end of May an estimated 26,500 pages of emails exchanged between former Governor Sarah Palin and her aides...'

+++++

art: credit unavailable

January 24th, 2011

thesmithian

'Whether or not you believe there is any connection between the first assassination attempt ever made on an American female politician and the gun-slinging rhetoric of the first Republican woman ever nominated for the vice presidency, what’s undeniably true is that despite the vast philosophical and intellectual chasms between them, Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin have something in common: they are both cowgirl politicians. In this, they are symptomatic of the too-narrow ways in which the United States is willing to accept women as leaders...'

January 22nd, 2011

thesmithian

The media obsession with Palin began naturally and innocently enough, when the Alaska governor emerged as an electrifying presence on the Republican presidential ticket more than two years ago. But then something unhealthy happened: Though Palin was no longer a candidate, or even a public official, we in the press discovered that the mere mention of her name could vault our stories onto the most-viewed list. Palin, feeding this co-dependency and indulging the news business’s endless desire for conflict, tweeted provocative nuggets that would help us keep her in the public eye—so much so that this former vice presidential candidate gets far more coverage than the actual vice president…We need help.

Dana Milbank, at The Washington Post

November 15th, 2010

thesmithian

'Sarah Palin's slick new reality show...may qualify as the earliest, most expensive presidential campaign ad ever made…What has made some Palin supporters even more excited than the prospect that her reality show might expose her to an untapped demographic is her portrayal, harking back to an earlier, softer, pre-Tea Party Palin. There she is, not tweeting or posting anti-Obama blasts on Facebook, but dog-mushing/caribou-hunting, all the time gushingly folksy…"The TV show is going to allow her to reestablish herself with the general public because—right now—non-Republicans will remember her for the mistakes that were made in the 2008 campaign, and the year following that election," said a former aide, who worked for the John McCain/Sarah Palin ticket in the last presidential election. "A lot of people only saw the Katie Couric or Tina Fey sides of Palin. They didn't see what other people saw in her: the authentic mother of five who lives in Alaska, who came from nothing, lived out the American dream, who was a hunter, had a husband who was a snow machine racer—that authenticity is what people will love about her."'

of course it’s a political ad. all the time acting like it’s not.

October 19th, 2010

thesmithian

Zoom

It took 410 days to build the Empire State Building; four years to erect the Golden Gate Bridge. The Pentagon took two years; the Alaska Highway just nine months. These days it takes longer to build an overpass … President Obama says there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects. But he has it wrong. There are projects perfectly ready for the shovels. It’s the bureaucrats, activists and politicians who aren’t ready to hand them out.
more, here. in NYC, they say it’s organized crime that slows everything down.

It took 410 days to build the Empire State Building; four years to erect the Golden Gate Bridge. The Pentagon took two years; the Alaska Highway just nine months. These days it takes longer to build an overpass … President Obama says there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects. But he has it wrong. There are projects perfectly ready for the shovels. It’s the bureaucrats, activists and politicians who aren’t ready to hand them out.

more, here. in NYC, they say it’s organized crime that slows everything down.

September 21st, 2010

thesmithian

at least 6 'tea' party-backed GOP candidates—Nevada’s Sharron Angle, Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell, Colorado’s Ken Buck, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, Alaska’s Joe Miller, New York’s Carl Paladino—would ban abortion for rape and incest victims.

September 16th, 2010

thesmithian

Such opposing views Between Tea Partiers and Hispanics are exemplified by the recent decision by Marco Rubio in Florida, a Tea Party darling, to “distance himself from the Tea Party” and seek a more moderated position on key issues for Hispanics…Now that Rubio is in 3-way race, Rubio wants to focus more on pressing issues for independents and Hispanics in Florida. This shift on tone by Rubio is important because, unlike Alaska, Kentucky, and Nevada where Tea Party Candidates have won, Florida is large heavily Hispanic populated and a moderate state. Similarly California, Texas, and Florida are all Hispanics states and highly populated, and the most taxed per-capita, yet Tea Party candidates were rejected. Conversely, Alaska—a “welfare state“—Kentucky and Nevada, states that have chosen Tea Party senatorial candidate(s), are rural and heavily subsidized states.

Somos Republicans’ Alex Gonzales, conservative political analyst/commentator

via HHR