Political Heat

This past weekend, Glenn Beck held a rally on the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr's, "I Have A Dream" speech. Critics of Beck, who hold that his views are contradictory to the message that Dr. King tried to spread, held their own counter-demonstration, marching to the Lincoln Memorial following the end of Beck's rally. Beck insisted that his rally wasn't meant to be political -- even though he, a FOX News political commentator, was the MC, and Sarah Palin, potential Republican candidate for president in 2012, also spoke. Beck said that his message was more about bringing America back to its true principles, unifying everyone around them in hopes of restoring the values that this country holds dear. Such a goal is noble -- until you realize that Beck's true ambitions are to unify the country around the principles and beliefs that HE holds, not what the country was founded upon or has traditionally adhered to. Beck...

I've taken the past week off in order to refocus my thoughts, and to frankly have just time away from writing in general. That doesn't mean, however, that I haven't been paying attention to the latest stories and headlines. While I was gone I have been keeping them fresh in my mind for when I returned to Political Heat. It was revealed this week that Republican Party senate candidate Ron Johnson's company, which he frequently touted as having never received any special treatment from the government, received special loans in the 1980s numbering in the millions of dollars. "I have never lobbied for some special treatment or for a government payment," Johnson has said . Clearly, Johnson has some homework to do, on his own campaign no less. Political ad spending for 2010 has surpassed the amount of spending at this time in 2006 (the last midterm election year), and by all accounts this year's ads have been about the negativity. Two issues come about from th...

Ron Johnson has had a difficult time sticking to his principles this campaign season -- perhaps because he doesn't have any. The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, who is hoping to unseat current Sen. Russ Feingold this fall, has proven to be a formidable opponent for the thrice-elected Democrat. Several polls show Johnson just a few points under Feingold, with recent Rasmussen polls showing the Republican even leading him (see why that may not be so big a concern here ). That's likely to change, however. Recent ads from the Feingold campaign have brought to light what kind of senator Ron Johnson would be were he to win election this November. One of the first ads detailed how Johnson, when asked about whether he'd be open to drilling for oil in the Great Lakes, said that " we have to get the oil where it is ." Johnson later said he misheard the question (but only after the Feingold campaign released its commercial , weeks after the interview). Even so, Johnso...

The Minnesota GOP has an interesting agenda. It isn't about jobs, the economy, the wars overseas, or even the Ground Zero mosque debate. Their major concern? Who has the bigger hotties! A web video in Minnesota State Senate Distrcit 56 was posted, playing music to images of women in politics, separating these women by which political party they aligned themselves with. During the Republican women montage (featuring overly flattering photographs of these women), "She's a Lady" played; during the Democratic women (which featured overly unattractive photographs), "Who let the Dog's Out?" was the song of choice, suggesting that Democratic women weren't all too good-looking. Democrats in the state have called the video sexist and offensive; the official state GOP has tried to distance itself from the video as well, condemning it as the work of those in the 56th Senate district. "The day when a woman was judged by her looks rather than her competence...

Often with polling, certain questions get buried for whatever reason. With recent polling of President Barack Obama, there's been a steady pattern of a president losing the support of the American people. Many attribute this to his being "too liberal." They'd be wrong. A CNN research poll shows that Barack Obama's approval rating among the American people is dipping below the 50 percent margin, with 47 percent approving his work as president thus far and 51 percent disapproving. But when you break that poll down more, when you look at the reasons behind WHY his approval rating has dipped, it's clear that Americans want him to be as liberal or more liberal than he is being. 46 percent of Americans believe he is being "too liberal." 39 percent of Americans believe he's "just right," while 13 percent believe he's "not liberal enough. This means that 52 percent of the American people are as liberal as, or more liberal than, the pr...

President Obama this weekend threw his support behind an Islamic mosque to be built in an area close to where the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred in lower Manhattan, New York city. The so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" -- which won't actually be located at Ground Zero , but will be built two blocks away -- has the full support of the president as well as NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who compared Obama's support for religious neutrality to that of George Washington in the early days of the U.S. republic when he supported a Jewish temple in Newport, Rhode Island. "The Citizens of the United States of America," Washington wrote, "have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship . It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed th...

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, a conservative-minded radio personality that specializes in relationships (though her doctorate degree is in physiology), recently used the N-word several times on her program . She has since apologized for her use of the word, stressing that she doesn't condone its use but that she was attempting to make a philosophical point -- that it's hypocritical that some black people use it affectionately for each other while whites cannot use it at all. Philosophical or not, when you engage another person on a topic of great controversy, where hundreds of years of historical oppression are well-documented, you are required to be respectful, courteous, and mindful of the subject at hand. And if you do offend, you certainly don't exacerbate the problem by calling the person you're talking with "hypersensitive." The argument that it's "just a word" and that others use it so it's OK, doesn't make it OK to use it yourself. Word...

Ben Quayle, son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, is running for Congress in the state of Arizona. In an attempt to gain acceptance from conservative constituents in a state as crazy-right-wing as Arizona, Quayle has come out with a new campaign ad designed to appeal to a growing radical conservative base. In the ad, Quayle stares straight into the camera and calls Barack Obama the “ worst president in history .” We shouldn’t be surprised by anything at this point from the right. From the unfounded belief in “death panels” in the health insurance reform debate, to the absurd notion that President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., the fringe right has never once held back when it comes to trying to discredit the commander-in-chief, no matter how crazy the assertion they make is. Unfortunately, more and more of these “activists” are becoming leaders of the GOP, winning in important primary challenges and causing the Republican Party to move further right in order to appease them. The ass...

The Republican Party in the state of Iowa has placed on its platform a peculiar proposal: reintroduce the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution as introduced to the states around the year 1812. Of course, the current Thirteenth Amendment outlaws slavery. But an amendment proposed more than 50 years before – an amendment that would have been the Thirteenth had just one more state at the time voted to affirm it – would have banned any citizen of the United States from receiving “any present, pension, office, or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince, or foreign power.” The punishment proscribed by Congress for doing so without its consent? The stripping of one’s citizenship. The point to all of this is that Barack Obama this year accepted a Nobel Peace Prize , an award bestowed to recipients by the King of Norway. The thinking here must be that, if it can’t be proven that Obama isn’t a citizen, then heck, let’s just find a way to STRIP him of his citizenship! ...

Originally published at Dane101.com The Wisconsin State Journal this week ran an editorial about the slew of campaign ads hitting Wisconsin as of late, particularly the ads pitting Incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold against businessman and sometimes- Tea-Party-endorsed -sometimes- not-so-much Republican candidate Ron Johnson. The editorial attempts to appeal with the fatigue we all feel when campaign season rolls around in the Badger state: sometimes we're just so fed up with all the ads that November "can't come soon enough." Using the Senate race as the prime example, the Wisconsin State Journal tries to paint both candidates as overstepping their bounds when it comes to commercials they recently released. The Feingold campaign, the State Journal said, ran an ad stating that Johnson would support drilling for oil in the Great Lakes , while the Johnson campaign alleged that Feingold was no environmental champion , having voted against a bill that would have extended the ...

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker (no relation to myself) overturned Proposition 8 , the ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage within the state of California. In overturning the ban, Walker validated through his written opinion what many advocates of same-sex marriage have been arguing all along. Among his points he made were these: Marriage isn't inherently a religious institution. Atheists are allowed to have a union recognized by the state as "marriage," for instance. Walker points out that having religion involved in marriage is a choice by those who want to include it within their ceremony -- so the justification that gay or lesbian couples can't wed based on religious principles doesn't hold up. Like the religions components, the issue of child-rearing is one that doesn't need to be required in order to join two people together in marriage. A sterile couple can wed just as easily (and legally) as a fertile couple. The notion...

"Change" is still a marketable idea. It resonates with Americans from all walks of life, from the rightest of TEA Party protesters to the furthest left of progressives. What matters in regards to "change" is whether the mainstream will view it as positive or negative once implemented. In 2008, voters overwhelmingly approved of the "change" now-President Barack Obama offered to them. In 2010, it's yet unclear if voters will sustain that notion, with much of it depending upon how energized both those who support and those who oppose the president's ideas will be. Obama right now is stuck -- still wanting to promote the "change" he endorsed two years ago, he knows that doing so will only fire-up his opponents' base. Abandoning the mantra altogether will cause his own base to lose faith in him, giving little incentive for them to come to the polls in November. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. If he keeps up his mes...