Jan Brewer Endorses Mitt Romney

On Meet the Press this morning, Jan Brewer announced to David Gregory that she is officially endorsing Mitt Romney. The Arizona primary is scheduled for this Tuesday, so this comes as no surprise that she has finally make such an announcemnt. In fact, she indicated that she wanted to wait until after the recent debate in Mesa, Arizona to make her decision because she wanted to see what the four candidates would say during that event prior to making her determination.

Really, Jan Brewer? One more debate is all you needed to make your decision? The GOP has had, to date, a shocking 20 debates in only nine months. During these debates the candidates have had an opportunity to show their true colors. In many cases, this did not bode well for their candidacy. For example, it wasn’t until Rick Perry proved himself an unprepared, unpredictable and unfathomable fool in these debates that the GOP ceased taking him seriously. It was during these debates that Mitt Romney has appeared as a wealthy overlord with little sense of what it means to be middle class in the US. Herman Cain, who could not get 9/9/9 to overshadow his personal failings, was eventually shown the door. Newt Gingrich was shown to be an arrogant boor while Ron Paul appeared as a disheveled and scrambling fool. And Rick Santorum quickly showed his true feelings on women who, if he had done his math, represents slightly more than half of the voting populace.

Still, Jan needed to wait. She needed to weigh, for the 20^th time, her GOP options. Perhaps, in fact, she was waiting instead for the flap about her finger wagging incident to die down so that her opinion could be taken seriously. Anyone who would treat the President of the United States of America in such a supremely disrespectful manner does not deserve to have her endorsement taken seriously. Her behavior that day on the tarmac was not just unconscionable, it was unpatriotic. In a presidency wherein the GOP feels that they can treat our President (their president!) in any disrespectful way they choose without repercussions, this was a hallmark moment.

And that moment, my friends, is when Jan Brewer showed her true colors.

The Year Of The Woman

Many women, even those as young as 20ish or 30ish, were raised to keep the peace. To make others comfortable. To be the hostess of their own life wherein the happiness of others took precedence over their own comfort. Whether women received overt messages at home or  more whispered directions out in the world, it seems that no matter how far we seem to have come women still hesitate to cause trouble for those around them.

This typically translates to silence and it nearly always comes at the expense of the quiet and demure woman. However, in recent weeks and thanks to the offensive efforts of the GOP, this tide seems to be turning. It is happening in whispers at the manicurist, chats at PTA meetings and intense dialogues on Facebook. It is coming from women who heretofore may have had nearly no interest in politics and who may have even wrongfully believed that politics held no place of importance in their own life. It is coming from working women, older gals, educated ladies, poor females and divorced women. Teachers, mothers, cashiers, Texans, nurses, Northerners, dental hygienists, grandmothers. It is coming from the least expected amongst us and the voices are loud and they are strong.

The GOP War On Women Ends Here And Now

We will not wait until November to speak up. We will not wait until it gets worse. We will not wait until it hits closer to home or more laws or enacted or the dialogue gets more diabolical. We will not wait until our daughters come of age or when we find the right words or when the atmosphere is receptive to our efforts. We will fight back and we will do it today. No matter the response and regardless of the pushback, now that we have found our collective voices we will never step back in time. While some younger gals may not recall ERA YES, now is the time to remind them. It is the time to share our female experience with those coming up behind us and remind them of how far we have come. And, how the GOP is attempting to control us and would like nothing more than to push us back to 1950…or perchance even 1850.

At long last, the GOP has messed with the wrong demographic. The strength of this great country has always rested with women, no matter what sort of old (white) boy network continues to prevail in politics.

No More

There is little that every woman in this country can agree on. Coffee versus tea? Country versus rock?  Religion versus atheism? Age gracefully versus rocking a mini at age 50? But this much we can agree on: We have come so far and we refuse to take even half a step backwards. We will not sit silent and we will not allow the GOP to continue to jeopardize our basic human rights. We will not be bullied or terrorized or belittled. We will find strength in our sisterhood and we will…

Vote Democratic To Protect Our Interests

Top Liberal Goals For The Week

As liberals continue to get great news regarding our chances for a win in November, it may be easy to become complacent. You may look at the recent polls, which show President Barack Obama beating all GOP candidates, and feel that no further work needs to be done. While this is wonderful news and information that should be celebrated, this does not mean that our work is complete.

It seems that every single day the GOP launches a new attack on a difference segment of the population. While these attacks are designed to speak to their base, which has shifted further to the right than William F. Buckley or Ronald Reagan could have ever imagined, this needs to be our motivation for counter-attacks. While we never imagined that we would be having a birth control debate more reminiscent of 1950 than 2012, this is the deal that has been served to us and we must respond accordingly.

The biggest danger that we face is presuming that our thought process (“Outlawing birth control? Crazy talk!”) is the logical mind-speak of the masses. Remember that you are more than likely surrounding yourself with folks that share your values, not realizing that there are millions of individuals around the country that do not think as you do.

In fact, the common platform theme of all of the candidates is the SOTO policy, which is Someone Other Than Obama. These candidates may not have much going for them, but to their base they have the primary selling point that they are looking for in a potential president: They are not Barack Obama. Sad, yes. Misinformed, yes. Short sighted, yes. Many continue to contend that this is simply poorly cloaked racism, but this is where we are at and let us work with what has been handed to us.

To move our message forward we need to remain focused and we must never believe that some amount of good news is enough good news. The only good news that we want to hear is that President Barack Obama has been elected to a second term. And, perhaps more importantly, that we once again have a democrat dominated congress.

Because our job is far from done, we need to approach each week with a plan to move our message forward. Whether the efforts are large or small, every movement in the right direction will get us to where we need to be. Remember what Pablo Picasso said…

Action is the foundational key to all success.

Here are my top three Election 2012 goals for this week and you are welcome to adopt them as your own.  Please also use the comment option to add your own. I will be posting a fresh list each Monday, so that we can all work towards the common goal of a democratic win in November.

Order Two Yard Signs From       http://store.barackobama.com 

The first one is likely to get stolen, so it is best to be prepared. Many people I know are placing a note next to their sign indicating something along the lines of “If you steal this, I will buy a new one. This will only infuse the Obama campaign with additional funds, so make your thieving choices wisely”

Hold My Nose And Watch A Modicum Of Fox News

Why? Because how can we be prepared for what they will hit us with next if we cannot peek inside of their think tank. Like it or not, Fox News is the GOP campaign headquarters.

Tweet…Thoughtfully and Often

Both sides are really paying attention to Twitter right now, so we need to keep our message fresh on Twitter and not allow them to get the upper hand in this arena.

Sunday Morning Political Show Guests February 19, 2012

Get informed and stay informed. Whether you are republican or democrat, it is important to stay abreast of all of the political news so that you can make informed decisions and have educated debate to support your position.

Meet The Press

Paul Ryan
Chairman, House Budget Committee

Chris Van Hollen
Ranking Member, House Budget Committee

Ed Gillespie
Republican Strategist

Al Hunt
Washington Editor and Host of "Political Capital," Bloomberg News

Helene Cooper
White House Correspondent, NBC News

Andrea Mitchell
Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, NBC News

Chris Matthews Show

Liz Marlantes of Christian Science Monitor

Michael Duffy of Time Magazine

Major Garrett of Nation Journal

Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News

State of the Union With Candy Crowley

Ron Paul

Mitch Daniels

Michele Bachmann

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden

Former Ambassador to Egypt and Israel Edward Walker

Face The Nation

Rick Santorum

Karen Tumulty of Washington Post

Todd Spangler of Detroit Free Press

Norah O’Donnell of CBS News

John Dickerson of CBS News

This Week With George Stephanopoulos

Sen. John McCain

Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Lou Dobbs of Fox Business

Former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers

Clarence Page of Chicago Tribune

Voter ID Requirements For All 50 States

Please be sure to read the following carefully and learn what is required in your state. As laws become updated, I will be sure to revise this listing accordingly. No matter what your political leaning, the right to vote in this great country is critical and should not be ignored. Remember: No candidate is perfect, but the right to vote is pure perfection.

Photo ID Required for All Voters

The following are states that require photo ID for all voters, however a provisional ballot is not granted if a voter does not bring a photo ID to the polls in these states.

• Alaska
• Alabama  
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Connecticut
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Missouri
• Montana
• New Mexico
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Texas  
• Tennessee
• Virginia
• Washington
• Wisconsin

Photo ID Required for All Voters with Provisonal Ballot Clause

The following states require all voters to show a photo ID in order to vote; if a voter does not present photo ID at the polls a provisional ballot is provided.

• Indiana
• Georgia
• Florida

Photo ID Required for All Voters with Full Ballot Clause

The following states require photo ID for voting, however if a voter does not present photo ID at the polls a Full ballot will be provided.

• Michigan
• South Dakota
• Louisiana
• Hawaii

Photo ID Required for First Time Voters Only

The following state requires photo ID only for first time voters.

• Pennsylvania

States that enforce only the HAVA Minimum

These states are those that only enforce the minimum standard by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in which only require a photo ID when an ID was not presented at registration.

• California
• District of Columbia
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Iowa
• Kentucky
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New York
• New Jersey
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Tennessee
• Utah
• Vermont
• West Virginia
• Wyoming