What's the Republican problem?

I just got this in email, of course, it is has the political tones, but still, the Republican leadership is not in touch with the public. Are they looking to give up in 2014?

Mike

Tell Eric Cantor and extremist House Republicans: Stop blocking the Violence Against Women Act

The petition reads:

"Join your Republican colleagues who support the Violence Against Women Act, and pass the Senate version immediately."

Click here to automatically add your name.

Dear Mike,

Ten Republicans in the House have broken rank with their party and are now joining Democrats in support of reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. It's time to increase the public pressure on the other 231 Republicans in the House who, in an appalling act of extremist intransigence, are blocking a bill which should pass with broad bipartisan support.

Women's lives are at risk, and there is no more time for partisan delay.

Tell Eric Cantor and extremist House Republicans: Stop blocking the Violence Against Women Act. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Outrageously, news reports coming out of Washington, DC suggest that Rep. Eric Cantor, a member of Republican leadership in the House, is blocking a vote until a key protection for Native American women is stripped from the bill.¹

In response, Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin wrote a letter to House Leadership asking for an immediate vote on the Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act.² In a cowardly move, House Republicans are refusing to hold a vote on the bill so they don't have to go on record voting against fundamental protections for battered women. Instead, Republicans rammed through a fake version of the Violence Against Women Act. But luckily, women's advocates in Congress have held firm and that sham vote didn't work to take the heat off Republicans in the House.

Ten Republicans signed Rep. Gwen Moore's letter to House leadership supporting an immediate vote on the real Violence Against Women Act reauthorization.³ Momentum is now on our side. We need to shame the remaining Republicans, and pressure them to allow an up-or-down vote on the bill.

Tell Eric Cantor and extremist House Republicans: Stop blocking the Violence Against Women Act. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

VAWA is an incredibly popular and successful program that has reduced domestic violence rates by 58% since it was first passed in 1994. And it was approved in bipartisan votes every year since it was originally passed — until Republicans began using it as a leverage tool to get what they want.

House Republicans have voted for shameful bills to redefine rape, defund Planned Parenthood, and to let women die. Still, despite their appalling record on women's issues, you might think that Republicans in Congress would have some concern for domestic violence survivors. You'd be wrong.

Republican leadership in the House have the ability to immediately call a vote on the Violence Against Women Act, and reauthorize the protections that are making a critical difference. But for the sake of pushing an extremist agenda through the House and holding protections for women hostage in the process, he's putting the lives of women at risk — like the 34% of Native American women who are victims of attempted or completed rape in their lifetimes.

Tell Eric Cantor and extremist House Republicans: Stop blocking the Violence Against Women Act. Click below to automatically sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6993722&p=cantor_vawa&id=52053-3980642-6N_USVx&t=5

Thank you for standing up for women.

Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets

Automatically add your name: Sign the petition Learn more about this campaign

1. Jennifer Bendery, "Violence Against Women Act: Eric Cantor, Joe Biden In Talks Amid Stalled Tribal Provision." Huffington Post, 12/6/12.
2. Jennifer Bendery, "Violence Against Women Act: John Boehner, Eric Cantor Pressured By Republicans To Act." Huffington Post, 12/11/12.
3. The Republican members of Congress who signed Rep. Gwen Moore's letter demanding an immediate vote on Violence Against Women Act reauthorization were: Reps. Judy Biggert (Ill.), Ted Poe (Texas), Richard Hanna (N.Y.), Joe Heck (Nev.), Patrick Meehan (Pa.), Robert Dold (Ill.), Chris Gibson (N.Y.), Jon Runyon (N.J.), David Reichert (Wash.) and Michael Fitzpatrick (Pa.)

Hillary Clinton Wins High Popularity, Majority Support for a 2016 Bid

On November 11, I wrote that Hilary will win 2016 and Republicans will be on the side lines for 16 years! http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2012/11/2016-presidential-elections-master-page.html   And today, I read this:

Hillary Clinton Wins High Popularity, Majority Support for a 2016 Bid

Kevin Lamarque/AP Photo

Carried by a new high in personal popularity and broad approval of her work as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton closes out her diplomatic career with majority support as a candidate for president in 2016.

Fifty-seven percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they’d back a run by Clinton to succeed Barack Obama, vs. 37 percent opposed. That includes a broad gender gap – 66 percent support for Clinton among women, dropping to 49 percent among men.

See PDF with full results, charts and tables here.

Clinton is expected to step down soon from her leadership of the State Department, a position she accepted after narrowly losing the Democratic presidential nomination to Obama in 2008. She’s demurred on the prospect of another bid for the presidency.

Clinton’s fared well during her tenure at State; 68 percent approve of her work, second only to Colin Powell among the last five secretaries of state. (He managed a remarkable 85 percent approval in 2002 and 2003.) Similarly, two-thirds in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, see Clinton favorably overall, numerically a new high in her long public career as first lady, U.S. Senator, presidential candidate and top U.S. diplomat.

Clinton’s recovered from personal favorability as low as 44 percent in April 2008, during her presidential run; she also dropped that low in June 2003, when she was discussed as a possible candidate in the 2004 presidential race, and in June 1996, during the Whitewater controversy. Those dips underscore the potential risks should she climb back into the political fray.

In another sign of the challenges of a political candidacy, intensity of sentiment is better for Clinton personally, and as secretary of state, than it is for her as a candidate. Her “strongly” favorable rating and strong approval of her job performance outnumber her strong negatives, in both cases, by more than 2-1 margins. Strong support for her as a candidate also outweighs strong opposition, but much more narrowly, by 9 percentage points, 36 to 27 percent.

2016 and GROUPS – Politics are comparative, so actual support for Clinton as a candidate would depend more than anything on her opponents, in the Democratic primaries and general election alike. That said, having 57 percent willing to give you a look (55 percent among registered voters) is not a bad starting point – and the differences among groups are telling.

In addition to the gender gap there are sharp differences between age and racial groups, generally similar to Obama’s support patterns. Young adults, age 18 to 29, support Clinton for president by nearly 2-1; that falls to an even split among seniors. And while she gets 52 percent support among whites, that jumps to 70 percent among nonwhites, a strongly Democratic group.

Clinton does less well among nonwhites than did Obama, who won re-election with 80 percent of their support last month. That said, while majorities of white men and married men say they’d oppose a Clinton candidacy, she’s backed by more than six in 10 white women and married women – two groups that Obama lost.

Among other groups, support for Clinton in 2016 tops out at eight in 10 Democrats and liberals, vs. 23 and 24 percent of Republicans and strong conservatives, respectively. About two-thirds of moderates and six in 10 independents say they’d support a Clinton candidacy.

It’s hard to see Clinton winning 23 percent of Republicans in an actual campaign; no Democrat has come close to that mark in exit polls dating back 36 years. That’s another sign that, while currently her numbers are positive, actually running for president can be messier than it looks from a popular perch at Foggy Bottom.

METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cell phone Nov. 28-Dec. 2, 2012, among a random national sample of 1,020 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4 points. The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS/Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pa.

Allen west is a liability to GOP

URL- http://republicanmoderates.blogspot.com/2012/12/allen-west-is-liability-to-gop.html

Dear Fellow Republicans,

I just had a panel  discussion at the United Methodist Church, there was a unanimity about the Republicans living in Bubble.  We need to bloody wake up and look how ugly we look to the public, we really need to pull our heads out of sand.

Congressman Allen West is a liability to the Republican party or any civil organization, he made bigoted statements to the extreme, it is repulsive to any American, except the pig headed among us.

The Republican chair from Georgia was inviting him to run from her state, what's wrong with her?

Don't we realize that a majority of us are moderates, look at what we did, we dumped the extremists like Santorum, Bachman, Cain, and Gingrich in the primaries, and the American Public dumped Nine of them guys who needed a lesson in math and biology. Romney was a good guy, but did not have a firmness to his character, had it been others, Obama would have swept the Republicans completely. 

Its time to listen to sanity, any public figure that treats a fellow American with contempt must be booted out of the party. Allen West should be the first one to get the boot.

We want an America, where every one one God's creation is respected. 

Mike Ghouse
A Moderate Republican
www.MikeGhouse.net

Florida Muslims making a difference in the vote

MUSTAFA DANDASHLY

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/26/3108573/florida-muslims-making-a-difference.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/26/3108573/florida-muslims-making-a-difference.html

By MUSTAFA DANDASHLY

mdandashly@gmail.com

The words weren’t uttered by an angry protestor or on some right-wing blog. They were uttered by U.S. Rep. Allen West in response to a Muslim man’s questions — at a town hall meeting, of all places: “Don’t try to blow sunshine up my butt . . . put the microphone down and go home.”
On Election Day, Rep. West, a tea-party favorite, suffered a devastating loss to Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy in Florida’s 18th congressional district. West built his political career by defaming and insulting Muslims in America and, this month, American Muslims and their neighbors kicked West out of office. The Muslim community and its allies overwhelmingly supported Murphy with their votes and contributions. 

West did not lose because the majority of the people in his congressional district are Muslim. West lost because the American Muslim vote made an unprecedented showing in South Florida. With Murphy’s margin of victory less than 2,000 votes, Muslim community engagement helped other fed-up citizenry stand up against bigotry and hatred. Ironically, the hatred espoused by the likes of West has helped these communities realize the importance of civic engagement. Civic participation through voting has helped the Muslim community put action to the urgency felt by the growing tide of anti-Islamic sentiment.

American Muslims finally have a seat at the table, and they have the numbers to prove it. As a relatively new minority community in the United States, American Muslims have struggled to find their voice and in making that voice heard in the political fray. However, in recent years, this community has seen enormous growth in several swing states, most notably in Florida. 

American Muslims have voted both Democratic and Republican in the past, making them a large and important group in the courtship of minority voters around election time. 

Florida was a key state in the 2012 presidential elections, with President Obama edging out a win over Gov. Mitt Romney by less than 75,000 votes. Emerge USA, a civic engagement nonprofit organization that focuses on engaging minority communities, specifically the Muslim, Arab and Southeast Asian communities, maintains a database of over 150,000 registered Muslim voters in Florida, with exit polls showing 120,000 of them voted in November. Of these 120,000 votes, an overwhelming 80 percent went to Obama. Sadly, neither party courted the Muslim vote this year, yet the presidential race could have turned out dramatically different without the Muslim American vote.

Stories like West’s are taking place across the country as American Muslims become engaged in the political process with help from organizations like Emerge USA. Many in the community come from backgrounds of political dictatorship and oppression, where voting may not be commonplace and speaking out against the government is particularly dangerous. Civic engagement organizations are serving a largely educational role as the community develops into the political powerhouse it can become.

As newcomers on the scene, Muslims have made great strides in the realization that voting is the simplest, most effective way to influence change in their own lives and in the lives of others.

Contrary to what West believes, American Muslims are indeed Americans. They care about the Constitution, they care about society and they care about domestic issues. A recent poll by Emerge USA shows that 47 percent of Muslim voters polled in Florida believe the economy was the most important issue. Foreign policy garnered a measly 8 percent. 

This data shows that American Muslims are here for the same reasons as everyone else — to raise a family, to establish economic stability, and to gain a higher standard of living.
What presidential candidate can afford to lose 150,000 votes in a state as crucial as Florida?
American Muslims, welcome to the table.

Mustafa Dandashly is a student at the FIU College of Law and an advisor to Emerge USA.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/26/3108573/florida-muslims-making-a-difference.html#storylink=cpy