Jane Hamsher engages in nothing but distortions.

[ProSense]

John Kerry Attacks Howard Dean for Fun and Profit

Kerry ran for President between 1989 and 2009. He got/gets most of his contributions from individuals not PAC, unlike a lot of other Senators. Since Hamsher mentioned Dorgan.

Kerry 2005 to 2009

Dorgan 2005 to 2009

Over 20 years, including a run for President and raising money from individuals, Kerry has only gotten about $1.6 million from the insurance and pharma sectors. Most of that coming during his Presidential campaign. Kerry gets on average about $12 in contributions from Pharma, some years less and during his campaigns for Senate a little more), and still it comes from individual contributions, not PACs.

The chart (the source of Hamsher's information) shows Kerry getting from Pharma over 20 years. $887,043

This is how much of that came during his Presidential campaign: $634,248

That leaves about $250,000. Which would average less than $15,000 per year, again coming from individual contributions. Some years he gets little to nothing, and in other years a little more.

Here is the list of Pharma contributions in 2008 when Kerry last ran for re-election.

The other years Kerry ran for re-election:

2002: $41,150

1996: $42,750

1990: $17,350






edited typos.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ClarkUSA]

9. Yeah, she shills for hits for her blog, just like Ariana Huffington & other lying attention whores.

Sad, isn't it?

[brentspeak]

27. I'm referring to the OP

[ClarkUSA]

35. I wasn't.

[DontTreadOnMe]

2. Correct your typo in title

It's Jane, not Jame

[HughMoran]

3. Seems to be the case

.

[Ildem09]

4. Christ

anyone that criticizes the POLICIES are now the bad guys? I'm sorry I'm not a blind rube who will go along with what ever the person I helped Elect does. I'm a very critical person and will always be. I guess people with actual knowledge about politics are able to see the clear difference between not liking someone outright and not liking their policies and some cant

[Captain Hilts]

5. It's about personality, not policy. nt

[ProSense]

6. No, it's about progress

not assholes.

[ClarkUSA]

7. +1

:thumbsup:

[Captain Hilts]

10. It's possible to share Hamsher's concerns and still decide to support the bill, as I have...

but that's too sophisticated for you.

[ClarkUSA]

13. It's not possible to "share Hamsher's concerns" when confronted by the facts in the OP.

And since when have you voiced support for the HCR. So far, all I've seen you do is trash it.

Must have been a sudden conversion, huh? :eyes:

But your "concerns" are duly noted, as always.

[Captain Hilts]

20. HCR has been a moving target no one in their right mind would have committed to early on.

Sorry, I've worked with senators on the Hill, and lobbyists, know how the process works - have a phd in poli sci - and don't cheerlead for any one person or bill. Not until that bill is final.

The corruption of this bill is clear in that the anti-trust exemption for insurance companies remains. It's that simple. It's a big, wet, kiss for insurance companies.

ps. I'm articulate enough to not need to place silly images in my posts.

[Ildem09]

21. PhD's Unite!

Working on mine right now! It is really amazing how much you learn about politics with several years and countless thousands spent on a good education

[Captain Hilts]

26. Hang in there, baby. Just now getting mine minted....

It takes tenacity more than smarts.

[Ildem09]

29. A good professor said that too

he was a real badass too. for a libertarian i guess a radical liberal would spar with from time to time

[ClarkUSA]

22. Uh huh. And we all know how unbiased you are when it comes to judging "personality" too.

:sarcasm:

Spare me your dubious blather about working on "the Hill". I've seen enough political comments
from you over the years to make that notion laughable.

[Captain Hilts]

28. You have tunnel vision and choose to ignore my positive posts - particularly on foreign policy

and this morning's note about him bursting in on the climate meeting with Brazil.

[ClarkUSA]

31. I see very well, thank you. A few CYA "positive posts" doesn't erase years of the opposite...

... as we can see from your oblique references to "personality".

[Forkboy]

36. More bias talk?

:rofl:

[ProSense]

17. Concerns that she's distorting Kerry's record?

That's what the OP is about. Kerry is one of the most progressive Senators. He has worked hard to improve this bill. Just because Hamsher can't comprehend something, she resorts to trying to tear down. The bill is progress. Kerry and others like Senator Sanders are fighting to make the bill better, but the minute they voice support for it, they're called sellouts. Kerry and others have been putting up a good fight for decades. There are people in the Senate that don't have the public interest at heart, but lumping those who are working tirelessly to improve the lives of American into that category is disingenuous.

[Ildem09]

12. if by

progress you mean the single largest transfer of tax dollars to the corporations sure. if by progress you mean the continuation of inane War on Terror sure. if by progress you mean throwing the Gay community, and other core parts of the base under the bus for what we see as sheer cheerleading and idolatry sure

what people fail to understand is that we ARE going to loose seats in 2010 regardless It is a Political Science near Fact. only 2x in history has an incumbent party maintained or increased numbers in an off year election. so this is it. this is our only year for a long time to get shit done.

[Ildem09]

8. Thats the Problem

We've become so enamored as of late with various cults of personality that people don't actually think deeper than the person beyond the media persona. They don't question what they do. I thought Progressives were better than sheep people sheeple. I know Brittany Spears quote has been bantered around here and I think it still applies. Be a liberal/progressive/Democrat because of policies not because of people

[Captain Hilts]

11. I adore FDR, but I'll trash a good number of things he did. I do 'nuance'.

FDR: Keep the faith, baby!
ER: Rock on, Ildem09!

[Ildem09]

15. FDR

was our greatest president, however he had a horrible civil rights record. ER brought up the blight of the African American community several times to which FDR responded "don't bother me with Elanor's N*&^# anymore" however the sum total of good he did far outweighed his huge blemish on civil rights

[Captain Hilts]

19. Exactly. And instigating a tight money policy in '37 after his big victory, etc.

No one bats 1000 with me.

[Ildem09]

23. and

the fact that it took the Great Huey Long from the Great state of Louisiana to threaten a run from the left in 36 to cause FDR to get serious on WPA CCC etc etc

[Captain Hilts]

30. He had it already, but I think that carbonated it. He certainly feared Long.

Nowadays it's easy to shrug that off as the Beatles worrying about the Beach Boys' release of "Pet Sounds," but at the time, Long's views were very popular. He knew that from the day he was inaugurated.

But you know that.

[ProSense]

16. Wrong place. n/t

[Ildem09]

18. I want

all the cheerleaders to prove to me that they have the mental wherewithal to differentiate the person and the policy

[Phx_Dem]

14. You should have heard her on the XM POTUS channel the other day.

A guy name Pete Dominic does a great "call-in" type of show in the afternoons and usually has guests on to speak about whatever. He is without a doubt one of the nicest, fairest liberal Democrats (or at least he sounds like every liberal I've ever met in my life). Well, he had Jane Hamsher on as his guest. OMG. What a bitch (I'm sorry, but when you act like a bitch, I'm going to call you one).

He asked numerous questions -- mostly to give her a platform to offer viewpoint about the HCR -- and every single time, she responded with a question.

Example:

Pete would ask in his extremely polite way, "how can we get a public option through the Senate when we have to get every Democrat to vote for it and some are against it?"

Jane: How many branches of government do we have?

Pete (still being Mr. Niceguy): Uh, 3.

Jane: And what are they?

Pete: I know what they are.

Jane: Oh you do? (laugh) What are they? (seriously!)

Finally, old Mr. Niceguy couldn't take her shit anymore

Pete: "Wow, Jane. I had no idea you were so condescending. You are and extremely condescending person."

I almost fell out of my car laughing. Jane's not just condescending. She's a rude bitch. She had an opportunity to argue her point, but she chose instead to act like an asshole to the nicest guy on radio or TV.

[Ikonoklast]

41. She didn't have an answer, so she changed the question.

The Repukes do that all the time on the talk shows, and it's a dishonest tactic.

Hamsher lost me a long time ago.

[depakid]

24. I suppose the irony of the title is lost on you...

[jonnyblitz]

25. LOL, i was thinking the EXACT same thing.

:crazy:

[ProSense]

34. Point to to the distortion of facts in the OP. n/t

[Forkboy]

37. "Jane Hamsher engages in nothing but distortions."

She may well engage in distortions, but NOTHING but distortions? Sounds like a distortion to me. I've told you a million times not to exaggerate.

[ProSense]

38. "She may well engage in distortions" Agree. n/t

[Forkboy]

40. Glad you agree that saying "engages in nothing but" was a distortion itself.

[QC]

39. I was thinking the same thing. n/t

[Ildem09]

32. I think a large part of the quasi civil-war going on here

boils down to the natural dichotomy in the left
on one side you have Upper-Middle Class Suburban White folks who have an Education of a Masters and above the traditional Deanaic Volvo Driving Latte sipping liberal, I'll include myself as a Gay member of this group. and Gays in general in this socio-economic rung

on the other side you have the working class blue collar union members and African Americans and some Latinos

somehow these two groups have polarized in such a way as to not be able to have common discourse. My hypothesis is that the first group based their decisions on the more abstract views of policy and governance, whereas the latter group based their vote on group ID and person and this difference of view point our original thinking is based on two separate notions and a whole bunch is getting lost in translation

This is not meant as flame material just the flow of conscious of a political scientist putting off some International Relations work

[pundaint]

44. Can all the people's needs for representation be served by only two partys?

[Ildem09]

49. No

It's what happens when you have single member Districts with plurality choice and non transferable votes.

[suzie]

46. It would seem to me that you might want to get out of your Volvo and

talk to some folks in the "group ID and person" group. Because my experience in dealing with both the groups you name is that the blue collar, African American, Latino group understands basic differences between Republicans and Democrats and how it will directly affect them.

My experience is also that this group looks at whether a certain politician has an actual chance to get elected--because they know that political change impacts them directly.

I've never met people in the group you so condescendingly label the Group ID folks who are completely unwilling to take a look at their "hero". In contrast, the latte sipping liberals on DU are completely unwilling to look at anything critical of Dennis Kucinich, and spend their time rejoicing in the non-accomplishments of a politician that they have chosen as their hero.

What you call "abstract views" seem to be more of a need on the part of the upper class Volvo drivers to lock into a mantra about any issue and to be unwilling to change their position or adapt it to the realities of politics. I think we've seen that also on DU with the mantra of "single payer". Your latte liberals will entertain nothing that doesn't fit into their "single payer only" mantra. After reading DU for the past year, I'm not even sure that most of sippers even comprehend what single payer means.


In fact, the Volvo driving set might have talked about Medicare for All for the past year. The rest of the public understands Medicare. The blue-collar, AA, Latino crowd certainly does. But to change their mantra would be unacceptable to the Volvo drivers and we've only seen a mention of Medicare in the latter stages of the health care debate.

You might want to follow a politician around on the campaign trail and watch the various constituencies respond. I've found the non-Volvo drivers to be far more cognizant of the actual issues facing the country and of the chances of any given politician to get elected. And if you examine any of a number of threads each day on DU, the latte set doesn't care nearly so much about electability.

Perhaps you're correct in your theorizing about abstract views of policy and governance as the prime motivation of the upper class whites who like to call themselves "liberals/progressives". It's so abstract that it doesn't involve the down and dirty stuff of getting elected so that one can influence policy and govern.

[saltpoint]

33. I personally wish Jane H. would do films and films only.

She has also blasted Barbara Boxer on that site in the past.

I would like to know in what alternative universe people more liberal than John Kerry and Barbara Boxer could be Senators.

Hey, Jane. Sounds like a topic for a film!

[pundaint]

42. Kerry may or may not be liberal but is he effective?

The bill out of the Senate committee he sits on was that last and worst of all the starting bills.

Once they get in office results are the only measure. He fails me in his positions on my two personal priorities, war and healthcare, with his support of the Afghanistan mistake.

[saltpoint]

43. Effective? God, that is a penetrating question. Let's see...

Yes.

[angee_is_mad]

45. and she is a known Obater hate#

enough said.

[asdjrocky]

47. The really sad thing is that you put this all together on your own.

I mean, you don't even get paid to put this crap out. That is the saddest thing of all.

[Enrique]

48. so you're slicing the numbers different

someone else could slice them still differently.

You accuse her of distortions but you don't support that accusation.

You just accused ABC News of "disinformation" when they reported something bad about Obama regarding Yemen. That's all you do. Protect your guy by smearing everyone.