Kerry: Congress Must Tone Down Rhetoric, Get Down To Business

Following this weekend’s tragic events in Arizona, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) told an audience at the left-leaning Center for American Progress (CAP) that Congress must work to eliminate the hyperpartisan atmosphere and rhetoric that has engulfed the process in which America’s government functions.

“In the weeks and months ahead, the real issue we need to confront isn’t just what role divisive political rhetoric may have played on Saturday, but it’s the violence, divisive, overly simplistic dialogue does to our democracy every day,” Kerry said.

The Senator supported House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to suspend the House’s usual business this week but called on Congress to “suspend and end business as usual in the United States Capitol” moving forward. The effects of hyperpartisanship are evidenced in the record number of cloture votes held in the 111th Congress, Kerry said. Additionally, he asserted that his call for bipartisanship should echo through Congress in a time when the nation is mourning and struggling to trust an entity Kerry said shies away from making tough but necessary decisions.

“The big question wasn’t whose rhetoric was right or wrong,” Kerry said. “But whether our political conversation was indeed worthy of the confidence and trust of the American people.”

Aside from toning down political rhetoric on the hill, the Senate Foreign Relations Chair made clear that extreme spending cuts alone would not yield the amount of recovery needed to sufficiently reduce the nation’s deficit. The former Democratic presidential candidate stressed that increasing infrastructure and alternative energy investments will create jobs for America and will keep the nation amid the world’s elite countries.

“In this time of crisis, in this time of mourning, in this time of challenge and opportunity, we all need to commit to reaching across the aisle as colleagues did before us to unite to do the exceptional things that, together, can keep America exceptional,” Kerry said. “That’s our mission and we need to get about the business of accomplishing it.”

California Campuses Rocked By Student Protests

By Laurel Brishel Prichard -University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Students held protests at over 100 California college campuses Thursday in response to the state’s proposal to raise tuition by 32 percent and a series of significant budget cuts.

“Today’s the day that the students are on strike and standing up in solidarity with our fellow brothers and sisters, who are facing cuts in K-12, community colleges and the California state university system," activist Don Kingsbury, a teaching assistant and former graduate of University of California Santa Cruz, told Talk Radio News Service. "No more business as usual. We’re changing things."

Kingsbury said the administration at UC Santa Cruz has misplaced its priorities, as has the California state government.

“We think it's ridiculous that the UC president makes more than the President of the United States,” he said.

The students are urging the UC's Board of Regents to return to “The Master Plan,” which was a 1960 document that would allow for free, high quality and universally accessible education for all citizens of California.

“My students are telling me daily that they aren’t sure what they are going to do. Some of them are literally being priced out of their education,” said Kingsbury.

In VA-35, Both Campaigns Predict Tight Race

The race to replace 35th District Delegate and Democratic Attorney General candidate Steve Shannon is within a 2-point margin – or at least it was two weeks ago, according to polls conducted for Republican candidate Jim Hyland.

Hyland’s margin, described by his campaign manager Kevin Conroy as “within the margin of error,” reflects a tightening of the race since a July benchmark poll, when pollsters Barry Zeplowitz and Bill Lee of TelOpinion Research indicated in a confidential memo posted on Hyland’s website that Hyland held a 7-point lead 43 percent to 36 percent lead, with 21 percent undecided. The memo did not indicate the size of the sample or whether “likely voter” filters were used.

Read more at Collins on Politics

Limbaugh Has "Zero" Chance Of Owning NFL Team, Says Media Matters Official

By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service

Senior Fellow for Media Matters Eric Boehlert said that Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show radio host, has virtually no chance of the National Football League accepting his bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams, citing the league’s efforts to avoid controversy and Limbaugh’s “incredibly long track record” of “hateful, inflammatory rhetoric about African-Americans.”

“The comments this week from the commissioner, some of the owners, the players, the union reps... make it pretty clear that Limbaugh’s chances are basically zero at this point,” Boehlert said.

In 2003, Limbaugh tendered his resignation from ESPN’S Sunday NFL Countdown pregame show for saying NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb was not as the good as the media made him seem. “The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well,” he said in the pre-game show.

“Every couple of years [Limbaugh] sort of ventures out of his protective right-wing radio bubble into the mainstream culture, and the reaction is immediate and unambiguous,” Boehlert said. “Mainstream pop culture, in this case sports, does not want anything to do with Rush Limbaugh.”

Boehlert added that he was unsure if politics and sports can co-exist.

“Having an owner who spends his day talking about the president as a communist or a racist or hates white people ... doesn’t go over well in a professional sports community,” he said. “Larger sports culture ... has no patience whatsoever with mixing politics and sports. Sports fans don’t want anything to do with politics, they want to leave that stuff outside.”

McCain and Obama Speak at Columbia University

On the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, presidential nominees Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), spoke at the ServiceNation Presidential Candidates Forum in New York. This event was held to open the two-day ServiceNation Summit, which aims to promote a culture of service in the United States. The two candidates spoke about their views on what service and civic engagement are.



The event was held at Columbia University, in New York. According to the Columbia Spectator, the student newspaper, only 100 seats were allocated for students. The rest were reserved for donors and dignitaries. Several students told Talk Radio News that the seats were dolled out in a lottery system. Columbia accommodated student overflow seating outside the Low library (picture above). University officials had no comment.

The Governor of New York, David Paterson, introduced the event, speaking on the importance of service. He mentioned how fortunate the United States is that both presidential candidates know the great importance of civic engagement.

The moderators, Richard Stengel of Time and Judy Woodruff of 'the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer', asked Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama similar questions on the issue of service and their views on it. The two candidates largely agreed on all issues, differing mainly on the role of government in promoting service.

Both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama expressed what 9/11 meant for them and the rest of the United States: they stressed the unity that the terrorist attacks brought, with Obama commenting that 9/11 demonstrated America's ability to "come together." The candidates also agreed that 9/11 had been a perfect time to lead change in government and encourage a greater culture of service, by tapping into the spirit of volunteerism that was created.

Both candidates stressed the need to reform Washington. Obama remarked that "we are not on the right track", and McCain drew attention to the fact that 84% of Americans believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction; he declared that his long career in Washington made him especially able to "fix it."

The importance of military service to the two candidates was clear throughout the discussions, though both stressed the importance of civilian service also. Obama stressed the need for a foreign service, for example, to help in war-torn regions such as Iraq and Afghanistan by improving health and infrastructure.

The difference between McCain and Obama, however, was clear in their opinions on the role of government in encouraging service. McCain emphasised the strength of faith based organisations and private companies in the response to Hurricane Katrina, referring to his own theory of government that the government should not do what the private sector is capable of doing already. Obama, on the other hand said that "government should expand,", for example by creating a Clean Energy Corps to mobilise civilians in the bid to make energy cleaner.



Still, both candidates insisted that the issue of service was non-partisan and of vital importance: Obama said that one of his primary objectives, and one of the main reasons why he is running for president, is that he wants to lift up opportunities for service in the United States.