This is the purpose for which I started TrueBlueLiberal.org in 2004...

...so I take complete credit for this significant rehabilitation of the word 'liberal'!

Proportion of Dem caucus-goers and voters identifying as "liberal":

IA
2008: 54%
2016: 68%

NH
2008: 56%
2016: 68%

NV
2008: 45%
2016: 70%

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) February 22, 2016

Exposing the Other EPA, the "Environmental Policy Alliance"

It's important to look behind the curtains to expose the paid political consultants doing the bidding of corporate interests in ads like these:

Of course it's ridiculous to paint those concerned about the effects of fracking on the environment as the flat-earth science deniers when that crown belongs to those who stop their ears and scream to avoid hearing about climate change, but big lies repeated often, and broadcast on TV, have a way of working their way in the public conversation. So who are the people behind that other EPA, the "Environmental Policy Alliance," which created this ad about Colorado citizens who voted against fracking? It's a front group of a well-connected Washington PR firm, Berman & Co, which also operates front groups defending corporate interests in all areas from tobacco to liquor to dietary fat to oil and gas fracking. Here's its leader, Rick Berman, smirking his way through an interview with Rachel Maddow in 2010.


And here's a long list of Berman & Company's current list of front organizations polluting the public debate with corporate money.

Other Berman Front Groups

• ActivistCash.com
• AFT Facts
• American Beverage Institute
• AnimalScam.com
• Big Green Radicals
• Center for Consumer Freedom
• Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy
• Center for Organizational Research and Education
• Center for Union Facts
• CREW Exposed
• CSPI Scam
• Defeat the Debt
• EmployeeRightsAct.com
• Employment Policies Institute
• Enterprise Freedom Action Committee
• EPA Facts
• Green Decoys
• Hands Off My Bacon
• HumaneWatch.org
• Interlock Facts
• Interstate Policy Alliance
• LaborPains.org
• LEED Exposed
• Maternity Pens
• MinimumWage.com
• NegligentDriving.com
• No Drink Tax
• ObesityMyths.com
• PETA Kills Animals
• Physician Scam
• Protecting Bad Teachers
• Responsible Limits
• Rethink Reform
• Rotten ACORN
• SEIU Exposed
• Sweet Scam
• Teachers Union Exposed
• The New Prohibition
• Tipped Wage
• Unite Here Exposed
• Vote Our Future
• WorkerCenters

#MittsMissingReturns (Part Nine) -- Mitt Romney vs. Harry Reid ...

... in which the man who refuses to release his tax returns from the last twelve years on the grounds it might incriminate him ... the man whose stock answer to every question seems to be "elect me on my business experience, but my business is none of your business" ... tells the Senate Majority Leader to "Put Up or Shut Up" with hard evidence about Mitt Romney's low tax rates when all the evidence is in Mitt Romney's hands.

Please watch this video from last night's Rachel Maddow Show in which we see gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney badgering his opponent for her husband's returns when he wouldn't release his own (she, of course, had released hers).  Revisit the questions about his state tax returns and residency. See his (faux) tough talk on the one issue (his personal financial secrecy) on which he has shown any consistency. This is worth watching in full. And ask yourself when it's done, Do you trust Mitt Romney more than Harry Reid?

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Someone needs to "Put Up or Shut Up" but it's not Harry Reid.

~~~~~~~~~

Catch up with previous installments in the #MittsMissingReturns saga by clicking below:

• #MittsMissingReturns [part one], July 3 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Two), July 6 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Three),  July 10
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Four) -- In a Nutshell, July 14 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Five) -- In Which Mitt Romney Gives a Typically Squirrelly Response, July 16
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Six) -- Herman Cain Weighs In, July 25
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Seven) -- Romney Finds One Issue on Which He's 100% Consistent, July 26
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Eight) -- Another Lesson in Mitt's Lying Laugh, July 31

And keep tweeting with #MittsMissingReturns on Twitter.

The Party of Big Government Is .... ?

Rachel Maddow just ran this ABC clip on her show tonight, so I found the video on YouTube and am posting here on TrueBlueLiberal.org. Watch as Barney Frank makes it very clear to an uncomfortable George Will and Paul Ryan that they -- the conservatives and Republicans -- are the real party of big government.

"It's a great embarrassment to the conservatives that they want to tell people who they can have sex with ... this is big government. Who can I have sex with? Who can I marry? What can I read? What can I smoke? You guys on the whole -- not all of you -- but it's the conservatives that want to intrude on personal liberty there."  
-- Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.)

Not that he's ever had a problem with speaking his mind, but now that Barney Frank has announced his intention to leave the House in 2012, he may feel he's even freer to speak the truth no matter where it leads him. Seeing as how he just made an live appearance later on the Rachel Maddow show from the Capitol rotunda in a blue t-shirt, he's showing signs that the fetters are completely removed. That's a good thing.

The "Macaca Moments" of Twenty Ten

I spent years without TV (commented on in numerous previous posts), but now that I have cable again, I'm glad to have access to Rachel Maddow's common sense. In a perfect world, every American voter would watch this segment -- "Decision 1964" -- with which she opened her show tonight.