Obama calls out GOP for Holding FEMA Funds Hostage

The House Republicans are refusing to give more money to the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA.
(This is a particularly big issue right now, since the money could be of great used for helping the people that are suffering from the effects of Hurricane Irene, and FEMA has run out of money. Of course it has run out of money: this year has seen so much extreme weather, and we have four months to go in the remainder of 2011.)

So, it was quite proper when President Barack Obama criticized the GOP for holding FEMA funds hostage.
Los Angeles Times: White House blasts GOP over FEMA funding".

Now, one wonders whether some middle of the road voters in flood besieged New Jersey will reconsider support for Republican congressional or presidential candidates. Just consider how the supposedly moderate N.J. Governor Chris Christie has taken the state out of the Northeast carbon cap compact.
Will weather disaster-plagued districts flip from Republican to Democratic in the Presidential and Congressional votes in the 2012 general election? Just note (on the 2010 Congressional elections map below) the red district from northeastern North Carolina to New Jersey. Will voters see the light about global warming (as opposed to deniers Rick Perry and Chris Christie?

Well, maybe it will take more 100 degree days and destructive hurricanes. Click on this link for "Natural disaster risk assessment reveals most and least dangerous cities" at AgentGenius.com for natural disaster risk. The very Republican red Southeast has the most cities that are indicated to be the riskiest in which to live.

GOP Further Burns its Bridges to the Latino Community

Republican Party or "Grand Old Party" (GOP) leaders have been alienating themselves from Latinos since the mid-1990s by supporting state and national legislation that is hostile to Latinos.

None of the top five GOP presidential candidates for the 2012 nomination for president have committed to appear at a La Raza conference.

"Republican Presidential Candidates Skip Latino Group Conference", by Elise Foley and Sam Stein in Huffington Post, July 25, 2011.

GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman were invited to the annual conference of National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino organization in the nation.

All five chose to skip the affair.

The absence isn't highly unexpected considering the crowded schedules that presidential aspirants often face. But in the context of an increasingly frayed relationship between Latino voters and the Republican party, it has provided another clear hint that the GOP sees this ever-expanding constituency group as a lost cause.

"To me, that sets a signal that we're not a priority," said National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia. "And quite frankly, when you look at the actions that have been occurring by the leaders of the Republican party, it is, I think, alarming for us in the Latino community."

The National Council of La Raza's annual conference is in progress, from July 23 to July 25, in Washington, DC.

The Meghan McCain Republican ... the Millennial Makeover:

You cannot often give a thumbs up to someone that coins a term with their own name in it. But you can with Meghan McCain.

Huffington Post reports that she has identified herself as a pro-sex, pro-life, pro-gay Republican. If there is any hope for the GOP beyond the Deep South and a few Plains States, it's in the libertarian crowd that wants their individual liberty and their profits. The mid-20s blogger with a famous last name has created the right sound byte for the party.

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Two fellows at the New Democratic Network have aptly identified the new force behind the changes happening in electoral politics in America. Their term, the title of Morley Winograd and Michael Hais' book says it: "Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics."
They laid out their view of technology and the political heft of this new generation, expressing this on the immediate eve of last November's election of Barack Obama:

"...realignments like these are predictable events, with clear causes and clear outcomes in electoral results, voting behavior, and public policy. They occur every two generations when a large, outgoing, and politically active generation comes of age and a new, dominant communications medium emerges to mobilize that generation. America's last realignment came from the emergence of the idealistic, but highly divided, Baby Boom Generation in the late 1960s, and its fondness for television. The one before that was produced by the coming of age of the achievement-oriented GI Generation in the 1930s and FDR’s use of radio to unify its support for his New Deal.

This year’s realignment will result from the emergence of the Millennial Generation (Americans born between 1982 and 2003) and the Internet-based, social networking media on which Millennials rely. There are now nearly one hundred million Americans in this generational cohort according to the United States census. That makes them larger than America’s previous generational record holder, Baby Boomers who were born between 1946 and 1964. There are at least twice as many Millennials as there are members of Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1981. Almost forty percent of the Millennial Generation will be eligible to vote in 2008. Their political energy and the sharp increases in voter turnout among young people in states across the country have already transformed the Democratic nominating contest and will continue to be the single biggest force for change in American politics for decades to come."