Politics

Obama conned the nation into electing him, Gingrich says, and is ruling the country as a 1950s Kenyan tribesman would: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/09/12/2010-09-12_former_speaker_newt_gingrich_barack_obamas_election_a_wonderful_con_president_di.html

Why the Tea Party is toxic for the GOP By Michael Gerson Michael Gerson is conservative columnist for those not familiar with him.) Wednesday, August 25, 2010 (Michael Gerson is conservative columnist for those not familiar with him.) So the "summer of recovery" swelters on, with Democrats sun-blistered, pestered by bottle flies, sand in their swimsuits, water in their ears. Jobless claims increase, Republicans lead the generic congressional ballot, and George W. Bush is six points more popular than President Obama in "front-line" Democratic districts that are most vulnerable to a Republican takeover. Still, Democrats hug the hope that Obama is really the liberal Ron…

Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times This Is Not a Recovery By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: August 26, 2010 What will Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, say in his big speech Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyo.? Will he hint at new steps to boost the economy? Stay tuned. But we can safely predict what he and other officials will say about where we are right now: that the economy is continuing to recover, albeit more slowly than they would like. Unfortunately, that’s not true: this isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact. The small sliver of truth in claims of continuing recovery is the fact that G.D.P. is…

August 26, 2010, 6:00 am , New York Times Fiscal Austerity and Americas Future By SIMON JOHNSON Simon Johnson, the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, is the co-author of 13 Bankers. There are three main views of the financial crisis and the most recent recession. In the first two views, the debate over the fiscal deficit is quite separate from what happened in the crisis. But in the third view, the financial crisis and likelihood of fiscal austerity are closely linked. The first is that something went wrong with the financial plumbing central to the worlds economy. Failed plumbing is a serious business, of course great real estate can be rui…

Obama’s Old Deal Why the 44th president is no FDR—and the economy is still in the doldrums. Barack Obama was “incredulous” at what he was hearing, said one of his top economic advisers. The president had spent his first year in office overseeing the biggest government bailout of the financial industry in American history. Together with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, he had kept Wall Street afloat on a trillion-dollar tide of taxpayer money. But the banks were barely lending, and the economy was still mired in high unemployment. And now, in December 2009, the holiday news had started to filter out of the canyons of lower Manhattan: Wall Street’s year-end bonuses …

Op-Ed Contributor, New York Times A Filibuster Fix By NORMAN ORNSTEIN Published: August 27, 2010 AFTER months of debate, Senate Democrats this summer broke a Republican filibuster against a bill to extend unemployment benefits. But the Republicans insisted on applying a technicality in the Senate rules that allowed for 30 more hours of floor time after a successful vote to end debate. As a result, the bill with its desperately needed and overdue benefits for more than 2 million unemployed Americans was pointlessly delayed a few days more. The Senate, once the place for slow and careful deliberation, has been overtaken by a culture of obstructionism. The filibuster,…

Mark Zandi: Boehner Was Wrong, Stimulus 'Did Exactly What It Was Intended To' Huffington Post | Sara Yin First Posted: 08-25-10 04:10 PM | Updated: 08-25-10 04:10 PM Joining the backlash against House Majority leader John Boehner's (R-Ohio) economic speech yesterday, Mark Zandi, Moody's chief economist, said Boehner was "just wrong" to call the $787 billion stimulus spending "a failure." If there was no stimulus at all, Zandi said, unemployment would be at around 11.5% rather than 9.5%. "I think if we had not had the stimulus, estimates put forward by the Congressional Budget Office are absolutely right: we'd have 2.5-3 million fewer jobs than we'd have toda…

Another intriguing, and hope-giving, piece from the NYT: Over Time, a Gay Marriage Groundswell By ANDREW GELMAN, JEFFREY LAX and JUSTIN PHILLIPS Published: August 21, 2010 Gay marriage is not going away as a highly emotional, contested issue. Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage, has seen to that, as it winds its way through the federal courts. But perhaps the public has reached a turning point. A CNN poll this month found that a narrow majority of Americans supported same-sex marriage — the first poll to find majority support. Other poll results did not go that far, but still, on average, showed that support for gay marriage had …

The commentary about the mosque is really interesting for what most opponents don't say, but what it reveals about their mindset. Apparently, a majority of non-Muslim Americans believe that all Muslims are, or ought to feel, responsible for 9/11. If the hijackers had been Christian fundamentalists, or even just nominal Christians, I wonder how many Americans would think it was insensitive or offensive for a Christian group to propose opening a church near the WTC site. I suspect they would applaud it as a "healing gesture."

300,000 jobs which should be available right here in the United States are instead in China, all because Iphone users don't want to pay a few dollars more. To get savings on these Iphones, working conditions are so horrid that many employees there have committed suicide. Why is a cheaper Iphone so worth the cost in lives and American jobs? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081801836.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Now THIS is the way to write a political editorial. First 100 days: David Cameron and Nick Clegg lose buddy movie script Hollywood double act starts to flag as Lib-Dem leader's star slips Marina Hyde The Guardian, Wednesday 18 August 2010 Can it really only be only three months since David Cameron and Nick Clegg gave that wisecracking joint press conference in the Downing Street garden, catapulting their take on bromance into the mainstream electoral landscape? "Prime minister," inquired a reporter that day. "Do you now regret that when once asked what your favourite joke was, you replied 'Nick Clegg'?" "You said that?" Nick queried. "I'm afraid I did once," played…

This sentiment in the Pat Tillman thread got me thinking about this issue again, and going in circles about it again. So I wanted to see what others thought and if I could be persuaded in a more definitive direction. On one hand, I've mostly been of the position that it is the duty of every nation to respond to humanitarian crisis to the utmost of their ability, even if others won't and the UN stands impotent. In this line of thinking we should've been in Afghanistan much sooner, and belonged in Somalia, Bosnia, etc. But on the other hand, it is starting to feel like that 'youthful idealism' is dieing in me for two reasons: I've seen such intervention incompetentl…

I watch alot of Cable News and I've noticed that few ever use the word "Liberal" anymore. Liberals and even the news commentators now use the word "Progressive". When did it become a dirty word to be called a Liberal? Are people ashamed be Liberal or is it just a new PR campaign to rebrand? It seems Conversatives seem to wear that label with honor, even with all the extremism that can go with the Conservative label. I remember Bush tried the Compassionate Conservative label. For the record I am a PROUD Moderate. I walk in step to no particular party and agree with some Liberal (ahhhhhh,,,,, Sorry) Progressive ideas and some Conservative ideas. I am the guy that most …

Just announced that Levi is going to run for mayor of Wasilla Alaska.. Trying to win the seat that Palin used to occupy.. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/09/politics/main6758624.shtml

...and is it further okay if it is located smack next door to the new Islamic mosque? http://www.dailygut.com/?i=4696

Another reason not to re-elect this pussy: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/05/AR2010080502211.html

WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan to a seat on the Supreme Court on Thursday, giving President Obama his second appointment to the high court in a year and a victory over Republicans who sharply challenged her credentials and record. Ms. Kagan, who is set to be sworn in Saturday as the newest member of the court, was approved by a vote of 63 to 37 after hearings and floor debate that showcased the competing views of Democrats and Republicans about the court but exposed no significant stumbling blocks to her confirmation. In welcoming the Senate action, Mr. Obama said he expected that Ms. Kagan would be a strong addition to the court because she “understands …

(David Stockman was OMB Director under Ronald Reagan) Op-Ed Contributor Four Deformations of the Apocalypse By DAVID STOCKMAN Published: July 31, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01stockman.html?_r=1 IF there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing. The nations public debt if honestly reckoned to include municipal bonds and the $7 trillion of new deficits baked into the cake through 2015 will soon reach $18 trillion. Thats a Greece-scale 120 percent of gross domestic product, and fairly screams out for austerity and sacrifice. It is therefore un…

Rachel Maddow's back tonight. I'm glad - was getting distracted by Chris Hayes - hot wonk. Anyone else watch her?

Just moments ago San Francisco federal judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage in California, is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. http://www.examiner.com/x-58737-SF-Style-Trends-Examiner~y2010m8d4-Proposition-8-ruled-unconstitutional THANK FUCK. Finally something's going in the right direction.

As much as many of us like to critcize our past President, I found this article from CNN to be very interesting. Bush seemed to be a much stronger advocate than our present guy. Something to think about. http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/07/23/kennedy.aids.bush.obama/index.html

Alan Greenspan: Extending Bush Tax Cuts Without Paying For Them Could Be 'Disastrous' Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/01/alan-greenspan-extending_n_666549.html Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the push by congressional Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts without offsetting the costs elsewhere could end up being "disastrous" for the economy. In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Greenspan expressed his disagreement with the conservative argument that tax cuts essentially pay for themselves by generating revenue and productivity among recipients. "They do not," said Greenspan. "I'm very much in fa…

So, should we do an over/under on how long it takes for there to be a porn film based on the Arizona Papers Please law? The cop comes up to the car, the guy behind the wheel begs for a break... come on, I can't be the only one who's thought of this.

Judicial temperament? Justice openly disagrees with Obama in speech Alito visibly responds negatively when president mentions recent decision WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito didn't like hearing President Barack Obama publicly criticize the high court's ruling removing corporate campaign spending limits — and he didn't try to hide it. Alito made a dismissive face, shook his head repeatedly and appeared to mouth the words "not true" or possibly "simply not true" when Obama assailed the decision Wednesday night in his State of the Union address... Senate Democratic leaders sitting immediately behind Alito and other members of the high court rose and clap…

Slowly, but surely, we are winning the hearts and minds of this nation. http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/poll-gays-military-/2010/02/23/id/350700