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Latest Articles: politics and politicians
Obama Bully Pulpit Bullied With Congress Probes Obscuring Agenda
Post Date: 2013-05-24 14:57:22 by Brian S
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By Julianna Goldman - May 24, 2013 President Barack Obama renewed his oath of office in January vowing to use the bully pulpit to rally the American people around his second-term agenda. Now, with a trio of controversies fueled by relentless attacks from congressional Republicans, the limits of the presidential megaphone are on display. Since it was revealed on May 10 that the Internal Revenue Service improperly screened Tea Party and other smaller-government groups seeking tax-exempt status, the president has struggled to shift the focus. Press conferences with foreign leaders, a new campaign to sell his economic plans and yesterday’s announcement of his new counter- terrorism ...
Why aren’t Asians Republicans?
Post Date: 2013-04-04 21:51:52 by jwpegler
40 Comments
Last week, I pointed out that there is no such thing as a natural social- conservative skew among Latino Americans. But that leaves open a rejoinder, expressed by several readers: The GOP doesn’t need to get all of the Latino vote, just its fair share. That’s true, and I should have made my point clearer. In the wake of the election, some social conservatives have tried a new version of the old Silent Majority argument, contending that Republicans can continue to make their candidates pass litmus tests on abortion and gay marriage and still win national elections if only it taps the natural social conservatism of Latinos. Exposing that illusion was the point of the numbers I ...
Chicago Mayor Closing 54 Poor Black Elementary Schools Because of City Deficit
Post Date: 2013-03-25 14:53:34 by CZ82
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Chicago Mayor Closing 54 Poor Black Elementary Schools Because of City Deficit Posted on March 23, 2013 by Dave Jolly Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has just ignited an educational and possibly racial firestorm in the Windy City. Obama’s former White House Chief of Staff is trying to cope with a billion dollar budget deficit for the city of Chicago. In what could be his most controversial decision as mayor, Emmanuel just announced plans to close down 54 elementary schools. That alone may not be cause of concern to many, but when he announced which schools would be closing, the match was lit. It seems that most of the schools of his choosing are all in predominately low-income black ...
The GOP’s Misguided Loyalty
Post Date: 2013-02-01 19:37:01 by ericbl
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The Republican Party truly is the conservative party in the country. Not because of any policy. But, rather due to their loyalty to failed politicians. Let’s look at the last election. Mitt Romney is a great American, a successful entrepreneur, and an even better family man. But he was a really lousy candidate for President. As a Presidential candidate, he was the worst of both worlds: First, he was NOT a real policy conservative. Romney's political career was full of flip flops -- for and against abortion, for and against government run healthcare... for and against countless other things... Second, unlike Reagan who grew up in modest circumstances, Romney was a trust fund ...
If Obama was Jesus: a Christmas list
Post Date: 2012-12-24 19:43:25 by Abcdefg
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Is Obama really like Jesus? While his miraculous superpowers have always been part of the progressive narrative, there has recently been a increase in sightings of Barack Obama's divine nature in the mainstream culture - from a painting that depicts the president as crucified Christ, to Jamie Foxx calling Barack Obama our lord and savior, to a Florida professor who described Obama as an apostle sent to create "heaven here on earth." Thus, let us ponder on this Christmas Eve about whether we would be better off if Christ were to equal Obama in moral and intellectual prowess. In fact, let us make a list (and check it twice) of what he would do differently:He would apologize to ...
Litmus Test For GOP, Tea Party? Polls Open In La. Race Pitting Boustany vs. Landry UPDATE: GOP Establishment Wins!
Post Date: 2012-12-09 13:16:43 by Brian S
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The polls are open in Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District runoff, pitting two Republicans — veteran Rep. Charles Boustany against freshman incumbent Rep. Jeff Landry — in the first post-November 2012 test of the tea party’s influence on the GOP. The two Republicans, forced to run against each after Lousiana lost a seat in the 2010 Census, have each aggressively questioned the other’s conservative credentials since emerging as the two top vote-getters on Nov. 6. But many political pundits and commentators have cast the showdown as a proxy battle between the establishment wing of the GOP, which has backed Mr. Boustany, a close ally of House Speaker John Boehener, ...
Charlie Crist Formally Joins Democrats To Make Final Split From GOP
Post Date: 2012-12-08 11:26:31 by Brian S
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Former Florida governor Charlie Crist has completed his political conversion, announcing on Twitter that he has joined the Democrats as a result of the Republican party's swing to the right. The one-time GOP politician, who ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate as an independent, had earlier signalled his support for President Barack Obama and campaigned on his behalf ahead of the November election. News that Crist has formalised the move to the Democratic party will prompt speculation that he may lobby for a run at his old seat in the 2014 gubernatorial race in Florida. The 56-year-old politician tweeted out a picture of him and his wife Carole holding aloft a Florida voter ...
Buchanan: A Republican Retreat Or Rout?
Post Date: 2012-12-08 10:23:56 by Brian S
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Given the election expectations raised by the Republican punditocracy — that Mitt Romney was headed for a big victory — the jolt of defeat hit especially hard. Now, what had seemed an orderly retreat has taken on the aspect of a rout, with Beltway Republicans calling for abandonment of fixed positions all along the line. After Senate candidates Richard Mourdock in Indiana and Todd Akin in Missouri bollixed the question of abortion in cases of rape, Republicans are being counseled to downgrade or dump the social issues. As young people seem to support same-sex marriage, why not be good libertarians and get on board? As Romney got 27 percent of the Hispanic vote, we must stop ...
Numbers Show Obama Didn’t Need Detroit, Consultant Says
Post Date: 2012-12-06 16:58:30 by Brian S
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DETROIT (Talk Radio 1270) President Barack Obama doesn’t need to “pay back” Detroit for his re-election victory — as Councilwoman JoAnn Watson claimed — because the city played no role in his win, according to political consultant Steve Hood. “It reveals an inconvenient and unfortunate truth,” Hood said about the election numbers. “President Obama didn’t need Detroit to win the state. Let me explain it to you, Mr. Obama got 2,564,569 votes, Mitt Romney got 2,115,256 votes. “Detroit’s vote was about 285,000 — if you subtract that from Mr. Obama’s total statewide, it’s 167, 931 (he would have won by) — So if all of ...
The Meltdown Gets Ugly as Conservatives Attempt a Coup to Overthrow Boehner
Post Date: 2012-12-06 12:54:26 by Brian S
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The #FireBoehner hashtag really took off last night on Twitter. No, it wasn’t started by evil liberals – it was the conservatives at American Majority Action (AMA) who started it. The gang smelled blood and the sharks are circling. The Daily Caller was promoting their version of online activism to “dispose” Boehner of his speakership. They’re mad at a “secret list” they think Boehner used to purge several “real conservatives” from House committees. Republican Reps. David Schweikert, Justin Amash and Tim Huelskamp come up often in these circles, with Freedom Works urging members to call Boehner’s office in order to instruct him to stop ...
South Carolina Republican US Sen. Jim DeMint resigning to take over at Heritage Foundation
Post Date: 2012-12-06 11:00:59 by Brian S
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COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, a favorite among tea party activists, is resigning to take the helm of a conservative think tank. DeMint's Washington office confirmed Thursday that the South Carolina politician is stepping down to become president of the Heritage Foundation, effective Jan. 1. His office said DeMint was too busy to come to the phone. The 61-year-old Republican was first elected to the Senate in 2004. Republican Gov. Nikki Haley gets to appoint his Senate successor. His former state director Luke Byars says the new role allows DeMint to effect change outside of the U.S. Capitol. The political consultant says it's a vehicle for ...
Republican Defectors Weigh Deal on Tax-Rate Increase
Post Date: 2012-12-06 10:35:20 by Brian S
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House Speaker John Boehner is under pressure to defy Republican Party orthodoxy on income taxes to rein in the U.S. deficit, with an increasing number of his rank- and-file members saying they’re willing to discuss raising rates for top earners. A few dozen Republicans have joined a bipartisan call to consider “all options” on taxes and entitlement programs, signaling they are ready to bargain on President Barack Obama’s main condition for a budget deal this month: a tax rate increase for the top 2 percent of U.S. earners. Obama and Boehner spoke by telephone yesterday, said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel, after offering their proposals in the past week to cut the ...
Senate Republicans Publicly Repudiate Bob Dole
Post Date: 2012-12-05 10:13:42 by Brian S
18 Comments
I am a lifelong, proud Democrat. But, even though I have a lot of friends who are Republicans, I’m glad I’m not a member of today’s Republican Party. Because today’s Republican Party is just too damned mean. Just look what they did to Bob Dole yesterday. Over the years, Dole’s one of the Republicans I’ve admired the most and grown close to. He’s an American war hero. He’s a true patriot. He was an outstanding senator from Kansas. He was a very fair and effective majority leader of the Senate. He’s a wonderful, warm, funny human being. But what his fellow Republicans did to him yesterday is shameful. As one who triumphed over his own war ...
Tea Party Leader Dick Armey Quits Koch-Linked FreedomWorks Over ‘Matters Of Principle’
Post Date: 2012-12-04 10:14:23 by Brian S
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Former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) has quit the Koch brothers-linked tea party group FreedomWorks, according to an internal communique obtained by Mother Jones magazine. From the sound of his letter, it was not a happy parting. The missive, which the former House majority leader confirmed he wrote, demands payment through Dec. 31 even though it opens by explaining that his resignation was effective Nov. 30. “Henceforth FreedomWorks shall be prohibited from using my name, image, or signature in any way or for any purpose without my written permission or in the event of my death, without my heirs [sic] written permission,” he went on to write. Armey adds that he wants FreedomWorks ...
Rand Paul Can’t Fool Pro-Israel Christians
Post Date: 2012-12-03 17:50:26 by Brian S
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Last week we noted that if Rand Paul wanted to be a serious presidential contender as opposed to a libertarian gadfly he was going to have to distance himself from his father’s extreme anti-Israel views. No one should be holding their breath waiting for the Kentucky senator to speak a word against Ron Paul, but there’s no question he is preparing to cast himself as a different kind of candidate in 2016. To that end, not only did he take the trouble to engage in an exchange with COMMENTARY about his views on Israel, but as Business Insider reported last week, he is also planning a trip to the Jewish state next month. Trips to Israel by senators and members of Congress are so ...
Hillary Clinton Is Running For President (against Marco Rubio & P. Bush)
Post Date: 2012-12-03 11:52:32 by hondo68
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Influential U.S. journalist predicts 2016 bid for White HouseNew Yorker Magazine editor David Remnick dropped a political bombshell after attending a three-day conference at which the Secretary of State was the keynote speaker, categorically stating, “Hillary Clinton is running for President.”Remnick made the observation after attending the annual Saban Forum in Washington, D.C. this past weekend, a meeting of highly influential members of the Israeli political class, including Avigdor Lieberman and Ehud Olmert. Former President Bill Clinton was also in attendance.“Hillary Clinton is running for President,” wrote Remnick, adding, “Everyone had a theory of which they ...
Obama Cranks Up "Fiscal Cliff" Pressure, Boehner Says Talks Stalemated
Post Date: 2012-11-30 18:11:33 by Brian S
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HATFIELD, Penn. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama turned up the pressure in "fiscal cliff" talks on Friday, hitting the road to drum up support for his drive to raise taxes on the wealthy and warning Americans that Republicans were offering them "a lump of coal" for Christmas. In a visit to a Pennsylvania toy factory, Obama portrayed congressional Republicans as Scrooges who risked sending the country over the fiscal cliff rather than strike a deal to avert the tax increases and spending cuts that begin in January unless Congress intervenes. In Washington, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner declared a stalemate in the talks and said Obama's plan to ...
The Incestuous Bleeding of the Republican Party
Post Date: 2012-11-30 12:22:15 by Brian S
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If money is the root of all evil, for the Republican Party evil is located on the fifth floor of 66 Canal Center Plaza, Alexandria, VA 22314. Strip away the candidate and coalition and it is on the fifth floor of 66 Canal Center Plaza where the seeds of Mitt Romney’s ruin and the RNC’s get out the vote (GOTV) effort collapsed — bled to death by charlatan consultants making millions off the party, its donors, and the grassroots. 66 Canal Center Plaza is also why Jeff Larson, the Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee, should not be put in charge of the autopsy of the GOP’s defeat. Multiple sources confirm to me that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has already ...
White House Backs Reid’s Filibuster Reforms
Post Date: 2012-11-28 12:17:19 by Brian S
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The White House on Wednesday indicated it was in favor of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's move to change the rules regarding the filibuster, the Huffington Post reports. The President has said many times that the American people are demanding action," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement to The Huffington Post. "They want to see progress, not partisan delay games. That hasn't changed, and the President supports Senator Reid's efforts to reform the filibuster process." "Over the past few years important pieces of legislation like the DREAM Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and the American Jobs Act weren't even ...
President Obama To Meet With Mitt Romney
Post Date: 2012-11-28 10:49:59 by Brian S
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President Obama and Mitt Romney will meet for a private lunch at the White House on Thursday, according to a statement released by the administration on Wednesday. It will be the first meeting between the two since the election and will be closed to the press. Romney will also meet with his vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R- Wis.) on Thursday, a Ryan aide has confirmed to The Hill. Following his overwhelming election victory, Obama said he wanted to meet with Romney to discuss how he could work with the GOP nominee and Republican Party leaders on the economic challenges facing the country. Obama acknowledged that the two had “battled fiercely,” but said it was ...
‘Israeli-Occupied’ Congress No More
Post Date: 2012-11-27 10:15:29 by Brian S
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For those of us in the pro-Israel camp who were disappointed by the reelection of President Barack Obama, there’s more bad news. While there is no dearth of analysis of the impact of the US presidential election on the America-Israel relationship, Israel’s military and diplomatic strategies or on Israel’s upcoming elections, analysis of the Congress that has just been elected has been in short supply. And while the precise impact of this election is difficult to predict, there is one inescapable conclusion: The incoming 113th Congress to be sworn in this January is materially more left-leaning and materially less pro-Israel than the outgoing 112th. Especially on the ...
The Tea Party vs. Math: A Detailed Look at the 2012 Results
Post Date: 2012-11-26 11:07:04 by Brian S
7 Comments
The Religious Right and Tea Party groups are making the case that Romney could have won if he had more clearly and unambiguously embraced their policies. They are determined to force the Republican Party to stop nominating “moderates,” on the shaky premise that compromise has cost the party at the polls. Election results from across the country tell the opposite story. By comparing Romney’s winning percentage to the margins of other Republican races it is clear that the far right, especially hardline religious conservatives, were a drain on the GOP ticket in almost every corner of the nation. The party’s most stubborn ideological core is unlikely to coaxed back to ...
Anti-Tax Crusader Grover Norquist Faces Erosion Of Power
Post Date: 2012-11-26 10:38:08 by Brian S
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Anti-tax evangelist Grover Norquist, one of Washington’s most influential figures, is facing an apparent erosion of his power as leading Republicans begin opting out of pledges to his cause. Norquist has amassed considerable clout over the last couple of decades by managing to get hundreds of Republicans in elective office to sign a controversial pledge vowing never to vote for a tax increase. But there was growing feeling Sunday that the anti-tax crusader and his pledge were quickly becoming irrelevant as several party bigwigs said they would abandon the vow and analysts openly questioned his continued relevance. “Grover Norquist is an impediment to good governing,” ...
Top GOP Lawmakers Call For Higher Tax Revenues
Post Date: 2012-11-25 12:46:59 by Brian S
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Republican lawmakers are increasingly abandoning Grover Norquist’s no-taxes pledge and arguing for raising tax revenues as part of a deal to avoid the severe austerity measures set to take effect in January. On the Sunday talk shows, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called for raising revenues by scaling back tax deductions and credits. “I would be very much opposed to raising tax rates, but I do believe we can close a lot of loopholes,” McCain said on “Fox News Sunday.” He said that could be achieved by imposing “a limit on the amount of deduction on charitable giving, a limit on the amount you can take on your home loan mortgage ...
Guaranteed Deficit Reduction Plan
Post Date: 2012-11-21 21:04:31 by jwpegler
9 Comments
"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election" -- Warren Buffet. Yep, that's the bottom line... Thank kind of thinking is how he made billions. So, let's do it! Cut the SOB politicians off.
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