President Obama Calls on Congress to Pass Credit Card Reform Bill
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Saturday, May 9, 2009
President Obama's Weekly Radio Address, May 9, 2009 (Video and Transcript)
Friday, May 8, 2009
Lawrence O'Donnell, EATS THEM UP and SPITS THEM OUT (Video)
Again, there are few of these so called "analysts" on TV who will even try to challenge Lawrence O'Donnell. If you don't have your "i's" dotted and "t's" crossed, don't even try it with him. He is that good. The man slams them on "torture". O'Donnell sits in for Ed Schultz on "The Ed Show".
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Rachel Maddow takes on that diaper lovin', prostitute chasin' Senator from Louisiana, David Vitter (Video)
Michelle got her burger on, too
First the President, now the First Lady.
Is there a burger competition afoot in the White House?
First Lady Michelle Obama and about 20 members of her staff slipped out of the Executive Mansion at lunch time on Friday for some burgers and fries at Good Stuff Eatery, a restaurant near Capitol Hill.
The visit came only a few days after President Obama went out for a burger with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., which prides itself on premium aged 10-ounce burgers.
No word yet on whether one visit inspired the other.
“It totally caught us by surprise,’’ said Micheline Mendelsohn, who is the sister of the chef, Spike Mendelsohn, and handles communications for the restaurant, which specializes in burgers. (They serve beef, turkey and chicken burgers, for those who are curious.)
The restaurant’s staff served the first lady and her aides several of their best burgers, including the Prez Obama burger, which comes with horseradish mayo, red onion marmalade, crumbled blue cheese and bacon. (No word on whether the first lady shares her husband’s taste for spicy or dijon mustard on her burgers.)
They also dined on fries and milk shakes.
Ms. Mendelsohn said that customers were delighted to see Mrs. Obama, who shook hands and stopped to say hello on her way out. A crowd gathered outside the restaurant to snap her photo and to cheer her on.
“They were shouting, “I love you,’’ Ms. Mendelsohn said.
Mr. Mendelsohn – of Top Chef fame — is no stranger to the White House. He was cooking it up at the Kids Kitchen – a child-friendly cooking demonstration that featured healthy foods such as turkey burgers — at the White House Easter Egg roll last month.
Oh, yeah, Top Chef is one of my favorite shows.
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3 Government Plans for Health Care Being Tossed Out There
I dont' know what is making this so difficult. The Republicans did not get this issue and lost on this issue. Health care costs are one major factor that is bankrupting millions of Americans and lack of it is driving costs up all over the place.
These politicians are being ridden hard by lobbyists, the very same ones who are tossing money in their re-election tillers so they can keep their cushy jobs. I hope they get or understand the message, the American public wants universal health care and they wanted it yesterday. These politicians either straighten up and do the right thing or get their asses primaried out of office.
Oh, by the way, here is the Republican Plan for STOPPING HEALTHCARE REFORM. Everyone better get ready for a real fight here.
Senators are considering three different designs for a new government health-insurance plan that middle-income Americans could buy into for the first time, congressional officials said Friday.
Officials familiar with the proposals said senators plan to debate them in a closed meeting next week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the controversial plans have not been released.
Creating a public plan is one of the most contentious ideas in the debate over how to overhaul the nation's health-care system to cover the uninsured and try to restrain costs.
President Barack Obama and many Democrats say a government option would serve as a check to keep the private insurance industry honest.
Insurers fear the government would use its power to drive them out of business. And Republicans call a public plan in the legislation a deal-breaker, dashing hopes for bipartisan legislation for overhauling the health insurance system. Employer groups are also opposed.
The three approaches being discussed are:
_Create a plan that resembles Medicare, administered by the Health and Human Services department.
_Adopt a Medicare-like plan, but pick an outside party to run it. That way government officials would not directly control the day-to-day operations.
_Leave it up to individual states to set up a public insurance plan for their residents. read more here....
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Obama traveling to Egypt next month to deliver major speech to the Middle East
This is needed after the Bush Administration destoyed our image in the Middle East. The speech will be delivered on June 4, 2009.
U.S. President Barack Obama will deliver a much anticipated speech to the Muslim world in Egypt next month, seeking to repair ties that were severely damaged under his predecessor George W. Bush.
Many Arab and Muslim nations were angered by the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo, abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Bush's initial reluctance to pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Obama's Egypt trip fulfills a promise he made during his presidential campaign to give a major address to Muslims from a Muslim capital during the first few months in office.
The Muslim world will be watching to see his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most Muslims believed Bush's policies toward the region were biased in favor of Israel.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday the speech would be delivered in Egypt on June 4 but did not say whether it would be in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
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Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar announces that the Statue of Liberty reopens on the 4th of July (video)
Job Loss Still Suck
That is the reality. I am watching Obama on television now talking about going back to school to upgrade your skills for other job opportunities, which is great, but in the meantime it is grim out there.
The pace of layoffs slowed in April when employers cut 539,000 jobs, the fewest in six months. But the unemployment rate climbed to 8.9 percent, the highest since late 1983, as many businesses remain wary of hiring given all the economic uncertainties.
The Labor Department tally released Friday wasn't nearly as deep as the 620,000 job cuts that economists were expecting, and was helped by a burst of federal government hiring of temporary workers to prepare for the 2010 Census. The rise in the unemployment rate from 8.5 percent in March matched economists' forecasts.
The new report underscored the toll the longest recession since World War II has taken on America's workers and companies. However, the slowdown in layoffs may bolster expectations that the worst of the downturn's hefty job losses are past.
"There are glimmers of hope. We are moving in the right direction in terms of layoffs. They are measurably less bad than what we've been through," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.
On Wall Street, the employment news gave stocks a lift. The Dow Jones industrials gained more than 90 points in morning trading.
Still, companies will remain cautious in hiring, making it harder for laid-off workers to find new jobs.
If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 15.8 percent in April, the highest on records dating back to 1994. The total number of unemployed now stands at 13.7 million, up from 13.2 million in March. more here.....
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Obama, Schwarzenegger going at it?
You decide.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been one of the prominent Republican defenders of President Obama's stimulus plan. He's called the California governor "one of the great innovators of state government" and "an outstanding partner with our administration." But their relationship has hit a rough patch.
The L.A. Times reports that the Obama administration is threatening to rescind stimulus billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds if wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers are not restored.
Schwarzenegger's office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials.
The Service Employees International Union, which represents the workers, requested the opinion from Obama's Department of Health and Human Services.
"The Obama Administration has made it clear that the State cannot cut the homecare workers' wages. Now we need our counties to follow suit and take all the cuts off the table," said SEIU Executive Vice President and SEIU UHW Trustee, Eliseo Medina.
more here....
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Thursday, May 7, 2009
Today I watched a woman truly miserable....Elizabeth Edwards....
Again, I don't know why she wrote the book or went on Oprah, but it was heart wrenching to see a woman fighting the inevitability.....the loss of her marriage.
Her blaming of Rielle Hunter, only, for her husband's infidelity was unbelievable, but then the calling of Hunter's child, "it" was even more strange.
Adultery takes people in different places, I know, I have witnessed the hurt of it, but folks I knew never lost sight on the reality of what had happened. I think Elizabeth Edwards has.
Elizabeth Edwards is fighting some mighty demons right now and it is out in the open to see. I hope she finds whatever peace she is seeking, but I don't think she will.
Lastly, her husband, John Edwards is a scumbag of the tallest order, nothing new here and my opinion has not changed, but he is a lucky bastard that Elizabeth still wants to be bothered with the likes of him.
Mrs. Edwards tells Oprah Winfrey that she has essentially walled herself off from the possibility that her husband may have fathered a child with the woman with whom he had an affair.
“It doesn’t make any difference to me,” Mrs. Edwards says. She also implies that Mr. Edwards is not certain either whether the baby girl is his.
No difference to her, but it is a difference and if you saw the Oprah interview, you would agree.
But Ms. Winfrey presses Mrs. Edwards about whether Mr. Edwards is the father of the baby born to Rielle Hunter, though Ms. Winfrey does not use Ms. Hunter’s name because that was a condition of the interview.
“If it were discovered at some point that it was — which is not something we know — if they discovered that it was, then, you know, that would be part of John’s life, but it’s not part of mine,” Mrs. Edwards says of the baby. “And I can’t really see any upside to my making it part of my life, honestly.”
Ms. Winfrey asks Mrs. Edwards if she has asked her husband if the baby is his. Mrs. Edwards responds: “He has — he’s told me, you know — he’s talked to me about, you know, questions people ask and things like that. And he doesn’t know any more than I know about this.”
No clear cut answer, she knows it is his child.
Ms. Winfrey asks whether Mrs. Edwards, who went on to campaign for her husband, “and saying what a great husband, and father, and man, he was, were you being honest?”
Mrs. Edwards says yes because “I changed the way I talked a lot,” though at first she canceled several appearances she had scheduled.
Ms. Winfrey points out that Mrs. Edwards could have used her recurrence of her breast cancer as an excuse to end the campaign. “That was a way out,” Ms. Winfrey says. Mrs. Edwards agrees but says no more.
She admits that she was curious about Ms. Hunter and wanted details of the relationship. Her self-confidence suffered, she says, and the hardest part about her marriage now is rebuilding the trust.
She decided to work on the marriage rather than split up because she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life fighting; her doctor has told her she could live anywhere between one year and 10 years. Death is not as frightening as it might be, Mrs. Edwards says, because the couple had already lost their son, Wade, when he was 16.
Also, Mrs. Edwards says, she doesn’t want her life or her marriage to be defined by her husband’s affair. And she questions whether it is fair to judge him by this one “terrible” thing when he has done so many other good things.
She does not want her life or marriage to be defined by her husband's affair. Going on Oprah just defined it.
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Former Governor Tom Ridge (R) will not run for the senate seat in Pennsylvania, from Hardball (Video)
This is a break for Senator Arlen Specter, as Ridge a pro-choice Republican and well liked, respected in the state would have given him a run for his money. This leaves the Democratic Primary and Congressman Joe Sestak is ready to go.
Ridge: "We Have To Be Less Judgmental"
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Specter gets a subcommittee chairmanship, BIG WHOOP....
Lucky he got that, imo. And my senator, Dick Durbin is gracious, as always.
Senate Democrats gave party switcher Arlen Specter a plum Judiciary subcommittee chairmanship on Thursday as a potential primary challenger to the veteran Pennsylvania lawmaker stepped forward.
Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois said he would give up his chairmanship of the Crime and Drugs subcommittee in exchange for becoming chairman of a panel on human rights. The move, he said, would "best utilize Senator Specter's talents and experience in our caucus."
Senate Democrats gave party switcher Arlen Specter a plum Judiciary subcommittee chairmanship on Thursday as a potential primary challenger to the veteran Pennsylvania lawmaker stepped forward.
Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois said he would give up his chairmanship of the Crime and Drugs subcommittee in exchange for becoming chairman of a panel on human rights. The move, he said, would "best utilize Senator Specter's talents and experience in our caucus."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., indicated later that the deal was not final and had to be worked out.
The move came as Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., a former Navy vice admiral, said he's seriously considering a challenge to Specter in next year's Pennsylvania primary.
"The Democratic political establishment reached into the GOP establishment to give us the Democratic candidate for the future. I don't think we want to re-establish the establishment," Sestak said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"It's not theirs to make, it's ours to make. That's really what moved me. It's the ideal. It's not what we came to Washington to do is tell Pennsylvanians what they are to do in their Democratic choices."
Yes, Joe Sestak is looking more likely to challenge Specter for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania. As, Sestak has indicated, "We Don't Need The GOP's Benedict Arnolds." Indeed, the fight is on.
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BREAKING NEWS!!! OMG!!! JOE THE PLUMBER QUITTING THE REPUBLICANS!!!
Yes, even good ol', election tactic, Joe the Plumber is quitting the GOP, at least for now.
Is Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher really quitting the Republican Party? That's what a new Time article on the current sad state of the GOP says.
"Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he's so outraged by GOP overspending, he's quitting the party -- and he's the bull's-eye of its target audience," the article says.
Oh, just thought you should know. And read that Time article, worth the read.
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Pressure mounting to throw out those torture lawyers
We know these torture lawyers will not be indicted or in other terms, won't get reprimanded for crafting the torture doctrine used by the Bush Administration and soiling our image internationally, but when you do wrong, it comes back to you, two fold.
Now out west the bullseye button is on John Yoo and Judge Jay Bybee. Folks, the people are mounting to go after them.
Pressure is mounting against two former Bush administration attorneys who wrote the legal memos used to support harsh interrogation techniques that critics say constituted torture.
John Yoo, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is fighting calls for disbarment and dismissal, while Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals faces calls for impeachment.
Justice Department investigators have stopped short of recommending criminal charges, but suggest in a draft report that the two men should face professional sanctions. A number of groups across the country agree, and some want even stronger action.
Note, while the Justice Department will not file criminal charges, they suggest that these two should face professional sanctions, in other words, LOSE YOUR CUSHY JOBS.
Enter Demonstrations in Berkeley
Human rights and anti-war activists are planning a demonstration at the Berkeley School of Law's May 16 commencement ceremony to press for Yoo to be fired.
"It's unconscionable that the legal architect of the torture apparatus is teaching the future generation of lawyers and judges at UC Berkeley," said Stephanie Tang, an organizer with the group World Can't Wait.
Robert Cole, a professor emeritus at Berkeley's law school, said he believes the university should conduct its own investigation to determine if Yoo's work for the Bush administration violated the campus' faculty code of conduct.
"The university has got to protect its integrity," Cole said. "Every professor we put in the classroom has to have professional competence and ethical integrity."
Slow Burn in Nevada
Legal colleagues, while praising Bybee as a scholar and caring colleague, have criticized the memos, particularly for what some of them say was legal sloppiness and faulty constitutional logic not indicative of his other work.
John Podesta, president of the liberal Center for American Progress and the leader of President Barack Obama's transition team, said, "If he would do the right thing, he should just simply resign."
If he doesn't quit, Podesta said, he should be removed from office.
In the end, if you had anything to do with the Torture Crew from the Bush Administration, you are looking to eventually go down, maybe not legally but that cushy job can be stripped from you very easily. Don't believe me? Ask Alberto Gonzalez. No law firm in this country will touch him. He is poison from that Torture Crew from the Bush Administration, which is why these torture lawyers did not want any of these memos to come out in the open, they are facing very harsh criticism which can result in both losing their prestigious and cushy jobs.
No pity party here.
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Folks, King Rush wants to purge many from the Republican Party (Video)
King Rush sure makes the Republicans tow his line in D.C. We saw Cantor and others launch a listening tour this weekend, only to have Limbaugh state it is not a listening tour but a teaching tour. Guess what? Cantor changes his tune and goes all over TV and say it is not a listening tour! Then Limbaugh attacks the moderate republican, Colin Powell, a man respected from the right, left and the middle and tells him to basically get the hell out of the Republican Party. Then the hate just continues from that big fat blubber mouth in Florida, but hey, he is running the Republican Party!! He is their leader. Others that King Rush wants out of the Republican Party:
Colin Powell
Meghan Mccain
Olympia Snowe
Susan Collins
Arlen Specter
Arnold Schwarzenegger
John McCain
Charlie Crist
And from Keith Olbermann......
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Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Michelle and Elmo on Sesame Street
h/t East Wing Rules
Give it to Maureen over at the East Wing Rules to find FLOTUS and Elmo, together.
From East Wing Rules
First ladies find individual pursuits while paying homage to past tradition. Sesame Street is a modern must do for the spouse of a president. The music and the rhymes just comes back to me from childhood. Now my earworm is permanent with grandkids who like the characters just as much. Everybody's A-Okay when you get to...
During the 1993 Clinton Inaugural festivities, Kermit plopped and perched comfortably on Hillary Clinton's shoulder during a concert Disney-thon. Yep, think about that, not Minnie or Mickey, the apple of Miss Piggy's eye, the froggy wonder got the prime shoulder for the finale of the show. As first lady, Hillary also went to the 25th season for Sesame Street and appeared with muppets throughout her tenure. It was episode 3136. The first lady came on to give health tips. As a senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton did a PSA for Healthy Habits for Life (photos courtesy muppet wiki)
The inaugural appearance from a first lady and president came from George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife, Barbara, on video tape to warn children away from drugs. Later she came by herself to read a book since literacy was her major raison d'etre in her official capacity as first lady. It is ironic that its the numbers cruncher Count in the skit with her though. Read more here.....
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Soon to be Senator Al Franken from Minnesota meets with the Vice President at the White House
Soon Al Franken will be U.S. Senator Al Franken from Minnesota, in the meantime the Vice President is keeping him abreast to what is happening in Washington, D.C.
Vice President Joe Biden meets with Al Franken in the Vice President's West Wing office in Washington DC, Wednesday, May 6, 2009.
Vice President Biden's Statement:
"The election process and recount in Minnesota have lived up to the state's reputation for organization, transparency, and bipartisanship. The officials have been meticulous and every ruling has been unanimous.
"While Senator Amy Klobuchar is one of the hardest working members of the United States Senate, Minnesotans deserve their full representation.
"Once the Minnesota Supreme Court has issued its final ruling in this case, the President and I look forward to working with Mr. Franken on building an economy for the 21st century."
From the Franken Campaign:
"I deeply appreciate the administration's ongoing support and the opportunity to meet with Vice President Biden today. Minnesotans are eager to see Congress make progress on the administration's agenda - and I'm eager to do my part in that effort. From investments in alternative energy to the expansion of high-speed rail to the Twin Cities, we have a lot to do to help Minnesota's working families, and I was pleased to discuss these important issues with the Vice President."
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Diaper lovin', prostitute chasin', Senator David Vitter slammed by the White House
Don't get me started on HIM.
He is the last noise out of Washington, D.C. who should attempt to posture ANYTHING. Vitter is busy jerking around the FEMA nominee for political capital. PLEASE. Man, I know you want to keep your job and there will be many nipping at your heels, but the FEMA position needs to be filled NOW and not yesterday. I guess, he is worried about the Storm coming his way....
The White House went on the offensive today against a Republican senator who is blocking the president’s nominee to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) was engaging in "political posturing" at a critical time, with the start of the hurricane season just three weeks away.
Vitter is stalling the vote on the nomination of Craig Fugate to head up the government’s emergency response agency because he said he has not received information from FEMA about high-risk flood zones.
Gibbs said Fugate has a "stellar bipartisan record" and is supported by Democrats and Republicans.
"He is somebody that deserves immediate Senate confirmation, not political posturing, from a senator from Louisiana who should understand as well as anybody what's at stake in responding to a hurricane. And we expect that he'll be confirmed quickly," he said.
Read more here.....
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Obama says that Afghanistan, Pakistan will fight Taliban (Video)
Let's see how this plays out. We have heard this lip service from these countries, BEFORE, but that was with Bush. There is some good will going on here, let's see how it goes.
President Barack Obama declared he got the commitments he wanted Wednesday from the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to more aggressively fight Taliban and al-Qaida militants who are gaining power and sowing violence in their countries.
"I'm pleased that these two men, elected leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, fully appreciate the seriousness of the threats that we face and have reaffirmed their commitment to confronting it," Obama said at the White House.
The presidents of the two countries stood at his side after a day of joint meetings. Obama is sending 21,000 fresh U.S. troops into Afghanistan to help with the anti-terror war. read more here....
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In case you missed it, Oprah Winfrey is hooking up America with free grilled chicken meals
I tried this today and it works. Plus, Winfrey announced this on her show, yesterday that she is "hooking up America".
4 coupons per person.
You must print out the coupons by 11:59 PM CST, tonight.
I am posting this because everyone should get a meal and we also know those that need help.
Coupon download available from 9 a.m. CDT on May 5, 2009, to 11:59 p.m. CDT on May 6, 2009. Coupon is redeemable at participating KFC® locations in the United States from May 5, 2009 to May 19, 2009—excluding Mother's Day, May 10, 2009.
All information here.
Pass the word on.
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Maine, YES TO GAY MARRIAGE, State #5
Governor Signs LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom
May 6, 2009
AUGUSTA – Governor John E. Baldacci today signed into law LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom.
“I have followed closely the debate on this issue. I have listened to both sides, as they have presented their arguments during the public hearing and on the floor of the Maine Senate and the House of Representatives. I have read many of the notes and letters sent to my office, and I have weighed my decision carefully,” Governor Baldacci said. “I did not come to this decision lightly or in haste.”
“I appreciate the tone brought to this debate by both sides of the issue,” Governor Baldacci said. “This is an emotional issue that touches deeply many of our most important ideals and traditions. There are good, earnest and honest people on both sides of the question.”
“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Governor Baldacci said. “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”
Again, government has no business in anyone's bedroom, whom they want to live with, make a life with or have a family with. Republicans, do you get it yet?
Maine: The Way Life Should Be
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1/5 of homes are cell phone only
Including my home. Including my sister's home. Why pay two bills? Unless you must have an analog line for business purposes, like a fax machine.
For the first time, the number of U.S. households opting for only cell phones outnumber those with only traditional landlines in a high-tech shift accelerated by the recession.
In the freshest evidence of the growing appeal of cell phones, 20 percent of households had only cells during the last half of 2008, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Wednesday. That was an increase of nearly 3 percentage points over the first half of the year, the largest six-month increase since the government started gathering such data in 2003.
The 20 percent of homes with only cell phones compared to 17 percent with landlines but no cells.
That ratio has changed starkly in recent years: In the first six months of 2003, just 3 percent of households were wireless only, while 43 percent stuck to landlines.
Stephen Blumberg, senior scientist at the CDC and an author of the report, attributed the growing number of cell-only households in part to a recession that has forced many families to scour their budgets for savings.
"We do expect that with the recession, we'd see an increase in the prevalence of wireless only households, above what we might have expected had there been no recession," Blumberg said.
Further underscoring the public's shrinking reliance on landline phones, 15 percent of households have both landlines and cells but take few or no calls on their landlines, often because they are wired into computers. Combined with wireless only homes, that means that 35 percent of households — more than one in three — are basically reachable only on cells.
The changes are important for pollsters, who for years relied on reaching people on their landline telephones. Growing numbers of surveys now include calls to people on their cells, which is more expensive partly because federal laws forbid pollsters from using computers to place calls to wireless phones.
2012 elections or even 2010 elections may not be that correct in its polling. I still say evidence of this was 2008. All those young folk were not land line users, they got their information from the Obama Campaign via text messaging. And who showed up to the polls, many first time voters? Young folks.
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Elizabeth Edwards is really in denial about her husband, John Edwards (Video)
I feel sorry for Elizabeth Edwards.
It takes two to tango when you are playing the infidelity game. Rielle Hunter, John Edwards mistress, was wrong for sexing a married man, but John Edwards was equally or more wrong for bringing this woman into his family's relationship. Blaming Rielle only is denial. And what about that baby of Hunter's? When the dust is settled, the baby will be John Edwards.
Why Elizabeth Edwards wrote this book is beyond me? I would think that she would like a positive memory of she and John Edwards for her small children. We all know she is sick with terminal cancer and may not have much time left, but what her husband did is beyond vomit, for me. Blaming Rielle Hunter only is denial of the utmost. For me, John Edwards is the biggest coward, weasel and liar walking around right now. Thank god we dodged a bullet with him.
Elizabeth Edwards told Oprah Winfrey that she had “no idea” whether her husband is the father of the baby of the woman with whom he had an affair.
“The other woman has a baby,” Ms. Winfrey said in an interview with Mrs. Edwards, which is to air on Ms. Winfrey’s talk-show on Thursday. “And there is great speculation that your husband, John Edwards, is the father of that baby.”
“That’s what I understand,” Mrs. Edwards replied, according to a transcript provided by Ms. Winfrey’s Harpo Productions. “I’ve seen a picture of the baby. I have no idea. It doesn’t look like my children, but I don’t have any idea.”
“You must have thought, ‘Is it or is it not?’,” Ms. Winfrey said. The transcript then tantalizingly says “this conversation continues in the June issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.”
The uncertain paternity of the baby girl is one more chapter in the ongoing saga of the Edwards’s marriage, which is coming up for more rehashing as Mrs. Edwards prepares for the publication on Thursday of her new book, “Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities,” published by Broadway Books. read more here.....
Elizabeth Edwards video from Hardball
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King Rush gets Eric Cantor to bow down... (Video)
Cantor repeats, "This is not a listening tour". When your party is in the tank, the public has disdain towards your party and not listening to you, tell me, "What the f*ck is it then that you are trying to do?" King Rush, continues to run the Republican Party.
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Bristol Palin's Baby Daddy, Levi Johnston responds to abstinence (Video)
Again, two teenagers, hot mess, what do you expect. I hope they BOTH are trying to finish high school. Here is Bristol on the Today Show and Good Morning America. Levi is on CBS' The Early Show responding to Bristol. Wow, maybe it is time for the Palin Family, since they love the cameras and attention, to pay Levi off to shut him up, this is all nasty. Man, family affairs out in the open.
And yes, this is news especially, since Sarah Palin made them news and is looking at a 2012 Presidential run.
Bristol, Levi Feud over Abstinence
Levi Johnston on Tyra Banks, Part One and Part Two
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Michael Steele is a TOKEN!!!!
RNC Chairman Michael Steele gives up the purse strings at the RNC to the powers that be of the RNC. In other words, Steele is just a token chairman.
Capitulating to critics on the Republican National Committee, embattled Republican Party Chairman Michael S. Steele has signed a secret pact agreeing to controls and restraints on how he spends hundreds of millions of dollars in party funds and contracts, The Washington Times has learned.
The "good governance" agreement revives checks and balances Mr. Steele resisted implementing for RNC contracts, fees for legal work and other expenditures that were not renewed after the 2008 presidential nominating contest.
The agreement, proposed by several current and former RNC officials, goes further, making 33-year RNC veteran Jay Banning, who was fired by Mr. Steele along with his deputy last month, an on-call adviser to the RNC treasurer. Mr. Banning was seen as a trusted liaison to RNC members critical of Mr. Steele's tenure and financial management.
"I regard them - the Steele administration - bound by it," former Republican National Committee General Counsel David Norcross told The Times on Tuesday.
Mr. Norcross, RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, and former party budget chiefs Ron Kaufman and Alec Poitevint had fought with Mr. Steele over having the 168-member committee vote on restoring the "good governance" guidelines created in 2004 at a special May 20 meeting.
Trevor Francis, the RNC's new communications director, would not comment on the agreement that several of the dissident members said was reached.
"Everything was already in place," Mr. Francis said.
To be honest, Steele was already a shaky figure when it comes to his own financing of his various elections. Whatever the issue, this is unprecedented and makes Michael Steele nothing more and nothing less than a TOKEN HEAD FIGURE at the RNC.
My thing is this, "How long will he last?" My answer to myself, "I don't think very long."
Read it all here
Bank of America needs a sh*tload of money, eventually more bailout money...
Again, I have been writing from the beginning, we cannot save all the banks. We cannot. We have sunk billions into Citibank and have been sinking the same into Bank of America. Now, we are all smart here and can smell the bulls*it, eventually the Obama Administration will have to cut the purse strings, which are our purse strings and let one of the big ones, that we were told, "CAN NOT FAIL", do just that. FAIL.
Bank of America Corp. stock rose in premarket trading after an initial decline, amid reports that it needs $34 billion in new capital.
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are reporting that regulators are telling the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank it needs about $34 billion in capital based on results of government "stress tests."
The New York Times quoted a bank executive, while the Journal report cited unnamed people familiar with the situation.
Bank of America was not immediately available to comment on the reports. The Treasury Department declined to comment.
Shares of Bank of America rose $1.02, or 9.4 percent, to $11.16 in premarket trading. The stock had been down more than 5 percent earlier in the morning.
Bank of America has been among the hardest hit banks by the credit crisis and ongoing recession. It has received more than $45 billion in government aid already, and has come under heavy scrutiny in recent months for its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
The need for more capital comes as the government gets set to release the results of a stress test on Thursday that it completed on 19 banks to determine how they would fare in economic conditions worsened. The test aims to gauge how much of an additional capital cushion the nation's biggest banks need to protect against potential future losses.
Any of the banks that are deemed to need more capital will have an opportunity to raise the funds on their own before the government steps in to help support them.
Can BofA raise this capital? I don't know, this is not the only shaky bank out there and though the stock market is slowly becoming more solid, the job market is not and though the housing market is up it is only because many are purchasing drastically reduced homes. This also means that many Americans are sitting on mortgages in homes that have dropped drastically in value. Now 1 in 5 home owners owe more on mortgages than what the home is worth.
The downturn in home prices has left about 20% of U.S. homeowners owing more on a mortgage than their homes are worth, according to one new study, signaling additional challenges to the Obama administration's efforts to stabilize the housing market.
The increase in the number of such "underwater" borrowers comes amid signs that falling prices are making homes more affordable for first-time buyers and others who have been shut out of the housing market. But falling prices also make it more difficult for homeowners who get into financial trouble to refinance or sell their homes, and for others to take advantage of lower interest rates.
For instance, fewer will qualify to take advantage of a key component of the Obama administration's plan to stabilize the housing market. Under the plan, announced in February, as many as five million homeowners whose loans are owned or guaranteed by government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can refinance their mortgages, but only if the mortgage loan is a maximum of 105% of the home's value.
This leaves many STUCK with a mortgage on a home not worth, well, squat. So, now we should continue to keep the likes of Bank of American above water? Eventually, for the Obama Administration, people are going to get tired of this, if they are not getting ansy already.
WE CAN NOT SAVE THEM ALL. If we can let Chrysler go into bankruptcy, so can some of these banks. Like the automobile industry that drove themselves over a cliff, so did the greed of these banks.
ENOUGH ALREADY.
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Bristol Palin Spokeswoman for Teen Abstinence (Video)
I know. I am conflicted about this. Why? Because she recently said on FOX NEWS that abstinence is unrealistic and guess what, IT IS!! Another issue, the Palins for any reason will get in front of a camera, go anywhere, to get away from Alaska. Governor Sarah Palin back in D.C. this weekend. Lastly, most teens who have children do not have the help as Bristol Palin, so many should keep that in check while watching this video. Levi Johnston responds to Bristol Palin and abstinence.
Bristol Palin on Good Morning America
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Michelle Obama hits New York City (Pictures)
FLOTUS, Michelle Obama at the Time 100 Gala, a celebration of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. h/t Mrs. O and a quick read, Michelle Obama by Oprah Winfrey for TIME.
At the UN with UN Ambassador, Susan Rice
FLOTUS' remarks @ the UN
And FLOTUS' biggest thrill? On Sesame Street
Inauguration Day? Nope. First puppy? Negative. Triumphal tour of Europe? Not even. First lady Michelle Obama called her appearance Tuesday on "Sesame Street" probably the best thing she's done since arriving in the White House.
At the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, she thanked the diplomats and staff members promoting her husband's new foreign policy of global engagement.
"I'm thrilled to be here, but I was just at 'Sesame Street' — I'm sorry," she said. "And I never thought I'd be on 'Sesame Street' with Elmo and Big Bird and I was thrilled. I'm still thrilled. I'm on a high."
"I think it's probably the best thing I've done so far in the White House. But we were there talking about nutrition and healthy eating, and it's just been a thrill," Mrs. Obama said.
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Tuesday, May 5, 2009
When it RAINS, it STORMS...the listening tour begins.... (Video)
Stormy Daniels is out there on her listening tour. She is a former adult actress or porn star who is looking at challenging U.S. Senator David (I love prostitutes) Vitter for the Republican nomination. And of course, the infamous Al Rodgers is on top of it all with pictures.
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Again, I told you about Specter...............
Today Arlen Specter, the new Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania is cheering for Norm Coleman, to win the senate seat in Minnesota!!! But as he performed his oopsy, Specter then had to back pedal.
With your departure from the Republican Party, there are no more Jewish Republicans in the Senate. Do you care about that?
I sure do. There’s still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.
Of course, our new Democratic Senator had to profusely back pedal his statement and state categorically that it was one of those infamous times that he “misspoke”.
“In the swirl of moving from one caucus to another, I have to get used to my new teammates,” he said. “I’m ordinarily pretty correct in what I say. I’ve made a career of being precise. I conclusively misspoke.”
Asked who he’s backing now in elections, Specter said, “I’m looking for more Democratic members. Nothing personal.”
I don’t know about you, but Specter is a fair weathered Democrat at best and I am being kind here. I don’t know if it is his age or what, but the cheerleading should be for his new team, not for the team he just left!!
One thing is for DAMN SURE, I definitely agree with kos:
What the hell? He's so devoid of any conviction that one day, justice requires Coleman to be declared the winner, and the next day, it doesn't?
He's an empty, hollow, shell of a man. There is just one value that drives him -- political self-preservation.
But we have one thing in common. We both are looking for more Democratic members. That's why I hope Sestak primaries his ass.
Amen on all that!!
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Obama makes a burger run..... (Video)
with Biden in tow....to Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Virginia....
It's like this: When you want a burger, you have to have a burger.
In this state of mind, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden took a short — but wholly noticeable — motorcade ride from the White House to Virginia and pulled into a small, independent burger joint called Ray's Hell Burger.
The two leaders went right up to the counter where the meat was being grilled and ordered.
Each fetched cash from his pocket and paid, and then the pair stood like the rest and waited for their number to be called before going to a table.
The restaurant, which prides itself on premium aged 10-ounce burgers, sits in a small strip plaza. The burgers sell for $6.95.
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Obama's mother baptized a Mormon last summer
We are talking about after she died. Crazy story.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints confirmed Tuesday afternoon that someone improperly, posthumously baptized the late mother of President Obama into the Mormon faith.
Last June 4 -- the day after then-Sen. Obama secured enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nominee -- someone had the president's mother Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995 of cancer, baptized.
On June 11, she received the sacrament.
The White House had no comment. read it all here.....
And you know the Mormons are up in arms right about now.
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That Shameful School in South Carolina Gets a Make Over (Video)
To be honest, the school needs to be bulldozed DOWN and a new one built up, but we are talking about helping poor students.
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FLOTUS and Diversity
No matter how you craft it, one can not walk away from looking at the First Family in the White House now, and the ones that lived there prior. They are different. That is in color.
A new one for the United States of America. A forceful portrait that this country has painted on November 4, 2008, a fixture this country is trying to move on from the terrible sin of slavery and the horrible treatment of Blacks during the Civil Rights Era.
There were many, including me, wondering what Michelle Obama's itinerary or intentions would be as First Lady of this country. Well, she has been dynamic, poised, exciting and real to many women and families in this country. A woman that you feel believes or understands what you are going through. Someone who appears approachable, lovable and heartwarming. A woman who right now is more popular than the President of the United States.
I would love to be a fly on that bedroom wall as she quotes the polling numbers to her husband........
There have been plenty of un-veiling ceremonies for new statues at the U.S. Capitol. But when Michelle Obama peeled the cover off the bronze bust ofabolitionist Sojourner Truth last week, the moment was heavy with symbolism. Truth is the first African-American woman to be honored with a statue in the Capitol. In a way no first lady before her ever could have done, Obama connected the dots between herself and the black feminist pioneer. "Now many young boys and girls like my own daughters will come to Emancipation Hall and see the face of a woman who looks like them," she told the gathering. "I hope that Sojourner Truth would be proud to see me, a descendant of slaves, serving as the first lady of the United States of America."
It was just the kind of scene I'd been hoping for when Barack Obama won the presidency last fall. I knew that Michelle Obama was already changing the way we see ourselves as African-American women. But I also hoped she would begin to knock down ugly stereotypes and educate people about American black culture. What's remarkable now—just over that much-hyped 100-day mark—is how quickly and decisively Michelle has taken on the issues that matter most to us.
From the start, Michelle never shied away from being an African-American role model. "I think it's clear that Michelle Obama is very comfortable in her own skin,'' says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center of American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. "She's not sending a message that I'm the first lady who just happens to be African-American. She's saying I'm an African-American first lady. There is a difference, and she's not afraid to show that.'' read more here......
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Democratic Congress is its worst enemy
Yes, I just wrote that.
While the Republicans are out in the wilderness trying to rebrand, change, or do something to their image, the Democrats are jockeying for any position to take on, get this one, Barack Obama.
Yes, their Democratic President.
First, we have Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) and his gathering of all the moderates to tackle any legislation that is, well, just too much for him by Obama.
As he announced on Morning Joe today, Sen. Evan Bayh is forming a Moderate Dems Working group that will meet every other Tuesday before the Democratic caucus to discuss legislative strategies and ideas.In other words, Bayh wants to be a big cheese in the room and he IS NOT.
Per Bayh's office, the group's goal "is to work with the Senate leadership and the new administration to craft common-sense solutions to urgent national problems."
Next, Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) who does not want any overhaul of the Student Loan program because Nelnet is a loan provider of these horrible loans to students and they are a big contributor to his campaign. And Obama plans to go around Nelson to overhaul this program. Then we have Nelson outwardly opposing any public insurance health plan for the public. Why? You got it. Insurance companies are BIG contributors to his campaign.
Now we have Obama attempting to overhaul U.S. companies who are hiding their tax dollars in the Caribbean. As Obama pointed out, one address harbors 18,000 corporations’ addresses. Now that is outrageous. I wish I had an address to outmaneuver paying my taxes.
YouTube
And now we have those Democrats who have their hands in the corporate tiller getting very ansy and nervous.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, called for “further study” of Obama’s proposals within minutes of the president’s announcement yesterday. Representative Joseph Crowley, a Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said he’s wary because the tax changes would hurt Citigroup Inc., his New York district’s largest private-sector employer.
Natalie Ravitz, a spokeswoman for Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said that any tax overhaul should not lead to “unintended consequences.”
Other Democrats, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel of New York, support the proposal. Some lawmakers, including Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate finance panel, are still weighing the plan.
Of course, we have all the lobbyists going full blown and putting their folks on television to state, "this is the biggest tax hike and will eliminate jobs!!!" But the fact is that it is not a tax hike, it is the tax man knocking at your door to make you pay UP. It will not eliminate jobs, because many of these companies are sending their jobs overseas for the cheap anyway.
The Democrats were put in office and in charge to force CHANGE, not to sit on their rumps and remain the SAME. What is the point of having Democrats in charge if they will fight every decision and act like a 2 year old jockeying for power?
Democrats watch out. If you continue, before long, you will be back in the wilderness. I know you read poll numbers; you better take a pulse on what the public wants and what they voted for. Get it together or another party will get it together for you.
Fighting for corporations to keep their tax shelters, bad move. Fighting against a public health care option for Americans, bad move. Fighting against rehauling the student loan program, bad move.
You better wake up Democrats and make the right move.
Cross-posted @ Daily Kos
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Netenayhu making nice
This is more or less what the Obama Administration needed to hear from the Israeli Prime Minister, and they did last night at AIPAC:We are prepared to resume peace negotiations without any delay, without any preconditions. The sooner the better.
The Israelis had been making the case that the U.S. should isolate Iran first, and indeed that dealing with Iran will make the peace process either; the administration thinks a robust peace process will help bring Arab allies to the table on Iran. Now, Netanyahu -- who had run on the argument that the Palestinians needed security and economic rebuilding before real peace talks could begin -- is offering a very public reversal on peace talks, a real olive branch to the White House in a relationship that many worried would be tense.
To Netanyahu, the cowboy that used to reside at the White House is back in Texas for good, there is a new caretaker in town and this shit on continuing wars just won't do. Time to make the peace.
Oh, did you get the without preconditions? Memory lane, anyone?
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Let's talk about that good ol' boy, Senator Jeff Sessions
Yes, billmon posted a diary on Daily Kos yesterday focusing on the greatest hits of that wonderful Alabama U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions.
Why the focus? Well, his bigoted ways speaks for itself. And let us not forget that he is going to replace the New Democratic Senator Arlen Specter as the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee choice. This very committee that confirms President Obama's supreme court justice. (the emphasis in bold is mine)
Republicans are set to name conservative Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as their point man on President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, signaling that they won't shy away from a protracted fight despite risks of being cast as obstructionist.
Sessions' ascension as the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee comes more than 20 years after the panel rejected him for his own federal judgeship during the Reagan administration over concerns that he was hostile toward civil rights and was racially insensitive.
Yes, racially insensitive. He is just that and let's look at his greatest hits.
Senate Democrats tracked down a career Justice Department employee named J. Gerald Hebert, who testified, albeit reluctantly, that in a conversation between the two men Sessions had labeled the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU ) "un-American" and "Communist-inspired." Hebert said Sessions had claimed these groups "forced civil rights down the throats of people." In his confirmation hearings, Sessions sealed his own fate by saying such groups could be construed as "un-American" when "they involve themselves in promoting un-American positions" in foreign policy.
OK. Let the ball roll...
Another damaging witness--a black former assistant U.S. Attorney in Alabama named Thomas Figures--testified that, during a 1981 murder investigation involving the Ku Klux Klan, Sessions was heard by several colleagues commenting that he "used to think they [the Klan] were OK" until he found out some of them were "pot smokers."
Ummmmm. OK, it is heating up.....
Sessions was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. The year before his nomination to federal court, he had unsuccessfully prosecuted three civil rights workers--including Albert Turner, a former aide to Martin Luther King Jr.--on a tenuous case of voter fraud. The three had been working in the "Black Belt" counties of Alabama, which, after years of voting white, had begun to swing toward black candidates as voter registration drives brought in more black voters. Sessions's focus on these counties to the exclusion of others caused an uproar among civil rights leaders, especially after hours of interrogating black absentee voters produced only 14 allegedly tampered ballots out of more than 1.7 million cast in the state in the 1984 election. The activists, known as the Marion Three, were acquitted in four hours and became a cause c?l?bre. Civil rights groups charged that Sessions had been looking for voter fraud in the black community and overlooking the same violations among whites, at least partly to help reelect his friend Senator Denton.
Wow, cherry picking at its finest......
Figures didn't see it that way. Sessions, he said, had called him "boy" and, after overhearing him chastise a secretary, warned him to "be careful what you say to white folks." Figures echoed Hebert's claims, saying he too had heard Sessions call various civil rights organizations, including the National Council of Churches and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, "un-American." Sessions denied the accusations but again admitted to frequently joking in an off-color sort of way. In his defense, he said he was not a racist, pointing out that his children went to integrated schools and that he had shared a hotel room with a black attorney several times.
Lastly, not a racist.
Folks, he is a racist and one that was voted by Alabama and now will challenge the nominee that Obama picks for the supreme court. Let's be blunt, folks don't go around stating things like this unless they BELIEVE IT and Sessions does, he is the worst of what this country is all about and does not represent what this country is moving forward to.
Sessions is the poster boy for Republican politics in the south and unfortunately for the Republican Party is the image that many view right now. The bigoted, racist part of the Republican Party. Is this party all of this? No, of course not, but it is the likes of Sessions and their mouthpiece of Limbaugh that has painted that party's image.
Sessions is an abomination, period.
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Monday, May 4, 2009
Cinco de Mayo at the White House!!! (Pictures and Video)
FLOTUS lookin' mighty festive......
And FLOTUS w/the kids for Cinco de Mayo in DC
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Rebranding the GOP? Let's start with some new damn faces.....(Video)
The same old, tired, has been, campaigned through faces and none of color....that is their biggest problem....from Countdown with Keith Olbermann....
GOP, good tips here from The Field Negro
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Marian Robinson, First Grandma, Lovin' the White House
I heard that.
Marian Robinson, President Obama’s mother-in-law, moved into the White House “kicking and screaming,” said her son, Craig Robinson. She had never lived outside of Chicago and was reluctant to leave her beloved bungalow, her friends and family, her weekly yoga class and her familiar routines.
But after three months in the Executive Mansion, Mrs. Robinson is unexpectedly and decidedly savoring her new life.
She entertains visitors from Chicago. She attends White House dinners and concerts hosted by her daughter, the first lady, Michelle Obama. She dines at local restaurants and delights in events at the Kennedy Center, where she often sits in the president’s box and chats with performers.
In fact, Mrs. Robinson, 71, is so busy these days that the Obamas hired a baby sitter to watch their two daughters one evening because the nation’s first grandmother had plans.
“She has a very full social life, so much so that sometimes we have to plan our schedule around her schedule,” Mrs. Obama said jokingly last week during a lunch she hosted for Congressional spouses.
Mrs. Robinson still spends much of her time tending to the Obama girls, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. She shuttles them to and from school most days and accompanies them to some play dates, the first lady said. She attends class presentations, helps with homework and baby-sits when the president and first lady need extra help.
And with her plain-spoken, matter-of-fact manner, Mrs. Robinson helps keep the girls grounded amid the gilded trappings of their new lives. read more here.....
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Specter knows where his bread is buttered
Specter is no dummy but a savvy politician. Yes, his leaping to the Democratic side is only to save his moderate hide, but polling numbers usually don't lie.
The new Quinnipiac poll of Pennsylvania finds that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) is in fairly decent shape going into his 2010 election campaign post-party switch, but there could be some vulnerabilities for Republicans to exploit if they play their cards right.
Against Pat Toomey, the conservative former Congressman whose primary challenge spurred Specter's switch, Specter leads in the general election by a whopping 53% to 33%. Specter's calculation appears to be correct, that he would have lost a Republican primary to Toomey but would also win big in a general election.
If the GOP wants to pick up this seat, stash the right winger Toomey in a closet and get behind former Governor Tom Ridge. The real question is this, can Republicans stomach the pro-choice Ridge? For me, he should have been the VP for McCain, but again the Republicans were too afraid to make the leap. After losing so badly in November 2008, can the Republicans make the break and starting in Pennsylvania?
However, it's a different story when put up against moderate former GOP Gov. Tom Ridge. Here Specter leads by only 46% to 43%. The question appears to be whether the Republicans can successfully nominate a moderate who would be a stronger candidate, or whether Toomey is guaranteed a win based on heavy conservative support.
The checks-and-balances argument could potentially have some cache for the GOP, based on this question: "With Arlen Specter switching to the Democratic Party, the Democrats could have enough votes in the Senate to block any filibusters by the Republicans. Do you think that is a good thing or a bad thing?" Only 41% said this was a good thing, and 49% said it was a bad thing. This is despite President Obama's 66%-29% approval rating, too.
On the other hand, two other questions show that Specter is in good shape. First, his approval rating is 56%-36%. Second, check out the response on this question: "Some people say that by switching to the Democratic party Senator Specter is being disloyal to the Republican Party. Do you agree or disagree?" An answer of agreement on this question is basically a tautology -- and yet only 39% said so, to 57% who disagreed.
Arlen Specter does not bring nothing to the Democratic Caucus. He made this leap to save his political career and is depending deeply on the Obama machine or magic, but can he survive against Ridge? If the Republicans were smart, Ridge would be the perfect test for that party to break with the far right wing and stand with a pro-choice moderate.
And any Specter challenge? Congressman Sestak is meeting with SEIU President Andy Stern, today.
Interesting.
Source
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Sarah Palin and the GOP
I read Jonathan Martin over at Politico and the backstabbing ease of what Mitt Romney said about Sarah Palin:
Romney’s quip reflects the deep unease among many in the GOP establishment about the continued high-profile of Limbaugh and especially Palin. There is almost a sense of exasperation among many party elites over the media coverage the two polarizing figures get – attention which, in Palin’s case, is widely seen as a product largely of her good looks and tabloid-fodder family troubles.
“She’s bigger in the media than in reality,” lamented GOP consultant Mike Murphy, a longtime friend and adviser to John McCain.
I am not a Romney cheerleader because he was, to me, one of the biggest phony’s out there during 2008, but he has a point.
Palin was praised for her gut wrenching diatribe of Barack Obama during the Republican Convention, in other words, she carried the water that John McCain refused to. She got points, but it was the unraveling of Palin, herself that was her worst nightmare.
There is no doubt that Palin appeared dumber than a box of rocks during the Katie Couric interview. One can say that Couric spewed gotcha questions, when in reality she did not, since when is asking a political candidate what type of materials you read on a daily basis a gotcha question? That was Palin's downfall, right then. The vote was held out on her because no one knew who she was, but the minute she opened her mouth, many felt we don't need THAT in the White House.
So, now the GOP is on a listening tour, asking Americans questions about their lives and the difficulties of the day to day challenges. I am glad they are finally doing this, but is it too late? The main problem is that the GOP has wrapped their whole existence to social issues, which in reality the public has rebuked. The public does not want government to tell us who to marry, if we should have a child, litmus tests for our being. These are none of your damn business questions for many Americans, which the GOP did not get until their party went down in flames in 2008.
Mitt Romney has his own can of worms within his party and if he ever wants the nomination he needs to edit to the left and middle. Meaning let the religious right wing of his party go and talk to moderates and independents. Let's face it, the religious right wing of the Republican Party will never nominate Romney, they don't trust him or his religion, which is the problem here.
And Sarah Palin? My take is this, she came to the lower 48, has never been to most of America, found it fascinating and she loved it. It was hard going back to Alaska, for her, which seems mundane after the glitz and glam of everywhere else. She is striving to maintain and remain relevant in a party from Alaska, but that is a hard task. She, as Romney, have major challenges, one is to smarten her image up. That Couric interview labeled her dumber than a box of rocks. She had the challenge to bring women and independents in the fold, but ran them off to Obama with her rhetoric and lack of knowledge. She has a lot of work to do, meaning she needs to learn to talk mainstream and not extreme. That is her challenge.
The GOP has a lot of work to do, they acknowledges this and knows it. National elections are won in the middle, not from your own party. If you cannot win moderates and independents, no matter which party, you will lose. As long as the GOP is galvanized by the Limbaughs of their own party and don't have the strength to take it back, they will continue to roam in the wilderness for a very long time.
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When it rains, it STORMS....
Stormy Daniels, former adult movie actress or porn star, is preparing a listening tour for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Louisiana. And David Vitter, current U.S. Senator? The infamous senator from Louisiana who is known to get his swerve on in diapers with the prostitutes has his hands literally full. Talk about a reminder, whoa, this is going to be some hot shit for Louisiana politics. Only in America.
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John Edwards facing federal probe (Video)
I don't know if this is a witch hunt or not, but this is all about Edwards using campaign money to pay off his mistress, Rielle Hunter. Yes, that is what this is about.
Again, glad we dodged this bullet.
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Obama to change the tax policy
Ouch to these corporations.
President Barack Obama plans to propose changes to tax policy certain to be unpopular with corporations with international divisions and individuals who use tax havens. Obama also plans to ask Congress for 800 new federal tax agents to enforce his broad requests.
Obama’s two-piece plan, to be announced at the White House on Monday, would eliminate some tax deductions for companies that earn profits in countries with low tax rates, as well as consider U.S. citizens who use tax havens such as the Bahamas or Cayman Islands guilty of violating U.S. tax laws. If Obama wins congressional approval for the changes — and he faces a challenge on Capitol Hill — it could deliver $210 billion in tax revenue over the next decade.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was to join Obama for the 11 a.m. comments.
Officials described the administration’s plan ahead of the announcement on the condition of anonymity so they wouldn’t upstage the president’s remarks. However, they acknowledged the political challenges facing the plan. The administration won’t seek a complete repeal of overseas tax benefits and, although the rule changes are narrower than some anticipated, business leaders still oppose them as a tax hike. Obama aides countered that the plan is a step toward a massive overhaul of international financial regulations the president has promised.
In exchange, Obama said he was willing to make permanent a research tax credit that was to expire at the end of the year and is popular with businesses. Officials estimate that making the tax credits permanent would cost taxpayers $74.5 billion over the next decade.
But administration aides said 75 percent of those tax credits paid workers’ wages; given the struggling economy, aides were reluctant to do anything that could add more Americans to the unemployment rolls.
Source
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Sunday, May 3, 2009
Shhhhhhhh, Quiet, The GOP is on a listening tour (Video)
Rebranding time!!!!
Time to listen, for a change, to average Americans and their concerns.
Time to distance yourselves from well, yourselves and act like you care.
Time to put a real distance between yourselves and the Limbaughs in radio land.
With its party struggling to define itself, a group of prominent Republicans launched a listening tour Saturday in a bid to boost the GOP's sagging image and regroup for future elections.
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., held a town-hall style meeting at a pizza restaurant in the Democratic suburb of Arlington, Va., to hear about people's concerns on issues from the economy and health care to the rising costs of college tuition.
"You can't beat something with nothing, and the other side has something," Bush told a group of about 100 people at the Pie-Tanza pizza parlor. "I don't like it, but they have it and we have to be respectful and mindful of that.
Jeb Bush is the Bush that should have been president, too bad his brother screwed it up for the family, for decades to come.
It was the first meeting of the GOP group National Council for a New America, which was created to rebrand the party's image. The meeting comes after a bad week in which Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter announced he was switching to the Democratic party and Democrat Scott Murphy won a close U.S. House race in a GOP district in upstate New York.
An Associated Press-GfK poll released in April shows that Democrats outnumber Republicans by 46 percent to 28 percent, including those leaning toward either party.
The national council, which plans listening sessions in other cities, also includes Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Sen. John McCain. Republican aides on Capitol Hill disclosed the group this past Wednesday just before Obama started a news conference to mark his first 100 days in office. The group is partly highlighting their differences with the Republican National Committee's political strategy.
Where's Miss Sarah on this list? Don't see her name, anywhere in sight. Ah, maybe after 2008, Katie Couric and all her family garbage out the GOP decided not to listen to Alaska, after all.
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The First Lady is Running the Show
Reminds me of the classic Diana Ross song, "The Boss", and h/t JJP.
One thing about Barack and Michelle Obama, they have learned the art of edit, and they have learned it quickly.
During the general election, Cindy McCain put it out there as a shot across the bow that Michelle Obama was not patriotic, did not have pride in her country or love her country. That statement, which was twisted, went a very long way. During the Democratic Convention you saw resilient Michelle Obama, a woman who is a mother, sister, daughter and wife, just like many of us, show the country that she would not be on that stage had it not been for this very country. Deep.
Fast forward to April 2009 and Michelle Obama is more popular than her husband. This all comes from editing folks, editing. She saw and recognized her mistake, as some would say, fixed it and is one of the most prominent women in the world.
No one, at this juncture, should be surprised that there is a Team Michelle in the White House. Team Michelle's Job: to strategically keep the positive on the First Lady, while digesting the poll numbers. Sorry, but that is what they do in the White House. How can you edit if you don't know what to fix?
Vogue magazine, the fashion world’s chronicler of first ladies, bedecked Hillary Rodham Clinton in black velvet and Laura Bush in blue silk. But not Michelle Obama. She insisted on choosing her own dress (a sleeveless, magenta silk number) and using her own hair and makeup stylists for the glossy photograph splashed across Vogue’s March cover.
This was nothing new for Mrs. Obama, who has pointedly controlled her look on the covers of People, Essence, More and O, Oprah Winfrey’s magazine. Editors at Essence, who suggested colors, styles and accessories, said her staff did not call to acknowledge their overtures. Editors at More said they were dumbfounded when, after painstaking negotiations, Mrs. Obama showed up at the photo shoot with a different dress from the one she had promised to wear. (She ultimately agreed to go back to her first choice, a pink Maria Pinto sheath.)
“We were like, ‘Excuse me, we tell you what to wear,’ ” said Lesley Jane Seymour, the editor-in-chief of More, who said Mrs. Obama refused to wear anything other than her own clothes for their October cover. “She wanted none of that. She was creating the cover. She was creating the image. There’s definitely a will of steel there.”
Indeed, the new first lady is methodically shaping her public image, and in ways that extend far beyond fashion.
She has given coveted interviews primarily to women’s magazines and news outlets that have allowed her to highlight her domestic side: her focus on motherhood and her efforts to settle her family in the White House; her interest in gardening and healthy living; her affinity for mixing off-the-rack and designer goods; and her efforts to open up the White House to ordinary Americans.
Mrs. Obama’s aides meet regularly with the president’s senior communications team and select public events that will maximize her message. She sticks closely to her script, delivering lively, brief speeches that rarely stray from her prepared remarks and steer clear of controversy. She talks about her support for volunteerism and military families, but seldom discusses race, her keen interest in influencing public policy or her place in history as the first African-American first lady.
By focusing on her domestic persona and harnessing the fascination with her family, the first lady and her communications team have emerged as the key architects of one of the most remarkable political transformations in years. Only 10 months ago, Mrs. Obama was described as an angry black woman by some conservatives and as a liability to her husband. Now, she is widely admired for her warmth, and her vibrant and accessible manner, and her race seems almost an afterthought to many Americans. She has the highest favorability ratings of any incoming first lady since 1980, and is even more popular than the president. read more here.....
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