Under attack of Conservative Justices : ObamaCare, the Voting Rights Act, the president's power to make interim appointments to the executive branch and the New Deal in General. The Supreme Court may intensify the institutional stand-offs and unnecessary crises that are undermining the confidence of ordinary Americans in their government.
Huffington Post The Supreme Court's War on the Twentieth Century
By Bruce AckermanProfessor of law and political science, Yale; Author 'The Decline and Fall of the American Republic', he is also the author of the multivolume series, We the People.
January 31, 2013
This is the larger question raised by an escalating series of decisions, starting with the recent Obamacare case. In designing its sweeping reform, Congress relied on 70 years of case-law, emerging from the New Deal, that upheld its sweeping regulatory authority under the commerce clause. Yet Chief Justice Roberts, as well as four other conservatives, dramatically challenged this basic element of the New Deal settlement. While Roberts made a last minute doctrinal swerve on another issue to uphold the statute, this should not blind us to the dangers that lie ahead. While his act of statesmanship prevented a head-on confrontation between the presidency and the Court, the conservative majority has issued a fundamental challenge to a basic premise of twentieth century constitutionalism.
A similar challenge will arise this year as the Court weighs the fate of the Voting Rights Act. "We Shall Overcome," Lyndon Johnson famously declared in introducing the legislation to Congress in 1965. But it took more than this rhetorical gesture to transform the dreams of Martin Luther King into the law of the land. Johnson had to win the support of a broad bipartisan coalition, including Republican leaders like Everett Dirksen, for a Voting Rights Act that would actually generate real-world results when so many previous statutes had failed. Their success of 1965 has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the political branches -- most recently, when President Bush renewed the law for 25 years after it was passed 390 to 33 in the House and unanimously in the Senate. Nevertheless, the Court's conservative five-judge majority may well strike down key statutory provisions as unconstitutional.
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The Court's war on the twentieth century is not inevitable. Perhaps the Chief Justice, or one of his fellow conservatives, will execute statesmanlike swerves in upcoming cases. But if not, a runaway Roberts Court will intensify the institutional stand-offs and unnecessary crises that are undermining the confidence of ordinary Americans in their government.
Kris Kobach is not being very successful challenging the Federal Government on the DACA ( Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ) or presidential executive order for Dreamers. Most of his arguments have been dispelled by a Federal Judge.
Legal expert Ben Winograd at Immigration Impact says :
"Friday’s ruling dismissed the majority of Kris Kobach's claims because the plaintiffs lacked “standing” to bring suit in the first place."
"Even by “winning” the lawsuit, the only thing Kobach would accomplish would be allowing ICE agents to issue pieces of paper of little practical significance." ....
Immigration Impact Federal Judge Leaves Anti-DACA Lawsuit Hanging By a Thread by Ben Winograd
January 30, 2013
Neither were elected -- Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) was appointed in December after former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) left the chamber in the middle of his term.
Excerpts :
WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) on Wednesday appointed William "Mo" Cowan to the Senate seat vacated by newly confirmed Secretary of State John Kerry. Cowan will hold the seat in an interim capacity until an election in June.
Cowan, 43, is a former chief of staff and former legal counsel to Patrick. Like Patrick, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago before attending Milton Academy, Harvard and Harvard Law, Cowan came from a poor background to Boston for education and made a career there. After growing up in poverty in rural North Carolina, Cowan went to Duke University and then Northeastern University School of Law. He never left, and became a prominent Boston lawyer.
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Patrick, the state's first African-American governor, said recently on local cable television that it was a priority for him to pick a woman or a person of color for the seat.
Huffington Post Mo Cowan Senate: Deval Patrick Names Former Chief Of Staff To Replace John Kerry By Luke Johnson
January 30, 2013
Now we have to believe in the four riders of the Apocalypse : Senators Marco Rubio (Fla.), John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.) - The World is soon going to end and we are going to receive the final judgement, because these four guys are now the best lovers filled with generous charity for Hispanics.
They are finally going to neuter Obama the Antichrist that leads the World to Perdition - And are going to save us from endless defeats in Presidential Contests for the Republican Party.
John McCain said it very clearly : "We have to do Immigration Reform, so that we don't lose more elections".
Obama : We are all Immigrants - The President is Unifying and not divisive. - Bring Light to those that live in the shadows - They are important and useful for the American Economy.
Published on Jan 29, 2013
President Obama speaks on the need for comprehensive immigration reform and outlines a proposal for a fair, effective and commonsense immigration system.
President Obama Speaks on Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Public
Policy Polling, which scored the most accurate predictions for the
elections of all the polling companies, did a survey and found that
about 1/2 of Republican voters think ACORN, which has been defunct for 2
years now, somehow stole the 2012 election for Obama. That's right -
they think an organization that doesn't even exist anymore rigged the
election! What a bunch of morons!
The Republican Party, and its
base, have degenerated into a pack of lying, thieving, anti-science,
head-in-the-sand, backwards, vile, vulgar, evangelical, willfully
ignorant delusional know-nothings with nothing to offer society but hate
and divisiveness, especially since the Tea Party cockroaches infested
Congress. They're a disgrace to America. Every one of these knuckle
dragging idiots should be put on an inner tube and pushed out to sea.
The
depths to which the Republican Party has sunk in order to win elections
is painful to watch and is a national embarrassment. Instead of coming
up with policies that people might actually vote for, they tried to rig
the election to keep people from having their voices heard. Well that
didn't turn out so well, so now they have a new plan - redistricting
states where Republicans control everything in such a way that even if
the Democratic presidential candidate gets more of the popular vote, he
will lose the electoral vote automatically.
GOP Chairman Reince
Preibus has already announced publicly that this is their plan for the
entire country. This is one of the reasons they talk about states rights
so much -- how elections are handled is decided by each state. If this
plan had been in place in the 2012 election, Mitt Romney would have won
the election even though Obama beat him in the popular vote by a solid
margin.
Rather than actually address the changing demographic in
America with policy, they know they have to cheat to win. And just like
voter ID, they have no problem with announcing it publicly. That's not
democracy - that's about as un-American as it gets! So to all of you who
say "there isn't any difference between the 2 parties, blah blah blah."
Yeah, there is. Any party that has to cheat to win you doesn't deserve
to!
. These four guys were supporting Mitt Romney last Year and his bunch of Super Racists : Kris Kobach and Pete Wilson, giving him advice on Immigration, or should I say self-deportation ??
These guys were giving big support to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and her Racist Projects and condemning President Obama as Reverse-Racist.
Mitt
Romney did not stop hating Latinos, he was continually dog whistling
against Blacks, Native American Indians, etc .... Romney was rejected 4
to 1 by Asian-Americans, that understood very well the threat to their
life and well being.
And
now these repentant sinners are the champions of angelical good causes
?? - Are they the "Better Angels of our Nature" as Abraham Lincoln said
??
Is it possible to be more Hypocrite ??
Huffington Post Bipartisan Group Of Senators To Introduce Immigration Plan, Preempt Obama By Jon Ward
January 28, 2012
The Venezuelan Government is treating the media and population as fools that believe fairy tales of Chavez telling jokes and returning soon to Venezuela.
Doctor Marquina in Naples Florida is a specialist in Oncology ( Cancer ).
Here are the twits ( in Spanish ) :
https://twitter.com/marquina04
Dr Marquina believes that Chavez needs continuous injection of pressured oxygen in his lungs ..... he also believes that he has cancer metastasis in the lungs and that is the origin of the difficulty for breathing. Infections ( viruses, bacteria ) are opportunists for these grave cancer conditions.
Chavez underwent Tracheostomy
A tracheostomy is a surgical procedure to create an opening through the neck into the trachea (windpipe). A tube is usually placed through this opening to provide an airway and to remove secretions from the lungs. This tube is called a tracheostomy tube or trach tube.
So Chavez can not speak and the jokes and conversations that the Venezuelan Government reports are probably false.
Chavez has been invaded by cancer in leg bones and spinal chord. So it is almost sure that he will never walk or sit down again by his own means.
. Can wicked sinners gain Heaven by sudden repentance ??
I
don't agree with Martha Raddatz of ABC ( born 1953, network's Senior
Foreign Affairs Correspondent ). Things are not so easy with the
recalcitrant hate charged U. S. House of Representatives. House Republicans have a base of ugly racists and they are going to be judged by them in the November 2014 midterm elections.
The
Realist in me trumps the idealist ! -- Because the GOP has been the
Party of Racism and Hatred and things do not change so easily and so
fast ! - Republicans have to lose two or three more Presidential
Elections before they start to change.
The Realist in me trumps the idealist !
Published on Jan 27, 2013
Martha Raddatz discusses the latest news from Washington.
President Obama's 2nd Term Agenda to Tackle Immigration Reform
. A philosopher said "The body is the main enemy of the old man" - Is our destiny to become bitter and frustrated with memories of Impossible Dreams ??
Chavez has always impressed me as vulgar, uneducated, uncultured, rude, harsh and rough, the saddest image of Latin America.
Bolivar was more worldly with a youth spent in Spain, France and Britain. He also journeyed in the United States and Jamaica. He was more charming, polite, courteous, gracious, cultured, with distinguished manners of an aristocrat, and more amazing and surprising than Chavez in every respect.
Chavez has always been predictable in his vulgarity and grossness !
Chavez is a caricature of Bolivar. It has been said that Bolivar was a great warrior, one that defies belief, but perhaps and unfortunately a poor statesman.
The book of Garcia Marquez is infinitely sad and makes us think of our own lives, sometimes spent in impossible dreams :
"The General in His Labyrinth" book of Garcia Marquez :
General Simon Bolivar, “the Liberator” of five South American countries, takes a last melancholy journey down the Magdalena River, revisiting cities along its shores, and reliving the triumphs, passions, and betrayals of his life. Infinitely charming, prodigiously successful in love, war and politics, he still dances with such enthusiasm and skill that his witnesses cannot believe he is ill.
. The Misogynist Theocrats ruling on the bodies of Women - Repealing Roe vs Wade - With Huffpost VIDEO Comments
Republican Representative from Ohio John Boehner reiterates his commitment to banning abortion in America for good. - And Senator Rand Paul (Republican -Kentucky) delivered a sermon that called for a "spiritual cleansing."
***************************
Huffington Post John Boehner: Ending Abortion Is 'One Of Our Most Fundamental Goals This Year' By Laura Bassett
January 25, 2012
Games played with Dead Pharaos and Roman Emperors :
I feel sorry for the Great Suffering of Mr Chavez. We don't know anything about him since he underwent surgery in Cuba on December 11, 2012 ....
It is very clear that the Officials in Venezuela are playing games with false hopes.
My guess is that Chavez is paralyzed on both legs and can not stand or sit down - He probably is breathing with injected oxygen at pressure ( respiratory machine ). He has few days to live. I am a follower of Doctor Jose Rafael Marquina ( Venezuelan Oncologist ) in Naples Florida and he has many informants that tell of the horrible condition of Hugo Chavez.
I can die one day of a similar painful disease and I want to be euthanized like Dog Lennox, and I don't want to be artificially kept alive.
Another horrible possibility is that Mr Hugo Chavez is already dead and kept in a Freezer in Cuba, or is already mummified while the pawns are moved in the chess game of Power.
I think that these games of a dead pharao where played in Egypt, while some rivals were killed.
It certainly happened when the Great Famous Emperor Trajan ( Trajanus ) died in Roma, and there was a conspiration to deceive the Roman people, kill the rivals and enthronize Emperor Hadrian.
Finally : This dog is luckier than Hugo Chavez ! -- How sad !! ---- I once killed a dog with a bullet because he was in great pain and hopeless condition. It is very probable that I also die by a bullet, which I have been promised.
" ..... which is what he's essentially doing, is neither just nor the politics that will address the GOP's demographic cliff, said Ana Avendaño, the AFL-CIO's assistant to the president and director of immigration and community action."
The American Labor Unions like the SEIU ( Service Employees International Union ) and the ( American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, AFL-CIO ) have been on the side of the Democratic Party and Minorities.
Note : Senator Rubio has also been attacking General Colin Powell ( former State Secretary ) for Powell's declarations about the Republican Party being unfriendly to Minorities.
Excerpt :
"The AFL-CIO is working with the Chamber of Commerce on immigration issues, and there is a general consensus that a pathway to citizenship is needed. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said last week that he is open to a number of options, but wants an eventual road to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already living in the country."
Huffington Post Labor Groups: GOP Wrong To Blame Immigration Reform Failures On Unions By Elise Foley
January 24, 2012
But it is fitting that Obama is a snake because the snake is a symbol of Healing and Wisdom as in the Caduceus or Staff of Asclepius, God of Good Health ( ObamaCare ) and Medicine.
You could also argue that Obama has shed his skin of a centrist and compromiser and is now a liberal after his second inaugural speech.
After being Felix, the cat and the Road Runner ( that always escapes and defeats the GOP Coyote ) Obama is now a happy African ( Kenyan ?? ) deadly snake biting Republicans in the U. S. House.
Some people argue that Obama should not be very arrogant but humble to achieve the rank of Great President, which I think that Obama already reached.
I strongly love and admire Obama, even if he becomes arrogant and aloof, but I would like to see him kissing and forgiving his enemies : The Weird Freaks and Monsters, also called Republicans.
Finally this mamba phrase should be an African saying, but the equivalent proverb in Spanish is "Monkeys in silk are monkeys" .....
The basketball star is Kobe Bryant ( 16 years and five championships under his belt with the Los Angeles Lakers ).
Shame on "The New Republic" that misguided me . ...
And this is the article that confused me about President Obama :
Inside the Democratic Party : Brave and Courageous Texas Mayors and Elected Officials want to turn Texas into a Swing State :
Some excerpts :
Democratic Houston Mayor Annise Parker said her party couldn’t afford to wait passively for population change to turn Texas blue. Instead, they should dig in for a longer, harder campaign to make it a swing state.
“We have been waiting in Texas for a very long time for the Latino vote to come into its own and turn the tide. But many of us have decided that we can’t wait for that. We have to do the old-fashioned work of going out and talking to Texans,” said Parker, who didn’t rule out a statewide campaign “when I am done [being] mayor.”
“Do I think we’re going to turn Texas in two years? Probably not. Do I think we can turn Texas in four years? Absolutely, because I think the Republican Party in Texas is going to drive itself off a cliff,” Parker said. “You hear Republicans with rhetoric, literally talking about the jack-booted thugs coming and taking guns out of people’s homes, going door to door. You have legislators who will file, once again, virulently anti-immigrant legislation in the state House.”
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“I’m excited to see that at national levels, people are now looking at Texas and saying, ‘That’s where we need to make our next investment. That’s where the next opportunity lies.’ The enthusiasm that I’m hearing in that regard is growing every day,” said Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis.
The Fort Worth legislator, who won a difficult reelection campaign last year in a conservative district, is viewed in and outside of Texas as perhaps her party’s strongest statewide prospect for 2014. Both Davis and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro visited Washington during the Inauguration this week and addressed a fundraiser for the Lone Star Project, an influential outside group that drives Democratic messaging in Texas.
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POLITICO.COM Democrats launch plan to turn Texas blue By ALEXANDER BURNS
January 24, 2013
Mitt Romney repeated every day that Obama was a failure. At the end the big failure was Mitt, defeated by a Great Margin.
Republicans act like fanatical and crazy robots, dominated by stubbornness, bigotry, zealotry, dogmatism and doctrinalism.
Republicans don’t know what kinds of spending cuts they want. They are now in the Fantasy that forcing Senate Democrats to pass a budget resolution will change everything. They have a total lack of practical ideas
Some excerpts :
The Republican Party refuses as a basic principle to trade higher revenue in any form for spending cuts, and Mitch McConnell recently reaffirmed that no members of his party would accept higher revenue at all. What makes the situation not completely hopeless is the sheer incoherence of the party on fiscal issues.
As Byron York recently reported, Republicans don’t know what kinds of spending cuts they want. They lurch from plan to plan, with the latest being the fanciful notion that forcing Senate Democrats to pass a budget resolution will change everything. It’s possible that they will eventually figure out that having a Democratic president willing to cut Social Security and Medicare is an opportunity they should take advantage of, but don’t bet on it.
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To the extent that Republicans blame their problems on Obama’s unique political skill, they are probably understating their own predicament — Democratic Senate candidates consistently ran ahead of Obama, suggesting public disdain for the GOP has mattered more than Obama’s unique appeal.
It is at least dawning on the Republican Party that the things that are obvious to them — that Obama is an extremist, that he is in over his head, that he is transforming America into Greece — are not obvious to most of America, and that provoking high-stakes confrontations with him will inevitably end in Obama winning. The confident message Obama has taken since his reelection underscores a psychological inflection point. Obama is not going away.
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New York Magazine How Obama Can Have a Great Second Term By Jonathan Chait
January 23, 2012
My Comment : I think that Obama will be an excellent President for Economic Recovery and ObamaCare, that will make him a Great President, even if Immigration, Gun Control, Gay Marriage, Climate Change improvement and other projects and ideas may fail.
The improvement on the standard of living of the Poor and Middle Class will make Obama a Great President. But I strongly doubt that everything expressed in the speech is possible.
Republicans probably will sink the Immigration Reform and they will have to pay the bill in the 2016 Presidential Election. .... Call me pessimist, but I see the Republican Party so obsessed with Racism and Hatred, that they won't be cured in four years.
Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are only shills, decoys, steerers, beguilers and deceivers of Hispanics.
They are Trojan Horses, clowns, stooges, and they will be rejected by Latinos.
They are like the Fishing and Hunting decoys. Like putting a Duck decoy in a pond to attrack wild Ducks that are flying over the pond.
Published on Jan 22, 2013
On Tuesday, the Morning Joe crew naturally took to dissecting President Obama's second inaugural address — which, most have agreed thus far, was directly progressive in its message. The roundtable agreed with that sentiment, with Joe Scarborough tying in how the Republican Party's current situation factored in.
Al Hunt agreed that the speech laid out his liberal vision of where he wants the country to be going, but that we shouldn't be surprised by it. To that point, Scarborough noted that Obama had no "reaching out to the other side" message in the speech.
Obama Gave Progressive Inaugural Speech Because GOP 'Is A Party in Retreat'
What the GOP wanted in year 2012 was a Racist Plutocracy and Misogynist Theocracy, but the USA was saved by President Obama and the Democratic Party in November of that year. ..... - I hope that the Republican Party becomes more tolerant and abandons its Racism and constant Dog Whistles.
But somehow the realist inside me trumps over the idealist. I know the Reality is that the GOP is very racist and filled with hatred and antagonism against all Minorities. And the theocrats are very powerful inside that Party.
The Republican Party has to lose two or three more Presidential Elections before it changes this behavior.
The fear that President Obama is going to transform America into a "Welfare State", expressed by intelligent and kind Republican Mr George F. Will is a wrong vision of the Future.
I don't know what sufferings or events in his formative years Mr Will had to undergo to be filled now with such a pessimistic idea. It just doesn't coincide or concatenate with reality.
How the Party of NO and OBSTRUCTION has totally failed against Obama and will continue failing. The Wall Street Stock Market Indexes can not be better, showing that investors are very positive, happy and bullish on Obama's Inauguration.
By MrObamanos
Published on Jan 20, 2013
Obama claims Reagan legacy as his own. When President Obama unveiled his proposals on preventing gun violence on Wednesday, he seemed eager to tout one of his predecessors. Ronald Reagan, Obama reminded his audience, was a "staunch defender" of the 2nd Amendment, but he nevertheless wrote to Congress in 1994, urging lawmakers to "listen to the American public and to the law enforcement community and support a ban on the further manufacture of [military-style assault] weapons."
It led the Denver Post's Ryan Teague Beckwith to take note of some pretty high-profile fights in which the Democratic president has relied on the rhetoric and positions of a Republican president the RNC once seriously labeled "Ronaldus Magnus."
The list isn't comprehensive, but Beckwith's piece featured Obama aligning himself with Reagan on gun policy, taxes, the debt ceiling, and infrastructure investments, among other things. Obama also routinely used Reagan's name in his campaign stump speech.
The piece didn't mention it, but I'm also reminded of the time in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, when Obama reflected on recent history: "I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it." The point, of course, was that Obama intended to do the same thing, though he preferred a different direction.
Similarly, during the height of the Republicans' debt-ceiling crisis in 2011, Obama, in a private meeting with congressional leaders, expressed frustration about the talks themselves. "Would Ronald Reagan be sitting here?" he asked rhetorically.
The point, of course, is not to suggest that Obama is a secret Republican, though I suspect the president respects his conservative predecessor. Rather, I think Obama uses Reagan's name to reinforce a larger point about just how far today's Republican Party has strayed from its mainstream past. President Obama, in other words, is laying claim to a Reagan legacy the GOP no longer wants.
As we talked about over the summer, Reagan raised the debt ceiling 18 times, and he supported the precursor to the Buffett Rule. In his first term, Reagan raised taxes when unemployment was nearing 11% -- imagine trying this today -- and proceeded to raise taxes seven out of the eight years he was in office. It's a fact the right finds terribly inconvenient, but "no peacetime president has raised taxes so much on so many people" as Reagan.
Reagan gave amnesty to undocumented immigrants, expanded the size of the federal government, tripled the debt, backed bailouts of domestic industries, and called for a world without nuclear weapons. Reagan also routinely compromised with Democrats, met with our most hated enemy without preconditions, and was willing to criticize Israel.
And then there's his gubernatorial record: in California, Reagan increased spending, raised taxes, helped create the nation's first state-based emissions standards, signed an abortion-rights bill, and expanded the nation's largest state-based Medicaid program (socialized health insurance).
For Obama, it's likely the irony of GOP Reagan-worship is amusing -- the party has a religious-like reverence for the former president, but the GOP has no use for his approach to governance.
And if Obama can remind the public of Republican extremism by noting how much he and Reagan -- unlike the congressional GOP and Reagan -- have in common, it's hardly a surprise to hear the former president's name pop up so often in Obama's speeches.
GOP Must Face Reality "Obama Is The liberal Ronald Reagan"
Unfortunately a human being is in great suffering and we hope the best for the sick man. But this is a horrible "Reality Show" -- Dr Marquina is now a journalistic superstar, and many millions around the globe are waiting for his reports about the Health of Hugo Chavez... Many people that don't give a damn about politics follow this Venezuelan soap opera with very intense interest, just for the medical curiosity and knowledge.
This is sad and unfortunate but we are learning a lot of medicine and oncology with Dr Marquina, a specialist and scientist of cancer. We are sad and sorry for the patient, even if we don't share Hugo's political ideas.
From Curacao Chronicle - Some Extracts :
Also, metastasis were detected in urine bladder, intestines and lungs. The President is breathing through an opening in his air pipe from a tracheotomy, and hooked up to an artificial respirator. So Chavez has been unable to talk or walk since 10 December 2012 and most likely, will never do so again. Marquina advised the Chavez family to move Chavez to the USA, since Cuba has no experience in treatment of these kinds of cancers and the treatment for the so-called lung infection had turned out as a disastrous failure.
Hugo Chavez’ health remains shrouded in strict secrecy since the onset two years ago, and that secrecy has become the source of endless speculations. Whatever the actual truth about the health of Hugo Chavez may be, it has become very clear that the Venezuelan government is unable to function without their legendary leader.
Curacao Chronicle A weekend at Bernie’s By Jacob Gelt Dekker
Monday January 14th, 2013
Republicans surrender in the "Taking the American Economy as Hostage" ..... They increase the Debt Ceiling for another three months. The approval rate of Congress Republicans is a dismal 14% and 81% disapproval. --- Republicans are backing off and contradicting their previous tough and hard declarations.
In past months and years
Republicans were gloating over their Debt Ceiling Strategy.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz from Florida ( She is the DNC
Chair ) explains.
Published on Jan 19, 2013
Hands Up!: Republicans Surrender on Debt Ceiling, Wave Dirty-White Flag
This conservative and republican magazine says that the possibility exists of Obama being a Great President for the American Economy. If Obama is moderate and not leftist or hyper progressive then America can go for growth and business creativity.
For example Obama can be cautious and prudent in the Implementation of ObamaCare, stopping where it hurts the economy, being flexible or changing if and when it hurts jobs and corporations. Obama can also be prudent and flexible with regulations of Business like the Dodd-Frank rules.
Obama can reform the tax code closing loopholes, he can make Medicare sustainable, and fix immigration laws for the good of the American Economy.
Then a Great Second Term should not be discarded, the president should be helped to achieve this goal.
Fortune Magazine Lucky 2013: A case for economic good times By Geoff Colvin, senior editor-at-large
January 18, 2013
The Southern bloc in the House majority can still prevent the President from enjoying any major legislative achievements, but it has no chance of enacting an agenda, and it’s unlikely to produce a nationally popular figure.
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It would be better for America as well as for the South if Southerners rediscovered their hidden past and took up the painful task of refashioning an identity that no longer inspires their countrymen.
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New Yorker Magazine Southern Discomfort by George Packer
January 21, 2013
This is an Old VIDEO ( recorded two months ago ), but extremely important. What the panel says is true, but the GOP is NOT easy to reform, because the base is enraged and filled with hatred, and a great part of it is Racial Hatred and Racial Resentment that is not easy to erase and forget.
The GOP is NOT racist ..... but it is the Party that racists adore and vote for .....!
Published on Nov 18, 2012
Republicans Blame Rush Limbaugh and Fox News for Losing the Election. Republicans continue to turn on their own media, and refuse to accept the fact that it was their ideas, not Rush Limbaugh and Fox News that lost the election for them.
A prime example of the Republicans turning on their own media came on Morning Joe today where Joe Scarborough and Politico's Jim VandeHei.
Obama seems energized for the Second Term : He is now Strong, Firm, Serious, Brave, Decisive, Bold and taking the issues before the American Public, using the power of Television and the "Bully Pulpit", the power of the Oval Office and the White House.
Polls show that the public is on the side of the President.
Fox News can not be more degraded and can not be lower in dignity, honor and worthiness. - And they take the Greatest and most Ridiculous Clown and Idiot in the World as an example of a profound intellectual "pundit".
Rush Limbaugh has been repeating that Liberals love the "Lincoln" movie and are infatuated with it because they love Gays and hate Guns and Assault Weapons. Therefore they want to finish the South Off. Not happy with hating Blacks, Minorities and the Poor, the Greatest Racist is now hating Abraham Lincoln.
The great Genius of Fox News called Sean Hannity is lately praising the South and demeaning the North and applauding the cretins that propose Secession. After Sean Hannity made a plea for Immigration Amnesty and a more liberal policy on November 7 of 2012, he is now backing off and denouncing Obama and the Liberals for proposing Amnesty.
Sean Hannity is the same brutal Racist that said that the USA lost the Vietnam War for "lack of will" and said that Iraq should be brutally forced to pay trillions of dollars to the USA for the benefit of giving "Liberty and Freedom" to that martyred nation.
Rush Limbaugh Slams President Obama For Using Kids As "Human Shields"
Obama tells us that the U. S. Congress created these debts in the past and now it has to pay them. "We are not a deadbeat nation." ( Not fulfilling its obligations or paying its debts ).
Obama even says : "It turns out the American people agree with me. They listened to an entire year’s debate over this issue. And they made a clear decision about the approach they prefer."
Excerpts of Obama's Press Conference :
Right now, our economy is growing and our businesses are creating new jobs. So, we are poised for a good year if we make smart decisions and sound investments, and as long as Washington politics don’t get in the way of America’s progress.
As I said on the campaign, one component to growing our economy and broadening opportunity for the middle class is shrinking our deficits in a balanced and responsible way. And for nearly two years now, I’ve been fighting for such a plan, one that would reduce our deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade, which would stabilize our debt and our deficit in a sustainable way for the next decade.
OBAMA: That would be enough not only to stop the growth of our debt relative to the size of our economy, but it would make it manageable so it doesn’t crowd out the investments we need to make in people and education and job training and scientist and medical research, all the things that help us grow.
Now, step by step, we’ve made progress towards that goal. Over the past two years, I’ve signed into law about $1.4 trillion in spending cuts. Two weeks ago, I signed into law more than $600 billion in new revenue, by making sure the wealthiest Americans begin to pay their fair share.
When you add the money that we’ll save in interest payments on the debt, altogether that adds up to a total of about $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the past two years, not counting the $400 billion already saved from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So we’ve made progress. We are moving towards our ultimate goal of getting to a $4 trillion reduction. And there will be more deficit reduction when Congress decides what to do about the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that have been pushed off until next month.
The fact is, though, we can’t finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone. The cuts we’ve already made to priorities other than Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and defense mean that we spend on everything from education to public safety less as a share of our economy than it has -- than has been true for a generation. And that’s not a recipe for growth. So we’ve got to do more both to stabilize our finances over the medium and long term, but also spur more growth in the short term.
Now, I’ve said I’m open to making modest adjustments to programs like Medicare to protect them from future generations. And I’ve also that we need more revenue through tax reform, by closing loopholes in our tax code for the wealthiest Americans. If we combine a balanced package of savings from spending on health care and revenues from closing loopholes, we can solve the deficit issue without sacrificing our investments in things like education that are going to help us grow.
It turns out the American people agree with me. They listened to an entire year’s debate over this issue. And they made a clear decision about the approach they prefer. They don’t think it’s fair, for example, to ask a senior to pay more for his or her health care or a scientist to shut down life-saving research so that a multimillionaire investor can pay less in tax rates than a secretary. They don’t think it’s smart to protect endless corporate loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans rather than rebuild our roads and our schools, invest in our workers’ skills, or help manufacturers bring jobs back to America.
So they want us to get our books in order in a balanced way, where everybody pulls their weight, everyone does their part. That’s what I want, as well. That’s what I’ve proposed. And we can get it done, but we’re going to have to make sure that people are looking at this in a responsible way, rather than just through the lens of politics.
Now, the other congressionally imposed deadline coming up is the so-called debt ceiling, something most Americans hadn’t even heard of before two years ago. So I want to be clear about this: The debt ceiling is not a question of authorizing more spending. Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize more spending. It simply allows the country to pay for spending that Congress has already committed to.
OBAMA: These are bills that have already been racked up, and we need to pay them. So, while I’m willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they’ve already racked up. If congressional Republicans refuse to pay America’s bills on time, Social Security checks, and veterans benefits will be delayed.
We might not be able to pay our troops, or honor our contracts with small business owners. Food inspectors, air traffic controllers, specialist who track down loose nuclear materials wouldn’t get their paychecks. Investors around the world will ask if the United States of America is in fact a safe bet. Markets could go haywire, interest rates would spike for anybody who borrows money. Every homeowner with a mortgage, every student with a college loan, every small business owner who wants to grow and hire.
It would be a self-inflicted wound on the economy. It would slow down our growth, might tip us into recession. And ironically it would probably increase our deficit. So to even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It’s absurd. As the speaker said two years ago, it would be, and I’m quoting Speaker Boehner now, “a financial disaster, not only for us, but for the worldwide economy.”
OBAMA: So we’ve got to pay our bills. And Republicans in Congress have two choices here. They can act responsibly, and pay America’s bills, or they can act irresponsibly and put America through another economic crisis. But they will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy. The financial wellbeing of the American people is not leverage to be used. The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip. And they better choose quickly, because time is running short.
The last time republicans in Congress even flirted with this idea, our AAA credit rating was downgraded for the first time in our history. Our businesses created the fewest jobs of any month in nearly the past three years, and ironically, the whole fiasco actually added to the deficit.
So it shouldn’t be surprising, given all this talk, that the American people think that Washington is hurting rather than helping the country at the moment. They see their representatives consumed with partisan brinkmanship over paying our bills while they overwhelmingly want us to focus on growing the economy and creating more jobs.
So let’s finish this debate. Let’s give our businesses and the world the certainty that our economy and our reputation are still second to none. We pay our bills, we handle our business, and then we can move on because America has a lot to do.
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PBS : Watch President Obama's Final News Conference of First Term
Jonathan Alter in BLOOMBERG.COM says that the printing of platinum coins is an excellent idea if the Republicans take the American Economy as hostage. Jonathan Alter, a Bloomberg View columnist, is the author of “The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope.
President Obama should NOT cave to Extortion, Blackmail, Kidnapping of Lady American Economy, to the Intransigence of Republicans and their Extremism, Bigotry, Hatred, Dogmatism, Doctrinalism, Stubbornness, Fanaticism, Zealotry, and the lack of Compromise, Flexibility and Common Sense of the GOP.
BLOOMBERG.COM The Platinum Coin Wouldn't Have Been Goofy to FDR By Jonathan Alter
January 11, 2012
Roosevelt took the oath of office on March 4, 1933, at the bottom of the Great Depression. The nation was in the fetal position. Almost three-quarters of the states had already closed their banks. As president-elect, Roosevelt wanted his predecessor, Herbert Hoover, to close the rest. Hoover refused, and Roosevelt signed an executive order to do so on his first day in office.
The weeklong "bank holiday" -- as it was festively dubbed -- left Treasury Department officials (of both the new and the old administrations) racing for solutions. The most immediate problem was the currency: There wasn’t enough money in circulation. The government had a "financing" -- bills to pay -- by March 15 and a default on those obligations was unthinkable. Not even the looniest congressman suggested it, in those days.
The Best Friend of the National Rifle Association NRA is also the Greatest Disrespecter of Women : topmost in Misogyny, like saying that Sandra Fluke is a "slut". - Rush Limbaugh is Topmost in Racism, Brutality, Hatred, Bigotry, Plutocracy, Fanaticism, Zealotry, Dogmatism, Doctrinalism, anti-Evolution, anti-Darwin and Misogyny.
Uploaded on Oct 19, 2009
Rush Limbaugh on his "stalker," CNN's Carol Costello- "Carol, you need to go sit on a fire hydrant and improve your day".
The Puppets of the Rich and Wealthy are also Kamikazes and they want to commit Hara-Kiri and Sepuku :
Published on Jan 4, 2013
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) warned House Republicans not to hold the debt ceiling for political leverage Friday, contradicting Republicans who have strongly hinted at their plans to do just that.
"They've got to find, in the House, a totally new strategy," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Everybody's now talking about, 'Oh, here comes the debt ceiling.' I think that's, frankly, a dead loser. Because in the end, you know it's gonna happen. The whole national financial system is going to come in to Washington and on television, and say: 'Oh my God, this will be a gigantic heart attack, the entire economy of the world will collapse. You guys will be held responsible.' And they'll cave."
"He can't keep thinking the way he's thought the last few months without having a disaster on his hands," said Gingrich of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Gingrich's comments underscore the division among Republicans over whether to use the necessary debt ceiling increase to extract spending cuts not included in the deal resolving the so-called "fiscal cliff." Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said Wednesday that Republicans should be willing to risk a government shutdown in exchange for a routine increase needed to pay the country's existing bills.
Republicans are meeting this month in Williamsburg, Va., to discuss their debt ceiling strategy, reported The New York Times, and Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck told the paper that the president will have to "engage and accept reality" in exchange for an increase.
President Barack Obama has refused to negotiate over the debt ceiling. ""While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they've already racked up through the laws that they passed," he said late Tuesday after the passage of the "fiscal cliff" deal.
T J Walker : Tea Party is dedicated to hate if a dollar flows to People that do not look like them ( same skin color ). But love when the taxpayer money goes to them and their Super Rich masters and puppeteers.
Tea Party Hits Record Level Of Unpopularity In Public Opinion Poll
( Date Of Broadcast Jan 3, 2013 ) Obama's victory here has been massive, profound, sweeping, unbelievably large." Limbaugh: 'GOP still doesn't understand who they're dealing with'. Rush, discussing both how Obama got the GOP confession in this fiscal cliff deal that tax cuts (not spending) hurt the economy, as well as how the deal left the asset wealthy untouched.
"Folks, I have to tell you. I am sitting here and I had so many observations, but I am stunned. I just have to tell you, I'm stunned at how, after four years, none of the conservative or Republican inside-the-Beltway establishment even now understands who they're dealing with in Barack Obama.
How many of our core beliefs are we going to throw away in this misguided belief that we can finally get to what matters? There is a prevailing opinion out there that, "Well, this deal, you know, is actually a pretty good deal. It keeps taxes the same, lowers taxes." And nobody's taxes got cut. There was not a tax cut. I'm blue in the face already and we're only two minutes into this."
Obama's Victory Massive, Profound, Sweeping, Unbelievably Large " Rush Limbaugh
"That's why Kristol, the Washington Post and other neocons were urging Obama to select them rather than Hagel: because those neocons know that, unlike Hagel, these Democratic technocrats pose no challenge whatsoever to their agenda of sustaining destructive US policy in the Middle East and commitment to endless war."
Note : Reports indicate President Obama next week will nominate Chuck Hagel to be the next secretary of defense.
British "The Guardian" Newspaper Chuck Hagel and liberals: what are the priorities ?
As Obama prepares to nominate the controversial former senator, the key question is whether Democrats will help neocons oppose him
Saturday 5 January 2013
By Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald is a columnist on civil liberties and US national security issues for the Guardian. A former constitutional lawyer, he was until 2012 a contributing writer at Salon. He is the author of How Would a Patriot Act? (May 2006), a critique of the Bush administration's use of executive power; A Tragic Legacy (June, 2007), which examines the Bush legacy; and With Liberty and Justice For Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful.
Ed Schultz and U. S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz ( Democrat, Florida ), she is the Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair. They explain the History of past years that led to this decision to start the year 2013 with different tax rates.
Ed Schultz explains that the Middle Class has been sinking during the last 30 years, and that the Election and "Fiscal Cliff" was about rescuing the Middle Class from the disastrous politics ( mainly conservative and republican ) that have caused this harm to the 98% while the top 2% have become richer and richer, sometimes by speculation and idleness.
They explain the difficult decision to raise taxes in year 1993 with the decisive one vote of Marjorie Margolis Mezvinsky in the House ( she lost her seat in the next election ) and decisive one vote of Al Gore in the Senate, all this happened during the Clinton Administration.
Published on Jan 4, 2013
'Fiscal cliff' deal leaves everyone bruised, but some more so than others 'Winners'. President Barack Obama: The president took a beating from his own party two years ago when he cut a deal with Republicans that temporarily extended income tax rates for all income earners set by former President George W. Bush. This time, Obama refused to budge on one of his main campaign promises to increase taxes on wealthy taxpayers. As part of this deal, the income tax rate for individual earners above $400,000 and families earning above $450,000 will increase.
The president, however, failed to hold together a "grand bargain" with Republicans in what could have been a major opportunity to address ballooning entitlement spending and tax reform. But in the grand scheme of things, Democrats seemed to have come out on top.
Lawrence is the best teacher in the World : He explains everything very clearly, as clear as a sunny day at noon. He is supported by Ezra Klein ( Washington Post ), another excellent teacher.
Lawrence O'Donnell is like the best teachers I had in my life ( two of them ), he explains everything in a very practical straightforward way that is easy to understand.
Obama is doing very well in negotiations with the "hard and tough" Republicans. Lawrence has very intelligent arguments and ideas to persuade us of the Shrewdness, Intelligence and Cleverness of Obama and Biden.
Published on Jan 5, 2013
Both Obama, GOP have laid out hard lines for tough talks ahead. If all the recent wrangling over the fiscal cliff has revealed anything, it's how tense and strained President Obama's relationship is with Republicans in Congress.
Borger: Fiscal cliff was bound to collapse
And Obama's relationship with Congress reached yet another low Thursday when House Speaker John Boehner confirmed to CNN that he has told House Republicans he will no longer negotiate legislative deals with the president.
Low bar for new Congress
In the White House's relationship with Capitol Hill, "the real negative is clearly that the relationship with House Republicans is as bad as ever," CNN contributor and Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer said, adding that the House GOP refuses to acknowledge any mandate from Obama after November's election.
Endangered Northeastern U. S. House Republicans against their GOP colleagues from other parts of the country. Enraged tea party leaders are threatening to knock off dozens of Republicans who supported a measure that raised taxes on the nation's highest earners.
My Comment :
Congress
Republicans are not reconciled to the fact that they lost the November 2012 Elections -
They think this way : "If we are hard and tough enough then we will impose our
ideas on others, by Brutal Force, Obstructionism and taking the Middle
Class and the Poor as hostages".
Huffington Post Republican Party Seems As Divided, Angry As Ever By STEVE PEOPLES
January 05, 2013
Unkindness and Lack of Heart for the suffering of others.
Republican
Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey strongly protested the
unjustified delays and procrastination in the U. S. House of
Representatives. The victims suffering and the Republican
Representatives in vacations and politicking.
So this Governor is "Pork Barrel" for caring for the victims inside his own state ??? -- Krauthammer says exactly this :
"I think what Boehner did in postponing the vote until today was absolutely right," he said on "Special Report." "That was a rape of the Treasury. $60 billion, including a ton of pork. The part that was essential that passed today was to replenish the flood insurance. That's right, and the rest ought to be debated in regular order."
Charles Krauthammer On Fox: Sandy Relief Bill Would Have Been A 'Rape Of The Treaury'
Obama is the luckiest man in the World and he is the master Demonizer and conjurer of Demons against Mitt Romney and the Rich. Obama set off big hate against the "Poor" Rich !!
The Source of Evil of Mr Obama is that he was a "Community Organizer" and so he mixed with the worst people in the USA and became contaminated and polluted by populism and socialism !.....
If Obama is such an Evil Wicked "Felix, the Cat" that thrives on sheer luck, then what is the source of his magic ??. Does he have a pact with the devil Satan ?? -- Does he practice voodoo ?? --- Is he the antichrist ??? -- the Beast 666 ??
Does Obama eat White Babies for breakfast to atune himself with the Devil ??
Listening to these two guys I almost believed that Obama has the Devil Satan as advisor and so he was successful in dividing the House Republicans.
John B. Judis in "The New Republic" : "Obama Wasn't Rolled. He Won!", January 3, 2012
Excerpts :
The Fiscal Cliff Deal positions Obama and the Democrats very well in future fights with a Republican Party that is becoming an embattled outpost for addled billionaires and white Southern revanchists. It may not happen during Obama’s second term, but the GOP may be on the way to marginalizing itself as a political party.
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With a new House and Senate, Obama stands a good chance of winning these battles in the months to come -- if he continues to conduct these negotiations as political campaigns and not as backroom Washington affairs. The fiscal cliff deal took tax rates out of the discussion. What’s left are spending cuts. If Obama allows the Republicans and obnoxious groups like Fix the Debt to frame the issues, he’ll be in trouble. And he did seem to fall into this trap briefly when he proposed changing the cost of living index for Social Security. But if he reminds the public that what the Republicans and their allies want to do is cut their Medicare and Social Security, he and the Democrats should be in good shape.
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These divisions don’t necessarily augur the kind of formal split that wrecked the Whig Party in the 1850s. Nor do they suggest widespread defection of Republicans into the Democratic Party as happened during the 1930s. There is still far too much distance between, say, McConnell and Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid. But they do suggest that a process of erosion is under way that will weaken the Republicans’ ability to maintain a united front against Democratic initiatives. That could happen in the debates over the sequester and debt ceiling if Obama and the Democrats make the kind of public fuss that they did over fiscal cliff.
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The New Republic Obama Wasn't Rolled. He Won! By John B. Judis
January 3, 2012
