Obama is not a revolutionary liberal in Jurisprudence and Nomination of judges. He is pleasing the conservatives and libertarians seeking reform of the current American legal system in accordance with a textualist and/or originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution

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Obama is accused of being too moderate in judicial matters and not a true liberal and leftist as his discoverer, mentor and Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe who first saw a Great Jurist and Lawyer in Obama and advanced his student's Career, instead Obama follows Professor Cass Sunstein who is too moderate and more akin to a conservative vision.



Counterpoint
A magazine of Politics and Culture
“Obama’s Law” is not as it seems
By Eric Pilch
June 13, 2011


“Obama’s Law” is not as it seems


Some excperts :

Driver concludes that Obama largely sympathizes with Sunstein which accounts for his disappointing record in the realm of judicial nominations. The current administration has not only nominated fewer lawyers to the judiciary, but is has failed to promote future judges who would forcefully advance a liberal Constitutional vision. In Driver’s own words:

[Obama’s] judicial moderates appear generally uninterested in reversing the steady, conservative-led erosion of criminal defendants’ rights, including the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures and the Fifth Amendment’s protections recognized by Miranda. Nor do Obama’s judges seem likely to challenge other disconcerting features of the prevailing judicial order, which jealously protects the interests of corporations and high-ranking government officials but turns a blind eye to casualties from the war on drugs and the funding inadequacies that plague students attending poor public schools.

.................

However, problems arise when this lofty wish bumps against the reality of the contemporary conservative legal movement. Despite what some might argue, the days of conservative judicial restraint are gone and one needs only to look at the string of conservative legal successes, culminating in Citizens United, to see where Obama’s vision falls short. There’s no question the Federalist Society is happy to see the President avoid strongly promoting his constitutional vision as they dismantle established liberal jurisprudence case by case. The Court’s conservative wing will unquestionably continue to overturn established precedent and promote an aggressively pro-business agenda in the future.

Although the ideal moment for Obama to nominate visionary liberal justices may have passed and recent events surrounding the nomination of Goodwin Liu might be disheartening to prospective judges, Obama would be well served to take Driver’s message to heart and take on the conservative legal establishment on their own terms.

..........

The U. S. Supreme Court is brewing up a 21st-century remake of the American Civil War - SB 1070 : Awakening of a sleeping Latino political giant that could prove lethal for Republicans - Texas redistricting decides the fate of Black and Latino political power

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"The North/South divide is always just beneath the surface in American politics" - "The problem, from the North's perspective, is the ascension of the South"

The Wilmington Journal
Tense Times For Supreme Court
BY Charles D. Ellison
Of the Philadelphia Tribune
December 29, 2011


Tense Times For Supreme Court


Some excerpts :

As if the Court is brewing up a 21st-century remake of the Civil War, the ugust body of for-life judges have decided to review three of the most volatile cases you could pick to review during a presidential election year.

..........

Along comes the infamous Arizona state immigration law, technically known as ''S.B. 1070'' for its state legislature designation. Republican Governor Jan Brewer's masterpiece of questionable and virtually unenforceable immigration detainment became the cause of a Latino community already under siege from increased deportations. The law caused a national firestorm over how far authorities could go in seizing illegal immigrants and whether police identification by race was even legal.

After many boycotts, national outrage and Brewer's face on dart boards, Arizona suffered a huge economic setback from S.B. 1070 and became the poster kid for racism in the United States.

...........

Going further down south in the big state of Texas is where current Republican Governor Rick Perry, R-Texas, also a fledgling GOP primary candidate, pushed an appeal against a lower court which refused to let the state use state and congressional legislative maps drawn by an even lower court. While that court found the new Census-driven maps suspiciously drawn to diminish the influence of Black and Latino voters in the Lone Star state, Perry argued that the judges should have kicked it to the state legislature which is, incidentally, dominated by Republicans.

Observers worry that the High Court is taking on politically and emotionally charged cases during an election year that promises to be as hot as the previous Presidential cycle in 2008. Healthcare, immigration and redistricting also touch on sensitive issues of access, race and more race.

...............

As could the immigration issue and redistricting. The Arizona immigration law on one hand placed an uncomfortable law enforcement spotlight on the problem of illegal immigration in the southwest United States. But, it also galvanized the awakening of a sleeping Latino political giant that could prove lethal for Republicans - especially depending on which way the legal winds blow on the SCOTUS case.

The Texas redistricting case, one of the few to come before the Court in quite some time, could have the effect of deciding the fate of Black and Latino political power, particularly as populations of color move southward. SCOTUS' review of the case is already causing anxiety amongst civil rights advocates, lawyers and many African-American politicos worried that this is just one new chance, next to the increasing presence of voter ID laws, for Republicans to undermine minority votes typically leaning Democratic.

................

"The problem, from the North's perspective, is the ascension of the South. It's growing at a much faster clip and growing in political clout too. The congressional seats lost by Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York invariably end up in Georgia, Texas or North Carolina. Texas is gaining four new seats, and while that will make it harder for Democrats to retake the House, it shouldn't affect the presidential contest.

King argues that while the tensions are there they may not be decisive. Obama could lose the 55 Electoral College votes he won in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia and still win the election. What will be decisive are national issues like the economy, health care reform, and immigration. For instance, while Americans want a strong border they don't prefer the antics of Sheriff Joe Arpaio or the explicit discrimination of Alabama's anti-immigration efforts.

.......

"When asked why none of his five sons had served, Mitt Romney explained that "one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping get me elected." (Perhaps they felt that working for their dad was a bit like serving in Fallujah )"

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In the Huffington Post Doug Bandow attacks the Stupid Jingoism and Warmongering of Mitt Romney and the Republican Presidential Candidates with the sole exception of Ron Paul. The Foreign Policy of Mitt Romney can't be more foolish or counterproductive. It is essentially the old George W. Bush doctrine of endless aggression and war against feigned dangers.

Almost all the Republican Party is poisoned with the most absurd and dangerous Jingoism, Chauvinism, Sick Nationalism, Militarism, Fascism and Ridiculous Uber Patriotism.

Huffington Post
Irresponsible Foreign Policy: The Republican Establishment, Not Ron Paul
By Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute
December 30, 2011


Irresponsible Foreign Policy: The Republican Establishment, Not Ron Paul


Some excerpts :

A decade ago President George W. Bush chose arrogance over humility as his foreign policy. Since then virtually every Republican presidential candidates has embraced his philosophy of endless war: in effect, the GOP mantra is "we're all neoconservatives now."

............

Yet the GOP presidential contenders criticized the Obama administration for not forcing Iraq's elected government from accepting a continued U.S. military presence. For instance, Mitt Romney denounced this "astonishing failure." Left unmentioned was the fact that the year-end departure was negotiated by George W. Bush. Anyway, it would be foolish to keep America forever entangled in Mesopotamia.

............

Romney said that he would listen to the counsel of the military commanders--as if that would relieve him of making an independent decision as president.

...............

As if these wars were not enough, Romney backed the counterproductive intervention in Libya.

...................

Even more pitiful is the reflexive war-mongering against Iran. "You have to take whatever steps are necessary to break its capacity to have a nuclear weapon," declared Gingrich. Romney and Perry pronounced their willingness to use military action. Gingrich and Santorum advocated covert action to kill Iranian scientists and disrupt Iranian activities. Gingrich also demanded that the U.S. pursue "regime replacement." Romney urged indicting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for "genocide."

.................

This year Republican voters seem to favor draft avoiders in the mold of Richard "I had other priorities" Cheney whose desire to wreak death and destruction on other peoples expands as their refusal to serve when their country called grows more distant. When asked why none of his five sons had served, Romney explained that "one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping get me elected." (Perhaps they felt that working for their dad was a bit like serving in Fallujah.)

................

Most pathetic, though, is Romney who, after giving a foreign policy speech with the usual formulistic call for American leadership, promised not to act in the Middle East without the approval of Israeli leaders. Such groveling can only inspire contempt in Israel.

.........

VIDEO : Ed Schultz EXPLODES At Marco Rubio: 'Phony,' 'Coward,' 'Stupid' - Attack against the "Golden Boy" for GOP Vicepresident - Super Hypocrite of one thousand lies and flip-flops, Latino Trojan Horse for Republicans 2012

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Florida Senator Marco Rubio : The Champion of Inexperience and Contradictions with his past statements. Watch Contradictory Marco Rubio Videos here.

Marco Rubio has praised Medicare and Medicaid in the past and Ed Schultz shows Marco's Old Videos. So you see a Big Contradiction in Marco's Statements. Totally proved by Marco's Videos.

Marco Rubio is preaching the most Conservative Dogma and extremist Tea Party Doctrine against "Entitlements", Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or Health Care. Marco Rubio last Flip-Flops and contradictions : "Only family should help the sick that find themselves in financial straits or Old Age".

Marco Rubio attacks Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz for being "Extremist Liberals", dangerous for America. And Ed Schultz gets mad.

Uploaded by MrObamanos on Dec 25, 2011

Ed Schultz let forth with a nearly 14-minute, highly emotional rant directed at Republican Sen. Marco Rubio on his Thursday show.

The monologue was the latest in the feud between Schultz and Rubio. It began when Rubio made a speech about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, saying they had "weakened our people" by making the government, rather than family or society, the dominant provider for senior citizens. Schultz criticized the speech on his show. In response, Rubio used the attack to go after Schultz (as well as Rachel Maddow) in a fundraising pitch, calling him a "liberal extremist."

Schultz was clearly outraged by the fundraising attempt, and he unloaded on Rubio. He started by saying that he had invited the senator to come on his show, but that Rubio had refused. Schultz called Rubio a "political coward" without the "guts" to debate his views. Then, he turned to Rubio's speech.

"This man is suggesting that there is a generation of Americans that care less about their parents because of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid," Schultz said. "This may be one of the most offensive things I have ever heard a United States Senator say about the people of this country."

He talked about his mother and father, who both benefited from Social Security and Medicare. He said his mother was a high school teacher and his father was an engineer who was "not dependent on anyone else because he worked his ass off throughout his entire [life]." He also said that his sister had cared for their mother through her final years as she battled Alzheimer's, and used this to reject Rubio's assertion that people had been "weakened" by the programs.

"You owe my family at least an apology," he said, "or at least be brave enough to give an explanation in front of the camera to explain what the hell you're really talking about."

He said Rubio was "so stupid he doesn't even know he's offensive," and that he "didn't give a damn about any of the Americans."

"You're nothing but a damn political phony, Senator," he summed up. "I don't know how the hell you got into office."

Ed Schultz EXPLODES At Marco Rubio: 'Phony,' 'Coward,' 'Stupid'

HuffPost : Robert Reich : "My political prediction for 2012 (based on absolutely no inside information): Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden swap places. Biden becomes Secretary of State -- a position he's apparently coveted for years. And Hillary Clinton, Vice President"

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Joe Biden was born in 1942 ( he is now 69 ) - Hillary Clinton was born in 1947 ( she is now 64 ) .....  Hillary would become president of the USA at age 68. Joe would become secretary of state at age 73.

Huffington Post
My Political Prediction for 2012: It's Obama-Clinton
December 28, 2011


By Robert Reich

Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, 'Aftershock' - Robert Reich ( born 1946) is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

My Political Prediction for 2012: It's Obama-Clinton


Some excerpts :

So the Democratic ticket for 2012 is Obama-Clinton.

Why do I say this? Because Obama needs to stir the passions and enthusiasms of a Democratic base that's been disillusioned with his cave-ins to regressive Republicans. Hillary Clinton on the ticket can do that.

......

Clinton would help deflect attention from the bad economy and put it on foreign policy, where she and Obama have shined.

The deal would also make Clinton the obvious Democratic presidential candidate in 2016 -- offering the Democrats a shot at twelve (or more) years in the White House, something the Republicans had with Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush but which the Democrats haven't had since FDR. Twelve years gives the party in power a chance to reshape the Supreme Court as well as put an indelible stamp on America.

............

The Atlantic : If Our Debt Is So Dangerous, Why Are People Begging for More? - By Jordan Weissmann - Treasury yields are actually negative for five, seven, and ten-year bonds. In other words, investors are essentially paying the government to take their money

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These dynamics will not be around in perpetuity :

The Republican Politics and Policies of not letting the U. S. Government borrow money from Investors is Absurd and against Jobs Creation.

"It's an ideal time to borrow and spend to put Americans back to work, while passing a deficit reduction bill that takes effect in a couple years".

"All year long, investors have been desperate to buy U.S. debt. We should let them before it's too late".

The Atlantic
If Our Debt Is So Dangerous, Why Are People Begging for More?
By Jordan Weissmann
December 27 2011


If Our Debt Is So Dangerous, Why Are People Begging for More?

Some excerpts :

How cheap? According to Bloomberg, during an auction of short-term bonds last week, the Treasury received nine-times as many bids as it needed to sell off all its $30 billion worth of debt. The interest rate it offered: 0%.

Let me repeat that: The U.S. government can sell its debt without paying any interest at all. Zilch.

At Wonkblog, Ezra Klein says there's an obvious policy response in this situation: borrow more. He points out that once inflation is taken into account, Treasury yields are actually negative for five, seven, and ten-year bonds. In other words, investors are essentially paying the government to take their money. It's an ideal time to borrow and spend to put Americans back to work, while passing a deficit reduction bill that takes effect in a couple years.

And it's not clear the government will have a chance like this again any time in the near future. Treasuries have been buoyed by two powerful, but temporary, forces. First, Europe tumbled into crisis, which left U.S. government debt was as one of the last safe investments on the market.

..........

The Nation : Charles Taylor analyzes Stephen King's last novel about Time Travel to save JFK from murder and finds a sociological study in Small Towns : Gossip, Bullies, Losers ( Lee Harvey Oswald ) - Is it possible to save America from LBJ's Vietnam ??

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Is it possible to save America from ugly things after JFK assassination ?? - Charles Taylor draws conclusions to analyze the Hatred against President Obama.

This is a study in Puniness : The Puny Lee Harvey Oswald and the Puniness of Dallas at the time of Kennedy's assassination :

In the Free Dictionary "Puny" is this :

1. Of inferior size, strength, or significance; weak: a puny physique; puny excuses.

2. Chiefly Southern U.S. Sickly; ill.

Puniness - the quality of being unimportant and petty or frivolous

The Nation
You Can't Always Get What You Want: On Stephen King
By Charles Taylor
December 21, 2011


You Can't Always Get What You Want: On Stephen King


Some excerpts :

In King’s new novel, 11/22/63, the sense of justice that has always animated his fiction, his hatred of bullies and bigots and busybodies, collides with the futility of extracting revenge. Encompassing more than fifty years of US history, 11/22/63 charts the country’s deterioration from the politics of inclusion to the enshrinement of economic and spiritual meanness as the official expression of national character. The plot device might almost be a child’s wish-fulfillment fantasy: a portal allows the hero to go back in time to try and stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Before the book ends, King addresses the simplicity of that wish. 11/22/63 becomes a double tragedy—of the murder that scarred America’s psyche and, despite the evidence that our good intentions produce horrendous results, of the persistence of the messianic belief that Americans have the power to right any wrong.

.................

If King sometimes sentimentalizes small towns, he’s spent enough time in them (and learned enough about them from Shirley Jackson) to understand the violence they breed: the spouse and child battering, the bullying, the backbiting, the jealousy, the destructiveness of gossips and prudes. King’s approach isn’t the trite Peyton Place device of showing the tawdry reality beneath the placid surface. King has more in common with the David Lynch of Blue Velvet, who refuses to separate the peaceful and beautiful from the violent and unmooring in small-town life.

.............

Well before the narrative reaches the ominous day, King creates a portrait of American life streaked with violence. One incident takes place during the childhood of a man who will grow up to become one of Jake’s GED students. Al has warned Jake that the past itself, determined not to change, will throw every obstacle it can in his way. To see whether he’s right, Jake decides he’ll intercede and stop a nightmare his student lived through as a child. He’s only partly successful, yet he doesn’t think twice about trying again. Here is where King makes us complicit, playing on the sense of justice he believes resides deep in the American character in order to draw us to Jake and his mission, and show how easily, and dangerously, the thought of any bad consequences can be brushed aside. We want to see Jake stop the drunken abuser who’ll murder his family, and if Jake succeeds we’re quite willing for this part of the story to end there. King isn’t. Fittingly, this novel about time travel has a long memory.

Though his treatment of them has sometimes lapsed into caricature, King captures how meager men loom terrifyingly large in the lives of the people they torment. For that reason his portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald is something new in his work. As drawn by King, Oswald is the quintessence of the American loser, a small ferrety presence not given to the terrifying outbursts of King’s usual bullies and bigots. King, who says in the novel’s afterword that he believes Oswald was the lone assassin, understands that Oswald’s puniness is, ironically, just the thing that, in the fevered imaginations of so many, has denied him the glory he was seeking in killing JFK. Who wants to believe that such a nothing of a man is capable of scarring a nation? Certainly no one who wants history to make rational sense. And probably not the readers of a large novel. A book of this size should give us a villain like Bill Sikes or at least Wackford Squeers instead of this scrawny man squirreling away his Russian wife, Marina, and baby daughter in the crummiest apartments, poring over his pathetic leaflets, nursing slights like a moody child.

...............

King brings that puniness to life in all its grungy detail. Jake moves in across the street from the Oswalds in a Dallas neighborhood stinking of petroleum and raw sewage, the street lined with houses little better than shacks and an ugly Monkey Ward warehouse. He keeps tabs on Oswald and his wife, and the details of their life and the lives around them strand us in a place that geographically, economically and psychically feels as if the New Frontier were taking place on another continent. Cold disgust motivates King’s portrait of Oswald: disgust at what he did, disgust that this amoeba has attached himself to our collective consciousness.

.............

“On the day Kennedy landed at Love Field, Dallas was a hateful place,” King writes in the afterword. There are echoes of the protests against President Obama in placards that read Help JFK Stamp Out Democracy. While it’s tempting for the left to feel superior to the thuggish and moronic elements of the radical right, it, too, or at least its bien-pensant caucus, is a target of this novel. There are plenty of reasons to be disappointed with or even angry about Obama’s performance. His persistent attempts to reach a consensus with people whose every utterance demonstrates they’ve abandoned common sense and common decency suggest someone who approaches the presidency with the ameliorating style of corporate management rather than the mixture of vision and street-fighting necessary in a president.

But to listen to the endless parade of white left commentators who have accused Obama of abandoning his base because he hasn’t achieved perfection in politics or in social justice is to realize that the radical right doesn’t have a monopoly on the divisiveness Obama’s presidency has given rise to. I’m not suggesting that Obama’s blackness makes criticizing him off-limits. But the reduction of the meaning of Obama solely to his policy decisions, the implicit dismissal of what the fact of Barack Obama means to people who before him never felt they had a voice in American politics—just as the fact of JFK made other people find their political voice for the first time—is not unlike the blindness King captures in 11/22/63. It is the seed of a reckless politics built on wish fulfillment. The constant pleasure of reading 11/22/63 is, as the National Book Foundation committee noted of King’s work in general, attributable to his belief in “the abiding power of narrative.” For a novelist who has specialized in making the everyday terrifying, 11/22/63 is something new, an alternative reality that tells us there are worse things to be scared of than the world as it is.

.....

TNR : Ruy Teixeira : Obama wins 2012 Election if he motivates and inspires youth while giving seniors second and third thoughts about the GOP - Analysis of how he can conquer youth/seniors in the Swing States that define the Election

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Youngsters love Obama but Seniors are a "bone hard to gnaw" for the President. How to conquer a better share of seniors, without losing youth.

The New Republic
Why Obama's Re-election Campaign Will Depend On the Youth Vote
By Ruy Teixeira
December 26, 2011

Why Obama's Re-election Campaign Will Depend On the Youth Vote


Some excerpts :

President Obama has astoundingly consistent support from Americans less than 30 years old, the so-called Millennial generation. In a recent Pew survey, this cohort favored Obama over Romney by 24 points, 61-37. The generation least likely to support Obama, on the other hand, is the "Silent generation"—the generational group slighter older than Baby Boomers, and the group now dominant among the ranks of seniors. He trails Mitt Romney in this generation by 13 points, 41-54.

..........

Obama wins if he carries 18 to 29-year-olds by significantly more than he loses seniors, as he did in 2008, since the two groups tend to be of roughly similar size in presidential elections. But if he carries 18 to 29-year-olds by significantly less than he loses seniors, as congressional Democrats did in 2010, he will lose. Hence the need for both parts of the pincer movement.

On the state level, in contrast to 2008 where the youth vote put Obama over the top in only two states, North Carolina and Indiana, there could be many instances where the youth vote makes the difference in 2012. Consider Ohio. Obama carried 18 to 29-year-olds with 61 percent against John McCain’s 26 percent in 2008, while losing seniors 44-55. Both groups were 17 percent of Ohio voters. Thus, if Obama splits 30 to 64-year-old voters roughly evenly in 2012—significantly worse than he did in 2008—he will likely still win the state if youth voters continue to be more pro-Obama than seniors are anti-Obama.

Virginia and Nevada follow the same pattern. Obama carried 18 to 29-year-olds by 60-39 while losing seniors 46-53 in Virginia. Keep that relative relationship, fight the GOP candidate to a draw among middling age groups, and the state is his. Likewise, in Nevada, Obama carried 18 to 29-year-olds by a lop-sided 67-31 while losing seniors 42-55. In this state, fading to the break-even point among 30-64 year olds would represent a big loss relative to 2008, but Obama could survive it provided, again, he wins 18 to 29-year-olds by significantly more than he loses seniors.

..............

Why it isn't a good idea to consider SB 1070 in the Supreme Court now - By Professor Peter Spiro of Temple Law School, he was ranked in the top 15 nationally among international law scholars on the basis of academic citation frequency

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Scholar Peter Spiro has testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee :

Opinio Juris
Supreme Court Takes Review of Arizona’s SB 1070 (But Why?)
by Peter Spiro
December 12, 2011

Peter J. Spiro from Temple Law School faculty, inaugural holder of Charles R. Weiner Professorship in international law. A former law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court, Spiro specializes in international law, the constitutional aspects of U.S. foreign relations, and immigration and nationality law. Spiro is the author of Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization.

In a 2007 survey, Professor Spiro was ranked in the top 15 nationally among international law scholars on the basis of academic citation frequency. He has contributed commentary to such publications as FOREIGN AFFAIRS, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, and THE NEW REPUBLIC. He also writes for the leading international law blog, Opinio Juris

In addition to his 1990-91 Supreme Court clerkship, Spiro served as a law clerk to Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has also served as director for democracy on the staff of the National Security Council, as an attorney-adviser in the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Legal Adviser and as a resident associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Supreme Court Takes Review of Arizona’s SB 1070 (But Why?)


Some excerpts :

The Supreme Court announced a grant this morning in the SB 1070 case.

I don’t know why the Court took the case. It could easily have ducked. There are other cases working their way through the pipeline from copycat states (Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina). The Court could have waited for further “percolation” of the issue in the lower courts and the prospect of a circuit split. It already has one political hot-button issue on its plate; why load up with another? No faction on the Court appears to have an immigration-related agenda (though obviously the right side has a federalism-related one).

On the other hand, the Court probably felt warmed up on the issue after the Whiting decision last term, in which it upheld a narrower AZ law relating to e-Verify and employer sanctions. The Court would probably have had to get to this at some point, so why not establish some certainty now. And a majority is probably not on board with the Ninth Circuit’s decision here, which enjoined all key parts of the law.

This will be a big decision at the intersection of immigration and federalism, probably the biggest since its 1942 decision in Hines v. Davidowitz. It could also have important implications for foreign relations federalism. My guess is that the Court is going to split the difference here. I think it’ll uphold a key provision requiring law enforcement to undertake immigration status determinations, but it will nullify another which in effect makes undocumented status a crime under state law (it isn’t under federal). But it will raise the overall bar for preemption, moving away from Hines’ hair-trigger standard, even in such sensitive areas as immigration an foreign affairs.

Meanwhile, this will probably short-circuit political efforts on the ground to scale the law back, at least pending a decision. That’s too bad. These laws might have gone away on their own. For the moment, the Court’s intervention will make that less likely.

..........

Casinos, Gamblers, Bettors, Bookies : They are risking their money ( voting with their pockets ) for President Obama, and the betting shares for Obama are increasing in value, so is Mitt Romney as possible Republican Nominee

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Look at the Data that I present here, taken from INTRADE.COM :

*************************


Barack Obama to be re-elected President in 2012


Event: 2012 Presidential Election Winner (Individual)
52.0%

Explanation : You have to bet $52 dollars to win $100 if President Obama is reelected. 


You can buy and sell these shares !

Note : Obama has been increasing value in Betting Houses, he was at $48 dollars in recent months.

*************************


Mitt Romney to be Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012


Event: 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee
73.2%


He is very strong now. - In recent weeks he was under $50 dollars.



*************************


Newt Gingrich to be Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012


Event: 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee
8.5%


*************************
Ron Paul to be Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012


Event: 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee
7.0%


*************************
The US Economy will go into Recession during 2012


Event: US Economy in Recession (*see contract rules for definition )
32.0%

*************************

Foreign Policy Mag : Stephen Walt : "This tendency to reward bellicosity pervades our politics, and not in a good way. Look at the venom that pollutes talk radio, and the scorched-earth partisanship (mostly flowing from the GOP) that has paralyzed the legislative branch on a host of vital issues"

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"Part of the problem, as the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Leslie Gelb, admitted a couple of years ago, is that a reputation for tough-minded hawkishness has become a prerequisite for advancement and credibility in the foreign-policy establishment"

Foreign Policy Magazine
Peace piece: What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?
Friday, December 23, 2011

By Stephen M. Walt
Stephen Martin Walt (born 1955) is a professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Among his most prominent works are Origins of Alliances and Revolution and War. He coauthored The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy with John Mearsheimer.


Peace piece: What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?


Some excerpts :

And today, most of the presidential aspirants seem more interested in convincing voters that they know how to channel their inner Rambo and that they will not hesitate to use force wherever and whenever they deem it necessary. Frankly, I'd be happier thinking that they would hesitate, and think twice -- or even thrice -- before sending the nation to another war.

.................

Think about it: even though the United States is probably the most secure great power in history, an ambitious up-and-coming policy wonk in D.C. is more likely to advance rapidly if he or she is a vocal proponent of using American power than if he or she is seen as skeptical or even somewhat averse to flexing U.S. military might at every occasion. And God forbid that someone who aspires to rise in Washington gets a reputation for being seriously interested in peace. That might get you a job at AID or at some left-wing think tank, but you aren't going to make a lot of short lists for State, Defense, or the NSC.

................

Read the talk-backs on virtually any political website -- including this one -- and observe how brave commenters, safely cloaked in internet anonymity, devote hours to flinging vile insults at each other. Or consider the ease with which prominent figures here and abroad will condemn whole categories of people -- gays, Muslims, Jews, foreigners -- without having met a single one or taking any time to consider how the world might look from someone else's perspective. When one looks at political discourse -- even in America, this most secure and fortunate of countries -- it requires no great imagination to see why it is so hard to keep humans from fighting.

.........

Republicans want to go to the days before the "New Deal" of President Franklin Roosevelt that started in 1932. They want to repeal the Twentieth Century Advances in Social Legislation. They want to turn America into a Plutocracy with Racist Overtones

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From the Washington Post - By writer E. J. Dionne :

"Obama will be the conservative in 2012, in the truest sense of that word. He is the candidate defending the modestly redistributive and regulatory government the country has relied on since the New Deal, and that neither Ronald Reagan nor George W. Bush dismantled"

"The rhetoric of the 2012 Republicans suggests they want to go far beyond where Reagan or Bush ever went. And here's the irony: By raising the stakes of 2012 so high, Republicans will be playing into Obama's hands. The GOP might well win a referendum on the state of the economy. But if this is instead a larger-scale referendum on whether government should be "inconsequential," Republicans will find the consequences to be very disappointing".

Washington Post
2012 Offers Divided U.S. a Momentous Choice
By E.J. Dionne
December 26, 2011


2012 Offers Divided U.S. a Momentous Choice



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Washington Post : "Obama begins 2012 with vastly more policy leverage than in 2011. What does Boehner have to show for the brinksmanship of the past year, save for the discretionary spending cuts from the debt deal ?"

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In Budgetary and Spending matters, 2011 wasn't so bad for Obama, Perhaps Historians will write that he was a winner in these matters.

Washington Post
Obama comes out ahead in 2011
By Ezra Klein - Columnist
December 23, 2011


Obama comes out ahead in 2011


Some excerpts :

The key here was that the supercommittee failed. That left two major events on the budgetary horizon: the spending trigger, which cuts $1 trillion from the budget, half of which comes from the Pentagon, and none of which comes from Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare beneficiaries, or assorted other programs for low-income Americans; and the scheduled expiration of the George W. Bush tax cuts, which would raise taxes by almost $4 trillion. Both events are scheduled to happen simultaneously and automatically on Jan. 1, 2013 — a dual-trigger nightmare for the GOP. And taken together, they are far to the left of anything that Democrats have suggested over the past year.

Finally, there was the scheduled expiration of the payroll tax cut and the expanded unemployment insurance benefits. On Friday, Congress extended both for two months — and the expectation is that, after another ugly round of negotiations, both will be extended through the rest of 2012. If that holds true, then in the 2010 tax deal, Democrats got about $4 of stimulus for every $1 of upper-income tax cuts — rather than, as it seemed at the time, $2 in stimulus for every $1 in upper-income tax cuts.

So, in 2011, there was no government shutdown, no default on the debt and no contractionary spending cuts passed for this year or next year. In addition, 2010’s stimulus measures were extended into the beginning of 2012, and unless Congress and the White House come to an alternative deficit-reduction solution over the next year, the dual triggers will go off and we’ll see a deficit “deal” consisting of a bit less than $4 in tax increases for every $1 in spending cuts — and half of those spending cuts will fall on the Pentagon.

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Mormons don't make bets. Mormons especially don't make $10,000 bets (unless we're talking about the gamble of paying tithing). A Forum of Ex-Mormons against Mitt Romney and the Fallacies, Lies, Hypocrisy, Swindle, Fraud and Cheat of Mormonism

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Post Mormon Organization against "Con Man" Mitt Romney :

"Mitt Romney is a follower of Mormon "Prophet" and con-man Joseph Smith. Mitt has a lot in common with Smith. But Joe Smith was convicted in a NY court for scamming people. Romney has no record that I'm aware of".

"There's a good reason Utah leads the nation in Prozac consumption, plastic surgery and porn addiction. Mormonism creates a phony society of professional secret keepers. There are no better secret keepers than Romney".

Bill Maher against Mormonism and Mitt Romney : "That was a very good video. Hopefully Bill Maher can alert more of the masses. I'm personally very nervous about Mormon presidential candidates"

Post Mormon Organization
Forum of Ex-Mormons
Bill Maher - The Mormon Card


Bill Maher - The Mormon Card



Some excerpts :

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Lloyd Dobler says :

"The thing that kills me about Maher is his courage to say what the rest of us would love to say, but just never would because of the potential damage it might do to our social lives, which is a cop out, really, but we've all done it. I did it for years in the church. I pretended it was okay, just to get along with my wife who was giving me ultimatums if I shared my doubts with others, especially our kids. I had to take a stand to call her bluff. I took a major risk, since I love her and she's the mother of OUR children.

But it paid off.

The only thing I wish Maher would get straight is he doesn't seem to get the facts straight. JS was not only arrested, he was convicted of treasure hunting, which was a common swindle back then. Since it was relatively easy to produce "Indian Artifacts" lots of con men would latch onto that concept and get 'investors' to invest in their treasure hunting. JS was always a good story teller and he came up with a whopper that attracted a few simpletons. When they finally figured out they'd been taken by JS, they alerted the authorities and JS was hauled in for trial. He was convicted of fraud.

Then he went on to concoct an even more elaborate fraud, which has worked for over 170 years.

Maybe it's time for the FRAUD which has already claimed 5 generations of my family, to come to a screeching halt.

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Thusaithenoob :

I'm not worried about doomsday scenarios. What I'm worried about is having a president who's so worried about if he's drank coffee or not that he forgets other very important issues. Also, I feel strongly about things like abortion and gay marriage. As a Christian and a Mormon, a president like Mitt Romney would do his best in office to work against some issues that I believe are basic human rights; for example, to marry whom we love regardless of gender and make that ultimate vow of commitment.

Think about it. How screwed up(mentally) and twisted up(emotionally) were so many of us on this site when we were mormon?

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EvilGeniusMom

Yeah, good question. My problem with the church started with the Romney campaign of 2008. I heard some people criticize the church for Brigham Young's statements on Blacks. I figured these statements could NOT be true, so I did some research. I thought that I knew the church was true and my findings would confirm this. Ooops! That opened Pandora's box.

As more and more TBMs are exposed to this type of criticism, the individuals who care about truth, and are willing to invest some time to look for it will increasingly be bringing historical issues to bishops and possibly into the discussion in Gospel Doctrine. How long can the leadership silence this increasing number of people with questions and doubts? We can only hope they can't.

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DatTo1

I had a lengthy conversation with fellow workmates yesterday regarding the LDS church...98% of what they thought was true...They are much more educated about the shame of Mormonism than I thought...It feels so good to be out of the "Gang of Mormonism" and to be able to think for myself....God I pray that we do not have a LDS man as President of the USA.....

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POLITICO.COM : It's over: Payroll tax bill passes : The humbling of the House GOP - Great Triumph of President Obama and the Democrats against the Party of NO, Obstacles, Bigotry and Racism - Obama in charge - Republicans capitulate !

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Obama Mucho Macho !!! :

"Now, let’s be clear: Right now, the bipartisan compromise that was reached on Saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on January 1st,” Obama said. “It’s the only one".

"For the first time since they lost the House in 2010, Democrats see a president who likes to play hardball. And for the first time since they won election, freshman Republicans know what it feels like to be on the losing end of a Washington deal, literally silenced by their leaders".

POLITICO.COM
It's over: Payroll tax bill passes
At no small personal political risk, Boehner laid down the law to his unruly caucus.
By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN and JONATHAN ALLEN
December 23, 2011


It's over: Payroll tax bill passes


Some excerpts :

This time there was no discussion. This time, House Speaker John Boehner didn’t take the chance of losing another deal to a caucus with a tendency to self-immolate.

And so when Boehner delivered the news that he had struck a deal on a Thursday afternoon conference call with House Republicans, the technology was in place to prevent rank-and-file lawmakers from voicing the kind of angry dissent that scuttled a Senate-passed payroll bill on Saturday. The five day drama that exposed both the political naivete of the freshman-heavy Republican Conference and the sharp limits of Boehner’s power over them ended in silence.

At no small personal political risk, Boehner laid down the law to his unruly caucus, substituting his own judgment for their collective wisdom in cutting a very slightly altered deal with President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“Speaker’s decision,” Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the fourth-ranking House Republican, said in introducing Boehner on the call.

The tweak is such a small political fig leaf that even Eve might blush at the lack of cover. But it got congressional Republicans what they desperately needed: A way out of a political vice that threatened to damage their party’s brand more with each passing day.

Boehner knew the year-end fight to renew the payroll tax would be bad — but he couldn’t possibly have anticipated how bad it would get. Obama always knew the fight would be good for him — but not this good. It got the president not only the tax cut he wanted but provided a jolt for Democrats anxious about 2012 who felt Obama had been played by House Republicans in earlier negotiations.

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“A core part of a president’s leadership is his ability to show he’s in charge and that he’s leading, rather than being led,” said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with close ties to the White House. “One problem for him in the first two years is that he had to run with Congress because it was controlled by Democrats, and too often it seemed that they were pulling him rather than he was leading them.

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You will have a Happy New Year 2012 in any case with the Reelection of President Obama and some positive developments - The U. S. Supreme Court will not destroy the happiness, there is even a light posibility of soberness and temperance for this court

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New Year 2012 will be an "Anno Mirabilis" like 2008 and the most positive development will be the Reelection of President Obama by a landslide and a better grasp of the U. S. Congress by the Democrats, although I can not predict that Democrats will control the U. S. House.

Of course I am not a seer or spiritist and I can't predict the future with 100% certitude, but my intuition tells me that President Obama has to be reelected and the Democratic Party has to have a Good Year.

It is horrible to think of the alternative : the election of Mitt Romney. The Republican Party has morphed into the Party of NO, the Party of Negativity and of creating useless obstacles to all good Initiatives. It is also the Party of Racism, Bigotry, Extremism, Irrationality. It was a better party in the past, it even fought for the rights of Black People around 1870 to 1920 or so.

The GOP is also the Party of Jingoism, Chauvinism, Hypernationalism and Eternal War.

But today : What are the House Republicans if not vagrants and bums ??

They beg to the rich and represent only the interest of the top 1% - This is not communism, marxism or socialism, but a Strong Truth and Reality that we can see every day and in every action of the Republican Party dominated by the extremism of the Tea Party.

So I can fail in my predictions, and that failure would bring a new era of accelerated decline of the USA like in the times of George W. Bush.

The only guy that can stop that accelerated deterioration of U. S. Power and U. S. Economy is President Obama, and as I see things nobody is able to challenge him, much less Mr Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney is not guilty of having being born in a Mormon Family and being the descendant of Women enslaved by Alpha Males in a Harem of Mormon Polygamy.

But sincerely I would have rebelled against that stupid Religion founded by a Con Man, that is a swindler and thief, Prophet Joseph Smith. That Religion has been Racist, Extremist Bigotry and has the most stupid tenets of faith that I can imagine. 

To believe in Mormonism is like believing in the Old Catholic Church with the Holy Inquisition burning Witches in Europe and ruining Jews in Spain.

Or like believing in the Calvinism of John Calvin in Switzerland burning other protestants in Geneva and establishing a dictatorship and theocracy.

It would be extremely embarrassing to have a Mormon President but that is not the worst, because having a Republican President is the best recipe for the diminishing of American Power among the nations and for the destruction of American Wealth and Riches.

I am not saying that Mitt Romney is going to destroy the USA, but it will be another George W. Bush applying the same failed ideas of that Brutal and Ugly President ( his Ugliness not being Physical but Moral and Human ).

The U. S. Supreme Court is totally perverted by Conservative Judicial Activism but it can not ruin the happiness of Anno Mirabilis 2012 with the three hot potatos or explosive political buttons of Health Care Overhaul, SB 1070 and Texas Gerrymandering.

The wrong decisions of that Court can be corrected by the same Court and Justices, or by another Court with other People in the Future. And I believe in Newton's Third Law of Physics : "There is a Reaction against every Action"...

The Mistakes of the Supreme Court will attract attention on the issues and make them red hot in an election year.

Economic, Sociological, Moral and Cultural factors are always changing and even a Court of Archangels in Heaven may have its decision overturned later.

Vicente Duque

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The American Prospect : "Lemmings for Plutocracy" : "House Republicans have chosen to be martyrs to the cause of raising taxes on all but their richest constituents" - "If the Republicans don’t cave, the Democrats have a grand issue to campaign on"

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My Note : Lemmings do not commit suicide, they throw themselves to the sea because of population explosion and may die before reaching an island because of the arctic cold and exhaustion while swimming. They are more intelligent than House Republicans ! ....

The American Prospect
Governing on Empty
With the Tea Party in control, House Speaker John Boehner can do little but make empty promises.
By Harold Meyerson
December 21, 2011


Governing on Empty


Some excerpts :

The current House Republican talking point is that a two-month compromise won’t solve anything, that they want to extend the payroll tax cut for an entire year. But this summer, they were disavowing any interest in extending the tax cut at all. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Dave Camp, the Michigan Republican who chairs the Ways and Means Committee. Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan complained that extending the tax cut “would simply exacerbate our debt problems.” Of course, the Republicans had made huge cuts to the income tax, chiefly benefiting the rich, during George W. Bush’s first term, and expressed no concern about the cuts’ effect on the nation’s debt. With Democrats highlighting the fact, however, that the Republicans had finally found a tax cut they opposed—a tax on working people—Republicans discovered that in fact they supported extending the payroll tax cuts after all.

Now Democrats will highlight the fact that House Republicans refused to reach a deal to let that extension go through. The prospect of the Democratic attacks resonating compelled McConnell to reach a deal and apparently compelled Boehner and Cantor to go along with it until their caucus said no. The prospect of Democratic attacks has compelled a number of Republican senators to criticize their House colleagues for blocking the compromise. But in the House, the Republicans have chosen to be martyrs to the cause of raising taxes on all but their richest constituents. They’re lemmings for plutocracy.

But will the Democrats cave? Why should they? If the Republicans cave, the Democrats can claim victory. If the Republicans don’t cave, the Democrats have a grand issue to campaign on. The Democrats don’t even have to grow a spine—just not lose their brains. That, we must hope, they can do.

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VIDEO, President Obama Speaks on the Payroll Tax Cut - Obama blames the House Republicans for a possible tax increase to the Middle Class starting on January 1st - Republicans are trying to wring concessions and practicing partisanship and ugly games

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Uploaded by whitehouse on Dec 20, 2011

President Obama said that extending the payroll tax cut is not a game for the millions of people who depend on that money to make ends meet. December 20, 2011.

President Obama Speaks on the Payroll Tax Cut

VIDEO "Old Fart Rants" : Voter Suppression in States with Republican Governors or Legislatures, Violence against "Occupy Protesters", Patriot Acts, developments more dangerous than all the Terrorists of the World

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Old fart attacks the Republican Candidates as Stupid Clowns, and the Politics of Republicans in Congress and in the States dedicated to block voters.

"Christmas 2011 - Too Much News!" by Old Fart Rants

Uploaded by oldfartrants on Dec 14, 2011

There's too much news! Take the Republican presidential candidate debates for example. I could do an hour video every day about each one of these clowns. There's just too much material to even start! You may remember I did do a video about pizza man Herman Cain back in October in which I said he was toast - and I was right about that.

So I'll just make another prediction -- none of these goofballs can beat Obama. Not in a fair election anyway. Overall, watching these debates makes me mad, and it makes me truly sad that in America today, with the exception of Ron Paul and John Huntsman who have no chance, ignorant, delusional idiots like these people could ever be taken seriously as qualified to do anything - except maybe sell popcorn at a movie theater!

Seriously - this is the best and brightest the Republican Party can come up with in the entire country? A bunch of Bible thumping buffoons and stupid screeching monkeys? Way to go Tea Party -- just like your brain dead worship of the woirld's biggest morn, Sarah Palin, your presidential candidates have made America the laughing stock of the world -- again!

And thanks for a do nothing Congress with the lowest approval rating of any Congress in US history too -- a Congress with an approval rating lower than Hitler - lower than Paris Hilton - lower than America going communist. Way to go Tea Party! Your mind-boggling stupidity and gullibility have given us all yet another reason to be embarrassed to be Americans.

The only way the Republicans can beat Obama in 2012 is by union busting and voter supression, and they know it. That's why they've been working on in every state with a Republican governor. They saw what happened when young and elderly and minority voters stayed home in 2010. All they have to do is shave off a few million votes and they might have a chance at winning in 2012. This is very serious folks. To me this is treason - a calculated undermining of democracy in every sense that's a thousand times more dangerous than terrorism is. It's as un-American as it gets.

Another thing that's troubling is what's been happening with the Occupy protests. It was police AND private security guards who re-took Zuccotti Park from the occupy protestors. Private security guards, ala Blackwater types, were used against American citizens exercising their civil liberties in a public space. Private security guards who's only oath of loyalty is sworn to the company that hires them -- not to the Constitution. That's as un-American as it gets.

Something that should really scare even the biggest Tea Party patriot is the National Defense Authorization Act, under which anyone, including American citizens on American soil, can be arrested, and detained indefinitely without any charges, any access to a lawyer, or any legal hearing to prove their innocence. So much for innocent until proven guilty - a saying which is as American as apple pie. This law shits so blatantly on the Constitution it's unbelievable! But where's your outrage about this bill Tea Partiers? Why aren't you screaming bloody murder about this bill? If it passes we're all screwed - and that includes everybody with tri-corner hats and misspelled signs too!

"Christmas 2011 - Too Much News!" by Old Fart Rants

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American Constitution Society : "Romney’s new constitutional advisor is none other than former Judge Robert Bork, an astounding selection to head up the Governor’s legal and constitutional affairs advisory team. Bork is a fiercely pro-corporate, anti-voting rights, anti-choice, anti-feminist, pro-censorship, anti-gay, anti-free speech, anti-separation of church and state, and evolution-denying ideologue

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"Judge Robert Bork has described the 9th Amendment to the Constitution defending the rights of the people as ‘an inkblot’ and called for allowing Supreme Court constitutional decisions to be overturned by majority vote in Congress as well as a constitutional amendment to deny gay people the right to marry."

American Constitution Society
Gingrich’s Wild Attacks on Judges Shouldn’t Mask Romney’s Take on Judicial Independence
by Jeremy Leaming
December 19, 2011


Gingrich’s Wild Attacks on Judges Shouldn’t Mask Romney’s Take on Judicial Independence

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POLITICO.COM : Gays have fared much better under Obama than any other president - Support for gay marriage could be Obama’s secret weapon for the 2012 election - Same-sex mariage is the holy grail in gays’ decades-long quest for equality

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The White House is in the midst of a series of high-profile gay rights initiatives. Taken as a whole, the moves fit well into the sales pitch Obama’s 2012 campaign is ready to make to the gay and lesbian community: "We’ve done more for gay rights in our first three years than most administrations do in eight — and we’re not done yet".

POLITICO.COM
Barack Obama preps pitch to gay voters
By JOSEPH WILLIAMS
December 19, 2011

Barack Obama preps pitch to gay voters


Some excerpts :

The repeal of the ban on gays in the military and dropping the court fight to preserve the Defense of Marriage Act, Moulton said, were major items on the gay-rights agenda. And Obama also signed a tough new hate-crimes law, mandated equal treatment for gay patients in the health-care system and made big-dollar commitments to HIV-AIDS research and patient care.

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And towering over the other issues is same-sex marriage.

Among gay activists, the Obama administration’s recent actions — including what they perceive as a signal from someone like Donovan — have fueled speculation that Obama may finally take a step they say would energize a core constituency and strengthen a largely positive but occasionally strained political relationship.

“The initial question the president faces is, does he come out for same sex marriage now or after the election?” said Richard Socarides, president of Equality Matters, a gay rights organization. With polls trending toward public acceptance of gays and lesbians tying the knot, he said, “it may be riskier to wait.”

Endorsing gay marriage now, Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus wrote recently, could help Obama win back skeptical moderate voters and rekindle flagging enthusiasm among young people, who broadly support marriage equality.

“Mr. President, what better moment will there be? [Next year] you might lose,” she wrote.

Advocates argue that support for gay marriage could be Obama’s secret weapon for the 2012 election.

...............

“I think we’ll achieve marriage equality regardless of where this president is or isn’t,” Polis said, adding that he doesn’t know precisely where Obama stands. But, he added, “having the moral leadership of the president can only help.”

............

The White House, in turn, pointed to Obama’s “strong record of support” for the gay community, including ending sexual-identity discrimination in federal hiring. The president, a spokesman said, “is proud of the accomplishments he and his administration have made to advance the rights of the LGBT community, and we look forward to continuing to make progress on these important issues.”

............

Still, even his critics agree that Obama has done more for gays and lesbians in one term than any recent two-term president — for example, hiring a record number of gay administration staffers along with ending sexual-identity discrimination in federal hires and in publicly subsidized housing. Just months before his reelection campaign begins in earnest, the president and his surrogates have highlighted significant new initiatives aimed at promoting equality.

..............

That strategy, he added, has largely paid off:Gays “have fared much better” under Obama than any other president, doubt has subsided about whether he put his muscle into the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and his support in the community is strong.

..............

But Socarides and others suggest Obama could galvanize the base and overcome “a little bit of an enthusiasm gap” among gays if he stood for same-sex marriage. “It’s an issue that excites a lot of voters, particularly with young people, and it can be a good issue for [progressive] Democratic voters,” he said.

In April, The New York Times reported, a CNN poll showed 51 percent believe marriage between same-sex couples “should be recognized by the law as valid.” It was the fourth credible poll in two years to show an outright majority of Americans untroubled by gay marriage.

Aravosis, who founded AmericaBlog, said Obama should go all-in and support marriage equality, particularly because Christian conservatives and others who adamantly oppose it probably won’t vote for him, anyway. Underscoring the point, Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently launched an ad slamming the president for allowing gays to serve openly in the military while maintaining a federal ban on prayer in schools.

Nevertheless, Aravosis and others doubt Obama would risk his political future on a surprise endorsement. One political activist and Obama supporter said the president’s empathy and support for the gay community is sincere, but his reluctance to stand for same-sex mariage — the holy grail in gays’ decades-long quest for equality — hints at a missed emotional connection.

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TIME.COM : Iraq War : limits of American military power - Sharply diminished U.S. influence throughout the Middle East - Iraq War Weakened the U.S. in Middle East - no-show by Iraq’s President and Prime Minister at departure ceremony

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Tehran’s strategic position vastly enhanced by the elimination of its most dangerous enemy, Saddam Hussein - Iran is now a stronger nation in the region.

TIME is a wonderful Magazine, Excellent Analysis.



TIME.COM
Ten Grim Lessons Learned From the Iraq War

Despite the upbeat talk of the Obama Administration, the eight-year war that ended this week has done plenty of long-term damage to both Iraq and the United States. And it has bequeathed lessons worth considering ahead of future conflicts

The Iraq War Weakened the U.S. in the Middle East
By Tony Karon
December 16, 2011

Ten Grim Lessons Learned From the Iraq War


Some excerpts :

The no-show by Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at Wednesday’s departure ceremony that officially closed the U.S. military mission in Iraq spoke volumes: Chairs with name cards reserving them for the two Iraqi leaders were quickly occupied by U.S. soldiers, but the fact that the Iraqi leaders failed to show up to publicly thank the Americans for “Operation Iraqi Freedom” was a painful reminder of the limits of what the war had achieved.

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The combination of the horrors visited upon Iraq under U.S. occupation, and the failure of the massive show of American military force to bend the Iraqis to their will, havesharply diminished U.S. influence throughout the region. The year of the Arab Spring has shown that Washington’s ability to persuade its allies and intimidate its foes into compliance is dramatically reduced from what it had been in 2003.

.........

The U.S. departure sees American influence diminished, with Islamist Parties the likely inheritors of the fall of the dictatorships of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and the rest of the region — notably such U.S. allies as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority — acting independently of Washington’s preferences. A new Middle East, indeed; one that has relinquished Pax Americana and is writing its own history on terms that hardly fit the vision that drove the Iraq invasion. The demonstration effect of “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” then, has been to show the limits of American military power to shape events.

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Super Conservative "Weekly Standard" : William Kristol believes in a Republican Brokered Convention with many Deliberations, because no candidate has big support and enough delegates, or someone enters the race belatedly

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Super Republicans are worried about their presidential candidates. - It could turn out that the Republican Convention chooses, on a second or third or fourth ballot, a better nominee.

The Weekly Standard
A Deliberative Convention
By William Kristol
December 26, 2011


A Deliberative Convention


Some excerpts :

It could happen because it’s quite possible no one will emerge from the January primaries with a commanding lead in the delegate count, or a compelling surge in popular support. Four or more of the existing candidates could then continue to split votes—and delegates—through February and March. It would be even more likely to happen if someone new were to respond to a draft and enter the race belatedly, announcing his entry as early as mid-January or as late as early March—missing some primaries, to be sure, but getting on lots of ballots and getting lots of votes in April, May, and June. In any case, it might well happen that no candidate will have a majority of pledged delegates when Republicans enter the doors of the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa in late August.

And a deadlocked convention, which then became a deliberative convention, could be a good thing, because most sentient Republicans, and most conscientious conservatives, suspect we can do better than the current field.

It may not happen. The delegates in Tampa may end up doing what delegates at recent conventions have done, rubber-stamping a nominee and serving as props in a TV show. But a rush to judgment by political elites and premature closure of the nominating process hasn’t served Republicans, or conservatives, particularly well in the last several election cycles.

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VIDEO, emails to Jack Cafferty and Wolf Blitzer, CNN : America is not the World's Policeman but the World's Mother in Law, because Mothers in Law never admit a mistake of idiotic intervention, like the War in Iraq

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Jack Cafferty tells to Wolf Blitzer in CNN : Why Wont The Government Tell Us The Truth About Iraq ? - The "Victory" is Total Hogwash says Jack Cafferty - Incredible Cost, Huge Constructions in Iraq being paid by the American Taxpayer

How Can the invasion of Iraq make America safer ?? - What is the good of killing so many people Americans and Iraqis ??

This was an excellent intervention of Jack Cafferty with many of his followers writing emails to Jack about the uselessness of the Iraq War.

Mission Accomplished ??? - The Truth hurts !

Uploaded by NicosMind on Dec 16, 2011

Cafferty - Why Wont The Government Tell Us The Truth About Iraq?

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VIDEO : Obama to Barbara Walters : For GOP compromise is a dirty word" - "anything that Obama's for, Republicans are against" - "We've made have made America stronger, and have made the American people... put them in a better position in order to succeed over the long term. Short term, folks are still hurting"

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VIDEO : ABC News : President Obama on GOP

Obama : "You know, you never want to say, 'It's all them,'" - "But I do think that right now at least, in the Republican Party there are a couple of notions. Number one is that compromise is a dirty word. Number two, anything that Obama's for, we're against."

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"If I propose a health care bill that is full of Republican ideas -- in fact, is very similar to the law that was passed by the current Republican front runner, or one of the top frontrunners ? the other guy was supportive of many of the ideas as well -- suddenly, they become against it," he said.

........................

"I want to be a really good two-term president," Obama said. "I think that the choices we've made have made America stronger, and have made the American people... put them in a better position in order to succeed over the long term. Short term, folks are still hurting."

President Obama on GOP

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VIDEO : Cenk Uygur shows an old Mitt Romney VIDEO : "I'm Progressive and Moderate and not a Partisan Republican" - Mitt, the Greatest Master of Flip-Flop, Opportunism and Hypocrisy is revealed - He says what the Electors want

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Mitt Romney the friend of Abortion, Compulsory Health Care, and Amnesty for Immigrants ( in a previous life ).


Uploaded by TheYoungTurks on Dec 14, 2011

Video has been discovered of Republican Mitt Romney claiming his views are "progressive". Cenk Uygur shows the video and discusses "Multiple Choice" Mitt.

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VIDEO : Iraq war: Predictions vs. reality : 4,500 Dead Americans, 32,000 plus seriously wounded, oil revenues would pay for the war : it didn't happen, 800 billion spent according U. S. Government - More realistic 3.5 trillion ( hidden expenses ! )

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That bill ( 3.5 trillion dollars ) hasn't been paid because the money was borrowed.

Professor Catherine Lutz of Brown Univeristy says that the tragedy and suffering of the Iraqi people is poorly known and poorly understood.

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Dec 15, 2011

With nearly two million Iraqis displaced, tens of thousands dead and more than 4,500 US soldiers killed, the overall result of the war on Iraq may not be what the US bargained for.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane has been looking back at the promises and predictions that were made by Washington nine years ago.

Iraq war: Predictions vs. reality

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AntiWar.com : Jason Ditz : Iraqis took to the streets today celebrating the Withdrawal of American Troops, burning the American flags and promising annual celebrations of this "Glorious Day"

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"The population has dropped considerably, both from refugees fleeing the conquering forces and the enormous death toll, while the cities are much more segregated along religious lines than ever before"

My Comment : And Iran has gained more regional power thanks to the American and NATO Intervention. The Shiites are now in power in Iraq and Iran.

AntiWar.com
Flags Burn as Last US Troops Trickle Out of Iraq
Another 'End' Comes With Declarations of Victory
by Jason Ditz,
December 14, 2011

Flags Burn as Last US Troops Trickle Out of Iraq


Some excerpts :

As the last few US troops withdraw from Iraq, putting a cap on the latest of innumerable “ends” to the Iraq War, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R – CA) angrily condemned Obama for not being more open in declaring how great a military victory the conquest of Iraq actually was.

Obama did declare the war a “success” however, saying that the nine years of occupation was “an extraordinary achievement” and “one of the most extraordinary chapters in the history of the American military.”

The Iraq he “leaves behind” (putting aside the State Department’s private army and the massive embassy) is starkly different from the Iraq that America found in 2003.

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Its an Iraq that’s celebrating, however, if only because the most obvious signs of the US occupation, the ground troops, are leaving. Iraqis took to the streets today celebrating the way much of the world seems to celebrate these days, burning the American flag and celebrating the lack of US troops with guns trained on them.

The demonstrators said today was the “first annual” celebration of its type, aimed at commemorating those Iraqis who resisted the occupation. Whether there will be a second annual celebration without any US troops remains to be seen.

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AntiWar.com : Jason Ditz : Iraqis took to the streets today celebrating the Withdrawal of American Troops, burning the American flags and promising annual celebrations of this "Glorious Day"

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"The population has dropped considerably, both from refugees fleeing the conquering forces and the enormous death toll, while the cities are much more segregated along religious lines than ever before"

My Comment : And Iran has gained more regional power thanks to the American and NATO Intervention. The Shiites are now in power in Iraq and Iran.

AntiWar.com
Flags Burn as Last US Troops Trickle Out of Iraq
Another 'End' Comes With Declarations of Victory
by Jason Ditz,
December 14, 2011


Flags Burn as Last US Troops Trickle Out of Iraq


Some excerpts :

As the last few US troops withdraw from Iraq, putting a cap on the latest of innumerable “ends” to the Iraq War, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R – CA) angrily condemned Obama for not being more open in declaring how great a military victory the conquest of Iraq actually was.

Obama did declare the war a “success” however, saying that the nine years of occupation was “an extraordinary achievement” and “one of the most extraordinary chapters in the history of the American military.”

The Iraq he “leaves behind” (putting aside the State Department’s private army and the massive embassy) is starkly different from the Iraq that America found in 2003.

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Its an Iraq that’s celebrating, however, if only because the most obvious signs of the US occupation, the ground troops, are leaving. Iraqis took to the streets today celebrating the way much of the world seems to celebrate these days, burning the American flag and celebrating the lack of US troops with guns trained on them.

The demonstrators said today was the “first annual” celebration of its type, aimed at commemorating those Iraqis who resisted the occupation. Whether there will be a second annual celebration without any US troops remains to be seen.

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