Robert Schlesinger : GOP is in an all time low of -26% points of negative net unfavorability (33%-59%)- Perry, Bachmann, and Romney can not save it - The GOP deliberately created a debt crisis which endangered and ultimately harmed the nation's creditworthiness

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Obama (whose 41 percent approval looks grand next to Congress's rating) is gearing up for a Truman-esque run against Congress and its stubborn gridlock. -



U. S. News and World Report
Can Perry, Bachmann, or Romney Save the Republican Party Brand?
August 24, 2011


By Robert Schlesinger

Robert Schlesinger is opinion editor at U.S. News and World Report, a liberal blogger on Thomas Jefferson Street and the Huffington Post, and writes a biweekly column for U.S. News. He is the youngest son of the late historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and the youngest brother of Stephen Schlesinger. His first book, published in April, 2008, on the history of presidential speech writers, is called White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters. He used to teach political reporting at Boston University's Washington Journalism Center.

Schlesinger has worked at the Center for Public Integrity as a researcher, then at The Hill (newspaper) as a reporter and Political Editor, at Voter.com as Chief Congressional Correspondent, and as a Washington, DC reporter for The Boston Globe. He is currently Opinion Editor with U.S. News and World Report and oversees all their opinion content, including the Thomas Jefferson Street blog. He is the author of White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters (Simon & Schuster, 2008).

Can Perry, Bachmann, or Romney Save the Republican Party Brand?


Some excerpts :

The GOP deliberately created a debt crisis which endangered and ultimately harmed the nation's creditworthiness. Despite overwhelming evidence that the public prefers to solve the deficit and debt issues with a combination of tax increases and spending cuts, the GOP has stubbornly refused to even consider revenue hikes.

And that is perhaps the GOP's most fundamental problem. Poll after poll shows that independent voters prefer leaders who compromise over politicians who refuse to move from their positions.

But the same polls show that Tea Party supporters have a diametrically opposite view. So GOPers, mindful of the incumbent seats the conservative fringe collected in primary challenges last year, have disdained compromise as a dirty word.

That's why Obama (whose 41 percent approval looks grand next to Congress's rating) is gearing up for a Truman-esque run against Congress and its stubborn gridlock. If Congress doesn't act on the jobs plan he will unveil in September, he said last week, "then we'll be running against a Congress that's not doing anything for the American people, and the choice will be very stark and will be very clear." In keeping with his post-partisan brand, the president is hitting the Congress as a whole rather than just House Republicans. But he does so knowing that the GOP has taken the bulk of the damage from anti-Congress sentiment.

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VIDEO in POLITICO.COM : Andre Carson ( U. S. Rep. Democrat Indiana ) : Tea party wants blacks 'hanging on a tree' - Of course, this is an exaggeration, but there is some powerful strong hidden truth in this speech

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A top lawmaker in the Congressional Black Caucus says tea partiers on Capitol Hill would like to see African-Americans hanging from trees and accuses the movement of wishing for a return to the Jim Crow era.

POLITICO.COM -
Andre Carson: Tea party wants blacks 'hanging on a tree' -
By JAKE SHERMAN -
August 31, 2011


Andre Carson: Tea party wants blacks 'hanging on a tree'


Some excerpts :

Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana who serves as the CBC’s chief vote counter, said at a CBC event in Miami that some in Congress would “love to see us as second-class citizens” and “some of them in Congress right now of this tea party movement would love to see you and me ... hanging on a tree.”

Carson also said the tea party is stopping change in Congress, likening it to “the effort that we’re seeing of Jim Crow.”

The explosive comments, caught on tape, were uploaded on the Internet Tuesday, and Carson’s office stood by the remarks. Jason Tomcsi, Carson’s spokesman, said the comment was “in response to frustration voiced by many in Miami and in his home district in Indianapolis regarding Congress’s inability to bolster the economy.” Tomcsi, in an email, wrote that “the congressman used strong language because the Tea Party agenda jeopardizes our most vulnerable and leaves them without the ability to improve their economic standing.

“The Tea Party is protecting its millionaire and oil company friends while gutting critical services that they know protect the livelihood of African-Americans, as well as Latinos and other disadvantaged minorities,” Tomcsi wrote. “We are talking about child nutrition, job creation, job training, housing assistance, and Head Start, and that is just the beginning. A child without basic nutrition, secure housing, and quality education has no real chance at a meaningful and productive life.”

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Kenyan Proverbs that President Obama should apply to the Tea Party Crazies in Congress, they are like pampered Children, misbehaved kids, nasty brats, lunatics without measure, politeness and respect

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Tea Partiers are Children, Clowns, Fools and Bullies. How to treat them ??... My solution is go to a Kenyan Village and learn how they deal with their own fools, and nasty brats.

A donkey always says thank you with a kick.

A flea can trouble a lion more than the lion can harm a flea..

Don't count what they get -- they count what they don't get..

Hearts do not meet one another like roads..

Never let a hyena know how well you can bite.

Only scratch where you can reach.

The water of the river flows on without waiting for the thirsty man.

Thunder is not yet rain.

When you take a knife away from a child, give him a piece of wood instead.

There is no phrase that doesn't have a double meaning.

This is my two cents of wisdom to solve the impasses of Obama and the U. S. Congress.

Vicente Duque

...

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According to the U. S. Supreme Court Racial Profiling is legal : In United States v. Brignoni-Ponce 1975, the high court ruled that the “likelihood that any given person of Mexican ancestry is an alien is high enough to make Mexican appearance a relevant factor ( to stop cars near the border )

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But this is not in line with current constitutional understanding ( of Law Professors, Universities, many judges, etc ... )

United States v. Brignoni-Ponce 1975 is the reason why Barack Obama and Eric Holder ( Secretary of the Justice Department ) do not mention civil rights in their challenge against SB 1070.

Washington Post
Profiling's enabler: High court ruling underpins Arizona immigration law
July 13, 2010


By Gabriel J. Chin and Kevin R. Johnson
Gabriel J. Chin is a professor at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law. Kevin R. Johnson is dean and a professor of public interest law and Chicana/o studies at the University of California Davis School of Law.


Profiling's enabler: High court ruling underpins Arizona immigration law


Some excerpts :

Supporters and opponents of S.B. 1070 assume that racial profiling is unconstitutional, largely because many Americans believe that it ought to be. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has approved the racial profiling permitted -- indeed encouraged -- by S.B. 1070.

In a 1975 case regarding the Border Patrol's power to stop vehicles near the U.S.-Mexico border and question the occupants about their citizenship and immigration status, United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, the high court ruled that the "likelihood that any given person of Mexican ancestry is an alien is high enough to make Mexican appearance a relevant factor." In 1982 the Arizona Supreme Court agreed, ruling in State v. Graciano that "enforcement of immigration laws often involves a relevant consideration of ethnic factors."

Arizona's immigration law states that a "law enforcement official or agency . . . may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona constitution." Although supporters of the law, including Gov. Jan Brewer (R) and other state officials, have said repeatedly that racial profiling is prohibited in its enforcement and that those charged with carrying out the law will be trained to avoid it, the fact that the legislature included this careful exception is significant.

Lawmakers took care to embrace the reliance on race permitted by cases such as Brignoni-Ponce. This choice deserves acknowledgment and discussion, just like that received by the rest of the law.

Brignoni-Ponce has resulted in immigration enforcement that many contend is race-based and in violation of the U.S. Constitution. In case after case, in states including Florida, Iowa and New York, defendants arguing that Border Patrol stops constituted unlawful searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment have encountered claims by the U.S. government -- including the current administration -- that "Mexican" or "Hispanic" appearance, along with other factors, justified an immigration stop. Border enforcement officers regularly admit in court that "Hispanic appearance" is one reason for an immigration stop.

Racial profiling results from the perceived statistical association of particular races or nationalities with undocumented immigration -- the idea, in other words, that many undocumented immigrants are from Mexico. This rationale ignores the fact that the law generally requires individual suspicion to justify criminal investigation; that a "Mexican appearance" is a vague and ambiguous description and that people from Mexico bear an array of appearances.

We suspect that Brignoni-Ponce and its incorporation into S.B. 1070 have escaped the notice of many Americans because of the ways in which racial sensibilities have evolved since the 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Modern American values and most of modern constitutional law are simply inconsistent with the equation of race and suspicion authorized and encouraged by Brignoni-Ponce. Today, being subject to questioning by law enforcement for no other reason than that others of your race, religion or national origin are supposed to commit more of a particular type of crime is nothing short of un-American.

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Washington Post : Eugener Robinson : A Big Bold Obama Jobs Program ?? : Republican leaders in the House of Representatives would immediately declare any such ambitious program dead on arrival. The president should welcome their opposition -- and campaign vigorously against it

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Washington Post -
On Jobs, Time to Be Bold -
By Eugene Robinson -
August 30, 2011


On Jobs, Time to Be Bold


Some excerpts :

WASHINGTON -- President Obama's promised jobs plan needs to be unrealistic and unreasonable, at the very least. If he can crank it all the way up to unimaginable, that would be even better.

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And why does the furrowed-brow crowd insist on limiting the sample to presidents of the post-World War II era? Perhaps because Franklin Delano Roosevelt totally messes up the story line. FDR was re-elected in 1936 when unemployment was roughly 17 percent. Voters understood they were living through a global economic crisis that wouldn't be solved overnight.

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Obama can probably win this way, but he wouldn't enter his second term with much of a mandate. That's why the FDR example is relevant: Roosevelt won re-election in the midst of the Great Depression not by convincing voters that his opponents would make the economic situation worse but by demonstrating his utter determination to return the nation to prosperity, no matter what obstacles he had to overcome.

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Such ambitious proposals would demonstrate that the president is willing to think big -- that he is not willing to accept the Republican narrative of massive retrenchment and, by implication, inevitable decline.

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We know Obama can be rational, realistic and eminently reasonable. Right now, he needs to be anything but.

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Gamblers, Bettors, Bookies : Barack Obama to be re-elected President in 2012 : bet $51.1 to win $100 - Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012 : Rick Perry : $36.9, Mitt Romney : $29.7, Marco Rubio to be Republican VP nominee in 2012 : $30.0

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This is data from INTRADE.COM ( the most important betting house ). Obama is bouncing up from a low.  Michele Bachmann is ignored by bettors and gamblers.
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I love predictions by people that are risking their money. - They usually are more accurate than polls. Because Gamblers, Bettors and Bookies know more about horses or football teams than the man in the street.

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"If the government raises taxes to hire the unemployed, then the unemployed who now get jobs will likely quickly spend all the money they earn on new consumption, since they have been strapped and now have jobs. The currently employed, who will see their taxes go up, will likely not cut their expenditures as much because they are habituated to their current level of consumption"

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The New Republic -
Yes, We Can Do Stimulus Without Adding Debt. Here’s How
August 29, 2011

By Robert Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University, co-author, with George Akerlof, of "Animal Spirits".


Yes, We Can Do Stimulus Without Adding Debt. Here’s How


Some excerpts :

And it is unlikely that a balanced budget stimulus would “crowd out” private expenditures on goods and services by pushing up interest rates. The Fed has already committed itself to keeping interest rates at zero until 2013.

The big problem with balanced budget stimulus is political, namely that there is a huge opposition to tax increases right now, primarily among Republicans. But their resistance might be softened if they were made aware that a balanced-budget stimulus would not lower average after-tax income: Every dollar of increased taxes could go toward giving someone extra income. (Though it's true that the people who would see their taxes increased the most are not likely to be the same people who would see their income increased.) Moreover, any public concerns about the high national debt should easily be allayed by the balanced budget stimulus, as it would probably lower the debt to GDP ratio by raising the denominator (GDP) without increasing the numerator (debt).

The balanced budget stimulus could also be designed in such a way as to avoid substantially increasing the size of the government. People often seem to think that government expenditures on stimulus means hiring people to sit at a desk at a government agency, or to clean up trash in the local national park. But that is not at all the way it has to be.

In enacting the stimulus, we could take as our model the National Science Foundation, through which the federal government sponsors scientific research. The government does not hire scientists directly through the NSF. Instead, it makes grants to individual scientists in universities and research facilities. The choice of who gets what grants are largely made by panels of non-government scientists who are called in to help the NSF evaluate the grant proposals. Those procedures could easily be extended beyond scientific research to other industrial areas.

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The essential idea, again, would be to raise taxes and raise expenditures, simply for the duration necessary to push us out of our current bad equilibrium. For plenty of policymakers, the phrase “tax-and-spend” has become a four-letter word, but it might just offer the optimal solution to our present crisis.

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VIDEO, Phoenix New Times, Sorry, John McCain, Wallow Fire Suspects U.S. Citizens Confirmed - Watch VIDEO John McCain saying "there is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally"

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John McCain blamed the biggest forest fire in Arizona History on illegal immigrants - he then offered absolutely no evidence to backup his claim that brown people were guilty. The suspects in custody are as American as Apple Pie.

This is a Historic Blunder of John McCain !!

Phoenix New Times
Down on Brown
Sorry, John McCain, Wallow Fire Suspects U.S. Citizens. Confirmed
By James King Thu
Aug. 25, 2011


Sorry, John McCain, Wallow Fire Suspects U.S. Citizens. Confirmed


Some excerpts :

Remember earlier this year when Arizona Senator John McCain said "there is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally.

"They have set fires because they signal others, they have set fires to keep warm, and they have set fires in order to divert law enforcement agents and agencies from them," McCain said. "The answer to that part of the problem is to get a secure border."

That's right, seemingly referring to the Wallow fire John McCain blamed a forest fire on illegal immigrants -- and he's not even running for office.

Following McCain's comment, remember when he then offered absolutely no evidence to backup his claim that illegal immigrants were to blame for the largest wildfire in Arizona history?

That happened, and there's a reason: illegal immigrants didn't start the fire -- a couple of white guys named Caleb and David Malboeuf, cousins, are suspected of starting the blaze.

The Department of Justice confirms to New Times that both Malboeufs are U.S. citizens -- they live in the Flagstaff area.

Just for kicks, below you can watch McCain put on his serious face and blame illegal immigrants for a forest fire:

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Mortgages : Ease refinancing rules for underwater borrowers . Help bankrupt and delinquent borrowers rework their mortgages through principal reductions. Improve the nation’s infrastructure of highways, bridges, etc .... Repair and renovate schools, rehire teachers, police officers and firefighters who have lost their jobs in budget cutbacks

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Chairman of the FED Ben Bernanke, Job Creation and solving the Problems of the American Economy. -

New York Times -
Editorial -
Mr. Bernanke’s Warning -
August 26, 2011 -

Mr. Bernanke’s Warning

Some excerpts :

The problem is that the Fed’s options, basically easing credit by various means, cannot by themselves turn things around. Lower interest rates can help homeowners with equity to refinance, or small businesses with strong sales to borrow cheaply. But they do nothing for underwater homeowners or businesses where sales are poor because of paltry consumer demand.

The real value in Mr. Bernanke’s speech is that he explained what really ails the economy — and made the case for a better fiscal response to address those ills. “Good, proactive housing policies” would speed recovery, he said, as would “putting people back to work.”

If Mr. Bernanke advocated specific policies to achieve those aims, he would be violating the etiquette that requires Fed chairmen to leave fiscal details to Congress.

So allow us. The best, proactive way to revive the housing market is to help bankrupt and delinquent borrowers rework their mortgages through principal reductions. It is also important to ease refinancing rules so underwater borrowers who are current in their payments can trade in their high-rate mortgages for lower-rate loans. The Obama administration is considering new refinancing rules, but mortgage investors are sure to resist.

One of the best ways to put people back to work is to fully reauthorize the highway trust fund, a big job creator and vital source of money for improving the nation’s infrastructure. Job creation also requires that federal funds are made available to repair and renovate schools, and to rehire teachers, police officers and firefighters who have lost their jobs in budget cutbacks.

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VIDEO, Cenk Uygur : You can laugh here : Racist Nivea Cream Ad ?? - Good faith mistake of Nivea : A guy that looks like President Obama decapitates another guy that looks like Liberal Professor Cornel West

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Should Black Beauty Rihanna ( model for Nivea ) quarrel with this corporation ??

Hundreds of Photos of Sexy Celebrity Rihanna :

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&cp=3&gs_id=q&xhr=t&q=rihanna&qe=cmlo&qesig=AeWoQzQo7Oh9JsSOcc8kPg&pkc=AFgZ2tkyHC2jKW9I8zy1irRaLA9qxwzOjIbvR2mODO2qzIDShpr73d7FLkihNhtuZUMf3WQGYeLlfxp9ZLVmxYdj0eWHyInxQw&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=800&bih=461&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

I am a fan of these two guys and like them a lot. I am their follower. So I cared !!

Professor Cornel West has an Afro Look !

Professor Cornel West (born 1953) is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America. West is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University, where he teaches in the Center for African American Studies and in the Department of Religion. West is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism and his contribution to the post-1960s civil rights movement. The bulk of his work focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their "radical conditionedness."

Uploaded by TheYoungTurks on Aug 19, 2011

Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss a controversial ad campaign by Nivea. Is the ad campaign racist? Should Rihanna's (spokeswoman) break her contract with Nivea?

The Young Turks is The Largest Online News Show in the World.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKFQavQtUw8

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DeeDee Garcia Blase : Founder, National Tequila Party Movement : Republicans are the anti-Latino Party - Disenchantment with the Republican "Latino" Governors of Nevada and New Mexico - Why Latinos won't vote Republican

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Former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman and other Republicans have naive dreams of capturing Latino Voters for the GOP :

"Vote for me and I will deport your grandmother".

Huffington Post -
No New Latino GOP Votes Until Immigration Reform -
By DeeDee Garcia Blase -
Founder, National Tequila Party Movement -
August 23, 2011

No New Latino GOP Votes Until Immigration Reform


Some excerpts :

The Republican Party can no longer claim to be pro-family, when over one million families have been forced apart or detained through their "attrition through enforcement" policies. It can no longer pride itself on pro-life views, since they attacked American-born baby rights via the 14th Amendment. It can no longer pride itself on jobs and the economy, because they are hurting the economy through their protectionism. Daniel Griswold from the CATO Institute told me that one low-skilled undocumented farm worker produces 3.1 middle income jobs to native born Americans via packaging, transportation and marketing. Since the passage of Georgia's harsh anti-immigrant law, Georgia farmers have become desperate in their need to replace 11,000 farm workers who fled in mass exodus.

What was Coleman thinking and why would his advisors believe it would be a good strategy to use Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to reach out to Latinos, when Sandoval supported Arizona's SB 1070? Latinos in New Mexico are becoming increasingly upset with Governor Susana Martinez' initiative to take driver's licenses away from the undocumented, so why is the GOP using her for Latino outreach? Latino grassroots leaders in Nevada and New Mexico tell me that Hispanics voted for Sandoval and Martinez because the Hispanic surname was misleading to many who believed they would take immigrant-friendly positions in the Southwest. Latino voters will not make that mistake again in 2012 as an immigration scorecard is being developed and will be released to multiple Latino media outlets.

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So what will it take for the GOP to save itself from losing an entire generation of Latino voters? Toning down the rhetoric alone will not do it anymore - not in this Information Age. The only way the GOP can make up for past DREAM Act sins and reverse a complete political shift in the Southwest is for Senate Republicans to display leadership for comprehensive legal immigration, since most State legislators believe the federal government is not carrying out its federal responsibility to fix the broken immigration system. I hear New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is seeking GOP sponsors and is open to ideas that will fix the problem.

Conservative pundits were quick with their efforts to create self-fulfilling prophecies by giving the false perception that Latinos are not going to vote in large numbers during the 2012 Presidential elections. This only shows how out of touch they are with the Latino community, and their falsehoods created the spark necessary for the National Tequila Party Movement. The Tequila Party quickly received strong support from Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who viewed the anti-immigrant Tea Party as kryptonite. The Tequila Party soon became a strong movement comprised of Democrats, Independents and Republicans who unified ourselves in supporting a strong Latino GOTV, organizing rallies as we push for legal immigration reform. We became the Latino counter-movement, as the Tea Party was making clear to all Americans their refusal to work in a bipartisan fashion, which was evident in the debt crisis discussions no matter the global financial cost.

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PROSPECT.ORG : Robert Kuttner : Bad Economic News : Will It Discredit Austerity Economics ? - The Congressional Budget Office is out with a report that should give pause to sponsors of austerity economics and opponents of repealing the Bush tax cuts

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Both projected unemployment and economic growth rates will be worse than previously forecast. Unemployment will still be well above 8 percent at the time of next year’s election. Growth will be sluggish through 2012.

PROSPECT.ORG
Robert Kuttner
Bad Economic News : Will It Discredit Austerity Economics ?
August 24, 2011


Bad Economic News : Will It Discredit Austerity Economics ?


Some excerpts :

The economic takeaway :

Austerity will feed on itself.

Failure to repeal the Bush tax cuts will only make the fiscal situation worse.

The political takeaway:

Expect lousy economic conditions to continue through the election.

The winning party next year will be the one that successfully pins the bleak economy on the losing party.

Obama has the better hand, but Republicans continue to play a weak hand well.

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Rick Perry : less regulation, less taxation and less litigation. - But there are lots of countries with no regulation, little taxation and no real threat of litigation, usually also where wages are low and much of the wealth resides with a tiny slice of the elite.

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POLITICO.COM -
Rick Perry's economic race to the bottom -
August 25, 2011 -


By JACK MARKELL -
Jack Markell is the governor of Delaware. He served as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association in 2010. -


Rick Perry's economic race to the bottom


Some excerpts :

Perry argues that if the nation adopts his approach to business development — based on less regulation, less taxation and less litigation — the economy “will absolutely take off like a rocket.”

Perry’s priorities are not unimportant. But there are lots of countries with no regulation, little taxation and no real threat of litigation — usually also where wages are low and much of the wealth resides with a tiny slice of the elite.

That’s a lousy model for middle-class Americans.

My experience in business — working for McKinsey, Comcast and Nextel — leads me to favor a different model for our nation: one focused on strengthening the middle class.

Reasonable taxes and appropriate regulations are important — but what drives wages is innovation. And innovators care far more about access to skilled and inspired talent than just about anything else. They’ll pay to get them.

The model favored by Perry is fueled by low-wage jobs, which creates a race to the bottom. The middle-class model involves competing with other countries in a race to the top — to attract research and development operations, high-end manufacturing, design shops and the like.

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Human Events : All three republican candidates win Florida against Obama. Romney wins by 10%, Perry by 7%, and Bachmann by 1%. Only Romney wins every category of voter, while Bachmann is the only one who loses independents

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Interestingly, all three Republican candidates wallop Obama among Hispanic voters, with Romney winning them by a remarkable 62-23.

This is a Conservative Website.

This poll was made by Magellan Data and Mapping Strategies in Florida, generally, crucial swing state, Florida has 29 electoral votes.

Human Events
Little Sunshine For Obama In Florida
August 24, 2011



Little Sunshine For Obama In Florida


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Thomas Friedman : "Mr. President, rent the movie “Tin Cup.” There is a great scene where Dr. Molly Griswold is trying to help Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy, the golf pro, rediscover his swing — and himself. She finally tells him: “Roy ... don’t try to be cool or smooth or whatever; just be honest and take a risk."

"And you know what, whatever happens, if you act from the heart, you can’t make a mistake.” :

Obama should take lessons from the Psychologist that helps profesional golfers. Sometimes Tiger Woods loses his swing or is distracted by Pretty Ladies. In the case of Obama he listens to the Siren Songs of idiotic Tea Partiers in the U. S. House of Representatives.

The New York Times
Obama, Tiger, Golf and Politics
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: August 23, 2011


Obama, Tiger, Golf and Politics


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The New Republic : Obama can right the economy by fighting - Obama should avoid talking about debt and instead build the case for government’s integral role in the economy right now - Needed : an Aggressive President focused on Jobs

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A President fired up with enthusiasm for solving the problems of joblessness is what America needs. - Not a sissy caving in to foolish Tea Partiers in the U. S. House of Representatives. - America needs a tough guy like Harry Truman or Franklin Roosevelt and not a compromiser in chief listening to stupid Republicans in the U. S. Congress.

The New Republic
Obama’s Got Plenty of Options to Right the Economy—He’s Just Got to Fight for Them
August 24, 2011

By Jared Bernstein

Jared Bernstein is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the former chief economist to Vice-President Biden. He hosts jaredbernsteinblog.com.

Obama’s Got Plenty of Options to Right the Economy—He’s Just Got to Fight for Them


Some excerpts :

Fortunately, there’s lots of evidence that the government can and does create jobs, and not just government jobs. The recent two-week shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration provides one great and timely example. The shutdown led to furloughs for 4,000 federal workers, sure, but another 70,000 private transportation and construction workers were also laid off of projects they were completing for the agency.

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Instead, Obama should develop a tightly focused, resonant jobs agenda which he presents to America as the way forward, from now through the election and beyond. He should tell the people that he’s put the debt ceiling, the budget deficit, baselines, and credit ratings behind him. He knows what families care about right now: their jobs, their paychecks, their living standards.

He’s already been making this case regarding the extension of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits. Those are already in the system, but they expire at the end of this year, and to let them do so would create a dangerous air pocket that we must avoid at all costs (I calculate that, together, these measures could shave 0.6 off of the 2012 unemployment rate—i.e., that rate would be 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 without them; 8.3 percent with them).

Then, he should roll out a campaign for a national infrastructure program to repair, retrofit, and modernize the nation’s public schools called FAST!—Fix America’s Schools Today. It’s got important advantages over the president’s infrastructure bank idea; it’s highly visible, can be stood up faster, and it’s more labor intensive, too. Finally, he should tout clean energy investments, as he did recently in Michigan, stressing the opportunities these investments create by replacing contracting industries with new, expanding ones.

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And, as for the rest of his plan, if Obama gets fired up around an agenda anything like the one I’ve outlined, and if he’s very clear about who, precisely, is standing between America and that jobs agenda, I think he’ll not only regain his footing and provide a stark contrast between himself and his opponents, but his fierce advocacy will give the country something to feel good about. And man, we really need that.

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As investors panic, CEOs vote with their wallets for local companies - Corporate executives are quietly scooping up thousands of shares of their own companies at what they see as bargain-basement prices. - Stock purchases by corporate insiders increasing

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Corporate America believes in the Good Future of the American Economy. The Selling Panic is a Mass Psychological Phenomenon with no basis on the Economic Fundamentals.

Washington Post -
As investors panic, CEOs vote with their wallets for local companies -
By Cezary Podkul -
Tuesday, August 23, 2011


As investors panic, CEOs vote with their wallets for local companies

Some excerpts :

As investors dump stocks and mutual funds because of fears of global recession, “It got so ridiculously low that it was an investment opportunity that was hard to pass up,” said Stanley Erck, who runs Novavax, a Rockville-based vaccine maker. Two weeks ago, he helped himself to 50,000 shares of the company after the market hammered the price down 30 percent, to $1.24 per share.

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Adrian Foster, head of financial-market research for Asia at Rabobank Groep NV in Hong Kong, talks about the global economy, financial markets and Federal Reserve monetary policy.

Across the country, thousands of corporate insiders, including dozens in the Washington area, have taken this month’s panic selling as an opportunity to buy nearly $2 billion worth of their shares at the lower prices. Experts say the massive buying volume may be a sign that chief executives don’t think the economy is as bad as investors fear.

“They are really buying the shares of their companies in a big way,” said Nejat Seyhun, a finance professor at the University of Michigan and author of “Investment Intelligence From Insider Trading,” a book that tracks decades of trades by corporate insiders.

During normal times, insiders selling shares tend to outpace buys by a 2-to-1 ratio, Seyhun said. But this month, markets have seen a complete inversion, with nearly two buys for each sell, according to data Seyhun compiled for The Washington Post.

The reversal is a “very bullish” signal for the market, Seyhun said, and could indicate a market bottom. Surges in stock purchases by corporate insiders helped spot market bottoms after the 1987 stock market crash and the financial crisis of 2008, he said.

This predictive power stems from corporate insiders’ ability to often better gauge what’s ahead for their companies than outside investors and analysts. When the price dips below a certain point and they swoop in to buy shares, it can signal the market is too pessimistic on companies’ future profitability.

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VIDEO, Cenk Uygur : Welfare Queen Michele Bachmann Exposed By Tax Returns, Millions of Dollars in Subsidies and Entitlements that she and her husband take from the American Taxpayer through many years. Her Lies and Lies and more Lies

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Michele Bachman sucking taxpayers money :

Cenk Uygur says : "Michele Bachamann is a Welfare Queen of the Highest Order" and "She is a Tax Lawyer" - "These are the fiscal conservatives"




Uploaded by TheYoungTurks on Aug 17, 2011


Is 2012 Republican presidential candidate, Tea Party darling and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann a welfare queen? The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur on what her tax returns reveal about her love of government subsidies.


The Largest Online News Show in the World.

Welfare Queen Michele Bachmann Exposed By Tax Returns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNe9W-q6E4o

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POLITICO.COM : No flight suit photo-op or “Mission Accomplished” banner for Barack Obama. - No photo of Obama with his foot on the head of Osama Bin Laden's dead corpse - Romney and Perry Trumpet their Bulliness

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Super Macho Cowboys Romney and Perry treat Obama as a Sissy : -

But Wait : A Gallup poll released last week gave Obama a 53 percent approval rating on handling terrorism and only a 40 percent disapproval rating.

Mitt Romney said of Obama on Libya : “He just has been like a deer in the headlights, not understanding what it takes to put people back to work and even foreign policy, he’s gone from guardrail to guardrail in Libya and Syria.”

Rick Perry said about a Perry administration : “If you’re our enemy, we’re not going to just give you some lip service. If you try to hurt the United States, we will come defeat you.”

POLITICO.COM
The reluctant war president
By ALEXANDER BURNS & CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN
August 23, 2011


The reluctant war president


Some excerpts :

“The big picture with President Obama is that he demonstrates that a civilian without military experience can be an exceptional commander-in-chief,” said former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat who served on the 9/11 Commission.

But Kerrey, a Vietnam veteran and Medal of Honor recipient, noted that Obama “doesn’t particularly define himself as a war president because he’s trying to shift attention to issues that are, in the long term, a lot more important.”

Obama’s Monday statement on the collapse of the Qadhafi regime was a case in point. The president applauded the efforts of the Libyan people, but declined to plant the rhetorical equivalent of an American flag on Tripoli and repeatedly emphasized that the situation there remained “fluid.”

Addressing reporters on Martha’s Vineyard, White House spokesman Josh Earnest refused even to say if the president’s approach to Libya had been vindicated, insisting that he wasn’t going to “play political pundit and sort of assess the winners and losers here.”

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

The closest thing to a White House victory lap came from National Security Council official Ben Rhodes, who told POLITICO that the latest turn of events in North Africa “reinforces that the approach we took on Libya was the right one.”

The situation in Libya was often described as a stalemate, but Rhodes said the U.S.-NATO mission effectively made “time work against Qadhafi,” with the deadlocked struggle gradually shifting in the direction of the Libyan rebellion.

“We have a strong record across the board, whether it is taking the fight to Al Qaeda, taking on Osama bin Laden, winding down the war in Iraq, turning the corner in Afghanistan and helping lead an international effort to prevent a massacre in Libya, and to support the Libyan people as they brought an end to the Qadhafi regime,” Rhodes said.

He continued: “This is one more piece of a record that he has been building on national security, that makes a very strong case about his ability to keep the American people safe and advance our interests around the world.”

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

Former California Rep. Jane Harman, a Democrat whose support for the Iraq war earned her the enmity of the left, said Obama “has actually, in many ways, been tougher on counterterrorism than President Bush was, and I don’t think that’s widely understood.”

.........

Rick Perry is the bright-red tea-vangelical candidate with governing credibility, with a record, and political skills to stand a realistic chance of claiming the party’s nomination. Neither Michele Bachmann nor Sarah Palin are remotely qualified for that slot. Rick Perry manifestly does

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New York Magazine -
Perry’s GOP Shock Treatment -
Five ways the Texas governor’s entrance is jolting the Republican race. -
By John Heilemann -
August 21, 2011 -


Perry’s GOP Shock Treatment


Some excerpts :

It’s no secret that the White House would prefer to run next fall against the likes of Perry (or, perish the thought, Bachmann) than Romney, the easier to paint Obama’s opponent as unacceptably outré and even scary. Less appreciated is how significant a player Obama’s reelection team—along with its allied outside groups—may be in the Republican primaries. By spending millions of dollars on anti-Romney ads and pointing out the similarities of his Massachusetts health-care plan to Obamacare at every opportunity, they may be able to function effectively as a pro-Perry “super pac”—and one with greater resources and media reach than anything Perry and his allies can muster. The irony here would be rich, for sure, and the effect bordering on perverse. But don’t kid yourself: The possibility of things playing out just this way is one of many nightmares that keep Romney’s advisers awake at night.

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

For the past two and a half years, among the central questions in our politics have been these: What exactly constitutes the contemporary GOP? Is it now fully in the thrall of its populist, insurgent forces? Or does some semblance of your father’s Republican Party remain? And if so, how much?

A presidential campaign should be, among other things, a place where such essential questions are hashed out and the answers revealed for all to see. What was needed, then, was a clear contest between the Establishment and tea-vangelical wings of the party. What was lacking, though, was a credible standard-bearer for the latter: a bright-red tea-vangelical candidate with governing credibility, with a record, with the political skills to stand a realistic chance of claiming the party’s nomination. Neither Michele Bachmann nor Sarah Palin, whatever their strengths and the extent of their appeal, remotely qualified for that slot. Rick Perry manifestly does. What he brings to the race is a welcome clarity, and the prospect of a kind of challenge to Romney that has been lacking until now. How Romney handles that challenge will tell us all we need to know about him. And how the Republican electorate ultimately judges them will tell us everything we need to know about the party.

.........

The New Yorker : Abolishing Obamacare : By Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s reading, Social Security and the National Labor Relations Act, to say nothing of Medicare and Medicaid, might all be unconstitutional

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The Personal War of two "Black" Men ! : Obama and Thomas ! 

The Justice's wife Virginia Thomas is a prominent Tea Partier earning lots of money for her Super Conservative Views that she shares with her husband. He does not hide being a super enemy of everything that Obama proposes.


The New Yorker -
Will Clarence and Virginia Thomas succeed in killing Obama’s health-care plan? -
by Jeffrey Toobin -
August 29, 2011 -


Will Clarence and Virginia Thomas succeed in killing Obama’s health-care plan?


Some excerpts of a very long article ( 10 pages ) :

In “Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America,” the Times reporter Kate Zernike wrote, “In the originalist view, and the Tea Party view, the perversion of the Constitution took off during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” On this issue, as ever, Thomas led where the conservative movement soon followed.

Early in the New Deal, the Supreme Court struck down several of President Roosevelt’s signature initiatives as violating the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. If the law did not directly affect commerce “among the several states,” in the words of Article I, the Nine Old Men on the Court said that Congress had no right to pass it. F.D.R. responded to these setbacks with his infamous court-packing plan, but a change of heart by Justice Owen J. Roberts in 1937, followed by Roosevelt’s own appointments to the Court, transformed the understanding of that provision. In a series of cases, the Justices gave Congress essentially unlimited power to regulate the national economy. In Wickard v. Filburn, from 1942, the Court said that the federal government could regulate the amount of wheat grown on a farm, even if none of the wheat was sold across state lines, or even if no wheat was sold at all. Because the production of wheat, taken in aggregate, did affect interstate commerce, the regulation was permissible. With that, the issue of the Commerce Clause more or less vanished from the Supreme Court’s docket for decades—until Thomas and the Tea Party brought it back to life.

In 1995, the Supreme Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, did finally strike down another law as violating the Commerce Clause. In United States v. Lopez, the Court rejected a federal law that made it a crime to possess a gun near a school. Rehnquist’s opinion said, in essence, that possession of a gun in or near a school was so completely remote from the national economy that Congress had no right to prohibit it.

Thomas agreed—and then some. In a concurring opinion, he said, “I write separately to observe that our case law has drifted far from the original understanding of the Commerce Clause. In a future case, we ought to temper our Commerce Clause jurisprudence.” Even Rehnquist had acknowledged the long line of cases that said the Commerce Clause was satisfied if the activity in question “substantially affects” interstate commerce. In a characteristically lengthy and detailed opinion, Thomas said that the early New Deal Court—the Nine Old Men—was right, and all the Justices over the following six decades were wrong. Thomas wrote, “From the time of the ratification of the Constitution to the mid 1930’s, it was widely understood that the Constitution granted Congress only limited powers, notwithstanding the Commerce Clause.” By Thomas’s reading, Social Security and the National Labor Relations Act, to say nothing of Medicare and Medicaid, might all be unconstitutional. “Justices can be influential by indicating to lawyers the boundaries of what’s possible,” Eugene Volokh, a professor at U.C.L.A. School of Law and a widely read blogger, said. “There is conventional wisdom about what’s possible, like ‘Whatever you think about the Commerce Clause, no one is going to go back to the pre-1937 approach,’ or ‘The Second Amendment is a closed issue.’ Thomas has shown that sometimes the conventional wisdom is wrong.”

Supreme Court Justices, especially those who are appointed young, like Thomas, can afford to take the long view. On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. That same day, Kenneth Cuccinelli, the Attorney General of Virginia, filed one of the first of several legal challenges to the law. Earlier this year, sixteen years after Lopez, Judge Roger Vinson, of the Federal District Court in Pensacola, struck down the law in its entirety—and he relied several times on Thomas to do so. (The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Vinson, in part.) Quoting Thomas’s concurring opinion in Lopez, Vinson said that the Obama Administration’s position would allow the federal government to “penetrate the recesses of domestic life, and control, in all respects, the private conduct of individuals.” These words, of course, would fit just as well in a speech by Ginni Thomas as in an opinion by her husband.

Four more circuit courts of appeals are slated to weigh in on the constitutionality of the health-care law. In due course, the Justices will have their turn. I asked Cuccinelli what role Thomas might play in the resolution of the health-care case. “I don’t like to make predictions,” he told me. “But I know I’ve got his vote.” ?

......

The Sun will shine again for the American Economy. I think that President Obama is going to be very decisive during his second term. The alternative : a Republican President, is very horrible and catastrophic for the World at large.

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Because a World Depression is a Big Scourge ! :

Can you imagine any of these three guys as President : Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney or Rick Perry.


That would be an America with a vocation for suicide : Endless wars and Jingoism, Religious Bigotry with Anti-Evolution.


The end of Women's rights, control of Women's Reproduction and Bodies.


Wholesale Racism and Ethnocentrism.


President Obama is very intelligent, he may be the "Compromiser in Chief" and he may have caved in to Republican Irrationality and Bigotry. But Intelligence always finds a way and learns from experience.


Do not forget that President Obama is a Constitutional Scholar.


Another great feature of Obama, besides Intelligence is Resilience. That is extremely important in Politics.


To be a Black Person in a White Milieu is an experience that teaches a lot of self-control to a Human Being.



Not to mention that Obama has Good Humor and is a superb Campaigner and Orator.


We have not seen all the bag of tricks of "Felix the Cat", Obama is compared to Felix because he is always lucky.


"Give me lucky generals", said Napoleon Bonaparte.
......

POLITICO.COM : Texas pol emerges as Perry critic : "That Rick Perry has presided over a jobs boom in Texas is a claim the Democrat ripped as a "Texas tall tale". Democrat Lloyd Doggett (born 1946) is the U.S. Representative for Texas's 25th congressional district, serving since 2005

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Lloyd Doggett previously represented Texas's 10th congressional district from 1995 to 2005. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district covers the state capital, Austin.

POLITICO.COM
Texas pol emerges as Perry critic
By ALEX ISENSTADT
August 20, 2011

Texas pol emerges as Perry critic

Some excerpts :

He’s taken to MSNBC to hammer the governor over his handling of public schools in Texas. He’s spoken at an anti-Perry rally on the steps of the state capitol, tweaking the governor for carrying a concealed firearm and vowing to “sound the alarm” about Perry across the country. On his Facebook page, he’s poked Perry for his “boot-in-mouth syndrome.”

Doggett’s latest attack came Friday afternoon, when he hosted a conference call with reporters in which he railed against Perry’s assertion that he’s presided over a jobs boom in the state – a claim the Democrat ripped as a “Texas tall tale.”

It’s a surprisingly vigorous effort for the nine-term Democratic congressman, but it reflects the urgency with which he is trying to rescue his imperiled political career. Doggett, who’s facing an uphill post-redistricting primary battle, is racing to appeal to Democratic voters — and the longtime governor makes a convenient foe: He’s a confrontational conservative who Texas liberals love to hate.

..........

“He’s got someone good to flog – Perry is wide open among liberal Democrats. You can’t lose talking about Rick Perry.”

Doggett’s path to a tenth term is precarious. He’s running against state Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose name is political gold in South Texas Democratic politics. Castro’s brother, Julio Castro, is San Antonio’s mayor and his mother, Rosie Castro, is a prominent grassroots activist in the state. Making matters more difficult for the congressman: He’ll have to run outside his Austin political base, where the former state senator and state Supreme Court justice has been in elected office for nearly four decades.

Matt Angle, a Democratic consultant who has been involved in Texas politics for years, pointed out that in saturating the national and local airwaves with an anti-Perry message, Doggett can reach Democratic voters well beyond Austin and into the new district he is running in — an area where the Castro name is better known.

...........

To some extent, Doggett’s anti-Perry campaign goes far beyond his efforts to reclaim his seat — it reflects lingering tensions following a brawl over public school funding.

...........

“Doggett and Perry have a long-standing feud over how federal funds are spent in Texas,” said ex-Texas Democratic Rep. Martin Frost, Doggett’s former colleague. “There’s no love lost.”

...........

BLOOMBERG.COM : Obama Must Get Bold - Obama's ‘Jobs First’ Agenda will specify savings beyond the $1.5 trillion and use those extra billions for job creation. He won’t label it stimulus, of course. Stimulus has been stigmatized

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Obama will call it a "Jobs First" agenda, or something else that shows he’s in touch with the average household. - Obama's next Truman-Style Campaign.

BLOOMBERG.COM
Obama Must Get Bold, Tell Republicans ‘It’s On’
Aug 18, 2011

By Jonathan Alter

Jonathan Alter was a senior editor, media critic and columnist for Newsweek, where he worked for 28 years and covered five administrations and seven presidential campaigns. Jonathan Alter is also a Bloomberg View columnist, is the author of “The Promise: President Obama, Year One.”

Obama Must Get Bold, Tell Republicans ‘It’s On’: Jonathan Alter


Some excerpts :

At least the president is on task. After headlines about a pivot to jobs in December 2009, September 2010, January 2011, May 2011 and July 2011, he’s finally shifting the conversation to what Americans truly care about.

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

This week’s bus tour across three Midwestern states seemed to refresh the president and improve his presentation. He began talking about “rebuilding America” instead of his old professorial references to an “infrastructure bank,” which is a good idea but tone deaf politically considering that many voters don’t really know what infrastructure means and despise banks.

Truman-Style Campaign

More important, Obama began sticking it to Congress, laying the groundwork for a 1948 Harry Truman-style campaign. Rebooting his presidency will require a bold plan that says to an obstructionist opposition: “It’s on, guys!”

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

The specifics of Obama’s speech are secret, and many haven’t been worked out. But I hear that it will contain more than simple pleas to Congress to pass the economic agenda the president began offering this summer, which includes extending the payroll-tax holiday, approving public-works spending, enacting a patent bill, ratifying trade deals and extending unemployment insurance.

Don’t be surprised to see him also propose a major tax credit for hiring new workers, construction money for schools, an ambitious youth employment program (if he doesn’t hold a high percentage of the youth vote, he loses the election) and a few of the other job-creation ideas he’s been demanding his Cabinet and staff cook up. Some of these ideas can be implemented without Congress, like providing debt relief for strapped homeowners.

I’m hoping he’ll also explore creative ideas like one offered by Cliff Sloan, a veteran of the Clinton White House. Under Sloan’s plan, the president would sign an executive order requiring that all new (or renewed) contracts with the federal government contain a job-creation clause requiring that in exchange for the privilege of doing business with Uncle Sam, corporations (which have plenty of cash on hand) must agree to a net increase in payroll of at least one percent for the duration of the contract. With thousands of new contracts signed every week, this would have an immediate effect even if compliance was spotty.

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Democatic Representative Peter DeFazio ( Oregon ) : Obama could lose, says there’s no “fight” in President Barack Obama, he isn’t sure the president can win a second term or even carry his very blue state.

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POLITICO.COM -
Dem Rep. Peter DeFazio: Obama could lose -
By JENNIFER EPSTEIN -
August 19, 2011 -


Dem Rep. Peter DeFazio: Obama could lose


Some excerpts :

Rep. Peter DeFazio says he’s unhappy with the president’s “flip flops” in negotiations with Republicans and thinks a moderate GOP candidate could beat Obama next year.

“At this point, it pretty much depends on how far out there the Republican nominee is. You know, with a respectable someone who is a little bit toward the middle of the road Republican nominee, he’s going to have a very tough time getting reelected,” DeFazio told Portland TV station KGW.

And, DeFazio said, he’s not sure Obama will do well in Oregon in 2012, even though he won nearly 57 percent of the vote there three years ago.

“I believe Oregon is very much in play,” he said. “I mean, we are one of the harder hit states in the union, particularly my part of the state … [P]eople are shaking their head and saying ‘I don’t know if I’d vote for him again.”

...........

“Fight? I don’t think it’s a word in his vocabulary,” he said. “I mean, come on — he pledged as a candidate to make the Bush tax cuts for people making over $250,000. He repeatedly said that as president.”

“Then the Republicans telegraphed to him they were going to use a fake crisis over the debt limit in order to muscle some major spending reductions or other things on to him,” he said. “And what happens? Suddenly he flip flops and concedes everything to the Republicans.”

DeFazio, who endorsed Obama over Hillary Clinton late in the 2008 Democratic primary process, has been critical of Obama’s negotiation skills and the administration more broadly. On the House floor last month, DeFazio said the president was “preparing yet another great cave” on a debt ceiling deal.

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Thom Hartman's Forum : 100 True little phrases that tell Great Truths and that drive Republicans mad to the point of a Heart Attack or an Aneurism in the Brain - Caution : Dangerous for your Health if you are Republican

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Thom Hartman Site -
America's #1 Progressive Host and NY Times Bestselling Author -

Thom Hartmann (born 1951) is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and progressive political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week. In 2008, 2009, and 2010, Talkers Magazine named Hartmann the tenth most important talk show host in America, and number 8 in 2011 defining him as the most important liberal host for four years in a row (the ones above Hartmann are conservatives).

100 Things You Can Say To Irritate A Republican

Conservatives are so easy to anger these days. Even the most insignificant statement can set off their tempers. If you want to enrage a conservative, I suggest saying the following:

1. A Socialist wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.

2. Jesus healed the sick and helped the poor, for free.

3. Joseph McCarthy was an un-American, witch hunting sissy.

4. Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were traitors.

5. The South lost the Civil War, get over it.

6. The Founding Fathers were liberals.

7. Fascism is a right-wing trait.

8. Sarah Palin is an ugly cow (said to conservative males).

9. The Earth is round.

10. Reagan raised taxes eleven times as President.

11. Reagan legalized abortion as Governor of California.

12. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency.

13. Ronald Reagan supported gun control.

14. Global warming is real.

15. Republicans hate illegal immigrants, unless they need their lawns mowed or their houses cleaned.

16. The military is a government-run institution, so why do Republicans approve the defense budget?

17. The Cold War is over and the Soviet Union no longer exists.

18. Paying taxes is patriotic.

19. Republicans: Peddling the same failed economic policies since 1880.

20. The Republican Party began as a liberal party.

21. The Presidents’ full name is Barack Hussein Obama and he was born in the United States of America.

22. George W. Bush held hands with the King of Saudi Arabia.

23. President Obama saved the American auto industry, while Republicans wanted to destroy it.

24. Hate is not a Christian virtue.

25. Jesus was a liberal.

26. Republicans spend MORE money than Democrats.

27. Tea parties are for little girls.

28. Public schools educate all children; private schools are for indoctrinating children.

29. The Constitution is the law, NOT the Bible.

30. Sharia law doesn’t exist in America.

31. The President is NOT a Muslim.

32. Corporations are NOT people. People are people.

33. Fox News isn’t real news, it’s just a racist, sexist, hateful, right-wing propaganda machine.

34. The Federal Reserve was a Republican idea.

35. Women are equal citizens who deserve equal rights.

36. Women control their own bodies.

37. Abortion is a relevant medical procedure, just ask Rick Santorum.

38. Please use spell check.

39. It’s “pundit”, not “pundint”.

40. Social Security is solvent through 2038.

41. Health care is a right, not a product.

42. Roe v. Wade was a bipartisan ruling made by a conservative leaning Supreme Court.

43. G.O.P also stands for Gross Old Perverts.

44. The donkey shouldn’t be the Democratic mascot because Republicans are the real jackasses.

45. Barack Obama ordered the killing of Osama Bin Laden. It took him two and half years to do what Bush couldn’t do in eight.

46. Waterboarding IS torture.

47. 9/11 happened on George W. Bush’s watch, therefore he did NOT keep America safe.

48. Republicans invaded Iraq for oil, so Iraq should be allowed to invade Texas to get it back.

49. Separation of church and state is in the Constitution, it’s called the First Amendment.

50. Muslims are protected by the Constitution, just as much as Christians.

51. Barack Obama is the first African-American President, get over it.

52. The Oval Office is NOT a “whites only” office.

53. America is a nation of immigrants, therefore we are all anchor babies.

54. The white race isn’t disappearing, it’s evolving.

55. God is a particle.

56. Evolution is real.

57. The Earth is 4.54 billion years old, not 6,000.

58. The Founding Fathers did not free the slaves.

59. The Revolution was NOT fought over slavery.

60. Paul Revere warned the Americans, NOT the British.

61. Federal law trumps state law.

62. The Civil War was about slavery, NOT state’s rights.

63. Corporations care more about profits than they do about people.

64. Getting out of a recession requires government spending.

65. Glenn Beck is a nut-job.

66. Republicans: Paranoid since 1932.

67. Republicans don’t want to pay for your birth control, but they want you to pay for their Viagra.

68. Republicans actually NEED Viagra.

69. Fox News is owned by an Australian and has a Saudi prince as an investor.

70. Republicans complain about immigrants taking American jobs, then freely give American jobs to foreigners overseas.

71. Republicans hate communism, so why do they refer to themselves as red states?

72. Labor unions built this country.

73. Republicans hold America hostage as a political strategy; the temper tantrum throwing kind of political strategy.

75. When Republicans see black, they attack.

76. Inside every Republican is a Klansman or a Nazi waiting to bloom.

77. Republicans only care about children BEFORE they are born.

78. Republicans are hypocrites, they’re just too stupid to know it.

79. The Christian-Right boycotts movies that have violence, and then promotes guns and insurrection.

80. I think therefore I am NOT a Republican.

81. Republicans that oppose gay marriage are most likely in the closet themselves.

82. Churches should stay out of politics, or be taxed.

83. People are too poor to vote Republican.

84. Democrats think for themselves, Republicans form think tanks to do it for them.

85. Republicans hate education because they couldn’t hack it in school.

86. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins and Republicans wallow in it.

87. A little socialism on the Left is better than a little fascism on the Right.

88. The current corporate tax rate is the lowest in 60 years, so stop whining about it being too high.

89. Republicans: Anti-Gay Marriage, Pro-Lesbian sex.

90. Republicans: Terrorizing the America people since 1981.

91. Republicans have their own terrorists, just look up Timothy McVeigh.

92. Republicans love outsourcing, just ask the Chinese Communists.

93. The Republican answer to the oil spill was to apologize to BP, a foreign oil company.

94. Democrats will be working hard to bring jobs to Americans, while the Republicans tea bag each other in the middle of the aisles.

95. Voter disenfranchisement is immoral and un-American, that’s why Republicans do it.

96. Republicans would let your house burn down unless you pay them to put it out.

97. Democrats want to take care of the sick. Republicans take their credit cards and then deny them medical attention.

98. Republicans say teachers are union thugs, then proceed to rape and mug the entire middle class on behalf of corporations.

99. Republicans think rape isn’t a crime, but miscarriages are.

100. Republicans are idiots and arguing with them is a waste of time!

Bottom line? If you want to anger a conservative, tell them the truth.

.......

Serious studies confirm that Tea Partiers are long time Racists and Republican Partisan Bigots : They are older, white conservative Christians - "Compared to other white Republicans, Tea Partiers had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do

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From SALON.COM :

"Past Republican affiliation is the single strongest predictor of Tea Party support today."

"The role of race is nothing new. A New York Times survey as well as a University of Washington study found Tea Party members more likely even than other Republicans to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people, that the Obama administration favors blacks over whites, and to blame black disadvantage on the shortcomings of black people, rather than on the legacy of slavery and discrimination".

Serious Studies confirm that Tea partiers are mainly Old White Racists and Old Republican Bigots.

SALON.COM
Getting to know the Tea Party
It's the GOP's white conservative base in silly costumes. Why couldn't the media figure that out sooner?
By Joan Walsh
Wednesday, Aug 17, 2011


Getting to know the Tea Party


Some excerpts :

Scholar Robert Putnam, best known for his study of American atomization in "Bowling Alone," has produced new data on the Tea Party and it's being billed as a shocker. Sit down before you read this: They are older, white conservative Christians "who were highly partisan Republicans long before the Tea Party was born."

Not surprised? Neither was I, but the research is actually fascinating. Putnam and Notre Dame's David Campbell tracked the role of faith and politics for their last book, "American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us." They went back to look at attitudes toward the Tea Party among 3,000 survey respondents for the paperback edition, and wrote an Op-Ed in Wednesday's New York Times.

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

Is it only about having a black president? Um, that probably doesn't help. But it's worth noting that these are the same people who've been fighting the Democratic Party since the days of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the beginning of the War on Poverty, almost 50 years ago. They associate those long overdue social reforms with giving folks, mainly black people, something they don't deserve. I sometimes think just calling them racist against our black president obscures the depths of their hatred for Democrats, period.

Their far-right religious zealotry is an old story too. We act as though the separation of church and state was a question settled by the Founders, but from the country's earliest days many Americans believed that only white Protestants are qualified for democracy. There's a through-line from the evangelical Protestants who burned down Catholic churches and convents in the 19th century, who believed in a religious test for American citizenship, to Texas Gov. Rick Perry and his evangelical-Christians-only Christapalooza in Houston last weekend. Perry's preacher friends include Catholic bashers who'd make Lyman Beecher proud. We've been fighting this impulse for a long time.

......

Gamblers, Bettors and Bookies : Rick Perry to be Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012 : $35.9 ( to win $100 ), Mitt Romney $30.5, Michele Bachmann $5.8 - Obama reelected $51.8 at Intrade. Perry and Obama are increasing their share values

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Data from INTRADE.COM :

It is surprising that Gamblers do not have faith in Michele Bachmann as Republican Presidential Nominee. And Obama is bouncing like a ball after having reached a low, he is again gaining value. Probably because he is becoming more aggressive and combative in the Midwest Bus Trip : Minnesota and Iowa.

Obama is advised by aides to become tougher with the Republican Congress, in the way of other Democrat Presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman that also suffered great opposition in Congress, and that were great fighters against the "Do Nothing" Congresses.

As Obama becomes tougher and harsher against republican enemies his betting value may increase.

........

Arizona : Russell Pearce Recall Election : Pearce and Henchmen playing the ugliest and dirtiest tricks on Jerry Lewis, the other candidate who is also Republican and Mormon - They are using fake Twitter Accounts - Twitter punished the scoundrels

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Twitter's impersonation policy prohibits accounts where users deceive others with a fake identity. People being impersonated or those with legal authority to act on their behalf can request a permanent suspension.

East Valley Tribune
Will the real Jerry Lewis please tweet up?
By Garin Groff
Monday, August 15, 2011


Will the real Jerry Lewis please tweet up?


Some excerpts :

The recall election targeting state Senate President Russell Pearce requires voters to realize that Jerry Lewis isn't just a screwball comedian.

But after voters learned a different Jerry Lewis is a longtime Mesa Republican running against Pearce, voters then had to figure out which of two Twitter accounts was from the real candidate.

The first account began July 25 and proclaimed Lewis supports gay marriage, abortion, unions and open borders. It also falsely announced late last week that a judge cancelled the Nov. 8 election.

It took until Aug. 10 for another Jerry Lewis account to emerge and claim it was the official Twitter account.

The first "Jerry Lewis" was bogus, and has been deactivated as of Monday after Lewis's campaign notified Twitter. The team took action against a related Facebook site that's also come down, said John Giles, a co-chairman of the campaign.

The fake account featured a real photo of Mesa's Lewis. The tweets portrayed a candidate with polar opposite views of Pearce, a Republican nationally known for his legislation targeting illegal immigration.

The phony account trashed the tea party, praised liberal causes and provided links to free gay porn videos, among other unlikely things a candidate would do while running in the conservative District 18.

.......