IL Congressman Walsh Plays the Race Card

In a recent interview with deadbeat dad aka Congressman Joe Walsh, Media Research Center‘s Brent Bozell asked this question:

“You see this administration playing class warfare and race warfare games,” said Bozell. “Now, that’s their problem. But what does it say about the national media that they are aiding and abetting this by not exposing the dishonesty here?”

Taking Bozell's statement as indisputable fact, Walsh explained that the media will desperately go through great lengths to protect a black, liberal president.

"This guy pushed every one of the media's buttons. He was liberal, he was different, he was new, he was black. Oh my God, it was the potpourri of everything. They are so vested in our first black president not being a failure that it's going to be amazing to watch the lengths they go to protect him. They [the media], I believe, will spout this racist line if some of their colleagues up here aren't doing it aggressively enough. There is going to be a real desperation."

Walsh desperately struggles for his fifteen minutes of fame by disrespecting President Obama and by making insensitive racial remarks about him. Earlier this year, Walsh said President Obama was only elected because be he was an “articulate black man” and “liberal guilt.” It seems that Walsh clearly supports the GOP stated goal of seeing the president fail, even if that means that the American people suffer.

The President clearly articulates that asking the wealthy to pay their fair share is simple math, not class warfare.  What Walsh willfully ignores is that a class war is already being waged -- by the wealthy against the middle class.

Related articles

• WATCH: Joe Walsh Says Media Will Protect Obama Because He Is Black (huffingtonpost.com)
• IL-14: Joe Walsh says media will protect Obama because he's black (dailykos.com)
• Rep. Joe Walsh Wants Ex-Wife Sanctioned In Child Support Case (huffingtonpost.com)

Herman Cain Wins Florida"s P-5 Straw Poll

Aaron Blake, The Fix Blog, reports on Florida's P 5 straw poll:

Former Godfather’s Pizza executive Herman Cain has won the Presidency 5 Straw Poll, scoring a runaway victory in the Florida survey of GOP activists.

Cain took more than 37 percent of the vote in the eight-candidate field, finishing far ahead of second-place Rick Perry (15 percent) and third-place Mitt Romney (14 percent). Former senator Rick Santorum finished fourth at 11 percent and was followed by Rep. Ron Paul at 10 percent, former House speaker Newt Gingrich at 8 percent, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman at 2 percent and Rep. Michele Bachmann at less than 2 percent.

The highly watched P-5 straw poll has picked the winner of the GOP Florida primary in the last three Presidential elections.

Related articles

• 'Cannot Be Ignored': Cain Wins Big in Presidency Poll (abcnews.go.com)
• Herman Cain Destroys Rick Perry In Florida Straw Poll Upset (businessinsider.com)
• Herman Cain blows out Rick Perry in surprise Florida straw poll victory (dailykos.com)

GOP Threatens Federal Reserve

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Republican will do any thing to keep the economy from improving before the 2012 election.  Get Obama out and forget the American people.  Here's their latest move-a threatening letter to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve expressing Republican displeasure with any effort to improve the economy.

Read Ezra Klein's Wonk Book post of 9/21/11 for a detailed explaination:

On Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and their respective number twos sent an extraordinary letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. "It is our understanding that the Board Members of the Federal Reserve will meet later this week to consider additional monetary stimulus proposals," they say. "We write to express our reservations about any such measures."
It is not intrinsically illegitimate for congressional leadership to convey its preferences to the Federal Reserve. The Fed is protected from political interference, not from the opinions of politicians. But it is

GOP Returns the Sick to Charity and the Poorhouse

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I suppose the fact that Paul supporters helped pay some of a $400,000 hospital bill – after the uninsured man in question died, but hey, bad timing – “proves” Paul’s claims that communities will step in with support when government cannot provide it. Needless to say, not everyone in America has the resources of an affiliation with a Presidential candidate who raised a lot of money online. As for the idea that charitable organizations could step in to provide funding for treatment, this hearkens back to a time before a social safety net, which conservatives like to characterize as some kind of Valhalla. In fact, it was brutally awful on those who didn’t win the social Darwinist battle of modern capitalism. Poverty rates among the elderly were astronomical. Death rates were elevated. Your ability to pay had a determinative effect on your life expectancy, to a far greater degree than today. The poorhouse was a terrible place to live out your remaining days. It was a miserable time to be without means in America, a time that caused needless suffering and death so rich people didn’t have to be bothered with paying a dime to avoid such a horror.

"Let Him Die": GOP Debates the Fate of the Uninsured

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A debate question exposes the incoherence—and cowardice—of the Republican candidates' opposition to Obamacare.

Wolf Blitzer put a terrific question to Rep. Ron Paul at last night's CNN/Tea Party Express Republican debate in Tampa, Fla. What should happen, the moderator asked hypothetically, if a healthy 30-year-old man who can afford insurance chooses but foregoes buying it—and then becomes catastrophically ill and needs intensive care for six months? When Dr. Paul ducked, fondly recalling the good old days before Medicare and saying that we should all take responsibility for ourselves, Blitzer pressed the point. "But, Congressman, are you saying the society should just let him die?" At that point, the rabble erupted in cheers and whoops of "Yeah!"

Boehner Says No to Obama's Job Bill Provisions

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John Boehner wants the supercommittee deal to be all spending cuts, report Paul Kane and Rosalind Helderman (from Ezra Klein's Wonkbook):

 "House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday reaffirmed GOP opposition to any tax increases to solve the nation’s deficit problem, signaling a swift return to the trench warfare that characterized the debt and spending debate of early summer. Boehner said that the special committee seeking long-term debt reduction should achieve its mandated $1.5 trillion in savings entirely by cutting federal agency spending and shrinking entitlement programs. 'When it comes to producing savings to reach its $1.5 trillion deficit-reduction target, the joint select committee has only one option: spending cuts and entitlement reform,' Boehner said in a speech to the Economic Club of Washington...Boehner’s speech established that there has been little change in the fundamental positions that gridlocked Washington during the past few months."

Republican want to retain tax cuts for the rich, but refuse to support credits to increase jobs for the middle class.  GOP always call for tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, shrinking Medicare and Social Security, and deregulation. Why can't they pass the American Jobs Bill?  They want President Obama out, even if the country suffers. They have no empathy for the unemployed blue collar worker.  They advocate repealing Obamacare, but offer no alternative.  They manipulate the truth to suit their message.  No wonder Congress has a 13% approval rating.  They don't deserve thst 13%!

Related articles

• John Boehner: 'Hell No, I'm Not Having Any Fun!' (huffingtonpost.com)
• Boehner: Tax increases shouldn't be on table in debt super committee talks (cnn.com)
• Boehner Says No Again (thedailybeast.com)
• Boehner: No tax hikes for super committee (money.cnn.com)

Some Democrats Balking at Obama's Jobs Bill

Senator Mary Landrieu

Republicans have focused their attack on the tax increases that would help pay for the spending components of the bill. But Democrats are divided over their objections, which stem from Mr. Obama’s sinking popularity in polls, parochial concerns and the party’s chronic inability to unite around a legislative initiative, even in the face of Republican opposition.

Some are unhappy about the specific types of companies, particularly the oil industry, that would lose tax benefits. “I have said for months that I am not supporting a repeal of tax cuts for the oil industry unless there are other industries that contribute,” said Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana.

First African-American Woman on 6th Circuit Court

It's not often I get to share some good news, uplifting news, or news showing progress vs. regression. But, I get to write something positive and  smile today.

The Senate has confirmed Bernice Donald as a judge on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Donald will be the first African-American woman confirmed for that court. The Cincinnati-based court serves Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

Donald has broken through racial barriers throughout her career. She was the first African-American woman to be elected as a judge in Tennessee, serve on the federal bankruptcy court and sit as a U.S. district judge in her state. She has been a federal judge based in Memphis the past 16 years.

Donald is the sixth of 10 children raised on a sharecropper's farm in Mississippi.

The vote was 96-2. Voting "no" were Republican Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana.

Related articles

• First African-American woman on 6th Circuit (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Obama picks more females, minorities for judges (thegrio.com)
• Obama's record-setting drive to diversify courts (capitolhillblue.com)
• First African-American woman on 6th Circuit (sfgate.com)

Scorecard of American Students Say We Can't Compete

“We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time,” President Obama said in his State of the Union address this year. “We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and outbuild the rest of the world.” Yet despite the economic crisis facing the country, the U.S. educational system remains frozen in place, unable to adapt to contemporary global realities.

32 percent of U.S. public and private-school students in the class of 2011 are deemed proficient in mathematics, placing the United States 32nd among the 65 nations that participated in the latest international tests administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The United States ranks between Portugal and Italy and far behind South Korea, Finland, Canada, and the Netherlands, to say nothing of the city of Shanghai, with its 75 percent proficiency rate.

Republicans Responsible For Gridlock in Washington

Pundits love to apportion blame for partisan hostility equally to both sides. But as The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky shows, the GOP deserves the lion’s share of the blame.  You'll see, both sides do do it. It just so happens that Republicans opposes the major proposals of  President Obama seven times more intensely than the Democrats opposed President Bush's major proposals.  Here's the numbers based on support or lack of support for the four signature pieces of legislation of both President Obama and former President Bush. The four Bush bills Tomasky chose: the first tax cut; No Child Left Behind; the Iraq War vote; and the 2003 Medicare prescription-drug bill. The four Obama bills: the stimulus; the health-care vote; the Dodd-Frank financial reform; and the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal.

Republican Candidates Debate (Sept. 2011): More Lies

“We’ve had requests in for years at the Health and Human Services agencies to have that type of flexibility, where we could have menus, where we could have co-pays. And the federal government refuses to give us that flexibility.”
— Perry
Perry gives a misleading account of this application for a waiver on Medicaid rules. The George W. Bush administration rejected the application in 2008, saying it was incomplete and riddled with problems. As far as we can tell, the state has not resubmitted the waiver.

“Obamacare took over one-sixth of the American economy… . If we fail to repeal Obamacare in 2012, it will be with us forever and it will be socialized medicine.”

— Bachmann

“In our state, our plan covered 8 percent of the people, the uninsured. His plan is taking over 100 percent of the people.”

— Romney
It is simply not true, no matter how often candidates say that the Obama health care law represents socialized medicine or took over one-sixth of the economy. Socialized medicine is a single-payer system, in which the government pays the bills and controls costs (much like Medicare.)
Obama’s law was modeled closely on the law passed by Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts — an inconvenient fact that Romney tries hard to run away from. His comparison here is misleading, since both plans try to deal with the problem of the uninsured by requiring an individual mandate.

Michele Bachmann's Lie-"Obamacare Kills Jobs"

“Obamacare is killing jobs. We know that from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.”
— Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.)
Bachmann won’t give up on this factoid, even though we debunked it seven months ago and said it was worth three Pinocchios. It’s just not correct, and remains a perfect example of how politicians twist the facts.
The Congressional Budget Office in August 2010 estimated that the new health-care law over the next decade would reduce the number of overall workers in the United States by one-half of 1 percent, which translates into 800,000 people. But that’s not the same as saying it would “kill” that many jobs.
In dry economic language, the CBO essentially said that some people who are now in the workforce because they need health insurance would decide to stop working because the health-care law guaranteed they would have access to health care. (As an example, think of someone who is 63, a couple of years before retirement, who is still in a job only because he or she is waiting to get on Medicare at age 65.)
These jobs would disappear, not to be replaced, so there is an intellectually defensible argument one could make that this is bad for the economy; others, however, might argue that this is a small price worth paying for universal health care.
But in any case, the CBO did not say the health law was killing jobs.

Perry's "Ponzi Scheme" Lie

“It is a monstrous lie. It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you’re paying into a program that’s going to be there.”
— Gov. Perry
Perhaps the governor does not know the dictionary definition of a Ponzi scheme. Here’s what Merriam-Webster says: “An investment swindle in which some early investors are paid off with money put up by later ones in order to encourage more and bigger risks.”
This is a frequent mistake politicians make when talking about Social Security. It is not an investment vehicle; it is intended to provide income security as well disability and life insurance. Just more than 60 percent of the 54 million beneficiaries are retired workers; the rest are disabled workers, dependents or survivors.
Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system, which means that payments collected today are immediately used to pay benefits. Until recently, more payments were collected than were needed for benefits. So Social Security loaned the money to the U.S. government, which used it for other things. In exchange, Social Security received interest-bearing Treasury securities. The value of those bonds is now about $2.6 trillion.

US Falls to 5th in Gobal Competitiveness

The U.S. has tumbled further down a global ranking of the world's most competitive economies, landing at fifth place because of its huge deficits and declining public faith in government, a global economic group said Wednesday.
The announcement by the World Economic Forum was the latest bad news for the Obama administration, which has been struggling to boost the sinking U.S. economy and lower an unemployment rate of more than 9 percent.
Switzerland held onto the top spot for the third consecutive year in the annual ranking by the Geneva-based forum, which is best known for its exclusive meeting of luminaries in Davos, Switzerland, each January.

Tom Joyner's Blog on President Obama

We've all expressed our opinions, vented, aired it out, and in my heart of hearts, no matter how we got to this point, I believe most of us share a common goal - to re-elect President Obama. That can only happen if we take all the time and energy we've been using to debate, defend, and yes, digress (Tavis didn't patent that word, did he?) and move forward. Like the mamas on my staff tell their little boys when they're distracted by whatever is on the PSP, DS or Wii screen, "Let's focus."

If we can learn anything from Republicans, it is that they have the ability to not just rally together, but to grab onto a single candidate, issue, piece of propaganda, whatever, and clamp down like a pit bull. Once they make a decision, they will not be swayed. How many times have you listened to one of them recite the party line, and you t hink to yourself, I KNOW they don't really believe that? Maybe not, but by being consistent and steady until the end, they come out victorious - or, at the least, united. That's what we need to do more.

Stop Disrespecting Our President!

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If your memory needs refreshing, I'll let you read The Grio's chronicle of the historic disrespect of President Obama from political peers, media personalities and pundits. It's sickens me to know that we are back to the same hate-filled behavior that has stymied our country for centuries.  I watch, I listen, I see and I remember things that our country should not be proud of, even as they repeat themselves today. I don't believe those who say it's just partisan politics as usual, or just the kind of thing that goes with being an unpopular president.

I have just one vote and I know how I'll cast it.  Believe me it won't be for the likes of Michelle Bachmann or Rick Perry.  I'll take my chances with our President, Barack Obama. Although nothing he ever does is satisfactory to some and even though he's saddled with a do-nothing Congress with just one agenda item, stopping his second term, I still believe in him.  I'm glad he was in the seat instead of John McCain and I applaud his cool head and willingness to work with the opposition. I'll live through the ugliness, just as he must, and I'll continue to work for his vision of change for America.

God Bless America.

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