Brazil’s first female president has finally been sworn into office. Dilma Rousseff, a protégé of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, promised to protect the most vulnerable of Brazilian society in her inaugural speech Saturday. —JCL The BBC: Brazil’s first woman President, Dilma Rousseff, has been sworn into office. She took over from her mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who stepped down after two terms as the most popular president in the country’s history. After taking the oath of office, Ms Rousseff promised in a speech to protect the most vulnerable in Brazilian society and govern for all. Read more Related Entries December 25, 2010 38 Dead in Christmas Attacks December 13, 2010 In Latest Compromise, Obama Agrees He Is a Muslim
Continue reading …In his weekly radio address Saturday, President Obama committed himself in 2011 to improving the economy, creating jobs and strengthening the middle class. Here’s to a New Year’s resolution that hopefully won’t be broken. —JCL Reuters: President Barack Obama has set his New Year’s resolution high for 2011: repair the struggling economy. In his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday, the vacationing president said recent data showed the economic recovery was gaining traction even as millions of Americans are still out of work. “Our most important task now is to keep that recovery going,” Obama said. “As president, that’s my commitment to you: to do everything I can to make sure our economy is growing, creating jobs, and strengthening our middle class. That’s my resolution for the coming year.” Read more
Continue reading …The gang at JibJab presents Obama/Biden puppets to say goodbye to 2010. Open thread below…
Continue reading …As scornful as the media were of conservatives last year, they were just as adoring of top liberals, as documented by the MRC's Best Notable Quotables of 2010 . Topping the MRC's annual ” Media Hero Award ,” ABC's World News anchor Diane Sawyer fawned over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the passage of ObamaCare in March: “All agree she gets credit for locking up this vote, one of the biggest since Medicare in the 1960s. And she’s said to have done it with an epic blend of persuasion, muscle and will, even when half the town said it couldn’t be done….Their indefatigable, unwavering almost 70-year-old Speaker, mother of five, grandmother of seven….[to Pelosi] What do you think your dad and your mom would have said about this moment?” read more
Continue reading …Would you buy someone's memoir all because you hated the person? That's the reason a Salon political writer gave MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell Friday for why George W. Bush's book is selling better than Bill Clinton's (video follows with transcript and commentary): read more
Continue reading …You have to watch this video to see how insidiously the Villagers are spreading the narrative: Those Baby Boomers are sucking all the money out of the Treasury because they’re just so damned selfish! And only some of them served in Viet Nam! Watch as Diane Sawyer puts on her Very Serious Face and says the deficit is a big problem. Pay attention to the lies scattered throughout. Dear God, it’s going to be another one of those years: The first baby boomers will turn 65 Jan. 1, beginning a flood of applications for Medicare benefits that experts fear could drain the economy and hold political repercussions for President Obama. The baby boomer generation marked a huge reproductive uptick between 1946 and 1964, when 76 million children were born, creating a higher demand across the nation for schools and consumer products, and an upheaval in popular culture. But this post-World War II generation’s overwhelming demand on the Medicare system could possibly leave future generations with a bigger bill. Medicare currently covers 46 million people, costing the government about $500 billion a year. But when the last of the iconic generation reaches 65 in about 20 years, more than 80 million people will be eligible for Medicare coverage, although the number of working people paying into the program will have decreased from 3.5 per person receiving benefits to 2.3. The increase in the number of people eligible for benefits paired with the rising costs of health care and longer life spans threatens the program’s sustainability. It could force the administration and Congress to come up with a plan to reduce costs, either by cutting benefits or raising taxes. A recent Associated Press-GfK poll found that 61 percent of Americans favored raising taxes in lieu of slashing benefits. The poll included adults in their 20s, who potentially could end up paying more into the system. Fifty-one percent opposed the idea of giving older Americans a fixed payment to use against the cost of private insurance, an option made popular by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Sixty-three percent opposed raising the age of eligibility.
Continue reading …If Pres. Obama's signal fight in the coming year will be preserving ObamaCare, he can count on at least one ally in his struggle with Republicans: ABC News and in particular its Political Director, Amy Walters. On GMA today, Walters issued a stern warning to Republicans who might have the audacity of hoping to repeal ObamaCare. The segment began with a montage of Republicans vowing to do do, including an oddly mocking replay of a Mitch McConnell moment. Then Walters appeared and pronounced her admonition.
Continue reading …enlarge Credit: Crooks and Liars Happy New Year to everyone from all of us at Crooks and Liars! It’s an open thread AND a New Year’s Eve party. What are you doing tonight, hoping for this year, resolving for the next few? Welcome and a toast to our readers and commenters! Cheers!
Continue reading …By Ron Kovic As a former United States Marine Corps infantry sergeant who was shot and paralyzed from the mid-chest down on Jan. 20, 1968, during my second tour of duty in Vietnam, and as someone who has lived with the wounds of that war for over 40 years, I am writing this letter to ask you to join me as we begin a critical new phase in the growing anti-war movement. Related Entries December 30, 2010 Pakistani Disappearances: C’mon Guys December 28, 2010 ‘The Comeback Kid’ and the Kids Who Won’t
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