Egyptian protesters got a chance to speak directly to Hillary Clinton for the first time, and they weren’t exactly overcome with gratitude. Sample questions she fielded online via an Egyptian site: “Does America really support democracy? If yes indeed, why the U.S. was late in its support for the…
Continue reading …Somalia, working with neighboring allied nations, has launched a coordinated offensive against al-Qaeda-linked militants that has seen fighting in the capital and two border towns involving Ethiopian tanks, officials said today. Kenyan troops were deployed to a border crossing. Dozens have died in the push this week against the al-Shabaab…
Continue reading …ABC’s Sawyer Publicizes Left-Wing Effort to Tar U.S. and Advocate for Another Entitlement
February 24, 2011 No Comment
Human Rights Watch released a hardly comprehensive report, one “based on interviews with 64 parents across the country,” which complained: “Just three countries definitively offer no legal guarantee of paid maternity leave: Papua New Guinea, Swaziland—and the United States.” Picking up on that, Diane Sawyer announced on Wednesday’s World News:
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Huckabee Slams Obama on Defense of Marriage Act The Justice Department and DOMA Zasněženej večer – Hádejte kdo v záhradě a kdo v domě? Část 2 – tvůrčí práce s dětmi Obama, DOJ Say Part Of DOMA Is Unconstitutional, Will Not Defend … The Obama Justice Department has decided that part of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and will not defend it in court. Obama: DOMA Unconstitutional, DOJ Should Stop Defending In Court WASHINGTON — In a major policy reversal, the Obama administration said Wednesday it will no longer defend the constitutionality of a federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriage. Attorney General Eric Holder said President … Obama Administration Will No Longer Defend DOMA In Court Huge news in the marriage equality debate today as the Obama Administration has decided not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court anymore. Joe. My. God.: DOMA Reactions “As the President has stated previously, DOMA unfairly discriminates against Americans and we applaud him for fulfilling his oath to defend critical constitutional principles.” Under federal law, the Department of Justice must report to … Breaking: Obama to abandon DOMA defense « Hot Air The issue of DOMA is complicated for conservatives. Rep. Bob Barr introduced DOMA in response to state courts declaring a right to gay marriage in an attempt to block those states from forcing the rest to recognize the marriage through … msmordecai says: RT @kathygriffin : YES! I applaud Pres Obama 4 curbing # DOMA discrimination.Gays & straight allies, stay strong 4 federal marriage #equality !
Continue reading …Matthews Accuses Huckabee of Wanting to Commit Genocide in the West Bank, Says Limbaugh & Beck ‘Ethnically Disdain’ First Family
February 23, 2011 No Comment
Chris Matthews went off the deep end on Wednesday's Hardball as he accused conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck of demonstrating “ethnic disdain” for the First Family and even charged former Arkansas Governor and current Fox News host Mike Huckabee of wanting to ethnically cleanse Arabs from the West Bank. Right after a discussion about GOP contenders like John Thune and Chris Christie not entering the presidential race, Matthews told his GOP strategist guest Todd Harris “You are being left with the crazies now” like Mike Huckabee who Matthews charged wants to
Continue reading …Bernie Sanders: End Game for Wealthiest in America is the Destruction of Social Safety Nets and of the Middle Class
February 23, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Cenk Uygur asked Sen. Bernie Sanders how we mobilize workers on a national scale and not just in Wisconsin and a few other states where we’re seeing these protests. Bernie didn’t have a direct answer for Cenk but laid out what the stakes are if we don’t. SANDERS: What we have to understand is this is not just Wisconsin. This is part of the concerted attack on the middle class and working families of this country by the very wealthiest people in America, the Koch brothers and many others. And you’re also right in suggesting that if you look at the end game, what are you talking about? You’re talking about the end of Social Security, privatization of Social Security, massive cuts and privatization of Medicare, major cuts in Medicaid. You’re talking about over a period of time, the end of unemployment compensation, the end of the minimum wage or lowering the minimum wage. What these guys want is to return us to the 1920′s when working people had virtually no rights to organize or to earn a decent living. Bottom line today is the top 1% earn more income than the bottom 50%. The top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%. That gap between the very rich and everybody else is growing wider. And what the wealthiest people in the country are doing are using their resources to make the attack against the middle class even stronger. They want the destruction of the middle class and almost all wealth in this country to go to the people on top. Cenk and Bernie also discussed whether the Democratic Party has figured out that it might not be the best strategy for them to abandon their base and the union movement and the importance of the existence of unions which don’t only raise the wages and benefits for unionized workers, but everyone else as well. Unfortunately these bought and sold politicians don’t do the right thing until they’re pushed. The best thing we can do is take to the streets and remind all of them who they’re supposed to be representing. MoveOn is sponsoring rallies across the country Saturday for anyone that would like to participate.
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MSNBC's Chris Jansing, referencing a report by the liberal Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on “active U.S. hate groups,” asked Wednesday if the rise of radical right-wing groups coincided with the motives behind Jared Loughner's assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). When asked about the “hate groups” report, guest Mark Potok of the SPLC immediately pointed to the rise of “radical right-wing groups” and attributed the rise to “resentment over the changing racial demographics,” “frustration over the lagging economy,” and “mainstreaming of conspiracy theories.” “The economy since the fall of 2008, of course, has really played into this in terms of unemployment, anger with the bailouts, and so on,” added Potok. “It's really ginned-up anti-government feeling, in many ways.”
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Click here to view this media Jeffrey Sachs was actually allowed some air time on Morning Joe to make a lot of really great points about how America is spending our money in the midst of what’s being called a budget crisis. I would argue that we don’t have a budget crisis. We have a refusal to levy adequate taxation on those that can afford it “crisis” created by our politicians who refuse to raise taxes on the rich at at time in our history that resembles the Gilded Age with income disparity. As Sachs noted, we’re going after discretionary spending which hits in is words, science, education, technology, and energy and he’s exactly right on how our approach to what we should be cutting is completely wrong. As he noted we’re not going after the extreme amount of waste in our military industrial complex, we’re not fixing the amount of profits going to the insurance companies that are driving up the cost of our health care, the oil industry and corporate tax evasion. Instead we’re looking to cut programs that harm the working class in America and I just want to say thank you to Jeffrey Sachs for laying out there how wrong headed our economic policies in the United States have been for at least the last thirty years. Scarborough’s response of course was to say that our working class and our seniors just haven’t given quite enough so the oligarchs can keep their pockets lined. Brzezinski to her credit, pointed out that her father said if this keeps up we might see people taking to the streets and that he was called crazy for saying so. She didn’t lay it on her buddy Scarborough and said he might not have been the one that said it, but I have the feeling that he was exactly who she was talking about and she gave him a pass. Of course Joe thought it was a good time to go to commercial break after she pointed that out to him. I’m wondering if they’ll have Sachs on again any time soon since he dared to speak the truth on that show. I’m not holding my breath for him to get another chance to say what he did today.
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Al-Jazeera Reporter at Libyan – Egypt Border Questions for PM Cameron via Youtube & Al Jazeera Libya Jamahirya English turning into Swahili (!!!) Part 1 RXed in Dorset UK.wmv dailywireless.org » Al Jazeera & Social Networking White House officials turned to Al Jazeera English to monitor the protests in Egypt and Libya. But even POTUS can’t watch Al Jazeera on cable. United States cable operators don’t carry Al Jazeera . It’s un-American. … Does America Finally Want Its Al Jazeera TV? | The Atlantic Wire Al Jazeera English has been meeting with U.S. cable providers, buoyed by its recent coverage of unrest in the Middle East. When the government doesn't help, but harms | Al Jazeera Blogs When Al Jazeera learned Mr. Peng had found Wenle — we were particularly excited. We had interviewed Mr. Peng more than two years ago, following the kidnapping of his son. No one could have possibly believed the father would succeed … AMERICAblog News: Follow the Libya uprising at Al Jazeera's Live Blog News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective. Al Jazeera names Libyan spy agency as jamming source | News … The Libyan intelligence agency is responsible for disrupting Al Jazeera satellite transmissions across the Arab World, according to the broadcast news network, which also claims its website has been blocked by authorities in the … juniorCyaxares says: RT @sultanalqassemi : Al Jazeera : Amr Moussa, Secretary General of Arab League (AL): The AL decided to barr Libya from all the meetings of the AL & its committees
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Krugman on the power play in Wisconsin: In principle, every American citizen has an equal say in our political process. In practice, of course, some of us are more equal than others . Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker). On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate. Given this reality, it’s important to have institutions that can act as counterweights to the power of big money. And unions are among the most important of these institutions. You don’t have to love unions, you don’t have to believe that their policy positions are always right, to recognize that they’re among the few influential players in our political system representing the interests of middle- and working-class Americans, as opposed to the wealthy. Indeed, if America has become more oligarchic and less democratic over the last 30 years — which it has — that’s to an important extent due to the decline of private-sector unions. And now Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to get rid of public-sector unions, too. There’s a bitter irony here. The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players, not the general public, who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence. So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t. This is exactly right. No, unions aren’t always perfect. So what? They’re all that’s left to protect the rest of us. Remember: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
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