[h/t John V. Moore ] Texas Governor Rick Perry has opened his candidacy for the GOP nomination with dog whistles and bombast, hitting on Ben Bernanke and President Obama with equal fervor. But perhaps the best contrast between the two of them can be seen here, where each of them has someone heckling them for an answer in a hostile, crowded environment. Gov. Perry responds by poking his finger in the questioner’s chest and telling him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. President Obama responds by engaging and correcting the misstatements of the tea party activists who are in his face, and after a couple of minutes, leaves the conversation after observing that they don’t appear to be interested in listening. Of course they’re not. They were looking for the “media moment,” which they’ve gotten on Fox News. That exchange at the end is so characteristic of what TeaPublican politics has done to our discourse. After the president explains the context and meaning to them, they just start shouting him down by cheerleading their cohorts to “stay strong.” The final exchange is the equivalent of a middle school spat on their part. When the President says they’re not interested in listening their response is that he’s not listening to them. At that, I roll my eyes and play my violin for them. Please. As if they care if he listens or not. For the record, it seemed that he was listening since he actually answered their questions. President Obama’s heckler was Ryan Rhodes. Rhodes is the state chairman for the Tea Party Patriots who organized protests against the president in 2010, bringing in other activists from six states. I wonder if the Koch brothers paid the bus fees. He wanted the press coverage, and now he has it. As time goes on, I’m sure there will be more of this kind of disruption at President Obama’s town halls, and I’m sure all of the conservative media outlets will use the confrontations to stoke up even more anger at him over nothing. Personally, I think he shouldn’t feed the trolls. They managed to hijack this news cycle, leaving everything he said about issues or engagement with Congress floating on the wind. If he hopes to get his actual message out, it might be good for him to simply ignore the Republican plants in every town and stay on the message he’s trying to convey. Click here to view this media To support that idea, here’s a panel discussion on Megyn Kelly’s show this morning where Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation, a man who routinely ramps up the rhetoric to a level that borders on violent, paints the Tea Party as a demonized group. I especially love it when he says he wants to round up “real Americans” to “take back” the White House. This segment was the first of at least three. I’ve seen it on Megyn Kelly’s show, Neil Cavuto’s show, and now The Five. Clearly Fox News feels compelled to use this as a way to rehabilitate rudeness.
Continue reading …
[h/t John V. Moore ] Texas Governor Rick Perry has opened his candidacy for the GOP nomination with dog whistles and bombast, hitting on Ben Bernanke and President Obama with equal fervor. But perhaps the best contrast between the two of them can be seen here, where each of them has someone heckling them for an answer in a hostile, crowded environment. Gov. Perry responds by poking his finger in the questioner’s chest and telling him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. President Obama responds by engaging and correcting the misstatements of the tea party activists who are in his face, and after a couple of minutes, leaves the conversation after observing that they don’t appear to be interested in listening. Of course they’re not. They were looking for the “media moment,” which they’ve gotten on Fox News. That exchange at the end is so characteristic of what TeaPublican politics has done to our discourse. After the president explains the context and meaning to them, they just start shouting him down by cheerleading their cohorts to “stay strong.” The final exchange is the equivalent of a middle school spat on their part. When the President says they’re not interested in listening their response is that he’s not listening to them. At that, I roll my eyes and play my violin for them. Please. As if they care if he listens or not. For the record, it seemed that he was listening since he actually answered their questions. President Obama’s heckler was Ryan Rhodes. Rhodes is the state chairman for the Tea Party Patriots who organized protests against the president in 2010, bringing in other activists from six states. I wonder if the Koch brothers paid the bus fees. He wanted the press coverage, and now he has it. As time goes on, I’m sure there will be more of this kind of disruption at President Obama’s town halls, and I’m sure all of the conservative media outlets will use the confrontations to stoke up even more anger at him over nothing. Personally, I think he shouldn’t feed the trolls. They managed to hijack this news cycle, leaving everything he said about issues or engagement with Congress floating on the wind. If he hopes to get his actual message out, it might be good for him to simply ignore the Republican plants in every town and stay on the message he’s trying to convey. Click here to view this media To support that idea, here’s a panel discussion on Megyn Kelly’s show this morning where Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation, a man who routinely ramps up the rhetoric to a level that borders on violent, paints the Tea Party as a demonized group. I especially love it when he says he wants to round up “real Americans” to “take back” the White House. This segment was the first of at least three. I’ve seen it on Megyn Kelly’s show, Neil Cavuto’s show, and now The Five. Clearly Fox News feels compelled to use this as a way to rehabilitate rudeness.
Continue reading …
[h/t John V. Moore ] Texas Governor Rick Perry has opened his candidacy for the GOP nomination with dog whistles and bombast, hitting on Ben Bernanke and President Obama with equal fervor. But perhaps the best contrast between the two of them can be seen here, where each of them has someone heckling them for an answer in a hostile, crowded environment. Gov. Perry responds by poking his finger in the questioner’s chest and telling him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. President Obama responds by engaging and correcting the misstatements of the tea party activists who are in his face, and after a couple of minutes, leaves the conversation after observing that they don’t appear to be interested in listening. Of course they’re not. They were looking for the “media moment,” which they’ve gotten on Fox News. That exchange at the end is so characteristic of what TeaPublican politics has done to our discourse. After the president explains the context and meaning to them, they just start shouting him down by cheerleading their cohorts to “stay strong.” The final exchange is the equivalent of a middle school spat on their part. When the President says they’re not interested in listening their response is that he’s not listening to them. At that, I roll my eyes and play my violin for them. Please. As if they care if he listens or not. For the record, it seemed that he was listening since he actually answered their questions. President Obama’s heckler was Ryan Rhodes. Rhodes is the state chairman for the Tea Party Patriots who organized protests against the president in 2010, bringing in other activists from six states. I wonder if the Koch brothers paid the bus fees. He wanted the press coverage, and now he has it. As time goes on, I’m sure there will be more of this kind of disruption at President Obama’s town halls, and I’m sure all of the conservative media outlets will use the confrontations to stoke up even more anger at him over nothing. Personally, I think he shouldn’t feed the trolls. They managed to hijack this news cycle, leaving everything he said about issues or engagement with Congress floating on the wind. If he hopes to get his actual message out, it might be good for him to simply ignore the Republican plants in every town and stay on the message he’s trying to convey. Click here to view this media To support that idea, here’s a panel discussion on Megyn Kelly’s show this morning where Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation, a man who routinely ramps up the rhetoric to a level that borders on violent, paints the Tea Party as a demonized group. I especially love it when he says he wants to round up “real Americans” to “take back” the White House. This segment was the first of at least three. I’ve seen it on Megyn Kelly’s show, Neil Cavuto’s show, and now The Five. Clearly Fox News feels compelled to use this as a way to rehabilitate rudeness.
Continue reading …
[h/t John V. Moore ] Texas Governor Rick Perry has opened his candidacy for the GOP nomination with dog whistles and bombast, hitting on Ben Bernanke and President Obama with equal fervor. But perhaps the best contrast between the two of them can be seen here, where each of them has someone heckling them for an answer in a hostile, crowded environment. Gov. Perry responds by poking his finger in the questioner’s chest and telling him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. President Obama responds by engaging and correcting the misstatements of the tea party activists who are in his face, and after a couple of minutes, leaves the conversation after observing that they don’t appear to be interested in listening. Of course they’re not. They were looking for the “media moment,” which they’ve gotten on Fox News. That exchange at the end is so characteristic of what TeaPublican politics has done to our discourse. After the president explains the context and meaning to them, they just start shouting him down by cheerleading their cohorts to “stay strong.” The final exchange is the equivalent of a middle school spat on their part. When the President says they’re not interested in listening their response is that he’s not listening to them. At that, I roll my eyes and play my violin for them. Please. As if they care if he listens or not. For the record, it seemed that he was listening since he actually answered their questions. President Obama’s heckler was Ryan Rhodes. Rhodes is the state chairman for the Tea Party Patriots who organized protests against the president in 2010, bringing in other activists from six states. I wonder if the Koch brothers paid the bus fees. He wanted the press coverage, and now he has it. As time goes on, I’m sure there will be more of this kind of disruption at President Obama’s town halls, and I’m sure all of the conservative media outlets will use the confrontations to stoke up even more anger at him over nothing. Personally, I think he shouldn’t feed the trolls. They managed to hijack this news cycle, leaving everything he said about issues or engagement with Congress floating on the wind. If he hopes to get his actual message out, it might be good for him to simply ignore the Republican plants in every town and stay on the message he’s trying to convey. Click here to view this media To support that idea, here’s a panel discussion on Megyn Kelly’s show this morning where Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation, a man who routinely ramps up the rhetoric to a level that borders on violent, paints the Tea Party as a demonized group. I especially love it when he says he wants to round up “real Americans” to “take back” the White House. This segment was the first of at least three. I’ve seen it on Megyn Kelly’s show, Neil Cavuto’s show, and now The Five. Clearly Fox News feels compelled to use this as a way to rehabilitate rudeness.
Continue reading …
[h/t John V. Moore ] Texas Governor Rick Perry has opened his candidacy for the GOP nomination with dog whistles and bombast, hitting on Ben Bernanke and President Obama with equal fervor. But perhaps the best contrast between the two of them can be seen here, where each of them has someone heckling them for an answer in a hostile, crowded environment. Gov. Perry responds by poking his finger in the questioner’s chest and telling him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. President Obama responds by engaging and correcting the misstatements of the tea party activists who are in his face, and after a couple of minutes, leaves the conversation after observing that they don’t appear to be interested in listening. Of course they’re not. They were looking for the “media moment,” which they’ve gotten on Fox News. That exchange at the end is so characteristic of what TeaPublican politics has done to our discourse. After the president explains the context and meaning to them, they just start shouting him down by cheerleading their cohorts to “stay strong.” The final exchange is the equivalent of a middle school spat on their part. When the President says they’re not interested in listening their response is that he’s not listening to them. At that, I roll my eyes and play my violin for them. Please. As if they care if he listens or not. For the record, it seemed that he was listening since he actually answered their questions. President Obama’s heckler was Ryan Rhodes. Rhodes is the state chairman for the Tea Party Patriots who organized protests against the president in 2010, bringing in other activists from six states. I wonder if the Koch brothers paid the bus fees. He wanted the press coverage, and now he has it. As time goes on, I’m sure there will be more of this kind of disruption at President Obama’s town halls, and I’m sure all of the conservative media outlets will use the confrontations to stoke up even more anger at him over nothing. Personally, I think he shouldn’t feed the trolls. They managed to hijack this news cycle, leaving everything he said about issues or engagement with Congress floating on the wind. If he hopes to get his actual message out, it might be good for him to simply ignore the Republican plants in every town and stay on the message he’s trying to convey. Click here to view this media To support that idea, here’s a panel discussion on Megyn Kelly’s show this morning where Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation, a man who routinely ramps up the rhetoric to a level that borders on violent, paints the Tea Party as a demonized group. I especially love it when he says he wants to round up “real Americans” to “take back” the White House. This segment was the first of at least three. I’ve seen it on Megyn Kelly’s show, Neil Cavuto’s show, and now The Five. Clearly Fox News feels compelled to use this as a way to rehabilitate rudeness.
Continue reading …
He has, Chris; he has . . . Chris Matthews claims that for purposes of the 2012 campaign, Barack Obama needs to offer an alternative to capitalism. Along the way, Matthews, on his MSNBC show this evening, offered a completely crazed notion of what capitalism is about.
Continue reading …
He has, Chris; he has . . . Chris Matthews claims that for purposes of the 2012 campaign, Barack Obama needs to offer an alternative to capitalism. Along the way, Matthews, on his MSNBC show this evening, offered a completely crazed notion of what capitalism is about.
Continue reading …Both Democrats hold double digit leads going into tonight’s recall elections and are likely to hold their seats in the Wisconsin State Senate. Republicans are seeking to recall the Democrats as a retaliatory strike against the Democratic recall efforts against state senators who supported Gov. Scott Walker’s assault on the state’s working families. -In Senate District 12, Democrat Jim Holperin is defending his seat against Republican Kim Simac. -In Senate District 22, incumbent Robert Wirch is being challenged by Republican Jonathan Steitz. Check back here for results as they come in…
Continue reading …Rep. Clyburn: The President is Going to Have to Lay the Jobs Problem at the Doorsteps of the Republican Leadership
August 16, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media CNN’s John King talked to the Assistant Minority Leader, Rep. James Clyburn about President Obama’s recent bus tour and his continued unwillingness to call the Republican leadership out directly for obstructing bipartisan legislation. Tons of bills that are pending in both houses of Congress to get Americans back to work. And I agree with the Congressman’s statement at the very end of the segment, after venting some of the frustration he and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus have had with the president for focusing on things like deficit reduction instead of jobs and for not going to some of the areas that have been hardest hit in this economy. KING: Do you prefer — you’re the assistant Democratic leader, you’re in the minority now. The Republicans control the House. Would you prefer the president not blame the people in Washington or the Congress and specifically say the Republicans? CLYBURN: Yes, I would prefer that and I’ve had those discussions with the president on other occasions — KING: And why won’t he get tougher with them? Why won’t he get tougher with them? CLYBURN: Well, I hope he will. I don’t know. I think the president by nature wants to be diplomatic. I’m the same way. I call myself a southern gentleman, but there are times when I put that aside and go right to the core of the problem. The problem is that the Republican leadership refuses to allow a jobs bill to come to the floor. I have one that’s got bipartisan support. It has a companion bill over in the Senate that has bipartisan support. The co- sponsorship is bipartisan. But we cannot get them to bring this to the floor. And I think the president sooner or later is going to have to lay this right at the doorsteps of the Republican leadership. We did not vote for all of these things that’s got us in this problem today. Democrats have supported his agenda and we still look forward to supporting him in the future. He needs to call the Republicans out. That’s who is stopping this legislation, not the Democrats. It looks like Clyburn and some of his colleagues are as frustrated as the rest of us with President Obama continuing to just take shots at the Congress as a whole, instead of identifying who is being unreasonable and obstructing and who has been willing to compromise, and in the eyes of most liberals out there, been willing to compromise too much. Full transcript below the fold. KING: Now he’s on a bus tour. Let me show you the map as we bring it out here, the president of the United States on a bus tour that started in Minnesota. It’s going down through Minnesota. He’s now in Iowa, he’s in Decorah (ph), Iowa now. He’ll go to Iowa again tomorrow, then he’s in some rural counties in Illinois there. That’s the president of the United States out here in the Midwest, three states that were critical to him back in the 2008 campaign, Illinois obviously his home state. The Congressional Black Caucus proposes a jobs tour. It’s on the schedule right now through Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, Miami and Los Angeles. You see the president out here largely in white rural America. The CBC saying let’s have a jobs focus in African-American and minority communities across America. So does the president’s focus on states critical to his re- election mean overlooking communities with a need for help is beyond critical? In Columbia, South Carolina tonight the highest ranking African-American in the Congress (INAUDIBLE) Democratic leader James Clyburn. Congressman Clyburn, let’s get straight to that. Would you prefer — I know you support the president and you know he needs to go to these electorally (ph) important states for him. But would you prefer if he’s going to do a jobs tour that he start in Columbia, South Carolina where unemployment among African-Americans is near 19 percent, maybe Selma, Alabama where it’s above 20 percent? CLYBURN: Well I don’t think that we have to worry about where he starts. The problem is where will the impact be of job creation? Will we get a jobs Bill out of the Congress? I understand that the president’s going to be coming forward in September with a comprehensive job bill. I hope that’s the case. I’m also hopeful that as we talk about deficit reduction, and those kinds of things that we can include job creation in those discussions as well. Because the quickest way to reduce the deficit, I believe, is to get people back to work. They’ll be paying taxes. They won’t be drawing unemployment. And they will, in fact, be contributing to deficit reduction. So I would love to see a comprehensive jobs program in the very near future because I think that’s what will get people’s confidence restored and get our communities back on the right track. KING: As you know, though, and you tend to be more diplomatic, especially on television, than some of your colleagues and I respect that, as you know there’s been some grumbling in the Black Caucus and in what I’ll call the progressive community at large about the president’s focus, whether the subject be deficit reduction or where he’s traveling right now focusing on jobs. The chairman of the CBC, Emanuel Cleaver from Missouri said this to “The Washington Post” just last week. “What the president is doing is not the same as what we’re doing. We have real jobs to give real people who are unemployed. This is not one of those deals where we go around and talk about jobs and hope somebody gives us some press attention.” That’s a pretty harsh criticism of the president of the United States, the first African- American president to the United States from a leading African- American in the Congress, is it not? CLYBURN: Well, I didn’t get that he was directly talking about the president there. I’m not too sure that there aren’t other tours taking place that might have been the point of reference. I was with Emanuel Cleaver over the weekend, and we had long talks about what’s going on with the Congressional Black Caucus tomorrow in Detroit, later on in Miami, Atlanta, and then out in Los Angeles. Just because we’re ending the tour in Los Angeles doesn’t mean the emphasis is not on Los Angeles as well. We started in Cleveland, Ohio, around 7,000 people showed up. I think around 2,200 people got connected with jobs. But I think that that’s what Cleaver was talking about, trying to do a jobs tour where we bring employers and potential employees in to the same room and see if we can get the confidence restored again because too many people have stopped looking. They’ve just dropped out of the process altogether. We want to get them back in. And the way you do that, I think, is the way the CBC is conducting this tour. I think that’s what he had reference to. KING: I want you to listen to some of the president on the trail today. He’s being a bit more populous (ph) and he’s the president of the United States. He holds the most powerful job in Washington. And yet he’s making the case — and I think you would understand his frustration — that he can’t get a lot of things done because he can’t get them through the Congress. I want you to listen to this and I want to you if you would choose the same words. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: People are doing the right thing. Well, if you can do the right thing, then folks in Washington have to do the right thing. And if we do that, there is not a problem that we face that we cannot solve. (END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Do you prefer — you’re the assistant Democratic leader, you’re in the minority now. The Republicans control the House. Would you prefer the president not blame the people in Washington or the Congress and specifically say the Republicans? CLYBURN: Yes, I would prefer that and I’ve had those discussions with the president on other occasions — KING: And why won’t he get tougher with them? Why won’t he get tougher with them? CLYBURN: Well, I hope he will. I don’t know. I think the president by nature wants to be diplomatic. I’m the same way. I call myself a southern gentleman, but there are times when I put that aside and go right to the core of the problem. The problem is that the Republican leadership refuses to allow a jobs bill to come to the floor. I have one that’s got bipartisan support. It has a companion bill over in the Senate that has bipartisan support. The co- sponsorship is bipartisan. But we cannot get them to bring this to the floor. And I think the president sooner or later is going to have to lay this right at the doorsteps of the Republican leadership. We did not vote for all of these things that’s got us in this problem today. Democrats have supported his agenda and we still look forward to supporting him in the future. He needs to call the Republicans out. That’s who is stopping this legislation, not the Democrats.
Continue reading …NALC President Fredric Rolando testifies before Congress (beginning at minute 40). Recently, a number of proposals have been floated about cutting back on the offerings of the United States Postal Service. Among the suggestions are eliminating Saturday service and closing numerous post offices across the country. These ideas are said to be necessary, according to Postal Service officials, because the Service is losing large sums of money in delivering the mail. Current proposals include eliminating 220,000 postal jobs through cuts and attrition by 2015. This is in a climate where the USPS has already eliminated 212,000 jobs in the last ten years. Also proposed is a plan to withdraw postal employees and retirees from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the creation of a new program that would almost certainly have weaker benefits. United States Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is on record as also proposing cuts to postal employees’ health and pension benefits. National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando sees clear signs that Donahoe is intent on attacking the collective bargaining rights of postal workers and that he wants to “override lay-off protection provisions in the postal unions’ contracts.” In a recent white paper titled “Workforce Optimization,” the Postal Service directly asked Congress to void lay-off protection provisions. The USPS developed its proposals without any input from NALC or any other unions. Rolando lays out the real root of the problem: “The problem lies elsewhere: the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade, an obligation no other public agency or private firm faces. The roughly $5.5 billion annual payments since 2007 — $21 billion total — are the difference between a positive and negative ledger.” Postal Service management recently claimed : “If we were a private company, we would have already filed for bankruptcy and gone through restructuring—much like major automakers did two years ago.” NALC responded by calling this claim the “Big Lie.” If the USPS were a private company, NALC argued, it wouldn’t have been subjected to the pre-funding requirement and it would’ve been profitable, since the pre-funding requirement is responsible for 100 percent of the Service’s losses in recent years. NALC suggests that the problem has an easy fix . Instead of eliminating the requirement for pre-funding future benefits, Rolando says that the Postal Service should be allowed to transfer funds from pension surpluses instead of operating funds. That would continue to fund both pensions and retiree health benefits funded well into the future while putting the operations budget back into a surplus without cutting back on services or laying off workers. Ending Saturday service would create more problems that it would solve. More than 80,000 jobs would be lost and millions of Americans would face disruptions to their business and personal lives, as financial transactions are delayed, prescription drugs don’t get to patients as quick as they otherwise would and other disruptions are created. The Postal Regulatory Commission found that ending Saturday service would disproportionately hurt elderly and rural Americans. The Commission also determined that as much as 25 percent of First Class and Priority mail could be delayed two days or more. The Commission found that going to five-day service would not save as much money as Postal Service leaders project. Saturday delivery, which amounts to only two percent of postal costs, accounts for 17 percent of service. The suggestion that the Postal Service faces a major crisis — similar to attacks across the country that have preceeded assaults on other unions — is an overstatement, of course. The Postal Service hasn’t used any taxpayer funding for more than twenty-five years. It pays for it’s operations through the sale of it’s services and products. In the past four years, operational revenues at the USPS have exceeded costs by $611 million. Customer satisfaction and delivery of the mail on time are at record highs. According to Rolando, fixing the real problem — the pre-funding of future benefits at such an exaggerated standard — isn’t even on the table. Representatives Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Dennis Ross (R-FL) introduced a bill the reform the postal service, but it doesn’t actually address the primary problem the USPS faces. It would allow for some of the more extreme proposals to be implemented, including the elimination of Saturday service and the nullification of collective bargaining agreements already in existence.
Continue reading …