(Many thanks to commentor Reality Based)
Don’t know that this can be done “with a pen and a phone”, but it would probably improve President Obama’s approval rating among music critics:
In less than one week a petition to deport Canadian-born pop star Justin Bieber has more than 100,000 thousand signatures on the White House’s website, reaching the required threshold for an official review and response from the executive office.
“We would like to see the dangerous, reckless, destructive, and drug abusing, Justin Bieber deported and his green card revoked,” reads the petition with 105,934 signatures and counting. “He is not only threatening the safety of our people but he is also a terrible influence on our nation’s youth.”…
The Washington Post also brings important news for this weekend’s premier sporting event — photos of the Puppy Bowl players (and the penguin cheerleaders, too).
Also, concerning that other bowl game, NYMag did an investigation of why it’s being played outdoors in New Jersey:
… Conversations about a New York–area Super Bowl began shortly after the 9/11 attacks, when then-commissioner Paul Tagliabue proposed the idea to help the region recover both financially and emotionally. The idea would then be revived as the Jets and Giants neared completion of their $1.6 billion, jointly operated stadium. “The owners of the NFL teams like to bring the Super Bowl to new facilities,” says Giants co-owner owner Jonathan Tisch, a co-chair of the Super Bowl XLVIII Host Committee, and in 2009, the league’s owners voted to waive the 50-degree rule, thereby allowing the Jets and Giants to make their pitch for a Meadowlands Super Bowl….
One more thing we can blame on Osama bin Laden.
So… what’s on the agenda for the day?
Mustang Bobby
I get to present my monthly post-award grant financial training session today. I’m so excited I could plotz.
Actually, I try to inject some stand-up humor into it; think Groucho Marx meets Ben Stein: “Say the secret word and you win $100 budget transfer.”
OzarkHillbilly
The people signing that petition for the deportation of Bieber? You know, the one that says, “He is not only threatening the safety of our people but he is also a terrible influence on our nation’s youth.”… They grew up while everyone was listening to the Rolling Stones, The Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Janice Joplin…
Yeah, but they’re worried about the Bieber.
Phylllis
Back to school for the kiddies & teachers after our mini-snow event. I’ll be working on OSHA stuff. Woot!
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
In fairness, the Stones, Airplane, Hendrix, Doors, Joplin… were all good musicians.
raven
@Phylllis: Everything is delayed two hours here.
barbequebob
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes, I was gonna say, Justin needs to behave himself like the Rolling Stones did. Perhaps if he produced music worth listening to, the rest of his actions would be forgiven. That’s where he’s doing the real damage to our youth.
Maybe if the Bieber works hard at it, he’ll get a song “Blame it on the Bieber” to parallel Kristofferson’s “Blame it on the Stones”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjRT-J8dPSA
OzarkHillbilly
I feel sick:
Congress axes $8.6bn from food stamps in farm bill
Richer farmers get bigger subsidies in immediate snub to Barack Obama’s State of the Union call for action on inequality
If only Obama really cared…
Mudge
Justin Bieber’s behavior has been abyssmal. I am not sure that his influence is particularly terrible, he seems to be a good example of what not to do. However, the last time I checked he had not entered a high school armed and with bad intent. Let’s keep Bieber and send all assault weapons to Canada.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
It’s currently 9° but supposed to get up to 40° later. It will be nice to go outside for the first time since Monday night!
Schlemizel
@Phylllis:
We got 3-4 inches of snow last night but its 50 degrees warmer than it was Tuesday, thats right its 21 degrees this morning, a heat wave! Put that all together and its just an average winter day, nothing to see move along.
Everything at work is FUBAR and I have lost the desire to do anything about it. I got two new contractors in and trying to get them to not give up hope while I try to right the ship is hard enough. Getting them to not give up hope when I have is going to be tricky
OzarkHillbilly
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, that would be a point in their favor, I guess. Personally, I wouldn’t know. I’ve never heard him so I’ll take your word for it.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Funny, it’s 17 here and we have been about that much warmer than the ATL for the last couple of days.
Schlemizel
@OzarkHillbilly:
My guess is 95,000 of those signatures are people who hate the biebes music & only 10,000 are upset about his drag racing in a residential area while high. I am fortunate, I have never heard one of his songs. I find the more a performer is known for his or her behavior the less their music is worth listening to. Not always true (I was stunned when I hear Winehouse, post mortum, she had talent) and that practice has served me well.
I do have to say that, even as a person deeply opposed to physical violence, that there is something about that boys face & smug little smile that reaally makes me ball up my fist and rearrange those features. I’m not proud of that
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was just being snarky. I’ve never heard him either — just going by what I’ve heard other people say.
AnonPhenom
John. Lennon.
Ben Cisco
Don’t know or care for/about Biebs, but I can think of several people that need to be kicked out of the US before his turn comes up.
Certain expat fascist enablers come to mind.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemizel: I have to say that as someone who is also deeply opposed to violence, I have also felt the same urges, tho not towards the Bieber. It is just my normal response to the utterances of a certain class of people. Usually they have an income north of 7 figures, or an (R) following their names. I too am not proud of that. On the other hand I feel no shame in it either.
Bjacques
I liked him on the Graham Norton Show last year. Seemed harmless. Then I found out his success allows his mom to fund “crisis pregnancy clinics.” Those are the ones that scare girls and women away from abortion and, if they’re white, pressure them to let their babies be adopted by good Christoan families who will raise them better than the little sluts (QED) rver could.
kindness
It’s raining. First time since early December. Thank God.
SiubhanDuinne
@kindness:
I take it you’re in one of the drought states? I hope the rain is enough to do some good. Fingers crossed.
Poopyman
I was thinking of suggesting we demand they take him back or we’d send them Miley Cyrus, but she’s way better than the Bieb, musically.
In other news, I just got done thawing the pipes. Had to run a space heater in a place that probably shouldn’t have had a space heater in it, but the hair dryer wasn’t doing the job. In any event, mission accomplished, and nothing burned down. That should teach us to remember to run it at a trickle overnight.
Right now it’s 2F. Should warm up to 30 today.Woo hoo!
NotMax
End of January –
concussionballfootball isn’t over yet?As for this weekend, Punxsutawney Phil may well be tunneling to Miami.
Phylllis
@raven: Kids are delayed two hours; staff reports at eight. Everything looks ok here. I think we got what ATL was supposed to get & vice versa.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
That you spelled Bieber correctly but not Janis speaks volumes.
Poopyman
This is how I like my Biber.
And it seems appropriate for an early morning piece, too.
Phylllis
@Schlemizel: There are upsides to living in the South. Everything coming to a screeching halt for two snowflakes is in fact one of them. Due to the rarity of the event.
I hear ya on the don’t care part. I got a good start on an application for some outside contract work yesterday & was kind of hoping to be closed again today so I could finish it. I’ve developed an issue where I no longer see a direct connection to the work I do & the paycheck I receive. Hoping to keep that nominally in check until I get to retirement.
FonzieScheme
@SiubhanDuinne:
Hahahahahaha.
Nope. Joplin was a drunken hack, the Stones are proud of their technical ineptness and Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane were so high they couldn’t play the same thing twice if they wanted.
None of that makes them bad, but let’s not pretend that those 3-chord heroes are something more sophisticated just so we can feel superior over the younger generation now, hm?
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Not good volumes either. In my defense the Bieber is in the news daily and one can not scan the headlines without reading his name (for instance the latest is he assaulted a limo driver?? I think??) Where as the only time I see Janis’ name is on the occasions I am putting one of her CDs in the player in my truck.
And DAMN!!! could that women sing. Rip another piece of your heart right out of your chest, stomp that sucker flat and have you offering up 3rd piece in the very next breath. Really sad that in all likelihood she would never even get a shot in today’s music world. Not pretty enough.
raven
@FonzieScheme: With all due respect. FUCK YOU PUNK!
daveNYC
Outdoors and in the freezing cold is how the Superbowl should be played.
OzarkHillbilly
@FonzieScheme: Somebody needs to take music lessons. Lesson #1: Using 4 chords when 3 does the job is just plain stupid.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@NotMax: Autocorrect,, maybe?
@Bjacques: Sounds like he’s got a major case of the PKs. (Preacher/Deacon’s Kid)
Cassidy
Hehehehe, olds defending their era of music.
In all seriousness, Beiber isn’t all that different than any other male popstar. Same with the music. There is no guarantee that if I had become that rich as a teenager that I would not have dived face first into the groupie queue and bought a monkey, either.
WereBear
Young man is messed up. He should get help with that, but he won’t.
Momma’s a Xantian, enablers let him get this far, and the criminal justice system just wants its pound of flesh, and the lawyers want to be hired to fend that off.
Not that he’s a great musician, or apparently, person, at this stage. But he’s human, and that makes him have potential worth saving.
daveNYC
@Cassidy: We still have standards though. Having a coke and hooker blowout is one thing, egging your neighbor’s house is just trashy.
raven
Eskimo Blue Day
Southern Beale
I went on Craigslist yesterday. Look what I found. Hilarious, in that sad, pathetic way. Guy has a bright future in the Republican Party, no doubt.
FonzieScheme
@OzarkHillbilly:
And 3 is 2 too many. Spacemen 3 used one and did just fine. In the words of Jason Pierce: “I tune to E because it’s hard to hit notes when you’re messed up.”
But you won’t see me getting all preachy about it. Bieber does what he does. People like it, some people don’t. Who cares? Why act like older music is somehow morally superior? I mean it’s not like “Under My Thumb” is a great, progressive anthem.
Cassidy
@daveNYC: People in my generation did it. I see what you’re saying, but I see typical rich, teenager stuff including the inebriated drag racing. He doesn’t deserve to be let off the hook for it obviously, but the behavior is the same as teens in the 90’s.
FonzieScheme
For the record, I’m only talking about Bieber as a musician. As a human, he’s kind of failing hard.
OzarkHillbilly
@FonzieScheme: Go back and read every one of my comments. No where did I say he was a bad musician. I even stated that having never heard him I had no opinion of his music. My original comment was about people worried about the “influence” he was having on their precious babies when they in fact had survived influences which arguably were at least as bad.
As far as my comments about music, no where did I say my music was superior to today’s music much less “morally superior”, so I have absolutely no idea where you are coming up with that crap other than your own preconceived ideas of what “the olds” are.
Lesson 2 for today: Reading comprehension is fundamental.
NotMax
The Bieber bus line is still running from Pennsylvania to NYC.
The drivers must be really, really sick of repeated attempts at humor.
magurakurin
@FonzieScheme: jesus dude. Look, I might buy some of that as your opinion, but Hendrix? Jimi Hendrix rocked. Check all the guitar players in all the bands you think totally rock, and you will not find one who will say or has ever said that Jimi Hendrix sucked.
That’s just fucking stupid.
Southern Beale
Beebs should be glad his neighbor wasn’t armed. Last week a PA man shot at teens playing the time-honored game of doorbell ditch — and he hit one of them.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
@OzarkHillbilly: They wanted to deport John Lennon for the same reason too.
Chyron HR
Hey, guys, you know who really sucks? Jimi Hendrix, and the Rolling Stones. And, um, CSN? Beatles and the Who, too, they were the shittiest shits that ever got shat from a butt. Am I an iconoclast yet?
Soonergrunt
@Cassidy: The fact of the matter is that JB’s and Miley Cyrus’ main problem is that they are 19 and 20 years old, doing the stupid things that people that age do. Because of their resources, they can do those stupid things in a particularly spectacular manner compared to most people. Because of their fame, they have cameras on them when they do their stupid shit.
I remember being 19 and 20. And while I was in an environment that really, REALLY frowned on acting out, I still managed to be an annoying little prick. And I paid the price with two Article 15s. I’m just happy that there were no cameras around to splash my stupidity on the national news for everyone to see.
magurakurin
@Chyron HR: no kidding, eh?
the more I think about the more insane that comment is. I mean what is it comparing Justin Beiber to Jimi Hendrix. They aren’t in the same universe. Justin Beiber is not the Jimi Hendix of 2014, He is the Davey Jones and David Cassidy of 2014. Or fricking Donny Osmond. At least compare apples to apples.
oldster
Hey, John–I just bumped into a photo of Hemingway with his cat, Cristobal, in Cuba.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/~/media/assets/Audiovisual/Still%20Photographs/Ernest%20Hemingway%20Photograph%20Collection/EH03941P.jpg
Looks a lot like a Maine Coon Cat to me–what do you think?
The Most Interesting Man in the World says,
“I don’t usually like cats. But when I do, it’s a Maine Coon.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Soonergrunt: I can just see my explanation for some of my stupidity back then: “Hey, I like lying in pools of puke. Sometimes I do it all day.”
rikyrah
Surprising mom with Super Bowl Tickets! Go Seahawks!
http://youtu.be/sO0fnKdPgxc
rikyrah
Published on Jan 29, 2014
Conservatives are taking a stand! 5 years ago Native American tribes applied for land that is now the town of Riverton, Wyoming and Conservatives are outraged that the EPA has given the land to them…
http://youtu.be/tLSSJlUGcE8
rikyrah
Chuck Schumer Introduces ‘Avonte’s Law’ To Help Track Autistic Kids
Jan 29, 2014
By Hannington Dia
N.Y. Senator Chuck Schumer (pictured left of center) has introduced a new law named after Avonte Oquendo (pictured below left), the New York Daily News reports.
The law would assist parents in finding their autistic children who have gone missing.
“Thousands of families face the awful reality each and every day that their child with autism may run away,” Schumer said during a press conference Sunday. “Making voluntary tracking devices available will help put parents at ease, and most importantly, help prevent future tragedies like Avonte’s.”
Watch a news report about the law here:
http://newsone.com/2855044/chuck-schumer-avontes-law/
rikyrah
Some Republicans See Racism As a Factor in Immigration Stalemate
“I hate to say this, because these are my people — but I hate to say it, but it’s racial,” says a Republican congressman.
posted on January 29, 2014 at 11:54pm EST
WASHINGTON — For more than a year House Republican leaders have insisted the chamber would act on new immigration laws. And for more than a year, Republicans have done virtually nothing on the issue — despite intense pressure from activists, business groups, and the nation’s changing demographics.
And although there are a variety of reasons for inaction, one Republican lawmaker recently offered a frank acknowledgement for many members, there’s one issue at play not often discussed: race.
“Part of it, I think — and I hate to say this, because these are my people — but I hate to say it, but it’s racial,” said the Southern Republican lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “If you go to town halls people say things like, ‘These people have different cultural customs than we do.’ And that’s code for race.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/some-republicans-see-racism-as-a-factor-in-immigration-stale
rikyrah
Farm Bill Screws The Poor In Order to Provide More Corporate Welfare
By: Rmuse
Wednesday, January, 29th, 2014, 8:01 pm
On Monday there was an expressed feeling of pleasure and pride in Washington as a result of negotiations that produced another bicameral agreement that does not bode well for millions of Americans. It is one more sign that Washington politics have devolved into Democrats fighting a losing battle to prevent Republicans from stealing from the poor to enrich corporations when the parties are proud of an agreement that hurts Americans less than Republicans intended. The announcement on Monday that House and Senate negotiators reached a bipartisan agreement on a massive farm bill may put an end to a more than two-year fight likely because this is an election year. However, just because House and Senate negotiators came to an agreement, it is questionable if the bill will garner enough Republican votes to pass in the House.
The new five-year farm bill is supposed to eliminate or consolidate dozens of agriculture subsidy programs, expand government-subsidized crop insurance, and cut $9 billion from the food stamp program over the next decade. The proposed agreement is slated to reduce spending by about $23 billion over 10 years; the House is expected to vote on it today. It is unclear when the Senate will take up the legislation and its passage is not guaranteed to be easy because many Senate Democrats are likely unhappy with the food stamp measure that cuts more than twice as much as the bipartisan agreement they reached last May.
However, while Senate Democrats are unhappy the food stamp cuts are twice as deep as their effort last year, they are not nearly as drastic as House teabaggers called for last year or will likely demand this year. Last June Republican hunger mongers defeated a farm bill supported by Speaker John Boehner because the $20 billion in food stamp cuts were not Draconian enough. The House eventually passed a separate bill that dealt with nutrition programs and cut $40 billion from SNAP that was a far cry from Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity that called for $133.5 billion in cuts that effectively ended nutrition assistance to 48 million Americans.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/29/farm-bill-screws-poor-order-provide-corporate-welfare.html
rikyrah
Dear Professional Left, Attacking the NSA While Giving Corporate Big Data a Pass is NOT Progressive
Wednesday, January 29, 2014 | Posted by Spandan Chakrabarti at 4:58 PM
I am a pretty regular listener to Stephanie Miller’s radio talk show. Miller herself is quite on point on Edward Snowden and the NSA, but her cohorts on the show, affectionately referred to as “the mooks” often set their everloving hair on fire based on NSA’s intelligence gathering activities. We have discussed the essential nature of signals intelligence on this blog before, and we will do so again, but for the purposes of this post, I want to focus on a rather dumbfounding notion that the Left keeps convincing itself is true: that it is more dangerous for the government to have metadata than for private companies to have it because only the government is empowered to strip one of one’s liberty.
Not only is this patently and provably false in today’s interconnected world, the reverse is closer to the truth. Let me explain.
In today’s world, government’s power to strip liberties is far from exclusive.
Few things astound me more than liberals’ inability – or in cases, unwillingness – to connect different parts of the world around us. The same liberals who argue that Google having your information and the NSA having your information isn’t the same because Google doesn’t have the ability to physically harm you will turn right around and and walk picket lines against coal mines owned by private corporations that do physically harm people. And by people, we aren’t even talking about just their employees but communities.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2014/01/attacking-nsa-while-giving-corporate.html
rikyrah
Hitting Mitch McConnell over health care in Kentucky
By Greg Sargent
January 29 at 4:53 pm
In yesterday’s speech, President Obama gave a shout-out to Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, citing his tireless efforts to expand Obamacare coverage to his own constituents in a deep red state. As enrollment mounts, Mitch McConnell has refused to directly answer questions about Kentuckians befitting from the law.
Counter-intuitively, some Kentucky Dems believe McConnell will ultimately face a reckoning on this issue. There is no more experienced McConnell watcher and antagonist then Dem Rep. John Yarmuth, so when he says McConnell is cornered, it’s worth listening.
“Who knows how many hundreds of thousands will eventually have coverage who didn’t before — and Mitch would take it away from them,” Yarmuth, of the Third District in Louisville, told me. “I think it opens up some pretty strong vulnerabilities.”
McConnell’s ads feature an energy worker who benefitted from his efforts to bring him health care, but Yarmuth says Dems can counter: what about all those who’d lose coverage if Obamacare were repealed?
“I would suggest Alison attack Mitch for wanting to take health coverage away when he is boasting about having gotten health care to one guy,” Yarmuth said. (Alison Lundergan Grimes has been cautious on the ACA, standing up for its expansion of coverage but generally avoiding the topic.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/29/hitting-mitch-mcconnell-over-health-care-in-kentucky/
rikyrah
The Morning Plum: Obama’s big gamble
By Greg Sargent
January 29 at 9:30 am
In his State of the Union speech, President Obama mostly avoided direct assaults on Republicans and made the somewhat conciliatory suggestion that “most” Congressional Republicans want to rebuild the American people’s “trust” in Washington, inviting them to join him in doing just that.
But he then doubled down on precisely the argument that is the main point of contention with Republicans, arguing that the primary challenge we face is stagnating economic mobility and widening inequality, and crucially, that only an agenda of robust government intervention can reverse the larger trends underlying those problems and restore economic mobility and the American dream.
The current political tug of war breaks down as follows. Republicans want the Obama era to be seen as one of excess liberal governance thwarting our economic potential, leading to widespread misery. The primary vehicle for this argument is Obamacare — government interference is only leading to lost coverage, higher premiums, and crushed jobs. Only electing Republicans to Congress can act as a check on unbridled liberal governance and restore market-powered prosperity.
Democrats want to persuade Americans that only they have an actual policy program to deal with our primary problems — that the gains from the recovery are not broadly shared, that wages have stagnated, and that there aren’t enough jobs. The Dem case is that the Republican arguments against Obama’s signature domestic achievement are really a proxy for the same old GOP trickle down ideology, that only getting government out of the way — and keeping taxes and regulations low on rich people and job creators — can unleash the market potential that will miraculously lift up everyone below them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/29/the-morning-plum-obamas-big-gamble/
rikyrah
HuffPo reports that three Dem Senators who co-sponsored the Iran sanctions bill, Joe Manchin, Kirstin Gillibrand and Chris Coons, are retreating and saying a vote now could imperil diplomacy, the latest sign that the momentum for a vote has dissipated entirely. Note this from Manchin:
“I did not sign it with the intention that it would ever be voted upon or used upon while we were negotiating,” Manchin said on MSNBC. “I signed it because I wanted to make sure the president had a hammer if he needed it and showed them how determined we were to do it and use it if we had to.”
He added that it’s better to “give peace a chance.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/29/happy-hour-roundup-281/
Cervantes
@rikyrah:
What makes you think “the Left keeps convincing itself” that this “rather dumbfounding notion” is “true”?
rikyrah
You mean healthcare isn’t a socialist plot?
I love it when Republicans get bitchslapped by REALITY.
‘Wary’…what utter bullshyt.
The rubber meets the road, and they’re like, ‘ of course, I want healthcare.’
it’s at these moments that I wish everything healthcare-related in this country had stamped at the top..
BROUGHT TO YOU BY OBAMACARE.
They should have had to be OBAMACARE on every Medical Insurance Card.
………………..
Wary of Obamacare, some Republicans sign up anyway
By Sharon Bernstein
SACRAMENTO, California Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:15pm EST
Julie Davis has every reason to be skeptical of Obamacare: She’s a Republican, her father is a physician who is wary of socialized medicine and her insurance was canceled because of new requirements imposed by the healthcare law this year.
But the 44-year-old filmmaker says her decision to seek coverage under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform was a practical one, made with little political angst but plenty of doubt over whether the program will really benefit her family.
“I did approach it with a skeptical eye,” said Davis, who lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son. “But it’s not political. We have no choice.”
After several weeks researching the new health plans, Davis signed up for a mid-tier “silver” plan for the three family members at $930 a month, slightly more than their previous policy purchased on the individual market, but with a far lower deductible.
Davis’s choice underscores the disconnect between Washington politics – particularly the Republican Party’s push to kill Obama’s Affordable Care Act and portray the law as an ill-devised social program bound to fail – and the experiences of at least some rank-and-file party members who are finding practical reasons to sign up. The discrepancy may complicate GOP efforts to use voter dissatisfaction over Obamacare’s troubled launch to win control of the Senate in November.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/29/us-usa-healthcare-republicans-idUSBREA0S18K20140129?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
rikyrah
Obama the confidence-builder
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By E.J. Dionne Jr., Published: January 29 E-mail the writer
When President Obama spoke to the nation Tuesday evening, his way was that of a politically moderate, temperamentally optimistic Democratic governor. He offered a long list of relatively modest but helpful programs that many voters will warm to and Republicans ought to have a hard time opposing.
Obama took a State of the Union address that began as a critique of economic inequality and turned it into a case for restoring opportunity. Anyone who saw class warfare here is spending too much time with Rush Limbaugh or Fox News.
Yes, mention of a moderate Democratic governor kindles memories of Bill Clinton. His State of the Union productions consisted of thick catalogues of proposals that the pundits often panned but listeners usually liked. Most voters do not have an ideological view of government. They simply want it to solve some problems. Most Americans also reject a theological faith in the market. They think it’s a fine system until it acts unfairly.
So consider Obama’s latest effort as a set of confidence-building measures. It’s a bid to move the national conversation back to economic basics: to “opportunity for everybody,” as he said in a follow-up speech Wednesday at a Costco store in Lanham, and to the idea that “treating workers well is not just the right thing to do, it’s an investment.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-obama-the-confidence-builder/2014/01/29/57a0ebae-8922-11e3-916e-e01534b1e132_story.html?hpid=z3
rikyrah
GA GOPers Meet Unemployment Debate Question With Awkward Pause (VIDEO)
Daniel Strauss – January 29, 2014, 4:26 PM EST
When a moderator for a recent Georgia Republican primary debate asked candidates by a show of hands whether they would vote to extend benefits for the thousands of American workers who have been stuck with long-term unemployment, the question was met with an awkward pause.
At the Mayor’s Day Senate Forum in Atlanta earlier in the week, none of the six candidates raised their hands in favor of extending benefits, but when the opposite question was asked — who would vote against such a proposal — all six candidates raised their hands. Rep. Paul Broun’s (R-GA) arm shot up the fastest.
The candidates’ reaction could indicate that the extension of unemployment benefits could become an issue in Republican primaries.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/georgia-senate-candidates-oppose-extending-unemployment-benefits
http://youtu.be/oW9HQTgyysQ
rikyrah
January 29, 2014, 01:30 pm
Pete Wilson syndrome: Boehner and the GOP’s last chance on immigration reform
By Fernando Espuelas
Tick, tock, the clock has run out on John Boehner and his GOP cohort to present a credible immigration reform plan to the nation. And that doesn’t mean just any set of “principles,” but a coherent, comprehensive bill that will pass the House, reconcile with the Senate’s bill and win the president’s signature.
The face of the clock is clearly saying failure is not an option for the Republican Party.
While conservative pooh-bahs are discouraging Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) from action, saying that immigration reform will damage the GOP, the view from outside the right-wing bubble is quite different. Boehner undoubtedly gets it, but many Republicans on the Hill and their enablers in the media, especially Tea Partyers who are rabidly opposed to reform, continue to live trapped in a time capsule somewhere in the past when Cokes sold for a nickel, new Chevys for $800 bucks and minorities could not vote.
Invisible to these time travelers is the daily damage that Republicans are suffering as American Latino voters — the fastest growing part of the electorate and the margin of victory or defeat in several big states — are increasingly disgusted with the GOP’s immigration blockade.
The reality is now upon us: Since President Bush’s immigration reform was killed by his own Republican Party in 2007 and the latest GOP presidential candidate ran on a political suicide strategy of “self-deportation,” Hispanics in this country see Republicans as the immovable object that must be dislodged from power.
The national GOP is going through a scaled-up version of the Pete Wilson syndrome. Back in the 1990s, Republican rising star Gov. Pete Wilson of California launched a crusade attacking undocumented workers. He campaigned for a ballot proposition that would, among many other vindictive measures, keep undocumented kids from attending public schools.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/immigration/196847-pete-wilson-syndrome-boehner-and-the-gops-last-chance-on#ixzz2rtS9kK4z
rikyrah
Mayor Kasim Reed was on The Today Show this morning, and he was not having Matt Lauer’s gotcha bitchassness!
http://www.today.com/news/atlanta-mayor-inexperience-snow-plays-role-gridlock-2D12023715
rikyrah
The GOP case against pay equity
01/30/14 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
President Obama received a fair amount of applause on Tuesday night when he spoke up in support of pay equity. “Today, women make up about half our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns,” he said in the State of the Union. “That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work.”
It seemed like the kind of sentiment that would enjoy broad, bipartisan support. The truth is more complicated.
For example, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the House Republican Conference chair, was asked yesterday whether she agrees with the president’s position on laws mandating equal pay for equal work. “Yes, absolutely,” she responded. “Republicans and I support equal pay for equal work.”
McMorris Rodgers neglected to mention that she, like nearly every other congressional Republican, voted against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Or consider this exchange on Fox News yesterday between Martha MacCallum and Alan Colmes about Obama’s comments on the issue.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-gop-case-against-pay-equity
rikyrah
‘I’m not sure I’m saying that’
01/29/14 04:53 PM—Updated 01/30/14 08:09 AM
By Steve Benen
For the last generation or so, the political fight over the minimum wage has been fairly narrow. Both parties broadly supported the concept a minimum wage, but argued over the details: how much it should be, when to increase it, whether to index it to inflation, etc.
Just over the last few years, as the radicalization of Republican politics has intensified, the nature of the debate itself changed. Prominent GOP lawmakers – Marco Rubio, Lamar Alexander, Joe Barton – have been willing to admit they not only reject Democratic calls for a wage increase, they believe the minimum wage should be lowered to zero. The law itself, they argue, is a mistake.
It’s a fairly risky posture for a politician take. The minimum wage is very popular with the American mainstream, as are Democratic calls for an increase. Republicans generally feel like they can get away with blocking wage increases – though even that’s a dodgy move in an election year – but usually hedge before calling for the law’s destruction.
Which brings us to an interesting interview last night between Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Wolf Blitzer, shortly after President Obama’s State of the Union address.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/im-not-sure-im-saying
rikyrah
GOP preps debt-ceiling surrender
01/29/14 03:57 PM—Updated 01/29/14 07:28 PM
By Steve Benen
As recently as three days ago, some of the leading Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill were eager to rattle their sword: it’s time for another debt-ceiling crisis, they said, and if Democrats fail to meet GOP demands, Republicans are prepared to start hurting the country on purpose.
Away from the cameras, though, the party is quietly putting that sword back in its sheath.
This doesn’t come as a surprise. The notion that GOP lawmakers would deliberately crash the economy in an election year – in advance of a cycle about which they’re feeling quite optimistic – has always been far-fetched. Of course they’re getting ready to surrender; the catastrophic alternative was never credible in the first place.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-preps-debt-ceiling-surrender
kindness
@FonzieScheme: Wow, I’m impressed. Usually it takes me a whole lot longer to conclude someone is a fucking asshole who’se opinions are worth squat.
And rikyrah? If you are going to stomp all over a thread to make it your soapbox, git your own damn blog. I might or might not agree with you but when I see you take over I stop reading you.
Cassidy
@kindness: It’s an open thread. You know, if you wanted to set the rules for a comments section, you could always…
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly:
Almost all of those talented musicians were American citizens. Hendrix was an Air Force vet.
The Stones were the only ones in danger of deportation, and Keith Richard(s) did have some visa troubles in the 1970s because of his drug arrests.
Laughed when I heard about the Bieber deportation petition. Good to see something fun cross the President’s desk.
Baron Elmo
“100,000 thousand” signatures to deport Der Bieb?
Longest. Petition. EVER.
(That, or someone at WaPoBlog can’t proofread for shit.)