Archive for Obama
Obama at Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security
Posted by: | CommentsThis landed in my email inbox. I’ve shortened it some.
Ronald Reagan Building
Washington, D.C.
May 18, 2012, 10:08 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much [...] We were originally going to convene, along with the G8, in Chicago. But since we’re not doing this in my hometown, I wanted to bring a little bit of Chicago to Washington. (Laughter.) It is wonderful to see all of you. It is great to see quite a few young people here as well. And I want to acknowledge a good friend. We were just talking backstage — he was my inspiration for singing at the Apollo — (laughter) — Bono is here, and it is good to see him. (Applause.)
Now, this weekend at the G8, we’ll be represented by many of the world’s largest economies. We face urgent challenges — creating jobs, addressing the situation in the eurozone, sustaining the global economic recovery. But even as we deal with these issues, I felt it was also important, also critical to focus on the urgent challenge that confronts some 1 billion men, women and children around the world — the injustice of chronic hunger; the need for long-term food security.
So tomorrow at the G8, we’re going to devote a special session to this challenge. We’re launching a major new partnership to reduce hunger and lift tens of millions of people from poverty. And we’ll be joined by leaders from across Africa, including the first three nations to undertake this effort and who join us here today — I want to acknowledge them: Prime Minister Meles of Ethiopia — (applause) — President Mills of Ghana — (applause) — and President Kikwete of Tanzania. (Applause.) Welcome.
So Get With The Economy-Killing Program, Already
Posted by: | CommentsFor a Kenyan, Marxist, radical socialist, atheist/Muslim, commie sleeper agent, illegitimate president intent on destroying America, Barack Obama really sucks at his job. Seriously. The S&P 500 closed at 1,405.82 yesterday, and has more than doubled in the last three years. What’s up with that?
The ISM [Institute for Supply Management] reading of 54.8 was a surprise improvement from the month before and the best reading since June 2011, offering the latest signal economic conditions in the U.S. continue to improve.
Soaring stock market boosts retirement accounts
A soaring stock market over the past three months has paid off handsomely for America’s retirement accounts, according to new data from Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest 401(k) administrator.
Obama Features Walnut Street
Posted by: | CommentsIn addition to this being a hard hitting ad from the Obama campaign, it features Asheville’s Walnut Street. Thanks to Jon Ostendorff’s Politics Now blog for pointing it out!
Affordable Care Act.
Posted by: | CommentsThis is mainly an open thread with a theme. I’d like to hear what the hooligans out there have to say in support of or criticizing Obama Care and the looming Supreme Court main event next week, when 26 states get to have their arguments brought before the court in a scheduled six hours of testimony over the course of three days.
As for myself, I think it sucks. This is one time when I truly hope the Conservative Court rules in favor of the States, and it very well could happen.
My problem with the entire insurance racket is that it is a financial commodity that would have priced itself out of existence long ago, were it not for the legislative actions of government and the collusion of an employer-based health care system that is itself an outdated model of how such things should be run. Were a truly free market allowed to evolve naturally in this instance it would not take long for it to become extinct. Insurance is unnecessary and extraneous to health care. They are not the same thing, nor are they mutually dependent. Yet it is insurance, not health care that is about to be enshrined in the golden cash register of American law.
The Road We’ve Traveled
Posted by: | CommentsFrom the Obama 2012 campaign:
Talking Points Memo has an interesting breakdown of the video here.
You Have Been Schooled
Posted by: | CommentsThe Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
“Due process” and “judicial process” are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.
– U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, explaining to Northwestern University School of Law how national security officials can pop a Hellfire missile in your American ass and call it due process.
That’s legal reasoning worthy of John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales. And you thought you’d seen the last of them on January 20, 2009.
Glenn Greenwald quotes Sen. Barack Obama and Eric Holder condemning this kind of reasoning from the Bush II White House, and characterizes President Obama’s version of due process:
the President and his underlings are your accuser, your judge, your jury and your executioner all wrapped up in one, acting in total secrecy and without your even knowing that he’s accused you and sentenced you to death, and you have no opportunity even to know about, let alone confront and address, his accusations; is that not enough due process for you?
Damoclean Democracy and the Executive
Posted by: | CommentsCross posted from Ascend of Asheville.
As of 2005 there were 737 US military bases in other countries around the world. Every two years the Executive branch of the US government submits about 4000 civilian, and about 65,000 military appointments to Congress for positions within the government. Most of these positions are within the Executive branch. Essentially, the vast majority of the Executive is military in it’s origin, purpose and/or personnel.
This represents, to borrow a phrase from a famous General turned Executive, a vast military/executive complex, with power that arises in many ways from a single admonishment in the Constitution that the President “take care that the laws be faithfully executed”.
The framers of the Constitution wished to avoid a capricious government that was subject to the whims of the population (too much Democracy) or prone to abuse by dictators (too little Democracy). By aiming for “just right” as they understood it, they created a system approaching genius, but they also created a Damoclean situation that has deteriorated over time. Read More→
Eddie Lives
Posted by: | CommentsIncluding November outcomes, a lot remains uncertain in this election season, and redistricting accounts for a lot of it: who is in, who is out, who can run, who can vote and vote where. Much of the rhetoric and legislation from the Republican side has a retrograde feel to it. In the wake of Democratic gains in 2006 and 2008, and the economic collapse in 2008, the Republican strategy seems to be one, enormous rearguard action to forestall the inevitable as demographic reality slowly seeps in, one last, desperate culture war counteroffensive before the end. Emblematic of that is the open reemergence of the Southern Strategy, in rhetoric, legislation and redistricting. There will be more on Republican redistricting to come, but first some observations about the flavor of the Republican primaries.
Those of us of a certain age remember an old TV sitcom, “Leave It To Beaver.” It was pretty saccharine fare, except for one particular character, a two-faced kid named Eddie Haskell.
Having It Both Ways
Posted by: | CommentsRepublicans want to fall in line, the saying goes, and Ann Coulter is falling in line now that Gov. Mitt Romney is back as Republican front runner. She even likes his healthcare plan: Three cheers for Romneycare — “a massive triumph for conservative free-market principles.” After paragraphs gushing about the individual mandate’s conservative roots in the Heritage Foundation, Coulter goes “tenther” calling the 2,000-page Affordable Care Act, not bad policy, exactly, just an illegal one: “If Obamacare were a one-page bill that did nothing but mandate that every American buy health insurance, it would still be unconstitutional…”
Of course, Heritage didn’t think so when in response to the Clinton health proposal, prominent Republicans in the congress included many of its ideas in a couple of health care bills, including the “Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993” (18 Republican cosponsors and a breezy 579-page read) and the “Consumer Choice Health Security Act of 1993” with multiple sponsors in the House. Or when Mitt Romney used the Heritage model in Massachusetts. Only when the Obama White House adopted Romney’s template did Heritage and Republicans balk, as Think Progress reminded them:
– Heritage On Romney’s Individual Mandate: “Not an unreasonable position, and one that is clearly consistent with conservative values.” [Heritage, 1/28/06]
– Heritage On President Obama’s Individual Mandate: “Both unprecedented and unconstitutional.” [Heritage, 12/9/09]
– Heritage On Romney’s Insurance Exchange: An “innovative mechanism to promote real consumer choice.” [Heritage, 4/20/06]
– Heritage On President Obama’s Insurance Exchange: Creates a “de facto public option” by “grow[ing]” government control over healthcare.” [Heritage, 3/30/10]
– Heritage On Romney’s Medicaid Expansion: Reduced “the total cost to taxpayers” by taking people out of the “uncompensated care pool.” [Heritage, 1/28/06]
– Heritage On President Obama’s Medicaid Expansion: Expands a “broken entitlement program,” providing a “low-quality, poorly functioning program.” [Heritage, 3/30/10]
With Coulter singing his praises, once again it’s springtime for Mitt.
CSI: Wall Street
Posted by: | Comments
Several recent reports worth noting on the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group that President Obama announced in his State of the Union address. Rachel Maddow brought New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman onto her show [timestamp 4:40] to discuss the RMBS Working Group’s charge. Schneiderman and fellow AGs Kamala Harris (CA), Beau Biden (DE), Lisa Madigan (IL), Martha Coakley (MA), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) have bucked the Justice Department and fellow state AGs who worked to cut a deal on limiting bank investigations earlier this year. Schneiderman, et. al. weren’t about to hand out “Get Out of Jail Free” cards. This pressured the Obama Justice Department to get more serious about holding the banks accountable.
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