Politics — Barack Obama
- Obama for America — Beyond the bleep, we think the rest of this video…
Beyond the bleep, we think the rest of this video is worth watching, too—particularly if you are a fan of electoral strategy (and/or maps). Jim Messina talks you through five pathways we’ve got to 270 electoral votes in 2012. - Melody Barnes Leaving Obama Administration Amid Struggling Economy
- Lloyd Chapman: Top 6 Reasons Obama’s Economic Policies Failed in 2011
Politics — Ron Paul
- Ron Paul Claimed An AIDS Patient Is ‘A Victim Of His Own Lifestyle’ In 1987 Book | ThinkProgress – But this part of the article is particulary f’ed up. What is this joker thinking:
…and suggested that victims of sexual harassment should simply quit their jobs:
In one section of the book, Paul criticized people suffering from AIDS or other contagious diseases for demanding health insurance coverage. “The individual suffering from AIDS certainly is a victim – frequently a victim of his own lifestyle – but this same individual victimizes innocent citizens by forcing them to pay for his care,” Paul wrote. […]
“Employee rights are said to be valid when employers pressure employees into sexual activity,” Paul wrote. “Why don’t they quit once the so-called harassment starts? Obviously the morals of the harasser cannot be defended, but how can the harassee escape some responsibility for the problem? Seeking protection under civil rights legislation is hardly acceptable.”
People that are sexually harassed on the job are responsible for their harassment? I guess kids in school that are bullied are responsible for their harassment too. Just like rape victims are responsible for getting themselves raped too. The shocking thing is that this kind of thinking from this guy has a considerable following.
Politics — Mitt Romney
- Political Animal – Romney’s ‘carried interest’ problem
…Let me summarize the political problem this way:
1. Mitt Romney is worth $250 million.
2. He got rich by laying off American workers.
3. He pays a lower tax rate than you and the rest of the middle class.
4. He wants to be president so he can keep it this way.
I don’t know if voters will find this offensive or not, but it certainly explains why Romney is so eager to keep his tax returns under wraps.
- Daily Kos: Mitt Romney’s son says he was just ‘repeating’ birther ‘joke’
Politics
- How Science Has Become Taboo for Republicans Seeking the White House | Environment | AlterNet
- Be careful what you wish for: Why the Tea Party should not want to repeal the 17th Amendment – The Hill’s Congress Blog
- » How Many Times Can Republicans Tell The Same Lies About Health Care Reform And Have The Media Repeat Them As News? Liberal Values
- » Gallup Shows Voter Misconceptions Regarding Views of the Candidates Liberal Values
Economics & The Economy
- Paul Krugman: Governments Should Cut Back In Boom Times, Not Bust.
- Keynes Was Right – NYTimes.com
“The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.” So declared John Maynard Keynes in 1937, even as F.D.R. was about to prove him right by trying to balance the budget too soon, sending the United States economy — which had been steadily recovering up to that point — into a severe recession. Slashing government spending in a depressed economy depresses the economy further; austerity should wait until a strong recovery is well under way.
Unfortunately, in late 2010 and early 2011, politicians and policy makers in much of the Western world believed that they knew better, that we should focus on deficits, not jobs, even though our economies had barely begun to recover from the slump that followed the financial crisis. And by acting on that anti-Keynesian belief, they ended up proving Keynes right all over again.
- Robert Samuelson, Wrong Again | Beat the Press
To his credit, in his column today Robert Samuelson apologized for a mistake in an earlier column. In the prior column he claimed that if Keynes saw the level of indebtedness of countries today, he would not be arguing that governments should be running deficits to stimulate the economy. The problem is that the level of indebtedness in the UK, where Keynes was writing, was far larger in the 30s than the level of indebtedness currently faced by the United States and every other wealthy country, except Japan.
However, he makes up for this apology by making several new mistakes or misrepresentations. In the former category he repeats what he said in the prior column…
- Four Whoppers of 2011 | The Big Picture lead me too…
- Lies, Damn Lies and the Four Whoppers of 2011: Jonathan Alter – Bloomberg
- Slowly but surely, the job market is healing – CBS News
There is a bit of good news about the economy that the job market is healing. On Thursday, the Labor Department said in the past month, unemployment claims averaged 375,000 per week — the fewest since June 2008. For perspective: At the height of the recession in 2009, more than 600,000 Americans were applying for unemployment each week.
Thursday’s news triggered a rally on Wall Street , with the Dow closing up 136 points.
- Daily Kos: Another 10 charts peer into the economy