Year: 2012

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News

Obama Administration Proposes Consumer Bill of Rights

Have you ever done a search for a product on Google then watch in amazement as that product shows up in ads on all the websites you visit? That is just one of the many ways sites like Google and Facebook use your personal information to sell to other companies or track your presence on the web and the sites you visit to make money.

Various Consumer advocacy groups have cried foul on these actions calling them intrusive, and apparently, the Obama administration agrees. The proposed bill calls for more protection of Consumers information and better control over how this information is used.

The proposal, unveiled Thursday, is designed to give consumers more control over how their personal data is used and to help businesses build trust with consumers. The White House has called on the Commerce Department to corral companies, privacy advocates and others to develop policies based on the plan. The White House also announced that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL have agreed to submit to Do Not Track technology and provide consumers with a means to control their online privacy.

The proposed Bill of Rights deals with six areas of online data management:

Transparency: Companies policies regarding security should be easily understandable to consumers.

Respect for Context: Consumers should expect that companies will collect, use and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide such data.

Security: Personal data should be handled securely and responsibly. Access and Accuracy: Consumers should be able to access and correct personal data.

Access and Accuracy: Consumers should be able to access and correct personal data.

Focused Collection: Data collection should be held within “reasonable limits.”

Accountability: Consumers have the right to have their personal data handled by companies and organizations that adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.

Categories
Politics

This Is One Corporate Tax Cut Republicans Will Oppose

Congressional Republicans have been calling for less taxes on Corporations. Doing this they claim, would stimulate more hirings, thus more jobs. Well the President has listened to their calls and today, the administration announced a plan to reduce the Corporate tax rate from 35% to 28%.

“Obama’s plan would be part of a larger effort to overhaul the U.S. tax system and it dovetails with Obama’s call for raising taxes on millionaires and maintaining current rates on individuals making $200,000 or less.

“While the 35 percent nominal corporate tax rate ranks among the highest, deductions, credits and exemptions allow many corporations to pay taxes at a much lower rate.

“Under the framework proposed by the administration, the rate cuts, closed loopholes and the minimum tax on overseas earning would result in no increase to the deficit.

“That means that many businesses that slip through loopholes or enjoy subsidies and pay an effective tax rate that is substantially less than the 35 percent corporate tax could end up paying more under Obama’s plan. Others, however, would pay less while some would simply benefit from a more simplified system.”

Sounds like a win win situation. Republicans get their Corporate tax cuts and President Obama get to close corporate loopholes. But don’t expect anything to get done, as Republicans will not agree to do anything this president proposes even if the proposal is one of their own. And ending Corporate loopholes is not something Republicans’ to-do list.

Categories
Music

President Obama Sings The Blues at The White House

Ever heard Mitt Romney sing? You’re not missing anything. His singing actually sounds the same as any of his speeches – dry and robotic.

On the other hand, here is president Obama, entertaining the likes of Mick Jagger and BB King at the White House last night. After singing a line to an Al Green classic a few weeks back, President Obama was asked to join in. He was reluctant at first, but eventually took the mic and wowed the crowd.

Categories
contraception Mitt Romney Politics Rick Santorum

Mitt Romney Does the Santorum – Its All About Obama’s Religious Test

Call it desperation, call it pandering, call it President Obama’s Religious test. Whatever you think it is, just add it to the growing list of ways Mitt Romney has shown that he will say whatever and do whatever to be president.

Romney has seen Rick Santorum’s huge success among his base by attacking Mr. Obama’s beliefs, so naturally, Romney figures the same luck would come his way if he does the same thing.

“You expect the president of the United States to be sensitive to that freedom and protect it and, unfortunately, perhaps because of the people the president hangs around with, and their agenda, their secular agenda, they have fought against religion,” Romney said, responding to a question about religious freedoms, in particular the Obama administration’s recent controversial attempt to require all institutions, including hospitals and colleges with religious affiliations, to offer free birth control and other contraceptives.

The policy was later rewritten to allow certain institutions to refuse to pay for the contraception and instead allow for private insurance to offer the cost of the coverage.

“I can assure you, as someone who has understood very personally the significance of religious tolerance and religious freedom and the right to one’s own conscience, I will make sure that we never again attack religious liberty in the United States of America,” Romney said, seemingly referring to his own Mormon faith, which has frequently been questioned during his various campaigns.”

Oh, and the small part in the Constitution that says there shall be no Religious test to be President? That does not apply to Obama.

Leave it up to Mitt Romney – a man who claims to know what it feels like to have your religion and beliefs attacked – to do the same and attack someone else’s faith.

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics Rick Santorum

As The Santorum Runs in Michigan, Romney Stays Afloat

Michigan has become a must win for Mitt Romney. He was born there (although we haven’t seen his birth certificate) and his family has strong ties to the state. His father George Romney, even held office there when Mittens was a young millionaire. But over the last few weeks, polls have suggested that the state is becoming a headache for Mittens, as Rick Santorum is really running (for lack of a better word) through the state and Romney’s own words in 2008 and a few weeks ago, to let Detroit go bankrupt.

But Mittens is slowly gaining hold once again in the state. Public Policy Polling (PPP) puts it this way: “The Republican race for President in Michigan has tightened considerably over the last week, with what was a 15 point lead for Rick Santorum down to 4. He leads with 37% to 33% for Mitt Romney, 15% for Ron Paul, and 10% for Newt Gingrich.

The tightening over the last week is much more a function of Romney gaining than Santorum falling. Santorum’s favorability spread of 67/23 has seen no change since our last poll, and his share of the vote has dropped only 2 points from 39% to 37%. Romney meanwhile has seen his net favorability improve 10 points from +10 (49/39) to +20 (55/35) and his vote share go from 24% to 33%.”

Categories
Politics Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum’s Idea of “Small Government” – Cartoon

The perfect depiction of what we’ve heard from Rick Santorum and the rest of the Republican field so far. They preach “small government,” but are on a constant crusade to tell you what to do in your bedroom.

Categories
marriage equality Politics

Get The Hell Off The Beach: The GOP Tsunami Heads Towards Shore

Last week I wrote that the conservative movement would crash this year because of internal disagreements and the inability of one candidate to unify the Republican Party’s fractious components.

Then I waited to see what the next few days would bring. They were uglier than I could have imagined.

Mitt Romney came out against the rescue of GM, even though the auto giant reported record profits and a sustained increase in hiring. Not to be outdone, Rick Santorum expressed the same sentiments, which makes Romney’s stance even more vexing because Mitt’s supposed to be the business savvy candidate with a keen eye for profits and efficiency. That they both agree with each other shows just how out of touch the GOP is. What sense does it make to oppose a policy that saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, revived the tax base of scores of towns, and forestalled what might have been an even worse mortgage and foreclosure crisis in Michigan and Ohio, among other states? Being anti-Obama is one thing. Being pro-ignorant of consequences is quite another.

On the contraception front, both men made sure that they offended a wide swath of the electorate, starting with Santorum backer Foster Friess’s comments about gals using aspirin between their knees as a reliable form of birth control. We also found out that Santorum views contraception as harmful to women. The uproar was so great over this issue that Mitt Romney was forced to veer away from his economic message and attack President Obama as waging a war on religion. As it turns out, the Republicans are waging a war on reason as poll after poll showed that most Americans and most Catholics supported the president’s policy.

I understand the religious objection and think that the Obama administration could have managed the issue more delicately than they did, but in catering to the most base of their base with appeals to hatred, war, and sexism, Romney and Santorum showed that the far right demands absolute fealty to their cause. Discussion and debate is not an option.

Marriage equality was also in the news this week and the GOP was on the wrong end of that debate as well. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie vetoed a legislature-backed bill to grant equality under the law to all citizens and called for a referendum on a constitutional right. His veto will be overturned by the deadline in 2014. Bank on it.

In Maryland, the marriage equality bill will be signed by the Governor, but will probably be on the ballot this November. Opposition by African-American churches make passage difficult to gauge. Washington State also saw a bill pass, but opponents have vowed to delay or stop it.

The short-term prospects for these bills might be cloudy, but the sun will shine on marriage equality simply because it’s the right thing to do and the demographics support eventual passage of these laws in a number of states. Younger people support marriage equality (even Republicans) in far greater numbers than their older counterparts, a trend that began last year. Since death of the older generation is inevitable, so is marriage equality.

And there’s more. Santorum also questioned the President’s religious beliefs and Romney has had to protect his right flank against accusations that he’s not conservative enough. With the economy beginning to grow the GOP has to bank on things getting worse. Their new line of attack is high gas prices. Wasn’t that George Bush’s fault in 2008? No? Then how can it be Obama’s in 2012? Anybody hear of supply and demand? Anybody?

It seems as though the Republican candidates we have this year will be the ones remembered for the “Fall of Rome” for their party. They are too extreme, too conservative and on the wrong side of the generational issues. They talk about progress while making sure that we regress into a less tolerant past that they’ve convinced themselves was rosy. It’s one that blamed women who were sexually active and slammed the closet door on gays and lesbians. It was intolerant of those who decided they didn’t want to be religious. We’re not going back to that time.

We’re moving forward!

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Politics weekly address

Presidential Address – The Importance of Manufacturing Jobs in America

The President’s weekly address focused on American manufacturing jobs. Mr. Obama spoke from the Boeing Plant in Everett, Washington and commended the job being done by Boeing to bring manufacturing jobs all across the nation.

“Boeing has been in this community for half a century,” the President said, “but it’s what they’re doing here today that has folks really excited; because at this plant they’re building the plane of the future – the Dreamliner.  It’s an impressive sight.  And, to be honest, part of why I came was to see it up close.  But I also came because this is a great example of how we can bring jobs and manufacturing back to America.”

Mr. Obama also explained that because of new technology certain jobs have become obsolete, “but that doesn’t mean we have to settle for a lesser future,” he said, “I don’t accept that idea.  In America, there’s always something we can do to create new jobs and new manufacturing and new security for the middle-class.  In America, we don’t give up, we get up.”

We have a big opportunity right now to build not only an economy that will help us succeed today, but an economy that will help our kids and their kids succeed tomorrow. We know what we need to do.  We need to strengthen American manufacturing…

We can do this…!

Categories
contraception Politics

Is Rush Limbaugh A Closet Democrat

Joan Walsh states: I’ve decided Rush Limbaugh must be a closeted Democrat. I can’t think of any other reason he would be leading the Republican Party over a political cliff by advising that they double down on the culture wars.

With new poll data showing that President Obama is quickly gaining ground among women voters, at least partly due to Republican extremism on contraception, Limbaugh told his listeners Thursday that the GOP would win the election if it’s decided on culture-war terms.

“Something tells me, that if the upcoming election could be decided on social issues, the Republicans could win that in a landslide, because we are on the right side of the culture war,” he said. “The problem is, we’re scared to death of it. The Republican establishment wants no part of it.”

Categories
Politics Republican

Republicans Heading For Self Destruction

Brent Budowsky Writes: The Republicans have become so consumed and blinded by the intensity of their obsession against the president and their pure lust for power that they stand for nothing, and offer nothing to voters, except the intensity of their obsessions, ideologies, hatreds and dislikes.

GOP leaders have forgotten the lesson of Richard Nixon’s farewell address. Nixon warned that those consumed with animosity for their enemies will ultimately destroy themselves.

Republicans today have no George Romneys, Ronald Reagans, Jack Kemps or William Buckleys who promote conservative ideas with a politics of good will. They have few ideas. They offer no good will. Their champion’s own father would be appalled by his pandering to extremism and his Gatsby-like reinventions without any core of lasting values. He is opposed by second-rate pretenders who are neither true conservatives nor qualified for the presidency.

Robert Grundfest writes: The far right wing of the Republican Party is driving the party’s agenda and there’s not one candidate who’s shown they can corral the competing factions. Conservative reaction to Mitt Romney ranges from suspect to hostile and none of the other candidates can claim the right’s support. Yet. That might change as Rick Santorum showed in winning three non-binding primaries last week.

If anything, the nomination battle has proven that the movement has splintered along economic, social and religious lines. Many of the proposals we’ve heard are meant to appeal to the far fringe Tea Party wing of the party (Ron Paul) or to the religious conservatives (Santorum and Gingrich). Romney’s attempts to appeal to the center while throwing the right some scraps on abortion and taxes have so far fallen short of gaining wide acceptance.

Categories
Featured

Even Members Of His Own Party Calls Boehner “Boner”

It is not just a play on words used by the left to describe the Republican House Speaker John Boehner, this clip from Buzzfeed shows that even members of his own party referred to him as “Boner.”

Categories
contraception hypocrisy Mitt Romney Politics Rick Santorum

Republicans Hypocrisy On The Contraception Issue

The economy is improving and President Obama’s foreign policy is almost flawless. So what are Republicans to do? They have all decided that social issues – more specifically, women’s health –  will be their ticket to the White House.

Over the last few weeks, Republicans thought they saw an opening in new ways to attack the President when Mr. Obama’s administration began requiring all employers to provide contraception without a co-pay for their employees. The Catholic Church jumped on this issue saying that the president is forcing the Church to go against its teachings in providing contraception to workers. Republicans smell blood, and began attacking the President, calling his requirement an “attack on Religion.”

The President and the Church came to an understanding and an agreement was reached – Churches would be exempt from the requirement, but contraception will still be provided and paid for by the insurance companies. But don’t tell that to the Republicans as they have decided that this would be the decisive issue in the 2012 presidential election, and they have decided to continue this fight.

And listening to their holier than thou attitudes, you will think that no other Republican president or governor has attempted what President Obama tried a few weeks ago. Yea, you will think that, but you will be wrong as even Mitt Romney, the present leading Republican candidate also signed the very same bill into law in Massachusetts.

Rachel Maddow explains…

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