President Obama did what no other American president has ever done – visited a Mosque right here in the United States. Why you asked? To combat the hate some Republicans and the Republican presidential candidates are throwing against the entire Muslim community or, to quote the President, to combat the “inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim-Americans.”
“Let me say as clearly as I can as president of the United States: you fit right here,” Obama told the audience at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, a 47-year-old mosque with thousands of attendees. “You’re right where you belong. You’re part of America too. You’re not Muslim or American. You’re Muslim and American.”
Rand Paaul, one of the only Republicans running for president who actually had some sensible things to say, found out the hard way that sensibility in today’s Republican party takes you nowhere.
The Kentucky Senator was forced to end his presidential campaign due to a lack of support from the GOP base.
“It’s been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House,” Paul said in statement.
“The fight is far from over,” he said. “I will continue to carry the torch for Liberty in the United States Senate and I look forward to earning the privilege to represent the people of Kentucky for another term.”
Sarah Palin has never been accused of being honest, so her adamant denial that she never blamed Obama for her son’s PTSD came as no surprise.
In an interview on Today on Monday, Palin, who recently endorsed Donald Trump, was asked about a statement she made that her son Track, who served in the military, came back home suffering with PTSD, thanks to Obama. Her statement received universal denunciation from veteran groups across this nation and made the headlines for days, but now, Palin is playing dumb… or maybe she’s not playing at all…
In the interview with Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie, Palin was asked about her statement.
“You talked about it, and then you mentioned PTSD,” Guthrie said, “and you said that President Obama may be to blame for some of the PTSD that’s out there.”
Palin fired back that she was “promised” questions about politics and Iowa before agreeing to the interview. “As things go in the world of media, you don’t always keep your promises, evidently,” she said, before diving headfirst into her answer albeit, a lying answer, that she did not blame Obama for Track’s ‘PTSD.’
Matt Lauer continued the line of questioning and asked whether she regretted the comment. Palin replied, “What did I say that was offensive? I don’t regret any comment that I made because I didn’t lay PTSD at the foot of the president.” She replied. “If you have a specific quote, it allows the media to be credible if you guys would tell me exactly what you’re talking about.”
In a tweet to his family members who supported his 2016 presidential run, Republican Mike Huckabee broke the sad news that he was formally suspending his failed campaign. As of the time of this post, the tweet had already received well over 7,500 likes, that’s well over 7,500 more responses Huckabee received than his total vote count in the Iowa Caucus!
I am officially suspending my campaign. Thank you for all your loyal support. #ImWithHucK
I’m not really the type to say “I told you so,” but I indeed told you so on numerous occasions that Donald
Trump would not be the GOP nominee and neither will Ted Cruz.
Trump’s second place finish in Iowa is but the first blow to his campaign, because while he was battering Cruz with ads and withering sarcasm, Marco Rubio, who is no moderate, snuck up on him and finished a very strong third. This gives the GOP alternatives to Trump and my sense is that they will take advantage of that.
Iowa also marked the beginning of either the beginning or the end of some of the more moderate Republican campaigns. Jeb, Kasich and Christie absolutely must come in second or third in the Granite State if they are to have any traction for the rest of the month and to stick around for Super Tuesday. By next week the GOP field should lose Fiorina, Carson and Paul, and their supporters will have to go somewhere. My guess is that they won’t go to Trump or Cruz.
Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Bernie and Hillary were locked in a tight race that likely serves Sanders better because the polls said he would lose by a small margin. To lose by an even smaller margin, or perhaps to eke out a small win, puts Clinton back a bit going into New Hampshire where Bernie is expected to do very well.
Funny how actual voting can really mess up a narrative. Onward we go.
Current Republican presidential candidate and former Canadian citizen until a few months ago, Ted Cruz, got a rude awakening when he visited his friends at Fox News and got called out by Chris Wallace on his lie that Obamacare is a job killer.
“The fact checkers say you’re wrong,” Wallace told Cruz. “Since that law went into effect, the unemployment rate fell from 9.9% to 5% as 13 million new jobs were created, and 16.3 million people who were previously uninsured now have coverage. There are plenty of problems with Obamacare, but more people have jobs and health insurance.”
Naturally, Cruz went on to claim that fact checkers are liberally biased.
“Fact checkers are not fair and impartial,” Cruz responded. “They are liberal editorial journalists. And they have made it their mission to defend Obamacare.”
“Wait,” Wallace shot back. “There’s certainly no question that more people have jobs and more people health insurance.”
“Yes, there is question,” Cruz replied. “The fact is from 2008 to today, we’ve seen economic growth of 1.2% on average.”
Notice how he said “from 2008 to today” – that’s important. Cruz is lumping in 2008 and 2009 which were horrible years for jobs because that’s when the Great Recession began. Naturally, when you factor in those two disastrous years it’s going to make the year-to-year job growth percentages under President Obama appear to be much worse than they are. Especially when you consider that Obama wasn’t even president in 2008.
Also, Cruz can say whatever he wants, but it’s indisputable that the unemployment rate is down to 5 percent, that we’ve created over 13 million new jobs and over 16 million people have gained access to health insurance. Those aren’t numbers that were made up by a “biased” fact checker, they’re facts – period.
I predict that the global rise in temperature will show a significant decline on Monday as all the hot air bloviators, pollsters, consultants and media talking heads hold their steamy breath as they await the results of the Iowa caucuses. And why shouldn’t they? The numbers all say that Donald Trump will win the caucuses over Ted Cruz, with the rest of the GOP field barely in their rear-view mirror.
And then of course there’s Iowa’s importance as a…as a…mid-western, um, evangelical-heavy, um…white, um…state. That really doesn’t represent much about America except that the Republicans there seem to have fallen for Trump’s snake oil and Cruz’s smarmy insincerity.
Which is why I think the results will likely be different from the media narrative that’s been written since the fall. I could be wrong, and if I am I will say so because I live in New Jersey and from the governor on down to us little folk, we New Jerseyans always tell the truth and admit our failures and flip-flops.
For what it’s worth, I have been saying all along that neither Trump nor Cruz will be the GOP nominee because both their personalities and their policy prescriptions will not appeal to a majority of either party voters or the electorate at large. Trump has been inconsistent in his message on the stump and hasn’t really come up with specific fixes for the economy, foreign policy or constitutional issues mainly because he doesn’t have many. Calling people stupid or losers or saying that he can fix things because he’s a businessman doesn’t inspire confidence. Cruz, likewise, is running to head a government that he doesn’t even respect. He says he knows what the constitution means and the original intent of the framers, but my suspicion is that they would laugh him out of the room for being a presidential pretender at best.
Trump and Cruz are likely to be first and second in Iowa, but I don’t believe that either one will crack 30% of the vote and the big surprise will come from Marco Rubio, and one of Bush or Kasich, who will do far (far) better than what they are polling right now. I think they could approach 20% of the vote, which would instantly put them in line to be seen as the moderate/establishment savior for the party, and the de facto person to beat in New Hampshire.
For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton’s e-mails have reared their ugly heads again and they will have a slight impact on the race, but I think she will still win the caucuses by about 5 percentage points over Bernie Sanders. He’ll likely poll in the high 30s or lower 40s on Monday, and will go into New Hampshire as the favorite to win there, but I don’t think he’ll do that either. Clinton has too much money and more support among minorities for Sanders to mount a national challenge.
After a very long pre-season, it’s time for political junkies everywhere to get their electoral needles ready for the voting binge to come. The fun starts now.
At an event in Nashua, New Hampshire today, Donald Trump continued his attacks against his closest competitor, Canadian born, Ted Cruz, calling the Republican presidential wannabe, “an anchor baby.”
“Now, Ted Cruz may not be a U.S. citizen. Right? But he’s an anchor baby in Canada. No, he’s an anchor baby. Ted Cruz is an anchor baby in Canada,” Trump told the crowd.
Trump later on lambasted Cruz for saying he didn’t know about various loans he received earlier in his political career.
“But he said he didn’t know he was a citizen of Canada, and he didn’t know about Goldman Sacs loaning him money, and he didn’t know about Citibank loaning him money. Other than that, he’s got a very good memory, okay?”
If scared Democrats had done what Biden is recommending now, then things would have turned out much different in the last midterm elections. Remember how that went? Democratic candidates had so many different policies and accomplishments to point to, but instead they ran as far to the right as possible, only to have Democratic voters stay home on election day. And you know how that turned out – when Democrats don’t vote, Republicans win!
The Vice President is cautioning against that mistake for the 2016 elections.
“The best way to win is to run on what we’ve done and what we stand for … and then contrast that to what they are for and what they oppose. We don’t do it nearly enough,” he said.
“I am bullish on the possibilities for the House, as well as the Senate, and I really think the key is: Don’t run away from what you’ve done.”
Biden, who decided against his own run for the White House after a drawn-out process last year, highlighted several Democratic priorities he feels will prove popular on the campaign trail, including expanded worker protections, universal access to pre-kindergarten programs and an increase in the child care tax credit.
He said the Republicans’ legislative wishlist — as defined by the past budgets of Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — has given the Democrats plenty of fodder to distinguish the parties’ priorities.
“Paul Ryan’s a lovely guy. He gave us such a gift, he passed the Ryan budget. … You guys don’t have to make anything up. Just say exactly what they’ve done,” Biden said.
“We can make these cases in each of our districts and suit them to our districts. … Because right now in a lot of places Americans are so confused there’s still basically this ‘pox on both your houses’ [sentiment]. We shouldn’t apologize for what we’re for, and we should point out what they’re for.”
This incident happened back in 2013, but body-cam video of the killing of 51-year-old Oakland resident Hernan Jaramillo, was just released.
The Oakland police were called to Herman’s residence by Hernan’s sister around 1:40am on July 8, 2013 . She reported that noise coming from Herman’s room gave her the impression that something serious was happening in his room. She thought someone was trying to kill her brother.
Police arrived at the residence and tried getting Herman out of the room. After several attempts, the officers gained access the room, confronted and arrested Mr. Jaramillo. According to court papers, the city attorney said that Jaramillo resisted police commands 20 times when they took him outside and tried to put him in their car. At this point, Mr. Jaramillo was not a suspect
While trying to get the man into the car, one officer, Ira Anderson, said he noticed Mr. Jaramillo’s handcuff was done in the front instead of behind him.
“I grabbed him by the shirt,” Anderson stated. “I brought him away from the car … did a leg sweep and put him on the sidewalk.”
It was there on the sidewalk where Mr. Jaramillo cried for his life as officers restrained him. One witness said a police officer had his knee in Jaramillo’s back. “I can’t breathe,” Jaramillo cried, “They’re killing me!” This was said multiple times.
“You’re gonna stay here until you relax,” one officer is heard telling Jaramillo. Later in the video the officer said, “Sir, we’re not killing you.”
When medical personnel arrived, Jaramillo was found handcuffed and unresponsive.
Roger Ailes failed again when he sent out his top dog to bully Donald Trump into doing the Fox Debate on Thursday. In an interview on Wednesday, O’Reilly did all he could, even trying to bribe Trump with “milkshakes”, to get the Republican presidential candidate to do the Thursday night debate.
Trump, who has been in a no holds barred war with Megyn Kelly since Kelly asked a valid question in a Republican debate back in 2015, has been adamant in his decision to boycott another Kelly moderated debate on Thursday. In the interview, Bill O’ Reilly tried and tried, and failed consistently, even bringing up Trump’s “Christian” faith, to convince him to “forgive” Kelly and “turn the other cheek.”
Trump wouldn’t give. So an exasperated Bill O’ Reilly called Trump a “Buffoon,” although he didn’t come straight out and say, you’re a buffoon. Bill O’ pulled the same trick played by many others in the political media, saying there are some who say Trump is a buffoon. You know, put it out there and hope the words have their intended effect.
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