Republicans have corralled around this video like scavengers zeroing in on a dead prey. The video taken in 1991 shows a young Harvard Law President named Barack Obama giving a speech. This video, Republicans claim, shows “how radical” young Barack was because he spoke in favor of more diversity among the faculty.
This blast from the past, featuring Obama speaking on behalf of prominent Harvard Professor Derrick Bell at a protest calling for greater faculty diversity, was provided to BuzzFeed from WGBH Boston, and uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday.
Rick Santorum, the present Republican flavor of the month, is now criticizing President Obama for apologizing to the Muslim world for American troops accidentally burning Qurans in Afghanistan.
The Associated Press Reports: Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum criticized President Barack Obama’s apology for the burning of Qurans in Afghanistan, adding that Afghanistan should apologize to the U.S. for the deaths of four U.S. soldiers during six days of violence sparked by the incident.
“There was nothing deliberately done wrong here,” Santorum said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”. “This was something that happened as a mistake. Killing Americans in uniform is not a mistake. It was something that deliberate.”
More than 30 people have been killed in clashes since it emerged Tuesday that copies of the Muslim holy book and other religious materials had been thrown into a fire pit used to burn garbage at Bagram Air Field, a large U.S. base north of Kabul. Protesters angry over Quran burnings by American troops lobbed grenades Sunday at a U.S. base in northern Afghanistan and clashed with police and troops in a day of violence that left seven international troops wounded and two Afghans dead.”
But is President Obama the first president to issue an apology? If you only listen to Santorum and the other Republican presidential hopefuls, you’ll think he is. But even George W. Bush and the Republican god Ronald Reagan, issued apologies.
President Ronald Reagan was initially reluctant to apologize to Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned in camps during World War II. He did so after Congress issued its apology and provided for reparations.
Bush apologized for abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib after the photographic evidence was seen around the world. He called it “a stain on our country’s honor and our country’s reputation”
In this week’s Presidential address, President Obama spoke about keeping home owners in their homes, and he mentioned a new policy that, if passed by Democrats and Republicans in congress, will make a lot of homeowners happy.
That’s why I’m sending Congress a plan that will give every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgages by refinancing at historically low rates. No more red tape. No more endless forms. And a small fee on the largest financial institutions will make sure it doesn’t add a dime to the deficit.
I want to be clear: this plan will not help folks who bought a house they couldn’t afford and then walked away from it. It won’t help folks who bought multiple houses just to turn around and sell them.
What this plan will do is help millions of responsible homeowners who make their payments every month, but who, until now, couldn’t refinance because their home values kept dropping or they got wrapped up in too much red tape.
The president urged the nation to contact their representatives and push them to approve this new policy measure.
In order to lower mortgage payments for millions of Americans, we need Congress to act. They’re the ones who have to pass this plan. And as anyone who has followed the news in the last six months can tell you, getting Congress to do anything these days is not an easy job.
That’s why I’m going to keep up the pressure on Congress to do the right thing. But I also need your help. I need your voice. I need everyone who agrees with this plan to get on the phone, send an email, tweet, pay a visit, and remind your representatives in Washington who they work for. Tell them to pass this plan. Tell them to help more families keep their homes, and more neighborhoods stay vibrant and whole.
Hammered by bipartisan discontent with its partisan rancor, the U.S. Congress reconvenes Tuesday with its lowest approval rating on record in polls dating back nearly 40 years –ideal fodder not just for late-night comedians, but also for President Obama in the election year ahead.
Just 13 percent of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll approve of the way Congress is handling its job, while 84 percent disapprove – its worst rating in poll results since 1974. Sixty-five percent disapprove “strongly,” a vast level of high-intensity criticism.
Congress’ rating is a broad 35 points below Obama’s 48 percent approval, the biggest gap between approval of the president and Congress since 1990
On this day when we honor d Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we are sadly reminded of an unfortunate fact, that here in America, there are still those who will base their opinions on the color of one’s skin, rather than the content of their character.
Today on MSNBC, the question was asked if the people in South Carolina would vote for Mitt Romney or for Barack Obama. Mr. Jimmy Williams, himself born in South Carolina, tried to answer the question and in his answer, the ugly truth was revealed.
I think that Romney could eek out a win… I think South Carolinians would do something interesting, I think they would hold their noses because they hate Barack Obama so much. And I’ll tell you why they don’t like Barack Obama, because he’s black.
Happy Martin Luther King’s Day people… and welcome to 2012!
Today, Jon Huntsman – the man most people believed was the sanest, most sensible candidate in the Republican party running for his party’s nomination for president – officially quit the race.
Huntsman ended his campaign asking for “unity and trust.” In his speech, he mentioned the divisive politics that has separated and divided this country, then engaged in the same divisive politics he spent his speech denouncing, by claiming that President Obama is engaging in “class warfare.”
Let’s invest out time and resources in building trust with the American people, and uniting them around a common purpose. Three years ago, the President promised to unite the American people, yet his desire to engage in class warfare for political gain has left us more divided than ever.
Huntsman then continued his call for unity and trust.
Maybe Huntsman wasn’t the best, most sane and sensible candidate after-all. Something is definitely wrong with a person who calls for and preaches trust and unity, then in the same sentence, spews lies with the sole intent of causing mistrust and divisiveness.
Good riddance Huntsman, you had a lot of people fooled.
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Jon M. Huntsman Jr. informed his advisers on Sunday that he intends to drop out of the Republican presidential race, ending his candidacy a week before he had hoped to revive his campaign in the South Carolina primary.
Mr. Huntsman, who had struggled to live up to the soaring expectations of his candidacy, made plans to make an announcement as early as Monday. He had been set to participate in an evening debate in Myrtle Beach.
Matt David, campaign manager to Mr. Huntsman, confirmed the decision in an interview Sunday evening. “The governor and his family, at this point in the race, decided it was time for Republicans to rally around a candidate who could beat Barack Obama and turn around the economy,” Mr. David said. “That candidate is Gov. Mitt Romney.”
In his weekly address, President Obama highlighted companies and businesses that are bringing the jobs back home.
This week, I invited executives from businesses that are insourcing jobs to a forum at the White House. These are CEOs who take pride in hiring people here in America, not just because it’s increasingly the right thing to do for their bottom line, but also because it’s the right thing to do for their workers and for our communities and our country.
And the President spoke about the tax incentives he is offering to these businesses;
I will put forward new tax proposals that reward companies that choose to do the right thing by bringing jobs home and investing in America – and eliminate tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.
Just another move by the President to put the American people back to work.
There is a big debate going on right now about a few pieces of legislation in Congress geared to fight online piracy. The Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) and the Online Protection and Digital ENforcement Act (OPEN) are making their way through the legislative body, but another bill called SOPA – the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) – has created a firestorm of controversies because of its wide and far-reaching powers.
If enacted and signed into law, SOPA, according to opponents of the bill, will (among other things) have the authority to tell Internet Service Providers to block the Domain Name Systems (DNS) of most law-abiding websites – including websites that operate under the Creative Commons License – simply because the site may have used contents protected under the Commons License, but not explicitly authorized by the content’s owner.
The author of the bill Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and those in favor of SOPA maintain that only sites outside the United States that violates the owner’s intellectual property, will be affected.
The debate over this particular piece of legislation cause the White House to put out the following statement, detailing their where they stand on the issue. The statement was issued by Victoria Espinel, Aneesh Chopra, and Howard Schmidt.
While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.
Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small. Across the globe, the openness of the Internet is increasingly central to innovation in business, government, and society and it must be protected. To minimize this risk, new legislation must be narrowly targeted only at sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law, cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws, and be effectively tailored, with strong due process and focused on criminal activity. Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing.
We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet. Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security. Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk.
Let us be clear—online piracy is a real problem that harms the American economy, threatens jobs for significant numbers of middle class workers and hurts some of our nation’s most creative and innovative companies and entrepreneurs. It harms everyone from struggling artists to production crews, and from startup social media companies to large movie studios. While we are strongly committed to the vigorous enforcement of intellectual property rights, existing tools are not strong enough to root out the worst online pirates beyond our borders. That is why the Administration calls on all sides to work together to pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders while staying true to the principles outlined above in this response. We should never let criminals hide behind a hollow embrace of legitimate American values.
This is not just a matter for legislation. We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.
So, rather than just look at how legislation can be stopped, ask yourself: Where do we go from here? Don’t limit your opinion to what’s the wrong thing to do, ask yourself what’s right. Already, many members of Congress are asking for public input around the issue. We are paying close attention to those opportunities, as well as to public input to the Administration. The organizer of this petition and a random sample of the signers will be invited to a conference call to discuss this issue further with Administration officials and soon after that, we will host an online event to get more input and answer your questions. Details on that will follow in the coming days.
Washington needs to hear your best ideas about how to clamp down on rogue websites and other criminals who make money off the creative efforts of American artists and rights holders. We should all be committed to working with all interested constituencies to develop new legal tools to protect global intellectual property rights without jeopardizing the openness of the Internet. Our hope is that you will bring enthusiasm and know-how to this important challenge.
Moving forward, we will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation that provides new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while vigorously defending an open Internet based on the values of free expression, privacy, security and innovation. Again, thank you for taking the time to participate in this important process. We hope you’ll continue to be part of it.
Victoria Espinel is Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget
Aneesh Chopra is the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President and Associate Director for Technology at the Office of Science and Technology Policy
Howard Schmidt is Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff
President Barack Obama said he will propose new tax incentives to encourage businesses to “bring jobs home,” a move that could sharpen differences with Republicans in an election year.
Mr. Obama also said Wednesday he would suggest eliminating “tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.” Administration officials said details won’t be released until the president issues his proposed budget next month.
In past years, most of the administration’s plans to limit tax breaks for multinationals have stalled amid opposition from businesses and Republicans. Tax experts said the proposals could include new investment subsidies such as more-generous depreciation, lower tax rates for income derived from innovation produced in the U.S. or expanded breaks for domestic research or manufacturing.
If you listen to the fake news people at the fake news network called Fox News, you will believe that recess appointments started when President Obama became president. The fake news channel has been busy over the last few days criticizing the President for appointing Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Protection Agency. What got the fake news people upset is not only the recess appointment, but the way the President did the appointment.
You see, Republicans are on vacation. However, before they went on vacation, they did something to make sure that the President’s hands were tied. They wanted to make sure that nothing got accomplished in their absence, for it is in the absence or recess of this particular congress that the President is able to get his appointments through.
So what did Republicans do?
They employed an old trick to make it seem as though Congress was still in session. They had someone show up every day in the Congressional building and pretend that congressional business was being done. This person or persons would begin a session, discuss nothing, then close the session in order to continue their vacation for the rest of the day.
President Obama used this time to install Mr. Cordray as the head of the Consumer Protection Agency and this recess appointment was called a “vigilante” act by the “Fair and Falanced” brainiacs at Fox News.
News on The Hill – In their first public address of 2012, House Democratic leaders ripped into Republicans Thursday for ignoring President Obama’s jobs package amid a lingering unemployment crisis.
Behind Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the lawmakers accused GOP leaders of neglecting their duties and remaining on vacation as the jobless rate tickles down to 9 percent.
“The American people need jobs, and we’re not on the job,” said Pelosi, flanked by more than two dozen other Democrats in the Capitol. “Where are they [Republicans]? I don’t know. Where should they be? Right here in this Capitol getting to work.”
The Democrats used the one-year anniversary of the Republicans’ takeover of the House to question why GOP leaders have resisted new education, infrastructure and public works funding – all part of Obama’s plan to create jobs.
“One year in office and no significant jobs bill,” Pelosi charged.
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