President Obama spoke to a group of disabled veterans today in Orlando Florida, telling them about initiatives the Federal government is taking to make their lives better. All in all, it was an impressive speech, receiving many applause from those in attendance. But it was an update the President gave at the end of his speech that caused many on Twitter to declare this speech “one of his best.”
Cory Remsburg and Family
The President spoke about Cory Remsbury, an Army Ranger who almost died in an attack. President Obama spoke about how he visited Cory in the hospital over three years ago and compared that visit to seeing Cory and his family recently. The special message the President so masterfully brought home from the Cory story is that “we never give up!”
We’re sure there were some tears flowing after his story.
At a White House news conference on Friday, Obama insisted that he does not have bad personal relations with Putin. The two men had a testy meeting in June in Northern Ireland and from the photos of them at the time, it looked as if they would both rather have been somewhere else.
“I know the press likes to focus on body language, and he’s got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. But the truth is that when we’re in conversations together, oftentimes it’s very productive,” Obama said.
Putin’s sending of a telegram wishing former President George W. Bush well after a heart procedure this week was viewed by some Kremlin watchers as a sign that Putin was sending an implicit message to Obama.
The White House says Obama pulled out of the Moscow summit not just because of the Russian decision to grant asylum to Snowden, who is wanted in the United States to face espionage charges.
U.S. differences with Russia have piled up recently over Moscow’s support for the Syrian government in that country’s civil war, as well as human rights concerns and other grievances.
There was no immediate response from Moscow to Obama’s description of the Russian president.
According to the Daily News and NY Times, the state ethics commission is investigating complaints that were kept secret. As the Times puts it, “The records related to the Kellner allegations were not turned over to the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, even though the commission issued a broad subpoena for documents related to sexual harassment allegations as part of an investigation into harassment claims made against a former assemblyman, Vito J. Lopez, that concluded earlier this year.”
Lopez allegedly groped female staffers and made them touch his tumors; Lopez wasn’t charged with anything but resigned from the Assembly…so he could run for NY City Council, ugh.
Kellner’s former chief of staffer Eliyanna Kaiser had brought allegations of Kellner’s harassment toward an aide to Silver’s office, only to be ignored. Now State of Politics reports
“According to people familiar with the situation, Kellner made repeated inappropriate sexual advances and comments to a male employee. According to one person who asked to remain anonymous:
‘Micah would comment about his appearance and his sex life all the time. It was creepy. One time Micah leaned onto his shoulders and told him he had pretty hands-and he just froze. It escalated to the point where he actually got up the nerve to confront Micah. And after that, things did not get better. Micah took him off projects, diminished his role in the office, and when everyone else got a raise a few weeks later, his salary stayed the same. No one was surprised when he quit.'”
Kellner, a Manhattan Democrat, is married to a woman, but is openly bisexual. He told the News, “There should have been an investigation four years ago. There should be an investigation now, and I’m going to cooperate with any investigation.”
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd must have really crawled under the Trump’s tulip. On Friday, Trump stayed behind the safety of his computer screen and unleashed a barrage of hate filled tweets against Mr. Todd.
The maturity level is amazing low. And to think Republicans actually considered voting for him to be their presidential nominee in 2012.
Taking a page right out of the Tea party play book, Obamacare supporters have taken to the streets, showing up at Republican town halls and asking sensible questions.
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — attended a town hall meeting held by five-term Republican congressman Rep. Patrick McHenry (NC) on Thursday. According to Think Progress, many of the pro-Obamacare attendees would not have health insurance without the program and they demanded to know what the congressman would suggest they do should Obamacare be repealed.
McHenry is one of the Republican House members who have voted repeatedly to defund the ACA. The coalition held their 40th vote just before they began their five-week summer recess.
Thursday in Swannanoa, NC, voters turned up to voice their opinions of McHenry’s fierce opposition to the Act.
One protester was a grieving mother named Leslie Boyd. Boyd’s son Mike was denied health insurance coverage because of a birth defect that insurers considered to be a pre-existing condition. He died of colon cancer because he could not afford to get access to treatment.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reported that another protester, Skip Edwards, 63, and his wife would not have insurance at all without Obamacare.
Edwards was laid off during the recession and both he and his wife have pre-existing conditions. Without Obamacare, they would only be able to get coverage through a high-risk pool program called Inclusive Health.
“It cost us $1,300 bucks a month — extremely expensive,” Edwards said. “It taps us out every month. But at our age and health, we’ve got to have it.”
McHenry responded to Edwards by saying that he is voting against Obamacare on principle, that he believes it’s “bad policy.”
The crowd reportedly groaned and booed when McHenry suggested that high-risk pools are a better solution than Obamacare
If you thought something as serious as George Bush’s recent heart surgery would demand some respect and a little bit of civility from these Republicans, then think again! ABC is reporting that the Republican National Congressional Committee used Bush’s medical procedure as an opportunity to raise money!
Following former President George W. Bush’s heart surgery Tuesday, the National Republican Congressional Committee reportedly used a “get well soon” card for Bush to raise money for its organization.
“President George W. Bush courageously defended our freedom and our country, and America misses his days in office now more than ever before,” the NRCC wrote on its website, with a link to sign a card. The e-card on the website did not appear to link to a fundraising pitch.
However, the NRCC originally emailed supporters a version of the e-card that linked to a fundraising page for the NRCC, according to The Dallas Morning News.
After signing, supporters were prompted to, “Chip in $5 to help us send President Bush a bouquet of bluebonnets – the Texas state flower.” But the listed donation possibilities went up as high as $250, according to the Dallas newspaper.
When asked, the NRCC did not send the original emailed pitch to ABC News or comment on the reported fundraising, instead emailing a brief statement.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for Americans to show President Bush how much they care about him as he recovers,” NRCC spokesman Daniel Scarpinato wrote. “The reaction has been overwhelming, and we all look forward to his speedy recovery.”
People protest against presidents all the time, but never in the history of this country has anyone felt the need to sing “bye bye black sheep” at a protest… until now, for this particular president.
But rest assured that these same barnyard vocalists would insist that the color of the president’s skin had nothing to do with their musical selection.
A raucous crowd of supporters and protesters from both ends of the political spectrum showed up outside President Barack Obama’s appearance in Phoenix, Ariz. on Tuesday, with some of his detractors turning to racially charged attacks to express their opposition.
From the Arizona Republic:
Obama foes at one point sang, “Bye Bye Black Sheep,” a derogatory reference to the president’s skin color, while protesters like Deanne Bartram raised a sign saying, “Impeach the Half-White Muslim!”
The Republic reported that hundreds of people gathered outside Desert Vista High School as Obama unveiled a plan to overhaul the nation’s mortgage finance system. Some protesters came from Obama’s left, urging him to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline and take other actions on climate change. But a prevailing theme among many in the protest appeared to be issues of race. Some even suggested that Obama himself was to blame for racial tensions.
“We have gone back so many years,” Judy Burris told the Republic, arguing Obama had taken the nation back to pre-Civil Rights era levels of racism. “He’s divided all the races. I hate him for that.”
“There are many other states that embrace those conservative values, the approach that we’ve taken over the years… I’m in one today in Florida. You look at South Carolina, you look at Florida.”
“You’re in Louisiana!” an audience member shouted.
“I know,” Perry responded. “And I said that. I’m in one of those states that reflect those today in Louisiana,” he deadpanned, drawing audience laughter and applause.
“You got that,” another individual said.
“I got that,” Perry replied. “But I’m from Texas, so let’s start there.”
ACORN doesn’t exist, but House Republicans are consumed with the idea of defending it to the point where they have held numerous, pointless votes (12 and counting) to do just that.
For a party that claims to be all about fiscal responsibility and reducing the debt, why are we paying them to be seat warmers, for holding meaningless votes to defund nonexistent organizations or repealing laws that will not pass the Senate or see the president’s desk?
ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, does not exist. And it did not exist at any time when the House GOP has held a vote on ACORN’s access to government monies — the group disbanded in the spring of 2010.
Just why, exactly, the House GOP keeps voting to ban funding for an organization that was extinguished more than three years ago remains something of a mystery, and the subject of Democratic ridicule.
“Word is the majority will also prohibit foreign aid to the Ottoman Empire this year,” a Democratic congressional aide snarked to HuffPost. (Like ACORN, the Ottoman Empire does not exist.) “Thirteen votes to defund a program that no longer exists. Forty votes to repeal a health care law that is transforming millions of lives,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), comparing the anti-ACORN legislation to the House GOP’s routine votes to repeal Obamacare. “If their agenda is to do nothing on a timeline of never, they’re setting record pace.”
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declined to comment on the ACORN legislation and directed questions to Jennifer Hing, spokeswoman for the GOP majority on the House Appropriations Committee. Hing has repeatedly told HuffPost that the defunding of ACORN is a “standard provision” that goes into most appropriations bills.
Unlike most anti-poverty groups, ACORN was actually staffed by low-income people. The organization was never popular among conservative political groups. Republican politicians and right-wing activists had targeted the organization for decades, accusing ACORN of broad voter fraud conspiracies without ever turning up anything other than a few isolated, usually accidental, violations.
All of that changed in the fall of 2009, when conservative provocateur James O’Keefe released selectively edited videos that appeared to show ACORN employees offering advice on tax avoidance related to prostitution and child smuggling. Independent investigations by the California attorney general, the Massachusetts attorney general and the Brooklyn, N.Y., district attorney would later clear ACORN of criminal wrongdoing, and an investigation by the Government Accountability Office would clear the group of charges that it mishandled federal funds.
Before these investigations were completed, however, Congress cut off federal funding for ACORN using broad language that applied to any organization that had been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws or campaign finance laws or with filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. The funding ban also extended to any employees, contractors or others affiliated with any group so charged.
The funding ban passed in the fall of 2009, and in early 2010, an empty-coffered ACORN disbanded. The House GOP has continued to bar the group from receiving federal cash ever since
There’s been a lot of talk recently about workers. You know, the people who do the work in this country and who expect to be paid a livable wage while earning a little respect from employers and customers. The problem is that somewhere along the way, the conservative revolution has been glorifying the wealthy while bashing the people who actually create the wealth. I’m not saying anything new, but a spate of reports have caught my eye and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if present trends continue, we could have another revolution, but this one will be messy.
First up are those pesky fast food workers, you know, the ones who serve the most meals in the country. They are holding one-day walkouts to protest the unlivable minimum wage, $7.25 an hour or about $30,000 per year if full time, that many of them can’t really live on. Add in the lack of health care benfits and you have the fixin’s of a major problem. Since many of the jobs being created these days are not full time, more people are earning a wage that doesn’t support even a minimal existence.
So what to do? In DC, the City Council voted to require Wal-mart to pay its employees at least $12.50 per hour in all of its city stores. Wal-mart was considering building six stores in DC, but now that they actually have to pay a livable wage, they’re threatening not to build three of them. This wage would also apply to other big box stores. Keep in mind that Wal-mart makes billions of dollars a year, as do other retailers such as Home Depot and Target, and they all pay their executives millions of dollars in salaries. But of course, they couldn’t lower some of those high paying jobs just a little bit to cover the hourly workers. That would send the wrong message. Like, we care about our employees.
I am certainly not advocating fighting in the streets, but over time, as people find it difficult, if not impossible, to earn a living wage, and politicians turn a blind eye to them, then what other recourse will people have? Social media and elections will help, but gerrymandered Congressional districts almost ensure that anti-worker politicians will continue to be reelected. The gap between wealthy and not wealthy in this country is as large as it’s ever been, and that, in part, is why the economy is not growing a robustly as it should. Let’s solve this problem before more people become desperate.
Maybe Americans are finally waking up to the antics of these Three Stooges.
Palin’s supporters are not coughing up the bucks to her PAC. The queen of Mooseburger, Alaska, has lost her charm, seeming not a bad seed so much as an ignorant and inarticulate one.
Hannity has embarrassed himself by practically drooling over Palin, perhaps because he enjoyed the sound of gray matter bouncing around in her cranium, where there is so much room. But perhaps the most remarkable proof of the pretentious lightweight that he is was the way he went down before Robert Gibbs in their famous 2008 encounter, falling “like sheep” as the Native Americans said about Custer’s troops in the Great Sioux War.
But it is Limbaugh (whose name is always mispronounced as “Lim-bog” by competitor the Rev. Al Sharpton) who may be sinking most swiftly into a bog of disfavor after his bad-boy act helped Mitt Romney and the GOP lose the votes of Republican women to Obama. They were repulsed by his attacks on a 32-year-old woman studying at Georgetown named Sandra Flute, who got on a panel to talk about women’s health issues. Her appearance was not appropriate, said the man willing to imitate a bog filled with mud.
Far from boldly but with plenty of venom, Rush got rolling and called Fluke a slut and a prostitute who wanted to be paid for having sex, since she wanted insurance to cover her birth control. In what analysts call projection, Rush proclaimed that if taxpayers should pay for that then she in turn should put her erotic life on YouTube, to that he and pals could see what they were underwriting.
This cannot and should not be forgotten.
Americans too often appropriate New Testament forgiveness in order to avoid hard facts or repulsive or opportunistic performance personalities.
I always oppose Limbaugh and his ilk because they are ready and willing to say whatever will work to exploit fear and insecurity for profit. If we dismiss their belligerence as “fun,” we help them dismiss those who do not find them “funny” as too uptight.
Bigots always tend to present themselves as good boys just trying to get past the boring with some humor. They want to keep themselves interested, and they do things that are pretty desperate to escape being bored.
Stupidity is not the problem at all. The novelist Milan Kundera points out that it was once thought that stupidity could be easily cured with knowledge; that was wrong. The addiction to influential power based in untruths modernizes itself with everything else. Propaganda has become a popular melodrama, especially when driven by self-pity.
People love to feel victimized, threatened and on the verge of being destroyed.
Limbaugh, Palin and Hannity will slowly go down and away, though they will return in a smaller venue because the public always loves bad movies
Apparently, they broke the law in New Mexico – sitting in the front seat of a bus and holding hands while gay.
Ron McCoy and his partner, Chris Bowers, flew into Albuquerque on June 28 for the city’s PrideFest and a Southwest road trip, according to local news station KRQE. After leaving the airport, they hopped on a Standard Parking shuttle bus and sat in the front of the vehicle holding hands.
“I saw him look at us… and he looked so angry,” McCoy told KRQE. “He just blurted out at me, he goes, “Okay, if you’re going to do that, you’re going to the back of the bus.”
Shocked, the two moved, but they had some questions for the driver once they arrived at their stop. When McCoy approached the driver and said he thought they were told to move because they were holding hands, the driver responded, “See, now you’re telling on yourself.”
Last month, weekly publication the Alibi spoke with the shuttle driver, Mychael Jones, about why he made the gay couple to move to the back of the bus. He said he didn’t want “women and children” to see the couple’s “inappropriate behavior.” When asked to identify the “inappropriate behavior,” he would not comment any further.
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