After leading Republicans swiftly rejected President Barack Obama’s new “grand bargain” proposal, which would lower corporate tax rates in exchange for more spending on infrastructure, the president responded Tuesday by calling for a substantive counter-offer.
“I am laying out my ideas to give the middle class a better shot in a 21st-century economy,” Obama said in a speech on the economy in Chattenooga, Tennessee. “Now it’s time for Republicans to lay out theirs.
“Putting all your eggs in the basket of an oil pipeline that may only create about 50 permanent jobs, and wasting the country’s time by taking something like 40 meaningless votes to repeal Obamacare isn’t a jobs plan,” he added.
Here’s what’s clear: the success of President Obama’s second term will come down to the next few months of 2013 and early 2014 in the form of immigration reform, the success of the health care law, and the rising economy. There probably will be no grand bargain on the debt (thank heavens), tax reform is a long way off, and the Republicans don’t believe enough in real science to have a discussion about energy and the environment. So we’ll have to be happy from small victories.
It might even result in more people finding less costly insurance through the exchanges than through their employers. That would be a tremendous coup because then businesses will be relieved of the pressure of covering their employees and people will not have to stay in terrible jobs simply for the benefits. I don’t see this happening quickly, but if the market (you remember the market. This is a law all about the market.) makes it less expensive to buy from the exchanges, then that’s what people will do. betting against health insurance is a losing proposition.
Immigration reform will probably not pass the House in its Senate version, but I do have a sneaking suspicion that a more comprehensive bill than the House purports to disdain will come out of the legislature. The Republicans can talk tough, but I do think that they see the electoral graffiti on the wall and understand that passing nothing will do them great harm. Perhaps the gerrymandered districts will allow them to keep the House, but that’s a flimsy wall to hide behind for a party that’s lost the popular vote in all but one national election since 1992.
The Republican Party is clueless, but it’s not, you know, clueless.
During the past presidential election cycle, I wrote repeatedly that the conservative wave was crashing and that the GOP would become dangerously radical. I hate to say that I was right, but we are now living in the extremist bubble and it’s not going to pop for another two or four years. During that time we can look forward to more attempts at voter suppression, curbs on reproductive rights and a call to eliminate or severely cut back on social programs such as food stamps, unemployment compensation and Medicare. If the Democrats can hold the line against the tide, they can slowly turn the country back in a less dangerous direction. Then we can truly address the problems we have in a pragmatic, sensible manner.
This video is super awkward … Anthony Weiner was put on BLAST Friday by an ex-school teacher for his raunchy, sexting ways … and it all happened while cameras rolled.Weiner was visiting homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy, when he walked into a s**t storm himself … in the form of Peg Brunda a retired teacher, who went off on him.
On Sunday’s Melissa Harris Perry‘s show, a clip of Bill O’Reilly’s commentary was played where the Fox host thought he was doing the African-American community a favor by educating them on racial issues. Bill O’Reilly began his segment with an attitude – You want a conversation about race? You got one – Bill O’Reilly said, after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the Trayvon Martin case. O’Reilly spoke his words with a look of disgust on his face as if someone just interrupted him from watching his favorite show.
O’Reilly then went into his version of “the conversation,” criticizing blacks and black leaders, including President Obama for not making life in the hood any better. According to Mr. O’Reilly, race relations will be much more improved when Blacks pull themselves up by their bootstraps, be better parents and have better entertainment. “You can’t legislate good parenting or responsible entertainment,” Bill says.
No mention from the Fox host on what Whites should do in making race relations better in this country. That is where Mr. Dyson came in with his commentary. “You know,” Dyson said, “what’s interested to me… why is it when we say we want a conversation on race, you want to have a conversation on blackness?”
The reason some patients are cured of type-2 diabetes after a gastric bypass may have been explained by US researchers.
Their animal study showed bypassing the stomach made the intestines work harder, use more energy and keep blood sugar levels under control.
They hope their findings, published in the journal Science, will lead to less invasive treatments for the condition.
Diabetes UK said a healthy lifestyle was the best way to avoid the disease.
Type-2 diabetes, which is mostly the result of a bad diet and little exercise, is a growing problem globally.
It leaves people unable to control the amount of sugar in the blood and can culminate in blindness, limb loss and heart disease.
The condition can be managed with insulin injections.
Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital, in the US, were investigating how a type of weight loss surgery affected diabetes.
Dr Nicholas Stylopoulos told the BBC: “Gastric bypass is the most effective weight loss procedure, but it also cures diabetes.
“If we knew how this worked we could develop new treatments that don’t require surgery.”
Weight loss itself can reduce the symptoms of type-2 diabetes, however, the condition can be seemingly cured before any pounds have been shed.
The challenge for researchers was to figure out where the extra sugar, which should be ending up in the blood, was going.
They performed the operation to connect the entrance to the stomach with the small intestine – essentially bypassing the stomach – on rats.
The animals were then scanned and the route of their meals was traced as they passed through the body.
“Surprisingly, we found the sugar was being used by the intestines – it has to work harder as you’ve bypassed the stomach,” Dr Stylopoulos said.
The intestines also had to go through some internal rebuilding as part of the transition, which also used energy.
The study showed the boost in the intestines’ energy needs could account for 64% of the change in blood sugar levels. The remaining effect is thought to be down to weight loss and hormonal changes.
Their plan is to come up with ways to activate the intestines to produce the same effect, but without the need for an operation.
Anthony Weiner and his wife tried to calm the nation. Apparently, there are more pics of Weiner’s weiner parading around the Internet and theae new pics are believed taken after the Democratic Congressman was forced to resign because he sent pics of his weiner to various women online.
But why is Weiner’s weiner the apparent topic of the day? I’ve browsed various liberal and conservative radio shows and it seems that nothing else is happening in the world. And even here, at EzKool, more people came to this site yesterday because they were searching Google for “naked weiner pics.”
And I’m puzzled. I’m confused. For the life of me, I simply cannot see what the big deal is.
Yes, Anthony Weiner took pictures of his junk, but serously… who hasn’t? And he did something stupid and sent those pictures to women online. Dumb, I know. But what exactly does his naked weiner has to do with him politically?
The answer I keep hearing from both liberal and conservative shows is “it shows his lack of judgment.”
Lack of judgment? As a congressman, no one – especially those on the left – questioned Weiner’s judgement. He was known as a fighter for the average middle class American and many, including those who questions his judgment now, praised him for the work he did. When other Congressional Democrats avoided Fox News out of fear, it was Weiner who showed the balls and stepped up to the plate.
Remember the phrase, “Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry?” That was Anthony Weiner, telling the truth the only way he could.
Yes, Weiner made some personal decisions that are questionable. But New Yorkers will not be voting for a Bishop or a Pastor or a Priest. And even Bishops, Pastors and Priests have moral skeletons in their closet.
New Yorkers will be voting for a politician. And they should look at the political fight record of the candidates and make their decision accordingly.
The man did something wrong. Some might even say he has a problem and needs help. But as long as Weiner knows how to separate his “problem” from his politics, I’m okay with him. If he shows his weiner on national television while in a policy debate, then you can tell me about his lack of moral judgment.
If you’re employing a politician, you need the best politician. If you’re looking for a spotless moral beacon, good luck!
In a video that has received wide attention, police chief Mark Kessler repeatedly tells those upset by his use of profanity to “go f*ck yourself” as he fires various automatic weapons.
Mayor Mary Lou Hannon told The Morning Call that Kessler had the right to express himself. The city would “not take action to quash free speech, whether or not each member of council or any member of council agrees with it.”
Kessler has uploaded several profanity-laced videos to YouTube. In one video, Kessler berates “libtards” and warns of an armed rebellion against the government.
“F*ck all you libtards out there, as a matter of fact, read my shirt,” he says, turning around to show a message on his back which read, “Liberals take it in the a**.”
“You take it in the ass and I don’t give a f*ck what you say so you can all just go f*ck yourselves. Period. I wont be going to D.C. and I don’t give a f*ck. If you f*cking maniacs want to turn this into an armed revolt, knock yourselves out. I’m not about that, so see you on the other side.”
If you follow the news every minute (used to be every day), you’d think that Obama’s presidency has been a grand failure. After all, he didn’t save the world, or make friends with the terrorists and turn them into democrats or make the economy zoom along at a 5% growth rate or clean the air or any number of things that he either promised to do or was expected to do when he took office in 2009.
Instead, he faced some of the most extreme opposition of any president and really only accomplished most of his agenda when he Democrats controlled both houses of Congress by filibuster-proof (in the Senate) majorities. I’d also like to take this opportunity to remind people that many other presidents faced concerted opposition including Theodore Roosevelt (from his own party), Woodrow Wilson, FDR (from the Supreme Court and Congress), JFK, LBJ, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. That any president can get things done under our constitution is a monumental accomplishment, but somehow we as a country manage to move forward.
So it is today. The Senate has thawed some over the past two months and recently avoided internal chaos with the approval of a good number of Obama appointments. Of course, the GOP is now facing buyers remorse on that compromise, but only because they got, well, nothing out of the deal. And it looks like the stars might not align on immigration reform because the House, always extreme on the right or left, will not consider a comprehensive bill. In fact, the House is so busy voting to repeal the health care law that there’s precious little time for anything else.
In this environment, it’s useful to remind everyone just how much Barack Obama has accomplished in just over a term. Those accomplishments are listed in this article, and should be required reading of anyone who says we’ve done nothing since 2008.
We’ve had financial and bank reform, health care reform, the saving of the automobile industry, and avoided a depression. But there’s more and any thinking American should know that. So take a look and understand that our government was built to act slowly. That works both for and against us, but it is how the framers constructed the system. We will have more landmark legislation over the next three and a half years. Some of it will be incomplete and need revision in a few years. Some of it will become part of the fabric of American life.
The Supreme Court called it constitutional, republicans have failed to repeal it on 39 different occasions. But this time, Republicans are prepared to shut down the government to stop people from getting health care.
ObamaCare is at the center of a rapidly escalating fight that threatens to shut the government down this fall.
Senate Republicans, including two members of the leadership, are coalescing around a proposal to block any government funding resolution that includes money for the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
But such a move is a nonstarter for President Obama and congressional Democrats. Republicans have tried this maneuver in Obama’s first term, only to back off later to the chagrin of Tea Party leaders.
This time, GOP lawmakers are emboldened by problems plaguing the administration’s ObamaCare implementation. But that zeal could put Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a tough spot. Both leaders have downplayed previous talk of shuttering the government.
In the House, 64 Republicans have signed onto a letter pressing Boehner not to bring any legislation funding ObamaCare to the floor.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the leader of the Senate effort, predicts the vast majority of the Senate Republican Conference will back his plan, giving him enough votes to sustain a filibuster of a stopgap spending measure.
“This is the last stop before ObamaCare fully kicks in on Jan. 1 of next year for us to refuse to fund it,” Lee said Monday on “Fox and Friends.”
“If Republicans in both houses simply refuse to vote for any continuing resolution that contains further funding for further enforcement of ObamaCare, we can stop it. We can stop the individual mandate from going into effect,” he said.
“We have 64 of my colleagues on this letter and we’re asking the leadership not to bring anything to the floor that has funding for ObamaCare in it,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who is spearheading the House effort.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called on lawmakers across the country, including in his home state of Arizona, to review the Stand Your Ground law that allowed George Zimmerman to walk free in the days after he killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and conceded that the country still has “a long way to go” towards achieving full equality for African Americans.
Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, McCain described Stand Your Ground as “very controversial legislation” and rejected GOP claims that rolling it back could lead to more “gun control.” Earlier this week, Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama called for a review of the laws, which authorize the use of deadly force and the right to “stand your ground” in fear of death, bodily harm, and even a forcible felony.
The senator also praised the remarks Obama delivered about the Zimmerman case on Friday, calling them “very impressive” and pledging to meet with more African American and Hispanic groups in Arizona. “I need Americans to talk to their friends and neighbors, not just those on their block or in their circle of friends,” he said.
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