Category: Politics

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Politics

Why Is “Jedi” The Number One Trending Word On Twitter?

Well it may be due to the smack-down President Obama awarded to a CNN reporter who asked what I’ll consider to be a stupid question. The question had to do with the Sequester and why President Obama didn’t do more to keep Republicans in Washington and force them to agree with him instead of allowing them to leave early for the weekend.

The President answered, “I know that has been some of the conventional wisdom that’s been floating around Washington, that somehow, even though most people agree that I’m being reasonable, that most people agree I’m presenting a fair deal, that fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right.”

Moments after President Obama made that statement, the White House tweeted this photo:

 

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Politics

President Obama Proves Again Why He Is The Only Adult In Washington – Video

A powerful Q&A happened today after President Obama met with leaders of Congress. The president held a press conference to talk about what happened in his meeting and took questions from reporters. One of the question was from a CNN reporter, Jessica Yellin, who implied that the President was not doing everything possible to force Republicans into see things his way.

In his response, President answered that he is “not a dictator,” and if Republicans say they have to go catch a plane, he “cannot have Secret Service block the doorway.” He continued;

I know that has been some of the conventional wisdom that’s been floating around Washington, that somehow, even though most people agree that I’m being reasonable, that most people agree I’m presenting a fair deal, that fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right.

Well they’re elected. We have a constitutional system of Government. The Speaker of the House and the Leader of the Senate and all those folks have responsibilities. What I can do is I can make the best possible case for why we need to do the right thing. I can speak to the American people about the consequences of the decisions that Congress is making or the lack of decision making by Congress.

But ultimately, it’s a choice they make. This idea that somehow there’s a secret formula or a secret sauce to get Speaker Boehner or Mitch McConnell to say, you know what Mr. President, you’re right. We should close some tax loopholes for the well off and well connected in exchange for some serious entitlement reform and spending cuts to programs we don’t need, I think if there was a secret way to do that, I would have tried it. I would have done it.

What I can do is I can make the best possible argument. And I can offer concessions, I can offer compromise, I can negotiate, I can make sure that my party is willing to compromise and is not being ideological or thinking about this just in terms of political terms. And I think I’ve done that and I will continue to do that. But what I can’t do is force Congress to do the right thing.

But there was a follow-up. Jessica had another statement/question to make. She asked about New York’s Mayor Bloomberg who stated that the effects of the Sequester was being overstated. Jessica wanted to know if Bloomberg was correct. The President responded with a few examples, one of them being that the Department of Defense now had to figure out how to continue providing full education to the children of military families if their teachers were furloughed . And he pointed out that Mayor Bloomberg will not feel that pain.

Watch the full exchange below;

Categories
MSNBC Politics

Bob Woodward And David Axelrod Face Off Over Supposed “Threat” – Video

Both men were on MSNBC’s  Morning Joe and the confrontation was almost immediate due to Woodward’s claim that an email he received from the White House amounted to a “threat.”

Woodward, a well respected journalist, has been in the news all week because of some of his reporting, where he blamed President Obama as the originator of the Sequester. The White House has been on the defensive since Woodward’s claim, leading to the confrontation between the two men on Friday.

“When the full e-mails came out, they were as cordial as can be,” Axelrod said to Woodward on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “His e-mail was cordial, and your response was cordial. So if you felt threatened, why didn’t you say to Gene, ‘Don’t threaten me?’”

“You are putting words in my mouth,” Woodward responding, adding he never said he felt “threatened.” “I said, ‘I don’t think this is the way to operate.’”

Axelrod retorted: “I’m not putting words in your mouth, Bob. It’s your newspaper that said you said you were threatened.”

A Washington Post story posted Thursday did originally say in the headline that Woodward claimed the White House “threatened” him. The headline has since been changed.

On Fox News on Thursday night, Woodward said, “The problem I have with the Gene Sperling email — and this comes after a shouting match, lot’s of people shout at me — is that goes into the coded, ‘you better watch out’.”

The duo later debated whether Obama “moved the goalposts” on sequestration by insisting tax revenues be part of the package to avert it.

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Illinois Politics Republican

Ex Convict Claims Victory In Illinois Republican Congressional Race

There’s been a lot of attention focused on Robin Kelly, who won the Democratic nomination this week in the Illinois special election to replace Jesse Jackson Jr. in Congress. But what about the GOP nominee?

Ex-convict Paul McKinley is claiming victory over Eric Wallace, a multimedia company owner. TheChicago Tribune reports

McKinley’s rap sheet includes burglaries, armed robbery and aggravated battery. McKinley has a 23-vote lead over Wallace, who told the newspaper that it would be “an embarrassment” if McKinley were the Republican nominee to face Kelly on April 9.

h/t USA Today

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Politics

Openly Gay Mayoral Candidate Found Dead In Mississippi

A person of interest is being held in the death of an openly gay candidate running for mayor of Clarksdale, Miss., officials said on Thursday.

The person being held has not been charged, Will Rooker, a spokesman for the Coahoma County sheriff’s office, told the Los Angeles Times by telephone. “We have an ongoing investigation into the death,” he said.

The sheriff’s office has not classified the death as a homicide, Rooker said. “It’s not clear at this time what has happened,” he said.

The body of Marco McMillian, 34, was found near a Mississippi River levee between Sherad and Rena Lara, about 15 miles from Clarksdale, in the southwest part of Coahoma County at  8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Authorities said they began searching for McMillian about 24 hours earlier when his SUV had been involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle.

The collision near the border with Tallahatchie County took place around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, officials said. Millian’s SUV was being driven by another man, who was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, Tenn., where he was listed in good condition Thursday morning, a spokeswoman told the Times. McMillian was not in his SUV at the time of the accident, prompting the search.

r/t LA Times

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Politics

Republicans In Congress Finally Approve The Violence Against Women Act

We all know what’s happening here, right? That’s right, Politics is at play. In the last election cycle, Republicans watched as women voted for President Obama and Democrats in near record numbers. There were hashtags [#GOPWarAgainstWomen] going around on Twitter detailing how Republicans were against women because they refused to approve the Violence Against Women Act.

Well that was yesterday’s news. Today, Republicans are trying to regain some of those women voters and they finally voted to approve the bill today.

The vote comes after House Republican leaders, cognizant of the need to improve their faltering image among women voters, accepted a Senate bill passed two weeks ago on a strong bipartisan vote.

The House vote to reauthorize the 1994 law that has set the standard for anti-violence programs came after lawmakers rejected a more limited approach from Republicans.

The law lapsed in 2011 and has been caught up in the partisan battles that now divide Congress.

Last year, the House refused to go along with a Senate-passed bill that would have made clear that lesbians, gays, immigrants and Native American women should have equal access to anti-violence programs.

The bill now goes to President Obama to be signed into law.

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Domestic Policies Politics teacher evaluation

The Final NJ Teacher Evaluation Rules. Until They Change.

When my colleagues and I met with New Jersey Commissioner of Education Christopher Cerf and his staff in January, he alluded to March 6 as the date when the State Board of Education would be issuing its final rules on teacher evaluation. He reminded us that final rules meant that because of public comments the rules could change, but that we could confidently move ahead with our evaluation system based on what they said. If any were changed significantly, he said, we could also alter ours to adapt to the new rules.

That day is just around the corner. Next week, all interested parties are on notice that they can testify before the State BOE on the new rules, and that this will be the final time that the state board will hear comments. They are then set to consider any last minute changes and adopt the final rules in September. If this seems to be a tight time frame, it is. By design. Unless you’re in one of the Pilot I or Pilot II districts, you basically have this spring to work out any kinks in your evaluation plan, test it, get feedback from the faculty and staff, and get ready to fully implement it beginning in September. Curiouser, the state timeline says that all staff must be trained on their chosen system by August 31. So if there are any changes in September…well, that’s not on the agenda next week. But it would be fun to ask about it, yes?

Remember that the people I met at the DOE are true believers in this new system and to a person said that the old system was “failing our students and communities.” When the Superintendents at our meeting reminded the DOE Assistant Commissioners that their districts had effective evaluation systems in place and that our schools were educating students, the response was that 1. This system is better and 2. You’re lying.

Truly.

One of the assistants, who came from an effective suburban district noted that when he as an assistant principal(!) he came to the conclusion that the manner in which his nationally-noted Middlesex County district evaluated tenured staff members was a “joke” and “didn’t really do a good job at identifying failing teachers.” Thus, the whole state must now adhere to this gentleman’s skewed version of evaluation. It’s that bad.

If you can get down to Trenton on March 6, please do, because we need as many voices as we can to remind the state BOE that those of us who work in classrooms have real concerns about the evaluation system and process. Commissioner Cerf believes that he has the BOE in his pocket. Let’s make sure that our side has its say.

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

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Politics rachel maddow

Rachel Maddow Debunks The GOP Claim That The Sequester Is Tied To The Deficit

We all know that Republicans are not being honest when they say President Obama is increasing the deficit. And what makes that lie even worse is when they try to tie the sequester into their false claim.

But facts don’t lie, and Rachel Maddow used one of her segments last night to debunk both Republican lies – that Obama has increased the deficit and that reducing the deficit is their reason for favoring the sequester.

Without further ado, Rachel Maddow…

Categories
democrats Politics

Republicans Fibbing Again – Here Is Obama’s Sequester Plan

You hear Congressional Republicans say it all day every day, that President Obama has no plan to avert the coming sequester. Well if these Republicans were tech savvy enough to navigate themselves to a computer, and able to do the google, I guarantee they would find this:

Categories
Politics

Republican’s Pointless Filibuster of Chuck Hagel Ended With Hagel’s Confirmation

After all the delay, the name calling and the accusations that Hagel was part of a secret non-existent organization in the middle east, Republicans finally ended their pointless filibuster of the President’s nominee and voted with Democrats 58-41 to approve Chuck Hagel as the next Secretary of the Defense.

Kind of make you wonder what all the fuss was all about.

It is quite understandable that questions will be asked of any nominee, but what Republicans did with Chuck Hagel including filibustering his appointment, was unprecidented and had absolutely no legitimate purpose. After it’s all said and done, Chuck Hagel will be sworn in on Wednesday.

Categories
Politics

Americans Think You Should Get Off Your Ass John Boehner!

Like everything else about House Speaker John Boehner and the Congressional Republicans, his “get off your ass” statement this morning was just another phrase manufactured for the moment. It was done for a specific reason – to make Americans think he is upset. To make Americans think the Democrats are the ones doing nothing, sitting on their hands while the Sequester quickly approaches.

Speaking to a group of reporters this morning Boehner stepped to the podium and said, the president “is going all over the country holding rallies instead of sitting down with Senate leaders,” while, Boehner argued, “We have moved a bill in the House twice. We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins to do something.”

CBS News reports that the House bills that Boehner referred to would replace the across-the-board automatic cuts with more targeted cuts.  Meantime, Senate Democrats are pushing a plan that would replace the cuts with a mix of different cuts and tax increases, something the president supports but congressional Republicans do not.

Well where is the American people on this. Who do they side with?

According to a recent poll, Americans stand with President Obama and the Democrats on these issues. So I’m sure if the American people got a chance to say something to John Boehner, they would say something like, stop standing in front of podiums talking to the press instead of sitting down with other congressional leaders. Get off your ass and do something!

Categories
Politics republican fail

Sequestration – The New Republican Manufactured Crisis – Coming Soon

With dramatic, across-the-board “sequestration” cuts slated to take effect Friday, most Americans believe the consequences of those reductions will have a “major effect” on the state of the U.S. economy, according to a new poll by Pew Research Center/Washington Post. But even as Americans overwhelming express negativity over how those cuts would impact the nation’s economy, the same survey indicates a sense of public fatigue over this latest in a series of dramatic fiscal debates coming out of Washington: Only 1 in 4 Americans say they’re following the story closely.

According to the poll, which surveyed 1,000 people between Feb. 21-24, 62 percent of the public believes the sequester’s effect on the economy would be mostly negative, while 18 percent thought it would be mostly positive. Twenty-one percent said it would have no impact or that they didn’t know. Six in 10 Americans, meanwhile, think the impact of the cuts on the economy would be “major”; 55 percent say the same of sequestration’s impact on the military, and 45 percent say so of the budget deficit.

Fewer – 30 percent – say the impact on their personal finances would be “major,” while 40 percent say the looming cuts would impact their finances in a minor way.

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