Category: Politics

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Benghazi Benghazi Politics racist sexist

Report: The White House Did Not Change Language In Benghazi Talking Points

John McCain and his Republican friends would not be happy hearing this. According to official reports, the White House had absolutely nothing to do with replacing the words, “al Qaeda” with “Extremists” in the talking points Susan Rice repeated on the Sunday talk shows.

The report:

The intelligence community — not the White House, State Department or Justice Department — was responsible for the substantive changes made to the talking points distributed for government officials who spoke publicly about the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, the spokesman for the director of national intelligence said Monday.

….The initial version included information linking individuals involved in the attack to al Qaeda, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with the drafting of the talking points. But when the document was sent to the rest of the intelligence community for review, there was a decision to change “al Qaeda” to “extremists.” The official said the change was made for legitimate intelligence and legal reasons, not for political purposes.

Republicans led by John McCain, have hoped and prayed that someone in the White House – preferably President Obama – changed those words. Their hope was presenting the Obama administration in a negative light, engaging in a cover-up of the unfortunate events that took the lives of four Americans in Benghazi Libya.

Now that this information is cleared up, are the Republicans going to stop their baseless witch-hunt on Susan Rice? Don’t bet on it. After this news broke, 97 Republicans signed a letter urging President Obama to avoid nominating  Susan Rice for Secretary of State.

Susan Rice has over 20 years of diplomatic experience. She is the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and has the experience and education necessary to represent America as Secretary of State. Why then, are Republicans hellbent on denying her nomination? Said Marcia Fudge, the next chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus:

“All of the things they have disliked about things that have gone on in the administration, they have never called a male unqualified, not bright, not trustworthy. There is a clear sexism and racism that goes with these comments being made by unfortunately Sen. McCain and others.”

It is unfortunately beginning to look that way.

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Politics

That’s It! You Wouldn’t Have Crazy Allen West To Kick Around Any More – Good Bye!

The favorite son of the Teaparty has decided to call it quits. Allen West has called his Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy, and he has congratulated Mr. Murphy on winning the Congress seat the two men fought for in the elections two weeks ago.

Politico reports

After two weeks of battle with St. Lucie County elections officials — and a recount of early votes that wound up extending Murphy’s lead — West acknowledged that he couldn’t surmount his 1,904-vote, or 0.58 percent, deficit. That difference was just outside the 0.5 percent threshold to automatically trigger a recount of all votes.
So the brash conservative opted to bow out rather than wage a long and costly court battle he was unlikely to win.

“For two weeks since Election Day, we have been working to ensure every vote is counted accurately and fairly. We have made progress towards that goal, thanks to the dedication of our supporters and their unrelenting efforts to protect the integrity of the democratic process,” West said in a statement to POLITICO. “While many questions remain unanswered, today I am announcing that I will take no further action to contest the outcome of this election.”

West congratulated Murphy, saying, “I pray he will serve his constituents with honor and integrity, and put the interests of our nation before his own.”

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Politics war

Anderson Cooper’s Close Call – Bomb Explodes In His Vicinity – Video

Anderson Cooper had a close call on the Gaza front line when a rocket exploded just a few blocks from where he was reporting live.

The CNN anchor was speaking to the camera in the midst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Sunday night when a rocket exploded close to where he was standing, causing the veteran journalist to duck for cover.

He was discussing the death toll – which includes ten members of the same family – on the Gaza trip as Israel continues to hit Hamas strongholds. So far, 96 Palestinians and three Israelis have died since the conflict began last Wednesday.

h/t Daily Mail

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Benghazi Benghazi Politics

John McCain Is Hurt And Will Not Approve ANY Nominee For Secretary Of State – Video

John McCain is doing a fantastic job of playing the role of the grumpy old man. He has embraced this role since losing to President Obama in 2008 and he sees a clear benefit to continuing his role today in 2012. The killing of four Americans in Benghazi has been McCain’s most recent trophy, and he is trying to use this trophy to hit the president and his administration on the head.

Since Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed on September 11th, 2012, Republicans led by presidential loser Mitt Romney have tried to blame President Obama. The blame game began before knowledge of the American deaths were known as Mitt Romney held a press conference while the attacks were happening, calling the uprising in Libya “the downfall of President Obama’s foreign policy.”

The killings happened at an unfortunately ideal moment, as Muslims all over the Middle East responded to a “movie” made by a right-wing nut-job here in America. Egyptians marched in protest to the movie that depicted their leader in many disparaging ways and in Libya, more protests against the movie occurred. People marched to a compound in Benghazi where Ambassador Stevens worked and rocket-propelled grenades exploded in the compound killing the four Americans.

At this moment when the news finally made it back that Americans actually died, Mitt Romney had already wrapped up his press conference blaming President Obama. That was a little over two months ago and since then, Mitt Romney lost the general election. Leave it up to John McCain to carry on Romney’s fight.

So now, John McCain has the administration in his sights and more specifically, the United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice. Rice could President Obama’s nominee to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, but soon after the events in Benghazi, Rice went on the Sunday television talk shows and repeated the information she knew at that time – that the attack in Benghazi was not an act of terrorists, but the result of the uprising against the movie.

That was the information Susan Rice had before the formal investigation was made, but John McCain thinks there is a bigger story here. Without any proof whatsoever, McCain and the Republicans are continuing to push this issue hoping that somehow, it leads to the doorstep of President Obama. And McCain is willing disapprove any nominee for Secretary of State until the President is impeached for… something.

Doing how own rounds on the Sunday talk shows, McCain was heard saying;

Under the present circumstances, until we find out all the information as to what happened, I don’t think you would want to support any nominee right now. Because this is very very serious and it has even larger implications than the deaths of 4 Americans. It really goes to the heart of this whole light foot print policy that this administration is pursuing.

The American people have spoken in the election, and based on the results of the elections they want a government capable of working together to solve the pressing issues of the day. But given McCain’s present goal to bring down this administration at any cost necessary, including pushing baseless and fact-less stories, it seem that working together for the benefit of the country is not the path McCain wishes to pursue.

Apparently McCain still has some ill feelings towards this president and the need for the country to have an effective Secretary of State will take a back seat to McCain’s own personal feelings.

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Politics

The Election Is Over

You know it’s bad when the list of reasons for your loss keeps growing. Mitt Romney is walking off the national stage with his head held high, but with an entire party rattling behind him like cans attached to a newlywed’s bumper. The final list, as I see it, is thus:

1. Mitt was a lousy candidate
2. Obama’s gave gifts to his voting blocs
3. Obama won the urban vote
4. Obama suppressed voting by making sure that Republicans didn’t show up in higher numbers
5. Romney was not specific enough during the campaign
6. African-Americans showed up to vote in Maine
7. Not enough Christians voted for Mitt

Yeah, that about covers it, and the Mitt purge has already begun. By the first of the year he will be airbrushed out of the collective GOP memory, akin to a disgraced apparatchik from the old Soviet Union (they really should be given credit for anticipating Photoshop). In truth, he ran a bad campaign right from the beginning, allowing Obama to define him before he could define himself and making critical errors that stalled his progress. Only the first debate helped him, but not enough. Mitt, we hardly knew ya, but evidently that’s the way we want it.

So now to govern. President Obama is wisely using his momentum to make sure that the GOP-run House understands that they will need to find new revenue in addition to spending cuts to avoid not only the fiscal difficulties we face, but their own irrelevance. The same can be said for immigration reform, which will also happen this year, and a reform of the tax code, which I predict will not include a cut or cap to the home mortgage deduction. We also have a new international crisis in the Middle East that threatens to grow and include other countries and terrorist groups.

Welcome to your second term, Mr. President.

In the end, I believe that the election of 2012 will be remembered as the one that ended the ascension of the conservatives in American political life. For thirty years the GOP controlled the message that focused on trickle down economics, an irresponsibly interventionist foreign policy and an anti-government creed that was meant to counteract, and ultimately destroy, the welfare state programs enacted from the 1930s to the 1960s. In part, they succeeded, but they also planted the seeds for the economic blowup and the massive redistribution of income from the middle class to the wealthy. It’s now time to begin winding down that inequality and I think that’s ultimately what the American people voted for on November 6.

We’re finding out, after all, that starving government and blaming it for our ills can be destructive. It’s led to slower responses to societal problems and unfairly labeling public employees as lazy, ineffective and wasteful. Government does have a role to play in guaranteeing that Americans who need programs and qualify for them actually get them. The free market works rather well in the United States, but the market can’t cure all of our ills. We need public systems where the private sector can’t, or won’t, step in.

It’s been a fun 18 months covering the political drama, but I’m closing the books on this election. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and let’s all try to get along, shall we?

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

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Politics taxes

Bill Kristol Again Sees Nothing Wrong With Raising Taxes On The Rich

The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol was among the panelists on this week’s Fox News Sunday, where he again noted that a tax increase for the wealthy wouldn’t be the end of the world for Republicans — and that, honestly, many members of the Tea Party wouldn’t care.

“I just don’t think that the Republicans have the leverage — or that it’s worth using whatever leverage they have — to maintain rates at 35 percent instead of instead of 37 or 38,” Kristol said, “especially if you take it up to millionaires.”

There will be a deal, he said, and Republicans “will yield a bit on top rates.”

Bob Woodward quipped that “they are going to burn Bill Kristol’s Tea Party card, hearing him talk like this. You are off the reservation.”

“You know,” Kristol responded, “a lot of the Tea Party guys don’t care that much if a few millionaires pay a couple percent more in taxes, honestly.”

h/t Mediaite

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Benghazi Benghazi Politics

Anderson Cooper Cornered A Republican on Benghazi – The Republican Began Yelling – Video

The story of Benghazi has now been magnified by partisan Republicans to a point of no return, and their to somehow tie the Obama administration to the unfortunate events that took the lives of four Americans, is appalling. With absolutely no facts to back up their claim that the president “intentionally lied” to Americans about the events in Benghazi, Republicans have found themselves in a position where they are grasping at the air for something to hold on to.

Take for example what happened on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Friday. Cooper invited Republican Dana Rohrabacher to his show and offered the congressman an opportunity to defend his position that President Obama intentionally mislead the American people. Rohrabacher used his time to continue calling the President a liar.

When asked by Anderson to prove where Obama lied, the Republican congressman took a page from the Mitt Romney playbook on lying and he dug in even more, raising his voice in a shouting match with himself, trying to drown out Anderson Cooper’s rebuttal that what he was saying “was factually not correct.”

Mr. Cooper tried telling the Republican that James Clapper‘s office – Director of National Intelligence – were the ones informing the administration of the events in Benghazi, and that whatever the administration told the American people came from the National Intelligence office. Cooper then asked if the National Intelligence Office was also lying. The Republican, feeling cornered by the truth, yelled some more.

Watch the clip from CNN below.

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Politics taxes weekly address

President To Republicans: Don’t Hold The Middle Class Hostage While Debating Tax Rates For The Rich

Picking up right where he left off before the election, President Obama continued his call for maintaining the middle class tax cut, while asking the rich to pay their fair share. He once again called on Republicans to get on board, instead of holding the middle class “hostage” in their effort to pander to the rich.

When it comes to taxes, for example, there are two pathways available.

One says, if Congress fails to act by the end of the year, then everybody’s taxes automatically go up – including the 98% of Americans who make less than $250,000 a year. Our economy can’t afford that right now. You can’t afford that right now.  And nobody wants that to happen.

The other path is for Congress to pass a law right away to prevent a tax hike on the first $250,000 of anyone’s income. That means all Americans – including the wealthiest Americans – get a tax cut.  And 98 percent of Americans, and 97 percent of all small business owners, won’t see their income taxes go up a single dime.

The Senate has already passed a bill like this. Democrats in the House are ready to pass one, too. All we need is for Republicans in the House to come on board.

We shouldn’t hold the middle class hostage while Congress debates tax cuts for the wealthy. Let’s begin our work by actually doing what we all agree on. Let’s keep taxes low for the middle class. And let’s get it done soon – so we can give families and businesses some good news going into the holiday season.

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Politics

President Obama’s Favorable Ratings Goes Up – Highest Since 2009

Everything looks better in hindsight, apparently. President Barack Obama’s favorable rating bounced to 58 percent post-election, the highest it’s been since 2009, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll released Friday.

Obama’s favorable rating is 3 points higher than it was a week before the election, although it’s still below his 68 percent rating immediately after winning the 2008 election.

The Democratic Party as a whole saw a more significant jump in its favorability rating, which rose 6 points to 51 percent. A majority of Americans now hold positive views of the party for the first time since mid-2009.

The president’s GOP rival, Mitt Romney, also benefited — his favorable ratings rose 4 points to hit 50 percent, tying his personal high from May, according to the new poll. The Republican Party’s ratings stayed at 43 percent, similar to the 42 percent it garnered just before the election.

The USA Today/Gallup poll surveyed 1,009 adults by phone between Nov. 9 and 12, with a 4 percent margin of error.

h/t Huffington Post

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Politics Republican

Meghan McCain To The Republican Party – Change, Or I’m Leaving You

While her father John McCain continues his fruitless partisan attacks on the Obama administration, Meghan McCain is quietly making news calling for drastic changes in the Republican party especially around social issues. And if the party remains the same boring old party stuck in the ice age, the daughter of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate is threatening to pack all her stuff and leave the party!

She writes:

“… I’ve been calling for the Republican Party to come to terms with reality and modernize. Last Tuesday, Mitt Romney lost—and he lost big. As Republicans, we lost again. I felt sad, exhausted, beaten down, and heartbroken. It was the first time that I considered that the Republican Party, which I love so much, might die.”

“Times are changing. The face of America is changing and we as Republicans stand at a crossroads. Are we going to accept the changing face of America and change with it? Or are we going to continue to become more isolated and irrelevant? It’s possible to maintain the core values of this party and evolve when it comes to social issues. Quite frankly, I don’t see any other path to success.”

“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting for change from inside the Republican Party… And if we don’t move forward, adapt, and become relevant again, the Republican Party isn’t going to survive. It will just continue to alienate more moderate voters like myself. If I don’t see some changes in the next four years, I’m going to consider registering as an Independent in 2016.”

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Barack Obama George Bush Politics

Papa John’s Pizza Made More Money Under Obama Than Under Bush

Papa John’s Pizza founder and CEO John Schnatter has been making headlines this year with his one-man crusade against his customers, and now his employees, over his restaurant chain’s new responsibilities under President Obama‘s Affordable Care Act.

Schnatter has earned extra-large, stuffed-crust bad PR for his trouble, as photos of his extravagant Louisville estate have gone viral, and his company’s stock price has taken a 9% dive since his latest remarks. For all of his bitching about President Obama and support for Mitt Romney, though, Schnatter’s stock price was at $51.90 per share on Election Day, more than triple the $16.58 it closed with when President Obama was inaugurated.

On the other hand, during the eight years of the Bush administration, Papa John’s stock price leapt from $11.97 per share to $16.58, an improvement of $4.68.

Since Election Day, though, Schnatter one-upped his promise to jack the price of his ‘za up by a whopping 11 cents to cover his employees’ health care by explaining that his franchisees will probably cut those employees’ hours to avoid that “crippling” expense. Since Schnatter opened his yap this last time, Papa John’s stock has dropped $4.68, as of 2pm Thursday. That’s eight years worth of Republican presidenting, gone in a matter of days.

h/t Mediaite

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Mitt Romney Politics

Bobby Jindal – “I Think [Mitt Romney] Is Absolutely Wrong” On That Gift Statement

I think it’s pure political ambition. I think Bobby Jindal saw an opportunity to be against the looser Romney and he jumped on it. It was just a week ago before the election when everything Mitt Romney said was automatically endorsed by Jindal, but now, Jindal is leading the opposition against  the former Republican presidential candidate.

Asked about Romney’s latest statement that he lost the election because of Obama’s “gifts” to different ethnic groups and women, the Republican governor of Louisiana couldn’t disagree more.

“No, I think that’s absolutely wrong,” he said at a press conference that opened the RGA’s post-election meeting here. “Two points on that: One, we have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent. We need to go after every single vote.

“And, secondly, we need to continue to show how our policies help every voter out there achieve the American Dream, which is to be in the middle class, which is to be able to give their children an opportunity to be able to get a great education. … So, I absolutely reject that notion, that description. I think that’s absolutely wrong.”

I think Bobby Jindal is trying to get some recognition for 2016. Move over Chris Christie!

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