Tag: New York Times

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Politics

New York Times to Bottom-Feeder Chris Christie – “Go Home!”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie addresses the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington, DC on February 26, 2015. AFP PHOTO/NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

The New York Times, the epitome of The Media. Republicans don’t like the media and often refer to media establishments as “lamestream.” So having a top shelve media outlet call for his departure, Chris Christie is sure to send out his fundraising letter, telling his supporters to donate, because the lamestream media is calling for him to “go home.”

The New York Times Editorial Board took the time to pen an article, urging Christie – a bottom feeder in the presidential polls – to go home and take care of the crises in New Jersey!

It’s that time in the ever-long presidential campaign when candidates lacking money and mojo are starting to go back to their plows. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey should join them.

Mr. Christie has been called a lot of things, but until Wednesday’s debate performance, “barely there” was not among them. In eight minutes of speaking time, Mr. Christie said little of substance. As for his parting pitch that he’s “deadly serious about changing this culture” of government, well, his constituents in New Jersey know better.

This isn’t strictly about Mr. Christie’s fitness for the presidency. His role in New Jersey’s budget crisis, betrayal on affordable housing and the interlocking scandals on his watch, from Bridgegate to “the chairman’s flight,” say a great deal about that.

The point is that New Jersey is in trouble, and the governor is off pursuing a presidential run that’s turned out to be nothing more than a vanity project. Mr. Christie’s numbers are in the basement, and he’s nearly out of campaign cash. This is his moment, all right: to go home and use the rest of his term to clean out the barn, as Speaker John Boehner would say.

Needless to say, Chris Christie responded to the Times call for him to bow out, and he has apparently decided that the troubles in his state are not as important as his selfish goal to have the word ‘president’ attached to his name. In a tweet back to the Times, Christie said, “Can’t read the article because I don’t have a subscription, but I can tell you this – I am not going anywhere.”

Of course!

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Barack Obama Politics

25 Years Ago, The New York Times Wrote This Article about Barack Obama

They saw something in the young Obama.

On February 6, 1990, it announced (in a headline that’s now pretty dated), “First Black Elected to Head Harvard’s Law Review,” and explained that the 28-year-old’s new role was considered the “highest student position” at the school.

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Politics Syria

Vladimir Putin, Put Your Shirt On. You Are Not Muscular, You Are No Saint

The fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he has the moral compass to talk about diplomacy is in itself laughable. The fact that he sees himself capable of teaching the idea of Diplomacy to Americans is Rolling On The Floor Laughing Out Loud.

Putin and the Syrian leader Bashar Assad jumped on an off the cuff remark by Secretary of State John Kerry, where Kerry suggested a total surrender of Syria’s chemical weapons as the only way to avoid military action. The here’s our weapons ball began rolling almost immediately with Putin leading the way and here at home, the Republicans – who haven’t yet met a war they didn’t like – suddenly became peace makers, lovers of diplomacy.  They began praising Putin The Savior yesterday, as if he was Christ getting ready for the second coming.

All this love going his way from the Republicans in the United States Congress and the exaltation from a right winged media blitz on all this week, must have went straight to Putin’s head, prompting him to pen an op ed in the New York Times. A Plea for Caution From Russia was written well, made some good points. But the message was totally corrupted by the messenger.

Ordinarily this part of the message I would agree with. In this passage, Putin explains how much of the world view America and our military power, and the irony of using the military to protect innocent people who sometimes end up being inadvertently killed by military action.

Putin, take it away!

It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.”

But force has proved ineffective and pointless. Afghanistan is reeling, and no one can say what will happen after international forces withdraw. Libya is divided into tribes and clans. In Iraq the civil war continues, with dozens killed each day. In the United States, many draw an analogy between Iraq and Syria, and ask why their government would want to repeat recent mistakes.

No matter how targeted the strikes or how sophisticated the weapons, civilian casualties are inevitable, including the elderly and children, whom the strikes are meant to protect.

If that was all Putin had to say, then his message would be more acceptable, more believable in spite of the messenger. But then Putin went where he clearly had no right going.

At this point in his article, Putin was probably admiring the masculinity of his shirtless physique in the mirror, when decided to tell Americans that we are not exceptional and shouldn’t even feel like we are.

Brace yourself.

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.

And the part of Putin’s message that showed us just how broken his moral compass really is, and why the message was totally corrupted was when he talked about everyone being equally created by God… Yes, Putin really said that. Yes, the same Putin who is persecuting people in Russia because of their sexual orientation. That same Putin said this:

We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

Putin, put your shirt back on. You are not muscular and you are no saint, despite what the Republicans say.

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Barack Obama Politics South Carolina

Jon Huntsman Quits Race – Endorses Willard Romney Instead

The New York Times reports:

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.”

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Nikki Haley Politics South Carolina United States voter suppression

Judge Slams Break On Nikki Haley’s Voter Suppression Law

Since winning the House of Representatives in November 2010, Republicans have been on a rampage trying all they could to suppress the votes of minorities throughout the United States. Republicans would have you believe that voter fraud is crippling our political process, and they are the only ones with the willingness and ability to fix it.

If you listen to the Republican logic, you will believe that on election day, millions of dead people come back to life and vote for Democrats. So to solve this dilemma, Republicans governors across the nation began implementing various forms of voter ID laws.

But the facts show a different story.

A recent Washington Post article found that “prosecutable cases of voter fraud are rare.” The report said that in Ohio for example, out of 9 million votes cast in the 2002 and 2004 elections, only 4 cases of voter fraud were reported. And “from 2002 to 2005, the Justice Department found only five people were convicted for voting multiple times.”

But what about on the national scene, the voter ID fraud cases must be ridiculously rampant, right? Well you’d be wrong to think that too. Another report, this time by the New York Times found that during the first five years of the Bush crackdown on voter fraud, from 2002 to 2007,  “about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted” nationwide.

This is just a manufactured issue by Republicans claiming that we are under attack by  illegitimate voters from beyond the grave. That’s just not the case and these Republican governors know it. What they are actually trying to do, is suppress the minority votes for the 2012 election.

So we take pleasure in reporting what this judge did in South Carolina – putting the brakes on Gov. Nikki Haley’s voter ID law.

The U.S. Justice Department has blocked South Carolina’s controversial voter ID law, saying it would prevent black people from voting.

It was the first voter ID law to be refused by the federal agency in nearly 20 years.

The decision means voters will not have to show a Department of Motor Vehicles-issued driver’s license or photo ID card, a U.S. military ID or a U.S. passport. And it means the state, which says it plans to appeal the decision in court, will spend time and taxpayer dollars on the second such lawsuit during Gov. Nikki Haley’s term.

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Employment Politics United States

How To End The Vicious Cycle And Get America Working Again

Image by Koshyk via Flickr

It is simple math, really! The primary incentive for any Corporation is to make money, to make a profit. But in order for these companies to achieve their  goal, their products or services must be in demand and then purchased. When the demand is there and consumers are able to purchase these products or services, companies make a profit then produce more to satisfy consumer demand, thus more profits.

The problem with this economy is not a matter of supply and demand. Records show that Corporations are sitting on a collective financial nest egg of about $2 trillion in cash, so the ability to produce is there. And the problem is not a lack of demand either, for as long as there are consumers, there will always be a demand. The problem with this economy is the ability of consumers to purchase. It’s a vicious cycle – take away consumer’s ability to purchase, and the company’s profit incentive is no longer achievable. If the company can’t see a way to be profitable, they lay off workers and sit on their nest-egg. These laid off workers then join a population of non-consumers who don’t have the ability to purchase and the cycle continues.

What then, is the answer? As far as I can see, the answer is simple – give consumers the ability to purchase.

The best, most ideal way to do this is with jobs. If consumers are working, they get a paycheck and thus, are able to purchase. But in this economy, jobs are becoming scarce because Corporations are trying to hold on to their profits and are laying off. If we can’t attack the problem by making Corporations hire, then we must attack it from the other end  – creating the ability for consumers to buy, thus, increasing demand. When this demand is increased, the profit margin is realized by these Corporations, and hiring is increased to meet the demand of the consumers.

How do you  empower the consumers? There are two ways:

  1. The government must pick up the slack and take the initiative. A perfect example of this was the actions of  President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression, where the government took more of an active role in The New Deal and was able to reduce unemployment by converting auto manufacturing plants into factories to meet the demands of World War 2. This action alone employed millions of unemployed Americans, giving them a paycheck and essentially reversing the effects of the Great Depression.
  2. A massive direct Stimulus Bill – This will put real dollars into the hands of consumers, thus, giving them the ability to consume. Because of the nature of this method, it is not a long-term sustained effort to get the economy going, but it will provide a necessary needed jolt that can get corporations hiring again to meet the sudden demand by these newly empowered consumers. More hires will eventually lead to more paychecks, thus reversing the effects of this recession.
Can this government employ these two measures now to get the economy back on the right track? Yes, they can, but it takes both sides to come to the table with a real genuine goal to get America back to work. We’ve heard a lot about “shovel ready projects.” These are real areas where people can get work and begin the process of ending this recession. Bridges, roads, schools and America’s communication infrastructures need repair. We talk about green technology and clean energy, well now is the time to put people to work getting these ideas implemented. If Roosevelt had the ability to do it back in the 1930/40’s, there is no reason why it can’t be done now.

So if a simple person like myself can figure this out, why can’t the elected elites in Washington do the same?

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Barack Obama Newt Gingrich Politics Republican Sonia Sotomayor Soviet Union United States

Newt “Fraud And Trickery” Gingrich For President

So Newt decided to throw his hat in the ring. Mr. Gingrich has decided that what America needs now is a Republican President who’s on the ball. One who is able to see through the fraud and trickery of the Democrats. The only problem is, fraud and trickery is Newt’s middle name. Try as you may, you won’t find a politician more trickier than Newt Gingrich.

Mother Jones has a piece out that goes through some of the more inflammatory remarks and doings of Newt, since he first joined congress in 1978, spanning some of his most infamous remarks to date. These include, but not limited to;

  • His 1978 address to Congressional Republicans urging them to be more nasty
  • Another speech in 1984, where he charges Democrats of “appeasement and distributing ‘communist propaganda,'”
  • And yet another speech in 1984, where he quotes a conservative study and argues that it was time to stop using the label “patriots” when talking about Democrats. According to Newt, “enough historical evidence exists,” to prove that Democrats cannot be patriots.
  • And in 1985, when he talked about Democrats foreign policy, Newt said, “Adolph Hitler must somewhere be burning in hell, wishing he had lived two generations later, so he could manipulate Americans instead of Englishmen.”

The article, written by David Corn and Tim Murphy, details the last 33 years of Newt Gingrich. But if you don’t have the time to read through the garbage that sums up Newt’s political and personal life, the New York Times published a piece summarizing some of the more  outrageous and divisive statements;

The Democrats who won in 2008, including President Obama, are “left-wing radicals” who lead a “secular socialist machine,” he wrote in his 2010 book, “To Save America.” He accused them of producing “the greatest political corruption ever seen in modern America.” And then the inevitable historical coup de grâce: “The secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.”

The slurs don’t stop there. He compared the Muslims who wanted to open an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan to the German Reich, saying it “would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.” He is promoting the fringe idea that “jihadis” are intent on imposing Islamic law on every American village and farm.

Last year, he called for a federal law to stop the (nonexistent) onslaught of Sharia on American jurisprudence and accused the left of refusing to acknowledge its “mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it.” This nuanced grasp of world affairs was reinforced when he said that Mr. Obama displayed “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior.”

In his world, advocates for gay rights are imposing a “gay and secular fascism” using violence and harassment, blacks have little entrepreneurial tradition, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court is a “Latina woman racist.” (He kind of took back that last slur.)

And even Newt’s own mother unintentionally threw him under the bus back in the 1990’s, when she quoted something he said about Hillery Clinton, then first Lady of the United States.

Yes, the fraud and trickery of Newt Gingrich is abundant. Just what we need in the White House!

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Featured

It’s Official! Conservative Media Lies… A Lot!

We’re bringing you a bit of news we’ve already known for some time, but it feels good repeating it again – and again!  So just in case there’s anyone out there who doesn’t already know, this makes it official – one more time!

A new study confirms the following – that liberal reporters and pundits stick to the facts, while the conservatives’ excuse for a reporter/pundit simply make stuff up.

The most interesting conclusion of the report is the confirmation that liberals are accurate more often than conservatives. That may be the result of the inherent slant of factual information that was first identified by fake pundit Stephen Colbert who noted that “reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

The top performer in the study is Paul Krugman of the New York Times. The worst performer is uber-pundit George Will.

I am a little disappointed though, I thought Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh would have definitely tied for last. And let’s not forget a previous study that finds Fox News just makes stuff up.

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Abortion Featured Republican Texas

The Republican War Against Women Continues in Texas

A Law requiring doctors to take a sonogram of a fetus before performing an abortion, goes into effect as soon as Republican Governor Rick Perry of Texas signs the bill. It passed both the Texas House and Senate, and promise to be one of the most anti-abortion measures yet.

The framer of the bill – a man who could never understand the pain and reasoning behind the decision to have an abortion – Republican Representative Sid Miller from Stephenville, admits to the far-reaching intent of the bill, telling reporters; “this will be one of the strongest pieces of sonogram legislation in the nation.” He also predicted that the bill would “save numerous unborn lives.”

According to reporting from the New York Times;

“The bill requires a doctor to conduct a sonogram at least 24 hours before an abortion and to give the woman the opportunity to see the results and hear the heartbeat of the fetus. Though the woman can choose not to view the images and hear the heartbeat, the doctor must describe what the sonogram shows, including the existence of legs, arms and internal organs.”

Opponents of the bill say that this is just another attempt by “get-the-government-out-of-our-lives” Republicans to control the most intimate and personal decision an individual may make.

Other states have already begun or passed similar measures. A recent count reveals that since Republicans took over the House of Representatives in January, Republican controlled states all over this country have engaged on an all out assault against women, bringing some 916 bills against a women’s reproductive rights.

The promise by John Boehner, the Republican House Speaker to make “jobs jobs jobs” their number one priority has fallen on deaf ears, as the conservative ideology of “small government” apparently does not include their control over a woman’s right to choose.

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MSNBC Tid Bits twitter

Countdown With Keith Olbermann Comes To Current T.V

The new date is set. The time, the place and oh yeah… the name. Keith Olbermann’s new show is not really new. It maintains the same name – Countdown With Keith Olbermann – and it maintains the same time slot – 8PM Est, 11PM Est and 2AM EST. But according to the video release by Mr. Olbermann, Current’s version of Countdown will be a little more edgy.

And the ‘when‘? It will be in June. Could this new Countdown be in direct competition to MSNBC’s 8, 10 and 2am time slot, now hosted by Lawrence O’Donnell’s The Last Word? After all, these were the times the old Countdown had on that network. Should O’Donnell be concerned?

Mr. Olbermann tells more in the video below.

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Politics Republican

After Robbing The Middle Class, Republicans Want Us To Donate Cash

The short-sighted freshmen Republican congressmen were so blinded by the euphoria of robbing the middle class and giving to the rich, they forgot that they would need these same middle class Americans to donate more money for their re-election campaigns. Now, the reality is becoming very apparent – you can’t squeeze blood from a rock.

The New York Times reports;

Figures released by the Federal Election Commission last week showed that Mr. West raised more than $433,000 in the first quarter of the year, ranking third among all freshman Republicans. And he has already spent much of that, mostly on direct-mail fund-raising and other expenses. During the same reporting period in the 2010 campaign, Mr. West raised just over $839,000.

Two Democrats challenging Mr. West for the 2012 election, Patrick Murphy, a businessman, and Lois J. Frankel, a former mayor of West Palm Beach, did fairly well in the first quarter of 2011, raising $352,000 and $250,000 respectively.

Mr. West is one of more than two dozen Republican freshmen facing tough re-election battles in Congressional districts that lean Democratic or were won by President Obama in 2008. Others include Michael G. Grimm and Nan Hayworth of New York, Robert Hurt of Virginia, Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania, David Schweikert of Arizona and Steve Stivers of Ohio.

Mr. Grimm, Ms. Hayworth and Mr. Meehan all raised less in this reporting period than they did a year ago.

But have no fear freshmen, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court has made it possible for corporations to donate an unlimited amount of money to you. Who needs the darn, pesky middle-class when a corporation can buy your election?

No wonder you’re so concerned about giving back to these corporations. So the vicious cycle continues…

 

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Barack Obama Politics Republican Ronald Reagan White House

Republican Presidents Add More To The Debt Than Democratic Presidents Do

Something we already knew, but now the record proves it. Republican presidents run up debts, while Democratic presidents try to reduce it.

This is in stark contrast to the ideology constantly being drilled into our heads by the media and the Republican party, that conservatives are for fiscal discipline. If this is true, the conservatives who become president must leave their ‘discipline’ at the door of the White House.

According to the report,

Economist Mike Kimel notes that the last five Democratic Presidents (Clinton, Carter, LBJ, JFK, and Truman) all reduced public debt as a share of GDP, while the last four Republican Presidents (GW Bush, GHW Bush, Reagan, and Ford) all oversaw an increase in the country’s indebtedness.

Similarly, Republican David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, as op-ed contributor to the New York Times blamed the “ideological tax-cutters” of the Reagan administration for the increase of national debt during the 1980s.

Looking back, this trend was not always the case. Yesteryear’s Republican Presidents once had focused on bringing down the national debt,  but something changed right around the time Reagan got into office. See the chart below;

So next time these conservatives talk about “deficit reduction” and “cutting the budget,” maybe they should consider whose policies increased the national debt to where it is today. They should also consider educating their next presidential candidate, and beg that candidate to maintain their so-called “conservatism” if they manage to cross the threshold of the White House.

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