Tag: New York Times

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Barack Obama donaldtrump Featured Hawaii United States

To The Editor, From Donald “The Birther” Trump

Gail Collins wrote an article back on April 2nd called Donald Trump Gets Weirder, in which – among other things – she referred to Birther Donald Trump as a Birther. Mr. Birther Trump found this reference offensive, or as he wrote in his birther response, “very derogatory.” The Birther then tried to justify his beliefs–no facts required– that President Obama was born in Kenya.

We now present the facts, as a birther sees them;

To the Editor:

Re “Donald Trump Gets Weirder,” by Gail Collins (column, April 2):

Even before Gail Collins was with the New York Times, she has written nasty and derogatory articles about me.  Actually, I have great respect for Ms. Collins in that she has survived so long with so little talent. Her storytelling ability and word usage (coming from me, who has written many bestsellers), is not at a very high level. More importantly, her facts are wrong!

As far as her comments on the so-called “birther” issue, I don’t need Ms. Collins’s advice. There is a very large segment of our society who believe that Barack Obama, indeed, was not born in the United States. His grandmother from Kenya stated, on tape, that he was born in Kenya and she was there to watch the birth. His family in Honolulu is fighting over which hospital in Hawaii he was born in-they just don’t know.

He has not been able to produce a “birth certificate” but merely a totally unsigned “certificate of live birth”-which is totally different and of very little significance. Unlike a birth certificate, a certificate of live birth is very easy to obtain. Equally of importance, there are no records in Hawaii that a Barack Hussein Obama was born there-no bills, no doctors names, no nurses names, no registrations, no payments, etc. As far as the two notices placed in newspapers, many things could have happened, but some feel the grandparents put an ad in order to show that he was a citizen of the U.S. with all of the benefits thereto. Everybody, after all, and especially then, wanted to be a United States citizen.

The term used by Ms. Collins-“birther”-is very derogatory and is meant in a derogatory way. Had this been George Bush or almost any other President or Presidential aspirant, they would never have been allowed to attain office, or would have been thrown out of office very quickly.

For some reason, the press protects President Obama beyond anything or anyone I have ever seen. What they don’t realize is that if he was not born in the United States, they would have uncovered the greatest “scam” in the history of our country.  In other words, they would become the hottest writer since Watergate, or beyond.

Open your eyes, Gail, there’s at least a good chance that Barack Hussein Obama has made mincemeat out of our great and cherished Constitution!

DONALD J. TRUMP
New York, April 7, 2011

So there you have it. All the facts needed to prove that the President of these United States was actually born in Kenya. No more questions need to be asked, no more proof necessary. If Mr. Birther Trump says so, then so it is.

I wonder if Birther Trump seen this video explaining “The Event!”?

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Politics Republican Wisconsin

Wisconsin Election Too Close To Call

Who is this Joanne Kloppenburg? Whoever she is, she’s giving the Republican incumbent judge in Wisconsin a run for his money.

As of this moment, the New York Times is reporting that with 99% of the votes counted, “the pair were separated by fewer than 600 votes from among more than 1.4 million cast. The leader had flipped again and again throughout the night.” See the results here.

The election in Wisconsin comes in the middle of a battle between Republican Scott Walker and his recent efforts to take away the collective bargaining rights of public workers. The election, held yesterday, was a sure win for the Republican, David T. Prossner before Governor Walker began to initiate his union busting policies. Prossner is seeking his second 10 year term on the state’s Supreme Court.

But here comes Joanne Kloppenburg, an assistant attorney general – virtually unknown by the state’s voters – giving the Republican judge the hardest fight of his political career.

With various cases filed in Wisconsin against Scott Walker’s bill, many consider this election to be of utmost importance. A win by Prossner will maintain the 4-3 conservative vote in the court, while a win by Kloppenburg could be the deciding vote in many of these cases.

With an election this close, there has to be a recount on the horizon.

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Politics United States Wayne LaPierre

N.R.A. Will Not Talk, While 2,405 Shot Dead Since Tucson Arizona

In January, we saw the destruction power of a deranged gunman who opened fire in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people in a botched attempt to assassinate Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. So naturally, the talk about gun-control has became prominent once again, as both Democrats and Republicans try to show they’re ontop  the issue.

This is a political issue dating back decades, with Democrats usually in favor of some form of gun regulation, and Republicans against most. Caught in the middle of all the politics is the National Rifle Association, a group that gives heavily to both political parties, essentially suppressing all gun control legislation from the very start.

President Obama, the ultimate pragmatist that he is, thought the best way to deal with this problem was to have both sides come to the table to talk about what can be done, if anything. A starting point that no group or organization should be against. A conversation…! Who could be against sitting down and talking? The NRA of course!

The New York Times reports;

On Tuesday, officials at the Justice Department will meet with gun control advocates in the first of what will be a series of meetings over the next two weeks with people on different sides of the issue, including law enforcement, retailers and manufacturers, to seek agreement on possible legislative or administrative actions.

The effort follows Mr. Obama’s call, in a column on Sunday in a Tucson newspaper, to put aside “stale policy debates” and begin “a new discussion” on ways to better enforce and strengthen existing laws to keep mentally unstable, violent and criminal people from getting guns.

But the National Rifle Association, for decades the most formidable force against proposals to limit gun sales or ownership, is refusing to join the discussion — possibly dooming it from the start, given the lobby’s clout with both parties in Congress. Administration officials had indicated they expected that the group would be represented at a meeting, perhaps on Friday.

Six people died in Tucson in January, among the deceased was a 9 year old girl and a federal judge. A congresswoman is still trying to regain some sense of normalcy, or as much normalcy as possible, considering she was shot at point-blank range in the head.

A new report by Newsweek finds that since the shooting in Tucson two months ago, 2,405 more people have been shot and killed in America. But the lives of these innocent people in Tuscon and those killed nationwide over the last two months means nothing to the NRA. Their argument is the second amendment of the Constitution, that states;

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Although it is their constitutional right to “keep and bear arms,” how many more lives have to be lost to senseless violence before groups like the NRA decide that coming to the table to talk, just talk, about a way to stem such senseless violence, cannot be a harmful thing. You know what’s harmful? 2,405 gunshot deaths in two months – that’s harmful!

Read the full Times report here.

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Democratic Politics Republican Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

Wisconsin Fab 14 Returns to a Hero’s Welcome

Tens of thousands came out in support of the returning Democratic senators, who fled the state of Wisconsin almost a month ago to avoid voting on a bill aimed at busting the unions in the state. The bill was eventually signed into law without any Democratic votes, but the 14 Senate Democrats were welcomed back in Wisconsin today as heroes.

Paul Fieber, a retired state employee carrying a homemade sign declaring “Our Heroes” said, “before all of this occurred I wouldn’t have known a lot of their names, but that has changed for me and a lot of the population.”

The New York Times reports:

At a news conference on Saturday, the senators spoke, sometimes boastfully, about their pride in the outpouring of support, their dismay at the law that passed despite their absence and their eagerness to meet the protesters who have backed their actions.

“I’m one of the Fabulous 14 and I’m so proud,” said Spencer Coggs, who was first elected to the State Legislature nearly three decades ago. “We are back to unite and fight with our supporters. We gave them hope. They gave us inspiration.”

Though officially in hiding, the Democrats had been more visible then ever, given countless interviews from “undisclosed locations” around Illinois, where they stayed out of reach of the Wisconsin state troopers dispatched to bring them back to the Senate.

Fred Risser, a senate Democrat whose nearly six decades of service makes him the longest-tenured state legislator in the country, said he had never been so widely recognized. “I’m quite amazed at the number of strangers who come up and thanked me,” he said.

With the Democrats out of the state, Republicans on Thursday forced through the bill using an option that is considered by many as illegal. The state’s attorney general, who is also a Republican, is being urged to investigate the way governor Scott Walker signed the bill into law, and to determine if any laws were broken.

After the news conference the senators traveled to the Capitol square, where one of the largest protests in what has been a daily outpouring of union employees and supporters was under way. The spectacle was enhanced by a brigade of tractors that motored around the square.

The size of the crowd was particularly striking, coming a day after the battle over the bill was lost, though legal efforts are under way to block .

For weeks now the rhythmic chanting of protestors has filled this city like a heartbeat, proof that despite the lack of political power the political left in this state was still here. At the very moment that the noise was expected to fade in disappointment that thumping proof of life — “This is what Democracy looks like,” was the most popular of the chants — continued with renewed vigor.

Many in the crowd said the effect of the legislation had been to breathe new life into the disheartened Democrats, just months after Republicans gained control of the governor’s office and both chambers of the State Legislature, and to reawaken union solidarity at a time when membership numbers have been declining.

Not surprisingly, Republicans in the state held a different opinion of the 14 Democratic Senators. The NYTimes reports the senate majority leader, Republican Scott Fitzgerald, calling the Democrats “shameful.”

“Today, the most shameful 14 people in the state of Wisconsin are going to pat themselves on the back and smile for the cameras. They’re going to pretend they’re heroes for taking a three-week vacation. It is an absolute insult to the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who are struggling to find a job, much less one they can run away from and go down to Illinois — with pay.”

Given the tens of thousands coming out to greet the “Fab 14″ senators, it is very obvious that the Republicans are on the wrong side here. In fact, the term ‘shameful” has been used over the last 3 weeks to describe the manner in which Republicans have rammed the bill down the throats of Wisconsinites.

Read the Times report here.

 

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Politics

Will We See Fox News’ Roger Aisles On M.S.N.B.C.’s Lockup?

Yes, encouraging someone to lie to the Federal authorities is a crime, punishable with fines and or imprisonment, and that seems to be  exactly what Roger Aisles – the senior executive of News Corp and Chairman of Fox News – did, according to a Ms. Judith Regan.

According to a report from the New York Times, Aisles, the man responsible for the direction of the so-called “news network,” gave the unsolicited advise to Ms. Regan in an effort to protect Rudolph Giuliani, a then 2008 Republican presidential candidate. Regan – the Times reports – had an affair with Bernard Kerik, Giuliani’s New York police commissioner, and the man being considered by the Feds to head up the job of Homeland Security Secretary. Aisles advised Regan to lie or withhold information about the relationship from the feds, and according to Ms. Regan, the conversation was recorded.

The revelation was made in court in another case involving Ms. Regan. Brian C. Kerr, a former lawyer of Ms. Regan describes the evidence he found in an affidavit. The Times Reports;

But Brian C. Kerr, one of Ms. Regan’s former lawyers, describes in an affidavit the physical evidence he reviewed as “including a tape recording of a conversation between her and Roger Ailes, which is alluded to throughout the complaint” that Mr. Kerr and another lawyer, Seth Redniss, drafted for Ms. Regan. That complaint said News Corporation executives “were well aware that Regan had a personal relationship with Kerik.”

“In fact,” the complaint said, “a senior executive in the News Corporation organization told Regan that he believed she had information about Kerik that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani’s presidential campaign. This executive advised Regan to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik.”

Mr. Redniss, in his affidavit, referred to “a recorded telephone call between Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News (a News Corp. company) and Regan, in which Mr. Ailes discussed with Regan her responses to questions regarding her personal relationship with Bernard Kerik.”

Would I be wrong to assume that Roger Aisles will deny these claims and the voice on the recording? No, of course not. As a matter of fact, it is expected that Mr. Aisles will deny it all, because after all, he’s the one responsible for the content of Fox News. There will obviously be more to this story in the near future.

Read the New York Times report here.

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Politics Supreme Court of the United States United States

Judge Rules Health Care Is Constitutional, News Media Gone Fishing

So the theory is true — that proponents for health care reform will get little to no media press coverage as compared to those opposed to it. A  few weeks ago when a Republican judge ruled the entire Health Care Reform was unconstitutional and should be thrown out,  because of one aspect  called the individual mandate, the media went crazy! They were all over the story like white on rice. But yesterday, when the third judge – U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler – ruled in favor of the Obama administration and agreed that the bill is constitutional, we heard crickets!

And I am not the only one saying this. Here’s what Jed Lewison said about the unfair coverage;

coverage of Judge Roger Vinson’s decision against reform saturated the media, even though his ruling had no immediate impact on health reform.

The Vinson ruling received A1 coverage in The New York Times and dominated cable news. The Kessler ruling was covered on A14 of the Times and as far as cable news goes, I was only able to find two references to it — both on Fox, and each for less than a minute. (I’m basing this on closed caption text searches, so it’s possible I missed a couple of references, but there was hardly any coverage at all.)

After the Vinson ruling, Steve Benen pointed out the huge disparity in coverage between the two rulings in favor of reform and the two rulings against reform. Even if you were to dismiss the significance of those numbers on the theory that the rulings against reform were bigger news because they happened after the rulings that upheld reform, yesterday’s ruling should be at least as significant as Vinson’s ruling because it means that three judges have now ruled in favor of reform compared with two who have ruled against it.

If you’re keeping score, it’s 3 Democratic judges for the constitutionality of the bill, and 2 Republican judges against.

But have no dispare. There’s sure to be another Republican judge to rule against Health Care Reform, and then we will once again hear all manner of analysis and theories and punditry, references and cross-references, and interpretation, and evaluations, and breakdowns, and…..

Categories
Domestic Policies Republican United States washington

Sacrificing America’s Future Is The Republican Way

The Republican Party would like Americans to believe they are all for deficit reduction. Of course, their position on the deficit and spending can easily be refuted by the free pass they gave the Bush Administration, who conducted business in Washington like they were playing with monopoly money. That said, the Teaparty was hatched to keep Obama  in check, and the November midterm election saw much of their members elected to Congress.

They rode into Washington claiming to have a mandate from the Teaparty the –reduction of America’s  deficit–and in keeping with this mandate, Republican leaders in the house  began making the usual promises . One of those promises was a reduction of $100 billion, a feat easier said than done, and one that can only be accomplished through drastically slashing services that benefit many Americans. The Teaparty demanded these spending cuts, and the House Republicans are determined to please.

So what’s a Republicans to do?

Paul Krugman – a nobel price winner for Economics – wrote an article in then New York Times in which he explains the plight the Republican leaders face. As Krugman explains, Republicans will “sacrifice the future.”

Focus the cuts on programs whose benefits aren’t immediate; basically, eat America’s seed corn. There will be a huge price to pay, eventually — but for now, you can keep the base happy.

If you didn’t understand that logic, you might be puzzled by many items in the House G.O.P. proposal. Why cut a billion dollars from a highly successful program that provides supplemental nutrition to pregnant mothers, infants, and young children? Why cut $648 million from nuclear nonproliferation activities? (One terrorist nuke, assembled from stray ex-Soviet fissile material, can ruin your whole day.) Why cut $578 million from the I.R.S. enforcement budget? (Letting tax cheats run wild doesn’t exactly serve the cause of deficit reduction.)

Once you understand the imperatives Republicans face, however, it all makes sense. By slashing future-oriented programs, they can deliver the instant spending cuts Tea Partiers demand, without imposing too much immediate pain on voters. And as for the future costs — a population damaged by childhood malnutrition, an increased chance of terrorist attacks, a revenue system undermined by widespread tax evasion — well, tomorrow is another day.

Sacrificing America’s future just to win the next vote. But then again we are talking about the Republican party, and with them, it has always been party before country, regardless of what John McCain’s 2008 presidential slogan was!

Read Paul Krugman’s Article here.

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MSNBC Tid Bits

Keith Olbermann’s New Gig Begins This Spring

Word from the Keith Olbermann camp – Mr. Olbermann broke the news on a conference call today that his new television show will begin this spring on Current TV. No word yet on what day or time the show starts, but his more than 1 million nightly fans of the former Countdown on MSNBC will be more than pleased to tune in. More from the NYTimes;

The untitled hour of news and commentary will effectively mimic “Countdown,” the MSNBC program that Mr. Olbermann conceived eight years ago and quit hosting last month. Mr. Olbermann told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that the new program would be “an improved, and we hope amplified and stronger, version of the show that I just did.”

Current is betting that Mr. Olbermann will put it on the cable map — and it needs the help. The channel averages just 23,000 viewers in prime time each night.

Mr. Olbermann drew about 1 million viewers to his MSNBC program each night. This is “the best investment that Current has ever made,” said another channel co-founder, Joel Hyatt.

Mr. Olbermann will have an equity stake in the company, and he will also have a management role. As the chief news officer, he will develop new programs and provide editorial guidance to the channel’s journalists.

“We are counting down the days to Keith Olbermann’s return to television,” the channel’s chief executive, Mark Rosenthal, said on the conference call. But he did not announce a premiere date or a time slot for the program.

With Current TV, Mr. Olbermann gains a measure of independence. Unlike most cable channels, including MSNBC, which are owned by large media companies, Current is privately and independently owned by Mr. Gore, the former vice president, and other backers.

Mr. Gore praised Mr. Olbermann in a statement. “We are delighted to provide Keith with the independent platform and freedom that Current can and does uniquely offer,” he said.

For more on this story, click here. Check your cable provider for channel info!

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Featured Supreme Court of the United States

Wife of Supreme Court Justice Is A Teaparty Lobbyist

The controversies surrounding Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas just never seem to end. We witnessed this during his confirmation hearings and now, his wife seems to want a piece of the notoriety too.

The New York Times is reporting that Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is now a lobbyist and self-appointed “ambassador to the Tea Party movement.” The Times reports;

Virginia Thomas, the justice’s wife, said on libertyinc.co, a Web site for her new political consulting business, that she saw herself as an advocate for “liberty-loving citizens” who favored limited government, free enterprise and other core conservative issues. She promised to use her “experience and connections” to help clients raise money and increase their political impact.

Ms. Thomas’s effort to take a more operational role on conservative issues could intensify questions about her husband’s ability to remain independent on issues like campaign finance and health care, legal ethicists said.

Wait a minute! There’s  something wrong with this picture!

The Supreme Court, often called the court of last resort, is the final say on how laws are interpreted in this country. According to Article III, §1, of the Constitution, “the judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court.” The court has jurisdiction over all cases, including Laws and Equity, to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party; to Controversies between two or more States; between a State and Citizens of another State; between Citizens of different States.

Every judge takes a lifetime oath to uphold and form decisions on cases based on the law. How can any judge be objectionable when he/she comes home and is greeted by a lobbyist spouse?

The Teaparty is in a push to get the Supreme Court to declare President Obama’s Health Care Law as unconstitutional.

A Virginia Thomas is lobbying for the Teaparty.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is married to aforementioned Virginia Thomas…

Yeah!–something’s fishy up in here alright!

Read the rest of the article here.

Categories
Ezra Klein Politics United States

Ezra Klein Is Wrong On This Issue

Steve Benen of The Washington Monthly ran an interesting piece, stating that judges who voted against the Affordable Care Act, or what the conservatives are calling ObamaCare, receive more press attention than those who voted for the bill.

He then broke it down by the numbers showing that on verdict 1, which supported the Democratic position of Health Care, received an average of 581 words from The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Associated Press and Politico.

On verdict 2, which also went in favor of the Democrats and the Obama administration, received an average of 438 words per article from the same four news agencies.

However, when verdict 3 came out by Federal District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson, whose decision went against the Democrats, the same four news agencies wrote an average of 1648 words in articles. Then yesterday, January 31st, another Federal Judge in Florida issued verdict 4 against the Health Reform Bill, and receive an average of 1742 words from the four. Mr. Benen question was, “If there’s a sensible explanation for this, I’d love to hear it.”

Ezra Klein, who writes for the Washington Post responded to Mr. Benen’s article saying,

“I actually think there is a sensible explanation for this: The two judges who ruled for the bill upheld the status quo. And they went first. So their rulings changed nothing. No one could accuse me of harboring an anti-ACA agenda, but I didn’t give those rulings much coverage.

The two judges who ruled against the bill called for enormous changes to the status quo, and enormous changes to the status quo are almost the definition of what “news” is. These two rulings have genuinely called the bill’s future into question, and that’s a big story.”

Well, although I tend to agree with Ezra Klein on many issues, and besides the fact that we share the same first name, I’ll have to disagree with his position on this matter.

Benen is right! There is simply no sensible explanation for the one-sided coverage. And although some may claim the sensationalism of a Federal Judge voting against the status quo is the “definition of what news is,” I prefer to think of the sensationalism of a life changed, if the Health Care reform law remains in effect. Now that’s news!

Categories
Barack Obama Birthers Hawaii Natural born citizen of the United States

Hawaii Takes on The Foolish Birthers

Can anyone not be disgusted and disappointed by the constant political distractions of the birthers and their baseless accusations against the President’s citizenship? Now imagine if you had first hand knowledge of the president’s birth in Hawaii, and were friends with his parents, imagine your disgust and disappointment with the birthers then!

That best describes the sentiment of the new govornor of Hawaii, Gov. Neil Abercrombie. In an interview with The New York Times, the Democratic governor says;

“It’s an insult to his mother and to his father, and I knew his mother and father; they were my friends, and I have an emotional interest in that. It’s an emotional insult. It is disrespectful to the president; it is disrespectful to the office.”

The group insists that President Obama is not a legitimate president, because one of the criteria for the presidency, as per the constitution, was not met by Mr. Obama. The requirements are:

  • president must be a natural-born citizen of the United States
  • be at least 35-years-old
  • been a permanent resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years

Two separate fact checking groups, Politifacts and FactCheck.org have checked the Birther’s claims, and found that they are all nuts. Well, not that they’re nuts, but the two groups found no evidence that the president was born in Kenya, as is claimed by these Birthers. In fact, they have checked and verified the authenticity of the President’s birth certificate.

In another attempt to beat these birthers in the head with even more facts, Govenor Abercombie is trying to take the verification process a step further. He wants to change the rules in Hawaii in an attempt to put an end to all the noise surrounding the president’s birth certificate. The governor is asking the head of Hawaii’s health department and the state’s Attorney General to release more information for the nay sayers, regarding the President’s  August 4, 1961 birth.

But like it was when the president’s certificate of live birth was released by the state’s health department, birthers will still find  reason to believe the misinformation intentially implanted in their small brains if Abercombie’s request is granted.

These birthers will not believe Mr. Obama is a citizen, even if they were all standing in the delivery room when the future president was pushed out!

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