More news for the United States economy, as the national unemployment rate falls to 8.5%. Although the pace of job growth may not be as fast as many would like, any improvement is always a welcome sign that things are headed in a positive direction.
The New York Times: The United States added a robust 200,000 new jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, in a sign that the long-awaited economic recovery has finally built up a head of steam.
The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent in December, from a revised 8.7 percent in November, the government said. The Labor Department revised the number of new jobs added in November to 100,000, from 120,000.
The employment report built on a flurry of heartening economic news in December, when consumer confidence rose, manufacturing came in strong and small businesses showed signs of life. It was the sixth consecutive month that the economy added at least 100,000 jobs – not enough to restore employment to pre-recession levels, but enough, perhaps, to cheer President Obama as he enters an election year.
The upward trend restored some of the ground lost this spring and summer, when global events like the earthquake in Japan and domestic ones like the debt ceiling debate slowed the American recovery to a crawl and raised fears of a second recession. Then, even signs of modest growth were dismissed as too anemic. Now, they are drawing tentative praise.
Hispanics are slowly becoming the largest voting block in the American political system. Hispanics are also a group of people highly despised by the Republican party – a party that has embraced an anti-immigration, anti Dream Act, “build the darn electrified fence now!” mentality. So it is no surprise that this group have been an ardent supporter of President Obama.
The survey, conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, revealed a general-election weakness for Republicans among an increasingly influential voting bloc — with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry each winning less than one-fourth of the Hispanic vote in hypothetical matchups against Obama.
Obama leads Romney by 68 percent to 23 percent and Perry by 69 percent to 23 percent among Hispanic voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.2 percentage points for the sample.
But have no fear. The Republican party are also well verse in the art on pandering.
With just a few more days before the Iowa primary begins on January 3rd, don’t expect any promises to the Hispanic community as the Republican candidates are still focused on pleasing their Teaparty base. But after this primary season is over, we expect nothing less than some baseless promises from the GOP nominee. Don’t be surprised the nominee offer open borders and amnesty, and free health care for all the undocumented people in this country.
In a new Washington Post / ABC News Poll, President Obama’s job approval is seeing its first positive light since last summer. The poll, conducted between December 15 to 18th of 1005 adults showed that 49% of Americans now approve of how the President is doing his job, while 47% disapproves.
In November, the this same poll showed the president in negative territory, with 44% approving while 53% disapproved. The last time President Obama saw a favorable rating was in May 2011, with 56% approving and 38% disapproving of the President handled his job.
President Obama used his weekly address to tell the American people that things will be better if everyone gets a fair shot at the resources necessary for success. He points out that the rich already have a multitude of lawyers and lobbyists in Washington working on their behalf.
That’s why he nominated Richard Cordray to head up a brand new consumer protection watchdog agency, whose sole purpose is protecting consumers from the unscrupulous predatory ways of Corporation. But surprise, Republicans have blocked Cordray’s nomination too.
The President.
So I refuse to take “no” for an answer. Financial institutions have plenty of high-powered lawyers and lobbyists looking out for them. It’s time consumers had someone on their side.
Republicans have also stood in the way of a balanced plan to extend the payroll tax cut for working families – and the President made it clear he believes that elected officials should not go home for the holidays until they’ve done what is right for the American people and for the economy by extending this tax cut.
Historians today question the decisions of Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Britain during the 1930’s. Mr. Chamberlain wanted to avoid a major conflict with Nazi Germany, so he engaged in what some called, an “appeasement foreign policy,” which many historian believed allowed Hitler to grow too strong, causing mass devastation to the Jewish people
In the case of politics, appeasement is usually used to describe a leader who’s weak on foreign policies, one who prefers to “sell out” instead of standing firm for his/her beliefs.
At a Jewish meeting earlier this week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney used the word “appeasement” a total of seven times when describing President Obama’s foreign policies. A well-played attack of the President by Romney, as the word itself brings back a very negative meaning for the Jewish people – a very strong voting block in American politics.
“Internationally, President Obama has adopted an appeasement strategy,” Romney said. “Appeasement betrays a lack of faith in America, in American strength and in America’s future.”
But Romney is not the only Republican candidate using the word to describe President Obama’s foreign policies. Newt Gingrich has said it on a few different occasions. “America is the first business of the State Department,” Gingrich said at a recent meeting,”not appeasing our opponents.” Gingrich also said that he is often worried, and the cause of his worries are “based on a State Department which has consistently engaged in appeasement.”
Yesterday, a White House reporter asked President Obama to respond to the Republicans appeasement claims. His answer, in my view, was classic;
“Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 top al-Qaeda leaders who’ve been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement –or whoever’s left out there, ask them about that.”
Republicans have no legs to stand on when it comes to foreign policies, and their willful effort to lie to the American people, trying to suggest that President Obama is a weak leader on foreign issues when the opposite is so blatantly obvious, is pure insanity.
In another weekly presidential speech, President Obama urged Republicans to put country first and do what is necessary to uplift the economy, not a political party.
Unfortunately, too many Republicans in Congress don’t seem to share that same sense of urgency. Over the last few months, they’ve said “no” to most of these jobs bills. “No” to putting teachers and firefighters back to work. “No” to putting construction workers back on the job. And this week, they actually said “no” to cutting taxes for middle-class families.
You see, last year, both parties came together to cut payroll taxes for the typical middle-class family by about $1,000. But that tax cut is set to expire at the end of this month. If that happens, that same family will see its taxes go up by $1,000. We can’t let that happen. In fact, I think we should cut taxes on working families and small business owners even more.
And we’re going to keep pushing Congress to make this happen. They shouldn’t go home for the holidays until they get this done. And if you agree with me, I could use your help.
We’ve set up a simple tax cut calculator on WhiteHouse.gov so that you can see exactly what the stakes are for your family. Try it out. Then let your members of Congress know where you stand.
Tell them not to vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays. Tell them to put country before party. Put money back in the pockets of working Americans. Pass these tax cuts.
The Republican governor of New Jersey and endorser of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is falsely attacking the President. What else is new? “What the hell are we paying you for?,” Christie askedyesterday, implying that the president could have changed the outcome of the failed Super Committee.
“I was angry this weekend, listening to the spin coming out of the administration, about the failure of the supercommittee, and that the president knew it was doomed for failure, so he didn’t get involved. Well then what the hell are we paying you for?” Christie said in Camden, N.J.
“It’s doomed for failure so I’m not getting involved? Well, what have you been doing, exactly?” Christie was contrasting the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements, saying both stemmed from “anger” with government’s inability to respond to the financial crisis.
But while Christie said “both parties deserve blame for what’s going on in Washington, D.C.,” he pointed the finger squarely at Obama for failing to strike a budget deal. “Why the president of the United States refuses to do this is astonishing to me. If he wanted to run for Senate again and just be 1 of a 100, I’m sure he could have gotten reelected over and over again in Illinois,” Christie said. “He’s the one in Washington and he’s got to get something done here. And it’s not good enough just to say, ‘Well, I’ll get it done after the election.’”
Of course, this claim that President Obama could have worked his magic and convince Republicans hellbent on protecting the taxes of millionaires, is false. Republicans would want you to believe that Mr. Obama was missing in action on deficit reduction.
The facts however, are very different.
It was, after all, President Obama who first introduced a proposal to cut the deficit by $4 trillion. And he spent the entire summer trying to work with Republicans to come to some agreement. He even played golf with John Boehner, trying to come to some understanding on what spending cuts to make and at what cost.
But because of Republicans’ secret pledge to make this president fail by tanking the economy, the possibility of a deficit reduction would work against their pledge. They unanimously said “no” to the President’s proposal, and decided to put their faith in the hands of the super committee – a group of 12 people who knew the dire importance of the job at hand, but chose ideological political positions instead.
So, now that the super committee has failed to do their job, it is obviously President Obama’s fault. He should have sat in with the Super Committee everyday, giving his input and recommendations to a group of people who want him to fail.
The failure of the super committee was inevitable. Republicans went into the negotiating process knowing they were going to agree to absolutely nothing thus, causing its failure. And nothing would have been more pleasing to Republicans like Chris Christie, than having President Obama take part in that failure.
If he had played a role in the negotiations, the super-committee’s failure would be his fault. If he didn’t take part, the failure of the super-committee would be his fault.
The Republicans already knew who to blame way before the committee failed. They were just waiting to see which card the President played. It’s classic Republican politics.
Herman Cain on Saturday said that God told him to run for president. He then compared himself to Moses when Moses questioned God’s will. Herman Cain said that he too questioned God, asking “You’ve got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?”
“I prayed and prayed and prayed,” Cain told a group of young Republicans in Atlanta, according to National Journal. “I’m a man of faith, I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I’d ever done before in my life. And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses. ‘You’ve got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?'”
And what about Michele Bachmann?
Bachmann originally said that God told her to run for Congress, and she later said that her decision to run for president was based on a “calling” that she said, was “tugging”on her heart.
“Well, every decision that I make, I pray about, as does my husband, and I can tell you, yes, I’ve had that calling and that tugging on my heart that this is the right thing to do.”
But what’s absolutely amazing, is that these two people who claim that God told them to run for president, are the very same two willing to torture America’s enemies if they become president.
In last night’s debate – yes, the second debate this week – Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann responded to a question about torture, and whether they would continue the Bush administration’s torture policies in reference to waterboarding. Cain went first, saying that he believes waterboarding is “enhanced interrogation” and he will gladly reinstate it. Bachmann then followed up saying that torture would be part of her administration.
I’m left wondering if they’re sure they heard the voice of God telling them to run for president. Torturing, as far as I can tell, seems to be the handiwork of the devil. Maybe Bahcmann and Cain should check their messenger again.
This story is becoming old. For the third time, congressional Republicans blocked another part of President Obama’s Jobs Bill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in the Senate Thursday dealt President Barack Obama the third in a string of defeats on his stimulus-style jobs agenda, blocking a $60 billion measure for building and repairing infrastructure like roads and rail lines.
Supporters of the failed measure said it would have created tens of thousands of construction jobs and lifted the still-struggling economy. But Republicans unanimously opposed it for its tax surcharge on the wealthy and spending totals they said were too high.
The 51-49 vote fell well short of the 60 votes required under Senate procedures to start work on the bill. Every Republican opposed the president, as did Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska and former Democrat Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who still aligns with the party.
Although they try, these Republicans still cannot keep the American people down. Reports out today found that the unemployment rate fell, from 9.1% to 9%. A small drop, but given the Republican’s goal of making this president fail by destroying the middle class, any reduction in the unemployment figures are welcomed news.
On October 21st, President Obama announced that all military personnel in Iraq will be home for the Christmas holidays, officially bringing an end to the war and reflecting the wishes of the American people.
A new Gallop poll conducted on October 29th and 30th, shows that 75% of Americans agree with the President’s decision.
Independents and Democrats alike supports the idea of withdrawing our troops and ending the conflict. Of course, Republicans disagree.
In the continuing Republican saga of, publish-something-stupid-about-the-President-then-apologize-for-doing-it, we bring you Virginia Republicans version, A Halloween theam email showing the President as a zombie with a bullet hole in his head.
The posterized image of a rotting, undead Obama with a bleeding, large-caliber hole an inch above his right eye prompted Democrats to cry foul and Virginia’s Republican governor to denounce it as “shameful and offensive.”
“This is a disgusting and violent portrayal of the president of the United States,” said Democratic Party of Virginia spokesman Brian Coy.
Gov. Bob McDonnell, through spokesman J. Tucker Martin, called on the Loudoun GOP to “apologize for their actions, and to immediately ensure that such imagery is never used again.”
Virginia GOP Chairman Pat Mullins said such an image “has no place in our politics. Ever.”
Loudoun County GOP chairman Mark Sell said in an email response to The Associated Press that the graphic was “a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday.”
Pastor Terry Jones, the man who infamously burned a copy of the Quran in commemoration of 9/11, is throwing his hat into ring for the 2012 presidential race.
The pastor announced his presidential bid Wednesday morning.
His campaign, Stand Up America Now, released a statement that features a seven point platform, including deporting all “illegals” , bringing all military back on American soil until America’s finances are in order and reducing corporate taxes.
But of course! He’s a Republican and he fits right in with all the other GOP morons running, trying to ruin the greatest nation on earth!!!
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