I Was Right About this IPO Flop, but Now its Time
to Buy

New IPOs (initial public offerings) offer the promise of huge upside as investors speculate on a young company's impressive growth potential. Yet just as often, this potential is more hype than reality, so you should only stand on the sidelines as investors' enthusiasm obscures their ability see real challenges.

For online gaming firm Zynga . . . → Read More: I Was Right About this IPO Flop, but Now it’s Time to Buy

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Fox Misrepresents Bush Policies' Effect On Debt,
Deficit Spending

Fox News is downplaying the role Bush policies continue to play in driving debt and deficit spending and attacking President Obama for accurately noting that the high debt and deficit spending was "baked into the cake" when he took office. But independent experts -- including an adviser to President Reagan -- say that Bush policies are almost entirely to blame for the country's deficit problems.

Obama: Debt And Deficit Spending Was "Baked Into The Cake" When I Took Office

Obama: Bush Administration "Baked All This Stuff Into The Cake With Those Tax Cuts ... And The War." At  a June 12 campaign event in Baltimore, MD, Obama pointed out that much of the debt and deficit spending that has occurred under his administration was "baked into the cake" by policies from the Bush administration. From Politico:

"I love it when these guys talk about debt and deficits," Obama told supporters in Baltimore. "I inherited a trillion dollar deficit."

"We signed two trillion dollars in spending cuts into law," Obama said. "Spending under my administration has grown more slowly than under any president in 60 years."

Obama said that the country's budget deficits and big debt were the result of the George W. Bush's two tax cuts, as well as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"They baked all this stuff into the cake with those tax cuts... and the war," Obama said.

"It's like somebody goes to a restaurant, orders a big steak dinner, a martini and all that stuff, then just as you're sitting down they leave and accuse you of running up the tab," Obama said. [Politico,

[The Washington Post, 

[Politifact, 5/22/12]

For more on the impact that Bush's policies have had on the federal debt, click here.

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http://feeds.mediamatters.org/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/sueFhp20aDc/201206130009

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Senate Republicans trying to keep home care
workers from making minimum wage

President Obama has been trying to change the fact that nearly 1.8 million working people, most of them women and many of them people of color, are excluded from minimum wage and overtime protections because they are home care workers. Now, Senate Republicans are trying to block these workers, close to 40 percent of whom are paid so little that they rely on Medicaid or food stamps despite doing an essential job, from getting paid minimum wage or overtime.

Remember that a full-time minimum wage worker makes just $15,080 a year. Home care workers in most states aren't required to be paid that. And that's how Senate Republicans want to keep it:

Sens. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., along with 11 other lawmakers, introduced a bill known as the Companionship Exemption Protection Act, to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to preserve the current state of the law's so-called companionship services exemption.

The exemption was created under the assumption that in-home "companions" were very part-time babysitters and the like, not the full-time, medical services-providing workers to whom Obama is trying to extend the most wage basic protections the United States has to offer. "As the homecare business has changed over the years, the law hasn?t changed to keep up," Obama noted in introducing his push:

So even though workers like Pauline do everything from bathing to cooking, they?re still lumped in the same category as teenage babysitters when it comes to how much they make. That means employers are allowed to pay these workers less than minimum wage with no overtime. That?s right?you can wake up at 5:00 in the morning, care for somebody every minute of the day, take the late bus home at night, and still make less than the minimum wage.

It's no surprise Senate Republicans want to keep things that way.

(Via)

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Administration Deportation Reviews Doing Little
to Refocus on Public Safety Threats

The Obama Administration proposed last year to reform deportation reviews to help 300,000 undocumented immigrants currently in the deportation system get a fair shake. Only threats to public safety or repeat offenders would get deported, and those[...]

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Republicans think they're going to win the Jewish
vote. Again.

(Obamulkes.com)Every year, Republicans convince themselves that this is the year they make significant headway into the Jewish vote. Then every year, those hopes are tragically dashed. In 2008, Obama won the Jewish vote 78-21.

In 2010, the national Jewish vote was too small to register in the exit polls (the Dem base sat the election out). But a post-election poll commissioned by J-Street found that Jewish voters voted for Democratic candidates 66-31. It's not even close to an apples to apples comparison (exit poll vs phone poll), but it's certainly plausible, particularly since the smaller GOP Jewish vote would turn out in greater numbers than demoralized Democratic-leaning Jewish voters. It could be analogous to the white vote that year, in which Democrats won just 37 percent of it.

Indeed, Republicans won women in 2010. No one is pretending they'll repeat that feat this year.

Still, like Charlie Brown, Republicans really thing that this is the year they'll be able to kick Lucy's football. Witness Rick Santorum take a whack:

?We?ve seen a dramatic transformation in this country,? said Santorum, ?with Jews all across this country now understanding that the values of the Republican Party are in concert with theirs.?

Or Michael Medved:

Mitt Romney?s Mormon faith, so often described as an impediment to his political prospects, might work to his advantage with one crucial segment of the electorate: Jewish voters.

There's more, but you get the point. The first indication that Republicans are whiffing yet again? The Jewish share of the GOP primary turnout in Florida was down to 1 percent this year, from 3 percent in 2008. In Nevada, Jewish voters were 2 percent of the GOP turnout in both 2008 and 2012. In Arizona, they notched 0 percent of the primary vote this year, compared to 1 percent in 2008. In Illinois, it was the opposite?0 percent of the GOP primary vote in 2008, compared to 1 percent this year.

In other words, it's all float within the margin of error, and certainly no massive wave of newfound support for the GOP.

Back in March, a poll from the American Jewish Council didn't give Republicans much hope:

Knowledge Networks for the American Jewish Council. 3/14-27. American Jews. MoE 4.8% (9/6-21 results)

Barack Obama 61
Mitt Romney 28

Now, Gallup (which hasn't been friendly to Obama) has further bad news for Republicans hoping to finally kick Lucy's football:

Gallup has started tracking Jewish voters for the 2012 presidential elections, and its findings are commensurate with other polling, with President Obama enjoying a 35 point lead over Mitt Romney.

The poll of 576 Jews culled from the pollster's daily tracking of registered U.S. voters from April 11-June 5, found that Jewish voters favored Obama over the former Massachusetts governor and all-but-certain Republican nominee 64-29.

And check this out:

It also is commensurate with polling in the same period by Gallup during the 2008 election, when Obama vs. John McCain, the then GOP candidate, scored 61-32, 57-35 and 62-31 in April, May and June of that year, respectively.

Not only is Obama's Jewish support not slipping, it is up four points from the best Spring polling in 2008. And as you can see by Obama's final 78-21 margin with Jewish voters in 2008, he has a history of over-performing the polling with this demographic.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/QuySF71GEtI/-Republicans-think-the
y-re-going-to-win-the-Jewish-vote-Again

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Why I want Bob Kerrey to lose

It would be much easier for Bob Kerrey to destroy Social Security from inside the Senate!
(Larry Downing/Reuters)This:

Kerrey is adamant about enacting a bipartisan debt-reduction deal like the one the [Gang of Six] has proposed. When I asked him why he thought he could achieve what others have failed, he said, ?I?ve actually given this a fair amount of thought,? and then he let me in on his theory of success. ?It?s got to be somewhat larger. You?ve got to get it to the 10-, 12-senator range. At that point, you can start to have an impact. ?

Given the choice between a "Democrat" that will lend a bipartisan veneer to efforts to dismantle Social Security?the most popular and successful government program in American history?and a Republican that simply reinforces GOP efforts to do so, I'll take the Republican. Easy. Any day of the week.

It's not as if we're losing a voice in the Senate. The seat belongs to outgoing right-wing Democrat Ben Nelson.

The only benefit to Kerrey's candidacy is the millions that the GOP, Karl Rove and the rest of their allies will spend to (inevitably) defeat him. That's money that won't be available to dump on real Democrats like Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown or Tammy Baldwin.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/3sIfO87suq8/-Why-I-want-Bob-Kerrey
-to-lose

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FEC files suit against disgraced Sen. Larry Craig
charging misuse of campaign funds

Former Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), seen here
looking a bit like Florida Gov. Rick Scott. Hey, it's been a while since we've had some Larry Craig news. Would you like some Larry Craig news? Of course you would! It's been a while since the disgraced ex-senator was heard from, which means he's about ready for some good ol' fashioned redemption, seeing the error of his ways, and all that other political hooey. What's that? Hold off on buying the triple-layered "welcome back" redemption cake?

Federal campaign regulators brought the hammer down on disgraced former Sen. Larry Craig on Monday, accusing him of misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to pay for his legal defense following an arrest in a Minneapolis airport bathroom sex sting.

The Federal Election Commission filed a federal lawsuit against Craig, who now works as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., asking a judge to order the former lawmaker to pay back his campaign committee more than $200,000 and stop him from raiding the committee for his own personal use.

Well, that's a bit of a downer. Really though, when you've previously been arrested for soliciting anonymous airport bathroom sex, it's not like you can fall much further. Merely misusing campaign funds is practically a non-story after that one. Oh, and he's a lobbyist now, thus completing the usual disgraced politician trifecta.

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t-disgraced-Sen-Larry-Craig-charging-misuse-of-campaign-funds

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Are You Brave Enough to Buy Low

By Louis James, Casey Research

This time last week, I was at the Cambridge House World Resource Investment Conference in Vancouver, BC. Usually the show is quite hopping, but this time, while there was the usual mob and there was standing room only at several of the events Doug, the Casey crew, and I participated in, the mood was decidedly low-key.

But here’s the interesting part: it was … [visit site to read . . . → Read More: Are You Brave Enough to Buy Low?

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Voter ID would have made June 5 election a
disaster

I worked the polls on June 5.

And I can state as an empirical fact [from conversations alone with numerous voters asking questions] that had the Republicans' unconstitutional voter ID law been in effect on June 5, the resulting confusion, frustration and obstruction would have resulted in many voters not casting their votes in high turn-out wards, or being turned away.

This is precisely part of what Republicans wish for, especially among those pesky Milwaukee blacks and other minorities showing up at the polls trying to pass themselves off as good Americans. What nerve.

The 7:00 A.M. - in-line-by-8:00 P.M. polling place hours experienced presidential-level turn-out that kept staff very busy over 14-hour shifts.

Had each voter been asked for a voter ID?Republicans ludicrously claim that 10,000s of voter impersonations occur each election in Wisconsin?the checking of only GOP-approved IDs [no VA cards] for date, name, and picture verification would have added some 45 seconds for each voter.

Multiply that by some 2,100 voters and then compound the time and a hectic, under-staffed polling place becomes ultra-hectic and dysfunctional.

Joe-down-the-street, registered and voting for decades showing up at the polls ... sorry, Joe: You cannot voter without GOP-approved ID, the GOP's new constitutional qualification for your fundamental right.

Republicans kept up their voter fraud nonsense?repeated without facts by the dumb-downed Wisconsin press?up to the weekend before June 5 and of course after the election.

"State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, who represents the Waterford area ... said if voter ID had been in place she thinks voters would have been able to have more confidence in their votes [in a major race changing party control of the state senate], without disenfranchising anyone." (Jones. Racine Journal-Times, June 12)

Watch for the word "confidence" to be repeated many times between now and November.

"Chaos," "obstruction" and "voter impersonation" not so much.

Reporter Stephanie Jones repeats the Lazich lie without insertion of facts knocking down the fabrication; and another GOP lie gets free coverage from writers apparently as dumb as Jones who leaves the "without disenfranchising anyone" nonsense to stand alone.

The GOP lies continue, as the story of a major political party trying to halt legal voters from voting in Wisconsin goes uncovered as a scandal.

GOP misleading voters on voter impersonation and voter ID should be an ongoing story in a healthy democracy.

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e-june-5.html

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Pres. Obama’s License to Kill

Jaffer, who directs the ACLU?s Center for Democracy, says the issue comes down to a fundamental question: Should any president have the power ?to kill suspects on the basis of secret legal standards and facts that are never disclosed to the public or any court?? – Exposing Obama’s not-so-secret war, by Ari Melber

DOES ANYONE CARE about Pres. Obama’s executive overreach? No, is the obvious answer, because you couldn’t read and digest the New York Times “Kill List” reporting without sitting up in a start. Political strategists and campaign operatives likely don’t think “overreach” is a fair characterization. Reading Daniel Klaidman and others it’s hard to question it’s not.

Still, Obama?s willingness to back the drone program represented an early inflection point in his war on terror. Over time, the attacks grew?far beyond anything that had been envisioned by the Bush administration. When Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2009, he had authorized more drone strikes than George W. Bush had approved during his entire presidency. By his third year in office, Obama had approved the killings of twice as many suspected terrorists as had ever been imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay. ?We?re killing these sons of bitches faster than they can grow them,? the head of the CIA?s counterterrorism division boasted to The Washington Post in 2011. – Daniel Klaidman (May 28, Daily Beast)

Americans like our presidents carrying the biggest stick on the global block and on the whole we’re not very squeamish about who gets killed at our hands.

In effect Obama was inviting dissent with Admiral Mullen. None of the principals raised objections. But then Obama pointed to one of the uniformed men sitting just behind Mullen, against the wall: James ?Hoss? Cartwright, the four-star Marine general and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Obama knew Cartwright, and valued his candor. ?Mr. President, generally the wars we?ve been prosecuting have had these rules,? Cartwright said in a low-key, Midwestern manner. An enemy ?did something to us, we went in and did something back?and then we had a moral obligation to put back together whatever we broke. In these places where they have not attacked us, we are looking for a person, not a country.? [source]

When it comes to domestic politics and the president’s license to kill, Democrats always feel they have something to prove, while Republicans, a paranoid lot, simply think it’s their duty to target and obliterate “enemies.” which they see around every corner.

It’s clear, at least to me, that Pres. Obama’s failure in closing down Guantanamo was a seminal moment, which the ousting of Greg Craig, a well liked popular Washington figure, foretold. Obama’s first collision with the national security complex that goes all the way down to Congress and keeping Democrats in office.

We’re also simply not to the point to consider what happens when drones get in the hands of unfriendly actors ready to target the United States.

The root lies in political parties, politicians and the U.S. bureaucracy, which doesn’t allow for taking on the system by one politician, whether it’s Pres. Obama or someone else. Eventually, whoever is president gets swallowed up in the national security fabric of the U.S.A., which demands reciprocity for the perception of danger as much as actual threats. The borg thinking Pres. Eisenhower warned of so long ago now includes a “homeland” security web that stretches throughout the Beltway and into neighboring states, where fighting the good fight is now even bigger business than Ike could have imagined.

Today, the Defense Department can target suspects in Yemen whose names they do not know. Officials say the criteria are tighter than those for signature strikes, requiring evidence of a threat to the United States, and they have even given them a new name ? TADS, for Terrorist Attack Disruption Strikes. But the details are a closely guarded secret ? part of a pattern for a president who came into office promising transparency. – The New York Times

Secretary Hillary Clinton strongly supports the drone strikes, as reported by the Times, though believes it’s critical to ascertain the “root causes of radicalization,” on which Pres. Obama agreed. So last September issues an executive order for approval of a State dept. war room to take on jihadi threats across the world in embassies.

However, nothing trumps the practical utilization of drones to get their man.

It’s a common thread of U.S. national security policy that no one ever imagined would link Barack Hussein Obama with George W. Bush on lethality, and put the Republican nominee Mitt Romney standing next to the president. Drones aren’t torture, but it’s Pres. Obama’s version of threading the needle in the ongoing American “war on terror” that has gripped this nation fully and changed us forever.

Read The Full Article:
http://taylormarsh.com/blog/2012/06/pres-obamas-license-to-kill/

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