Forward Is Obamas Newest Attempt at a Campaign
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post from Firedoglake on 30 April 2012 03:45:12 PM. © Firedoglake

The Obama 2012 campaign is testing out a new campaign theme with its 7 minute long web video entitled "Forward." With the economy still lagging with high unemployment, the campaign must try to make the case that Obama has at least made some improvements,[...]

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The 800-Pound Gorilla in the Room

post from Jutia Group on 30 April 2012 03:30:17 PM. © Jutia Group

It is THE story of the day.

It is THE event that will impact every investment decision you make.

If you ignore it, it will cost you. If you harness it, it can make you substantially richer.

I’m talking about the end of austerity programs and so-called “fiscal pacts” all over the world. … [visit site to read . . . → Read More: The 800-Pound Gorilla in the Room

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Midday open thread

post from Daily Kos on 30 April 2012 03:30:05 PM. © Daily Kos

Today's comic by Tom Tomorrow is Conservative Jones, citizen journalist!
What you missed on Sunday Kos ...
- Sunday's comic was The watch dog, by Matt Wuerker
- Pat Robertson explains which parts of science you're allowed to believe, by Hunter
- Sean Hannity: Americans don't go to bed hungry, because rice and beans are cheap, by Laura Clawson
- When a Blue Dogs falls in a primary, every Democrat in Congress hears it, by Chris Bowers
- CISPA and you: how it would work and how it could work better, Joan McCarter
- Testing-driven education means giant corporate profits and 'pineapples don't have sleeves', by Laura Clawson
- The anti-family effects of austerity, by Dante Atkins
- Billion dollar GEO prison-for-profit group abandons its Mississippi "cesspool," by Denise Oliver Velez
- A preview of military sexual assault survivors' call to DC for truth and justice, by Scott Wooledge
While Republicans whine about President Obama taking out Osama bin Laden, a milestone is reached:
Formerly called the ?Freedom Tower,? the building rising to replace the twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks will lay claim to the title of New York City?s tallest skyscraper today. Workers will erect steel columns that will make its unfinished skeleton a little over 1,250 feet high, just enough to peak over the roof of the observation deck on the Empire State Building.
This may put a damper on talk about Marco Rubio as Mitt Romney's running mate:
The FEC has fined Marco Rubio's campaign $8,000 for "receiving prohibited, excessive, and other impermissible" donations during the 2010 Senate race.
From the guy who won't even sit on a couch with a woman who isn't his wife:
Rick Santorum reportedly asked Lindsay Lohan to pose for a photo at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday -- then denied it. [...]
"I took a picture of a lot of people today," a visibly uncomfortable Santorum says, as though he cannot remember what happened.
On North Carolina's Amendment One:
In a 21-minute documentary produced by WRAL-TV in Raleigh, host David Crabtree makes a remarkable statement regarding the attitude of North Carolina's business community when it comes to the hotly debated Amendment One.
After showing differing arguments on the proposed change to North Carolina's constitution from families and religious leaders, Crabtree offers viewers a glance at a letter to legislators, signed by 75 chief executives, expressing opposition to the amendment.
?We tried to find a CEO who supports Amendment One to interview," Crabtree says in the video. "We worked with the two lead organizations campaigning for it, the North Carolina Family Policy Council and the North Carolina Values Coalition. They could not find a pro-amendment CEO willing to be interviewed for this documentary.?
Horror writer Stephen King pens an op-ed called "Tax Me, for F@%&?s Sake!"
The U.S. senators and representatives who refuse even to consider raising taxes on the rich?they squall like scalded babies (usually on Fox News) every time the subject comes up?are not, by and large, superrich themselves, although many are millionaires and all have had the equivalent of Obamacare for years. They simply idolize the rich. Don?t ask me why; I don?t get it either, since most rich people are as boring as old dead dogshit. The Mitch McConnells and John Boehners and Eric Cantors just can?t seem to help themselves. These guys and their right-wing supporters regard deep pockets like Christy Walton and Sheldon Adelson the way the little girls regard Justin Bieber?which is to say, with wide eyes, slack jaws, and the drool of adoration dripping from their chins.
Because you can never have too much batshit-crazy in your life:
A number of flyers reportedly posted on parking meters in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., have created a stir for their imagery, which attempts to connect President Barack Obama to the Nazi Holocaust.
"Hitler's Nazi Germany has been revived in the U.S. and the target is Americans," the pamphlets read, according to a report from MLive.com. [...]
"Obama's health care bill is not a health care bill, instead it's a total government takeover of every area of life (read the fine print) like gun confiscation, euthanasia and so on (euthanizing the poor, the elderly, the ill, those who've maxed out their health insurance and so on) there are no jobs and everyone will eventually be poor," the flyers read, according to MLive.com.
They also raise the specter of military checkpoints throughout the country that will eventually be used when it is "legal to assassinate Americans."
Are conservatives trying to turn Thomas Jefferson into a religious fundamentalist?
They're arguing about this forty years after the fact?
Bob Woodward is strongly disputing a new report in which it is revealed that his mentor, legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, once expressed ?fear in my soul? that Woodward had embellished for dramatic effect certain key details of his reporting on the Watergate scandal.
Sign up for the maiden voyage of the unsinkable ... wait, they already used that slogan:
An Australian mining magnate has commissioned a Chinese shipyard to build a replica of the ill-fated Titanic, complete in every detail but equipped with modern technology to prevent a repeat of the original's fateful maiden voyage 100 years ago.

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#OWS May Day 2012

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 30 April 2012 03:26:33 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow GazetteIt's May, the season changes and Occupy Wall St is back with a call for a national general strike on May 1.On May 1st,We will celebrate a holiday for the 99%. We will come together across lines of race, class,[...]

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The Bin Laden Question

post from The American Prospect on 30 April 2012 03:20:37 PM. © The American Prospect

As Washington debates the (not particularly vital) question of whether it?s fair that President Obama claims credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden, it?s worth asking a single question?if the shoe were on the other foot, and President John McCain had issued the order to kill bin Laden, would Republicans hold to their current position, and insist that it wasn?t fair game for an election? Would Democrats continue tout its place on the president?s resume?

I think the answer is obvious; if the situation were reversed, the places would change too. The same Republicans who decry Obama?s use of bin Laden would loudly trumpet his death if a GOP president were on the line. Indeed, national security-based campaigns aren?t new to the Republican Party. In 2002, Georgia Democratic senator Max Cleland was defeated with the help of an ad that tied his reelection to bin Laden?s success. In 2004, the Bush White House hammered John Kerry for his suggestion that terrorism was a law enforcement problem more than anything else. Dick Cheney called Kerry?s view of terrorism ?naive and dangerous,? and the campaign released an ad that questioned Kerry?s ability to fight the ?war on terror,? ?How can Kerry protect us when he doesn?t understand the threat??

In 2006, while campaigning for Republican congressional candidates, Bush explicitly warned the crowd that the terrorists would win if Democrats were elected to Congress:

?However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses,? Bush told a raucous crowd of about 5,000 GOP partisans packed in an arena at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, one of his stops Monday.

It doesn?t take much digging to find that Republicans don?t actually have a problem with campaigning on national security, as long as it benefits their side. Likewise, the same is true for Democrats. The GOP outrage over the move to claim bin Laden is phony, and it?s really not difficult to see.

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Virginia Moving Forward with Rail - Will Virginia
Beach

post from TheGreenMiles.com on 30 April 2012 03:03:00 PM. © TheGreenMiles.com

Despite a Congress that's more interested in pandering to the austerity crowd than actually solving America's problems, Virginia is moving to create jobs & boost our economy with several new rail projects:

The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation is forging ahead on several state rail improvement and expansion projects using mostly state funding, concerned that even promised federal funds won?t materialize in time.

[Department of Rail and Public Transportation Director Thelma] Drake said that her department was hard at work on an Amtrak extension that would connect Richmond to Norfolk (some 111 miles apart, see diagram at top). The project?s cost recently swelled by about $13 million to a total $114.6 million, due to added safety and infrastructure costs, all paid for in state transportation funding. The state believes the service, which will cost $33 for a one-way ticket between Norfolk and Washington, will pay for itself.

Depending on your mileage, it costs about $30 just for gas to drive from Norfolk to DC, so $33 for a one-way ticket would be a huge bargain. (And yes, note the time for posterity - I just said something nice about Bob McDonnell & Thelma Drake. Given how much the McDonnell administration is bungling Metro's Silver Line, don't get used to it.)

Meanwhile, the Virginian-Pilot editorializes in favor of a fresh look at light rail in Virginia Beach:

People in Virginia Beach have been talking about light rail since the 1970s. In 1999, the last time they were asked whether to bring it to the city, about 42,000 voters said no. But that didn't stop the discussions, arguments, affirmations - or the second-guessing - for a dozen years.

In November, the issue is back on the ballot. The City Council wants to take the pulse of the citizens, hundreds of thousands of them this time, on whether to pursue an extension of Norfolk's light-rail line, The Tide, to the Beach. [...]

If voters approve of extending The Tide, it'll be years before trains are rolling to Town Center. If they reject light rail, city leaders must come up with other solutions to traffic problems that are only getting worse.

Virginia Beach failed to research light rail thoroughly before its voters rejected the idea 13 years ago. The city has a chance to do it right this time.

Done right, light rail can spur development, save commuters money, reduce the need for expensive parking, cut traffic and slash air pollution. What's not to like?

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EPA Official Resigns Over 2010 'Crucify' Comment

post from TPMMuckraker on 30 April 2012 03:01:20 PM. © TPMMuckraker

Al Armendariz, a mid-level official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 2009, resigned this week after conservatives expressed outrage at a metaphor he invoked at a town hall meeting nearly two years ago.

Armendariz, who took leave from Southern Methodist University to join the administration, commented at a meeting back in 2010 that the EPA's enforcement policy was to find "people who are not compliant with the law, and you hit them as hard as you can and you make examples out of them."

"It was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean," he said. "They'd go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they'd find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. And so you make examples out of people who are in this case not compliant with the law."

Critics focused on the "crucify" comment after climate-change skeptic Sen. James Inhofe (R) posted the video on to his web site. The calls for Armendariz's resignation soon followed. On Sunday, he obliged.

"While I feel there is much work that remains to be done for the people of this country in the region that I serve, after a great deal of thought and careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that my continued service will distract you and the agency from its important work," he wrote in his resignation letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Jackson said in a statement that she had respect for "the difficult decision he made and his wish to avoid distracting from the important work of the Agency. We are all grateful for Dr. Armendariz's service to EPA and to our nation."

Additional reporting by Brian Beutler.

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Down And Out

The forgotten front in the war on voting: the disenfranchisement of some 5.3 million felons. [...]

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Crucified

Did the Obama administration just roll over for the Jim Inhofe / Fox News rage machine? Kind of feels that way. [...]

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Republicans on verge of buying Mississippi
another lawsuit with Workers Compensation Destruction Act

That nonsense factory formerly known as the Mississippi Legislature is about to crank out another winner.

Upon further review of the SB 2576 conference report, I can safely say that the changes made by the conferees were cosmetic and did little to take Mississippi workers out of the cross-hairs. The bill still removes the Supreme Court's requirment that the Workers' Compensation Act be liberally construed to achieve its beneficent purpose. The bill still changes the definition of the primary purpose of the Workers' Compensation Law. The bill still limits an employee's ability to select a physician of his or her choice. The bill still fails to define what will constitute voluntary benefits subject to attorneys' fees. The drug testing provisions have gotten worse with the removal of a probable cause requirement. The bill still allows an employer to be immune from any action of defamation of character regardless of how extreme the employer's conduct is towards their employee. Contrary to previous Supreme Court rulings, the bill still provides for apportionment regardless of whether the pre-existing condition had an occupational effect. And finally, the bill still harms workers through its change of the very purpose of the Act and the manner in which the Act is to be construed.

Soon, you will likely be able to add this to the growing list of bills sure to draw a court challenge once the legislative session is over.