Archive for June 16th, 2011
16
Jun
11
‘an interconnected world’
16
Jun
11
nutroots
I was just reading a report on today’s Netroots gathering and I’m now wiping coffee spray from my monitor. Seriously, it was that funny.
The panel for one of today’s discussions featured – ready for this? – three ‘Nutroots’: Dan Choi, John Aravosis and Jane Hamsher. The ‘Look At Me’ brigade!
So much hate, fakery and narcissism at one table!
Choi, bless him, is still recovering from the crushing disappointment of President Obama fulfilling his promise to end DADT, a development that robbed him of his media star status – no one really wants to hear his rants any more, his 15 minutes of fame are up.
When an Organizing for America volunteer stood up and asked him to support the President in 2012, Choi ripped up an OFA flyer he had been given and threw it in the man’s face.
Classy!
It renewed his hero status with the Nutroots people who pollute Netroots, though, so that was nice.
America Blog’s Aravosis? You know, the guy who’s equally devastated by the President’s record of achievement on gay rights – because his ‘Obama is a Homophobe!’ rants have just become embarrassing.
Firebaggerlake’s Hamsher? What can you say about this creature? It’s five years since she let her mask slip when she posted that photoshopped picture of Joe Lieberman as a ‘black’ man on Huffington Post, in a sneering attempt to describe his efforts to “woo African American voters”. The photo was promptly removed, and she offered a ‘sorry if you were offended’ apology. And still the professional left regard her as a progressive!
Also on the panel was immigration reform supporter Felipe Matos who attacked the President for not passing the DREAM Act. Err? Could someone let this guy know how American democracy works? Hint: the President wants the DREAM Act passed, the Senate rejected it.
“One way to ensure Democrats do not take progressive votes for granted is to stop voting for Democrats,” said Choi.
How about President Bachmann, Dan? (“We need to have profound compassion for people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life and sexual identity disorders.”) Or any of the Republican candidates?
Good luck with that.
Hey, thanks for the laughs, Nutroots!
The headline on Arianna Huffy’s site tonight …. no wonder she admires Dan so much, they’re both self-promoting right-wing fakes, posing as ‘progressives’. See you in 2012 😉
Greg Sargent: Yet another interesting turn in the case of the mystery health care study … the consulting firm McKinsey and Company recently released a study that – unlike other studies – found that larger numbers of employers plan to drop insurance for workers because of the Affordable Care Act. Despite multiple requests from the White House, Congressional Dems, and news outlets, the company is refusing to release key details about the study’s methodology that would enable us to evaluate its integrity.
…Ironically, the author of an Urban Institute study used by the White House to refute the McKinsey report is none other than McKinsey’s own Bowen Garrett, the chief economist at their Center for U.S. Health System Reform. In his Urban Institute paper, Garrett dismantles “claims that the ACA would cause major declines in [employer-sponsored health insurance],” calling them, “greatly exaggerated.”
Wait, you mean McKinsey published a study claiming 30% of employers will drop employee coverage, in direct contradiction to the expressed position of one of their head health honchos?
****
Update from Greg Sargent: Wow. Dems are very quickly ratcheting up the pressure on McKinsey and Company – meaning it’s likely that we’ll see an increase in media scrutiny of the company’s continuing refusal to cough up the methodology of its now-controversial study on the Affordable Care Act.
In a very big development, Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus has written a detailed letter spelling out 13 very specific questions about how the study’s methodology was conducted …
I’m also told that three – count ‘em, three – House committees will send a letter today to McKinsey making the same request.
…This constitutes real pressure, and underscores how high the stakes have become for Democrats, now that Republicans have been regularly citing the study as a weapon against the health law.
Read full post here
***
Paul Krugman: …. when the McKinsey alleged study made headlines, the firm was pressed to explain how the study was conducted. And it has refused to answer.
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the study was embarrassingly bad – maybe it was a skewed sample, maybe the questions were leading, maybe there was no real data at all. Whatever.
The important thing is that this must not stand. You can’t enter the political debate with strong claims about what the evidence says, then refuse to produce that evidence.
And it’s especially bad when the media give your claims lots of attention, while barely covering the furor over the refusal to explain where those claims come from.
***
You can see the original post about the study here
16
Jun
11
oh baby
First Lady Michelle Obama reacts as President Barack Obama soothes a crying baby while they greet guests at the Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House, June 15. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
** See comment #6 **
President Obama greets a little girl following his remarks during the Irish celebration at College Green in Dublin, Ireland, May 23
President Obama greets Hugh Hills, 85, in front of his home in Joplin, Mo., May 29. Hills hid in a closet during the tornado, which destroyed the second floor and half the first floor of his house
President Obama consoles a woman at the Joplin Community Memorial Service at Missouri Southern University, May 29.
President Obama and British PM David Cameron play table tennis with students at Globe Academy in London, May 24
President Barack Obama walks around the grounds of Buckingham Palace in London, England, May 24
President Barack Obama talks with pub-goers as First Lady Michelle Obama draws a pint at Ollie Hayes pub in Moneygall, Ireland, May 23
Please don’t let Bo ever see this photo: David Cameron introduces President Obama to Larry the cat at 10 Downing Street in London, May 25
First Lady Michelle Obama greets soccer star David Beckham at a dinner in honor of Queen Elizabeth II at Winfield House in London, May 25
Lots of new White House photos released today – see here
16
Jun
11
oh dear….
Steve Benen: For a guy whose awkward sense of humor keeps raising eyebrows, this incident in Florida this morning probably won’t help Mitt Romney’s reputation:
Mitt Romney sat at the head of the table at a coffee shop … listening to a group of unemployed Floridians explain the challenges of looking for work. When they finished, he weighed in with a predicament of his own.
“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.”
……comments like these may very well be a deliberate self-deprecating strategy because Romney strutted around New Hampshire on Tuesday as if he’d already won the presidency, and no one likes an overconfident jerk.
But when an extremely wealthy person jokes to people who are actually struggling about being “unemployed,” it rankles. Indeed, Mitt Romney became extremely wealthy in a way that seems relevant to this discussion. (See here)
To be fair, there’s at least a kernel of truth to it. Mitt Romney hasn’t worked a day in over five years …. but if memory serves, Romney had a job. During his brief tenure, he struggled with his duties, received poor performance evaluations, and his employers were ultimately relieved to see him quit.
Maybe Romney should mention this at his next diner stop.
Full post here
Ezra Klein disagrees with Benen about the ‘joke’ (“It’s pretty clear from the context that he was making a joke”) but picks up on something else Romney said today:
I’d focus instead on Romney’s comment that “We have seen the most anti-investment, antigrowth, antijob strategy in America since Jimmy Carter. The result has been it’s harder and harder for people to find work.” By any measure, this is absurd. Taxes are at a 50-year low. The Dow has staged a roaring recovery. Business profits are near record levels. And the economy has gone from losing 780,000 jobs a month to gaining about 160,000 jobs a month. That is to say, it’s getting easier and easier for people to find work, even if it’s not nearly easy enough.
I don’t mind bad jokes. What I mind is bad economic analysis.
16
Jun
11
new yorker
“If he’d cheated on his wife like everybody else he’d have been forgiven.”
😆
****
I don’t think Steve Kornacki (Salon) likes Weiner very much:
1991: … One of the new districts is in an overwhelmingly white, heavily Jewish swath of southern Brooklyn … Weiner jumps in the race … He also launches an ugly, anonymous attack at the last minute – a race-baiting mailer that links Cohen to the “Dinkins/Jackson agenda,” just days after the Crown Heights riot. Weiner ekes out a narrow victory and only then admits that he was behind the flier. He’s excoriated in a New York Times editorial….
2009: …. Weiner begins showing a sudden interest in congressional and national politics – and, more specifically, in talking about congressional and national politics on cable news programs. For producers, he’s a perfect guest – smart, glib, cocky and provocative. With the healthcare reform debate heating up, Weiner begins championing a single-payer system. It’s an issue he’s previously shown no interest in and that has zero chance of winning enactment …. In the summer of 2009, he becomes a genuine cable news all-star, attracting a new national fan base of liberal viewers. But there’s a clear New York angle: By championing their causes in the national media, Weiner makes a new, much more favorable impression on liberal voters in Manhattan and Brownstone Brooklyn – voters who, combined with his outer-borough base, could make Weiner unstoppable in a 2013 mayoral primary.
2010: Weiner’s hero status to liberal activists is affirmed by a House floor rant against Republican obstructionism on a healthcare bill for 9/11 workers …. several New York members had labored to craft the 9/11 bill and to win over Republican support, but Weiner had played no meaningful role before the floor debate. “He almost blew up the [expletive] bill,” one disgruntled New York member later tells the Washington Post … to his own colleagues, he’s a camera-seeking nuisance who’s interested in gaining publicity for himself – not in doing any substantive work.
Full post here
The Obama Diary 
night everyone
Tags: Barack, comment, dublin, father, girl, hair, healy, henry, Ireland, moneygall, Obama, on, photo, President, red, u2, walk
Thank you again to the father of this beautiful girl for visiting us today (here)
*****
Walk on …. don’t let the haters get you down 😉
****
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet Henry Healy in Moneygall, Ireland, May 23
****
See you tomorrow 😉