anonymous?

Just a little reminder, anonymous posts are no longer accepted on the blog – hey, posting anonymously doesn’t make you a bad person, it’s just that most of the attacks on regulars here recently have come from anonymous posts, so enough of that.

Please sign in and stick with the same name you’ve always used here (unlike our most recent troll who used about 10 different names), just so everyone knows who’s talking to them.

Thanks 😉

guard the change?

The President used the line ‘guard the change’ in his 2010 mid-term speeches, and I think it’s a perfect slogan for 2012.

But what d’you think?

Any other ideas?

charlotte 2012

Charlotte 2012

“bragging about bain”?!

Business Insider: …. Mitt Romney unveiled his much-anticipated jobs plan this afternoon, but instead of the bold, sweeping proposals he promised, the candidate’s ideas came off as scattered and disjointed.

The unabridged plan is fully outlined in 160 PDF pages, but Romney appeared to have a hard time summarizing it into a coherent speech.

After amusing the crowd by showing off a scribbled notepad and promising not use a teleprompters, Romney soon made it clear why some presidential candidates should definitely use cues. His speech was rambling, with Romney criss-crossing the stage as he jumped from one unrelated proposal to the other.

….As part of his Day One jobs strategy, he said he would “file” five bills to promote jobs growth, overlooking the fact that the President does not have the power to file bills with Congress.

…. He let attendees know that his 160-page jobs plan, titled Believe In America, is available to buy on Kindle, but wasn’t sure whether or not it was free.

And to close out the bizarre event, Romney left the stage to Alabama’s “I’m In A Hurry (And Don’t Know Why),” which seems like a strange choice.

Full post here

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But here was Mark ‘Dick’ Halperin’s verdict on the calamity:

Good grief, can the Halperin fool get any more embarrassing?

“Bragging about Bain“?? Seriously, Halperin puts ‘Romney’, ‘Bain’ and ‘bragging’ in the same sentence?!

Go back to playing with your Palin doll, Marky 😉

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Think Progress: To accompany his jobs speech in Nevada this afternoon, Mitt Romney released a packet that laid out his plans. On page 16 of the packet is a chart highlighting statistics from past economic recoveries and is presumably supposed to show how poor Obama’s record compares to past presidents. The chart, however, calls the period of time from 2007-2009 the “Obama recovery,” blaming him for the poor job numbers over that three-year period. As Romney surely knows, however, George W. Bush was serving as president in 2007 and 2008, and Obama did not take office until January 2009.

More here

the wisdom of youth….

Chicago Tribune: Congressman Joe Walsh fielded some tough questions this morning from a high school government class in Mundelein, with students asking why he plans to boycott a jobs speech by President Barack Obama and how he’s handling his ex-wife’s lawsuit alleging he owes child support.

…. When asked about the money he allegedly owes in child support, Walsh responded the same way he has in other public venues:

“It makes me sad that my ex-wife did what she did,” he said. “I am going to fight it because it just isn’t true. … I am going to fight it privately and legally because anything I say can be held against me.”

His ex-wife, Laura Walsh, is seeking $117,437 in unpaid child support and interest in a case filed in Cook County Circuit Court. The couple has three children and divorced in 2004.

… When asked about the Tea Party and its beliefs, Walsh first turned the question back to students, asking them what they think when they hear the term “Tea Party”.

Students’ responses included: “Republicans,” “reducing taxes” and “Fox News.”

Self-proclaimed liberal Samuel Cruz, 16, described the Tea Party as “a small group of people who are insane and out of touch with reality.”

More here

Thank you Dotser 😉

press briefing

‘hoffa and the fainting couch’

Steve Benen: It appears that one of the day’s biggest political stories yesterday, at least on the right, had to do with a Labor Day speech Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. delivered in Detroit. This has “manufactured outrage” written all over it ….

….here’s the context of the quote: “Everybody here’s got to vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let’s take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much!”

In other words, he was talking about voting. This was not a call to violence – Hoffa wants to take the far-right politicians out of office, not out of existence.

… A paid CNN analyst said that if President Obama “doesn’t condemn” the comments, “he is sanctioning violence.” This is all pretty silly. If the right is comfortable with Rick Perry’s comments about Ben Bernanke, and Sarah Palin’s “reload” cliche, and Mitt Romney talking about “hanging” Obama, I think conservatives can probably stop clutching the pearls over Hoffa’s line about voting.

Full post here

he’s likeable enough

Politico/GWU poll

The polls weren’t pretty today, although as Steve Benen points out (here) a big majority favor the President and Democrats’ economic/jobs agenda over the GOP’s – and that could prove pretty significant in the coming months:

Politico’s poll asked a question about “a large scale federally subsidized nationwide construction program putting Americans back to work building roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals.” A 51% majority favored the idea, while only 21% opposed it.

When President Obama presents his jobs agenda on Thursday, it’s likely those who tune in will approve of his ideas…. for all of the president’s troubles in the polls, most of the public is still on board with what Democrats are proposing, and have no use for what the GOP is selling.

He also leads Perry 47-42% and Romney 46-45% in the NBC/WSJ poll.

What’s striking, too, is that despite all the efforts to demonize him, 74% still approve – strongly or somewhat – of the President “as a person”. Presumably the 14% who strongly disapprove are made up of Tea and Firebaggers? Must try harder at that demonizing 😉

hill harper

we can expect a hoffa-like media storm, right?

Think Progress: Today, Bradblog’s Brad Friedman reports for Mother Jones about a secret meeting that the right-wing oil billionaire Koch brothers held at a Colorado resort in June with hundreds of wealthy donors who plotted to finance right-wing causes and elect conservative politicians.

Friedman reports that audio he obtained from the conference reveals that Charles Koch alarmingly referred to President Obama as “Saddam Hussein,” saying that the right had to fight the “mother of all wars”. He rallied his guests to donate millions of dollars to help defeat Obama and boost other right-wing causes….

…… Koch read off a list of 32 donors who gave a million dollars or more to his efforts to build up far-right infrastructure…

More here