President Barack Obama waves to people gathered along a road in Boone, N.C., during his three-day American Jobs Act bus tour, Oct. 17. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Yesterday’s speeches:
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Steve Benen: At an event in North Carolina yesterday, President Obama talked up the next phase in the fight over job creation. We knew Dems would start to move on individual provisions within the American Jobs Act, and yesterday, we learned which component would go first.
…. “So this week I’m going to ask members of Congress to vote on one component of the plan, which is whether we should put hundreds of thousands of teachers back in the classroom, and cops back on the street, and firefighters back to work….”
…. Why are Dems pursuing this first? It may have something to do with the idea’s overwhelming popularity – A whopping 75% supported the measure in a CNN poll …. even 63% of Republicans approve of the spending.
…. the total number of Republican lawmakers in either chamber willing to support the teachers/first responders jobs bill – or even allow a vote on the bill – is currently zero, despite overwhelming support from the American mainstream.
Full post here
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Greg Sargent: ‘Moderate’ Dems may break with Obama on pieces of jobs bill: With the Senate set to vote on pieces of the jobs bill, Senators Ben Nelson and Jon Tester, both of whom voted against the overall proposal, may actually vote against the $35 billion in state aid to avert teacher and first-responder layoffs.
Their objection: The tax hikes on the rich that are supported by big majorities, including among independents and moderates. As always, these “moderates” and “centrists” are not willing to support economic solutions that actually are moderate and centrist – and as a result, they may give more ammo to Republicans to claim that opposition to Obama’s proposals is “bipartisan.”
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I ♥ Barney:
Original (and much better quality!) video here
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McClatchy: Even as protests over its political influence grow louder, Wall Street is one of the leading sources of money so far in the 2012 race for the White House. Not surprisingly, the biggest beneficiary has been Republican hopeful Mitt Romney…
…. Romney has attracted $7.5 million from the financial community … That’s nearly twice as much as President Barack Obama has received from it, and almost a quarter of the $32 million that Romney’s campaign has taken in overall.
…. Romney is the top recipient of campaign cash from employees of the five biggest Wall Street banks. Goldman Sachs gave the most — $352,200…. The other banks were Morgan Stanley ($184,800), Bank of America ($112,500), JP Morgan Chase & Co. ($107,250) and Citigroup Inc. ($56,550).
A spokesman for the Romney campaign could not be reached for comment.
… Obama had raised about $3.9 million in Wall Street contributions as of the end of September (just over 4 percent of his overall haul so far of $89 million, which dwarfs the GOP field).
Full post here
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Caption: A waxwork figure of George Clooney on display at Madame Tussauds in London is posed alongside a waxwork of US president Barack Obama….
Jeez, looks like the real George to me. The President? Not so much. 😕
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Thank You Loriah!
The Obama Diary 
Goooooood morning! Looking forward to another wonderful day!
Gooooooooooooooooooood morning to you CTGirl! 😉
Oh I’m soo glad to see you here Chips with a brand new thread too..I just posted on the last thread asking if you were okay so you can safely ignore that post!.
SMH at , Senators Ben Nelson and Jon Tester! They need to go join the Repub. Party.
Up with President Obama!
Down with Jon Tester and Ben Nelson!
Tester is my Senator and I am so upset I haven’t been able to talk to my friend that works in his office. I plan to call have my list ready.
I’ll report back after I talk to them.
I read something just after the vote on the AJA that they voted against, that the reason why they did that was because they are both up for reelection…in RED states, and that they were afrais their constituents would be against GETTING BACK TO WORK! Seriously???? Why didn’t they do a little poll and figure out that it doesn’t matter WHAT kind of state they live in, people want work! What a cop out. Is it SO hard to do the right thing for these people????
There is a hilarious article from POLITICO on Obamabots featuring AngryBlackLady, Shoq and a few other of our twitter friends. Its a must read but I’m not sure if its OK to post a link from that site.
And when I say hilarious I mean ridiculous but I had several laughs.
Someone posted the article on the previous thread..if you scroll all the way down you’ll see it!
Speaking of ridicolous….Mark Hackperin had an EPIC Fail today boasting about the Pres and his low approval ratings in NH- yeah, If the pres could pack up an move to NH like Money Romney perhaps it would be higher…and color me unimpressed, NH is 4 electoral votes, the Pres had over 320 in the last election. Yawn. Next “Are you serious story” is on the liberal NYTIMES (snark ends). It has a story on the Pres being not well recieved in NC, spefically, at the Countryside BBQ- because only a few people stood up to shake his hand. Yeah, because we all know how much Secret Service loves people making sudden moves around the President. Based on this video and article, they really really hate him(http://www2.mcdowellnews.com/news/2011/oct/17/presidential-plate-go-ar-1506536/)—especially those two gals that got up and hugged him.
Halperin is an idiot.
Look at the doggie waving! 😛
I’m always grateful to the people who come out to greet PBO and give him love and energy.
Good morning, and have a great day, everyone!
The dog belongs a new canine group called “Doggies Across America for Obama.” Bo is also an honorary member of that group! 🙂 🙂
This is why I love this TOD family, the things we share! I did not know this … Love it! 🙂
No, actually I’m just kidding about the dog group..that’s just my wishful thinking here!
😆
🙂
John McCain says that the bus is ugly.
That’s his response to our President’s plea to pass the jobs bill and put teachers and construction workers back to work. That’s how irrelevant McCain is.
hopefruit2, I sent McCain a email and told him what was really ugly is certain groups of politicians playing games with people’s lives. That people are suffering but you have Republicans like him who is more concern with defeating President Obama, then helping these suffering Americans. That is true ugly Sen. McCain.
McCain’s soul is ugly.What an a**wipe that man is.He is bitter and irrelevant.
Co-sign for a lot of reasons. Good morning anyhow everybody. 🙂
The man is closer to the grave than to the womb but still acting like a child! Had to tweet him a Bible verse … He is a sad and pathetic man!
The bus – which is beautiful to me in its sleekness – was built in Canada and outfitted in America. The Secret Service purchased the bus from an American company … the same company where John McCain got his campaign’s Moron Talk Express bus. Not that any of this matters to normal people, who actually have a brain.
Yup/
McCain’s selective memory proves that he is STILL NOT OVER IT!
morning TOD family.Not surprising that Grampy is hating on Bus One cuz he ain’t the one sitting in it as President.Haters gonna hate 😉
Hiya Fred. IMHO Grampy should have been keel hauled after he crashed his first plane.
I love how the conversation is being changed regarding Wall Street, its influence on politics, and its robbing of the rest of us. Even the corporate media whores can’t contain the message — it’s breaking through due to the protests (which continue to spread), the Jobs Act, and the channels of communication that are outside of the mainstream.
It will be easy to draw a contrast between any republican candidate (but especially Mitt Romney) as the Wall Street candidate and PBO as the Main Street/Jobs candidate.
Perhaps America is finally waking up.
amen
Strangely enough, one of the wealthy 1%ers who contributed to the founders of OWS, also contributed to Mitt Romney’s current Presidential campaign. He rationalizes this contradiction by claiming quite cavalierly that he has A.D.D. How can OWS as a movement be effective when it’s contributors are busy buoying the Republican candidate with same Wall Street Cash that they claim to eschew?
I always ascribe nefarious motive to the drivel that comes out of many progressive pundits’ mouths, assuming that they’ve actually set out to follow some agenda. Last night on the LOD show, however, it became crystal clear to me that they don’t even work that hard — they are wilfully lazy about actual facts. And yet pull down six figures to spew their b.s.
Case in point: Joe Conason on LOD last night. Someone I have always respected, whose intelligence and homework I always relied on. He actually said that he wishes Obama would be more like the President he heard give the speech in NC yesterday. At least LOD corrected him (meekly) and said this is the Obama we’ve been seeing for the last several months.
My only conclusion: if Joe Conason is going to live on a beach in Fiji with no news for 6 months, he should stay the hell off the teevee.
God.
Congressman Barney Frank and the educating of Rachel Maddow
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Rachel starts the segment with this unbelievable question: Is the Occupy Wall Street protests an opportunity for Democrats to prove themselves??
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I wanted to kiss Barney Frank last night for educating Rachel Maddow about the fact that protesting/political action and VOTING are not mutually exclusive. I was thrilled when he told Rachel that he wishes the protesters on Wall Street today were helping him out and voting when he was fighting tooth and nail for the implementation of Dodd-Frank. Barney let Rachel know that it was the Democrats who have fighting for financial regulation from day one. They don’t need OWS to prove that. Where was OWS when the President and the Democrats needed THEM??
The best part was when he said for the people who didn’t vote, don’t blame him of the consequences of them not voting. Bottom line, the protesting is a great way to bring attention to an issue but protesting along means nothing without making your voice heard at the voting booth. Watching him school Rachel was really satisfying because she wanted to make the segment about Democrats proving themselves and Barney turned the tables on her.
OCCUPYCONGRESS and OCCUPYTHEVOTINGBOOTH
xxxoooo
to you for this comment, and ICAM with Barney Frank – he rocked last night
Yes… I saw that…..she seemed a bit annoyed after he shut her down.
EXACTLY!
thanks LadyHawke for that run down on the video, utube videos rarely work well for me.. I did get to hear the first minute or so- and really appreciate Barney’s push back on Rachel’s intro- I’m soooo tired of the attack on the only people who have tried to change things: the democrats and President Obama.
Even the dog is waving at President Obama!!
Looking forward to another lovely day On the Road with PBO.
Rusty was in California yesterday doing a fundraiser. Love the banner in the sky that greeted him:
http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/10/18/346301/banner-mocks-speaker-john-boehner-during-orange-county-fundraiser-occupy-the-golf-course/
Love it, more of this please.
Finally, the prez’s message is getting into their brains.
LOVE IT!
EXCELLENT!!!!! That appearance was so quiet that we here in LA never heard about it before, during or after.
I’m proud of those who pushed back in Orange County – which btw is the repug portion of Southern California.
Poor Rusty can’t even catch a break in his own backyard! LOL!!!!!
October 18, 2011 9:30 AM
Humor is hard, redux
By Steve Benen
It’d be a shame if politicians became so afraid of spontaneity that they never joked around, avoided light-hearted moments, and never strayed from their scripts. That said, politicians also need to realize that being funny can be tricky and that it’s sometimes hard to find humor in some serious subjects.
Late last week, for example, Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain said his response to the “crisis of illegal immigration” is to create an electrified fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, killing those who tried to enter the country illegally. Cain said on Sunday his comments were “a joke,” though the video suggested otherwise.
Yesterday, the far-right candidate switched gears again — Cain was serious about the idea he was kidding about. (thanks to M.C. for the tip)
Let me first say it was a joke, and some people don’t think that it was a good joke, and it’s probably not a joke that you’re supposed to make if you’re a presidential candidate,” Cain continued. “I apologize if it offended anyone. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.”
Only, it might not be a joke, he later said, before finally saying he just doesn’t want to offend anyone.
“I don’t like to offend anyone … however, I don’t apologize for using a combination of a fence. And it might be electrified — I’m not walking away from that,” Cain backtracked. “I just don’t want to offend anybody. It was a joke to the extent in the context of the views of that speech, but in terms of what we need to do, I fully intend to do so because I’m more sensitive to our citizens being hurt.”
Maybe when Cain said he was joking, that was when he was joking?
The bottom line, at least until he changes his mind again, is that Cain actually wants a fence that would kill immigrants, and If he’s elected, that’s what he “fully intends” to do.
Let’s also note that Cain isn’t the only Republican struggling with comedic stylings lately. Cain is “joking” (but not really) about killing immigrants; Mike Huckabee is joking (again) about Republicans using illegal voter-suppression tactics; and Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) joked, “In Arizona, sometimes to gain office you have to have shot someone,” a line Gabrille Giffords’ family probably wouldn’t appreciate.
Maybe someone can buy a copy of “Comedy for Dummies” and send it over to the RNC.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_10/humor_is_hard_redux032879.php
what is it with the non-stop coverage of one israeli guy being released by the palestinians ? Jeez BBC was breathlessly reporting on this non-event the whole day (still continuing) when there are so many important news events being ignored.
I love the people’s reaction at 35 sec. when they realize the President is in front of the bus…waving. They love it.
Yesterday in Boone