The State Column: Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman was reportedly bitten by a goat during his latest campaign trip to New Hampshire…..
“As Jon Huntsman stumped in New Hampshire this weekend, trying to give voters a taste of what a Huntsman presidency would be like, a local goat named Izak quite literally got a taste of the former Utah governor when he nibbled on his knee at an event in Dover”….
….. Speaking Monday, Mr. Huntsman joked about the incident, saying he hopes the goat is not an indicator of things to come.
“He took a bite out of my kneecap,” Mr. Huntsman said “Is there a better indicator in the state of New Hampshire than how well you do with the goat
Thanks Hopefruit 😆
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Jimmy Kimmel will host next year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner (April 28) – they sure make these announcements early 😕
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Dorothy Rodham, the mother of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has died at 92. Clinton had canceled a trip to London and Istanbul to stay with her mother, who had become ill.
Rodham died shortly after midnight, the Clinton family said in a statement.
“Her story was a quintessentially American one, largely because she wrote it herself,” the statement said. “She overcame abandonment and hardship as a young girl to become the remarkable woman she was – a warm, generous and strong woman; an intellectual; a woman who told a great joke and always got the joke; an extraordinary friend and, most of all, a loving wife, mother and grandmother.”
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Gallup: Herman Cain is the only candidate whose Positive Intensity Score has increased in comparison to Gallup’s initial measurement earlier this year. In fact, each of the eight candidates Gallup tracks began with scores in the double digits, but now only three remain in that range.
😳
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Ted Sorensen (May 8, 1928 – October 31, 2010)
But this guy knew JFK better, right? ……
Huge thanks to Rock (@Tigerfists88) for this video and the other ones he posted in the comments
Thanks ChristiMtl – I suspect Krugman will be deeply disappointed if Joe Gagnon is right 😉
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Thanks Donna Dem
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Tuesday: The President will tape an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” before departing for San Francisco. In San Francisco, he will participate in a campaign event. In the afternoon the President will travel to Denver and participate in campaign events. He will spend Tuesday night in Denver.
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Text of the President’s remarks at today’s campaign event at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas here
“Their leader, Mitch McConnell said that – and I’m going to make sure I quote this properly – saving jobs of teachers and firefighters was just, and I quote, a bailout. A bailout! These aren’t bad actors who somehow screwed up the economy. They didn’t act irresponsibly. These are the men and women who teach our children and patrol our streets and run into burning buildings and save people. They deserve our support.”
ThinkProgress: Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) appeared on MSNBC with Chris Jansing this morning to attack President Obama’s new deficit reduction plan, which includes some tax increases on the wealthy…..
Fleming is himself a businesses owner, so Jansing asked, “If you have to pay more in taxes, you would get rid of some of those employees?” Fleming responded by saying that while his businesses made $6.3 million last year, after you “pay 500 employees, you pay rent, you pay equipment, and food,” his profits “a mere fraction of that” – “by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over…..”
Politicususa: Last night Fox News released a new poll that revealed President Obama’s job approval ratings have swung a net 13 points and increased to 55% in the past month.
The poll has Obama’s job approval rating at 55%, which is an 8 point increase over the last month. Obama’s disapproval rating has declined by 6 points from 47% to 41%….
…Liberals approve of how Obama is performing as president, 78%-17%. Moderates also approve of the Obama presidency, 72%-24%. As expected almost 2/3 of conservatives disapprove of Obama, 33%-64%….
These job approval ratings for Obama are his highest in the Fox News poll since June of 2009. Even before the capture of Bin Laden an improving economic picture had the President’s approval ratings trending upwards, and now it looks like they have taken off.
….The media won’t tell you this, but Barack Obama isn’t in that much trouble. The popular media narrative is that this president’s political future is in jeopardy. Gloom and doom sells…
When even the Fox News poll shows growing Obama approval ratings the media may just have to face the fact that this president is fairly popular, and a whole lot of Americans are going to vote for Barack Obama in 2012.
Statement by the President on the Affordable Care Act
“Today, the American people have greater health security than they did a year ago. Because of the Affordable Care Act, Americans no longer have to live in fear that insurance companies will drop or cap their coverage if they get sick, or that they’ll face double-digit premium increases with no accountability or recourse. Small businesses across the country can take advantage of a new health care tax credit to offer coverage to their employees, and children suffering from an illness or pre-existing condition can no longer be denied coverage. Parents now can add their adult children up to age 26 to their health plans, and all Americans on new plans can access preventive care to keep them healthy with no additional out of pocket costs. Older Americans are seeing better benefits, lower prescription drug costs, and a stronger Medicare. And the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reports that improvements in health care delivery system as a result of this law will reduce federal deficits by over a trillion dollars in the next two decades.
So I’m willing and eager to work with both Democrats and Republicans to improve the Affordable Care Act. But we can’t go backward. Americans deserve the freedom and security of knowing that insurance companies can’t deny, cap, or drop their coverage when they need it the most, while taking meaningful steps to curb runaway health care costs.”
Washington Post: …. The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act failed to pass last night. Despite unanimously passing the Senate, it only garnered a 241-166 majority in the House. Since House rules were in suspension, the bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who sponsored the bill, had a blunt response in a late-night press release:
“The action on the House floor stopping the Child Marriage bill tonight will endanger the lives of millions of women and girls around the world. These young girls, enslaved in marriage, will be brutalized and many will die when their young bodies are torn apart while giving birth. Those who voted to continue this barbaric practice brought shame to Capitol Hill.”
His frustration makes sense: the corresponding House Bill had 112 co-sponsors! What the heck happened?
In the hours before the vote, Republicans circulated a memo to pro-life members of Congress alleging that the bill could fund abortions and use child marriage “to overturn pro-life laws” …. when it came time for a vote, a number of the bill’s pro-life supporters in both parties abandoned ship.
Time for the facts. First of all, the act is short – the body of the bill is around ten pages long – and does not mention abortion … a quick read suffices to show that the bill is not dealing with abortion.
Second, it does not appropriate any additional funding. It requires that the President and the State Department make child marriage a core part of American international development strategy. One more time: this means that this bill can’t provide funding for abortion. It’s not a appropriations bill. Nonetheless, some Republicans appear determined to showcase their conservative credentials at all costs – even when the facts make it unnecessary, even when the world’s most vulnerable children bear the bill.
At this point, the bill’s future is uncertain, but the ongoing bizarre misrepresentation of a bill designed to empower young girls and women is the worst sort of political gamesmanship. Why play politics with their lives at stake?
And on Thursday:
Senate Republicans blocked the long-awaited 9/11 health care and compensation bill, making good on a pledge to reject all legislation until the Bush-era tax cuts are passed.
The 9/11 health bill, known as the Zadroga bill, would continue health care funding for tens of thousands of 9/11 emergency responders, construction laborers and downtown residents, workers and students. It would also potentially compensate people with post-9/11 health conditions and the survivors of those who have died.
Thursday’s vote went even worse than expected. The Democrats need 60 votes to open debate — and 60 to close it. Democrats had thought they had 59 votes and a few possible centrist Republican contenders for the 60th vote. But GOP discipline held strong, and the Democrats only hit 58. Newly-elected Illinois Republican Senator Ron Kirk stayed with his party. Kirk, who was elected to President Obama’s former seat voted for the House version when he was there in September. He had assured Democrats he would again now that he is in the Senate.
Republicans are concerned the Zadroga bill would create a new entitlement program. The Democrats say they can fund it without raising taxes by closing a loophole on international companies that locate in offshore tax havens to avoid paying taxes. Republicans, however, say that amounts to a new tax on companies that operate here and employ American workers.
9/11 responder John Feal lashes out Friday at GOP politicians holding up theJames Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act
New York Daily News: Lawmakers stung by the failure of the 9/11 health bill returned to Ground Zero Friday in hopes of breathing life into the measure.
Republicans filibustered the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act on Thursday, blocking the start of debate on the bill because they want to see tax cuts passed first.
Manhattan Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney ripped the move as “immoral” and “truly sad.” “Health care for Americans who are ailing because of 9/11 should not be held hostage to partisan politics,” Maloney charged.
Dozens of responders who showed up for the press conference were still in disbelief over the potentially fatal setback. “I was a registered Republican. I have no idea what I am now,” said Ray Simons, 60, a retired FDNY ambulance worker who said he’s ill from two weeks at The Pile. “For senators to turn this down, it’s like, oh, my God, it’s the ultimate betrayal.”
NBC NY: Arizona Sen. John McCain is under fire from his Democratic counterparts for a remark on the Senate floor yesterday, where he said lawmakers who support a health care bill for Ground Zero workers are “fooling around.”
The bill, which would provide up to $7.4 billion in aid for workers sickened by World Trade Center dust after the 9/11 attacks, was shot down by Republican lawmakers this month after they refused to consider the legislation until tax cuts were extended.
On Friday, McCain said Democratic leaders needlessly stalled a vote on a missile treaty with Russia “after all of the fooling around we’ve been doing” by holding loose votes on immigration and the Ground Zero health-care legislation.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), one of the main supporters of the bill, took to the Senate floor, saying “To call helping (first responders) fooling around is saddening and frustrating.”
And today, they defeated the DREAM Act:
ThinkProgress: Forty-one mostly Republican senators voted against a bill which would have provided young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents a path to legalization by pursuing a college education or serving in the military. 55 voted in the affirmative.
Immediately before the vote failed, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took the Senate floor to tell the young DREAMers who have come to his office that they were “wasting their time” because the border hasn’t been secured:
“…to those who have come to my office — you’re always welcome to come, but you’re wasting your time. We’re not going to pass the DREAM Act or any other legalization program until we secure our borders. It will never be done as a stand-alone. It has to be part of comprehensive immigration reform.”
What Graham didn’t mention is that though he has supported immigration reform in the past, he and his party are largely responsible for blocking it in 2010. First he held it hostage to health care reform, pitted it against climate change legislation, and then turned his back on it altogether. This summer, he declared his support for changing the 14th amendment to deny the U.S.-born children of immigrants citizenship.
And as we speak, they’re still trying to block the repeal of DADT and the passing of the START Treaty in the Senate
President Barack Obama holds a copy of the book “The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life” by Ben Sherwood as he returns to the White House in Washington after playing golf at Andrews Air Force Base, July 25, 2010
The Obama Diary 
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