Megan Carpentier (The Guardian): If you told a liberal in 2008 that progressives ought to give Ron Paul a chance because he was the most anti-war candidate on the ballot, you would have been laughed out of the room … But in 2012, some prominent (and white, male) progressives are arguing exactly that. What’s changed? Not Ron Paul, that’s for certain.
…. to the women, minorities and LGBT people (and their supporters) who have paid attention to Paul’s record, it comes as little surprise that his most vociferous supporters on the left are pale and male … and their arguments stale.
…. Nonetheless, there have been calls by progressives, most notably Glenn Greenwald, to ignore all of that and more, and focus instead on Obama’s policy failings …. no policy priorities are more imperative than those – certainly not abortion, immigration rights, LGBT equality, racial justice or any other aspect of the US’s extensive foreign policy. (Greenwald, who is gay, was in the relatively privileged position of being able to travel to Brazil to circumvent Doma.)…
…. (their) lives won’t be directly affected by all those pesky social conservative policies Paul would seek to enact as president, either due to their race, class, gender or sexual orientation…..
I see the Greenwald cultists are going after Megan Carpentier on Twitter (@megancarpentier) …. they just can’t handle their CATO boy being called out for what he is. Hysteria!!!!!! Poor pets.
The Supreme Court has announced that it will review President Obama’s health care law, setting the stage for a showdown over his signature legislative accomplishment months ahead of the 2012 election. Oral arguments are expected to take place this spring.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer: “Earlier this year, the Obama Administration asked the Supreme Court to consider legal challenges to the health reform law and we are pleased the Court has agreed to hear this case. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, one million more young Americans have health insurance, women are getting mammograms and preventive services without paying an extra penny out of their own pocket and insurance companies have to spend more of your premiums on health care instead of advertising and bonuses. We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and are confident the Supreme Court will agree.”
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Mel Levine (former member of the US House of Representatives D-CA): Former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan coined a famous phrase that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not to his own facts.” Apparently, the Republican candidates for president, led by former Governor Romney, have been so busy talking with each other that they have somehow developed an alternative universe of facts, one which both distorts President Obama’s record and disregards their own.
In a world in which the stakes of our foreign policy are so high, it is dangerous to ignore these distortions.
Gov. Romney recklessly and inaccurately misrepresents President Obama’s record of leadership in foreign policy in general. His disdain for the President Obama’s foreign policy conveniently ignores the president’s leadership in building international coalitions which have imposed exceptionally stiff sanctions on Iran and which have led to the destruction of the Qaddafi regime in Libya. It seems to forget that it is President Obama who led the effort to kill Osama bin Laden, who is keeping his promise to bring our troops home from Iraq by the end of this year, and who has broadened and deepened U.S.-Israeli defense cooperation so that it is stronger than ever before…..
Slate: If you want to see more American jobs, do you want to hire a guy whose area of expertise seems to be making them disappear?
A new story in The New York Times scrutinizes one of Mitt Romney’s biggest arguments for being the next president: his business management experience. And the picture is not entirely pretty.
The former head of Bain Capital helped to acquire and sell some 150 companies before he became the governor of Massachusetts in 2003. One of those sales and acquisitions, that of medical company Dade International, left 1,700 American workers without jobs and a company worse off because of high fees paid to Romney and his associates and long-term debt, according to some former company officials.
Steve Benen: If it’s Sunday, it’s ‘Meet the GOP Talking Points’
“Meet the Press” host David Gregory spoke with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz … and the interview was pretty tough to watch …. When attention turned to debt-reduction efforts, Gregory said, simply as a matter of fact, that Republicans on the super-committee “did agree for tax increases that Democrats have not accepted this week,” and then tried to change the subject. The host wanted to leave viewers with the impression that GOP officials were making a good-faith offer….
…. What Gregory failed miserably to offer viewers was context and any of the relevant details…. I expect this on Fox News. “Meet the Press” is supposed to have higher standards.
And to top it off, the host inexplicably showed a clip of Obama from July 2008 talking about his desire to lower the deficit if elected. July 2008 – before the crash, before TARP, before the need for the Recovery Act, before Republicans demanded an extension of Bush-era tax breaks that they refused to pay for.
…. It was one of the worst interviews I’ve ever seen on “Meet the Press.”
Paul Begala (Daily Beast): …. today’s Republican Party is more the party of Sarah Palin’s defiant know-nothingness than the brainy conservatism of Bill Bennett. The GOP is a party of ideologues, not ideas.
…. even the smart Republicans have to at least play dumb. Mitt Romney, for example, has to pretend he doesn’t know what’s causing global warming. A few weeks ago he told an audience in Pittsburgh, “My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet.” Hard to believe, because as recently as June of this year he said, “I believe, based on what I read, that the world is getting warmer. And No. 2, I believe that humans contribute to that.” Romney’s new-and-not-improved position is a shameless pander to the know-nothings.
Same with evolution, where Republicans know they can earn applause by denouncing science. Apparently to run in today’s GOP you must believe, in the words of comedian Lewis Black, that “The Flintstones is a documentary.”
Steve Benen: There was a BBC reality show I used to find interesting called “Faking It” …. I think of that show every time I watch Mitt Romney tackle foreign and national security policy. It’s clear the former one-term governor is dealing with a subject outside of his comfort zone – it’s equally clear he’s out of his depth – but Romney appears to have been given a crash course in the hopes he can fool people into thinking he’s competent.
For those who care about international affairs, Romney isn’t doing a very good job. Trusted reader F.B. flagged this segment from today’s “Morning Joe,” where a panel literally laughed at some of Romney’s saber-rattling towards Iran.
Note, in particular, that the BBC’s Katty Kay said she was “disappointed” by Romney’s remarks on Iran, because she thought he’d have “a more sophisticated understanding” of the issue.
That, in a nutshell, is one of Romney’s key rhetorical problems – he can fake it when it comes to giving the appearance of competence, which raises expectations, but the facade falls apart when anyone stops to consider the details…..
Monday: The President will travel to Las Vegas to make remarks on the American Jobs Act. He will also participate in a campaign event while in Las Vegas. In the evening, the President will participate in campaign events in Los Angeles and spend the night there.
Tuesday: The President will tape an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” before departing for San Francisco. In San Francisco, the President 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.
Wednesday: The President will deliver remarks on the American Jobs Act in Denver. That afternoon, the President will return to Washington, D.C.
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Psst, you might not read this anywhere, but in the space of a week the President’s approval has gone up six with Gallup (to 44), and his disapproval has gone down seven (to 47) – a swing of 13 points. In one week. And that was before he announced the Iraq war was over.
I know, sensible people ignore these things, but we’re always told about the bad polls, so I thought I’d pass on the encouraging news 😉
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Clarence Page (Chicago tribune): How important is it to have presidential candidates who, when talking about Libya, know where Libya is?
Rep. Michele Bachmann accidentally raised that question last week during the Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas …. “The president, he put us in Libya,” she complained. “He is now putting us in Africa.”
…. Bachmann’s flub would not be a big deal if it didn’t appear amid a Republican field infected with a nose-thumbing strain of willful ignorance about the rest of the world.
This was evidenced recently, for example, by Herman Cain …. “When they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, I’m going to say, you know, I don’t know,” he remarked in an interview…
For the record, if he meant the Republic of Uzbekistan, that former part of the Soviet Union has been an important ally in America’s actions in neighboring Afghanistan….
…. A recurring theme of this pre-election year has been the search for “the grown-up in the room”. As Moammar Gadhafi’s death vindicates President Obama’s Libya policy, his persistent critics are looking more like munchkins. I mean no disrespect to munchkins, by the way, wherever they may be on the map.
LA Times: Why is Barack Obama’s presidency a tale of two situations?
On the foreign-policy front, the administration has had a string of successes: Osama bin Laden killed; major Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen killed; and this week, of course, Moammar Kadafi killed. And on Friday, the president announced that all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by year’s end.
An unpopular war will be officially over for us soon. Terrorists and terrorist groups that threaten us are dead or on the run. Libya’s longtime strongman has been overthrown, thanks in part to Obama’s policy that had the U.S. and NATO working together.
But here’s a question: If Obama has been so successful in foreign policy, why has he been so unsuccessful on domestic issues?
…. domestically the problem is that Obama’s opponents have turned criticism into obstructionism. Unlike his foreign policies, Obama’s efforts to fix the economy have been thwarted at every turn by Republicans. Take the president’s jobs bill …. Republicans won’t even agree to spend $35 billion on teachers, police and firefighters ….
The bottom line? It’s wrong to say the president’s domestic policies haven’t worked when those policies haven’t even been given the chance to work.
Abroad, Obama has been allowed to set policy, and those policies have been given time to work. And, for the most part, they have.
Perhaps if Republicans gave the president that same leeway on domestic policy, we might be winning some battles at home, too.
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 😉
Stephen Stromberg (Washington Post): Unfair-attack-on-Obama-that-few-will-bother-to-fact-check of the night: Mitt Romney accuses the president of piling on economy-dragging regulation, including a cap-and-trade energy bill and union card-check legislation, among other things. Of course, neither can be hurting the economy, because neither cap-and-trade nor card-check actually passed – in part because the president didn’t make them high priorities.
Read Glenn Kessler’s fact-checker on the debate here
Reuters: …Mitt Romney broke with Republican orthodoxy on Friday by saying he believes that humans are responsible, at least to some extent, for climate change. “I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that,” he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire. “It’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors.”
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I was, eh, curious to see how Romney’s comments would go down with the Teabagger half-termer-worshiping climate change deniers (you know, those really bright people), so I visited one of their sites …. here’s a taster:
I love it when a rino nails his own coffin shut ….. RomneyCare and now a global warming believer /facepalm ….. Just quit Mitt …. Say “Goodnight” ….. Oh brother. That crowd of 200 will become 2. Buh Bye Romney what an idiot ….. So long, Mitt ….. Dear Mr. Romney – Cut it short now, save your money. You will NEVER be elected by Republicans if you buy that GW hooey ….. Romney will not make it past the first set of primaries ….. Yet another reason not to support this clown …. Nice of him to make it even clearer how stupid and liberal he is ….. Can this guy get any more disgusting? ….. I’ve never seen an entire campaign last only 24 hours. That was fun …. I will never, ever vote for someone who thinks man-made global warming is a reality …. No way in hell will I pull the lever for him. I’ll stay home first!
President Obama signs the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, Dec. 22, 2010
There was mass ‘Obama-bashing’ hysteria on a number of professional left-infested sites today after the news that the secretary of the Air Force had approved a discharge under the military’s ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on April 29 of this year. “The discharge, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman, is the only such discharge since the Pentagon last October directed that DADT discharges would require the approval of the service branch secretary.”
So, we got ‘Obama is a homophobe!’ all over again.
But?
Stripes.com: “….service officials emphasized the move came at the request of the airman, who requested to be released from military service despite the imminent repeal of the law banning openly gay troops … the individual was informed of the current status of the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ and he reaffirmed that he desired his separation action be expeditiously processed.”
….In a statement, Alexander Nicholson, executive director of the gay rights group Servicemembers United, said the incident “appears to be a classic case of someone simply trying to use ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ … to get out of his service obligation.”
…Pentagon officials confirmed that since those rules went into effect on Oct. 21, this airman is the only person dismissed from the military because of sexual orientation.
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Steve Benen: By all appearances, this airman, for whatever reason, simply wanted out of the military. He was offered a chance to keep serving, and asked to be removed anyway. Indeed, since October, this one individual is literally the only person to have been dismissed from the military because of sexual orientation.
Clearly, the sooner the DADT policy is brought to an official end, the better. But to characterize this incident as a betrayal from the administration appears to be an unfair criticism.
ABC: Under the repeal law signed into law last December, DADT won’t be repealed until 60 days after Defense Secretary Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and President Obama certify that the readiness of the force has not been affected. To that end, all of the services are in the midst of training their forces for what will change when repeal occurs. Top Pentagon officials have said they expect certification to occur in mid- summer; that will begin the 60 day clock to repeal.
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Did the Professional Left apologize for getting it so embarrassingly wrong? What do you think? 🙄
This was the Choi creature’s last tweet, 10 hours ago …. no correction since. Surprised? Me neither.
Politico: A presidential primary favorite is emerging among the ranks of congressional Republicans: none of the above.
The dissatisfaction with the likely GOP field — long whispered among party activists, operatives and elected officials — is growing more audible in the House and Senate.
Interviews on both sides of the Capitol have revealed widespread concern about the lackluster quality of the current crop of candidates and little consensus on who Republican senators and House members would like to see in the race.
…There were politicians who are putting off decisions (Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels), politicians who’ve said they won’t run (former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie), individuals who aren’t even politicians (Gen. David Petraeus)…
The float of Petraeus, currently commander of the war in Afghanistan and rumored to be the next CIA chief, highlights the GOP’s quandary. He has repeatedly said he won’t be a candidate … but that hasn’t lessened the ardor among some of his Republican admirers. It’s an indication of the view among some party stalwarts that they’ll need someone better than a conventional pol to beat an incumbent president expected to raise a historic sum of money.
…“We think we can beat the president, but we have to have somebody to beat him with,” said West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito. “And I think there’s no clear front-runner, and there’s some frustration out there, not that we haven’t nailed it down but that it’s sort of all over the board.”
…Shrugged Arkansas Sen. John Boozman: “Republicans have always been for who’s next in line, and there’s nobody in line.”
The Obama Diary 
cue another flip-flop
Tags: 2012, Barack, change, climate, comments, Global, gop, idiots, mitt, Obama, palin, party, President, reaction, republicans, right, romney, sarah, tea, teabaggers, warming, wing
Reuters: …Mitt Romney broke with Republican orthodoxy on Friday by saying he believes that humans are responsible, at least to some extent, for climate change. “I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that,” he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire. “It’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors.”
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I was, eh, curious to see how Romney’s comments would go down with the Teabagger half-termer-worshiping climate change deniers (you know, those really bright people), so I visited one of their sites …. here’s a taster:
I love it when a rino nails his own coffin shut ….. RomneyCare and now a global warming believer /facepalm ….. Just quit Mitt …. Say “Goodnight” ….. Oh brother. That crowd of 200 will become 2. Buh Bye Romney what an idiot ….. So long, Mitt ….. Dear Mr. Romney – Cut it short now, save your money. You will NEVER be elected by Republicans if you buy that GW hooey ….. Romney will not make it past the first set of primaries ….. Yet another reason not to support this clown …. Nice of him to make it even clearer how stupid and liberal he is ….. Can this guy get any more disgusting? ….. I’ve never seen an entire campaign last only 24 hours. That was fun …. I will never, ever vote for someone who thinks man-made global warming is a reality …. No way in hell will I pull the lever for him. I’ll stay home first!
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So, that went well.
Expect another Mitt flip-flop any second soon.