November Is A Crucial Month

Facts: The Obama administration tested 1 million people for H1N1 in the first month after the first US diagnosed case.

The first US #coronavirus case was 50+ days ago. And we haven't event tested 10,000 people yet. https://t.co/LxRH62NIDw

— Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) March 13, 2020

Fact 2: While simultaneously dealing with the biggest financial crisis and recession of our lifetime

— Austan Goolsbee (@Austan_Goolsbee) March 13, 2020

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If the @BarackObama Administration made testing harder how did we manage to test 1 million people within the first month of the H1N1 outbreak? Why did you dismantle the White House office @BarackObama created in NSC post Embola? Why did you cut funding to CDC? Come on! https://t.co/hH7v31DdYj

— Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) March 13, 2020

My Q: You said you don’t take responsibility for slow response to coronavirus but your administration disbanded the White House office on pandemics?

President Trump: “That’s a nasty question...When you say me, I didn't do it. We have a group of people [in the administration].”

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 13, 2020

This, That (and the Other)

OFA

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Today:

2:0: Michelle Obama speaks to grassroots supporters in Cincinnati

9:25: Michelle Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event in Seattle

CBS have the first speech in their schedule, not sure whether the second one will be shown

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Detroit News: General Motors said its September sales rose 1.5 percent to 210,245 vehicles, marking its best September since 2008.

Chrysler Group LLC beat analyst expectations as its September sales rose 12 percent, while Ford Motor Co. sales remained flat in September compared to the same month a year ago.

GM said passenger car sales jumped 29 percent from the same month a year ago, while sales of mini, small and compacts shot up a combined 97 percent.

….. Chrysler reported its best September sales total in five years. The Auburn Hills automaker sold 142,041 vehicles last month; September also marked the 30th consecutive month that Chrysler has experienced year-over-year sales gains.

More here

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CNNMoney: American Express will refund $85 million for what government officials called deceptive practices involving about 250,000 customers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Monday that American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) subsidiaries illegally charged late fees, deceived customers by promising non-existent money rewards, and discriminated against new applicants over the age of 35.

“Laws were violated at all stages of the game,” said CFPB director Richard Cordray in a statement …. In addition to refunding customers, American Express will pay a $27.5 million penalty…

More here

Thanks amk

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Quinnipiac: An 18 point lead among women puts President Barack Obama ahead of Gov. Mitt Romney 49 – 45 percent among likely voters nationwide, and voters expect 54 – 28 percent that the president will win the debates, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

…. “It is very difficult to win an election when you are getting shellacked among women,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac.

More here

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‘newt gingrich’s pinocchio-laden debut’

Greg Sargent (Washington Post): Newt Gingrich can’t stop spewing falsehoods, but he’s Very Serious: My pick for read of the morning is Post fact checker Glenn Kessler’s funny and absolutely brutal debunking of, well, pretty much everything Newt said in launching his bid for president. The man lies non-stop, but hey, he’s Serious and has Big Ideas, so who cares?

The Fact Checker (Washington Post): Newton Leroy “Newt” Gingrich is back! The former House speaker threw his hat in the presidential ring Wednesday with an appearance on Fox’s “Sean Hannity Show.”

…There were so many gems in Gingrich’s appearance that we will pick out the choice comments that cry out for fact-checking. We reached out to two of his spokesmen with questions and requests for documentation, but did not get a response….

Read the article here

here we go again….

Think Progress: This morning, Fox News hosted Rep. Allen West to talk about the budget cuts that the Tea Party wants. In order to frame the discussion as supporting West’s position, which is anti-compromise, the right-wing network cited a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that it claimed showed that most Americans do not want the Republicans to compromise. Host Martha MacCallum claimed the poll showed that “56 percent of Americans say that [Republicans] should stick to their positions.” Watch it:

The problem with the poll that Fox cited is that it doesn’t say anything like what they claim it does. In fact, it appears that they actually switched the numbers around. The poll in question does find that 56 percent of respondents do not want to see the GOP compromise, but the question was directed to self-identified Republicans — meaning that Fox essentially took the number for Republicans and claimed that it represented all Americans:

But hey, it’s hardly the first time Fox reversed poll results to fit its agenda – here

there but for the grace of god……

I haven’t posted one of my own photos here before, largely because they’re completely rubbish (unless you like out-of-focus Golden Retriever’s bottoms), but I just wanted to share this one.

It was taken on the evening of President Obama’s inauguration as me and my two friends left a metro station in DC en route to a celebratory meal in a swanky restaurant.

To make ourselves feel better we dropped some money in the man’s cardboard box, but he didn’t respond, he was in another world.

It was a magnificent day in our lives, but just another day in his.

I thought of him again tonight after reading some emails from visitors to this blog, truly amazing people who give up so much of their time to do voluntary work to help people just like this man. We’ll never know his story, what happened in his life to reduce him to this, but it’s just incredibly heartening to know there are people out there doing their very best to help.

Many would say he’s just a a bum and a junkie, most probably inflicting misery on other people’s lives. That may be true, his woes may well be self-inflicted, but there but for the grace of God go all of us … and even if, like me, you’re not religious, the sentiment holds true.

So, just to say: thank you to all you wonderful people who quietly do the very best you can to help. While the keyboard warriors trash you on various – supposedly – progressive websites, you’re out in the real world trying to help real people in their real lives.

Love you for it – you know who you are.

smoking gun

Fruitbat Republican Les Phillip is using this photo of President Obama in a video for his campaign to unseat Democrat-turned-Republican Rep. Parker Griffith:

Hmm, wonder why he didn’t use the original non-photoshopped picture?

Taken by Kwame Ross on Aug. 3, 2004 while then-State Sen. Obama met with constituents at the University of Illinois while campaigning to become a U.S. Senator.

Hey Les – you lie! 😉