The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur: ‘President Obama Sets Bear Trap, Republicans Walk Right Into It’

Source:FOX News– Fox News, talking about President Barack Obama.

Source:The New Democrat

“Following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, where he called on Congress to end discriminatory workplace practices that “belong in a Mad Men episode” Fox News host Martha MacCallum proclaimed on the program American’s Newsroom that women did not want special laws ensuring equal for equal work because they already were compensated “exactly what they’re worth.” On the Fox program, two men, liberal radio host Alan Colmes and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, debated equal pay for women. Carlson assertedthat women actually made more than men if the time they “voluntarily” took off work to raise children was factored in. “The numbers don’t lie,” he insisted…”.* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.”

From The Young Turks

The current Republican governing policy is, “if Democrats are for it, we are against it, even if we are for it, or were once in favor of it”. And even offered it in health care reform a perfect example of that where the Affordable Care Act actually has a lot of good conservative ideas like the health care mandate and the health care market place in it. Which is the main reason why there hasn’t been much compromise in Congress between the House and Senate because when Democrats say okay we’ll agree to that, the House GOP just moves the ball further to get more compromises.

Then instead of Republicans saying okay let’s do that, Republicans just move the ball and say well, “if Democrats are willing to give us this, we can get them to give us this as well and hold off on a deal”. The deficit reduction negotiations are a perfect example of this where Democrats have put entitlement reform on the table and what Republicans is do is to say well, “if they will do that, then they’ll take exactly what type of entitlement reform we are interested in”. Like cutting Social Security benefits to future retirees or cutting benefits to current beneficiaries.

The only goal Republicans have right now is absolute power. And to accomplish this, they need to hold onto the House and 2014 and retake the Senate in 2014. To give them a united Republican Congress and to win back the White House in 2016 as well. While hanging onto Congress and the hard right partisan Republicans in the House and Senate have one clear strategy. “If Democrats are for it, it must be a bad idea even if it is our idea. So we are only going to put policies that are as far to the right as possible to get our partisan right-wing base behind us to avoid primary challenges”.

Which leaves us with gridlock when you have the Republican Leadership saying no to anything that the Democratic Leadership especially in the Senate and White House say yes to. Because now Democrats are in a position where they are only negotiating with themselves. Trying to find more moderate members in Congress to go along with some of these more conservative ideas in broader packages, while not losing any of their more, well lets say progressive members. Instead of negotiating with their own caucus’ in the House and Senate, along with Congressional Republicans.

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Russia Today: Barack Obama- A Socialist in Disguise?

Source:FreeState MD

“Obama: Socialist in disguise?

From Russia Today

“RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (Russian: Россия Сегодня))[9] is a Russian state-controlled[1] international television network funded by the Russian government.[16][17] It operates pay television or free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in Russian, English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an autonomous non-profit organization founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.[8][18] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO “TV-Novosti” on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia.[19][20][21] RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (2010–2022),[22][23] RT UK (2014–2022) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the Ruptly video agency,[5] which owns the Redfish video channel and the Maffick digital media company.[6][7]

RT has regularly been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy.[2] Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation[58] and conspiracy theories.[65] UK media regulator Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast “materially misleading” content.[72]

In 2012, RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan compared the channel to the Russian Ministry of Defence.[73] Referring to the Russo-Georgian War, she stated that it was “waging an information war, and with the entire Western world”.[17][74] In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a foreign agent with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[75]

RT was banned in Ukraine in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea;[76] Latvia and Lithuania implemented similar bans in 2020.[77][78] Germany banned RT DE in February 2022.[79] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland and then the entire European Union announced they were formally banning RT as well, while independent service providers in over 10 countries suspended broadcasts of RT.[80][81] Social media websites followed by blocking external links to RT’s website and restricting access to RT’s content.[82][83] Microsoft removed RT from their app store and de-ranked their search results on Bing,[84][85] while Apple removed the RT app from all countries except for Russia.”

From Wikipedia

I agree Barack Obama may be the worst Socialist ever for the simple reason he’s not a Socialist. And the same thing could be said about George W. Bush being the worst Conservative ever because he wasn’t very conservative, if you look at his record when it came to fiscal policy, especially spending and civil liberties.

To be a Socialist you, you must be a Socialist. I know that sounds crazy, but to be tall, you actually have to be tall. A man can’t just say one day: “Now dammit (or something stronger) I’m tired of being 5’7 and short. So today I declare myself as 6’1 and tall.” Why, because that man will still be 5’7. Calling yourself something doesn’t make you that. A patrol officer can’t just make themselves a sergeant and call themselves that. They have to be promoted to sergeant first.

Calling yourself something or calling someone else something, doesn’t make them what you’re calling them or yourself that, if you or they aren’t actually that. If I’ve lost you on that, I’m not surprised, I’m feeling dizzy from just writing that.

To be a Socialist, you must have a socialist record and socialist policies and ideas. Which is just not there in Barack Obama’s case. Unless you want to play guilt by association (In other words: Joe McCarthy) Meaning people Barry has been associated with in the past, Bill Ayers comes to mind, the guy hosting this show, Al Sharpton, now here’s someone you could make a serious case about being a Socialist.

But the charges against President Obama are just Tea Party propaganda trying to make a man they hate, seen as Un-American as not one of them and must be defeated and stopped at all costs. So they use one of the most unpopular words in the American-English dictionary which is socialist and socialism and so-forth, trying to make Barack Obama seem as worst then he is to scare people. Thats the modern GOP divide and conquer when you don’t have a popular message of your own.

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The Daily Beast: This Week In Punditry- February 3rd, 2013

Source:The Daily Beast– Hardball With Chris Matthews. According to Chris Matthews.

Source:The Daily Journal

“Rush Limbaugh was his typical incendiary self, Chris Matthews got heated about Hillary, and Bill O’Reilly pushed Colin Powell’s buttons about race. See those clips and more in our roundup of the week’s most controversial news talk show moments.”

From The Daily Beast

I’m not sure there are three better examples of what’s wrong with so-called cable news (which is really just partisan talk TV) then Sean Hannity, Chris Matthews, and Bill O’Reilly. You want to know why the mainstream media is about as unpopular as the U.S. Congress or your average trial lawyer or insurance salesman, or used car salesman, listen to any of these three guys.

Source:The Daily Beast– Sean Hannity, Chris Matthews, and Bill O’Reilly: The Three Stooges of American politics?

This week in punditry. Let’s see, where should I start? Well, we just had a week with plenty of punditry in it, oh you want more than that, not sure why, but here it is if you want it, you’ve been warned.

Well, we had a Secretary of State step down, because she has better things to do than manage our foreign policy. I know right, what’s more important than that. Well she has another book to write and needs to decide if she wants to be President of the United States, or not. Wait, that’s more important, but of course it’s her decision. And I wish Secretary Hillary Clinton well with her new Gabby Giffords look in how she where’s her glasses. And I congratulate her with her service to the country the last four years by leaving Congress and not running for President and taking on President Obama. And the Democratic Party thanks her for that as well.

Let’s see what else happened, oh yeah we had a Secretary of Defense confirmation hearing, as if it’s not interesting enough that we would have a Progressive Democrat nominate a Conservative Republican for Secretary of Defense. But the fact that Chuck Hagel forgot to put caffeine in his morning coffee, or forgot to go to bed the night before and forgot to bring his memory, because not all of Chuck Hagel was at that hearing.

Did I also mention that Fox News claimed to be a serious news organization. No, seriously, I know when have they ever reported any news at all and that Fox News still remains the most trusted name in news. Well for the Republican Party anyway, but don’t take that very seriously. Because they also believe that it’s still 1955 and that President Ronald Reagan never raised any taxes. And that homosexuality was invented ten years ago and that Barack Obama is an African Muslim Socialist from Kenya. So take all of that for what it’s worth, borrow a dollar if you have too. Or use that money to actually buy something of value.

Fox News is as much of a news organization as Pat Robertson is a supporter of gay rights in America. And to be fair MSNBC is not much of a news organization either, but two cable networks that serve as mouthpieces for the two major political party’s in America.

What else happened this week? Oh yes, Rush Limbaugh who apparently still hasn’t died from a heart attack yet, declared that since the mainstream media won’t cover the real news in America, ( you know, anything negative towards Barack Obama and other Democrats) that if the mainstream media doesn’t do a job on Democrats, that Rush and his allies will. Perhaps force Democrats to listen to Rush’s radio show 24 hours a day and smoke his cigars till they get heart attacks.

Rush Limbaugh is about as much of a reporter as Ron Paul is a Socialist, it’s simply not believable. But the good thing for Rush is that as much as he may hate it, as well as the rest of the country may hate having Rush living in America, he lives in a liberal democracy with freedom of speech and beliefs.

That’s the way it is as Walter Cronkite the famous CBS News anchor always said to close the Evening News. A big week for a lot of people and more evidence of why we need to fully fund mental health care in America. And have a better public education system with all of the nutty and ignorant people we have on both sides of the aisle.

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The Daily Beast: John Avlon, Meghan McCain & Mike Moynahan- ‘Real Housewives of the CIA’

Source:The Daily Beast– John Avlon, Meghan McCain & Mike Moynihan.

Source:The Daily Journal

“As new details emerge about Gen. David Petraeus’ affair with Paula Broadwell, Meghan McCain, Michael Moynihan, and John Avlon debate the scandal’s potential repercussions, on today’s NewsBeast.”

From The Daily Beast

Sounds like a real reality TV show in the works, perhaps Meghan McCain will produce it. You heard that here first. As far as David Petraeus and his sex scandal, I guess this is the clincher that American politics and government is never boring and why we have a political junky industry. And for so-called Progressives today ( I’m being too nice with the word Progressives ) I guess who believe that America should be more like France, well we are when it comes to our public officials and how they live their personal lives.

Political junky, is no longer just a hobby for unemployed politicians who can’t seem to win another public office and keep losing. And spend all of their free time, which is really all of their time, especially if they have a Congressional pension, watching C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC and FNC. But a way for writers and pundits to make their living. To tell Americans how much they don’t know about American politics and government.

As far as Benghazi, if it wasn’t for that story, what would House Republicans do? At least some of them like Speaker John Boehner, are smart enough to know they can’t repeal ObamaCare in this Congress with a Democratic Senate and Democratic President, that the law is named after. Most of them probably never have any attention of leaving Congress, at least the House of Representatives. So they don’t want to work with Senate Democrats to pass anything constructive that President Obama might actually sign. And risk being primaried and having to go home and work for a living. Like washing cars, or hosting radio talk shows, teaching gym in high school, or whatever they were doing in 2009 before they decided to run for the House. So all they have left in their one page playbook that a five-year could read is a bogus (to be too nice) Benghazi investigation.

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Real Time With Bill Maher: ‘Rosen-Gate: Just The Latest In Stupid, Non-Consequential, Meaningless Controversies’

Source:Mediate– Democratic Party strategist Hillary Rosen appearing on Real Time With Bill Maher.

“It’s time to play everyone’s favorite game: DISPROPORTIONATE OUTRAGE AT SOMETHING PRETTY INSIGNIFICANT! Tonight’s topic: Hilary Rosen-Gate! Everyone in the media has been absolutely obsessed with talking about this one comment made on CNN by a Democrat who doesn’t even have any strong ties to the Obama campaign. So naturally, this topic made its way into the discussion on Real Time with Bill Maher tonight.

RELATED: Ann Romney Responds to Hilary Rosen: ‘I Know What It’s Like To Struggle’

Maher brought up Mitt Romney‘s problem in trying to get women to support him and the fact that he currently trails President Obama in that demographic. Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell said this was because Romney and his fellow Republicans “want to go back to the 1960s” and revisit issues like contraception that she thought had already been dealt with in the United States. David Stockman quipped that the Republicans were still stuck in the 19th century on women’s issues. Conservative writer Matthew Continetti pointed out that Romney can win the general election if he just keep the focus on the economy.

Maher brought up the statistic that a significant number of jobs lost in the recession were women’s jobs, and asked if that was mainly due to “Republican policies.” He argued that Obama was actually fighting to keep the jobs that are mostly occupied by women, like schoolteachers. Continetti noted that the Republicans narrowly got an advantage among women during the 2010 midterm elections.”

From Mediate

“Hilary Rosen apologized for a comment questioning Ann Romney’s qualifications to advise Mitt on women’s economic issues. Thursday, April 12, 2012.”

Source:Absolutely Definite– Democratic Party strategist Hillary Rosen on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

From Absolutely Definite 

This is not Hillary Rosen’s big mouth or feet. Just an example of what politicians and their employees sound like when they speak a lot and are desperate to win. Which are people with big foot in the mouth disease, who say the first thing in their head that they think can help themselves or their bosses.

Source:The Daily Journal– this is Hillary Rosen when talking about Ann Romney.

I’ve gone out of my way to avoid blogging about Hillary Rosengate (as Talking Points Memo coined it this week)  because it was one of the dumbest things I’ve heard said in American politics. Which is saying something, I mean we had eight years of George W. Bush as President.

Dumb thing to say especially coming from one of the best political strategists and analysts in the business today in Hillary Rosen. Both Democrats and Republicans would acknowledge that. So dumb to the point that after Hillary Rosen made her statement saying that “Anne Romney has never worked a day in her life” on CNN’s AC360 on Wednesday night, she ends up apologizing for it on the CNN Morning Show on Thursday.

The Democratic Leadership goes out of their way to make it clear that they disagree with what Rosen said. The White House makes it clear that Hillary Rosen doesn’t work for them, or for the Obama reelection campaign. Thanks to Rick Santorum who’s turned out to be a year around Christmas Gift for the Democratic Party, as well as for comedians, bloggers and political satirists, Democrats have kicked butt when it comes to female voters in 2012.

The Democratic Party has been kicking Republican Butt, especially Mitt Romney’s, when it comes to female voters, as CNN political analyst Gloria Borger said. “Mitt Romney doesn’t have a gender gap with women, but a gender gulf”, or gender canyon. Something to that effect. In others words: a huge deficit among female voters.

President Obama was already having a bad week to begin with from last Friday’s jobs report that showed job growth slowing. And Hillary Rosen gives the Romney campaign a gift from God. Something positive to talk about, their support for motherhood. I mean seriously who’s against Motherhood, I mean that would be like hating freedom, or sex or sleep, anything else where most Americans absolutely love.

To suggest that you’re in favor of motherhood, which was what the Democratic Leadership was saying post Hillary Rosen’s comments, is like saying you support having a strong country where everyone can get a job that needs one. That you’re against crime, especially murder and you hate racism. These things are so obvious, that you shouldn’t have to try to convince people of your positions.

Hillary Rosen is the big foot in the mouth that the Republican Party has been waiting for ever since they decided that Mitt Romney should be their presidential nominee and Rick Santorum should be his main challenger. They figuring that if: “We are going to have to foot in the mouth’s running for president, Democrats should have at least one. And I mean a really big one since we have two of them for both legs.”

You can also see this post at FreeState MD, on Blogger.

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CSPAN: President Barack Obama- ‘At The 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner’

Source:CSPAN– President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) speaking at the 2011 White House Correspondents dinner, in Washington.

Source:FreeState MD

“President Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. View the complete program here:CSPAN.”

“Journalists, politicians and celebrities gathered for the White House Correspondents’ Association Annual Dinner where journalism awards were presented. President Obama gave humorous remarks focusing on his potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates. His speech featured a fake trailer for “The President’s Speech,” a spoof sequel to the film “The King’s Speech.” He was followed by “Saturday Night Live” head writer Seth Meyers.”

Source:CSPAN– comedian Seth Meyers.

From CSPAN

Ever since the mid-term elections of 2010, the President has been in full reelection mode. Thinking that if Democrats can lose the House, he could lose the White House just as easily.

And every decision and policy position and speech President Obama has given, has been based on that. Only when President Obama has to take a stand on anything, it’s after endless concentrated thought on every possible proposal and idea that’s out there. Libya being a perfect example of this and then after finally taking a position on anything.

Watching Barack Obama make up his mind on anything, (from a distance, anyway) is like watching a midget try to tackle an elephant: it is really difficult and painful thing to see that you want it to end and for some resolution to the matter: “If we do this, than that will happen and that will be bad. But if we don’t do this, then this could happen and that might be worst”. Politicians who try to please everybody tend to be the most unpopular. Because they end up offending everyone. And that is sort of where President Obama is right now.

It’s the weakest position possible designed to offend the very least. It’s Independent voters that the President is targeting. Meaning that he can’t seem too strong on anything, because he might offend those who look for the middle ground on everything­.

Which means that President Obama ends up doing what he wants the least, which is looking weak. Because he can’t figure out what the hell he should do. Right now President Obama who’ve I tended to agree with on foreign and economic policy, is the On the Other Hand President.

President Barack Obama: “Well, if we do this, it could work, but on the other hand if we do this instead, it might work better. And costing the country economically because we have a weak economy that needs strong action”.

Sometimes you just got to say, screw it! And do what you think is right and let the chips fall where they may. That is what leadership is about and what being President of the United States is about. The On the Other Hand Presidency might turn out to be effective leadership in the long-term, but it’s definitely weak leadership in the short-term. And costing President Obama popularity and the ability to lead a large divided country.

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Fair Economy: David Morris- ‘Why You Want Government Running Health, Education and Defense’

Source:FreeState MD– people buried under Big Government?

Source:FreeState MD 

“This article by David Morris of OnTheCommons.org supports the commonly made argument that privatization is not always the answer because certain services, such as health care, are more cost-effective and better.”

From Fair Economy

“President Obama on why the private sector is more efficient than government”

Source:U.S. Representative Jeff Duncan– President Barack Obama, talking about the government shutdown, in 2013.

From Jeff Duncan

The title of this article from the AlterNet that I read is called: “Why You Want the Government Running Health, Education and Defense”. No, for real, just look up top incase you missed it. Yet the whole article is about comparing the American health care system with foreign health care systems.

This article had nothing about education and defense. Because I believe this writer understands that the American public education system isn’t very good right now. We’re ranked I believe by the United Nations, and organization that the Left especially the Far-Left puts a lot of faith in, 39th in the World. And no one is calling for privatizing the Defense Department. Except for perhaps Dick Cheney, Ron Paul and Libertarians in the Tea Party.

Another issue I have with the AlterNet article is some of its so-called facts: I know, why would the AlterNet care about fact or let them get in their way of a good ideological argument. But saying that in America the private sector runs our health care system and in the rest of the developed world the public sector runs their health care systems, is purely false.

Holland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan and Japan (to use as examples) France, Germany, Italy and Japan all being large countries, all have private/ public health care systems. America has a private/public health care system. It’s just different and not nearly as effective as these other countries, with its health insurance.

Socialists like to say that government ownership or management of the economy and other key services, is the best way to go to have the best country possible. And they point to Sweden as their example of how well this system works. Not recognizing or realizing the fact that Sweden has a very large private sector and a lot of their economy is privatized.

What Sweden does have and why I call it a social democracy, well because that is exactly what it is. (Speaking of facts) But what they have is a very large welfare state (at least by American standards) with very generous benefits financed through high taxes. (Again, at least by American standards) In other words, the Swedish Government or Swedish Socialists tax most of their people’s money away, so they can give that money back to take care of them. Or another way of putting it, they tax people to death and them bring them back to life with their own money.

The economy’s that work best are the economy’s that privatize most of their economy, but regulate them well to prevent and punish abuses. That has unlimited fair and open competition and a substantial and affordable safety net for people who fall through the cracks. That empowers them to get on their feet.

America used to have an economy like this, but we moved away from it and look where we are now. What doesn’t work well in an economy are monopolies, whether they are public or private. Where Big Government, “my people are essentially if not officially, because my public school monopoly doesn’t teach them very well. So what I have to do is take most of their money from them to prevent them from spending it unwisely, to take care of them”. And you can just look at the former Soviet Union, or Cuba or North Korea today.

What also doesn’t work well is what I and others would call “cowboy capitalism”. Which is capitalism with essentially no rules or the rules aren’t enforced. Or the referees are paid off and essentially taking coffee breaks over at the closest Starbucks from the stadium the whole game and they allow whatever to happen to happen, the free market being everything that is. Except that it is not free when the government at taxpayers expense pays these companies for the hell of it, who play by no rules. And I give you the Bush Administration of 2001-2009 as the only example I need. And look at where we are today.

Government should let the people be free to live their own lives as long as they are not hurting anyone else with their freedom. Thats the economy that works the best, freedom with responsibility.

I don’t and I imagine most Americans don’t want a Federal, or for that matter a state, country or municipal babysitter (meaning government) to take care of us, for us, at of course our expense. Big Government to its taxpayers: “Give me your money, so I can take care of you for you.” Uh no, just give the people the tools they need in life to be successful and allow for them to take care of themselves. Freedom and responsibility: reward good behavior and discourage bad behavior.

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