Of course, Viagra usually is covered, and that is far more important to the old, white guys than the whole women’s health issue.

Well, the FRC is having some kind of video conference or such tonight, but in announcing that, they stated:

As part of the Obamacare health care mandate, beginning next year any organization that offers health insurance to employees will be forced to cover contraception, sterilizations, and abortifacients — no matter what their objections. This is not only an attack on the consciences of employers and employees, but a direct attack on religious freedom. This mandate must be stopped.

The outcry is growing even as the Obama administration attempts to stifle dissent. While church leaders around the country voiced their disapproval to the mandate on Sunday, the Army’s pulpits were silent. According to several sources, the Chief of Chaplains issued an Army-wide gag order, warning priests not to read any letter resisting the policy.

No one ever explains how it is an attack on religious freedom, or on the consciences of employees. It is, of course, something of an attack on the conscience of employers, but they should trust their employees enough to give them the option to use contraception.

What this comes down to is controlling others and not really to something like trusting employees or actually trusting that their teachings are being learned.

Well, that just goes to show how screwed up fundamentalist Christianity is, I guess.

DePaul University, the nation’s largest Catholic university, has admitted to providing contraception coverage. DePaul University spokesperson Robin Florzak informed ThinkProgress that “The employee health insurance plans include a prescription contraceptive benefit, in compliance with state and federal law. An optional insurance plan that covers such benefits is available to students, also due to previously established state and federal requirements.”

The University is disappointed with the Obama Administration over what happens, but hopes that it will lead to “effective national conversation on the appropriate conscience protections in our pluralistic country.” ThinkProgress notes that “Other Catholic colleges and hospitals, including Georgetown and the six former Caritas Christi Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts, have also admitted to offering birth control benefits.”

Over half of the states have contraception requirements, and eight of those twenty-eight do not have opt-out clauses for religious institutions. In fact, the Administration’s new rules will expand conscience protections in those states.

Related articles

• Many Catholic Universities, Hospitals Already Cover Contraception In Their Health Insurance Plans (thinkprogress.org)

The President's signature on the Affordable Care Act

This is turning into one of those days when I just want to scream at the talkers on television who are so absolutely sure they know what everyone thinks if they belong to the same faith or they know how people will vote or they know anything. The issue is a Health and Human Services requirement as part of the Affordable Care Act that even church owned businesses such as hospitals, schools, or relief agencies must provide insurance coverage for birth control. The Catholic Church says this is a violation of their freedom of religion.

All the people who are engaging in these heated, passionate arguments about this issue are screaming about the apples and ignoring the oranges. This isn’t about religion. It’s about affordable health insurance and affordable health care.

Way back in the dark ages of my childhood, Chinese restaurants had “family meals.” The menu had three columns of choices, appetizers and entrées. A certain number of people got to choose a certain number of items from column A, column B and column C, and paid a single price for the whole family-style meal which was delivered on serving dishes and passed around, just like at home. That’s what health insurance is like in America. A company or person can buy health insurance with options from column A, column B and column C. It is a stupid, cost-increasing way to buy health insurance.

The fewer people are in an insurance pool, the higher the premium cost. The mix-and-match-option method of buying health insurance guarantees smaller pools. They claim that no one should pay for things they wouldn’t use, like someone who doesn’t believe in abortions buying a policy that covers them. But that’s salesmanship, not honesty. The big secret the insurance companies will not tell you is that the more people choose optioned health insurance, the more profit they can make. Insurance premiums are dependent upon the odds of someone using the insurance figured against the number of people who have bought that package.

So, someone want to show me where enrollees in the Federal policies with Blue Cross-Blue Shield have their premiums put into a specific account only for those people who have chosen the same option that they have? Are only the premiums for Self-Low-Option in the account with other Self-Low-Option members? Or are all the premiums paid under all four federal option packages put in a single account which Blue Cross then uses to “invest” in the stock market to create additional income? Please, show me the proof that my Self-and-Family-High-Option premiums are only keeping company with like minded persons’ money.

The fewer the options and the higher the co-pays and deductibles, the lower the premiums. This option is the one most guaranteed to drive people into bankruptcy because of unpredictable occurrences.

The Catholic Church is being complicit with the insurance companies whose only concern is their profit margin and with the right wing which wants complete relief from regulation for those insurance companies so they can go back to denying health insurance for pre-existing conditions or cut off coverage when someone contracts an expensive disease.

One of the reasons every other country in the world gets health care at half or less of what it costs us is the insurance companies’ profit margins. With nationalized health, there are no options for coverage. Everything that the legislature and a nation’s health agencies decide upon is covered. We are stuck with private health insurance and these mix-and-match policies is because the insurance companies put out massive amounts of money to buy Republican votes to preserve their abuse of our health.

The Catholic Church does not want this battle. Seriously, the church’s leaders don’t understand how far out on a limb they have just put themselves. They should have started the debate over the additional cost of health insurance premiums when just one drug or one medical appliance is added to the policy. Instead, they are beating their breasts about religious discrimination and freedom of religion and that is taking the debate away from the ridiculous way health insurance premiums are priced to a face-down with the 98% of American Catholics who practice birth control.

Hispanic Republicans who are insisting that Hispanics will vote with their bishops and this policy is a danger to President Obama’s re-election are totally out-of-touch with young Hispanics. The abuelas may be sitting in church every morning in their black widows’ clothes fingering their rosaries, but their granddaughters are out buying the latest album by JLo or checking the magazines for what Sofia Vergara wore last week. Take a look at the evolution of Italian immigrants in America. It’s just three generations from those little old ladies with their black dresses and sensible shoes and lace doilies on their heads to Snookie. That’s the secret of America – the seductive power of personal freedom.

The White House and the Democrats need to turn the focus of this battle to the right issue – the high cost of health insurance with options. It is way past time they properly explained this to voters.

Related articles

• Love hurts: 5 insurance heartaches when good lovin’s gone bad (insurance.com)
• US Catholic Bishops Don’t Know Their Congregants (lezgetreal.com)
• The Church, The State, and Contraception (makeafriar.com)
• How To Find Affordable Health Insurance (answers.com)
• Consumer Reports: Mini-Meds and Other Junk Insurance Plans Still in Business as Consumers Wait for Health Reform to Kick In (yubanet.com)
• Many Catholic Universities, Hospitals Already Cover Contraception In Their Health Insurance Plans (thinkprogress.org)

The visit is campaign related, but details are sketchy right now.

Vermont overwhelmingly voted for Obama in 2008, and will likely vote for him again this year. It would, of course, be nice if President Obama toured more of Vermont than just Burlington given that the state has some major successes as well as some failures. The area around Rutland City, for instance, has lagged behind the rest of the state in terms of job creation, and has seen a spike in drug related crimes of late.

The State of the Union Address, 2012

I’m going to get the sappy part out of the way first. When a President arrives for the State of the Union Address, he shakes hands with everyone who can reach him. When he reaches the front of the chamber, where the extra chairs have been placed to accommodate the Senators, Supreme Court and Cabinet, he can choose to go down the front row shaking more hands. Last night, President Obama shook hands with the members of the Supreme Court and near the end of the front row, reached Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The President didn’t shake her hand. He gathered her up into a huge bear hug and rocked her, nestling her head against his shoulder. It wasn’t the first time they have seen each other this year. Captain Mark Kelley’s retirement ceremony was held in the White House. But this was more than just “I’m so glad to see you.” This was also good-bye because Gabby had already announced her retirement. It was one of the most spontaneous, honest, warm, loving human things I have ever seen a President do with an adult, and I’ve lived through 12 presidents. It was beautiful.

Now, down to the speech……

The pundits were right. The State of the Union Address was the first salvo of the Presidential election, even if the Republicans haven’t figured out who is going to be their nominee. We know who will be the Democratic nominee and he gave his first campaign speech last night.

A State of the Union Address is supposed to be, by Constitutional definition, a report to Congress of the, well, the state of our union. It has evolved into a wish list for Presidents. It is the opportunity for the President to say what he wants out of Congress. President Obama’s first two State of the Union Addresses were sort of like Oliver Twist time – “please, sir, may I have some more?” – with him asking Congress to send him bills that would support his agenda. Didn’t work. Even when the Democratic House in 2009 and 2010 gave him what he wanted, most of it died in the Senate because of the Republican filibuster. He had to give up critical parts of his health care law and financial services reform laws just to get the things passed. This time, there was no asking please.

I like watching the opposition’s reactions. At one point, I was sure I saw steam coming out of Eric Cantor’s ears. I thought as the speech went on he was going to chew up and swallow his lips. There probably isn’t enough Maalox in Washington for the dyspepsia that John Boehner was experiencing. This speech was game, set and match to the President.

Unlike last year, it is not the specifics that matter. What matters is that the President laid out things that would benefit the 99% and not one single thing he asked for will happen. Not one. We will not see a program that allows the Defense Department to purchase green energy instead of fossil fuel based energy. We will not see a Senate rule change that restores the majority rule that our founders believed in. We will not see infrastructure work or the ability of homeowners to refinance at “historically low” interest rates. We will not see laws that do buttkiss about eliminating the unfairness of the tax code or restructures regulations to make them more efficient and less obtuse. We will not see the money to support joint projects between businesses and community colleges to train people for the jobs of this century. We will not see support for college financing or more work-study jobs. It ain’t gonna happen.

The entire Republican election strategy for 2012 consists of making sure that as little as possible gets done in Washington so they can call Obama a failed president. They already call him the worst president in history and get away with it because their base is so grossly undereducated they’ve never heard of any of the presidents between Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Well, they probably have heard of Teddy Roosevelt just because Dubya admired his “big stick” foreign policy without understanding what a progressive he was and how he fought government corruption all his public life. We can expect that the Republicans in Congress will do everything they can to screw this nation so they can blame the President.

It is incomprehensible to everyone how the Republicans cannot understand what it means when a Congress has a 9% approval rate. Sorry, they are up to a whopping 12% this week. These are the lowest approval ratings in the history of approval ratings. No matter how low the President’s rating is, it has never gotten near that.

And the overnight polls are even more bad news for them. They show 91% of Americans approved of what the President proposed last night. Only 9% disapproved.

We are supposedly a nation addicted to instant gratification. The Republicans are playing on that. They are pushing the idea that because the recovery is taking time it isn’t working. They are playing on the “right now” instead of the future. I don’t believe that we are incapable of focusing on the long term.

The President’s speech was not about the “right now” it was about the long term, about moving into the 21^st century, not taking our country back to the 19^th. It is a more focused message than “Yes we can” and “Hope and Change” were. It is a message that says there is a future, but not if we don’t change with the times and adjust our thinking. It shifts the responsibility for creating that change from the government to us in many ways. We must be willing to see past the now to the future.

I am 63 years old. I don’t have a lot of future left to me, but I want to see us firmly in the 21^st century before I go. I want to see stem cells being used to replace damaged and eroded tissue so that people can live without pain or disability. I want to see us playing on a level global marketplace, not scrabbling to the bottom of the barrel. I want to see us finally realize that we have had the ways and means to educate all our children well. I want so much for the future. There is only one way to achieve that.

The Democrats had better have been listening last night and they had better grow cajones and backbones this spring. This must be a party-wide effort. We must regain control, total control, with no wussing out over eliminating the filibuster rule so that we can pass things with a simple majority. We must have a clear, unassailable majority in both the House and the Senate to drag this nation kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. In 2010, the party was a study in cowardice. They didn’t have the guts to listen to us and act accordingly. No, 76% of us did not disapprove of the health care bill. Half of that 76% were pissed off there was no public option. That changes the meaning of the poll, doesn’t it? They were listening to Fox News instead of listening to us.

There is more than enough evidence out there that this is our time – the Occupy movement, the strike-back against the right wing propaganda. We need more. We need the courage to demand that those who have chosen to represent us in court cases over abortion and gay marriage stop farting around and go for the First Amendment jugular. We need every Democrat who steps in front of a mike to be fully prepared for anything that might be thrown at him. We need all of them to get an infusion of Alan Grayson and Anthony Weiner, because at least those two men fought back. They lost, but they fought back. We all need to be United Wisconsin and realize that unions are not the enemy. Unions fought to get us safe working environments and decent pay and end sweatshops and death traps. Unions created our middle class. It is not a question of what is right for America. We all know what is right for America. It is purely and simply a question of us having the courage to fight for what we need.

President Barack Obama

The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has spent the time and effort to go through White House internal memos to gain insights into the legislative losses of the Obama administration.

Progessives complain that the President hasn’t done enough. The right complains he has bypassed the Constitution and done too much. Both claims are wrong. Until recently, President Obama has avoided doing the Bush thing – using executive orders to bypass Congress and signing statements to void laws. If he had done so, the Progressives would have nothing to complain about. Bush earned himself the professional political scientist s’designation as our third “constitutional dictator” after Lincoln and FDR, without the excuse of a Civil War and a Great Depression.

President Obama was elected on a list of promises, just as every president is. Bill Clinton was a rarity. With the support of a Democratic House and Senate, he fulfilled 73% of his campaign promises. The percentage of fulfilled promises was figured by the very conservative Florida Times Union before the 1996 election with a complete list of Clinton’s campaign promises and what legislative action had resulted. The list included the reform of the welfare system that Newt Gingrich is taking claim for. Sorry, Newt. If Clinton had gotten Hillary’s act together and put the health care reform package on the table in mid-1996, we would have had no need for Obamacare. It was the legislative action needed for the missing 27% of campaign promises. Most presidents don’t come close to a 73% fulfillment record. They learn very quickly that they have virtually no power. They can recommend, request and lobby, but they cannot write or pass laws. That’s the way the Constitution was written – the legislative branch writes the law, the executive branch implements and enforces the law, the judiciary branch interprets and rules on the law.

The right wing also claims that the President had a majority in both the House and Senate in the first two years of his term, and he forced legislation down our reluctant throats. Also wrong.

Almost 300 laws and appointments were stopped dead by the minority of the Senate through the filibuster. All any senator has to do is say “I object” and a bill is not debated or voted upon until 60 senators agree to release it from the penalty box. Through the filibuster, the Republican Party thwarted not just the will of the President, but the will of the people who elected him.

So, what were the President’s big losses? Lizza listed them, along with the reasons they were abandoned.

In 2008, Obama promised a “bold space program.” The hysteria over the deficit stopped those plans. A memo from the West Wing explained, “Especially in light of our new fiscal context, it is not possible to achieve the inspiring space program goals discussed during the campaign.”

Obama proposed a smart energy grid, something this nation desperately needs. Just ask the millions who end up with rolling brown outs in the summer or black-outs after storms. The full 21^st century visionary power grid involves solar farms in the deserts of the southwest, wind turbines in wheat fields of the midwest and a grid that controls and directs power efficiently and effectively, and preferably most of it buried underground. His advisers told him it would cost too much not provide enough short-term stimulus. They key words are “short term.” We are a nation addicted to instant gratification. We can no longer see the long-term benefits of anything.

The White House budget called for decreasing defense spending to preserve domestic programs. There was no way to get that past the Republicans. It is vital to the survival of any fascist regime that there be a powerful and eminent threat to our security. That requires a strong defense. The fact is that the military-industrial complex is alive and well and the Republicans will do anything to defend the incomes of defense contractors. The rest of us can starve to death in the cold dark.

Obama wanted a 5% increase on income taxes for those making a quarter of a million dollars a year, while retaining the Bush tax cuts on the lower income brackets. That would have brought in an additional $11 billion in revenue by 2015. There were higher taxes during the Vietnam War to pay for the war, instead of the tax cuts that Bush pushed through. The top tax rate was 90% during the Eisenhower administration to pay down a national debt equal to 125% of our GDP, much worse than our current national debt. The Bush tax cuts had not produced jobs or increased investments in America, just greater wealth for the already wealthy. The idea had to be sacrificed for unemployment benefits to sustain those who lost their jobs of Bush-onomics.

The White House wanted to scale back the budget for the State Department in its first budget. Secretary Clinton opposed any cuts. The dispute was seen as a weapon that the right wing could use, so the President lobbied for a bigger State Department budget. It turned out to be very necessary as the Middle East went wonkos.

There were aspects of both the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank that were stopped by the Republicans, thereby setting them up to fail. In the ACA, there was supposed to be a pilot program that would help determine the most effective treatments for patients. It was killed. In Dodd-Frank, there have been filibusters to prevent implementing portions of the bill, including the appointments necessary to get the required agencies up and running. It was determined in the White House that fighting for some of these things was pointless.

Early on, the President was forced to abandon his plans to get major stimulus spending and use Keynesian economics principles to help the economy recover. He was up against a chorus of right wingers screaming about over-spending, deficits, the national debt and socialism. The over-spending, the deficits and the national debt were never their concern during the Iraq and Afghan wars that cost nearly one trillion unfunded dollars or an unfunded Medicare drug program that included no provisions for bargaining for drug prices.

It’s a litany not of broken promises as the Republicans claim, but of dreams dashed on the rocks of partisanship. We elected the dream, the audacity of hope and promise of change. We ran headlong into an entrenched oligarchy with enough money and enough media control to persuade too many of our fellow citizens that the sky is purple and they have to reclaim this nation from some nebulous nefarious force, using code words for taking it back from minorities, immigrants, non-fundamentalists, gays, welfare queens and entitlement recipients, even when they themselves were recipients of those “entitlements.” We are losing our country to those who wish to take it back to the late 19^th century instead of forward into the 21^st. We can fight them for our future or let them drag us back into the past. It is time to take back our country.

Related articles

• The Broken Dreams of Obama’s First Term (maboulette.wordpress.com)
• Progressives Could “Tea Party” The Democrats (lezgetreal.com)
• The Obama Memos (arunwithaview.wordpress.com)
• Obama will challenge Congress in ambitious State of the Union (whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com)

Aubrey Sarvis, the outgoing Executive Director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, stated:

“This is a clear victory in the fight to achieve full equality for service members. In his 2010 State of the Union, President Obama committed to repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and indeed, it would not have been possible without his determination to do so. Even as we celebrate this milestone tonight, let us not forget that our work is far from done. While gay and lesbian service members may now serve openly if they choose, they are still not serving equally. They are without the same protections from harassment and discrimination that are afforded others, and legally married gay and lesbian service members do not receive the same recognition, support, and benefits for their families as their straight married counterparts. We must keep fighting until the mission is complete.”

Every President since Jimmy Carter has promised to “streamline” the bureaucracy, cut the paperwork and red tape, make the government more responsive more quickly. Each and every one of them – Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush have made that promise. So far, the closest we have come is a paper reduction program overseen by Vice-President Al Gore, which was actually pretty easy to accomplish as the government moved into the computer age. The computers became a whole other issue.

So, now President Obama wants to eliminate the overlap in departments that deal with small businesses. Great idea. It goes along with his request of all departments to examine regulations and eliminate overlaps and outdated, useless ones. It is claimed that the consolidation with eliminate 1,000 Federal jobs and save $3 billion over ten years. Not bad, since the Republicans want to cut around $4 billion from the budget over the next ten years. It all sounds like a win-win for everyone, as long as those thousand jobs are eliminated by attrition, as people retire, and not by laying them all off.

So, what could possibly go wrong? Everything, starting with the fact that the right wing has gone around the bend over the idea. If this idea had come out of a Republican, as it did three times in the past 30 years, they would be cheering in the streets. But it has come out of the President-from-Hell, the man they have smeared, slandered, libeled, defamed, lied about, and blocked at every turn. And the President needs Congressional approval to restructure departments that were established by Congress and whose jobs were defined by Congress with laws. The last thing the Republicans want is to give President Obama something positive to point at during the next ten months. Some have even claimed that this proposal is part of Obama’s plan to grab unlimited power so that he can create a communist dictatorship. I’m not kidding. These are the same people who say that Obama has “overseen the greatest expansion of government in our history.” They don’t have a single thing to support that idea, but that’s what they believe.

IF the President managed to get approval for this, the next hurdle is getting it done. Federal agencies, hell, any agency, is extremely jealous of their territory. All those jokes and plot lines on TV cop shows about pissing contests over law enforcement jurisdiction are not jokes. They reflect the truth. The people who are working in the departments and portions of departments that would be effected are going to make this a very hard process. They will insist “you can’t do that” and “that won’t work” until the people trying to do this will back down and give in.

Then there is the matter of who designs this new super-agency. The folks who did Homeland Security were the kind of corporate minds that write flow charts, the kind who either never worked the line or have forgotten how to do the nuts and bolts of what is done on the line. Flow charts are very pretty graphics that show nothing important. The restructuring needs to be done by the people who actually do the work. Almost all of us have worked for some boss who made things more complicated, or with equipment that some genius designed that made our work harder, or in a building that was designed so badly it made work instead of improving it.

Once upon almost 40 years ago, there was a school system in upstate New York that let the teachers work out the best way to do their jobs. The teachers in each grade got together one week before school started and created a master lesson plan that was based on the reading textbooks. They matched the material in the reading lesson with the best lesson in the spelling book and the best one in the grammar book, so the three reinforced each other. It meant jumping from chapter 5 in reading to chapter 12 in spelling to chapter 2 in grammar, but the three worked together instead of splitting up things like adverb usage. Giving the teachers the power to create the best way to teach the material had very positive results in the school’s grades, and that was what mattered. That kind of involvement of the people who actually do the work is far better than having those decisions made by someone on the outside who doesn’t understand what would work best.

If President Obama can approach this re-organization from a bottom-up perspective instead of bringing in some “expert” to do it, this is truly a great idea. If he brings in an outsider, it will be no better than the creation of Homeland Security…a giant bureaucratic mess that costs more than what the splintered agencies cost us now.

Related articles

• GOP Warms To Obama’s Plan To Trim And Merge (huffingtonpost.com)
• Obama Seeks Greater Power To Shrink The Federal Government (huffingtonpost.com)
• Obama seeks power to merge government agencies (mercurynews.com)
• Department Consolidation: Obama’s Latest Hopeless Good Government Project (swampland.time.com)
• Obama to Merge 6 Government Agencies, Cut 2,000 Employees (usnews.com)
• The President’s Agency Consolidation Proposal (volokh.com)
• Obama seeks power to shrink government (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Sasha, Michelle, President Barack and Malia Obama, Dec. 2011

Did you know that the First Family have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money on extravagant vacations and Hollywood A-list parties? No? Well, maybe that’s because they haven’t. Just don’t try to tell that to any faithful viewer of Fox News or listener to right wing talk radio. Facts are never allowed to prevent them riling up a healthy level of conservative outrage.

Here’s the short facts – the President is paid $400,000 a year. It used to be $200,000 until the first year of the Bush administration. The President also has a $50,000 expense account. The government pays for government-related travel, even if it is done by the First Lady. The government pays for government-related parties in the White House. It does not pay for vacations or private parties. It does not pay for trips that are undertaken on behalf of the President’s political party.

According to the outrage-stirrers, the Obamas take constant vacations. The ignored facts? In the first 31 months of his administration, the President took 61 days of vacation, Dubya took 180 and Reagan took 112. They criticized the First Lady for taking her daughters to Africa at the taxpayers’ expense, even though the First Lady made several official visits. Not a single objection was raised to the Bush women doing the same thing, without the official visits, just a couple of photo ops. No one has actually kept track of presidential golf games, though I would bet Eisenhower holds the record for that, but at least President Obama doesn’t tell people to “watch this drive” after making statements to the press about our war efforts.

The newest outrage on the right is over a 2009 Halloween party. Only took them two years to get worked up over it.

For Halloween, Easter and the 4^th of July, the Obamas host parties for military families. After the first 4^th, the press didn’t make much fuss over them. There are apparently, rules concerning the press presence at these parties. They are requested not to photograph any of the military children so that they can be identified. This is done for their protection and privacy. For this particular party, director Tim Burton brought a few friends – Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska from the unreleased Alice in Wonderland, and Deep Roy from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He also helped with the decorations, all of them taken from Burton’s movies. Now, that “unreleased” part is important to remember here. There were 2,000 members of military families at the lawn party. They were getting up close and personal with the casts of Alice in Wonderland, and would be going back to their homes, their schools and their friends talking about the costumes and the experience. It was a brilliant piece of publicity.

The press were informed of the party and invited to attend. There was nothing secret about this party.

After the military families’ party, there was a private party in the White House, for friends and staff members. The Burton group attended that as well. Mrs. Obama was wearing a leopard costume. Malia, who was 11 at the time, was dressed as the Morton Salt girl and carried a large container of salt all night. Nice sense of humor the girl’s got, making fun of her mother’s healthy eating initiative. Sasha, 9 then, was outfitted as the Queen of Hearts, in a costume based on the one worn by Helena Bonham Carter in the movie. Odds are, Burton arranged for the costume, since the movie had not been released and the costumes were not yet available commercially. Burton, Depp, Roy and Wasikowska were guests, along with about a dozen others Burton brought with him.

While the military family party would be covered under the White House’s entertaining budget, the private party was not. It was paid for entirely by the Obamas. And the press did know about the private party. Photos from it have been available for two years now.

The right wing is saying that the Obamas kept the party secret because it would be too embarrassing to be seen throwing an “extravagant Hollywood party” while the rest of the country is in deep financial doo-doo. That’s a load of candy corn. The party was not a secret, and no one is expecting the President to live like a welfare recipient.

There are very solid lines between what the taxpayer pays for with regards to the Presidency and what the President and his family pay for. The job comes with a $400,000 salary plus room and board. The “room” part means they do not have the single largest expense the rest of us have. They also don’t have car payments.

The taxpayer does not pay for the girls’ private school. That is a private expense, though it is one that the Secret Service prefers. Amy Carter attended public school and it was a nightmare for the Secret Service. The Bush twins, at college in Texas, were an even bigger headache. Chelsea Clinton attended Sidwell Friends. The school is accustomed to handling the security needs of high-profile families, in addition to being an exceptional academic facility.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s our President or the British royal family…the public never seems willing to find out the specifics of expenses and the divisions of private and public costs. Out of the mouths of those who wish to hurt come the big and little lies about those expenses. Prince Charles doesn’t receive a public salary and Michelle Obama does not have 100 people on her private staff. The jerks who put that one together included all the civil servants who are in the employ of the White House – the building itself, not the family who occupies it.

Getting bent out about the 2009 Halloween party is difficult territory for the right wing. To condemn the President, they must condemn a glittering, star-studded, once-in-a-lifetime party for the children of our military personnel, one of nine such parties in the past three years, parties held with a minimum of press hoopla and a maximum of attention to the pleasure derived by the military families who attend. And the conservatives are so programmed to hate everything this First Family does they can’t appreciate what these parties mean to the families of our men and women in uniform. Haven’t met one yet who could spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E.

The wild Hollywood Halloween party crew: Johnny, MIchelle, Malia, Barack, Sasha, Tim and Mia

Have fun perusing the extreme reactions to this party…..

Related articles

• Johnny Depp & Barack Obama: The Alice In Wonderland-Inspired Meeting We Never Knew About! (eonline.com)
• Inside Obamas’ secret Alice In Wonderland-themed Halloween party at White House (dailymail.co.uk)
• The Different Branches of Wingnuttia – Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision (tbogg.firedoglake.com)
• President Obama Hosted Alice In Wonderland Party With Johnny Depp At White House: Report (huffingtonpost.com)
• Pamela Geller, WND Column: Obama in Wonderland (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
• Kept that under their hats (theage.com.au)
• White House Alice in Wonderland party under fire (tarpon.wordpress.com)
• Obama in Wonderland: White House threw secret #’Alice in Wonderland’ bash during recession, Michelle’s Million Dollar Rags (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
• White House film party under fire (bbc.co.uk)
• White House Alice in Wonderland party under fire (nation.com.pk)

Jacob "Jack" Lew

The White House is set to announce that William Daley, son of one Chicago mayor and brother of another, will be resigning as the White House Chief of Staff effective January 31. He will be replaced by budget chief Jack Lew.

Daley’s appointment raised a lot of controversy when he replaced Rahm Emanuel last year. Emanuel left to run for mayor of Chicago, to replace the retiring Richard Daley. Bill Daley’s close ties to Wall Street were seen as a negative for the Obama administration among progressives who want heads to roll for the economic meltdown caused by Wall Street financial games.

The White House Chief of Staff is the President’s most senior advisor. He hires and supervises key White House staff, controls the WH staff system, manages access to the Oval Office and the information coming out of it, protects the President’s interests and negotiates with Congress and others. A disengaged President, like Ronald Reagan in his second term, can make the Chief of Staff a de facto shadow president.

Jacob “Jack” Lew was President Clinton’s budget director from May, 1998, to the end of the administration. He returned to Washington following the inauguration of President Obama to work as the 1^st Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, moving to the White House on November 10, 2010. The 56-year old is a native New Yorker and graduate of Harvard and Georgetown Universities. Though Lew’s career has been almost entirely in law, politics and academia, he does have one thing on his resume that will probably give the progressives the vapors. In June, 2006, Lew was named the chief operating officer of Citigroup’s Alternative Investments unit, that portion of Citigroup that deals in private equity funds, hedge funds, structured products, managed futures and real estate – in other words all the really rotten stuff at the heart of the economic collapse.

Lew is also prominent on the anti-Semetic right wing “Jews in Obama’s Inner Circle” list. Makes no sense whatsoever. The right wing extremists aver that President Obama is a secret Muslim out of one side of their mouths while condemning him for his Jewish staff members. It is one of those things that makes liberals want to hold up a mirror to the right wing and ask “Does this even make sense to YOU?”

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Additionally, the dollar rose to a near 16-month high against the euro, a very good indicator of our economy’s strength in the global picture. Though the stock market is relatively stagnant, the price of our Treasury bonds is high, because the United States bonds are considered a very, very good investment worldwide.

Employment remains 6.1 million below the start of the recession. There are 4.3 people for every job opening. We still have 23.7 million either unemployed or underemployed in this country.

The job gains are good news for President Obama and the Democrats, though, to hear the Republican candidates, the drop in the unemployment numbers didn’t happen. They will continue to insist that the President’s policies kill jobs.

Now, it is up to the Democrats to show that, if it hadn’t been for the Republicans obstructionism, we could have created even more jobs than we have been able to.

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Jan. 20, 2009, the last good day of the Obama administration

Still obsessing over the NDAA? Have you started blaming President Obama for the bank bailouts that Bush passed? Are you calling him a failure because Gitmo is still open and we still have troops in Afghanistan? Do you think he doesn’t respect the Constitution? Congratulations. You have morphed from a liberal to a Limbaugh ditto-head. Just a little further down the road and you will be accusing him of getting illegal immigrants to vote, of using the New Black Panthers to intimidate voters in Philadelphia, skimming millions out of the Treasury, and orchestrating an elaborate fraud over his birthplace from inside his mother’s womb.

The indefinite detention provisions were inserted into the National Defense Authorization Act for one reason, and it had nothing to do with national security. If the President vetoed the bill, he could be accused of undermining our military (or hating the military, as some rightwingnuts would put it). If he signed it, the liberals and progressives would go nuts over the denial of Constitutional rights. It was pure Karl Rove – provide the rope, eliminate all avenues of escape, and watch the liberals hang themselves.

And you did. Instead of seeing this for what it was – a political campaign attack – you went ballistic over infringement of rights.

This isn’t the first one. Ever since Barack Obama was inaugurated, the Republicans have created box canyons for him. If he compromises to get part of his agenda passed, the liberals attack him for not getting all of it. If he refuses to compromise, the Republicans can accuse him of hurting Americans. And the whole left side of this country has decided to get terminally stupid and play stooge to the Republican plan for one-party rule. You are not listening to the how of how things are being done, only the results. You have become as deaf to the word “filibuster” and as ignorant of its power as the Republicans who view it as their savior from creeping socialism. The late Michael Crighton once observed that the Japanese fix the problem, the Americans fix the blame. You want to blame someone for the past three years? Blame Harry Reid. Twice, he had the power to end the filibuster rule and restore the Constitutional powers of the Senate majority. Twice, he wussed out – holding on to that power in the event the Democrats would ever be the minority again.

This is how elected dictatorships happen — with the full, blind co-operation of the opposition. This is how opposition parties are de-clawed and castrated – with their own knives. This is how, when the corrupt gain complete control of a government, they outlaw opposition parties.

The NDAA debate has been going on for weeks. The President signed the bill into law just three days ago, with a four page signing statement. So far, Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic and CBS News is the only analyst out there who sees this for what it is. So far, Cohen is the only one saying “this is what the President wrote, this is what it means and this is what it undercut.” In his view, this is a battle over the limits and extents of legislative and executive powers. In my view, it’s a campaign maneuver to undercut the President’s support in the next election.

When I and my children were in school, somewhere during the junior high/middle school years, we took a semester of world geography and a semester of civics. I don’t know when that stopped being taught, but the number of people in this country who are clueless about what is and isn’t in the Constitution is frightening. The Constitution laid it out fairly clearly – the legislative branch writes the laws, the executive branch enforces and implements them, the judicial branch interprets them and determines the guilt of those who break them. Three branches, three areas of authority and responsibility. The President cannot write laws or terminate them. Only Congress can legally do that.

The Constitution says nothing about signing statements that void rightfully passed laws, or about executive orders to bypass Congress, or about filibusters blocking debate and votes. All these things have been created in the last 222 years to bypass the provisions of the Constitution.

You have been so blinded by the propaganda that you could not step back, take a deep breath and believe that a Constitutional Law professor would not agree to gut the Constitution for any reason. You have become so accustomed to the idea of a President who flaunts the law, issues executive orders to bypass the Constitution and signing statements to void laws that you could not believe a President would do the right and proper thing within the limits of our Constitution.

President Obama finally decided to use the power of the signing statement, a power he is not granted by the Constitution, to delay the implementation of an un-Constitutional provision in a law. He broke a promise to us in order to do that. He promised not to be the next Constitutional dictator, an extension of the Bush-Cheney administration, in the only area that he could fulfill that promise.

So, the Republicans are calling this one a win. They forced the President to break a campaign promise and they got all of you to turn against him. Congratulations. You are now Limbaugh ditto-heads.

If you really want to blame President Obama for something, he has made one enormous mistake that he should be called out on. He refused to prosecute the members of the Bush-Cheney administration for their illegal and unconstitutional abuses of power. Barack Obama chose not to put this nation through that trauma. Bad choice. For the preservation of our Constitution and the soul of our nation, he should have.

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Tim Carpenter, Progressive Democrats of America

President William Jefferson Clinton fulfilled 73% of his campaign promises in the first two years of his eight-year term. He had a Democratic Congress and Senate. Then, Newt Gingrich and his “Contract On America” won the House. It was downhill all the way for Clinton after that. (Just for the record, not one of the things in the “Contract On America” ever made it into law.)

The last president we had before Clinton who got that much out of Congress was Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson had been in the House for so long and knew so many secrets about members and others (including J. Edgar’s secret wardrobe) that he could literally blackmail his way into the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and every other great achievement of his term. He also shamelessly took advantage of our national trauma in the first months after the Kennedy assassination to get a lot of stuff done.

When Barack Obama took office he had a Democratic majority in the House. But in the Senate, there were not enough Democrats to end a filibuster and during the last year of the Bush administration, when the Democrats had the majority in the House, the Republicans in the Senate had discovered the power of the filibuster.  All any of them had to say was “I object” and a bill was sent to legislative limbo, never to be seen again. 

During his campaign, Obama made a lot of promises. He promised to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He promised to close Gitmo. He promised real health care reform and a single-payer plan. He promised new regulations for the financial industry. He promised jobs and economic growth. He promised help for those facing foreclosure. He promised us almost every progressive wet dream we have ever had. And he delivered none of them.

Now, progressives are threatening to punish him for his failures. In Iowa, the group Progressive Democrats of America is organizing people to vote “uncommitted” in the Iowa Democratic caucuses. Tim Carpenter, founder of the group, said “I believe we need an inside outside strategy. We’re not asking everybody in this room to vote for Barack Obama. We’re not voting for Barack Obama. We’re organizing uncommitted slates to go the caucuses on Tuesday to challenge Barack Obama because he gave up on his promise to single payer. He took too long to get troops out of Iraq. There’s still troops in Afghanistan. And we need a financial transaction tax.”

There are days when I really despair of ever finding an educated voter in this nation. This is one of them.

There is no single payer plan or public option because if the Democrats had not given that one up there would be no health care law at all. There are no new regulations on the financial industry because if the Democrats hadn’t given up some provisions there would be no law at all and the Republicans are refusing to finance what was passed. What will it take to get it through progressives’ heads that this is not a dictatorship? The President should not enact laws without Congress. This President is not George W. Bush. He will not, absolutely will not, issue executive orders that violate the division of authority in our Constitution. He absolutely will not exceed his Constitutional powers. That’s one of the reasons we elected him in the first place. To put an end to the de facto dictatorship of the Republican party.

The Progressives can get all stupid and pull a Tea Party revolt on the President or they can learn the meaning of the word FILIBUSTER. It means that the Republicans in the Senate killed almost 300 bills and appointments. We have half a dozen unfilled ambassadorships, a crisis in the Federal judiciary because of unfilled judgeships, openings in the middle management of almost every cabinet department because they will not allow hearings for the approval of appointments. The Republicans blocked important bills and dumb little “pickle week” bills. The Republican filibuster is singularly responsible for the past three years producing the least amount of legislation in our nation’s history.

This is not Obama’s fault. And if the Progressives really want to get all the things that Candidate Obama promised us four years ago, they will do the things that will get results, not screw up the process by dividing the vote.

We need to regain the majority in the House. That means keeping every Democratic seat and taking an additional 25. Thirty would be better. Fifty to sixty would be ideal. We need a strong majority in the House. There are currently 193 Democrats, and 218 is the majority threshold. The Republicans have 242. We would be best served with 250.

We need to control the Senate. No more Conservative Democrats fouling up the works by voting with the Republicans. We technically have 51 Democrats, 2 Independents and 47 Republicans in the Senate. The Democrats can count on one Independent (hell would go sub-zero before Bernie Sanders voted with the Reps.) We need 60 strong Democrats in the Senate to end the tyranny of the filibuster. Ben Nelson is already leaving, so there’s one DINO out the door. If we can’t get rid of the rest of them, we have to compensate. There are only 33 Senate seats up for election next year. We need to take as many as possible.

We need strong candidates for the House and Senate and we need a unified Democratic Party prepared to get down and dirty in this campaign. We need to shout the facts from the rooftops and put down the lies whenever they occur. We have the momentum of the Occupy movement and the frustrations of the 99% if we just tap into it instead of getting divided over something that the President had no control over.

Remember how Kennedy told us to “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”? Well, this is that moment…that time when you really can do something for your country, yourselves, your children and grandchildren. You can come together as a force for change, for the change we hoped for four years ago. You can fight for the power to put this country on the right path to recovery and growth. It will not happen if the Progressive wing of the Democrats divide the base and pull votes away from the candidate we need.

The Progressives need to get over themselves, stop pouting in a corner over what could not be done in the first four years and give the Democrats the power to save our country.

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Rep. Ron Paul

Now, imagine if the fear mongering went away? This two and a half minute commercial by Representative Ron Paul is something of a problem since, well, President Barack Obama has already pulled the troops out of Iraq. What Paul is trying to do here is make it sound as if Obama agreed to pull all troops out of everywhere and not just out of Iraq. He fails to note that the last troops pulled out of Iraq last month, in fact.

It is also problematic that Rep Paul seems to think that the American presence in bases across the world are opposed by all local residents. There has been stiff opposition to the closure of many bases due to the economic damage that would ensue.

About the only thing that this ad gets right is the fact that closing many of these bases would certainly help the budget, but then, so would not buying badly designed equipment.

So, here is the President’s signing statement. As should be expected out of a lawyer, it is very long and verbose. What matters is that it denounces the very provisions that everyone is going ape-shit about.

“Today I have signed into law H.R. 1540, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.” I have signed the Act chiefly because it authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, crucial services for service members and their families, and vital national security programs that must be renewed. In hundreds of separate sections totaling over 500 pages, the Act also contains critical Administration initiatives to control the spiraling health care costs of the Department of Defense (DoD), to develop counterterrorism initiatives abroad, to build the security capacity of key partners, to modernize the force, and to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of military operations worldwide.

The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it. In particular, I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists. Over the last several years, my Administration has developed an effective, sustainable framework for the detention, interrogation and trial of suspected terrorists that allows us to maximize both our ability to collect intelligence and to incapacitate dangerous individuals in rapidly developing situations, and the results we have achieved are undeniable. Our success against al-Qa’ida and its affiliates and adherents has derived in significant measure from providing our counterterrorism professionals with the clarity and flexibility they need to adapt to changing circumstances and to utilize whichever authorities best protect the American people, and our accomplishments have respected the values that make our country an example for the world.

Against that record of success, some in Congress continue to insist upon restricting the options available to our counterterrorism professionals and interfering with the very operations that have kept us safe. My Administration has consistently opposed such measures. Ultimately, I decided to sign this bill not only because of the critically important services it provides for our forces and their families and the national security programs it authorizes, but also because the Congress revised provisions that otherwise would have jeopardized the safety, security, and liberty of the American people. Moving forward, my Administration will interpret and implement the provisions described below in a manner that best preserves the flexibility on which our safety depends and upholds the values on which this country was founded.

Section 1021 affirms the executive branch’s authority to detain persons covered by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) (Public Law 107-40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note). This section breaks no new ground and is unnecessary. The authority it describes was included in the 2001 AUMF, as recognized by the Supreme Court and confirmed through lower court decisions since then. Two critical limitations in section 1021 confirm that it solely codifies established authorities. First, under section 1021(d), the bill does not “limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.” Second, under section 1021(e), the bill may not be construed to affect any “existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States, or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.” My Administration strongly supported the inclusion of these limitations in order to make clear beyond doubt that the legislation does nothing more than confirm authorities that the Federal courts have recognized as lawful under the 2001 AUMF. Moreover, I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a Nation. My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law.

Section 1022 seeks to require military custody for a narrow category of non-citizen detainees who are “captured in the course of hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.” This section is ill-conceived and will do nothing to improve the security of the United States. The executive branch already has the authority to detain in military custody those members of al-Qa’ida who are captured in the course of hostilities authorized by the AUMF, and as Commander in Chief I have directed the military to do so where appropriate. I reject any approach that would mandate military custody where law enforcement provides the best method of incapacitating a terrorist threat. While section 1022 is unnecessary and has the potential to create uncertainty, I have signed the bill because I believe that this section can be interpreted and applied in a manner that avoids undue harm to our current operations.

I have concluded that section 1022 provides the minimally acceptable amount of flexibility to protect national security. Specifically, I have signed this bill on the understanding that section 1022 provides the executive branch with broad authority to determine how best to implement it, and with the full and unencumbered ability to waive any military custody requirement, including the option of waiving appropriate categories of cases when doing so is in the national security interests of the United States. As my Administration has made clear, the only responsible way to combat the threat al-Qa’ida poses is to remain relentlessly practical, guided by the factual and legal complexities of each case and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each system. Otherwise, investigations could be compromised, our authorities to hold dangerous individuals could be jeopardized, and intelligence could be lost. I will not tolerate that result, and under no circumstances will my Administration accept or adhere to a rigid across-the-board requirement for military detention. I will therefore interpret and implement section 1022 in the manner that best preserves the same flexible approach that has served us so well for the past 3 years and that protects the ability of law enforcement professionals to obtain the evidence and cooperation they need to protect the Nation.

My Administration will design the implementation procedures authorized by section 1022(c) to provide the maximum measure of flexibility and clarity to our counterterrorism professionals permissible under law. And I will exercise all of my constitutional authorities as Chief Executive and Commander in Chief if those procedures fall short, including but not limited to seeking the revision or repeal of provisions should they prove to be unworkable.

Sections 1023-1025 needlessly interfere with the executive branch’s processes for reviewing the status of detainees. Going forward, consistent with congressional intent as detailed in the Conference Report, my Administration will interpret section 1024 as granting the Secretary of Defense broad discretion to determine what detainee status determinations in Afghanistan are subject to the requirements of this section.

Sections 1026-1028 continue unwise funding restrictions that curtail options available to the executive branch. Section 1027 renews the bar against using appropriated funds for fiscal year 2012 to transfer Guantanamo detainees into the United States for any purpose. I continue to oppose this provision, which intrudes upon critical executive branch authority to determine when and where to prosecute Guantanamo detainees, based on the facts and the circumstances of each case and our national security interests. For decades, Republican and Democratic administrations have successfully prosecuted hundreds of terrorists in Federal court. Those prosecutions are a legitimate, effective, and powerful tool in our efforts to protect the Nation. Removing that tool from the executive branch does not serve our national security. Moreover, this intrusion would, under certain circumstances, violate constitutional separation of powers principles.

Section 1028 modifies but fundamentally maintains unwarranted restrictions on the executive branch’s authority to transfer detainees to a foreign country. This hinders the executive’s ability to carry out its military, national security, and foreign relations activities and like section 1027, would, under certain circumstances, violate constitutional separation of powers principles. The executive branch must have the flexibility to act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers. In the event that the statutory restrictions in sections 1027 and 1028 operate in a manner that violates constitutional separation of powers principles, my Administration will interpret them to avoid the constitutional conflict.

Section 1029 requires that the Attorney General consult with the Director of National Intelligence and Secretary of Defense prior to filing criminal charges against or seeking an indictment of certain individuals. I sign this based on the understanding that apart from detainees held by the military outside of the United States under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, the provision applies only to those individuals who have been determined to be covered persons under section 1022 before the Justice Department files charges or seeks an indictment. Notwithstanding that limitation, this provision represents an intrusion into the functions and prerogatives of the Department of Justice and offends the longstanding legal tradition that decisions regarding criminal prosecutions should be vested with the Attorney General free from outside interference. Moreover, section 1029 could impede flexibility and hinder exigent operational judgments in a manner that damages our security. My Administration will interpret and implement section 1029 in a manner that preserves the operational flexibility of our counterterrorism and law enforcement professionals, limits delays in the investigative process, ensures that critical executive branch functions are not inhibited, and preserves the integrity and independence of the Department of Justice.

Other provisions in this bill above could interfere with my constitutional foreign affairs powers. Section 1244 requires the President to submit a report to the Congress 60 days prior to sharing any U.S. classified ballistic missile defense information with Russia. Section 1244 further specifies that this report include a detailed description of the classified information to be provided. While my Administration intends to keep the Congress fully informed of the status of U.S. efforts to cooperate with the Russian Federation on ballistic missile defense, my Administration will also interpret and implement section 1244 in a manner that does not interfere with the President’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and avoids the undue disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications. Other sections pose similar problems. Sections 1231, 1240, 1241, and 1242 could be read to require the disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications and national security secrets; and sections 1235, 1242, and 1245 would interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with foreign governments. Like section 1244, should any application of these provisions conflict with my constitutional authorities, I will treat the provisions as non-binding.

My Administration has worked tirelessly to reform or remove the provisions described above in order to facilitate the enactment of this vital legislation, but certain provisions remain concerning. My Administration will aggressively seek to mitigate those concerns through the design of implementation procedures and other authorities available to me as Chief Executive and Commander in Chief, will oppose any attempt to extend or expand them in the future, and will seek the repeal of any provisions that undermine the policies and values that have guided my Administration throughout my time in office.

BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE, December 31, 2011.”

Part 1

 

President Obama finally arriving in Hawaii for Christmas

President Obama probably thought he could never sign anything as controversial as the Affordable Care Act. He underestimated the power of the right wing to make mountains out of anthills.

The National Defense Authorization Act is the $662 billion law that authorizes the Treasury Department to fund the Defense Department. It’s the bill that pays our soldiers’ salaries, buys their ammunition and equipment, pays our contractors, the whole nine-yards. It is an absolute, must-have bill. So, naturally, the Republicans added a nasty little provision that made the President quake in his wing-tips.

The bill sort of suspends all Constitutional rights for American citizens if they are declared to be involved in plotting or carrying out terrorist acts. Originally, President Obama threatened to veto the whole bill if that portion wasn’t removed. So, the Republicans made a few minor adjustments. They didn’t make the provisions any less heinous. They did, however, forget one important thing. Our President used to teach Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.  He didn’t veto it.  Instead, the President signed the bill in Hawaii, where he is vacationing for Christmas.

The provisions, if actually put into use, are unconstitutional. Period. They deny basic rights guaranteed under the 4^th, 5^th, 6^th and 8^th Amendments. Even the Roberts Court could not pass on these provisions. The provisions are useless, a political exercise designed to “prove” to the sheep that our President aspires to dictatorship.

If our President is as politically savvy as everyone says he is, he will find some way to challenge these provisions in court and have them removed. That would be the smart way to diffuse this political bomb before it does any real damage.

The bill also removed from the President the decision about sanctions against Iran. It began the process of making foreign financial institutions choose between doing business with America or doing business with Iran’s Central Bank. It gives the administration a waiver that it can use for “national security” if it is determined that the sanctions against Iranian oil would jeopardize world supplies. The administration opposes this abuse of Congressional power because Congress is threatening the choices and decisions of the international coalition that is dealing with Iran. It is another potentially unconstitutional provision. The Constitution does not grant diplomatic authority to Congress.

There are, however, some very good things in the bill, besides making sure our military personnel get their paychecks. It deals with the problem of sexual abuse, rape and sexual harassment of female service members at our military academies and in the services.

Marine Lance Cpl Maria Lauterbach

The impetus behind these changes in military policy is the murder of Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach in 2007. She was eight months pregnant as a consequence of a sexual assault by fellow Marine Cesar Laurean. After filing charges against Laurean, Lauterbach was denied a base transfer. She disappeared on December 14, 2007 and her charred remains were found in a shallow pit in Laurean’s backyard in Jacksonville, North Carolina, on January 11, 2008. Laurean is serving a life sentence for her murder, but has petitioned for a new trial on the grounds that the jury was not given the option of a second-degree murder charge.

The NDAA includes provisions for legal counsel for sexual assault victims and the right to request a base transfer. U. S. Representative Mike Turner (R-Ohio) explained his crusade to get these provisions. “In civilian life, you have complete control of your movements, and if you’re in an unsafe situation, you can remove yourself. In military life, the victim needs permission to take even basic self-preservation actions.” The Defense Department is taking a lot of criticism lately over sexual abuse cases, the failure to investigate and prosecute rape cases, the inability of military personnel to get abortions after rapes, and the every increasing incidents on military bases and in our academies. These provisions in the NDAA are a first step to providing the needed protection and care for our personnel.

Here is Part 2

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Rick Santorum has actually decided to get off his normal campaign run stating how he is against same-sex marriage, and actually decided that he is in favor of bombing Iran, and possibly going to war there. He has accused Obama of turning the United States into a ‘paper tiger’ despite the fact that he has done more to secure the United States and complete wars that the US was already in than his predecessor.

Santorum said that he would send an ultimatum to Iran that they shut down their nuclear sites or allow observers in or face being bombed.

Just what Americans want- another war without end.

H/T Daily Beast

First Lady's rear view

Many years ago, there was a bookmaker and sports commentator named Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder. In January, 1988, he was fired by CBS Sports for making an observation about black athletes’ physical advantages. The remark drew attention to the fact that there is a genetic trait that is visible in some black football players because of the tight uniform. It is a long muscle connection between the back of the thighs and the lower back and provides a certain degree of advantage when running. It’s something you can actually see in some black football players. The remark was deemed racist and Jimmy was fired.

With all due respect, there are genetic traits in all of us that relate to our ancestors – whether it’s the color of our hair or the shape of our bodies. It’s just part of the genetic crap shoot. In all the conversations and debates about the late Karen Carpenter’s anorexia, one factor kept being overlooked. Her genes made her very bottom heavy. It was like she had two bodies spliced together – the top half was a size 1 and the bottom half was a size 16. I have never doubted that trying to cope with that imbalance was responsible in part for her obsession with dieting that morphed into anorexia.

Michelle Obama also inherited a tendency to have a disproportionate body, though more localized than Carpenter’s. She’s got a big ass. Though it’s a genetic tendency that shows up more in black women than white, it’s not exclusive to black women. Jennifer Lopez has the same problem. There are just some women who are condemned to have broad beams. They can starve themselves, and the imbalance will still exist.

But, Michelle Obama is the First Lady, and in the tradition of First Ladies, at least since Jackie Kennedy, Mrs. Obama has chosen a personal campaign. It’s not planting wildflowers on highway medians, it’s the American diet. She wants to see our children eating more healthy foods. It is a campaign that hits at more than just the issue of the fat level at McDonalds, but also at the issues of poverty and culture. Poor people do tend to be fat, not because food stamps buy too much food, but because starches are cheaper than fresh vegetables and processed foods are easier for working poor mothers to throw together.

Rush Limbaugh

Well, Mrs. Obama’s wide load is a target of insults from the right. Rush Limbaugh, who is the last person on earth who should criticize someone else’s size, loves to attack Mrs. Obama’s bottom, calling it a matter of enlightening the public to the absurdity of a woman with a large bottom advocating healthy eating. The right wing still rants about a single incident a couple of years ago when Mrs. Obama ordered ribs in a restaurant, though any diet expert can tell you that an occasional indulgence keeps people on their diets. Limbaugh’s latest was a fake introduction of the First Lady – “here at our microphone” – followed by the playing of a rap song praising black women’s big asses.

That’s Limbaugh, the man who should never, ever bounce up and down in time with his applause. That clip from his appearance at a Republican Party event was the best human representation of a bowl of jell-o in history. We can ignore Limbaugh.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner

But a member of the House of Representatives should have more respect for the First Lady. One of Wisconsin’s finest, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, was overheard in Reagan National Airport telling someone about an incident that took place at an Episcopal church auction three weeks ago. A woman came up to him at the action and was praising Mrs. Obama. He told the woman that Michelle “…lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself.” He was supposedly talking to a staff member about requests for a comment about the incident, but he characterized the criticism as “liberal media bias” and “stands by his remarks.” This is another man who is pulling a “pot calling the kettle black” over body size. The man is a self-confessed Cheetos addict.

Rep. Sensenbrenner has issued an apology, sort of. He doesn’t approve of the First Lady’s healthy food initiative. He probably prefers First Lady’s to stick to wildflower planting and redecorating the White House and telling people to “just say no” to drugs. God forbid a First Lady should take an interest in the welfare of our children in the fattest nation on earth. God forbid that a First Lady should address the explosion in cases of diabetes and other obesity-related diseases, when they have been shown to be precipitated in childhood. Schools all over the country have cut out recess and cut back on phys ed because of budget cuts. Our kids can’t safely play out-of-doors in too many communities. Gone are the days when kids could start a game of stickball in the street and spend an hour running around the “bases.” Mrs. Obama’s initiative includes cheap ways for kids to get up off the couch, put down the game controller and move their bodies.

The First Lady’s initiative is not dissimilar to one started years ago by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s okay for a Republican governor to do this, but not a Democratic First Lady. That’s been the bitch ever since Barack Obama was elected. No matter what he or his family do, it will be wrong in the eyes of Republicans. I’m still waiting for a single one of these bigots to cite just one thing the President has done that is Marxist, socialist, communist or fascist. The last time we had a President who was blindly hated this much, Tim McVeigh blew up the Murrah building. The scary part is, it doesn’t matter how many people die, the right wing will not stop spreading the hate.

Our ugly-butt First Lady, Michelle Obama (Vogue magazine)

Related articles

• UPDATE: Congressman writes note of apology to Michelle over ‘big butt’ quip… (politico.com)
• Rush Limbaugh Calls First Lady ‘Uppity’, Slams Her Security Measures (lezgetreal.com)
• Large Republican Insults Michelle Obama’s Posterior (alan.com)
• Limbaugh: Michelle Obama Guilty Of ‘Uppity-Ism’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• Marshmallow Man Thinks Michelle Obama Is Fat (freethoughtblogs.com)
• Michelle Obama Lead Youth in World Record Number of Jumping Jacks (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Rush Limbaugh: Obama Never Got To Bow To Kim Jong Il (constitutionclub.org)

Speaker John Boehner by Donkey Hotey, Creative Commons

It is not entirely surprising that the Republican-controlled House has rejected the two-months extension of the payroll tax cut that has been passed by the Senate. House Speaker John Boehner has made it clear that he opposes tax cuts for anyone but the wealthiest in the nation. They did pass a measure calling for more negotiations, likely in a ploy to try and keep this going until Christmas so they can force through what they want, including items which are patently unconstitutional like the Keystone Oil Pipeline.

Boehner demanded that President Barack Obama order the Senate back from holiday in order to further negotiate. The Democrats in the Senate and President Obama rejected this move. Obama informed reporters that “The bipartisan compromise that was reached on Saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on January 1. It’s the only one.”

The Senate made the extension for only two months, which sets off another round of negotiations heading into February. The House measure passed without any Democratic support, and supposedly expressed House disagreement with the Senate plan. The measure called for a House-Senate conference committee, which has already been ruled out by Senate leaders.

Boehner and the Republican leadership have signaled that they are so desperate to oppose anything and everything that President Obama supports that they, in fact, will not bring the Senate measure to a vote. It is likely that they do not have enough votes to kill the Senate bill in the House in an outright vote.

The House is demanding a year-long extension of the payroll tax cut, the emergency federal unemployment benefits and a two-year delay of scheduled cuts to payments made to Medicare physicians. All of those are to expire on 31 December. The Senate passed a two-month extension of all three.

Much of this spat is an attempt to deny Obama any political benefits from lowering taxes despite the fact that the House will be seen as the ones who refused to play ball and will, in the end, be blamed for any taxes that get raised. Simply put, this is political theater, and it is the type of political theater that has made the House Republicans so unpopular that they are likely to end up losing the House in November.

Via CNN

The Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters and Agence France Presse are news agencies. It has always been their function to gather factual news, write stories based on those facts, transmit those stories to newspapers or other media and the recipients would edit the stories for content. Editorializing has never been part of the deal. These agencies have always been respected for their lack of bias.

But the headline given for the story about President Obama’s 60 Minutes interview was biased and misleading, and that dishonors the history and reputation of the Associated Press.

What the President actually said was this: “I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president – with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R. and Lincoln – just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history.” You see anything in there that says “I’m the Man! I’m #4!” No. First of all, he was talking about his entire administration, not just himself. And what were those accomplishments? Well, let’s start with the health care law that FDR never got to formally present to Congress and Johnson couldn’t get put together. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a down payment on affordable, accessible health care. Then, there was Dodd-Frank, the financial institutions reform law. It restored the oversight of the financial industry that had been lost in the past three decades. The world’s economy is in crisis because of the manner in which financial institutions here and abroad created a system of trades, debts and transactions that contained more money than actually exists in the world. It, too, was not perfect, but a downpayment on a better way to do business.

As for foreign policy, we have gone from having a president who was ranked in an international poll as the most dangerous leader in the world to having one who is respected almost everywhere. All it takes in this world to be respected is to treat other nations with respect.

President Obama was not saying his administration was the fourth best in history, he was saying he would confidently welcome comparisons with any other administration except those three. He didn’t say he would win in those comparisons, just that he wouldn’t shirk from being compared. Honestly, I think he would lose in a comparison with Clinton. I did the math in 1994, thanks to a long analysis piece in the Florida Times Union. Clinton pushed through the legislation that allowed him to fulfill 73% of his campaign promises. Obama didn’t come close. The Senate Republicans filibustered and blocked hundreds of bills sent by the House, including the budgets. It was in the black hole of the filibuster that we lost the closure of Gitmo and an adequate stimulus package.

I regret that CBS chose to edit out that part of the interview. We should be willing to honestly assess the performance of an administration, not shrink from the offer to be assessed. We should be talking about what the President really said and not how it was reported

Related articles

• 60 Minutes Broadcast Edits Out Laughable Obama Claim as 4th Best President (papundits.wordpress.com)
• 60 Minutes Broadcast Edits Out Laughable Obama Claim as 4th Greatest President (newsbusters.org)

President Obama in campaign mode (Creative Commons)

Want a real laugh? Read or listen to all the conservatives and Republicans who insist that Democrats are scared, terrified, quaking in their boots over Newt or Michele or Rick or anyone on their side of the presidential race. Scared? Of what?

Barack Obama has been an unusual President, particularly when compared to George W. Bush. Bush loved executive orders and signing statements to bypass Congress or void laws he didn’t like, especially the ones that provided oversight of his actions. President Obama has maintained a very strict separation of powers as outlined by the Constitution. It is only recently that he has become so fed up with Congress that he is issuing executive orders that infringe on Congressional jurisdiction. His strict Constitutionalism has caused him to be called ineffective, weak and incompetent. Literally nothing has been done about our greatest problems in the past three years, and the Republicans want to lay the blame directly at the front door of the White House. They believe it doesn’t matter who they put up against the President, they will achieve their goal of making Obama a one-term president, even though on his worst day, the President’s approval rating is three times what Congress’ is.

Those who are convinced that we will have a Republican President in 2013 forget that Barack Obama has a very potent weapon in his arsenal – he’s almost as damned charming as Bill Clinton. Is “charming” a word one would apply to Newt or Mitt?

President Obama understands that it is the dissatisfied 99% who will re-elect him, and he has the ability to connect with them. Newt may have come from a similar background, in terms of income and family structure, but he lost the common touch a long time ago. He doesn’t see how bragging about his $60,000 speaking fees to people trying to survive on unemployment benefits might be a rotten idea. President Obama understands all that, which is why he said HE should be paying more taxes. While Republicans focused on where the President was born and how he lived in Indonesia for a few years, he talked about his grandfather, the World War II veteran, and his single mother making hard choices between her children and her career – choices many women face today.

But he is also capable of wheedling money out of the 1% for his campaign. It’s a neat trick, moving from the kitchen table of a working couple in Scranton, PA to a dinner party on New York’s Upper East Side. It’s also a rare talent. My younger daughter inherited it from my father. A judge once told me she was the scariest teenager he’d ever met because no one intimidated her, no matter how important he thought he was. She treated the judge the same way she treated the 80-year-old black bartender who was serving his drinks in a private club in a Southern city. It skipped a generation, by the way.

One of the most effective things Obama did as a candidate was the little neighborhood gatherings he attended. In those small groups, he listened as much as he talked, and that impressed people. In campaign mode, we can expect to see a lot of that again – listening and hearing. He can go someplace beyond the stock “I feel your pain” line that politicians use during campaigns, which is another weapon in his personal arsenal. Obama admits to not achieving what we wanted when we elected him. Accepting responsibility for failure is a bigger plus for any politician than talking up any successes. It tells people that the man they are voting for is human and fallible, which makes him more like them than like some “savior.”

If you read or listen to the opposition, you will frequently see/hear the President referred to as our “savior” or “messiah.” To the opposition, it is a way to tell us that we screwed up and Obama has not “saved” us. Thing is, we never use those words to describe him, never have. Yes, we are disappointed in what has not been done and most of the fervor and passion is gone. But, are we really so dumb as to be comparing him to some ideal of a President? Did we really think that he could pull legislation out of his butt and get it passed? Didn’t we express disgust with the way Bush ran the government? We elected Barack Obama in part because he promised to stop the practice of abusing presidential power. He kept that promise. The opposition calls them “lies” – those campaign promises that have not been fulfilled. Bill Clinton was an anomaly. In his first two years, he kept 73% of his campaign promises, with a Democratic House and Senate and an opposition that hadn’t rewritten the filibuster rules to allow killing almost 300 bills. Most presidents, most politicians, don’t come anywhere near that level of fulfillment. The only way President Obama could have kept his campaign promises would have been to break the one about abuses of presidential power.

As the year goes by, we will see a lot of stories like the ones in the last few days – the President at a kitchen table, the President at an official event, the President at a high-priced fund raiser. The Republicans should be afraid, be very afraid, because our President is totally comfortable in all those settings. Can they say the same about any of their candidates?

Related articles

• Barack Obama’s popularity down, but Newt Gingrich worse, says poll – Montreal Gazette (montrealgazette.com)
• Obama’s crossover message, from kitchen to mansion (sfgate.com)

Today, President and Mrs. Obama thanked our troops on behalf of a grateful nation. The troops who fought this war technically had some of the shortest tours of duty on record, but they deployed multiple times, far exceeding the 18 months served in Korea or one year served in Vietnam. The war was fought not just with regular military, but with thousands of National Guards troops, our supposed “weekend warriors” who are supposed to be here, helping with natural disasters and available for missions like border patrols.

Thousands of Americans will remain in Iraq, but they are primarily civilians and that military needed to protect them. Our men and women will continue to be targets, just as United Nations aid workers have been and civilian contractors have been, not on the nebulous battlelines. We still have troops in Afghanistan who are fighting more now than they have been in years. We will bring home more wounded and bury more brave men and women in the next year.

But, for this moment, on this day, we can rejoice with those who have come home. We can celebrate them and show them how much we appreciate them and their families. We can pause to remember those died and understand the pain of those they left behind. And tomorrow, we can help fight for them, fight for benefits equal to those my father’s generation had when coming home from World War II, benefits that launched businesses and provided educations that led to careers and bought homes and helped build the greatest economic growth for the middle class that our country has ever seen. We can fight for their health care and their mental health care.

We have been a better nation this time. As much as people opposed the war, they never made the mistake of blaming soldiers for policies the way they did during Vietnam. The worst thing we have done is allow the war to exist at the periphery of our lives instead of at the front of our consciences. We should be planning celebrations for next Memorial Day and next Veterans’ Day to put these men and women front and center to everyone. They should have the parades my generation did not have.

Welcome home. Thank you. We appreciate you.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Related articles

• ‘Welcome Home’ (bbc.co.uk)
• At Fort Bragg, Obama Showers Praise on Troops Back From Iraq (nytimes.com)
• Barack Obama marks end of Iraq War with tribute to troops (telegraph.co.uk)
• Obama brings curtain down on Iraq ‘success’ (thetimes.co.uk)
• Obama draws a line under Iraq war (bbc.co.uk)
• National News: Obama salutes US Iraq war veterans (coventrytelegraph.net)

The Supreme Court of the United States

Before the end of this term for the United States Supreme Court, the Court will hear cases relating to the health insurance reform act and contested Congressional redistricting plans. To that, they have now added reviewing Arizona’s S. B. 1070, the “papers please” law.

The lawsuit is called Arizona v. United States, though it is an outgrowth of the Federal government’s suits against Arizona for going beyond state jurisdiction in immigration. When Governor Jan Brewer signed the bill into law in April 2010, she said it was needed to “solve a crisis we did not create and the federal government has refused to fix.” In fact, the Republicans in Arizona did create the crisis, by convincing the people of Arizona that a crisis existed including “headless corpses” in the Arizona desert. Eleven million illegal immigrants have not come across our border since 2009, as the Republicans want to pretend. The problem has been going on for decades, became a “national security” issue after 9-11 and was transformed into a political issue in 2008. And the Federal government has done something about the problem, at a much greater rate than under the Bush administration. In fact, the Obama administration is doing such a good job of closing up the border that drug dealers have been reduced to digging tunnels and using small boats on the coast to get their drugs here.

The U. S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit in San Francisco ruled that Arizona exceeded its constitutional jurisdiction with S. B. 1070. The Constitution places authority over immigration completely in the Federal government’s hands. The right wing has hyped up the issue and scared the public into believing that illegals have taken good American jobs, they are sucking our public coffers dry, they are all drug runners, they use our laws to give birth to future terrorists who will be American citizens and they are voting for President Obama. It’s 99% lies and propaganda with just enough truth to make arguing against their hype very difficult.

Associate Justice Elena Kagan has announced that she will recuse herself from this case because she worked on it while she was Solicitor General. Justice Kagan seems determined to humiliate her fellow justices. She has recused herself from every case that she was in any way involved with before being named to the Court, while Justices Thomas and Scalia have not recused themselves from cases where they had personal or financial interests. Justice Kagan has needed no prompting to recuse herself when there is a valid reason, which makes the Republican determination to force her to recuse herself from the health care case odious.

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President Obama delivering weekly address

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and let me tell you all, that it has been a nice couple of days getting to relax and not obsess about the blog. Me and my extended family sat down and ate. We did not say Grace, we did not praise God, we did not do anything other than gather together talk, and eat. It might actually shock Conservatives to find out that most Americans are not turning this holiday into a holy day and rampantly praising God and going to church.

Sherman Frederick at the Las Vegas Review-Journal cried that “Somebody ought to remind Obama (and his speechwriter) that when Americans sit down around a meal today and give thanks, they give thanks to God.” Well, I didn’t and not just because I happen to be a card carrying Pagan, but I am a firm believer that you do not have to turn every event into a religious one.

FOX News’ Todd Starnes griped that Obama’s “remarks were void of any religious references although Thanksgiving is a holiday traditionally steeped in giving thanks and praise to God.”

Yes, that might have been true for most Americans when starvation was one crop failure away, but today, what exactly are we giving thanks for? I mean, seriously, what are we giving thanks for. We go out, buy a turkey, and other food. Right now, a lot of Americans may not be in the mood to thank God for much of anything given how rotten things are today.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro also kvetched saying “Unreal that Obama doesn’t mention God in Thanksgiving message. Militant atheist. To whom does he think we are giving thanks?”

Well, I, for one, give thanks to Lugh on Lughnasa, and that is a day for giving thanks. There are those who will thank Yahwe or Allah or Jehovah or Zeus or you name the deity. Let us be honest here, this is these guys complaining about the fact that their religion is not being kowtowed to and put as being superior to everyone else.

The Huffington Post wrote that:

In his speech, which clocked in at just over three minutes, Obama delivered a simple holiday message. He said that he and his family, like many Americans, would spend the day “eating great food, watching a little football, and reflecting on how truly lucky we are.” He went on to thank military service members who were “eating Thanksgiving dinners far from your families” and Americans who “are taking time out of their holiday to serve in soup kitchens and shelters…this sense of mutual responsibility, the idea that I’m my brother’s keeper, that I’m my sister’s keeper, has always been part of what makes our country special.” He also acknowledged America’s tough economic climate and its persistent political gridlock, offering hope that things could improve.

Maybe we should just be thankful to whomever we believe in that we made it through another year.

“The NASCAR crowd doesn’t understand why when the husband and the wife are going to the same place, the first lady has to take her own Boeing 757 four hours earlier than her husband. They understand it’s a little bit of uppity-ism.”

The First Lady travels on these separate planes due to security reasons, and it was the same for her predecessor, whom Limbaugh decides he should never mention. So, it is not ‘uppity-ism’, it is security. But, we are talking about a man who wants nothing more than to see the Obamas out of the White House one way or the other.

He went on to say “We don’t like being told what to eat; we don’t like being told how much to exercise; we don’t like being told what we’ve got to drive; we don’t like wasting money; we don’t like our economy being bankrupted.”

What ever happened to the President is respected no matter what? Oh, that’s right, the only Presidents who count for Limbaugh are Republican ones who want to tell us who we can marry, let big business poison us, and get us involved in two pointless wars.

Mrs. Obama and Jill Biden were booed by some people who believe like Limbaugh that anyone who is a Democrat is out to destroy the nation even though the Republcians have done a better job of it.

Newser reported that:

“Mrs. Obama was proud to join NASCAR in recognizing our nation’s veterans and military families to raise awareness of this important issue for all Americans,” said Kristina Schake.

Jones stated that “Number one, he hasn’t asked for it. I had a reason for doing it the first time. I don’t have that same reason this time.” Evangelical Christian voters are probably not going to be the big tipping point for Romney given that, right now, he sounds too much like Obama on the economy.

Speaking about why he backed Romney in 2007, Jones said “I was listening to people around the state in the Christian circles that I move in, and I heard a lot of people whispering their appreciation for him with his business background and all, but ‘He’s a Mormon.’ I understand that, but we are electing a president not a preacher. At that time (John) McCain was rising, and Rudy Giuliani, and both of those guys gave me shivers.”

Showing off the lack of respect that he has regarding women, Jones spoke about Herman Cain’s problem with sexual harassment saying that “Frankly there’s a whole lot about Cain that I like. I like anybody who stands a really good case of being the next man in the White House, who is not the man in the White House. I have no reason to believe these accusations are true. I’ve heard enough from the other side to believe their spurious. Who knows? I want to believe they are spurious.”

Well, at least it is nice to know that he does not like Rick Perry very much. He stated that “Some really good friends of mine in Texas don’t trust him a lick so that colors my view… I never got to the place where I could take him very seriously.”

Ah, but he loves Rick Santorum…Jones said “Santorum would be on top of my list to be honest with you. He has 16 years experience in the Senate. I think he’s presidential in his demeanor, and I really like what I see as his character and his stand for decency during the time he was in the Senate. But he’s not doing real well at the moment.” That might have something to do with the fact that he has a Google problem, the fact that he is obsessed with homosexuality to the point that everyone expects him to get caught in a men’s bathroom with a ‘wide stance misunderstanding’, and now he is caught up in the Penn State scandal.

Still, Jones is more focused on defeating Obama than actually backing someone whom he likes. He stated that he is not sure who he will endorse, and that “It might actually hurt. Nobody’s asked for that, and I’m not inclined to do that at all. There’s nothing to push me to stick out my neck out for anybody at this point…I’m still waiting to see who peaks to the surface and stands the best chance of beating Obama. Whoever that is I’ll back him to the hilt.”

Of course, it is easy to see why Jones might want to take down Obama. After all, while not knowing what Socialism is, he stated that “I have a great distrust for him. I think he’s moving this country in a socialist direction as fast as he can…His whole background to me is colored with suspicion.”

He also does not believe that Obama is a Christian “I’ve no reason to think he’s a Christian…Anyone can say he’s a Christian. Some people will say whatever they think the politically helpful thing would be. I say, ‘Where is the evidence that he is a Christian?’ ” Of course, though, he is not sure if Obama is a Muslim saying “I have my personal thoughts about that, but I’m not sure I want to make this public.”

Source

Obama nominated DuMont to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. That court primarily hears appeals on matters involving patents, and he came to that nomination with stellar qualifications and the American Bar Association deemed him to be “unanimously well qualified”. He was a former law clerk to US Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner. He would have been the first out gay appellate judge in the country.

Republicans constantly held up the nomination with holds, but claimed that Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy could have always called for a hearing on the nomination at any point. DuMont wrote to Obama saying that “Under these circumstances, drawing the process out further does not seem either sensible for me or fair to the Federal Circuit, which has important work to do and deserves to be able to address it with a full complement of active judges.”

According to MetroWeekly:

Back when DuMont was first nominated by Obama in April 2010, Seth Waxman, who served as the top appellate litigator in the Justice Department during Clinton’s second term, called DuMont “brilliant” and “thoroughly professional.”

As of this moment, his nomination has not been withdrawn.

The email invited local Republicans to a party sponsored by the committee. It was also, according to county GOP Chairman Mark Sell, suppose to be a “light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday.”

Of course, Sell apparently does not know the first thing about satire or humor. Usually it helps to make fun of yourself first.

The picture got posted to the blog Too Conservative and had gone viral by Tuesday morning. Pat Mullins, chairman of Virginia’s Republican Party, stated that “The disgusting image used today on a mass e-mail has no place in our politics. Ever.” He went on to say that “the Republican Party of Virginia condemns the image and its use in the strongest possible terms.”

Via The National Journal

This is normal for NOM. After all, they fake research all the time. Why not fake photographs as well?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Obama answered “I’m going to wait until everybody is voted off the island. Once they narrow it down to one or two, I’ll start paying attention.” Leno then asked about the death of Libyan dictator Mummar Qaddafi, whose death has boosted Obama’s poll numbers a bit.

Obama replied that “Well, this is somebody who, for 40 years, has terrorized his country and supported terrorism. And he had an opportunity during the Arab spring to finally let loose of his grip on power and to peacefully transition into democracy. We gave him ample opportunity, and he wouldn’t do it. And, obviously, you never like to see anybody come to the kind of end that he did, but I think it obviously sends a strong message around the world to dictators.”

Obama has been out West stumping for economic stimulus and trying to get the economy back on track. He stated “Look, I think the things that folks across the country are most fed up with, whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent, is putting party ahead of country or putting the next election ahead of the next generation.”

Via The New York Daily News

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not write broad-based opinions about the use of executive orders, so George W. Bush became our third “constitutional dictator.” Typically, a president uses executive orders to manage the departments in the executive branch. Sometimes, they use them to start a war before getting a proper declaration from Congress. But they do not usually use them to completely bypass Congress on issues that are constitutionally Congress’ job. And it is extremely rare for a president to use a “signing statement” on a new law to void it in such a way that his de facto veto cannot be overridden.

George W. Bush issued over 300 executive orders covering everything from authorizing torture to waiving regulations on businesses. He used over 100 signing statements, almost half of them to void rightfully passed laws.

Candidate Obama made it clear that he would not bypass Congress or void Congress’ work. He would be a constitutional president, not a constitutional dictator, and he has for the most part kept that promise. He has not relied on executive orders to do what he wanted to do nor voided laws that crossed his desk. As a consequence, he has accomplished very little, a situation that the Republicans are eager to make a campaign issue, just as long as they can keep their base from hearing the magic word “filibuster” and learning why so little has gotten done. It is an interesting contradiction in the Republican talking points – Obama has done nothing, but Obama is a tyrant taking away our rights by fiat. It takes an incredibly proficient propaganda operation to convince people that black is white and black at the same time.

All that ended today. Launching a new campaign slogan, “We Can’t Wait,” the President has begun unveiling new programs that toe the line of his powers, not overriding or bypassing Congress, but not waiting for them to do the right thing. He’s convinced that we have no patience for waiting for hell to freeze over.

The first program change was introduced in Nevada today, the state with the highest rates of foreclosure and over-appraisal mortgages. The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that new rules would allow these “over-appraisal” or “underwater” mortgages to be refinanced. The new program involves only those mortgages guaranteed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. In the past, only mortgages that were not more than 25% above appraisal could refinance, but that limit will be removed. The homeowners must be up to date on payments for the past six months. It’s not a cure-all for the housing situation, but a homeowner who can refinance to the current, lowest-ever mortgage rates could save hundreds per month.

The program has two goals, to reduce the number of foreclosures that might happen and to free up money to go into other parts of the economy.

The original assistance program for homeowners facing foreclosure failed, partially because the banks refused to co-operate. They weren’t the only ones. It took over a year for the Vermont Housing Finance Agency to opt on to the program. Only $2.4 billion of the planned $50 billion has been used, and 1.7 million homeowners have been helped. The administration did not push as hard as it could have on this either.

This may be the first change in FHFA policy. There are other areas in which their regulations could be changed to improve the housing situation. The fact that so many foreclosed homes have not been sold, with prices sometimes far below appraisal value, is indicative of more than just a reluctance on the part of buyers. It also indicates that arranging mortgages has been too difficult.

The house across the street from us was foreclosed (a very rare event in Vermont). It went on the market for $55,000 – a duplex that we knew had been appraised at over $130,000 a year earlier. It sold in less than three weeks and the new owner has so far put on a new roof, and gutted the interior. The renovations will probably push the cost to over $100,000 and it will still be a bargain. That should be happening everywhere that there are foreclosures instead of banks bulldozing the houses.

The FHFA changes will not impact the foreclosure situation, but they should improve the economy anywhere that people take advantage of it.

Related articles

• Dictatorship Is Alive And Well (lezgetreal.com)
• Obama bypasses Congress with mortgage plan – AFP (news.google.com)
• Going around Congress (skydancingblog.com)
• House Democrats hammer new Obama mortgage crisis response as insufficient (thehill.com)
• Obama to announce new steps to help housing woes (boston.com)
• What We Could Lose If The Republicans Win (lezgetreal.com)
• US announces help for underwater homeowners (bottomline.msnbc.msn.com)

Pastor Robert Jeffress went on FOX News to defend his comments about how Mormonism is a cult and his defense of his comments was rather weak. He discussed how he was using the term ‘cult’ in a theological sense and not an, apparently, normal sense of the word despite the fact that this made no sense what so ever. In fact, there is no splitting of hairs on that front as a cult is a cult. What is more, he tried to also say that he would vote for a Mormon against President Barack Obama because, well, at least a Mormon like Mitt Romney has embraced some ‘Christian’ ideas while Obama has not. This is despite Obama being a Christian. It should be pointed out that he skirted by just barely calling Obama a non-Christian and claiming that Obama is a ‘secret Muslim’ by dismissing the strength of Obama’s religious convictions.

Simply put, Jeffress wants a ‘Christian leader’ who embraces theocracy over the rule of law. That is, pretty much, what he said. Obama rejects theocracy and believes in the rights of all religions to coexist together while Jeffress and his endorsed candidate Rick Perry do not.

Of course, one has to wonder if Jeffress and company will start saying that Herman Cain is a secret Pastafarian and that he worships the Great Spaghetti Monster in order to avoid having him as their front runner.

The Party Pie Chart

A frequently used right wing “statistic” is “all liberals are welfare sucking, useless piles of excrement,” or words to that effect. Allegedly, the only people who vote Democratic are entitlement-dependent and have never held a job or paid a tax in their lives. So, here are the real statistics, just for ammunition.  (By the way, I hate math with a passion, so this article is a labor of love or insanity or flat-out anger at the way liberals are represented.)

The total American population is 311,800,000.

Of that total, there are 218,054,300 eligible voters.

The party identification numbers used here come from Gallup Polls conducted in September, 2011.

As of last month, 32% of all eligible voters identify themselves as Democrats, while an additional 17% “lean Democratic,” for a total of 49%.

Gallup showed 21% of all eligible voters identify themselves as Republicans, while an additional 19% “lean Republican,” for a total of 40%.

And, finally, 46% of all eligible voters identify themselves as Independents. The “leaners” are part of this 46%. Only 11% of eligible voters don’t identify with either party in any way, and can be considered members or leaners for the other parties, like the Greens.

That’s 69,777,376 registered Democrats, or 106,846,600 total who both are or lean Democratic.

That’s 45,791,403 registered Republicans, or 87,221,720 total who both are or lean Republican.

There are 23,985,973 true Independents in America.

Now, all Social Security-receiving retirees are not Democrats. Their ratio is pretty much equal to the rest of the electorate. So, of 38,600,000 retirees (or those over 65), one can confidently say that 18,914,000 are committed Democrats and/or lean Democratic..

Those who are classified as disabled and receiving SSDI number 13,693,000. Those receiving emergency Social Security number 7,844,000. Since disability is not political affiliation-dependent, one can reasonably make the case that among the disabled, the political division is equal to the regular population. That means that only 10,553,130 are committed Democrats and/or lean Democratic.

There are 1,096,675 adults on welfare programs. The remaining 4,405,394 welfare recipients are under 18. Contrary to the republican “statistics” there are not 11 million illegal immigrants on welfare. In fact, there are only 5,502,069 adults and children receiving welfare. Numerically, whites are the greatest number of recipients, though with only 14% of the population, 40% of all welfare recipients are black. We’ll give this one to the Republicans – they can claim that all welfare recipients are Democrats.

That makes the total entitlement-dependent population who are supposed to be Democrats and/or leaning Democratic 29,467,130.

So, 106,846,600 Dems or Dem-leaners minus 30,563,805 entitlement-dependent is 76,282,795 wage-earning, tax-paying Democrats.

Basically, if you believe the Republican mantra that all Republicans are wage-earning, tax-payers, you still have to deduct that same Social Security and disability recipients from their 87,221,720. That means 24,054,800 Republicans are entitlement-dependent, leaving them only 63,166,920 wage-earning, tax-paying Republicans and/or Republican leaners.

Of Independents, 6,615,070 are entitlement dependent, leaving them 17,370,903 wage earners, but Independents don’t tend to say all Democrats are welfare-sucking low-lifes.

Now, there are 44.2 million households receiving food stamps and a total of 19 million unemployed or severely underemployed in America. No company asked for political affiliation before laying people off and those receiving food stamps do so because of income, not political affiliation. Those numbers do not factor into this in any way.

So, the statistics suggest that there are 13,115,875 more wage-earning, tax paying Democrats or Democratic-leaning Independents among American eligible voters.

But, let us not forget, when faced with cold, hard statistics, the average right winger will claim that the statistics are just Obama-generated lies. If it doesn’t come from Fox News or out of any mouth on right wing radio, it just can’t be true. The mark of truly successful brainwashing is when the subjects of that brainwashing rejects any information that doesn’t come from their masters.

In the speech, he spoke about how there is an evolution in attitude occurring with regards to LGBT rights. This is true. If one follows the trends in video games, it is easy to see that the LGBT gaming community will no longer stand for being left out of things like romances between characters.

President Obama touted his accomplishments, and they are many. While Obama has only been able to effectively repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and do a large number of things unilaterally, he did make it clear that he opposes the Defense of Marriage Act.

However, Obama did not mention whether or not he now supports same-sex marriage. This is a rather important oversight as it is likely to be one of those issues that could gain him enthusiasm without losing votes.

Also at the dinner was Retired Staff Sergeant Eric Alva. He was at the side of President Obama when he signed the repeal of DADT. Alva stated “This is something monumental. We needed to do this. People often as me, ‘Eric, how do you feel about the repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell?’ I’m excited. I’m ecstatic. I’m retired now, but this was something that needed to be done for the better good of America.” This was the first time that Alva has attended the HRC dinner in his uniform.

Today, President Barack Obama has made it absolutely clear that he wants Congress to pass the American Jobs Act right now. Do not be surprised if the bullies in the GOP cry that they are being bullied by the President all the while ignoring the fact that they have made government inefficient, inept and broken by their own actions because they believe that the kindness and charity of people will carry us through anything and that the rich deserve what ever they can beg, borrow or plunder from the poor and the US government.

Obama actually stated rather bluntly:

Some Republicans in Congress have said that they agree with certain parts of this jobs bill. If so, it’s time for them to tell me what those proposals are. And if they’re opposed to this jobs bill, I’d like to know what exactly they’re against. Are they against putting teachers and police officers and firefighters back on the job? Are they against hiring construction workers to rebuild our roads and bridges and schools? Are they against giving tax cuts to virtually every worker and small business in America?

While Republicans state that they are in favor of small businesses, they mean small businesses like Walmart and Koch Industries. They do not actually favor the ability of small businesses to grow, and often load up taxes so that those are the businesses that go under even though they create the most jobs.

Obama also made this personal by pointing to several real life cases. Meanwhile, home fuel assistance for the nation’s neediest have been cut in half, something that will effect and hurt small businesses across the Northeast, but will not effect the big, multi-national conglomerates. It will hurt those who have to provide oil, propane and wood pellets to houses because, in the depths of winter, these are people who will have no choice but to stretch what little money they get in order to make it last.

Here is the transcript of the President’s remarks via The Daily Kos:

Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address

The White House

October 1, 2011

Hello, everyone. It’s been almost three weeks since I sent the American Jobs Act to Congress – three weeks since I sent them a bill that would put people back to work and put money in people’s pockets. This jobs bill is fully paid for. This jobs bill contains the kinds of proposals that Democrats and Republicans have supported in the past. And now I want it back. It is time for Congress to get its act together and pass this jobs bill so I can sign it into law.

Some Republicans in Congress have said that they agree with certain parts of this jobs bill. If so, it’s time for them to tell me what those proposals are. And if they’re opposed to this jobs bill, I’d like to know what exactly they’re against. Are they against putting teachers and police officers and firefighters back on the job? Are they against hiring construction workers to rebuild our roads and bridges and schools? Are they against giving tax cuts to virtually every worker and small business in America?

Economists from across the political spectrum have said that this jobs bill would boost the economy and spur hiring. Why would you be against that? Especially at a time when so many Americans are struggling and out of work.

This isn’t just about what I think is right. It’s not just about what a group of economists think is right. This is about what the American people want. Everywhere I go, they tell me they want action on jobs. Every day, I get letters from Americans who expect Washington to do something about the problems we face.

Destiny Wheeler is a sixteen year old from Georgia who wants to go to college. She wrote to me saying, “Now-a-days it is hard to see myself pushing forward and putting my family in a better position, especially since the economy is rough and my starting situation is so poor. Yet, the American Jobs act gives me hope that I might start to receive a better education, that one day job opportunities will be open for me to grasp, and that one day my personal American Dream will be reached.” Destiny needs us to pass this jobs bill.

Alice Johnson is an Oregon native who, along with her husband, has been looking for a job for about two years. She writes, “I have faithfully applied for work every week…Of the hundreds of applications I have put in, I received interview requests for about 10…I too, am sick of all the fighting in Washington DC. Please tell the Republicans that people are hurting and are hungry and need help, pass the jobs bill.” Alice Johnson needs our help.

Cathleen Dixon sent me pictures of the aging bridge she drives under when she takes her kids to school in Chicago every day. She worries about their safety, and writes, “I am angry that in this country of vast resources we claim that we cannot maintain basic infrastructure. How can we ever hope to preserve or regain our stature in this world, if we cannot find the will to protect our people and take care of our basic needs?”

I also heard from Kim Faber, who told me about the small carpet business her husband owns in New Jersey. “We hang on by a shoe String,” she writes, “my husband worries every day about if checks might bounce, he uses our home loan to put money in the business so they will be covered. Please pass this jobs bill! This is the job creating we need right now! It breaks my husband’s heart when he has to let people go! Pass the bill!”

Kim said it best: Pass the bill. I know one Republican was quoted as saying that their party shouldn’t pass this jobs bill because it would give me a win. Well this isn’t about giving me a win, and it’s not about them. This is about Destiny Wheeler and Alice Johnson. It’s about Cathleen Dixon’s children, and the Fabers’ family business. These are the people who need a win, and I will be fighting for this jobs bill every day on their behalf. If anyone watching feels the same way, don’t be shy about letting your Congressman know. It is time for the politics to end. Let’s pass this jobs bill.

Christian News Service’s headline on this proclaims “Obama to Keynote Event of Gay Group That Promotes LGBT Curriculum in Elementary Schools”. Of course, most Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons believe that homosexuality is a choice and not what science is showing, an inherent trait that is immutable. Indeed, the HRC does state on their website that school curricula must be LGBT inclusive and notes that “students learn more effectively when they see themselves reflected in the curriculum”; “pressure to conform to gender roles can limit social and academic development”; “name-calling and bullying have a negative impact on academic outcomes.”

Their site, as quoted by CNS, stated “From children’s first years in school, when classes often take ‘the family’ as their curricular focus, right through high school, there are many moments when LGBT issues are appropriate and relevant to the curriculum. For example, lesbian and gay authors and historical figures can be included in English and history classes; and the LGBT movement, itself, can be germane to civics and social studies courses. Students stand to gain significant advantages in those schools that have LGBT inclusive curriculum.”

Most Right Wing Christians ignore the fact that gender roles are constructs that are not immutable. Gender roles differ from society to society and have changed in major ways over the centuries. For instance, it is considered to be perfectly alright in Arab societies for men to hold hands, but it is considered to be taboo in, say, the American culture. Celtic society was matriarchal and gave virtual equality to women while Roman society, which was contemporary to the Celts, had women be property of the men, and men were given the premiere position in society.

Still, President Obama’s appearance tonight is not likely to be without its problems. While he will tout the fact that he has an evolving position on same-sex marriage and that he was the architect of taking down Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, there are those who will be wondering exactly why he is not pushing for same-sex marriage given that those who oppose it will never vote for him anyway, and it could boost the enthusiasm of his base.

Fred Sainz, the vice president of communications at the HRC stated that he does expect Obama to eventually declare his support for same-sex marriage. It should be noted that Obama has made it clear that he does support the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which will not pass Congress until there is a Democratic majority in the House and a Democratic super-majority in the Senate. He has, though, pulled back all defense of DOMA in the courts, but that was undercut by House Speaker John Boehner who hired a pet lawyer at great expense to the taxpayers in order to defend a law that is obviously unconstitutional.

Sainz did say “He really has been an incredible champion for the issues that are important to us. It’s fair to say we’ve made more progress in the past two years than we have in the past 40 years combined.” Which is only very partially because of HRC.

The Huffington Post noted:

Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog.com was among the bloggers Obama spoke with last year. He said that while most gay advocates won’t stop supporting the president if he doesn’t speak out in favor of gay marriage before the election, doing so could give Obama’s base much-needed energy.

“He might not lose votes, but he won’t gain enthusiasm,” Sudbay said.

It seems as if Obama’s Clintonite team have forgotten that there comes a time to stand and fight and take controversial stances by the horns and fight for the right of others. We live in a time when being timid is a recipe for being rolled under the bus by the GOP.

Obama is answering a question from someone who is in a binational relationship. He lays out his course of action which includes deprioritizing those cases of binationals where there have been no crimes committed, and that he has ordered that the defense of DOMA not be undertaken. It is an interesting to hear him discuss this particular issue.

States' educational rankings

And a yabba-dabba-do to that!

No Child Left Behind has been a failure from the beginning. It set national testing criteria without a national curriculum. It punished schools for failing to raise test results, forcing schools to “teach to the test” instead of teaching the students. It did not address the core problems in our school systems or do anything to deal with the differences between school systems that lead to our children having no central base of cultural literacy. And just like all educational reform since the 1950′s it isolated reading and math as the be-all-and-end-all of education. It didn’t even include science, which since Sputnik has been tied so tightly to math they practically exist as a single word “scienceandmath.”

President Obama cannot end the law. That would require the impossible – passage of a law voiding the NCLB law by both chambers of Congress. They can’t pass anything these days, so there isn’t much point in trying to follow the constitutional path on this one. Instead, President Obama is inviting states to request waivers from the provisions of the law and submit plans that would, hopefully, have built into them even higher standards for their students. At least 20 states have expressed interest in the waivers. Standardized testing would still be required as would reports to the community, but there will be far more leeway about the testing and no threat of shutting down a school if it doesn’t meet some randomly set standard of “progress” over time.

The last time a President offered a waiver program similar to this one was President Clinton, who offered waivers to states who wanted to rewrite their welfare programs. In some states, Clinton’s idea was brilliantly successful. Under Governor Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin rewrote its rules and sharply reduced welfare roles through job training and child care provisions, taking the tack that spending a little more for a short period of time resulted in spending less over time. By putting forward the money for job training, Wisconsin turned welfare recipients into taxpayers with good jobs. In other states, like Mississippi where there was a paucity of jobs, there was little that could be accomplished.

The law, signed by President George W. Bush early in 2002 in a ceremony honoring the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s vision was intended to hold schools responsible for their test scores and help reduce the achievement gaps between white students and minority students. Every child is supposed to pass the math and reading exams by 2014. Schools that don’t improve are labeld “failing” and after a few years, they can be shut down or taken over by the state. The fear of being shut down caused teachers in Atlanta (and possibly more schools) to cheat on their students’ exams.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that as many as 80% of schools risk being labeled failures in 2014. Last year alone, it was 37% of schools. The waivers would allow states to concentrate on their bottom 5% of schools. The waiver plan lets state set their own strategies for dealing with underperforming schools but still expects schools to use many of the reforms that the Obama administration believes in.

No Child Left Behind was set to be reauthorized this year, but the House of Representatives can’t come up with a single plan to tweak it and the Senate hasn’t even addressed the issue. Expectedly, Republicans are condemning the waiver plan. House Education Committee Chairman John Kline fo Minnesota called it a backdoor reauthorization of NCLB. “While I appreciate some of the policies outlined in the secretary’s [Duncan’s] waivers plan, I simply cannot support a process that grants the secretary of education sweeping authority to handpick winners and losers,” Kline told the New York Times. Bush’s Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, told the Washington Post “I’m skeptical about states’ ability or will to do great reform or close the achievement gap. The reason this whole waiver issue is before us is they told us they were going to do something and didn’t do it. And now they want a waiver against their own promises.” And Michael Petrilli, vice president of the Fordham Institute told The Lookout that the plan amounts to rolling back NCLB. “I think it’s fair to say that this will effectively neuter No Child Left Behind.”

It’s so predictable at this point. President Obama speaks and Republican knees jerk. He could probably say the sky is blue and the Republicans would drag out fifteen “experts” to say that at such and such a time, it’s actually pink.

There are so many things wrong with our education system, starting with the fact that we don’t have an American education system but fifty separate systems each containing dozens if not hundreds of individual systems. No one law is going to fix our system and standardized testing doesn’t really prove that any child has actually learned anything other than how to take the test. We have had over fifty years of wringing our hands over our schools, studying our schools, tweaking our schools and none of it has produced an educational system for the 21^st century. Heck, it’s managed to wipe out most of the good aspects of our educational system that existed when this whole process began. A lot of what is going to happen with these waivers depends on which states are going to use them.

In educational ranking, the bottom twenty states are Texas, North Dakota, Missouri, California, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Hawaii, Iowa, Alaska, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Alabama, Louisiana, West Virginia and Mississippi. There isn’t really a single common factor in those twenty states, anymore than there is a single common factor in the top twenty: Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Florida, Illinois, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Vermont, Georgia and Washington. Having had my own children in three of those states, I’m dumbfounded that Florida would rank above and Georgia would rank just 0.05 points behind Vermont. A one-size-fits-all law isn’t a way to deal with fifty states that have different causes for their successor failure. Hopefully, the other 30 will also apply for the waivers so that they can have the power to deal with their own students and whatever inadequacies they may have.

Related articles

• President offers states an opt-out from NCLB – in exchange for more federal control of education (hotair.com)
• No Child Left Behind: With waivers Obama offers states flexibility (csmonitor.com)
• Will Obama’s NCLB Waiver Plan Really Diminish ‘Teaching To The Test’? (huffingtonpost.com)
• No Child Left Behind Waivers for States (nytimes.com)
• Obama Lets States Opt Out Of ‘No Child Left Behind’ (npr.org)

Yet another chart....

If, like me, you are a fan of forensic detective shows like the C.S.I.’s and Bones, you’ve seen those stomach-churning episodes where the entire contents of some trunk or casket or barrel are transported back to the lab and the techs have to sort through all the glop to find anything that resembles evidence, like actual human remains. It’s an image that kept running through my head last night trying to glean something understandable out of a ten-page printout of stories about the debt ceiling/deficit/budget negotiations.

There are three different layers of glop in play: the debt ceiling which must be raised because we have to borrow more money to pay our legally binding obligations, bringing down the level of deficit spending that our government has been doing for the past ten years, and the budget for next year. Supposedly dealing with the glop are three different types of gloppers – ideologues who refuse to do anything other than what their ideology or pledges tell them to do, pragmatists who want reality-based compromises and politicians who will do whatever the next poll tells them to do, so long as they actually are told about the poll. Then, there’s the stuff in between the glop, let’s call it the gloop – our aging and crumbling infrastructure, the need to reduce people’s dependence on government support, business regulation, unemployment and the need to restructure our economy for the 21^st century. Finally, there’s the battle between factual historical examples of similar situations, there’s the propaganda designed to shift the blame for these situations, and there’s the lies, damned lies and statistics being used by everyone. There are at least 135 “explanations,” “solutions,” “proposals” and “offers” out there which claim to solve all or some of the above.

The gloppers have names for all their little plans – “cut, cap and balance” “Simpson-Bowles” “the gang of six” “the Ryan budget” “the Norquist pledge” and “make Obama a one-term president.” No matter what it’s called, the plans are nothing but obfuscation and distraction, gloppers wallowing in the glop and gloop for your entertainment, just like some half-naked, female mud-wrestling match held while accomplices loot the office safe. Very few of them thought there was any problem with the glop and gloop until they decided to make it a problem and run for office on that problem.

Is it any wonder most Americans don’t understand what all the fuss is about or what they should support in terms of policy? The way the glop and the gloop have been interwoven by the gloppers is mind-numbing. It’s so much easier to think about the next celebrity wedding and/or divorce, or the freaky weather, or how the I.A. investigation of Brenda Leigh Johnson will turn out, isn’t it?

Related articles

• Grover Norquist: Ending Bush Tax Cuts Not A Tax Hike (huffingtonpost.com)
• Norquist: OK to let Bush cuts expire (politico.com)
• New Goal Post In Deficit Negotiations (lezgetreal.com)
• The Wimpy’s Republicans Propose A Trillion in Taxes Today for Spending Cuts Tomorrow (rogueoperator.wordpress.com)
• Finally, The Debt Ceiling Message Getting Through (lezgetreal.com)
• The Weirdness of 10-Year Deficit Reduction (baselinescenario.com)
• It’s the economy, not the debt, stupid (lifeinc.today.com)

Surely, If President Obama could swoop into a mansion in a foreign country and put a bullet between the eyes of one Osama Bin Laden – he can find a way to keep our US LGBT families in tact; STOP THE DEPORTATIONS !!!!

While the country focuses on recent international events, this Friday a married bi-national couple may be ripped apart from one another by the U.S. government. Josh is an American citizen. Henry is from Venezuela. They married in Connecticut in August 2010. But because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Josh can’t sponsor Henry for a green card like any heterosexual American can. SDGLN -

Because of DOMA, Henry risks being deported THIS FRIDAY.

On February 23, the Obama Administration announced that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, believing it to be unconstitutional.  One month later, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it would put a hold on all deportation proceedings of bi-national same-sex couples, since the constitutionality of DOMA was in question.

Forty Eight hours later the reprieve was over!  USCIS announced that it would begin processing those deportation proceedings once again, throwing the lives of these couples into turmoil yet again.

Now plans by the Obama administration to deport Henry Velandia will likely move forward. Henry is in a same-sex marriage. His marriage is legal.  However he will deported back to Venezuela, having to leave behind  his beloved husband, Josh Vandiver of Colorado.

Henry will have a hearing before a Judge of the United States. This week  in Newark, New Jersey, his fate will be decided and he is just one of many who are going through similar hell. The Judge is not empowered to  offer mercy – to take cognizance of  Henry’s love for his partner. The Judge mill ignore his legal marriage, his love, and he will be deported and  banned ifrom the United States forever.

Lest we forget Josh, the American spouse. What about him? Josh has no standing before the immigration court.  He is an American who has no legal right to sponsor his husband for a green card – in parity with different gender Americans who marry a foreigner.  The greatest tragedy here is that our American spouses – like Josh – are being forced into exile.

Exile is when you leave your own country because you are compelled to do so – unwillingly yet voluntarily. Gina Caprio is one such American citizen. Gina has been forced to leave the USA for the United Kingdom so she can be with her wife. Despite years of trying to find a legal way for her spouse, and being active in the out4immigration community, Gina, ran out of options.

In her partner’s case, they kept up a relationship literally traveling between continents and keeping Visa alive and legal.  They did not get into a situation where Gina’s wife would be deported.  Either way – this is a great great wrong to Americans and their families and its being perpetrated on President Obama’s watch.

In  a framework where the  Defense of Marriage Act, that in essence bars same-sex couples from green card sponsorship via marriage,  has been acknowledged by the Administration as unconstitutional,  that piece of legislation is in Congressional limbo, and hence so are LGBT families.

GetEQUAL: “While many LGBT couples are wrestling with what repeal of DOMA would mean for them, bi-national same-sex couples are seeing the impact of DOMA’s continued reign each day — and many are being torn apart from one another in the meantime. ”

We don’t have time to wait on Congress to make things right — we need you to show courage now stop the deportations that are tearing apart our families. USCIS halted deportations of bi-national couples for 48 hours — we need to halt these deportations permanently!”

President Obama has the power to stop these deportations,  he did it for 48 hours; He can use unusual means to stop this degrading and discriminatory debacle.

There are solutions  such as a special visa process for same-sex spouses – to issue an executive order, or  for a Senator  to  introduce a Private Bill via Congress that would pend all deportations of  same-sex couples who can provide marriage certification from any Jurisdiction. The beauty of such Bill would be that its mere introduction could pend all such deportations, without in effect having to be voted upon during this Congress. This is a temporary solution- and can be done in a similar fashion to Senator Feinstein’s  Private Bill Number 867 – introduced for Shirley Tan, back in April 2009.  Such Bill would not have to be voted upon it would simply have to languish in Congress for the duration of this 11th Congress – by them perhaps we can get DOMA repealed in the next Democratic Congress.  The Private Bill could operate for a class of persons therein described.

SIGN PETITION AT:-

see http://www.change.org/petitions/special-visa-for-binational-lgbt-spouse-perma-partners#comments

Article: http://lezgetreal.com/?p=24121

So this is the quest – to support Josh and Henry and others in exile or to be deported:

JOIN THE RALLY -  PROTEST (FaceBOOK)

Time: Friday, May 6 · 11:00am – 12:00pm
Location

Department of Homeland Security/Newark Immigration Court:
– Peter Rodino Federal Building
970 Broad Street
Newark, NJ

TRAVEL:
It’s very easy to get to the Court from Newark Penn Station, which is on the NJTransit line between NYC and Princeton. Coming from Newark Penn Station, walk 2 blocks up Market St., turn left at Broad St. and go 4 short blocks. There is also ample street parking near the Court.

WHY:

You have asked how you can help us STOP the deportation of Henry. Now is the time you can help. We have to stand up together and force the Obama administration to immediately STOP DEPORTING the spouses of gay and lesbian Americans. We are fighting for all couples like us.  Together, we have to stop Henry’s deportation!  We are rallying on Friday in front of the courthouse where Henry’s fate will be decided later that day and want to make sure that everyone inside knows that Henry has community support.

Please join us on Friday and bring friends — we’ll have signs there, but please feel free to make and bring your own!
- Josh & Henry

Sponsored/supported by: Stop The Deportations, All Out, Courage Campaign, Garden State Equality, GetEQUAL,  Marriage Equality USA, Out4Immigration, and the Princeton Equality Project

WRITE at Contact@JoshAndHenry.com to let us know you are coming! We can answer questions and help you get to the rally!

Surely, If President could swoop into a mansion in a foreign country and put a bullet between the eyes of one Osama Bin Laden – he can find a way to keep our US LGBT families in tact!!!!

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

Donald Trump's Cock Fight

Donald Trump, the thrice and most famous bankruptee – will forever be – just that – now cries success even when he is wrong !  Trump hailed the illusion – with Pride -when President Obama decided today to release the long form version of his birth certificate, dispelling the tiresome birther rumors.  Trump believes that it was HE who caused the President to release the document. Oh and he did say ” I am very Proud because I was the one who enabled this to happen!

Trump is not so smart – he just successfully nailed his own coffin with his proud loud mouth. Trump will be Fired.

Mark my words and this is why he MUST be Fired:-

1. By trying to behind behind his assertion – the red herring – that he brought about the public display of the long term version of a Presidential birth certificate – Trump is hiding the fact that he must have been lying to the Press when he said on numerous interviews that he knew it did not exist via a so called  private investigation he had undertaken.    Were his lies to the Press justified in bringing out the necessary long version when the certified copy had sufficed legally.

2. Trump has placed NBC in an invidious position – “This is Donald being Donald”  – via an  NBC Executive is no longer a satisfactory comment.

3. Lawrence  O’Donnell on ‘The Last Word,  asserts that NBC has created a monster because Trump has been using fame on the NBC TV show, Celebrity Apprentice , to spew hatred.

4. O’Donnell  asserted that there is a conflict within the NBC News Division if they have news that is not being released and that news in this case relates to whether or not Trump is on the schedule for next season show of Apprentice; – because if he is, then it means he has a contractual commitment and thus cannot run for President.  If NBC has news – then it is news and it must be released now.  What are Trump’s Plans NBC?

5. If Trump’s so called interest in the Presidency would sustain itself – thereby his relevance in his crazed hunger to make news -  then he was indeed (ahem) forced to revert from birther to the new realm of racist. Trump is  Presuming that because President Obama is black, the President was unable to get into Harvard, without affirmative action;  bringing the President’s academic achievement into question in relationship to the President’s color; and yes that  brands TRUMP a racist. Yes a racist. NBC are you going to allow racist Trump yet another season?

DONALD TRUMP you are Fired! Now Where the heck  is the real DONALD DUCK ?

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

President Obama will arrive in San Francisco today on his California Fund-raising endeavor, to raise big money from hefty donors. At least that is the hope of his recently launched campaign in the bid for re-election- 2012.  But the question is to what is the same as 2008 and what is different.  Will the President receive the laud and accolade he enjoyed last campaign? The  money needed – or will his  donations reflect the wrath of those bitter by the failures at the lost opportunities when the Democrats had both houses and the President’s Pen?

Money came from high tech, movie and music moguls and celebs in general.  What will this California trip yield?  I know that here in San Francisco we expected the passage of UAFA, the Repeal of DOMA, ENDA and the repeal of DADT. We wanted the DREAM ACT and the better part of immigration reform.  While The Don’t Ask Don’t tell Policy was  repealed – much was missed while the President and Speaker played volleyball with HealthCare – now though dubbed Obama-care is rolled  around in a batter of desperate compromise!

The  President has sold out venues at $38000 per plate – and that should bring a chunk of change – but will hands reach as deeply into pockets as in 2008 when Obama seemed to hail the dawn of a new era….. and that he did … but lets look at the score card – Equality is barely nigh for us gays, lesbians, transgender and queerish people. We are sick of being second class citizens – but we must still apply our cash to the slaughter of the Republicons.

Three years after a campaign that featured actors fanning out across the country to stump for Obama, and employees from Google and other high-tech companies joining his team, there have been some signs that fervor for Obama in Hollywood and Silicon Valley has ebbed.” Reports the Washington Post.  “Political strategists say his base of supporters is more sober, perhaps fatigued by recent high-profile state elections.

Certain Hollywood progressives have also been disappointed by the President’s handling of issues such as same-sex marriage.

His packed, star-studded two days on the West Coast include six fundraisers and two town halls, including one Wednesday at the Palo Alto headquarters of Facebook.

On Wednesday evening, he will attend a small dinner hosted by Salesforce.com chief executive Marc Benioff in San Francisco’s regal Pacific Heights neighborhood that will require each guest to donate $35,800 to Obama’s reelection campaign.

The next morning, Obama will attend another expensive fundraiser, fly to Reno, Nev., for a campaign-style speech in that swing state before going to Los Angeles for three fundraisers, including one at Sony Pictures Studios featuring actor Jamie Foxx.

Also on his schedule is a dinner at the Brentwood restaurant Tavern, which film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and recording executive Berry Gordy are expected to attend, according to the Hollywood newspaper Variety.

While all this is going on, we the people will show up holding our signs saying – what about us? STOP the deportation of same-sex partners? Do not let Boehner wast tax money on defending DOMA cases.  Let the Bush tax cut for the rich die!  Give our kids their DREAMACT – repeal DOMA.

However let me make it clear fellow dissatisfied ‘s we must we must support this President while we speak our our signage – we must raise the requisite billions – because I truly believe and I make this predication – that by the very seating of the 112th Congress, President Obama’s entrenchment in a second term is ensured – AS LONG AS WE GIVE the MONEY!!! So we must because rest assured the Republicans may well have stewed their final goose and guess where – at A TEA PARTY!

There is no option but to support the President – as I believe there may be a good chance we could recoup the House as Tea Party madness impacts even the Republicans who hoped they could make something of their time in Congress. However as they continue to obstruct, Boehner is unable to move the hard right,  and while they try outrageous ploys – such as the Boehner attempting to use DOJ money to fund HIS Defense of the Defense of Marriage Act – we can be assured he is  knocking nails one by one into the coffin of the Republican Majority – for a very long time to come….

That said when the day comes the Democrats must be ready for the repeal of DOMA and issues well developed for the completion of the promise of the “Yes We Can”!

I have always said give the Republicans enough rope and they will… you know the rest of the cliché’ and they are well on their way.

So lets get out our purses while we shout from the street –  to hope for the very least or dare we say YES WE CAN?

PS – Despite holding the President’s feet to the fire – I have resolved to support him to the maximum of my capacity; I will be unwavering.  That does not mean I will not continue to critique his tardy equality record.  I do see that he can be influenced and I predict that he will repeal DOMA in a second term…

PRESIDENT OBAMA LGBT FAMILIES ARE IN EXILE AND PAIN
HERE IS MY DONATION
CAN YOU PLEASE MAKE
A PLAN!!

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

HELP! Wednesday 20th of April, President Obama will be in San Francisco for a Fundraiser for his Presidential Campaign. This is an important visit and we on the street will make our priorities and concerns known.  Gays and lesbians cannot sponsor their foreign born spouses causing untold hardship. It is time to end the suffering!

This is going to be a big event and we want you there San Francisco; join Melanie Nathan, Michelle Meow, Swirl Radio, Molly McKay of MEUSA, Amos Lim, Kathy Drasky, Out4Immigration and their amazing grass roots teams for an imperative – essential- critical Protest.  It is time for all LGBT people and our entire community to come out and speak up for our same-sex married couples who cannot sponsor the foreign partner for a green card.

This is a Protest to repeal DOMA, Pass UAFA, and to scream for immediate Visa relief – including the stopping of deportations of our married spouses.

OUT4Immigration, GetEQUAL and MEUSA are now on board as cosponsors of the event.

The Facebook event is located here https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114167805332846.

The event is on April 20^th from 4 to 6 PM at the Masonic Center in San Francisco located at 1111 California Street between Jones and Taylor.

I look forward to seeing all of you at the Masonic Center on Wednesday and let’s try to give this as much attention as we can.

Anonymous Binational foreign partner:  “It is time Please come and tell President Obama that we expect swift action.  We have too many couples suffering. Our friends are leaving for exile this month, – our kids wanna come home…- we are the most horrifically impacted by the Defense of marriage Act- no one knows how desperate we are. It is so sad for me to see my American partner in so much pain because she does not have the same right to sponsor me, her lawful sppouse, for a green card, like other Americans who are married!”

Every Gay San Franciscan -LGBTQI – and allies – Must Come to this Protest We can tell Obama we love him and we can tell him what he needs to do for us. Please comment in ideas for signs…. – PLEASE be there.  !!! SPREAD THE WORD…..

If you are a binational couple wear a mask or cover your face to show who you are… if you are an ally wear a mask or cover your face to show you support same-sex green  cards

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

Monica and Cristina SOURCE "Stop the Deportations"

Amidst an historic ruling, we need  President Obama to take a bold move.  Lavi Soloway, an Immigration Attorney who has been working on “Stop the Deportations” a project to prevent deportation of the foreign partner of same-sex married couples, announced on his website that Monica Alcota and Cristina Ojeda, became the first married, same-sex, binational couple to successfully argue that deportation proceedings should be adjourned until their marriage-based immigration case had been fully adjudicated.

The post reads: “The Immigrations and Customs Enforcement attorney and the Immigration Judge agreed that the couple should be given an opportunity to fight for a green card on the basis of their marriage and generously adjourned proceedings accordingly.  During their brief appearance in court, the discussion centered on an acknowledgment that the couple may have a long road a head of them, but that they should be allowed to pursue their case with U.S. Immigration and Customs Services, the administrative agency that processes marriage-based petitions.  Monica and Cristina will report back to the Judge in December to notify the court and the government attorney of the status of their case.  This is a tremendous victory for The DOMA Project and we hope it will signal a shift in how similar cases will be handled in Immigration Courts across the country.”

An immigration judge in Manhattan made an historic ruling this morning, according to Lavi Soloway at Stop the Deportations:

“This morning, Monica Alcota and Cristina Ojeda, became the first married, same-sex, binational  (bi-national) couple to successfully argue that deportation proceedings should be adjourned until their marriage-based immigration case had been fully adjudicated. The Immigrations and Customs Enforcement attorney and the Immigration Judge agreed that the couple should be given an opportunity to fight for a green card on the basis of their marriage and generously adjourned proceedings accordingly.

During their brief appearance in court, the discussion centered on an acknowledgment that the couple may have a long road a head of them, but that they should be allowed to pursue their case with U.S. Immigration and Customs Services, the administrative agency that processes marriage-based petitions.  Monica and Cristina will report back to the Judge in December to notify the court and the government attorney of the status of their case.  This is a tremendous victory for The DOMA Project and we hope it will signal a shift in how similar cases will be handled in Immigration Courts across the country.”

Gay City News interviews the couple:

For Alcota and Ojeda, the legal developments of the last eight months –– in Boston, Washington, and now Manhattan –– represent some respite from what has been “hanging over our heads,” Ojeda explained –– “that I would lose her.”

That’s exactly what happened to Ojeda –– for three months at least –– in 2009. As the couple traveled through upstate New York by bus to bring Ojeda’s belongings from Buffalo, where she had just finished up a master’s degree in social work, to Queens, where the two women now live, a spot border control check resulted in Alcota being detained by immigration officials. She ended up in a privately-run detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, from which she could have been deported at any time.

Finally, an Immigration Judge saw Alcota and determined she had “a reasonable fear” of persecution should she be returned to Argentina. She had fled her home country, where she lived in a region near the Chilean border, with her then-partner because the two believed their lives were at risk.

PRESIDENT OBAMA ITS UP TO YOU WE WANT OUR FAMILIES TO BE TOGETHER – WE WANT THE SAME RIGHTS AS YOU!!

My Opinion: This may be precedent setting.  There are other couples in the same predicament as I am writing this -  foreign same-sex  spouses who have cases before the Immigration Judges.  Perhaps if these couples  who are married, were to file such Petitions with Department of Home Land Security, based on Alien relative petitions for green cards, they too may enjoy such suspensions of their deportation orders.

However some may prefer to continue with their asylum proceedings so that their positions are declaratory and reach conclusive results.   This may or may not be advisable depending on the case.  I can attest to the fact that when one goes through a detention period of any length,  deportation hearings, asylum proceedings all the while scrambling to find willing pro bono attorneys,   it gets to a point where one simply wants to live life without the ongoing  drama of uncertainty.

Clearly until the  DOMA law repeals, the law changes via special visas,  or UAFA is passed, the situation of the Couple in this story remains open ended and they are still at great risk.

It is time for President OBAMA to issue an executive Order for these couples and all couples who want to stay with their same-sex spouses in the USA.  If the President is challenged,   let the government be the ones to spend money on lawsuits not the individuals. That is the kind of leadership the LGBTI community expects of this administration.

PS.   I am Still in South Africa! Returning home soon…….

MORE ON SAME  SEX GREEN CARDS by Melanie Nathan

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

Daniel Hernandez - getting ready to go in

Melanie Nathan- January 25-2011- Tweet from Daniel Hernandez, openly gay man, just turned 21, credited with saving the life of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, as he works his way towards guest status at the White House and his first ever and maybe not last attendance at the State of the Union Speech. (SOTU)

He says “the Really excited for my 21st bday and #SOTU.”

Historic DANIEL’s Earlier Tweets leading to today-

Daniel Hernandez

Getting ready to go to the white house. http://yfrog.com/hsadldkj

30 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Thanks to Jimmie L for the fun 21st birthday festivities! Really excited for my 21st bday and #SOTU.

16 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Greeting First Lady

Celebrating 21st bday with DC friend Jimmie at Jr’s on 17th if in the area say hi!

18 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

On a private tour of the Blair house #SOTU.

24 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

@ltdanchoi I’m going to the State of the Union thanks for that plug to get me there earlier last week!

24 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

Just landed in DC. Heading to hotel. Excited for the next couple of days.

23 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

Finally through security bags checked now waiting for boarding with my dad.

23 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

I’m doing well. Hectic at best. How are you?

23 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

First ASA Board Meeting tomorrow but I’m calling in from Sky Harbor Airport. DC here I come.

23 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

Excited to go to Phoenix today to get back to work representing and advocating for Arizona students and higher education in AZ.

21 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

»

Just a minor correction to your tweet about me. I am not a naturalized citizen. I am a Tucson Arizona Native.

16 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

In absolute awe how people have been coming together to support the families of the victims. We are one big family 300+ Million strong.

11 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

At the bank found out someone in california is using my identity to have an account with Wells Fargo…..

Excited for my first day at the @Rep_Giffords office tomorrow for my internship!

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

Related articles

• Tucson Hero Hernandez To Attend State of the Union Speech (lezgetreal.com)

Phillips wrote in a piece entitled “Obama to sell America to China, “In 2008, Obama even received campaign contributions from Gaza (I.e. Hamas). So where does a corrupt, unpopular President from the party of treason go for reelection cash? China, of course.” He also wrote “The question is, did he come simply as a head of state or as the leader of the country that is going to buy the United States?” and “Both Obama and Hu have the same vision for the future of America. They both want to see America as a weakened, impotent power, incapable of doing anything without international assistance.”

Phillips might want to talk to the last Bush to hold the office since, in order to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan, he did a lot of selling American debt to China.

He also wondered why President Hu chose to visit Chicago saying “What does Chicago have that could be so interesting to Hu? Could it be the Obama reelection headquarters?”

He went on “Obama is desperate for cash. “The Washington Post has predicted his reelection campaign could cost $1 billion dollars. Where can he get that kind of cash?”

And on:

The party of treason has never been shy about taking foreign cash, even though it’s illegal. In 2008, Obama even received campaign contributions from Gaza (I.e. Hamas). So where does a corrupt, unpopular President from the party of treason go for reelection cash? China, of course.

Phillips is referring to the theory that was created out of whole cloth by anti-Muslim bigot Pamela Geller in 2008 that Obama was receiving campaign contributions from Gaza despite the fact that no evidence ever surfaced and her claims were wildly inaccurate. Still, Phillips is the tea party leader who wants to ban the Methodist Church in the US, and let only property owners vote at all.

Source

Melanie Nathan- Jan 06, 2011.  Famous Windy City political family,  Gatekeeper, Adviser and the vilified banking industry come to the White House in the form William Daley, President Barack Obama’s new Chief of Staff.

President Obama introduced William Daley moments ago as his new Chief of Staff.  Rumor has it that Bill Daley will be very comfortable as a public face for the White House.  Daley, who does not need much more by way of resume credentials may well be perfect for the job, citing his first visit to the WH as a child 50 years ago, with mom and dad. He must truly feel that he belongs.

He is not really a banker, but rather a shrewd political operative. But after the banking debacle one wonders whether anyone should be rewarded in any way who had any senior association with the mess.

As many as eight key jobs will soon be filled in an administration-wide game of musical chairs, among them the role of press secretary. Robert Gibbs, who has served in that job for the past two years, confirmed Wednesday that he is leaving the administration, saying he will play an outside advisory role and give speeches.

The president will also retain Pete Rouse as counselor. The president will make the announcement at 2:30 p.m. ET Thursday in the White House briefing room.

Adam Green, co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee at BoldProgressives.org, expressed his dissatisfaction with the choice saying, “This was a real mistake by the White House. Bill Daley consistently urges the Democratic Party to pursue a corporate agenda that alienates both Independent and Democratic voters. If President Obama listens to that kind of political advice from Bill Daley, Democrats will suffer a disastrous 2012.”‬‬

Source Washington Post.

Melanie  Nathan

The Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy still has a way to go, needing the approval of the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of Joint Chief of Staff, followed by a 60-day waiting period. Aside from assuring it will be “months, not years, the White House has not given a time table as to how long the process will take or when exactly the policy will finally end. Until that time, organizations such as Servicemembers United have cautioned lesbian, gay, and bisexual servicemembers about coming out until the the law is finally repealed.

Some of those who attended today’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal signing included: Senator Al Franken, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Mark Udal, Congressman Jared Pollis, and Congressman Barney Frank, as well as advocates such as former Lt. Dan Choi,First Class Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen (Ret), former Cpl. Evelyn Thomas, former Sgt. Justin Elize and Former West Point Cadet Katie Miller.  After promising to hold accountable President Obama until he repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Robin McGehee from GetEQUAL was in attendance along with Heather Cronk and Paul Yandura. Longtime activists David Mixner and Frank Karmeny were also in attendance and said they were overjoyed.

The occasion was especially emotional for former Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, the first Marine seriously injured in Iraq, who stood on stage with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid during the ceremony. In his remarks, President Obama said, “No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie, or look over their shoulder, in order to serve the country that they love.”

The Don’t Ask Don’t Tell struggle is far from over as families of LGBT service members still do not have acknowledgment or legal equality. As the implementation of the repeal starts to happen there will be glaring holes, shedding light on the inequity for LGB(T )service members. This could result in the desired impetus for full equality to the entire country.

Although not included in the original DADT Act, Transgender and gender-nonconforming service members continue to be excluded through special medical designations from serving in the military, at all.  One wonders if a medical designation requires its own BILL or if such can be changed via policy or executive order.

Also until such time as The Defense of Marriage Act is repealed there will be no equality for Lesbian and Gays serving, as DADT repeal simply allows them to serve.Housing, medical, all benefits will be missing for same -sex couples.   In essence all DADT does is say that gays and lesbians can now serve openly.

For as long as the discriminatory laws remain in place, such as DOMA, in essence LGBT service members will not have parity with heterosexual servicemembers.

Another well known fact is that Servicemembers often fall in love while stationed on foreign soil.  Straight service members can marry and  sponsor spouses for green cards, with ease; yet even  if married (legally according to State law or foreign Country Law) Gay and Lesbian spouses/ partners do not share the same right.  There is no way for a gay or lesbian American citizen in the military or otherwise,  to bring their foreign partner into the USA.

The bill also does not regulate policy or address concerns regarding military academies providing welcoming safe spaces or allowances for lesbian, gay, or bisexual cadets and students. Former West Point Cadet Katie Miller said today that “although Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is making history today, I do not think students or cadets will be willing to come out in that setting. Much more work needs to be done to have safe schools.”

The hope of  the DADT repeal is its ability to provide a visible  micro of the macro; and hence  may well serve to jump start the emerging LGBT civil rights movement that will ensue for absolute full equality based also on gender identity and sexual orientation.

As President Obama finished signing the Don’t Ask Don’t Tel Repeal Act of 2010 into law, he stood up very proudly and said, “that is done”.

One part is done, Mr. President, but until the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal policy is certified and put in place, transgender and gender non-conforming service members are included, and all military cadets and students feel safe on campus, as well as marriage equality made law, this is a mere start – we still have a lot more work to do.

Picture by Shannon Cuttle©
DADT  Survivors:-
Evelyn Thomas and  Katie Miller,

Article Melanie Nathan and Shannon Cuttle
nathan@privatecourts.com

Related articles

• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Makes Cloture! (lezgetreal.com)
• Out Lesbian Cadet, Katie Miller Wants Back in Military (lezgetreal.com)
• DADT Repeal Means Joy, Sorrow, And Still A Threat Of Discharge For Now (lezgetreal.com)
• President Obama Has Repealed ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ (lezgetreal.com)
• Rep. Baldwin: DADT Repeal “Is Long Overdue, But No Less Welcome” (lezgetreal.com)
• House Passes DADT Repeal Bill- On To The Senate (lezgetreal.com)
• NCLR Applauds “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal (lezgetreal.com)

Melanie Nathan – Dec -23-2010 The Department of State announce the introduction of a redesigned Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA). The CRBA is an official record confirming that a child born overseas to a U.S. citizen parent acquired U.S. citizenship at birth. The redesigned document has state-of-the-art security features that make it extremely resistant to alterations or forgery.

CRBAs have been printed at U.S. Embassies and Consulates around the world since their introduction in 1919. Effective January 3, 2011, CRBAs will be printed at our passport facilities in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and New Orleans, Louisiana. Centralizing production and eliminating the distribution of controlled blank form stock throughout the world ensures improved uniform quality and lessens the threat of fraud.

Applications for U.S. passports and the redesigned CRBA will also use the title of “parent” as opposed to “mother” and “father.” These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families.

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

Melanie Nathan; Nov 28-2010  -What I noticed while viewing Senators Claire McCaskill and Lindsey Graham,  on FOX  News was a new Mantra emerging from the Republican Lexicon, and its not one that should surprise anyone.  This one though will be sure to attest  President Obama’s biggest challenge; which may overtly seem possible given the GOP drone!  No its not quite as blatant as “move the goal post,” instead its couched in the usual rah rah – a simple talking point – of course!

It is clear from today’s Press rounds that the new drum beat is “thou shalt pass nothing” for as long as President Obama is President!”   Oops sorry that was the old one – the new one is a little more specific, as conveyed today by Senator Lindsey Graham, the yet to come out Senator, who was adamant in his echo “Don’t’Ask Don’t Tell will not pass the lame duck session – because they do not have the votes and the main new drum roll which initially traversed the senile throat box of McCain is ”The study I would be looking for is asking military members: Should it be repealed, not how to implement it once you as a politician decide to repeal it,” the latter being the new roar.  Since when is the military a democracy – I though the USA was the democracy.  As a lesbian I don’t ever remember electing a military servicemember.  This administration must do  the right thing in changing laws and policy to keep up with the rest of the civilized world;  we must shape up and repealing DADT is a political decision and the Democrats are still in charge Mr. Graham and some of your colleagues may declare a familiar “thy protesteth tooooo loud!

There is no groundswell of opposition to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell coming from our military. This is all politics. I don’t believe there is anywhere near the votes to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. On the Republican side, I think we will be united in the lame duck,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. on FOX News Sunday.

GOP politicians  are clearly wanting to oppose the repeal of DADT period and if it will not be one mantra to effect feigned legitimacy to their obstructionism, it will simply be another. What came out of the house was the necessity for the report now due this week.  Has Graham, and gang seen it and afraid that it is too supportive of repeal? Too bad Lindsey but its too late to change the strategy on this Congress and so lame duck it shall be.  You are not psyching me out ; with thanks for the heads up Activists are now going to step up the ante instead of allow your male fideis to rule again.

Lindsey failed to purge any narrative whatsoever when it came to the very obvious question – “What about the Defense Budget desperately needed to fund our at war troops?”

Mmmmm to I detect a silence or is there a mantra for that too?

Graham said the results the new Pentagon study is not as important as finding out whether the military rank-and-file believe gay and lesbian troops should be able to serve openly. ”The study I would be looking for is asking military members: Should it be repealed, not how to implement it once you as a politician decide to repeal it,” Graham said. Too late Mr Graham – time is up – you should have won that point some months ago – but this is wjhat congress requested as the next step…… so Leila tov…

The Huffington Post said Graham’s comments may not reflect the sentiments of all of his GOP colleagues.

While Graham’s top ally in the chamber — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — has also moved the goalposts for DADT repeal, others have been more sympathetic to revising or overturning the law. That list includes Sens. Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and even Jon Ensign (R-Nev.).

Yes its all politics damn right…..

Now Repeal DADT and Fund the Military enough of your horse crap already!

BY MELANIE NATHAN
nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda

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Related articles

• John McCain Says That DADT “Is Working” (towleroad.com)
• Lindsey Graham: ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Is Not Going Anywhere’ (huffingtonpost.com)

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