-
-
Black Girls Rock!
Flickr Photos
-
Potus Takes Oath of Office
Flotus & Daughters at Great Wall of China
My Brothers Keeper
-
-
-
-
-
AFRO PUFFS
Most Adorable Shoe Stealer
Six Little Babies
Fatherhood
-
-
Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
-
3Chics Action Alert
Lets Make It Happen
3 Chics Trio
-
REALITY Blog Award
Recent Comments
rikyrah on Weekend Open Thread rikyrah on Weekend Open Thread rikyrah on Weekend Open Thread rikyrah on Weekend Open Thread rikyrah on Weekend Open Thread rikyrah on Weekend Open Thread Top Posts
Guard The Change
Vote 4 Democrats
-
-
-
Go to the polls
President Barack Obama
First Lady Michelle Obama
Obama Love
Your Vote Matters
President Obama & Bo
The Obama Family
-
-
-
-
Presidential hug
-
President Obama speaks to the press in Bali Indonesia at 2:40 AM EST November 18. Tune in at http://wh.gov/live.
My President!
US President Barack Obama lands in Canberra, Australia November 2011 aboard Air Force One
Barack Obama arrives in Indonesia
[wpvideo ZnxfsuaU]
Barack in Bali
BREAKING: Arizona Supreme Court Reverses Brewer-Led Impeachment, Reinstates Redistricting Commission Chair
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/11/17/371870/arizona-supreme-court-redistricting/
In a stunning reversal, the Arizona Supreme Court tonight reversed an attempted power grab by Gov. Jan Brewer (R) and her Republican colleagues in the state legislature.
Last month, the state Senate took up Brewer’s push to impeach Colleen Mathis, the chairwoman of Arizona’s independent bipartisan redistricting commission. Even Brewer herself couldn’t explain how Mathis had exhibited “neglect of duty and gross misconduct,” the only grounds for impeachment in Arizona. Indeed, Mathis’ only real “crime” appears to be that she led a commission which drew a new congressional map with more competitive districts than had existed previously.
However, justice prevailed tonight as the Arizona Supreme Court rebuffed Brewer and decided to reinstate Mathis to lead the commission:
Syracuse Assistant Bernie Fine Being Investigated For Child Molestation
http://justkhaotic.com/?p=752
Syracuse police say they are in the early stages of investigating allegations that Syracuse University basketball assistant coach Bernie Fine molested a team ball boy during the 1980s, according to an ESPN report.
One of two alleged victims, Bobby Davis, 39, came forward with allegations in 2003, but he was told by authorities that the statute of limitations had run out. At that time, former Syracuse basketball player Dennis Duval was police chief. ESPN’s Outside the Lines was prepared to run a story on the case, but, at the time, they were unable to find any corroborating evidence to support Davis’s claims.
Recently, a second alleged victim has come forward to say that he was also molested by Fine. The second man says that the recent Sandusky case inspired him to come forward.
President Obama just sealed a deal on the largest trade deal between Indonesia and the U.S in history. 110,000 jobs. http://theobamadiary.com/
ThinkProgress:
Herman Cain: “We have a moral crisis!” Audience member: “You have a moral crisis!” http://thkpr.gs/ue74E1
Before leaving office, Romney staff wiped records
Ex-governor’s aides say they did nothing wrong
By Michael Levenson and Matt Viser | Globe Staff November 17, 2011
Just before Mitt Romney left the Massachusetts governor’s office and first ran for president, 11 of his top aides purchased their state-issued computer hard drives, and the Romney administration’s e-mails were all wiped from a server, according to interviews and records obtained by the Globe.
Romney administration officials had the remaining computers in the governor’s office replaced just before Governor Deval Patrick’s staff showed up to take power in January 2007, according to Mark Reilly, Patrick’s chief legal counsel.
As a result, Patrick’s office, which has been bombarded with inquiries for records from the Romney era, has no electronic record of any Romney administration e-mails, Reilly said.
Continue reading below
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2011/11/17/before-leaving-governor-office-mitt-romney-staff-eliminated-mail-records/xIVEQd87zi0X0tl8KrXKYM/story.html
WHERE ARE ALL THOSE E-MAILS, MITTENS?
What a dipshit LIAR
Look at the crowd Bachmann is feeding this boatload of shit to. Pushing Nothing but LIES & FEAR. Girl, BYE!
Breaking…… WIND….
Presidential candidate Herman Cain will receive protection from the U.S. Secret Service, a source in federal law enforcement and two other sources told CNN.
Cain will be the first candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2012 election cycle to be placed under the protection of the federal law enforcement agency. The reason was not yet clear.
While early, it is not unprecedented for the Secret Service to take over the security of a presidential candidate. In May 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama, who was running for the Democratic nomination, was placed under Secret Service protection
Lemme guess; all those women he allegedly sexually harrassed are threatening this negro.
BWD tweeted:
Sources: Secret Service To Protect Herman Cain. From what? His stupidity?
BWA HA HA HA
Rick Perry: Obama Never Had To Work For Anything
Benjy Sarlin November 17, 2011, 12:17 PM
Rick Perry says President Obama, the son of a teen mother who frequently was absent from his life and often was stretched financially, grew up the easy way. It’s the latest in a series of winks at conspiracy-minded conservatives deeply suspicious about the president’s background.
Perry’s comments came as he discussed his new ad attacking Obama for saying US policymakers have grown “lazy” about honing America’s competitive edge, a comment that Republicans have inaccurately suggested was aimed at American workers. Asked by FOX News host Sean Hannity about the spot, Perry launched into a highly personal attack on Obama.
“It reveals to me that he grew up in a privileged way,” he said. “He never had to really work for anything.”
He added that “we need a president who has been through their ups and downs in life, and understands what it’s like to have to deal with the issues in our economy that we have today in America.”
It’s a tough sell considering Obama’s actual life story. Obama’s father moved away almost immediately after he was born, leaving him to be raised by his mother and grandparents in Hawaii and Indonesia. He’s frequently brought up his mother’s sometime reliance on food stamps to support the family. Later he worked his way up to becoming the first black head of the Harvard Law review — a feat that made national news at the time and secured him a book deal — en route to a prodigious political career. And Perry, whose aides insisted he get more sleep after a series of disastrously listless campaign appearances, ought to know better than anyone that presidential campaigns are a pretty tough slog.
But Perry’s latest attack is part of a recurring pattern. While Mitt Romney has mostly eschewed attacks on Obama’s biography, the Texas governor has frequently raised questions about his origins. He called for Obama to release his college grades, a popular meme on the right that emerged from birther circles. The obvious unstated implication, of course, is that Obama got into Harvard based on his race instead of his academic achievement. If that didn’t give the game away, Perry started openly musing about whether Obama’s birth certificate was a forgery before backing off the suggestion.
From a strategic perspective, there’s some sense to these tactics as a last-ditch gambit to turn around the Texas governor’s toxic poll numbers. If Perry can bait Democratic critics into accusing him of racially tinged attacks on Obama, he can cast himself as a victim and rally conservative media and Tea Party activists behind him. So far it hasn’t worked, but it certainly isn’t for lack of trying.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/rick-perry-obama-never-had-to-work-for-anything.php?ref=fpblg
A History of Segregation in the NFL
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Nov 17 2011, 10:00 AM ET 113
Of course an accursed Cowboys fan, like yours truly, absolutely loved this piece on the racism of storied Redskins owner George Marshall:
Still, in the early days of professional football, with teams like the Kenosha Maroons and the Staten Island Stapletons–nearly fifty different squads in the 1920s, many of which were able to stay in business only a year or two–the very idea of a pro football league was mocked. Baseball was the national pastime, already inspiring writers like Ring Lardner; college football was beloved in the places where it still is today (Ann Arbor, South Bend), and many where it’s now an afterthought (the Bronx, New Haven). Boxing and thoroughbred racing rounded out the big four spectator sports of the day. Professional football barely registered.
It is largely for this reason that the NFL, in contrast to major league baseball, had actually had a few black players–the owners were desperate enough to accept them, and the public just didn’t care enough to lodge the usual protests about “mongrelization.” But in 1933, the league suddenly banned black players. It did so secretively, and no one would ever own up to the decision.
For decades afterward, none of the game’s celebrated founding owners–George Halas of Chicago, Tim Mara of New York, Art Rooney of Pittsburgh, Tex Schramm of Los Angeles–would ever admit that there’d been a pact. But somehow, black players disappeared. Smith, a professor at Nichols College in Massachusetts, interviewed several owners and writes that evidence points to Marshall as the ban’s instigator. In a 1942 interview, Marshall argued that if black players were allowed to participate, Smith writes, “white players, especially those from the South, would go to extremes to physically disable them,” so they were kept off the field in their own best interests.
\
When Marshall died in 1969 he stipulated that his estate be used to found the Redskins Foundation. The Foundation was barred from spending money on “any purpose which supports or employs the principle of racial integration in any form.”
This is all good stuff, as the Redskins are the only team truly worthy of a Cowboys fan’s hate. Forgive but I’m scarred by the likes of John Riggins, Darrell Green, Clint Diddier, The Hogs and The Fun Bunch steam-rolling the Cowboys throughout the 80s. I’ll take any extra reason to disparage them.
Of course even this hatred has a wrinkle–and that would be the great Doug Williams. Being a Philly native, my Dad hated the Cowboys. He even became a temporary Redskins fan when Joe Gibbs brought in Williams. One of my fondest memories is checking out the 1986 Super Bowl with my Pops and watching him talk shit about Jay Schroeder and scream for Williams. It really wasn’t possible to be black and not cheer for the Redskins on that day.
I wonder what Marshall would say if he knew, barely 20 years after his death, his team would host the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl. Progress is a machine.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/11/a-history-of-segregation-in-the-nfl/248625/
Pelosi To Hensarling On Medicare: You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me!
Brian Beutler November 17, 2011, 12:44 PM
With just six days left until the Super Committee deadline, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) acknowledged Thursday that the panel is unlikely to agree on the sort of broad deficit-cutting bargain she and other Democratic leaders have pushed for. And she made a strong case that the GOP’s allergy to taxes is the reason her expectations have diminished.
Specifically, she responded to Republican Super Committee co-chair Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) who on Wednesday said Democrats would have to agree to dramatic steps — such as partially privatizing Medicare — before Republicans would agree to substantial new tax revenues.
“We have [put Medicare on the table], as a matter of fact,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly Capitol briefing.
As I mentioned we subscribed to what the President put forth in January. In his grand bargain, just to recall, there was a menu of savings that the President and the Speaker had put together from which some of these entitlement changes could take place. That’s one. As I said before we already have gone down this path a half a trillion dollars in savings to strengthen Medicare in the past. And one of the reasons to address the entitlement issue is to strengthen them. To prolong them. But if your goal is to eliminate them — if the goal of the Republicans is to say…that the Bush tax cuts must be extended…if the plan is to extend the Bush tax cuts and to repeal the Medicare guarantee for our seniors — well that’s not balance, and that’s a place we can not go.
Pelosi’s point is straightforward. Democrats cut Medicare spending by $500 billion over 10 years in the health care law — cuts Republicans attacked viciously in the 2010 midterm elections. They have offered up hundreds of billions more in cuts and savings — though not necessarily the same cuts and savings Republicans prefer — in deficit negotiations since then. But as Republicans made clear in their budget, and as they’ve hinted at in recent public statements, they want to fundamentally change the program — even phase it out. If Democrats are willing to engage them on that turf then maybe Republicans would offer up some new revenues — though even then they’d want the Bush tax rates frozen in place.
But if Democrats want to trim Medicare spending and pour that money back into the program to increase its solvency, that’s not something Republicans will really count as a concession.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/pelosi-to-hensarling-on-medicare-youve-got-to-be-kidding-me.php?ref=fpb
November 17, 2011
Sydney Greenstreet’s parallel universe
I was beginning to think the Beltway commentariat was granting, not atypically, this Republican linguistic curiosity a pass: that a “covert” operation can be overtly proposed, while maintaining its covert integrity.
Thus, in “The Maltese Falcon,” still the classiest tale ever of skulduggery, deceit and intrigue, Sydney Greenstreet announced to Humphrey Bogart that he was slipping him a mickey.
Well, Greenstreet would have, had he been scheming as a modern GOP presidential wannabe. And I wish he were around to do so. For the party could use a little cloak-and-dagger class.
Last Saturday night — you’ve probably blocked it from your recall center; it was that Night at the Comic Opera, another GOP debate — Mitt Romney, as I noted at the time,
opened by asserting that President Obama should have provided “covert assistance” to the Iranian resistance movement. Perhaps Obama did. How would we know, if the assistance was indeed covert, just as Romney demanded?
Naturally I assumed that similar and quite voluble howls of perplexity would soon erupt from both pundits and press. That such howls were muted or mum, however, was understandable, given the other and abundant piles of perplexity that all the wannabes coughed up that night.
Yet David Ignatius gets around to it today, and his complete column is required reading:
What is it about “covert” that the Republicans don’t understand?… Activities that are so glibly discussed lose some of their credibility, in addition to their deniability.
All of which, though, poses a much broader question. In their shabby pursuits of the lowest and commonest denominators, is there anything these Republican wannabes won’t say, anyone to whom they won’t pander, any line they won’t cross, any logic they won’t butcher, any tradition they won’t upend, any propriety they won’t violate?
Appears not.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2011/11/sydney-greenstreets-parallel-universe.html
November 17, 2011
Lazy Republicans
Walter Dellinger, a former acting U.S. Solicitor General, penned the lead reaction to Politico’s “Arena” questions today: “Will the president’s comment come back to haunt him in campaign 2012? Have his words been misconstrued?” Wrote Dellinger, with a perfect balance of ire and curtness:
I am ashamed to be part of this conversation. The moderator’s question refers as if it were a fact to “President Barack Obama’s recent characterization of the American people as ‘a little bit lazy.’ ” He said no such thing.
Contributors to this exchange who are responding with criticism of the president for calling the American people lazy must know full well that they are perpetuating a falsehood.
But this is American politics, in which, for Republicans, falsehoods are king; regicide is noble, as long as it’s a Democratic president in power; and, as long as he’s a GOPer, a Mad Lugwig on the throne is just fine.
So right on cue, a former Republican congressman strutted his party’s severe dissociative disorder:
Yes, it will haunt him and it should. It will go down as one of many inappropriate, derisive comments aimed at the people and nation he was elected to lead, not mock, much like Jimmy Carter’s “malaise, crisis of confidence” speech.
Speaking of lazy…who’s the guy that has been playing all that golf?
What an idiot. The “Carter-malaise” invention just never gets old with these boys. And oh, yes, speaking of lazy, the guy’s name was George W. Bush.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2011/11/lazy-republicans.html
Do We Have to Talk About Newt?
by BooMan
Thu Nov 17th, 2011 at 12:27:19 PM EST
Everyone is piling on poor Newt Gingrich now that’s he’s shot to the head of the polls. I find it difficult to write about Newt for the simple reason that his flaws are so out-sized and so his record is so ridiculous that it seems almost petty to mention any single issue, as if by mentioning it you don’t give justice to the rest of his opus. My instinct is to basically ignore him and to always refer to him as the “disgraced” former Speaker. I also have a hidden motive. I actually want Newt Gingrich to do well in the primaries. Why use all our ammunition now? If ever a situation called for keeping our powder dry, this is it. Let Newt coast along piling up delegates and then bring the hammer down. Alas, even the corporate media senses their obligation to inform the public, once again, that Gingrich is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with American politics. Yet, for my money, he’s also the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the Republican Party.
I am not shocked that he’s taken the lead in the race for the GOP’s presidential nomination. I predicted it. That he is tolerated and supported by a large segment of the Republican base is indicative of a kind of collective amnesia and selective memory. Yes, he’s little more than a stand-in for the Not Mitt Romney sentiment of conservative America, but he’s actually guilty of nearly every sin Mitt Romney is known for, and dozens more besides. Pick any issue you want, whether it be the environment, immigration, pork barrel spending, corporate welfare, lobbying for Freddie Mac, rank hypocrisy, unseemly adultery, taking both sides of an issue, being reprimanded for unethical behavior…Newt Gingrich has been on the wrong side of the conservative movement countless times. But all of that is temporarily shrugged off. Newt Gingrich should be an object of disdain and ridicule whether you are a liberal, a conservative, or an independent. The press understands this and will now try to convey that message to the Republican voters. Most likely, they’ll actually listen this time, because Gingrich’s record is indefensible regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/11/17/122719/92
November 17, 2011 2:45 PM
Quote of the Day
By Steve Benen
Herman Cain campaigned in New Hampshire today, where he was asked to explain his child-like incoherence on international affairs. The Republican presidential candidate said knowing details isn’t important. Cain added:
“We need a leader, not a reader.”
Seriously. That’s what he said.
I’m tempted to note that reading is a prerequisite to leading, since leaders need some kind of base of information upon which to make decision. I’m also inclined to mention that no one’s asked Cain to name obscure foreign policy details that only experts would know. This week, he was asked, “Did you agree with President Obama on Libya or not?” It wasn’t a trick question or a quiz on the minutiae of international affairs, but Cain nevertheless had absolutely no idea what to say.
But never mind all of that. The real response is to note the similarities between Cain’s nonsense and “The Simpsons Movie.” Eric Kleefeld posted this clip:
For those who can’t watch clips online, the movie shows President Schwarzenegger being presented with five detailed files outlining competing options to respond to a crisis. Schwarzenegger immediately picks #3. Asked if he wanted to read the files before choosing, he explains, “I was elected to lead, not to read.”
The point of the joke, of course, was to mock George W. Bush and his role as The Decider.
Of course, Herman Cain makes George W. Bush look like Stephen Hawking.
Life imitates art imitates life.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/quote_of_the_day_23033562.php
A federal prosecutor said Thursday that a man accused of firing shots near the White House will be charged with attempting to assassinate the president or a member of his staff.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, who was detained Wednesday in Pennsylvania, was allegedly involved in a shooting Friday night near the White House. Two bullets were found on the White House grounds, one of which hit the building’s bulletproof windows, according to the Secret Service.
Republicans do not want to cut Medicare either
by Tim F.
Now Jeb Hensarling wants Democrats offer up some Medicare cuts in exchange for tax revenues. It seems awfully convenient, doesn’t it? Republicans get to keep low taxes for rich people, weaken the social safety net and cut a bunch of ads blaming Democrats for higher taxes and less Medicare (though not in the same ad, lest it give the wrong impression). Democrats should tell them to piss off and eat the trigger. It will hurt (as intended) but a hundred times less than the ridiculous ‘deal’ that is on the table now.
And let the goddamn tax cuts expire already. At least put them on the table and make the GOP give something up if it wants to keep them so bad.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/17/they-do-not-want-to-cut-medicare-either/#comments
November 17, 2011 10:00 AM
Newt keeps Freddie Mac records under wraps
By Steve Benen
Questions surrounding Newt Gingrich’s consulting work for Freddie Mac will, if his campaign has anything to do with it, remain under wraps.
Gingrich, in Iowa Wednesday, defended his role in the troubled federally-backed housing agency that paid him as much as $1.8 million for consulting work.
He told reporters that he would release as many documents as possible.
But late this afternoon Gingrich’s campaign simply released a list of facts they wanted to reiterate. Spokesman R.C. Hammond said: “This is it” when asked when the public could expect the documents Gingrich had earlier said he would try to provide.
“This,” in this case, was a statement reiterating the campaign line from the last few days. There were no materials documenting Gingrich’s work with the troubled mortgage giant.
As a rule, when a candidate vows to release specific documents, and then the campaign refuses to release those documents, it’s not a good sign.
Keep in mind, as reader H.W. reminded me last night, Gingrich argued in a debate last month that “if you want to put people in jail,” he’s inclined to start with those who were “close to” lobbyists “at Freddie Mac.”
Oops.
On a related note, Gingrich boasted on Fox News this week that he’d bring an “outsider’s viewpoint” to Washington.
For the record, Gingrich was elected to Congress in the late 1970s, worked his way up to Speaker of the House, has lived inside the D.C. beltway for decades, located his businesses in D.C., has a home in one of D.C.’s wealthiest suburbs, and has appeared in D.C. media as a talking head on a nearly daily basis for years.
When ol’ Newt maintained a six-figure line of credit at Tiffany’s, it wasn’t at one of the upscale chain’s outside-the-beltway locations.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/newt_keeps_freddie_mac_records033552.php
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAA
………………………………………..
Posted at 01:45 PM ET, 11/17/2011
Pelosi mocks Perry’s debate request
By Felicia Sonmez
Will Nancy Pelosi debate Rick Perry anytime soon?
Don’t count on it.
The House minority leader had a quip at the ready when she was asked at her weekly press briefing Thursday about the Texas governor’s letter challenging her to a “public debate” next Monday.
“Well, he did ask if I could debate here in Washington on Monday. It is my understanding that the letter has come in,” Pelosi said. “Monday, I’m going to be in Portland in the morning. I’m going to be visiting some of our labs in California in the afternoon. That’s two. I can’t remember what the third thing is.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/pelosi-mocks-perrys-debate-request/2011/11/17/gIQAdPSyUN_blog.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost
November 17, 2011 12:35 PM
The truth is supposed to matter most
By Steve Benen
President Obama told business leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that U.S. policymakers have been “a little bit lazy” when it comes to attracting businesses to American soil. Republicans have taken this line and said the president called Americans “lazy.” They’re lying.
It’s been pleasantly surprised by the number of news outlets who’ve been willing to tell the public the truth. Usually, it’s up to blogs to set the record straight — in this case, MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, Slate, Time, ABC, and National Journal have all said Republicans are taking Obama’s comments out of context. Good for them.
And then there’s Politico, which ran a 1,300 word piece that emphasized Republicans’ use of the out-of-context quote, while downplaying the relevant detail: Republicans are misleading the public.
A video clip of President Barack Obama calling America “a little bit lazy” is quickly becoming a focus of Republican campaigns, and GOP operatives say it will get plenty of play not only on the presidential battlefield but also in down-ballot congressional races.
Alec MacGillis explained the problem with this kind of coverage.
Not until the bottom of the first page does the article get into detail on whether the quote was taken out of context, and even then, it puts that counter into the mouths of Democratic operatives, as if it was beyond the scope or ability of the reporters to make that judgment themselves. And why would they want to knock it down, anyway? If they do, then there’s no story, and no reason to engage in all manner of speculation, as the article proceeds to do for two more pages.
Politico’s report is one of those stories that’s frustrating to read. The piece is 30 paragraphs long, not about Republicans deceiving people, but about how explosive the misleading attacks are. What matters, according to the cynical Politico article, is the way in which the GOP is exploiting an opportunity, not whether that exploitation is accurate, fair, or advancing the public debate.
That’s just not how quality political journalism is supposed to work.
In the meantime, the DNC has a good new video out, responding to the Republican attacks.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/the_truth_is_supposed_to_matte033559.php
November 17, 2011 2:10 PM
The wrong candidate to push ‘transparency’
By Steve Benen
Nearly six years ago, Mitt Romney decided he had a pretty credible shot at the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Once that judgment had been made, the governor put together a to-do list.
First, Romney had to announce he wouldn’t seek a second term, in large part because he’d lose and it would interfere with his ambitions. Second, he had to trash his entire worldview and adopt a new one that might be more palatable to GOP primary voters.
And finally, it was time to deal with all of those emails.
Just before Mitt Romney left the Massachusetts governor’s office and first ran for president, 11 of his top aides purchased their state-issued computer hard drives, and the Romney administration’s e-mails were all wiped from a server, according to interviews and records obtained by the Globe.
Romney administration officials had the remaining computers in the governor’s office replaced just before Governor Deval Patrick’s staff showed up to take power in January 2007, according to Mark Reilly, Patrick’s chief legal counsel.
As a result, Patrick’s office, which has been bombarded with inquiries for records from the Romney era, has no electronic record of any Romney administration e-mails, Reilly said.
“The governor’s office has found no e-mails from 2002-2006 in our possession,” Reilly said in a statement. “Before the current administration took office, the computers used during that time period were replaced and the server used during that time period was taken out of service, all files were removed from it, and it was also replaced.”
Romney’s campaign said the former one-term governor did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide, and all of those emails were erased because, well, just because.
The consensus seems to be that Romney and his team did not violate the letter of the state’s Public Records Law, but it does seem strange that 11 Romney administration officials felt the need to buy 17 hard drives from the governor’s office for no apparent reason.
Secretary of State William Galvin told the Globe that sales of state property to private individuals is “odd.”
Maybe Romney ought to revisit those complaints about “transparency” in the Obama administration.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/the_wrong_candidate_to_push_tr033561.php
Political AnimalBlog
November 17, 2011 1:25 PM
The future leaders of the GOP
By Steve Benen
What’s that line from Ferris Bueller? I believe it’s, “I weep for the future.”
Hours after Pennsylvania State Police arrested a 21-year-old Idaho man for allegedly firing a semi-automatic rifle at the White House, the top student official for the College Republicans at the University of Texas tweeted that the idea of assassinating President Obama was “tempting.”
At 2:29 p.m. ET, UT’s Lauren E. Pierce wrote: “Y’all as tempting as it may be, don’t shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we’ve EVER had! #2012.”
Pierce, the president of the College Republicans at UT Austin, told ABC News the comment was a “joke” and that the “whole [shooting incident] was stupid.” Giggling, she said that an attempted assassination would “only make the situation worse.”
“Insofar as she’s a representative [of the College Republicans], maybe it shouldn’t be said, but she’s made a positive statement in a way, ” said Cassie Wright, the group’s vice president. “I don’t really see anything wrong with it,” Wright added.
No, of course not. Why would she see something wrong with jokes about a presidential assassination? After all, it was made in a “positive” way, though I have no idea what that means in this context.
Every time I come across a story like this, I think about this piece Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote six years ago. It was largely about then-freshman Rep. Patrick McHenry (R), the hyper-partisan, right-wing North Carolinian, but it explored the world of College Republicans, where McHenry cut his teeth: “The College Republicans have legendarily been the starting point, the training and networking ground, for the careers of all of the party’s most influential activists: Lee Atwater, Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff, Karl Rove. And producing Roves and Atwaters, tactical geniuses and election-winners, is exactly what the organization is set up to do.”
Behold, the next generation of Republican leaders.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/the_future_leaders_of_the_gop033560.php
Jobless claims at 7-month low, building permits jump
By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:05am EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New claims for jobless benefits hit a seven-month low last week, while permits for future home construction rebounded strongly last month, bolstering views the economy was gaining traction.
The improving economic picture was spoiled somewhat by other data on Thursday showing factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region slowed this month on weak orders. However, employers hired more workers and increased working hours.
“Economic conditions are moving upward at an accelerating pace,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “However, two major roadblocks stand in the way of solid growth: Rising oil prices and European debt issues.”
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to 388,000, the Labor Department said. Economists had forecast claims rising to 395,000.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/17/us-economy-idUSTRE7AG14S20111117
when I first read this, I just had to LOL
the man was saying to Willard, ‘ bitch, please…they’re the same damn plan’.
BWA HA HA HA AHH A
…………………………………..
November 17, 2011 10:40 AM
Romneycare architect: Romney is ‘just lying’
By Steve Benen
We’ve known for a while that Mutt Romney’s Massachusetts health care law helped create the framework for the White House’s policy on the same issue. Indeed, the so-called “RomneyCare” law is practically indistinguishable from the Affordable Care Act, including the controversial individual mandate. We’ve also known that Romney’s own advisers helped President Obama’s team directly.
What’s new is the degree to which Romney is annoying those who helped Romney turn his plan into reality. MIT’s Jonathan Gruber, an economist who specializes in health care policy, played a key role in helping shape the reform effort in Massachusetts. He’s not at all pleased with what he’s hearing from Romney now.
He credited Mitt Romney for not totally disavowing the Massachusetts bill during his presidential campaign, but said Romney’s attempt to distinguish between Obama’s bill and his own is disingenuous.
“The problem is there is no way to say that,” Gruber said. “Because they’re the same f***ing bill. He just can’t have his cake and eat it too. Basically, you know, it’s the same bill. He can try to draw distinctions and stuff, but he’s just lying. The only big difference is he didn’t have to pay for his. Because the federal government paid for it. Where at the federal level, we have to pay for it, so we have to raise taxes.” [emphasis added]
Romney might want to be more careful on stuff like this. He’s already earned a reputation for being a cowardly flip-flopper, who’s afraid to lead, and who’ll say anything to anyone to advance his ambitions.
But if Romney develops a reputation as a liar, too, questions about his character will become more acute. Two weeks ago, the former governor got caught lying about his tax plan; yesterday he got caught lying about an Obama quote; and now a respected MIT economist and former Romney adviser is on record saying Romney is lying about health care.
Once a politician loses his integrity, it’s awfully tough to get it back.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/romneycare_architect_romney_is033553.php
November 17, 2011 11:30 AM
Barrasso, Hatch can’t help themselves
By Steve Benen
How very tiresome.
One day after the Congressional Budget Office informed Congress that Democratic proposals will create jobs much more effectively than conservative ideas — a conclusion that Republicans are guaranteed to ridicule or ignore — two GOP senators are relying on an old distortion of CBO calculations to argue that the Affordable Care Act is a job-killer. In a Politico op-ed today, Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) write that the CBO “has testified that the new health law will result in the loss of more than 800,000 new jobs.”
Wrong. One might think that two sitting senators, writing a piece for publication, would get this right. One might also think a news outlet would balk at publishing claims that have already been debunked.
And yet, here we are.
What Hatch and Barrasso don’t understand is the meaning of the phrase “reduction of labor.”
At a House Budget Committee hearing in February, Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) pressed Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, on the effects of the Affordable Care Act on employment figures. Elmendorf explained that once the law is fully implemented, given the projected “reduction of labor,” there would be “a reduction of 800,000 workers” by the year 2021.
Barrasso and Hatch think this means the CBO believes the law will kill 800,000 jobs. That’s not even close to true.
What Elmendorf and the CBO found is that the Affordable Care Act may reduce the labor supply, not the number of actual jobs. The small, projected shift in labor would not come as a result of employers cutting jobs; it would come as the result of some people working less. And why might people work less? Because some workers might decide to retire earlier, knowing that they won’t have to keep working in order to have health care benefits. (And when these older workers leave the workforce, it creates opportunities for younger workers.)
As Jon Chait explained at the time, “In other words, people who are only working because they desperately need employer-sponsored health insurance will no longer do so. They’re not going on the public dole — they’re just people who have the means not to work full-time and will be free to make employment decisions that aren’t premised upon an individual health insurance market that shuts them out. Some workers will choose to retire early because they now have the ability to buy their own health insurance. This is what Republicans call ‘destroying jobs.’”
Sitting senators should be able to grasp this.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/barrasso_hatch_cant_help_thems033557.php
Fire Walker Chronicles: A Dirty Rotten Shame
by Zandar
Wisconsin Republicans are trying an awful new tack in scuttling the recall effort for Gov. Scott Walker: having Lt Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (who would also be recalled under the petition) shame the state into inaction with a thinly veiled threat ad that the cost of a special recall election will have to be taken out of money for “teachers or health care for the poor, or school books for your kids.”
“There might be a day when someone asks you for your signature,” Kleefisch says in an ad released Wednesday. “Signing a recall petition is like saying you’re O.K. with spending $7.7 million on another recall election, 7.7 million that may already be allocated to merit raises for teachers or health care for the poor, or school books for your kids.”
“Signing a recall petition is like saying you’re O.K. with taking money away from those things and spending it on another special election,” she continues.
“Signing a recall petition is like saying you’re O.K with spending more months, and more millions, on political campaign ads. Signing a recall petition is like saying you’re O.K with the government taking more of your money to spend on other special elections.”
Yes, sure would be a damn shame if something happened to your nice state here if you dared to have this recall election, Wisconsin. We wouldn’t want to have to cut teacher’s salaries or health care for the poor or school funds in order to pay for your little dirty effing hippie populist tantrum, would we? That would be awful if that happened, so if you would just keep your mouths shut, nobody gets hurt, capiche?
What a lovely little hustle there, bringing in Kleefisch to beg those awful extremist Democrats not to force Republicans to make more cuts to pay for the special recall elections, not to mention giving the Tea Party in that state an excuse to play the “Why do you hippies hate Wisconsin schools?” shame card, all while barely cloaked as an advocacy ad that’s not officially a statement from her office but sure looks like one.
You couldn’t ask for a better zero-sum extortion racket from the one percent. Keep your head down and nobody gets hurt, plebes…or we make more cuts that will hurt you, not us.
What are you going to do about it, Wisconsin?
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/17/fire-walker-chronicles-a-dirty-rotten-shame/
November 17, 2011 9:30 AM
Perry’s ‘lazy’ strategy
By Steve Benen
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry has seen his candidacy fall apart over the last several weeks, largely done in by his own bizarre flaws and general ineptitude. The Texas governor does, however, have a comeback plan, and it involves relentless attacks against President Obama.
In theory, that seems like a fairly sensible plan. The Republican base hates the president, so it stands to reason Perry would try to connect with these voters by appealing to their rage.
Unfortunately, this means the dimwitted governor has been reduced to ridiculous claims.
On Fox News last night, Perry insisted the president “grew up in a privileged way,” and “never had to really work for anything.” In the world I like to call reality, Obama grew up poor and relied entirely on hard work to get ahead in life, making Perry’s new line of attack … how do I put this gently … stupid.
But wait, there’s more. The Perry campaign has a new attack ad, too. Here’s the script:
Video of President Obama: “We’ve been a little bit lazy I think over the last couple of decades.”
Rick Perry: “Can you believe that? That’s what our President thinks is wrong with America? That Americans are lazy? That’s pathetic. It’s time to clean house in Washington.”
“It’s time for a Balanced Budget Amendment that forces Washington to stop overspending. If Congress balks, cut their pay and send them home.”
“Obama’s socialist policies are bankrupting America. We must stop him now. I’m Rick Perry. I approve this message.”
Let’s unpack this. First, the president didn’t say Americans are lazy. This myth has been debunked over and over and over and over and over again. When someone makes a claim, the claim is proven false, and the person makes it again anyway, they’re lying.
Second, a Balanced Budget Amendment is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas.
And third, Perry keeps using the word “socialism,” but he doesn’t know what it means. In fact, I’d pay good money to see the poor guy try to explain what he thinks a “socialist policy” looks like.
Perry’s right that something here is “pathetic,” but it’s not the president’s call for more businesses in the United States.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/perrys_lazy_strategy033551.php
Perry should know; he’s the LAZY one.
The GOP Plan Comes Into Clear View
Posted by Zandar
Via ABLC comes this video of California Democrat Loretta Sanchez outright accusing her GOP colleagues in Congress of wanting to sabotage the economy for political gain.
Interviewer: You’ve heard them say that?
Sanchez: Yes. They have said that. They’ve said that! They’ve said that behind closed doors to me! They said, “Nothing is moving.” They said, “We want to make him look bad. We want to get rid of him. We want to get rid of the health care reform bill.” They only way they believe they can get rid of health care reform is to get rid of President Obama.
Interviewer: Who is saying that, Congresswoman?
Sanchez: Well, I’m not gonna … these are actual friends on the other side who have said, “This is what is happening in our conference”, in their groupings when they’re meeting.
She does stop short of naming names, but let’s remember that my state’s Senator, Mitch McConnell, has publicly gone on record as saying the most important goal for Republicans is not jobs, not fixing the economy, not helping the American people through the housing depression and economic crisis, but defeating President Obama. That is his stated top priority. All other concerns are incidental to Republicans and they fully understand that continuing to hamstring the economy is politically damaging to the President.
It’s the worst kept secret in Washington DC that Obama Derangement Syndrome is so pervasive among the GOP that they will resort to any measures to defeat him, up to and including throwing us into another recession through legislative inertia.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2011/11/gop-plan-comes-into-clear-view.html
Wasserman Schultz accuses GOP of rigging elections with ‘suppression laws’
By Pete Kasperowicz – 11/16/11 08:43 PM ET
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) on Wednesday night said Republican governors and legislatures are purposefully pressing for the enactment of voter identification laws in order to suppress Democratic voter turnout in the 2012 election.
“State legislatures are attempting to impose voting restrictions that are the modern day equivalent of poll taxes and literacy tests,” she said on the House floor. “We cannot allow state legislatures to drag our nation backward in what is nothing more than a political quest to protect their governing majority’s interests.”
Wasserman Schultz said GOP efforts to end early voting is an example of this effort, since in her state, more than half of the early voters were African Americans and Hispanics.
“So do we think it’s a coincidence that that group of voters, which voted overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates, now suddenly has their right to vote on that particular Sunday removed from them?” she asked.
She went further by saying Republicans are purposefully trying to limit Democratic voter turnout because they don’t think they can win in the upcoming elections.
“Blocking anyone’s access to the polls is unacceptable to begin with,” she said. “But insidiously trying to influence the outcome of an election through systematically changing the law to prevent people who are likely to go to the polls to vote for your opponent is the most heinous form of anti-democratic policy.
“It’s clear that these Republican legislatures led by Republican governors just don’t think that they can win an election on the merits,” she continued. “And so… they need an insurance policy, because in the event that voters actually decide that — no, Republicans aren’t interested in creating jobs, no, they’re not interested in getting the economy turned around, and gee, maybe I’d like to actually go to the polls and vote for the candidate of my choice — they are using the insurance policy of voter suppression laws to make sure that people who are likely to go tot eh polls and vote for someone other than them can’t do it. That’s un-American. That’s unacceptable.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/194183-wasserman-schultz-accuses-gop-of-rigging-elections-with-voter-suppression-laws
G-T-F-O-H
Barack Hussein Obama is a truly self-made man.
……………………..
Perry says Obama ‘grew up in a privileged way’From NBC’s Carrie Dann:
Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday night said President Barack Obama “grew up in a privileged way” and that America’s foreign policy reputation has suffered because of the president’s “mentality that he’s the smartest guy in the room.”
“It reveals to me that he grew up in a privileged way,” Perry said of Obama when asked by host FOX News host Sean Hannity to comment on the president’s recent comment that American business interests have been “lazy” in their approach to the global economy. “He never had to really work for anything.”
This president has never felt that angst that they have in their heart,” he added, referring to the nation’s 14 million unemployed. “And I think he’s always, when he has had problems, he’s always pointed to somebody else and said it’s their fault, not mine.”
Obama’s rise to the presidency was powered in part by his personal narrative as the son of a young white mother who was at times dependent on food stamps after her black husband deserted her. Obama later went on to become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
Perry, who grew up poor in rural Texas and frequently jokes about his poor college grades, added in his interview with Hannity that Obama’s perceived intellect has contributed to the decline of the United States in its relationships with other nations.
“His thinking that he’s the smartest guy in the room has hurt America around the world, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. And I think that mentality of ‘I’m the smartest guy in the room and therefore it couldn’t be my fault’ is really hurting America. And we need a president who has been through their ups and downs in life, and understands what it’s like to have to deal with the issues in our economy that we have today in America.”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/16/8848876-perry-says-obama-grew-up-in-a-privileged-way
Right, PBO’s white mother provided sustenance for her son with the aid of food stamps and and without the visible support of his Kenyan father. Plus being shuttled off to his white grandparents to raise him, while his mom traveled the globe, and after her death. Not even a veiled attempt to show how utterly deceitful and willfully IGNORANT, Perry. Your white privilege is showing.
November 17, 2011 8:00 AM
‘We’re not changing this offer’
By Steve Benen
With the deadline for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction — better known as the super-committee — less than a week away, it’s probably a good time to pause and appreciate what Republican members are demanding. Their debt-reduction offer is, as a practical matter, a negative plan.
I don’t mean that in the sense that the GOP proposal is off-putting; I mean it literally. Republicans have presented an offer that cuts roughly $895 billion in spending, adds $250 billion in revenue, and cuts taxes over the next 10 years by $3.7 trillion. The net savings for the country, if this plan were adopted, would be -$2.25 trillion.
While some in the media seem amazed that Republicans are willing to accept $250 billion in revenue, those same folks in the media seem unaware of the fact that GOP plan to reduce the deficit actually adds to the deficit, and then calling it a “concession.”
This is effectively aiming north and going south.
And with six days to go, is there any chance Republicans might suddenly become more reasonable? It seems exceedingly unlikely.
Republican super committee Co-Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) appeared to double-down today on his contention that the GOP will not consider more tax increases as part of any deal to reduce the deficit. […]
Seconds after he asserted that he would not summarily reject any proposals, Hensarling repeated, “We’re not changing this offer we have on the table.”
The comments to reporters came a day after Hensarling, the leading Republican on the super-committee, told CNBC that he opposes adding so much as a “penny” in additional revenue, and that his party has gone “as far as we feel we can go.”
In other words, the very best Republicans can do to reduce the debt is a plan to cut taxes that adds to the debt.
In fairness, I should probably note that Hensarling did signal at least some additional flexibility on tax revenue, but only if Democrats agree to partially privatize Medicare.
And people wonder why the negotiations aren’t going well.
Super-committee Democrats, meanwhile, came up with a third offer yesterday: $876 billion in spending cuts, $400 billion in new revenue, and investing $300 billion in unspent war money on job creation, for a total debt-reduction package of nearly $1.3 trillion over the next decade. Republicans immediately said the offer wasn’t close to good enough.
To reiterate a point from yesterday, when this panel fails next week, major news organizations will tell the public that “both sides” chose not to reach an agreement. Those reports will be wrong.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/were_not_changing_this_offer033549.php
Once you’re in it; you feel compassion for those who are going through it or who have gone through it
Since September, President Obama and Republicans in Congress have been fighting over jobs. With so much political focus on jobs, NPR checks back in with the people we’ve been following as part of our Road Back to Work series. They started the year unemployed and searching for work.
Listen here:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=3&islist=true&id=2&d=11-16-2011
Posted at 06:14 AM ET, 11/17/2011
President Obama arrives in Bali, Indonesia
By Debbi Wilgoren
President Obama arrived in Bali, Indonesia on Thursday evening local time (5:24 a.m. in Washington) after wrapping up a two-day visit to Australia with a pep-rally-style appearance before a crowd of Aussie soldiers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/president-obama-arrives-in-bali-indonesia/2011/11/17/gIQABMDyTN_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
It’s Shit Like This, Unions
by mistermix
A friend of mine told me that his generally politically uninterested and not tech-nerdy 16 year-old daughter came home yesterday complaining about Protect-IP or SOPA, the Internet blacklist legislation. “Do you know what they’re going to to to do the Internet?” she asked. Well, according to the AFL-CIO’s testimony at yesterday’s hearing, they’re going to do the right thing:
How low was the level of debate? The hearing actually descended to statements like “the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks” (courtesy of the AFL-CIO’s Paul Almeida).
Here’s his written testimony [pdf]. I’m sure the long list of unions he cites (mostly creative, but he drags in the Fire Fighters) might think that any bill to stop piracy is a good bill, but this one is a real piece of shit (more here). What’s more, the corporate interests who are the big money behind the bill will bust a union whenever they get a chance, without thinking twice.
Similarly, the union support of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, which is because AT&T is the only unionized wireless provider, is anti-consumer, since it will lead to a wireless duopoly. And will having a wireless duopoly really help unions who want to organize the wireless companies? I’m not an expert in union strategy, but an environment where corporate power is concentrated in two giant corporations usually isn’t a place where unions thrive.
I get why the AFL-CIO and CWA think these moves are in their short-term interests. But, longer term, when unions are vocally and publicly allied with corporate interests, why in the hell should young people believe that joining a union will make their lives better?
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/17/its-shit-like-this-unions/
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Moving Forward At Your Own Perry-il, Part 12
Posted by Zandar
This is not a bug in Governor Goodhair’s Inconsequential America, but a guaranteed feature.
At a town hall event in New Hampshire Wednesday morning, reporters have indicated that they were asked if they were U.S. citizens. According to CNN, member of the press were posed this by an employee for Granite State Manufacturing, a defensive contractor hosting the town hall, in order to abide by NAFTA rules.
Associated Press reporter Steve Peoples tweeted, “At press check in for Rick Perry NH town hall, we’re asked if we’re U.S. citizens.”
He added that attendees were “told only citizens allowed because town hall host is a defensive contractor,” meaning “no foreigners allowed.”
NBC News’ Jo Ling Kent shared a similar tweet.
“At Perry press check in, I was asked if I am a U.S. citizen,” she wrote. “Only citizens allowed according to company, which is a defense contractor.”
This was not an accident, folks. The frequency Rick Perry is broadcasting on can only be heard if you’re tuned into the message of “Y’all ferners git out na.” And he knows exactly who he’s sending it out to, folks. He wants back on the dance floor, and this is his admission.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2011/11/moving-forward-at-your-own-perry-il_17.html
November 17, 2011
What, Newt worry?
“Isn’t he in jail?”
That was a Gingrich spokesman’s comprehensive reply to Politico’s Maggie Haberman, who had asked for — and one assumes expected — a somewhat more comprehensive reply to Jack Abramoff’s recent appraisal of Newt Gingrich’s “corruption.”
Dismissive, insolent, superior — the hallmarks of both candidate and staff.
Should one include “concerned,” “worried,” or “damage-controlling”? Not really. To be concerned, The Gingrich would require a genetic constitution of something other than the sociopathic; to be worried, he would have to actually be running for president; and any pursuit of control would suggest a possession of some concern or worry about the damage he wreaks, which of course he, as a ffffundamental sociopath, possesses not.
The Gingrich just doesn’t care, never cared, couldn’t care less, indeed hasn’t a care in the world — because he’s amassing yet more mountains of cash, while glittering as the center of national attention.
Mission accomplished. What’s to worry?
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2011/11/what-newt-worry.html
White House gun suspect obsessed with Obama
A man clad in black who was obsessed with President Barack Obama pulled his car within view of the White House at night and fired shots from an assault rifle, cracking a window of the first family’s living quarters while the president was away, authorities said about their still-developing investigation.
The U.S. Secret Service found two bullets had hit the White House and agents caught up with Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez in Pennsylvania on Wednesday after a four-day search. Police arrested the 21-year-old Idaho man at a hotel after a desk clerk recognized his picture. Ortega was scheduled to make his first appearance at 2 p.m. Thursday in federal court in Pittsburgh and many questions remained about his motive and background.
Sources tell CBS News Ortega-Hernandez was not on the radar of the Secret Service before Friday’s shooting. But investigators believe he may have targeted the White House due to a hatred of President Obama. Businessman Monte McCall, said Ortega-Hernandez compared the president to the “Antichrist” when they met recently.
“He seemed very sincere in what he believed but seemed rather troubled,” McCall said.
Authorities are investigating the man’s mental health and say there are indications he believed attacking the White House was part of a personal mission from God, according to two different law enforcement officials who spoke with The Associated Press. There are also indications the man had become obsessed with Mr. Obama and the White House, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Shots were fired at the building Friday night. Agents discovered Tuesday that one of the two bullets hit the exterior and a second cracked a window on the second floor residential level, just behind the rounded portico visible from the south side of the White House.
That bullet was stopped by protective ballistic glass. The window that was hit is in front of the so-called Yellow Oval Room, which is in the middle of the family’s living quarters.
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports ballistics tests are being run to match the bullets found at the White House with the rifle. Prosecutors say they’re considering charges of attempted assassination, even though the incident presented no threat to the president.
Mr. Obama and his wife Michelle were on a trip to California and Hawaii at the time of the shooting. The president has since traveled on to Australia on a nine-day Asia-Pacific tour. The Obamas were in California without daughters Malia and Sasha, but the White House had no immediate comment on the shooting or who may have been home at the time.
Investigators believe Ortega fired the rifle from his vehicle Friday, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation. Gunshots were reported that night on Constitution Avenue about 9:30 p.m. Soon after, U.S. Park Police found an abandoned vehicle, the assault rifle inside it, near a bridge leading out of the nation’s capital to Virginia. The car led investigators to Ortega, and they obtained a warrant for his arrest Sunday, officials said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57326437/white-house-gun-suspect-obsessed-with-obama/
What’s up with SS? FLOTUS, her mom and the girls are still living there, along with other staff. WTF is up?
BREAKING NEWS: Congress introduces amendment to overturn Citizens United
This morning, for the first time, a member of the U.S. Congress is officially introducing our People’s Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This is a breakthrough we’ve been working toward since launching our campaign nearly two years ago. Congratulations!
Now is the time to drum up some serious support for it. Please sign on now, then spread the word as widely as you can:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=V…
Here’s the language of the Amendment, which is virtually identical to the version chosen by more than 90% of respondents in a survey we conducted here at Free Speech For People in May:
Section 1. We the people who ordain and establish this Constitution intend the rights protected by this Constitution to be the rights of natural persons.
Section 2. The words people, person, or citizen as used in this Constitution do not include corporations, limited liability companies or other corporate entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state, and such corporate entities are subject to such regulation as the people, through their elected State and Federal representatives, deem reasonable and are otherwise consistent with the powers of Congress and the States under this Constitution.
Section 3. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to limit the people’s rights of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free exercise of religion, freedom of association and all such other rights of the people, which rights are inalienable.
Our hero on Capitol Hill, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), who introduced the People’s Rights Amendment this morning, is a longtime advocate for social justice and fundamental human rights. He’s also very influential in Washington, where he holds leadership roles, including the second-ranking Democratic slot on the powerful House Rules Committee, the panel that decides which items will be considered for debate in the House. In short, we could hardly have found a stronger champion.
There’s no question that the Occupy Wall Street movement that’s swept the country in the past several weeks has played a huge role in getting us to this point. People are in the streets almost everywhere, calling, among other things, for an end to corporate personhood and to corporate control over our democracy.
Rep. McGovern isn’t the only one in Washington who’s responding to our call. 15 U.S. Senators have co-sponsored another Amendment that would reverse the Citizens United ruling (which held that corporations may spend their general treasury funds, without limit, on election campaigns). And Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) previously introduced a similar Amendment in the House, as we reported a few weeks ago. While these other Amendment bills do not challenge the fabricated claim of corporate rights, they are important steps forward in the fight to restore democracy to the people.
Of course, the real heroes in all of this are you, your friends, and your family — and everyone else who’s been speaking out tirelessly, demanding a real solution to this problem, a solution that can breathe new life into the basic promise of American self-government: of, for, and by the people.
Please sign on and spread the word right away.
http://j.mp/OurRights
My Supreme Court health-care brief
By Matt Miller, Published: November 16
May it please the court: Yes, there are fancy legal arguments about the individual mandate for health care, but let’s stipulate the obvious: The Constitution is what five of you say it is. On today’s court, this really means what one of you says it is. With that in mind, Justice Anthony Kennedy, here are five thoughts I hope you’ll consider.
First, America’s 50 million uninsured haven’t gotten any airtime in the presidential campaign thus far, because we’ve been listening only to Republicans. Yet the number of uninsured are now equal to the combined populations of Oklahoma, Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi, Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming.
READ ON ; http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/my-supreme-court-health-care-brief/2011/11/16/gIQATEAMRN_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
BAM!
Good morning!!
Good Morning, Dannie & Everyone! :-)
Good Morning, Everyone :)