April 25, 2012

Joe Biden To Go After Mitt Romney’s Foreign Policy In Speech Thursday

The Obama campaign is dispatching Vice President Joe Biden, one of the most experienced politicians in the country in foreign affairs, to make the foreign policy case for President Obama – and against Mitt Romney – in New York on Thursday.

According to the campaign, the speech will ”contrast the Administration’s record with the empty rhetoric of Governor Mitt Romney, who continues to distort and mischaracterize the President’s accomplishments on foreign policy and national security without offering policy alternatives of his own.”

Ahead of his remarks, the campaign announced the co-chairs of its National Security Advisory Committee: Michèle A. Flournoy, the Obama administration’s former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and retired Admiral John Nathman. According to the campaign, the two will head up efforts to “make the case for President Obama’s strong record on national security, as well as hold Governor Mitt Romney accountable for his inconsistent and often reckless positions that would take us back to the failed policies of the past.”

In short: expect the campaign to go on offense early and often on foreign policy, where they think they have a decisive advantage thanks to successful operations against Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, and the end of the war in the Iraq.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/joe-biden-to-go-after-mitt-romneys-foreign

April 25, 2012

President Obama: Senate Candidate’s (Todd Aiken) Comments‘Off The Deep End’

President Obama called out a U.S. Senate candidate on Wednesday for suggesting that federal student loans are a sign that America has “stage three cancer of socialism.”

In a GOP Senate primary debate on Saturday, U.S. Rep. Todd Aiken argued that the federal government should get out of the business of providing student loans of any kind. ”America has got the equivalent of stage three cancer of socialism because the federal government is tampering in all kinds of stuff it has no business tampering in,” he said. “The government needs to get its nose out of the education business.”

This week, President Obama is touring campuses to push Congress to extend subsidized lower rates on federal student loans which will expire this summer without Congressional action. Speaking at the University of Iowa on Wednesday, President Obama made an example of Aiken:

Sometimes I like just getting these quotes because I am always interested in how folks talk about this issue. You have got one member of congress who compared these student loans, I am not kidding here, to a stage three cancer of socialism. Stage three cancer. I don’t know where to start. What do you mean? What are you talking about? Come on. Just when you think you heard it all in Washington, somebody comes up with a new way to go off the deep end.

(snip)
Watch Aiken and Obama:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/obama-senate-candidates-comments-off-deep-end

April 22, 2012

Olbermann: Was the GOP ‘pro-dog meat eating’ before reading Obama’s book?

Olbermann: Was the GOP ‘pro-dog meat eating’ before reading Obama’s book?

Former Current TV host Keith Olbermann appeared on ABC’s This Week for the first time Sunday morning, discussing the Republican Party’s strategy in recent years to accuse the Democrats of the same problem they face in a specific news cycle.

Olbermann was among This Week‘s roundtable guests, which discussed Republicans bringing up President Obama’s admission in his book of eating dog meat as a kid as a way to respond to the continued talk of Mitt Romney placing his dog Seamus on the top of his car roof.

“Almost every point that is made on one side must be countered by something similar to one or the other,” he said. “This admission by the president that he ate dog meat as a child is in a book that he published in 1995. There has been no umbrage about this for 16 or 17 years. And the question then becomes, if you want to go back to the next round of this: Were Republicans pro-dog meat eating until they discovered this clip in the book?”

“It raises the level of absurdity to something exponential. With some many valuable questions going on, were wasting most of the time dealing with the dogs.”

video at link
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/22/olbermann-was-gop-pro-dog-meat-eating-before-reading-obamas-book/

April 22, 2012

Axelrod: Immigration reform blocked by congressional "reign of terror"

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/22/axelrod-blames-gop-for-immigration-stalemate/

Obama re-election campaign senior adviser David Axelrod put the onus on Republicans for the failure to pass immigration reform in the president's first term.

Axelrod said a congressional "reign of terror" has prevented supportive Republicans from cooperating on immigration issues, which were a hallmark of President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign

"The nature of Washington is not monolithic opposition to everything the chief executive wants to do as a political strategy, and that is what happened here," Axelrod said on CNN's "State of the Union." "I think a lot of Republicans in Congress want to cooperate, know better, but they're in the thralls of this reign of terror from the far right that has dragged the party to the right."

(snip)
"To say that, because you have an implacable group of Republicans in Congress who simply won't let that move, that the president hasn't kept his promise, is a bit disingenuous," Axelrod told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley.

April 21, 2012

President Obama: GOP needs to prevent doubling of student loan rates

Source: The Hill

President Obama is urging Congress to extend low interest rates on federal student loans.

"In America, higher education cannot be a luxury; it’s an economic imperative that every family must be able to afford," Obama said in his weekly address. "That’s why next week I’ll be visiting colleges across the country, talking to students about how we can make higher education more affordable – and what’s at stake right now if Congress doesn’t do something about it."

(snip)
"Over the past few years, Republicans in Congress have voted against new ways to make college more affordable for middle-class families, and voted for huge new tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires – tax cuts that would have to be paid for by cutting things like education and job-training programs that give students new opportunities to work and succeed," he said.

"We cannot just cut our way to prosperity. Making it harder for our young people to afford higher education and earn their degrees is nothing more than cutting our own future off at the knees."


Read more: http://thehill.com/video/administration/222897-obama-gop-needs-to-prevent-doubling-of-student-loan-rates

April 20, 2012

Half The Lawmakers On Florida ‘Stand Your Ground’ Task Force Are ALEC Members, All Supported

Half The Lawmakers On Florida ‘Stand Your Ground’ Task Force Are ALEC Members, All Supported Stand Your Ground
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/04/20/468444/half-the-lawmakers-on-florida-stand-your-ground-task-force-are-alec-members-all-supported-stand-your-ground/

Yesterday, Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) unveiled the members of his task force assigned to investigate the effects of the state’s “Stand Your Ground” laws that have come under intense scrutiny and criticism in recent weeks after the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin.

But critics were quick to notice some of the curious appointments made by Gov. Scott’s selection committee.

Take State Representative Dennis Baxley for instance. He was chosen as a member of the task force despite the fact that he authored H.B 249, Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. His version of the bill was used by corporate front-group ALEC as a template for similar pieces of legislation that are now in the books in half the country. And in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, Baxley has repeatedly defended the law.

Two other lawmakers, State Senators David Simmons (R) and Gary Siplin (D), were part of the state senate that unanimously passed the senate’s version of the bill. Rep. Jason Brodeur, another co-sponsor of the House bill, is also a member of ALEC. Of the four lawmakers appointed to the 17-person task force, all of them voted for or co-sponsored the Stand Your Ground law.

April 20, 2012

Murdoch's News Corp facing growing legal threat in US

Lawyer Mark Lewis reveals at press conference he has taken on fourth case of alleged phone hacking on American soil
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/apr/19/murdoch-news-corp-lawyers-us

Rupert Murdoch faces a growing legal challenge in the heart of his global media empire as lawyers representing alleged victims of phone hacking on US soil begin gathering evidence ahead of possible court action.

Mark Lewis, the English lawyer who has been a driving force behind phone-hacking revelations in the UK, and his American legal partner Norman Siegel, have revealed that they have been approached by at least 10 people bearing complaints relating to Murdoch's News Corporation

The complaints relate largely to alleged hacking by News of the World journalists into phones in the US, but also extend to other News Corp holdings including Fox News.

Lewis said that he had been contacted by a number of people since he arrived in the US last weekend "raising issues against other (News Corp) titles or Fox News, not necessarily about hacking but about other untoward dark arts to obtain information that should be private." He added that the new complaints were unproven allegations.

Hacking scandal: the net tightens on the Murdochs
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/hacking-scandal-the-net-tightens-on-the-murdochs-7661722.html
(snip)
On a tumultuous day for the media mogul, the lawyer who brought the first damages claims against the News of the World in Britain said he had uncovered new allegations of the use of "dark arts" by News Corp in America and was ready to file at least three phone-hacking lawsuits in the company's backyard.

The sense of a legal net tightening around Mr Murdoch and News Corp was heightened by the announcement that he and his son James will testify separately next week before the Leveson Inquiry into press standards during three days of what is likely to be uncomfortable scrutiny of alleged widespread criminality in their British tabloid newspapers.

Phone Hacking Charges May Be Brought Against News Corp. In U.S.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/19/phone-hacking-news-corp-rupert-murdoch_n_1438530.html

April 18, 2012

President Obama in Ohio hits Romney with ‘silver spoon’

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/222359-obama-in-ohio-hits-romney-with-silver-spoon

(snip)
“Somebody gave me an education,” Obama told the crowd at Lorain County Community College. “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Michelle wasn’t. But somebody gave us a chance, just like these folks up here are looking for a chance.”

(snip)
“In this country, prosperity does not trickle down,” Obama said. “Prosperity grows from the bottom up and it grows from a strong middle class out…and that’s why I’m always confused when we keep having the same argument with folks who don’t seem to remember how America was built.

“They keep telling us if we’d just weaken regulations…cut everybody’s taxes and convert these investments in community colleges and research and to healthcare into tax cuts, especially for the wealthy, that somehow the economy is going to get stronger and Ohio and the rest of the country will prosper,” the president said.

“That’s the theory,” he said. “Ohio, we tested this theory. Take a look what happened between 2000 and 2008….Their theory did not work out so well.”


video
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/18/obama-suggests-romney-was-born-with-silver-spoon/

April 18, 2012

Dems (Senate Democratic women) Try To Corner GOP On Violence Against Women Act

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/dem-senators-publicize-gop-opposition-to-violence-against-women-act.php?ref=fpa

Senate Democratic women are renewing their call for Republicans to drop their opposition to expanded provisions in the Violence Against Women Act re-authorization, painting the GOP into a corner on a red-hot political issue.

Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) held a Capitol press briefing Wednesday to announce that the Democratic-led measure already has 61 cosponsors — suggesting Republicans lack the votes for a filibuster — and to lament continued opposition from some Republicans.

“It really is a shame that we’ve gotten to this point,” Murray said, “That we even have to stand here today to urge our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to support legislation that has consistently received broad, bipartisan approval.”

Feinstein said that the bill “came out of the Judiciary (Committee) on a partisan basis, and that is regretful. I hope that will not be the case on the floor.”

April 15, 2012

Tea Party Movement Looks Stalled; Half Like it Less as they Hear More

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/tea-party-movement-looks-stalled-half-like-it-less-as-they-hear-more/

(snip)
A major force in the 2010 midterm elections, the movement has stalled in public popularity, its support well below a majority and decidedly lukewarm. And Americans by a broad 23-point margin say the more they hear about the Tea Party movement, the less they like it, rather than liking it more.

That negative buzz has worsened from a 9-point gap in an ABC News/Washington Post poll as the movement was gathering speed two years ago. And its avenues for resurgence may be limited: Interest in learning more about Tea Party is down 7 points from spring 2010.

(snip)
While overall support is roughly balanced with overall opposition, “strong” opponents outnumber strong supporters by 2-1. But perhaps most damaging is the buzz: Fifty percent of Americans say the more they hear about the Tea Party, the less they like it; just 27 percent say they like it more. That compares with a much closer (albeit still negative) 43-34 percent split on this question in April 2010

These views have grown more negative particularly among young adults, seniors, women, moderates and people in the $50,000 to $100,000 income range, all with 10- to 17-point increases in “like it less” responses as they hear more about the Tea Party movement.


pdf at link