grantcart
grantcart's JournalHome Depot to hire 70,000
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/12/news/companies/home_depot_hiring/index.htm?iid=HP_Highlight&hpt=hp_t1NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Get those orange aprons ready for the spring cleaning rush.
Home Depot announced Thursday it plans to hire 70,000 temporary workers at its U.S. stores to handle its spring selling season, the busiest time of the year for the home improvement chain.
How do you like them numbers Mitt?
Yes its temporary but still a good good sign.
I wonder what Intrade will do with this news.
Republicans having heart failure all over the country with this good news.
“This is not good news for Mitt Romney,” (with up dated confirming data re SC)
Edited to add that PPP is tweeting that SC Santorum supporters are leaving for Gingrich.
@Nate_Cohn SC voters are now dropping Santorum for Newt. Earlier polling had suggested the reverse.
If the latest polling is correct then Romney is in big trouble.
His lead in South Carolina is gone and he is running third place in North Carolina
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/aiken/2012-01-11/sc-poll-mitt-romney-has-small-lead-over-newt-gingrich
As the GOP presidential nomination race settles into South Carolina, Mitt Romney isn’t enjoying the double-digit lead he held in New Hampshire, according to a survey conducted Wednesday night.
The former Massachusetts governor’s lead is so small in the Palmetto State that he’s essentially tied with Newt Gingrich, according to a poll conducted for The Augusta Chronicle by InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research.
Romney’s 23 percent and Gingrich’s 21 percent fall within the 3.6 percent margin of error. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who came in second in the Iowa caucuses is in third place in South Carolina with 14 percent, while Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the runner-up in New Hampshire, is effectively tied with him at 13 percent.
. . . .
“This is not good news for Mitt Romney,” said Towery, who chaired several of Gingrich’s congressional campaigns before becoming a nonpartisan pollster. “There is no other way to put it. This means it is a dead-even race. South Carolinians couldn’t care less about New Hampshire or Iowa.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/11/nc-2012-primary-25-gingri_n_1199950.html
2012 President: Republican Primary
25% Gingrich
24% Santorum
22% Romney
9% Paul
4% Huntsman
4% Perry
1% Roemer
Given that Romney's only compelling argument is that he is inevitable and can win elections he will have to come up with something big if these polls are correct.
If they are correct they will prove my long standing prediction that this will not be decided during the pre convention period but will be decided at the convention, even though almost no one else thinks that this is even remotely possible. This civil war is going to go on and on and on.
Darcy raising eyebrows with a surprising 9th place showing in early returns.
Numerous DU posters have been keeping DU appraised of progressive Merrill Lynch stockbroker Darcy Richardson as a symbolic alternative to President Obama.
Many of us who thought that Darcy wouldn't get any votes have been proven wrong as Darcy is showing 49 votes with 16% in and could break 500 votes at this pace.
By comparison Vermin Supreme pictured here
who ran on a platform of mandatory tooth brushing already has already gotten 143.
Watch the results here and see if Darcy can move into 8th place.
http://www.wmur.com/r/30132728/detail.html
U.S. Navy rescues Iranian sailors
(CNN) -- U.S. sailors from a carrier strike group whose recent presence in the Persian Gulf drew the ire of Iranian military officials have rescued 13 of the Middle Eastern country's sailors from a hijacked fishing boat, a military spokesman said Friday.
The destroyer USS Kidd came to the aid of the ship Thursday in the North Arabian sea, near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, according to the Navy.
The rescue prompted the captain of the freed ship to offer his "sincere gratitude," according to Josh Schminky, a Navy Criminal Investigative Service agent aboard the Kidd.
"He was afraid that without our help, they could have been there for months," said Schminky
With video here:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/06/world/meast/iran-us-navy-rescue/index.html?npt=NP1
Why Mitt Romney is so anal retentive - yet another father-son GOP story.
There is a very clear reason why Mitt Romney appears to check everything he does and says with an internal voice and tries to mimic a charachter from 'Leave it to Beaver'.
In 1968 Mitts father was Governor of Michigan and was an affable centrist politician, a Republican who supported civil rights and was against the Vietnam war. Polls showed that he was 8 points ahead of Nixon and if he went to the GE 8 points ahead of Johnson.
And then a comment got out that he said that he thought he had been 'brainwashed' by the military on a tour there. This comment, made a year before, crippled his campaign. It probably cost his father the White House.
At 21 Mitt learned that lesson very well and has endeavored never to slip and let an offhand remark keep him from the WH. That is why he is wound so tight and appears so plastic. It has made him into the most insincere appearing candidate ever to have a chance of becoming President in recent years. And the deeper he goes the more wound he appears until he now offers cringe worthy recitations of America the Beautiful.
Ironically George Romney's offhand comment about being 'brainwashed' could end up costing his son the WhiteHouse too.
For DUers under 55 here is the wikipedia version of George Romney's implosion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Romney_presidential_campaign,_1968
The wide margin of victory in Romney's November 1966 gubernatorial re-election in Michigan cast him to the forefront of national Republicans.[4] In addition to his political record, the tall, handsome, graying Romney looked like a president.[5][6][7] Republican governors were determined not to let the 1964 Barry Goldwater disaster recur, and neither fellow governors Nelson Rockefeller nor Bill Scranton wanted to run again; the governors quickly settled on Romney as their favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1968 U.S. presidential election.[2] Former Congressman and Republican National Committee chair Leonard W. Hall became Romney's informal campaign manager.[2] A Gallup Poll after the November elections showed Romney as favored among Republicans over former Vice President Richard Nixon for the Republican nomination, 39 percent to 31 percent,[8] and a Harris Poll showed Romney besting President Johnson among all voters by 54 percent to 46 percent.[9]
snip
However before his campaign had officially began, Governor Romney made a statement that practically ruined his chances of getting the nomination. In a taped interview with Lou Gordon of WKBD-TV in Detroit on August 31 1967, Romney stated, "When I came back from Viet Nam [in November 1965], I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get." He then shifted to opposing the war: "I no longer believe that it was necessary for us to get involved in South Vietnam to stop Communist aggression in Southeast Asia," he declared. Decrying the "tragic" conflict, he urged "a sound peace in South Vietnam at an early time." Thus Romney disavowed the war and reversed himself from his earlier stated belief that the war was "morally right and necessary."
The "brainwashing" reference had been an offhand, unplanned remark that came at the end of a long, behind-schedule day of campaigning.[25] By September 7 it had found its way into prominence at The New York Times.[15] Eight other governors who had been on the same 1965 trip as Romney said no such activity had taken place, with one of them, Philip H. Hoff of Vermont, saying Romney's remarks were "outrageous, kind of stinking ... Either he's a most naïve man or he lacks judgment."[26] The connotations of brainwashing, following the experiences of American prisoners of war (highlighted by the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate), made Romney's comments devastating,[8] especially as it reinforced the negative image of Romney's abilities that had already developed.[13] The topic of brainwashing quickly became newspaper editorial and television talk show fodder, with Romney bearing the brunt of the topical humor.[8] Senator Eugene McCarthy, running against Johnson for the Democratic nomination, said that in Romney's case, "a light rinse would have been sufficient."[15] Republican Congressman Robert T. Stafford of Vermont sounded a common concern: "If you're running for the presidency, you are supposed to have too much on the ball to be brainwashed."[8][26]
With the list of President Obama's policy and political successes growing daily a conundrum
for the critics on the far left in the blogs and the internet.
The President's forceful move to script a new strategy for the Defense Department moving away from the 60 year old premise of a two theatre war and establishing sharp cuts into the DOD is just the latest of a number of major accomplishments.
A recess appointment to a Cosumer Protection Agency (a twofer - hard core critics confidently predicted that neither would happen), major increase of federal involvement into individual health care, ending DODT, removing all troops from Iraq, and so on.
The conundrum is now playing out for posters who are reflexive critics on various discussion boards, either these changes 1) are not actual substantial changes or 2) they are actual substantial changes but only happened because we typed really aggressive posts (while pressing on the keyboard really really hard) and held the President's feet to the fire.
The contortions that are involved are really quite funny. Its hard to tell which are parodies and which are actual pretzels.
Of course the more obvious option that their overheated hyperbolic criticism was wrong just never occurs to them.
If you missed it try and get the video, the WP update is here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-announces-new-military-approach/2012/01/05/gIQAFWcmcP_story.html?sub=AR
[h1]
Obama announces new, leaner military approach[/h1]
The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a new military strategy that shifts the Pentagon’s focus towards Asia and says the country’s dire budget problems necessitate a more restrained use of military force and more modest foreign policy goals.
The strategy will almost certainly mean a smaller Army and Marine Corps as well as new investments in long-range stealth bombers and anti-missile systems that are designed primarily to counter China’s military buildup. It explicitly states that America can make due with a smaller nuclear force.
. . . .
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters that a revamped U.S. military “will be smaller and leaner, but its great strength will be that it is more agile, flexible, ready to deploy quickly, innovative and technologically advanced.”
The document does not include details of what the Defense Department should cut as it seeks to meet the administration’s goal of trimming defense spending by about $480 billion over the next decade. If Congress cannot come to an agreement on how to cut the federal deficit, the Pentagon budget could be forced to shrink by as much as $1 trillion.
Obama to Appoint Cordray as Head of Consumer Bureau
Many many many critics of the President were saying just the opposite, that he wouldn't make a recess appointment.
Don't expect that this will see much light of day in GD as GD has already opined that such a move would be impossible, but here is what the media is advising;
http://www.nationaljournal.com/obama-to-appoint-cordray-as-head-of-consumer-bureau-20120104
"My hope and expectation is that the Republicans who block this nomination come to their senses," Obama said at the news conference. "And I know that some of them have made an argument, we just want to sort of make modifications in the law. Well, they are free to introduce a bill and get that passed."
But the Senate did not make any amendments to the power Cordray would have as head of the CFPB, focusing instead on year-end deals for the remainder of December. Without a leader, the CFPB has no jurisdiction over banking institutions, which include mortgage lenders.
Obama is scheduled to make his first public appearance of 2012 on Wednesday at 1:15 p.m. in the suburbs of Cleveland -- Cordray's home state.
66 (Revised Landslide addition)
30,015 Romney 2012
29,949 Romney 2008
After spending millions of dollars and campaigning for 5 years Romney is going to get 66 more votes than he had 4 years ago. That is going to work out to about $ 100,000 per additional voter.
He made the amateur mistake by moving to NH so even if he has a big win there it will be discounted as a 'favorite son' result.
He has now antagonized the best political bomb thrower in the business, Gingrich is going to be completely focused and unleashed.
With 27 proportional primaries and no reason for the top 4-5 to drop out ( too bad Pawlenty) no one is going to get the 51% of the delegates before the convention (in reality it is impossible in a competitive race if there are three candidates).
The field will narrow down consolidating the anti-Romney vote.
They will all focus on him now.
Romney is the front runner who has no where to go but down. He is unable to pick up supporters from other candidates when they drop out. He doesn't really have close associations with the Republican inner circle.
People don't like him and he is a terrible campaigner, the more they see him the less they like him. His reciting the words of America the Beautiful is an embarassing attempt to be folksy. He can't name anybody that makes him laugh since the 3 Stooges.
Said it before, not going to be Romney, it will go to the convention and there will be a draft for a Republican Governor, and the Republicans will start over again with people that actually win elections.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/100252986
Profile Information
Member since: Sat Jan 5, 2008, 08:45 PMNumber of posts: 53,061
