President Obama Re-Elected - Page 265

On August 10 2012 13:10 Tarot wrote:

Huh. Kind of funny that the trend that his own dad started is coming back to bite him.

On August 10 2012 13:06 Nymphaceae wrote:

No, anthropology. I know what philanthropy is, and she got her start by studying Indian tribes. She made her fortune by teaching classes and writing books, and then letting an investor invest it.

On August 10 2012 13:10 sam!zdat wrote:
To take you seriously for just a moment, the reason we don't like philanthropy is that we would like to imagine a world in which we could have libraries et al. without waiting around for some nice old anthropologist lady to come give them to us.

You know, like, maybe "we the people" could do it ourselves...?

edit: in other words, it is the capitalist order which makes it necessary to have philanthropists. Philanthropy is therefore not a justification for capitalism - it is a way for capitalists to buy off their guilt.

Sen. Harry Reid made his effort to pass the DREAM Act a centerpiece of his re-election campaign in 2010, and won with crucial help from the Latino community. With Latinos poised to play a major role in the 2012 elections, Democratic Senate candidates in the Southwest are following suit — urging the national party to add the DREAM Act to its national platform.

Senate hopefuls Rep. Martin Heinrich in New Mexico, Rep. Shelley Berkley in Nevada and Richard Carmona in Arizona are leading the charge.

The DREAM Act passed the Democratic-led House in 2010, but died in the Senate. Despite widespread support for the measure among Democrats, the DREAM Act has never been on the party’s platform. In 2008, the party called simply for “comprehensive, not piecemeal” immigration reform.

This time, the platform drafters are strongly considering adding the DREAM Act. The drafting committee met in Minneapolis in July to hear testimony and outline a draft. This weekend, the full platform committee will meet in Detroit to approve the platform that will be presented to delegates at the convention in Charlotte.

Frank Sharry, an immigration reform advocate who testified on the immigration plank, told TPM he “strongly recommended that they include language that supports passage of the DREAM Act as well as passage of the broader reform.” Sharry thinks there’s a good chance it will make it onto into the final platform. “Since these are President Obama’s oft-stated priorities, I doubt it will be a heavy lift to get them into the final platform.”

Heinrich also thought President Obama’s support for the DREAM Act — which he touts on the trial — will help their effort. “I think this is the right time … especially given the leadership the president has shown on the issue,” Heinreich said in a conference call with reporters Thursday. So far, he said Democrats’ response has been “very positive” and he’s “hopeful this is happening.”

On August 10 2012 20:10 Kavallerie wrote:
The lack of intelligent responses is really shocking. Romney or Obama will win. For me, I'm sick of Obama.

On August 10 2012 20:12 DannyJ wrote:


Really?

Mitt Romney wants to boast about his signature policy achievement — universal health care in Massachusetts — but the right won’t let him.

It’s no secret that Romney has an uneasy alliance with the conservative base. But the movement’s reaction when he nodded at Romneycare wasn’t an isolated freakout about the one issue they disagree on. It was a warning to Romney that he veers from orthodoxy at his peril.

When it became clear that Romney would be the GOP nominee, the right, suspicious of his moderate past, undertook an effort to rob him of his governing agency. That’s included constraining his options on everything from tax policy to his vice presidential pick. The clamor when he claimed credit for Romneycare exemplifies what happens when he bucks those constraints.

“We are not auditioning for fearless leader,” Grover Norquist told conservatives at the CPAC convention in February. “We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.”

Norquist went on: “Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.”

Those are the marching orders, and thus far they’ve controlled Romney’s campaign. Romney’s health care heresy was the biggest breach, and the right’s reaction was swift and demeaning — one compared it, in a widely approved tweet, to housebreaking a dog.

On August 10 2012 20:10 Kavallerie wrote:
The lack of intelligent responses is really shocking. Romney or Obama will win. For me, I'm sick of Obama.

On August 11 2012 02:42 paralleluniverse wrote:
There's been some recent discussion on stimulus by a bunch of Republican economists who wrote a paper talking about Romney's "plan" for economic growth and how stimulus is bad: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/125714335/Romney-Tax-Reform-White-Paper

Here some other discussion relating to the paper.

Mostly a point by point counterargument: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/08/things-wrong-with-hassett-hubbard-mankiw-and-taylor-the-romney-program-for-economic-recovery-growth-and-jobs.html
A list of papers saying that stimulus works: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/08/the-romney-campaign-says-stimulus-doesnt-work-here-are-the-studies-they-left-out/
And an article on these Republican economists: http://mainlymacro.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/giving-economics-bad-name.html

To understand the integrity of [the HHMT] argument, consider his claim that ‘uncertainty over policy--particularly over tax and regulatory policy--slowed the recovery and limited job creation. One recent study by Scott Baker and Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University and Steven Davis of the University of Chicago found that this uncertainty reduced GDP by 1.4% in 2011 alone.’ Note the phrase ‘this uncertainty’: he's talking about uncertainty ‘particularly over tax and regulatory policy’. Now read the analysis by Baker, Bloom and Davis http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2000734.

From their abstract: ‘The index spikes around presidential elections and major events such as the Gulf wars and the 9/11 attack. Index values are high in recent years and show clear jumps associated with the Lehman bankruptcy, the 2010 midterm elections, the Euro crisis and the U.S. debt-ceiling dispute.’

Uncertainty over regulatory policy? No mention. Uncertainty over tax policy? No mention. What Hubbard seems to be doing is interpreting the uncertainty created by elections (and the debt-ceiling showdown) as uncertainty about regulatory and tax policy (as opposed to, say, government spending.)

On August 11 2012 02:42 paralleluniverse wrote:
There's been some recent discussion on stimulus by a bunch of Republican economists who wrote a paper talking about Romney's "plan" for economic growth and how stimulus is bad: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/125714335/Romney-Tax-Reform-White-Paper

Here some other discussion relating to the paper.

Mostly a point by point counterargument: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/08/things-wrong-with-hassett-hubbard-mankiw-and-taylor-the-romney-program-for-economic-recovery-growth-and-jobs.html
A list of papers saying that stimulus works: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/08/the-romney-campaign-says-stimulus-doesnt-work-here-are-the-studies-they-left-out/
And an article on these Republican economists: http://mainlymacro.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/giving-economics-bad-name.html

On August 11 2012 03:45 WniO wrote:
OkkkkKkkK I'll post one more time. Can someone explain why Obama's birth certificate was never examined closer when he released it? If you zoom up really close or in pdf format you can clearly see its been edited, (computer black text over gray blue real ink.) Dozens of layers used etc etc. I know there was a post on to a long ways back that pointed to a YouTube video explaining all the faults, but no one can tell me that was just scanned in like that, those special scanners only make a background layer and a text layer, not 50 layers... you can go to white house.gov or search google, and look at the thing itself. Li,e I said before idc if he was born elsewhere, but I'm surprised this never got solved. If it was real then wouldn't you think they would just scan it normally without editing I mean it just screams fake.

On August 11 2012 03:53 DamnCats wrote:


It gets solved when fox news tells us it gets solved. NOT A MINUTE FUCKING BEFORE.

The internet is alive with speculation that the secret source Harry Reid claims to have on Mitt Romney’s tax returns is Utah industrialist Jon Huntsman Sr. He is the founder of Hunstman Corporation and the father of the former GOP presidential candidate — and the speculation is based on the fact that his profile fits with much of what we publicly know about Reid’s presumed confidante.

But I just got off the phone with Huntsman, and he confirmed to me that he is not Reid’s source.

However, in a move that could be significant, Huntsman forcefully called on Romney to release his tax returns. This matters, because Huntsman is a longtime backer of Romney — he has long been close to Romney; he supported his early campaigns; he was the national finance chairman of Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign; and he has raised a lot of money for him over the years. (He backed his own son in the latest GOP primary.)

“I feel very badly that Mitt won’t release his taxes and won’t be fair with the American people,” Huntsman told me. In a reference to Romney’s father, who pioneered the release of returns as a presidential candidate, Huntsman said: “I loved George. He always said, pay your taxes for at least 10 or 12 years.”

On August 11 2012 03:57 Nymphaceae wrote:

Chop to it then oompa loompa. We need you on air stat!

“I feel very badly that Mitt won’t release his taxes and won’t be fair with the American people,” Huntsman told me. In a reference to Romney’s father, who pioneered the release of returns as a presidential candidate, Huntsman said: “I loved George. He always said, pay your taxes for at least 10 or 12 years.”

Huntsman said: “I loved George. He always said, pay your taxes for at least 10 or 12 years.”