The President spoke at the AP Luncheon and laid out the choice between a 2nd Obama term and a Republican 1st term President in January 2013.

From John Cole:

“Curveball”, the Iraqi defector who fabricated claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, smiles as he confirms how he made the whole thing up. It was a confidence trick that changed the course of history, with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi’s lies used to justify the Iraq war.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » It Was All a Lie.

How many peoples lives ruined or lost to this war.

Well, it really wasn’t for shit.

Contraception is a health care debate.

In the fifth Swing States survey taken since last fall, Obama leads Republican front-runner Mitt Romney51%-42% among registered voters just a month after the president had trailed him by two percentage points.

The biggest change came among women under 50. In mid-February, just under half of those voters supported Obama. Now more than six in 10 do while Romney’s support among them has dropped by 14 points, to 30%. The president leads him 2-1 in this group.

[…]

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina says Romney’s promise to “end Planned Parenthood” — the former Massachusetts governor says he wants to eliminate federal funding for the group — and his endorsement of an amendment that would allow employers to refuse to cover contraception in health care plans have created “severe problems” for him in the general election.

Swing States Poll: A shift by women puts Obama in lead – USATODAY.com.

When they say most Americans want the Affordable Care Act aka “Obamacare” repealed. Most of these women who support access to contraception are some of the Americans probably don’t know that the contraception access rules the Obama Administration issued were part of that law.

The Orlando Sentinel contracted voice analysts to determine if Zimmerman’s voice could be reasonably expected to be the voice on the 911 call:

The Sentinel said it contacted Owen, who it described as a court-qualified expert witness and former chief engineer for the New York Public Library’s Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. He told the newspaper he used software called Easy Voice Biometrics to compare Zimmerman’s voice to the 911 call screams.

Owen told the newspaper that the software compared the screams to Zimmerman’s voice and returned a 48 percent match. He said he would expect a match of higher than 90 percent, considering the quality of the audio.

“As a result of that, you can say with reasonable scientific certainty that it’s not Zimmerman,” Owen told the Sentinel.

But he also said he could not confirm the voice as Trayvon’s, because he didn’t have a sample of the teen’s voice.

The Sentinel said that Ed Primeau, a Michigan-based audio engineer and forensics expert, used audio enhancement and human analysis and came to the same conclusion.

via U.S. News – Trayvon Martin case audio: Screams were not George Zimmerman’s, 2 experts say.

I can send a document to my kindle (app/device) by e-mail.

I can send a document to my Evernote account.

I can’t send one to Google Docs by e-mail anymore. Used to be able to. Not anymore.

So, I basically found this out when trying to send something to my Google Docs writely address this past weekend (hadn’t used it in over a year). The address was useless. Google folks say they are working on improving the feature. Probably going to have to email a document to your circle before you upload it to Google docs.

Another “improvement”.

What the conservatives are doing can be explained very easily: they are looking through a dead kid’s journal, diary, dirty laundry and dresser drawers and then they are posting whatever they find, removed from context and absent of significance, for all to see.

A new entertainment complex in South Philadelphia to cater to sports fans and partiers everywhere (From Philly.com via Atrios):

Location is an advantage, Luukko said: Xfinity Live is accessible from I-95 and I-76 and is “less than a half-hour from Delaware, just over the Walt Whitman Bridge from New Jersey, seven minutes from Center City, and an easy drive from the suburbs.

“Xfinity Live will be open 365 days a year. Certain portions will be open for lunch, with the rest open by 4 p.m. and most attractions staying open until 2 a.m. Parking will be free on nonevent nights, starting Friday. On event days, it will be free one hour after the start of the final event.

Another winner in the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion:

Yesterday, Palmetto Public Record exclusively reported that the Internal Revenue Service has been investigating since March of 2011 the Sikh worship center run by Gov. Haley’s father. At least five lawsuits have been filed against the Sikh Society of South Carolina since 2010, alleging that the group bilked contractors out of nearly $130,000 for the construction of a new temple.

Romney laughs about some people his father laid off in Michigan:

The GOP frontrunner recalled a “humorous” anecdote to Wisconsin voters in a conference call about how his father, George Romney, closed an auto factory in Michigan during his businessman years only to go to great lengths to hide this fact from voters when he ran from governor in the same state. Not only that, he suggested this gave him a closer relationship to Wisconsin, the state where George Romney shipped his factory, in his own current campaign.

And what kind of health insurance for people who get laid off under a President Romney?…whatever you have, you should be able to have as long as you had it already.

Trayvon Martin’s murder is just angering. I’m angry about:

• “Stand Your Ground Laws” which basically makes a violent person’s defense better if they respond with lethal force out of clear view of witnesses
• The muther f*cker who released a child’s suspension records: a teenage boys records are PRIVATE. An educator, public official or a school staff member betrayed public trust.
• Newsflash: teenage boys do rebellious sh!t. It’s not thuggery, it’s adolescence.
• Detective Serino’s professional judgement being overruled and the police dispatcher being ignored by George Zimmerman. These civil servants and police officers tried to serve justice. I hope he FBI, DOJ and/or the newly appointed state prosecutor can see this justice.
• The esteem of Police in the public eye. The esteem we hold Police departments is an integral part of our social compact being eroded by the inexplicable negligence (at best) and unethical public statements of the Sanford Police department led by Chief Lee.
• Zimmerman appointing himself watch captain and neighborhood complaints about his patrol being ignored
• This smug prick Friend of Zimmerman (FOZ) Joe Oliver (former CNN employee) intimating that Trayvon Martin would have murdered Zimmerman and that “coon” is just friendly banter
• FOZ Frank Taaffe claiming that 62 degrees at night is cold and that Trayvon Martin was some sort of deviant that should have to pass a test of truth to not be judged as suspicious by the likes Zimmerman.
• Trayvon Martin’s body being left unidentified and his family not notified for 3 days even though he had ID and a cell phone and was in his neighborhood.
• The fact that no one outside of Sanford Police and some witnesses saw any pictures, hospital records or anything and yet most of the press parroted the line that Zimmerman’s nose was broken and he had a cut in the back of his head. The only images of Zimmerman up to now don’t show any blood, bruises or cuts

I am angry. I’m trying to slow walk posts about it because I am so angry that I don’t want to state something that is immediately stupid or wrong just to support my personally desired outcome. (Also because bloggers like TNC , journalists like Charles Blow and Political Scientists like Melissa Harris-Perry are breaking this down better than I ever could.)

Most people who hear about Trayvon Martin’s death are angry. That anger could lead us to recklessness or vindictiveness or criminal cruelty and we all need to be careful about that.

Note: Think Progress has a strong run down of all the information in the order it breaks.

No Longer a “rose in the desert” Assad family blacklisted by EU.

In looking back “Stand Your Ground Laws”. Florida House Democrats opposed it, Florida House and Senate Republicans supported it:

Gelber said Floridians already had the right to defend themselves in their homes and offered an amendment that would restore a person’s duty to retreat from a confrontation in public places. Rep. Eleanor Sobel, a South Florida Democrat who now serves in the Senate, said Gelber’s amendment would reduce “chaos on the street.”

Republicans defeated Gelber’s amendment on a voice vote. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, called an obligation to retreat “a good way to get shot in the back.”

Members debated another unsuccessful amendment from Rep. Jack Seiler, a Democrat who is now mayor of Fort Lauderdale. Seiler’s proposal would have allowed for rebuttal to a person’s claim of self-defense.

“We are going to give blanket immunity to criminals when they commit crime,” Seiler said.

Other voices from the hour-long debate:

• “What would happen if I presumed that there was a threat when actually there was not a threat? I would hate to think that I would react and take someone’s life, or do bodily harm to someone, who actually only looked a little different than I looked,” said Rep. Priscilla Taylor, D-West Palm Beach.

• “When you give a person the right to use deadly force anywhere they’re lawfully supposed to be, then we open Pandora’s Box, and inside the box will be death for some persons,” Joyner said.

• “In a few years, you will be back trying to fix this bill,” said Rep. Ken Gottlieb, D-Hollywood.

What did Democrats in the Florida State Senate do? Voted for it (unanimously) because they were afraid to be seen as soft on crime:

Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, tried changing the bill before the vote so that it would not apply to public places. The Senate voted down his amendment in minutes. The vote to pass the bill was then unanimous, with Democrats, including Sen. Rod Smith, currently chair of the Florida Democratic Party, voting yes.

“We’d be seen as Democrats soft on crime,” Geller explained, according to an account from the Associated Press.

The Florida House Democrats opposition has been validated by numerous poor law enforcement outcomes directly attributable to “stand your ground” laws. The Florida State Senate Democrats are basically useless here because they didn’t want to be against a bill that Police and prosecutor associations vehemently opposed.

In Florida, prosecutors and police associations opposed Stand Your Ground, to no effect. Since the law was passed, the number of “justifiable homicides” has tripled. Last year, according to the Tampa Bay Times, “twice a week, on average, someone’s killing was considered warranted.” This week, the state attorney in Tallahassee, Willie Meggs, told the Times, “The consequences of the law have been devastating around the state. It’s almost insane what we are having to deal with.” Gang members, drug dealers, and road-rage killers are, according to Meggs, all successfully invoking Stand Your Ground. “The person who is alive always says, ‘I was in fear that he was going to hurt me.’ … And the other person would say, ‘I wasn’t going to hurt anyone.’ But he is dead. That is the problem they are wrestling with in Sanford.”

So the logic here for Florida Senate Dems: We didn’t want to seem like soft on crime, so we let ourselves get punked into a bad law that even the Police and Prosecutors said would make crime worse and remove the ability to seek justice in violent crimes.

Mitt Romney’s allegation? Under Obama businesses can’t flourish:

And now, the President is trying to erase his record with rhetoric. Just the other day, he said, “We are inventors. We are builders. We are makers of things. We are Thomas Edison. We are the Wright Brothers. We are Bill Gates. We are Steve Jobs.”

That’s true. But the problem is: he’s still Barack Obama. And under this President, those pioneers would have faced an uphill battle to innovate, invent, and create.

Under Dodd-Frank, they would have struggled to get a loan from their community bank.

A regulator would have shut down the Wright Brothers for their “dust pollution.”

And the government would have banned Thomas Edison’s light bulb. Oh, that’s right. They just did.

The real cost of these misguided policies are the ideas that are never pursued and the dreams that are never realized. 

For centuries, the American Dream has meant the opportunity to build something new. Some of America’s greatest success stories are people who started out with nothing but a good idea and a corner in their garage. But today, Americans who want to start a new business or launch a new venture don’t see promise and opportunity. They see government standing in their way.

 

So. Jobs. Gates. Wright. Edison. Building things. Let’s see:

Apple. Most profitable company. Ever.

Microsoft. Record earnings for Q2, FY 2011-2012.

GM. Record profit in 2011. the highest profit in 103-years of business.

Chrysler. 2011 was first full year of profitable quarters since 2005

Boeing. Beat expectations for 2011

Wall Street. Earned more under Obama’s time in office than during Bush’s two terms

GE. Profits up for 2011. Strong 2012 outlook.

Yes. Obama is anti-business until you look at how business has done under him.

Santorum said that 2012 is the most important election since 1860:

Obviously, it’s — so many memories come to mind when we walk on here in the town and across the street where Abraham Lincoln finished the Gettysburg Address at the Wills House. And you think about the great elections of our past.

And I’ve gone around this country over the past year now and said this is the most important election in our lifetimes. And, in fact, I think it’s the most important election since the election of 1860.

The election in 1860 was about whether these united states — which is what it was mostly referred to prior to the election of 1860 — would become the United States, whether it would be a union, a country bound together to build a great and prosperous nation, a — a nation based on a concept, a concept that we were birthed with, a concept birthed with our founding document of the Declaration of Independence.

I’ve said throughout the course of this campaign that while other issues are certainly important — the economy, joblessness, national security concerns, the family, the issue of life — all of these issues are important, but the foundational issue in this race, the one that is, in fact, the cause of the other maladies that we are feeling, whether it’s in the economy or whether it’s in the budget crisis that we’re dealing with, all boils down to one word, and that’s what’s at stake in this election, and it’s right behind me on that banner, and that’s the word “freedom.”

The election of 1860, the election that resulted in Republican Abraham Lincoln elected to the Presidency. In response to this election, southern, slaveholding states formed the Confederate States of America in March of 1861 to protect “slaveholder’s rights”. The Declaration of the state of Texas, upon joining the Confederate States also cited an alleged failure of the federal government to protect it’s frontier border. Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter and began the Civil War.

This is a very serious philosophical position here. Since he referred to Lincoln, I think Santorum is inferring that he believes Barack Obama as a 21st century some sort of James Buchanan in his eyes: allowing some sort of egregious deprivation of freedom to be visited upon Americans by passing federal reforms like the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank financial reform. This is some kind of revisionist talk.

Abraham Lincoln wanted to save the Union. He believed in a republican (little R intended) government and argued against popular sovereignty during and after Gingrich’s favorite Lincoln-Douglas debates:

Lincoln predicted that a future Supreme Court decision might build on the timbers already laid by “declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a State to exclude slavery from its limits.” Lincoln repeated the charge of nationalization and conspiracy in the first debate at Ottawa. “Popular Sovereignty, as now applied to the question of slavery, does allow the people of a Territory to have slavery if they want to, but does not allow them not to have it if they do not want it.” [27 – Johannsen, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 14–15, 18–19, 55]

[…]

In part, Douglas accomplished this by defining the American Revolution as a struggle for local self-government within the empire. Douglas maintained that the local emphasis had continued under the Constitution. He construed the constitutional clause giving Congress authority over the territories to be limited strictly to land sales and not to government. Congress thus had no power to interfere in the “internal policy, either of the States or of the Territories.” Therefore Congress could neither impose slavery nor prohibit it in either states or territories.

Santorum and his fellow GOP primary candidates have mostly argued for popular sovereignty under the guise of states rights and that should be remembered when he seeks to put himself on the side of Lincoln, preserver of the Union.

“I can’t be racist, I have black friends” has reared its ugly head again. On Morning Joe, Scarborough and his crew were peddling the lie that women would have nothing to fear because Santorum is surrounded by strong women. That’s great.

It’s not how he treats them that matters, it’s the laws he would pass and did vote for the rest of the women in the country.

Judge him by his actions before you judge him by the company he keeps.