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information about this blog or me.
Esquire: “Public company corporate profits have nearly quadrupled under…Obama’s Watch”
StandardThis means stronger balance sheets that could keep the next wave of economic hard times from becoming another crisis. Plus, unemployment has gone down. There’s been job growth in some industries, particularly in energy exploration and production. Does Obama deserve credit for this turnaround? You bet. These corporations made a lot of their money by cashing stimulus checks.
TPM Reader Letter: “The affordable care act is going to allow me to finally start my own law firm. “
LinkMy Wish: NJ Bridge vs. West Virginia Water #NewWorldWater
AsideI wish the national media would dedicate as much or more time to investigating these people who poisoned water for a whole region of West Virginia as they are to Chris Christie Administration creating a traffic jam for a whole region. #newworldwater
NY Times profiles Christie’s Inner Circle
LinkJosh Marshall’s SOTU Review: “Whatever, Guys …”
StandardJosh Marshall’s SOTU Review: "Whatever, Guys …":
I’d sum it up in two words: “Whatever, guys …”
Gone from the speech was what I’d heard in pretty much every other Obama State of the Union, pressing bipartisan cooperation, finding common ground, pushing points of agreement. There wasn’t a contrary note. It was more just ignoring the whole thing, as though the President were saying, “Okay, guys, I get it. You won’t do anything. Okay. Fine.”
Prior to 2014 Obama had to press bipartisanship. He said he would as a candidate. Twice. Delivered under the triumphant cover of a two term Presidency humbled 2010 midterm electorate and 2013 political setbacks, the 2014 State of the Union Address emphasized presidential prerogative in lieu of 44’s appeals for collegial efforts by Republicans constantly besieged by the far right wing of their party.
People can’t wait to kick a bully when he’s down
LinkGood to know: Blogging is free speech…
LinkACA enrollment better, still improving
LinkSenator Cornyn is anti-martini
Link“Unfortunate Comments”
“The House Majority Leader’s unfortunate comments notwithstanding, […] there is no evidence that the purpose behind the Voter ID Law was to disenfrancise (sic) minorities or persons who, along party lines, may be more inclined to vote for Democratic candidates.” – Judge Bernard McGinley in decision overturning
PA House Majority Leader Mike Turzai’s “unfortunate comments”:
“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation – abortion facility regulations – in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
From New York Times 2012 Exit Polls
Race:
- 2012 PA White voters – Romney 57%
- 2012 PA Black voters – Obama 93%
- 2012 PA Hispanic voters – Obama 80%
Gender:
- 2012 PA Male voters – Romney 51%
- 2012 PA Women voters – Obama 54%
Income:
- 2012 PA Voters Income Under 30k – Obama 74%
- 2012 PA Voters Income 30k to 49,999 – Obama 61%
- 2012 PA Voters Income 50k or more – Romney 56%
- 2012 PA Voters Income 100k or more Romney 54%
Obama won core Democratic constituencies by a greater margin in 2012 than 2008, PA Republicans still passed legislation they wanted. Pro-gun castle doctrine, pro-life abortion facility regulations were passed without voter ID. So even after the PA Republican party’s legislative agenda was enacted into law, this Republican legislator was insisting that voter ID was the law (which was not implemented due to court challenges) that would deliver Romney long Democratic Pennsylvania.
It’s Decided: Google+ is bloatware for email and chat
LinkClick Payola
LinkAtlas Scrooged: Stossel says don’t give money to poors. Doesn’t mention volunteering.
VideoThe best case for giving money to the homeless was laid out to me by a college friend who is/was a self described “bleeding heart” who maintained she would always gave homeless people money whenever she could. She just wanted to help ease a homeless person’s pain. If she knew they were in pain (even from withdrawal) and that money would help them in anyway, she wanted to do that. That showed real compassion. Quite often, the homeless person does really want some food or coffee and you can buy them that if you don’t want to give them cash. fine.
Stossel’s whole pretend homeless schtick was so dehumanizing, reductive, childish and unprofessional, then to see that resident moron Doocy ask Stossel “what it felt to be like to be homeless” was one of the worst things ever. Stossel was out there for a small part of the day. He felt what it was like to be a hairy ticket scalper or a kid who skipped school on Halloween dress up day. He did not learn what it felt to be homeless.
To be fair to the (g)libertarian Stossel, you do get better holistic bang for your buck giving to charities that have established programs. But no one disputes that. But the best bang for your buck is giving your time to the homeless and Stossel never mentions that! It’s a whole choice between giving and not giving.
I’ve volunteered with The Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing and Able…it’s an awesome program. I also volunteer with Covenant House PA here in Philly. Another awesome charity. And yes, Charity Navigator is excellent, before I started walking in the PanCan walk a few years back, I checked them through that site. As someone who does pass up giving out money on the street, I find giving time is much better. Go do something about it.
The mayor of Atlanta wins the Braves deal
Standard“The Atlanta Braves are one of the best baseball teams in America, and I wish them well.
We have been working very hard with the Braves for a long time, and at the end of the day, there was simply no way the team was going to stay in downtown Atlanta without city taxpayers spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make that happen.
It is my understanding that our neighbor, Cobb County, made a strong offer of of $450M in public support to the Braves and we are simply unwilling to match that with taxpayer dollars.
Given the needs facing our city and the impact of Turner Field stadium on surrounding neighborhoods, that was something I, and many others were unwilling to do.
It was reported this week that Turner Field, which opened way back in 1997 before, as Will Bunch notes, there was even Twitter (!), will be demolished in 2017. The Atlanta Braves, you see, feel that they can no longer field a viable Major League team there. And when city of Atlanta said it couldn’t fork over the $200 million necessary to upgrade the stadium, the Braves went venue shopping. They struck gold. Nearby Cobb County will pony up $450 million in taxpayer money for a brand new, 42,000 seat, $672 million ballpark.
That’s right, neighboring Cobb County is forking over 300m to 450m+ to help the Braves build a stadium. Where is the money coming from? Cobb County taxpayers! Cobb County, whose school district has had teacher furloughs for it’s school district, due to an 80m+ budget deficit is going to fund this stadium for the Braves with money taxpayers won’t even be able to vote yay or nay on.
More big city mayors with sprawling school districts and infrastructure to maintain need to follow Kaseem Reed’s example and learn to say no to this corporate welfare and let these teams say yes to the suburbs.
“Jingle Hoops”
VideoCourtesy Henry Abbott @ TrueHoop.
New theme
AsideI switched to the new writr theme by wordpress.org makers Automattic. it mimics a genesis framework theme I had that i loved for a bit that was also a tumblog type format.
That’s not the biggest change. the biggest change is that the home page will no longer be blog posts. I will work on changing the homepage to support presentation of my writing and intro to the site. now it’s just the about page.
Like it leave a comment. Don’t like it? leave a comment. Don’t care, leave a comment.
3% of americans may be worse off under ACA
Not 3% percent, also not on healthcare.gov
Gruber further estimates that 80% of Americans will be “more or less left alone”, 14% will be “clear winners: they are currently uninsured and will have access to an affordable insurance policy”, and even half of the remaining 6% currently buying their own policies “will have little change to their policies”..
It’s that final 3% — people who “will have to buy a new product that complies with the A.C.A.’s more stringent requirements” — that’s given the media (and the GOP) a short-lived chance to try and discredit the whole program.
Read the whole thing (it’s not long) for more details.
Read more in Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker article:
Gruber summarized his stats: ninety-seven per cent of Americans are either left alone or are clear winners, while three per cent are arguably losers. “We have to as a society be able to accept that,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, that’s a shame, but no law in the history of America makes everyone better off.”
With the folks with Cadillac plans who are
Berating the people that work for you
swearing at political operatives is almost as offensive as Christie swearing in as President. almost.
Chris Christie has no problem yelling at the people that work for him.
The book describes Christie as concluding that Romney’s campaign team was “a gaggle of clowns who couldn’t organize a one-ring circus.” After Christie drew media criticism for his keynote address at the Republican National Convention, he confronted Romney adviser Ron Kaufman in the arena concourse and berated him with expletives.
“I’m tired of you people!!!” the book quotes Christie as saying. “Leave me the [expletive] alone!!!!”
I think Christie boosters love having a big boss man that they feel will yell at all the liberals. Little do they realize : he won’t stop with just liberals.
Help me raise money for Pancreatic Cancer Research
What the deal is now…
StandardThe deal Republicans want now, if I’m hearing correctly, is to open the government, raise the debt ceiling for like 6 weeks in exchange for debate and negotiations around entitlements (of which Obamacare is one!).
It’s a distinction without a difference, same garbage crap sandwich…