Words when written with deep commitment and conviction, with a call in every letter etch in our hearts the will to respond.
Words when written with deep commitment and conviction, with a call in every letter etch in our hearts the will to respond.
Ginger White decides to tell her story because, according to White, she had heard that the story of her affair with Herman Cain was leaked to the media. She decided to come out publicly to tell her story before the news media runs with it. Cain says she’s a friend that he helped from time to time — he gave her money for rent. He, of course, denies there was ever any relationship. Who do you believe?
Ginger White Alleges 13+ year affair with Herma…, posted with vodpod
Here’s an interesting take on what just happened with the super committee’s failure; or not as this article suggests. The article, Super Committee has succeeded — it has not failed, is by CoffeeCat, Democratic Underground. Read the article and share your thoughts. Is CoffeeCat on to something?
Does anyone actually believe that this “Super Committee” was formed to make real change?Oh please.Our elected leaders work for the corporations, not for us. Everything they do is for the express purpose of benefiting the corporations or getting themselves re-elected.
Does anyone wonder why this “Super Committee” was formed and was charged with crafting a plan of cuts/taxes–and why this duty wasn’t given to Congress as a whole? Why not just have votes on individual issues–such as rescinding the Bush tax cuts or cutting specific welfare programs?
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Sharing what I’m reading and my thoughts on same.
Thousands rally against Wisconsin Republican governor | Reuters | The Wisconsin Department of Administration estimated that between 25,000 and 30,000 people gathered at an afternoon rally at the Capitol building to boost the state-wide petition drive for a Walker recall election that began on November 15. … United Wisconsin, part of the coalition leading the recall effort, said more than 105,000 signatures had been gathered through the first four days of the effort. Organizers need 540,208 valid signatures by January 15 to trigger a recall vote. MyTake: Wisconsin and Ohio are teaching the rest of us how to win this country back and make sure we have in office elected officials who are focused on jobs and the economy.
Lobbying firm’s memo spells out plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street | Open Channel MSNBC.com | CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead. MyTake: Some political pundits (especially on Fox) are doing their best to down play OWS in the news by demonizing them and saying that the movement is losing support. No major lobbying firm would write a four-page memo that references the growing organization and support of OWS, and warns of OWS and Tea Party merging together, and then offers to “fix it” for $850,000 unless its real.
House Dems Attack Clarence Thomas Over Ethical Lapses | News One | MyTake: Democrats want Scalia and Thomas to recuse themselves from the Affordable Care Act Hearing and Republicans want Kagan to do likewise. Put the health care law aside momentarily and let’s take a serious look at Clarence Thomas. He needs to do more than recuse himself from this case or any other. Moreover, when have we ever seen the spouse of a sitting Justice publicly attack the President of the U.S., engage in politics and more? Never. Time for the Thomas to go.
Obama-Wen talks overshadowed by disputes | Financial Times-Asia MyTake: Republicans are determined to use U.S. issues with China to attack President Obama; especially those seeking to become their party’s presidential nominee. But no one has a clear message and collectively, they contradict each other — depending on the day of the week.
It’s Saturday morning and I’m sitting here having my coffee watching Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. Midway through the show, Hayes announces he has the four-page memo that was written by a major lobbying firm to one of its Wall Street clients, outlining an attack on Occupy Wall Street and targets Democrats who support OWS.
Check out what Jonathan Larsen (executive producer of Up with Chris Hayes) posted on UCH’s website this morning:
In case you caught the Huffington Post story about our exclusive this morning, you should know that they only had two paragraphs of a four-page memo.
We’ll be posting the full memo today after the program so you can see it for yourselves, but we can tell you now that it’s a well-known Washington lobbyist firm, Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford, pitching an $850,000 plan to one of its Wall Streets clients…for punishing politicians who might express sympathy for Occupy Wall Street.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is specifically singled out for targeting, and he’ll respond to this story on tomorrow’s edition of Up. [....]
Emily’s List has a new poll out with a very important question: “Do you think the government should allow so-called “religious employers” to deny women access to birth control? The reason for the question: Our current health care law allows insurers to cover birth control costs and has a built-in opt-out for “religious employers,” such as churches. There is a growing effort to change the opt-out language to expand the meaning of “religious employers” to include other employers. Redefining the law in this way would deny birth control coverage to nearly three million workers and students.
I say no and here’s why. Allowing this to happen ignores freedom of religion; especially in a country that honors freedom of religion for everyone. Whether one’s religion allows parishioners to use contraceptives or engage in sex outside of marriage or not, doing so is a personal choice; government should have nothing to do with it. What cannot happen is one group of religious believers gerrymander laws that seeks to protect the rights of all to force their beliefs on everyone else.
Personally, I believe anyone who engages in an intimate relationship without using some form of contraception and protection is irresponsible and puts their health and their partner’s health at risk.
Moreover, this is about contraceptives for women. Find me one conservative group, one Christian right group that says Viagra should not be covered by insurers. Or, that “religious employers” should be exempt from covering Viagra for their male employees. I’ll bet if we add Viagra to the mix, this effort would fall flat.
At some point, Rick Perry should just go home. He’s done. Perhaps Gingrich’s astonishing, albeit short-lived, rise in the polls is what’s keeping Perry ever hopeful of achieving a resurgence in the polls. Perry continues to say things to appeal to the Republican base that, according to his poll numbers, isn’t working for him. In answering questions at a town hall gathering in Nashua NH on Wednesday, Perry said:
Rick Perry at Town Hall Meeting, Nashua NH | Brian Snyder/Reuters
President Barack Obama “grew up in a privileged way” and that America’s foreign policy reputation has suffered because of the president’s “mentality that he’s the smartest guy in the room.”
“It reveals to me that he grew up in a privileged way,” Perry said of Obama when asked by FOX News host Sean Hannity to comment on the president’s recent comment that American business interests have been “lazy” in their approach to the global economy. “He never had to really work for anything.”
“This president has never felt that angst that they have in their heart,” he added, referring to the nation’s 14 million unemployed. “And I think he’s always, when he has had problems, he’s always pointed to somebody else and said it’s their fault, not mine.”
Pres. Obama and Prime Minister Gillard of Australia
Recently, the President made some strategic moves showing sound judgment on foreign policy: his agreement with Australia to expand our military presence in that country and the recent Asia-Pacific economic summit in Hawaii. The economic summit he hosted brought together eight other countries and together, they “reached an agreement for a transpacific trade bloc that sets standard rules for commerce.” China was not a part of the summit. “Obama said Wednesday that while the U.S. is not intentionally excluding China from the agreement, joining the pact [would] require Beijing “to rethink some of its approaches to trade.” This is constructive, productive foreign policy that speaks for itself (read full article at Time.com); Naturally, Republicans disagree.
There’s the usual anger-filled attacks from Republicans that have little to do with foreign policy or politics and much to do with ideology. Mitt Romney, who has made attacking the president over trade agreements a campaign stomp speech, more than any other contender has some explaining to do. He needs to disclose what role, if any, he has played in assisting Bain Capital and its dealings with Chinese corporations; which are owned and run by the government. He also needs to fully disclose his current relationship, influence and compensation with and from Bain Capital and it’s affiliates Bain Capital Private Equity, Bain Capital Asia, Bain Capital Europe, Bain Capital India, Brookside Capital, Sankaty Advisors, Bain Capital Ventures, and Absolute Return Capital. The reason is:
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A special message from Health Care for America Now:
State insurance regulators are threatening to gut the new rule in the health reform law that keeps insurance premiums in check. This rule, called the medical loss ratio (MLR), requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% of our premiums on medical care and not on padding their profits and paying millions to their CEOs. State insurance commissioners are holding a secret meeting tomorrow to decide whether they want to force a vote to rob $1 billion in rebates from consumers.
Click here and send a message to your insurance commissioners today. Tell them: You work for us, not the insurance companies – hands off the MLR.
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This video clip of Herman Cain’s interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial board on Monday says it all. The question started out as what was Cain’s opinion on how President Obama handled Libya. Clearly, Cain has no idea about foreign policy. This is getting painful to watch.
This afternoon, CNN/Opinion Research poll shows Mitt Romney at 24%, Newt Gingrich at 22% and Herman Cain at 14%. Rising in the polls is just part of the task. Raising sufficient funds to launch a formidable campaign is key to staying in the race, and only Romney has raised any significant funds. As of September 30, Romney raised $32,212,389, with about half that amount in cash on hand and zero debt. Gingrich, who raised just under $3 million and Cain, who raised $5,340,967, don’t come close.
When compared individually or collectively to President Obama who raised $89,473,611 during the same period, collectively, Republicans are running about $9 million short.
One area that is consistent for all Republican candidates is the lack of female donors. The figures below are as of October 31, 2011 and represent candidates who participate in GOP debates:
Jake Lamar shares his assessment of President Obama noting that he is not disappointed with the Obama’s presidency. Lamar is straight forward, insightful and presents his assessment in the most meaningful way. This is a must listen to. Thank you, Jake.
I guess I should have expected nothing less from contenders at the latest Republican presidential nominee debate. It’s their job to prove to other conservatives, especially the party base, which one is the most conservative in hopes of winning the nomination. The debate focused on foreign policy and national security in various scenarios. At times, they were asked what they would do better than President Obama and his administration. At other times, contenders were asked to lay out their assessment of a given situation, such as Iran and Afghanistan, the Taliban, etc.
After hearing the responses, especially from the latest frontrunners Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, it was clear to me if anyone of them became president, America would stay at war until we voted them out of office. Instead of pulling out of the middle east, we’d be sending in more ground troops and doubling down our efforts, fighting one endless war after another, costing more lives and wasting more money. Some of the remedies offered included taking out Iran’s scientists “covertly” (Gingrich) and taking out Iran’s economy (Perry).
Perhaps we should expect nothing less than confrontation from the current Republican party as this is how they govern at home; namely, through fear, intimidation and measures so stark, everyone suffers. The guaranty of more wars, more lives lost, coupled with wasting obscene amounts of money that we don’t have says one thing; re-elect President Obama.
Overtime, we have seen our electoral process eroded by special interests groups and lobbyists, coupled with much money to influence elections and elected officials. The emergence of a new Republican party has launched a nation-wide effort to suppress the vote through bills that would disenfranchise millions in over 34 states, and have become law in 14.
Of equal concern, the Citizens United (see also SCOTUS blog) ruling “allows companies to spend unlimited sums in their own names or contribute to trade associations and other nonprofit groups that engage in political spending.” This further erodes the electoral process, leaving it open for more corruption and infusion of a culture of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” since disclosure of political spending is voluntary. Shareholders, however, may be the deciding factor on the issue of full disclosure for leading corporations.
Public disclosure of political spending creates a variety of risks for corporations, their boards and CEOs. Shareholders no doubt will want to know whether political donations being made are in the best interest of the company or the CEO or a board member. If you’re a pharmaceutical company that manufactures contraception pills, a political donation to a nonprofit pro-life group to support a pro-life candidate is not in line with company interests. An excellent read on how corporations and shareholders are dealing with disclosure in the wake of Citizens United is Gary Stern’s article, Dealing with political contribution disclosures.
In 2007, the Center for Political Accountability, which was formed in 2003 to “address the secrecy that cloaks much of the political activity engaged in by companies and the risks this poses to shareholder value,” united their efforts with the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research. After the Citizens United ruling, they used the CPA-Zicklin Index they created to assess corporate political spending under this ruling and released a report of their findings on October 28, 2011.
Of note, the report shows the unexpected is taking place: “voluntary disclosure of political spending is becoming a mainstream corporate practice, and a growing number of companies are putting restrictions on the political use of their money.” The report stresses the need for full versus partial, some or no disclosure of corporate political spending.
U.S. companies are at a crossroads. As a result of Citizens United, American corporations must now decide for themselves how, and to what extent, they will devote their treasury funds to influence elections. The decision has had immediate affect. In the 2010 election cycle, outside, or nonpolitical party, organizations reported spending $305 million, more than four times what they spent in the 2006 midterm elections. Tax-exempt groups that disclosed no information about their donors spent $135.6 million of the total.
The report also highlights the risks businesses face when engaging in political activity.
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With grace, dignity and poise, Anita Hill responds to Richard Stengel’s question about Herman Cain. Cain Recently made a joke about Ms. Hill in Michigan that was tasteless and also displayed a lack of appreciation on his part about the seriousness of the accusations made against him; even though they are about events that are alleged to have been taken in the past. It would do Cain well to listen to Ms. Hill’s response; he could learn something about engaging in conversation and conduct that creates value. Click on the link below to hear Ms. Hill’s response.
