and he is playing golf on Martha's Vineyard. On this return he will resume his road tour of upstate New York and Pennsylvania talking about the middle class.Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum said in Ames, Iowa that the middle class is a Marxist idea.
Before he left from Washington, President Obama gave a press conference which covered reforms in the NSA and the FISA court, healthcare,and immigration reform. Depending on your politics, it was either a superb performance (my opinion) or a dismal failure on the subject of surveillance. The more the NSA, Snowden and other subjects are debated,the weirder the conversation. President Obama referred everyone to his Defense College speech on May where he outlined changes in the surveillance regimen and the use of drones but nobody seemed to listen.
++Flying from Washington, Obama spoke to the veterans with disability and promised them that there would be a cutting of the backlog of care. While there he was greeted with birthers,the Florida doctor who invented Obama as an African medicine man, and other racist reminders of the tea party.
++Yukking it up a Missouri rodeo clown decided to dress as Obama and urged a bull to gore him to the applause of the crowd. Later he was ritually fired and banned from the Missouri State Rodeo for life.
++Florida's Governor Scott began another purge of the voter lists and North Carolina's Pat McCory implemented the most suppressive voting bill in modern times. Today, Hillary Clinton spoke at the ABA Convention about the tsunami of voter ID bills that hit the states who were past violators of the Voting Rights Act before it was gutter by the Supreme Court.
++Mitch McConnell came up with another ingenious way to delay Obamacare. He argued that the threat of cyber attacks and hackers meant that Obamacare should be postponed. Ted Cruz and other Republicans arguing that they want to shut down the government to defund Obamacare have their facts wrong--Obamacare is mandatory spending and would continue on even if the government was shut down.
++Eric Cantor and Rand Paul keep saying the deficit is growing. But today the figures are out that it is shrinking at the fastest rate since just after WWII and the fastest rate in over 5 years. But it doesn't matter because Eric Cantor is saying that beginning in 2016 it will pick up again.
++The new Washington Post owned by Amazon claims that Republicans have figured out a way to keep funding the government. However, the pre-Amazon Post ran an article that all three of the major Republican staffers who did the gritty detail work in the past have all left Congress, leaving no one left in the GOP side, who knows anything about the budget.
++An Arizona couple who feared the US repression of Christianity and the rise of homosexuality set sail for Kiribati to seek refuge. Their boat was overwhelmed by storms and they were rescued by a Japanese freighter. The couple and their kids were delivered to Chile where the repressive US government paid their way back to Arizona.
++In Ames, Iowa, the Holy-Rollers of the Religious Right were entertained by Ted Cruz and his father Rev.Rafael, who turned on the crowd with analogies between Fidel Castro and Barack Obama. The Religious Right were commanded the vote against all those who were for same sex marriage, pro choice and against gun rights like Jesus would do.
++For your amusement,check out the Lakers section of the LA Times to see the video of a young Kareem Abdul Jabbar playing against Wilt Chamberlain, the two best centers in NBA history. Wilt actually came to play for a change.
++Mariano Rivera blew three straight saves but won one. He still has 35 saves and 3 wins this year, his last. Watch A-Rod. It will be the last you see him once his appeal to MLB fails. Ichiro Suzuki is nearing 4,000 hits in pro baseball, a combination of Japan and America.
++There are now 6 states who are refusing to enforce the changes to health insurance under Obamacare. Refusing the Medicaid extension and the regulations on the health insurance industry, Texas is now sinking toward 50 in terms of healthcare in the United States. Florida has announced skyrocketing new health insurance premiums but as the Orlando Tribune reports this is because Florida actually passed laws to allow the health insurance industry to ignore all caps.
++The GOP is disturbed that they may fail for the third time to take the Senate. A very messy primary in Georgie between extreme right candidates may favor Sam Nunn's daughter, who is running as a Democrat. In South Carolina, Lindsey Graham now faces two challengers, one of whom called him a Nancy boy. And the Kentucky race with Matt Bevin, Alison Grimes and Mitch McConnell looks like it will be the most expensive in the country.
++Today Democrats vote for whether Cory Booker will be the nominee for Senate. I like Pat Holt, just because he's a scientist. Booker is supposed to win.
++Eric Holder announced yesterday plans to reform our criminal justice system with an emphasis on eliminating mandatory sentencing for drug use and possession. A federal court ruled Stop and Frisk in New York City was unconstitutional because it was racial profiling.
Showing posts with label Obama press conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama press conference. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
President Obama meets the Press and the Challenges to Conservatives
President Whoopass cleaned the reporters' clocks last night in his second press conference. He called on an array of reporters from Ebony, Stars &Stripes, Politico and even the Washington Times at the expense of the more established media. His putdown of Ed Henry of CNN put that network into a tizzy, where they tried to spin the rest of the press conference as deteriorating after their reporter demoralized President Obama. President Obama stayed and went back to and stayed on his message that his budget was inseparable from the recovery. Earlier in the day Republicans--in this case Mitch McConnell--moaned about how the budget didn't cohere. It's obvious that they hadn't listened to any of the Administration's briefings. In fact, it is one of the only budgets in my memory that does hang together and is an integrated whole.
President Obama has been trying to comunicate beyond the media filter, a filter that is more and more obviously protective of the wealthy and corporate interests. His appearance on the Jay Leno Show netted the highest rating for that show in many a year and another appearance on 60 Minutes topped 17 million. I still revert to my primary campaign days of watching his public appearances on C-Span so I am spared the inanity of the chattering class. The Obama strategy is obviously working since he retains his high approval ratings, despite outliers like Zogby and the compromised Rasmussen polls.
Pro-lifers are protesting that President Obama will be receiving an honorary degree from Norte Dame--like almost all his predecessors. The Catholic Bishop in Indiana has announced he will boycott the proceedings. I'm sure he's be missed. Soon to be a Catholic convert, Newt Gingrich commented that Obama's policies were against Catholic doctrine. The twice-divorced Gingrich will be converting to Catholicism soon so he and his wife can worship together. A quick study--he's already mastered Catholic doctrine.
Newt has been in other news creating a new group that will bring together fiscal and social conservatives. Fiscal conservatives tend to blame evangelicals for the declining fortunes of the Republican party and this is Newt's effort to bridge the divide. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the Southern Agrarian Literary Movement, except no one can write. The new 'City on the Hill"--the post-Reagan utopia--will be the 21st century revival of the South with an emphasis on a rural culture isolated from science and modernity and steeped in the religiousity of Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood. The wealthy will be the plantation holders of old. That might explain conservatives' interest in South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford, former Goldman Sachs manager, who refused the stimulus money, despite his state having one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and a school system that continues to deteriorate.
A leading conservative publisher and writer approached me the other night about the state of the conservative movement. A literary person schooled in the more philosophical underpinings of conservatism, he lamented the rise of people such as Ann Coulter and G.Gordan Liddy as spokespeople for conservatism. But in our conversation, it was clear that he had no knowledge of the detritus appearing on right-wing websites or the poseurs on cable news. He had not caught Glenn Beck's recent act on the 9/12 Project. Beck quite proudly has announced on his radio show he has never read Hayek and the other philosophical pillars of conservatism. He even rejoices in this, declaring them boring. Nor had my friend been aware of the re-emergence of racism on the right and some of the more inflammatory rhetoric against Barack Obama, whom he thinks is too inexperienced and tackling too many things at the same time.
Personally, I believe we are back at the moment in my youth when William F. Buckley,Jr in the National Review started banning certain types of political behavior from the conservative line-up--the John Birch Society, the KKK, the blatant segregationists and more fringe groups. In New Jersey at that time, Rev. Carl McIntyre had a pirate radio station beaming off Cape May,denouncing Communists, which included President Eisenhower. It was from this morass that modern conservatism had to emerge. But now it has sunk back into the swamp, now even courting secessionists. Like teenagers, more conservatives are reverting to Ayn Rand's writings to launch their "Gault" movement based on the hero of Atlas Shrugged. In the old days,one was encouraged to read Russell Kirk to counter these tendencies or Randian urges.
The conservatives first must do a lot of housekeeping and housecleaning before they can reconstitute a viable movement. First, they must recognize and assimilate the idea that the Bush-Cheney embrace of the unitary theory of the executive was an egregious violation of conservative principles. Secondly, they must formulate some idea of the public good, something that has been sadly lacking in recent years. Thirdly, they must debate with social conservatives how intrusive do they want government in people's personal lives. The domination of the Republican Party by social conservatives is frightening and a leading cause of intolerance in this country.I would also suggest it is the most off-putting aspect of the Republicans, preventing them from any real political reach in the Northeast and the Midwest.
Conservatives must finally deal with the whole idea of governance. In a time of almost Depression, how can one reconcile a philosophy of small government with the suffering of the population on a large scale? For a group that has joined with forces arguing against evolution in school systems, how can one advocate social darwinism as they are doing as a default argument? And why have the wealthy been seen as virtuous in light of the behavior of bankers and Wall Street operators?
The problem with the last Administration--as conservative as politicians can be--was the reliance on the rhetoric of ideology as a replacement for competence. In the final analysis, that was found profundly wanting.
It seems to me that the first requirement for any conservative recovery is to start telling the truth about the recent past and how conservatives fueled in their hubris by Karl Rove betrayed their own principles by seeking dominant control of all governing institutions and sought to bend established constitutional safeguards to their own ideological benefit.
President Obama has been trying to comunicate beyond the media filter, a filter that is more and more obviously protective of the wealthy and corporate interests. His appearance on the Jay Leno Show netted the highest rating for that show in many a year and another appearance on 60 Minutes topped 17 million. I still revert to my primary campaign days of watching his public appearances on C-Span so I am spared the inanity of the chattering class. The Obama strategy is obviously working since he retains his high approval ratings, despite outliers like Zogby and the compromised Rasmussen polls.
Pro-lifers are protesting that President Obama will be receiving an honorary degree from Norte Dame--like almost all his predecessors. The Catholic Bishop in Indiana has announced he will boycott the proceedings. I'm sure he's be missed. Soon to be a Catholic convert, Newt Gingrich commented that Obama's policies were against Catholic doctrine. The twice-divorced Gingrich will be converting to Catholicism soon so he and his wife can worship together. A quick study--he's already mastered Catholic doctrine.
Newt has been in other news creating a new group that will bring together fiscal and social conservatives. Fiscal conservatives tend to blame evangelicals for the declining fortunes of the Republican party and this is Newt's effort to bridge the divide. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the Southern Agrarian Literary Movement, except no one can write. The new 'City on the Hill"--the post-Reagan utopia--will be the 21st century revival of the South with an emphasis on a rural culture isolated from science and modernity and steeped in the religiousity of Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood. The wealthy will be the plantation holders of old. That might explain conservatives' interest in South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford, former Goldman Sachs manager, who refused the stimulus money, despite his state having one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and a school system that continues to deteriorate.
A leading conservative publisher and writer approached me the other night about the state of the conservative movement. A literary person schooled in the more philosophical underpinings of conservatism, he lamented the rise of people such as Ann Coulter and G.Gordan Liddy as spokespeople for conservatism. But in our conversation, it was clear that he had no knowledge of the detritus appearing on right-wing websites or the poseurs on cable news. He had not caught Glenn Beck's recent act on the 9/12 Project. Beck quite proudly has announced on his radio show he has never read Hayek and the other philosophical pillars of conservatism. He even rejoices in this, declaring them boring. Nor had my friend been aware of the re-emergence of racism on the right and some of the more inflammatory rhetoric against Barack Obama, whom he thinks is too inexperienced and tackling too many things at the same time.
Personally, I believe we are back at the moment in my youth when William F. Buckley,Jr in the National Review started banning certain types of political behavior from the conservative line-up--the John Birch Society, the KKK, the blatant segregationists and more fringe groups. In New Jersey at that time, Rev. Carl McIntyre had a pirate radio station beaming off Cape May,denouncing Communists, which included President Eisenhower. It was from this morass that modern conservatism had to emerge. But now it has sunk back into the swamp, now even courting secessionists. Like teenagers, more conservatives are reverting to Ayn Rand's writings to launch their "Gault" movement based on the hero of Atlas Shrugged. In the old days,one was encouraged to read Russell Kirk to counter these tendencies or Randian urges.
The conservatives first must do a lot of housekeeping and housecleaning before they can reconstitute a viable movement. First, they must recognize and assimilate the idea that the Bush-Cheney embrace of the unitary theory of the executive was an egregious violation of conservative principles. Secondly, they must formulate some idea of the public good, something that has been sadly lacking in recent years. Thirdly, they must debate with social conservatives how intrusive do they want government in people's personal lives. The domination of the Republican Party by social conservatives is frightening and a leading cause of intolerance in this country.I would also suggest it is the most off-putting aspect of the Republicans, preventing them from any real political reach in the Northeast and the Midwest.
Conservatives must finally deal with the whole idea of governance. In a time of almost Depression, how can one reconcile a philosophy of small government with the suffering of the population on a large scale? For a group that has joined with forces arguing against evolution in school systems, how can one advocate social darwinism as they are doing as a default argument? And why have the wealthy been seen as virtuous in light of the behavior of bankers and Wall Street operators?
The problem with the last Administration--as conservative as politicians can be--was the reliance on the rhetoric of ideology as a replacement for competence. In the final analysis, that was found profundly wanting.
It seems to me that the first requirement for any conservative recovery is to start telling the truth about the recent past and how conservatives fueled in their hubris by Karl Rove betrayed their own principles by seeking dominant control of all governing institutions and sought to bend established constitutional safeguards to their own ideological benefit.
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