++Since we can't talk about the EPA's new rules,let's go straight to the controversy over the release of Sgt.Bergdahl.
++Michael Tomasky writes in the Daily Beast that his release is crack for the GOP.
++Even Wonkette gets in on the action. It seems that a former CIA agent Clare Lopez e-mailed former congressman tea bagger West to say that Bergdahl's father said a few lines from the Quran in Arabic at the White House and that act by itself makes the White House a mosque. Allen West wants to file articles of impeachment, even though he accused Obama of leaving Bergdahl behind.
++Paul Waldman laments the GOP's inability to argue their case and try and persuade anyone. Instead,they act like President Obama released Marvel Comics Heros capable for ending life as we know it.
++Jason Chaffetz, who had urged the Administration to obtain Bergdahl's release, says "We gave the Taliban their starting team back".
++John McCain ,who also was for the release of Bergdahl, said that Obama released "the toughest of the tough".
++Lindsey Graham said that Obama released "The Taliban Dream Team."
++Ollie North--yes, Ollie North--worries that Obama gave ransom and funds to a terrorist group.
++Earlier this morning,Republicans who had tweeted their congratulations on Bergdahl's release quickly deleted their messages.
++Talking Points Memo mentions that the last video prior to today's of the release of Bergdahl showed him in a very weakened condition and that this video convinced James Clapper to sign off on the prisoner exchange.
++Intelligence and Pentagon personnel who resisted the exchange were concerned about whether any of the networks the Taliban commanders ran still existed and whether Qatar would take adequate measures to ensure they didn't get back on the battlefield until we left.
++Others pointed out that they had not been charged with any attacks on the US military and had been away for almost 13 years.
++The New York Times this morning discounted the reports by the GOP-inspired military personnel that Bergdahl's flight had led to the deaths of Americans.
++It should be noted that the Taliban is not listed as a terrorist organization by the United States. Technically,those at GITMO were enemy combatants and would have to be released once the United States ceased military operations.
Showing posts with label TPM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TPM. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Pollpalooza
++Feel free to observe the drip, drip of the Romney tax story on the various internet sites. This story is not going to go away soon and will not have a happy ending. Donald Trump and Steve Forbes in their own ways have proposed that Romney release his tax returns in return from documents of Obama's on his college career and other items. Steve Forbes was candid in saying that he didn't understand how someone who has been running for President so long could be caught so flat-footed. The problem with their proposal is that it will make Romney look like a birthed and chase away the independent voter who could care less what name Barack Obama went to school under. This theme has gotten new juice for the GOP because libertarian Wayne Allard Root, who claims to have gone to Colombia in the same class as President Obama says no one remembers him there. Root pulled this last election and got nowhere but seems willing to try it again.
++The Romney campaign wants to turn the conversation to their Veep pick. Yesterday Drudge had everyone hopping with the prospect of General Petraeus being tapped by Mitt Romney. In my opinion, that actually would be a game-changer. Petraeus, a former Rhodes Scholar and named one of Time magazine's 100 most important personalities, would force the Obama campaign to rethink its strategy. The choice would actually signal that Romney isn't afraid of having an equal nearby. Almost everyone, including his partners at Bain, say that Romney basically has been surrounded by yes-men his whole career and that many of his mistakes can be contributed to a very rigid CEO model of operation. Petraeus would also have erased the double digit lead by Obama in the field of foreign affairs and national security. The choice also would have given comfort level to the Republican establishment, which quietly is critical of the Romney campaign so far. The problem is that Petraeus has an excellent relationship with President Obama and is a self-proclaimed Rockefeller Republican. But alas, the buzz was killed when General Petraeus issued a statement late in the afternoon he did not want to run for any office in the near future.
++Which boils the field down to safer picks. Conservatives are pleading with Romney to solidify his base by picking Paul Ryan. But the Wisconsin congressman is simply too toxic with his proposals to turn Medicare into a voucher system and cut entitlement programs while increasing defense. Romney has danced close to the Ryan Plan but recently has sought to distance himself from its more outrageous proposals.
++So Nate the Great appeared on the Last Word and pointed out that Rob Portman's Wikipedia entry has been changed over 100 times in the last few days and is now locked, suggesting that Portman is the overwhelming choice. Today conservatives wrote op-ed pieces pleading with the Romney campaign not to pick Portman, who is a Washington insider with very close ties to both Bushes.
++Tim Pawlenty is mired in tax problems of his own,which would only magnify the Romney tax issue.
++Obviously, the Romney campaign desperately needs Ohio so Portman is very high, if not essential to his possible election. At 57, he looks and sounds like a reasonable technocrat but would not add any excitement to the campaign. The negative is that he is associated with both Bush Administrations and is almost totally an economics man.
++So let's get to the polls:
Electoral College. Princeton Consortium, which matched Nate Silver in 2008 for accuracy, has 300 safe EVs for Obama, 191 safe for Romney with 47 toss-ups. Without toss-ups, the EC vote is 332 to 206 for President Obama.
TPM today has 323 EC for Obama and 191 for Romney. Virginia is now considered "lean Obama", while Colorado is a "toss-up".
++National polls: Reuters/Ipsos Obama 49 and Romney 42 with Obama being better on both the economy and taxes.
PPP is Obama 48 to Romney 46.
ARP on voters over 50: Obama 47, Romney 47. Baby-boomers favored Romney by 7, retirees Obama by 4. Males Romney, women Obama.
State polling:
Cap/Corr/Granis on Virginia Obama 44 Romney 40. But over 50% want Romney to release his taxes.
Qunnipiac Virginia Obama 49 to Romney 45.
Quinnipiac Colorado : Romney 50 and Obama 45
PPP Colorado: Obama 49, Romney 43
Rasmussen Colorado: Obama 47, Romney 47
PPP North Carolina: Obama 49, Romney 46
Quinnipiac Wisconsin: Obama 51, Romney 45
Marquette Wisconsin: Obama 50, Romney 45
++So little has changed but the campaigns are heating up and Republicans are fighting over who will be allowed to speak at the Convention.
++The Romney campaign wants to turn the conversation to their Veep pick. Yesterday Drudge had everyone hopping with the prospect of General Petraeus being tapped by Mitt Romney. In my opinion, that actually would be a game-changer. Petraeus, a former Rhodes Scholar and named one of Time magazine's 100 most important personalities, would force the Obama campaign to rethink its strategy. The choice would actually signal that Romney isn't afraid of having an equal nearby. Almost everyone, including his partners at Bain, say that Romney basically has been surrounded by yes-men his whole career and that many of his mistakes can be contributed to a very rigid CEO model of operation. Petraeus would also have erased the double digit lead by Obama in the field of foreign affairs and national security. The choice also would have given comfort level to the Republican establishment, which quietly is critical of the Romney campaign so far. The problem is that Petraeus has an excellent relationship with President Obama and is a self-proclaimed Rockefeller Republican. But alas, the buzz was killed when General Petraeus issued a statement late in the afternoon he did not want to run for any office in the near future.
++Which boils the field down to safer picks. Conservatives are pleading with Romney to solidify his base by picking Paul Ryan. But the Wisconsin congressman is simply too toxic with his proposals to turn Medicare into a voucher system and cut entitlement programs while increasing defense. Romney has danced close to the Ryan Plan but recently has sought to distance himself from its more outrageous proposals.
++So Nate the Great appeared on the Last Word and pointed out that Rob Portman's Wikipedia entry has been changed over 100 times in the last few days and is now locked, suggesting that Portman is the overwhelming choice. Today conservatives wrote op-ed pieces pleading with the Romney campaign not to pick Portman, who is a Washington insider with very close ties to both Bushes.
++Tim Pawlenty is mired in tax problems of his own,which would only magnify the Romney tax issue.
++Obviously, the Romney campaign desperately needs Ohio so Portman is very high, if not essential to his possible election. At 57, he looks and sounds like a reasonable technocrat but would not add any excitement to the campaign. The negative is that he is associated with both Bush Administrations and is almost totally an economics man.
++So let's get to the polls:
Electoral College. Princeton Consortium, which matched Nate Silver in 2008 for accuracy, has 300 safe EVs for Obama, 191 safe for Romney with 47 toss-ups. Without toss-ups, the EC vote is 332 to 206 for President Obama.
TPM today has 323 EC for Obama and 191 for Romney. Virginia is now considered "lean Obama", while Colorado is a "toss-up".
++National polls: Reuters/Ipsos Obama 49 and Romney 42 with Obama being better on both the economy and taxes.
PPP is Obama 48 to Romney 46.
ARP on voters over 50: Obama 47, Romney 47. Baby-boomers favored Romney by 7, retirees Obama by 4. Males Romney, women Obama.
State polling:
Cap/Corr/Granis on Virginia Obama 44 Romney 40. But over 50% want Romney to release his taxes.
Qunnipiac Virginia Obama 49 to Romney 45.
Quinnipiac Colorado : Romney 50 and Obama 45
PPP Colorado: Obama 49, Romney 43
Rasmussen Colorado: Obama 47, Romney 47
PPP North Carolina: Obama 49, Romney 46
Quinnipiac Wisconsin: Obama 51, Romney 45
Marquette Wisconsin: Obama 50, Romney 45
++So little has changed but the campaigns are heating up and Republicans are fighting over who will be allowed to speak at the Convention.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Claps and Boos
Back from a jaunt to upstate New York,I missed a raft of weirdness on the internet in my days away. Some stories deserve calps and other boos.
Claps
Frank Schaeffer's post at his website "Obama is now and will be a great President." Just when you think the left and the right are going to eviscerate President Obama, Frank, recovering from his days as founder of the Christian Right, reminds us all what is at stake with this presidency and ably defends President Obama's record of achievements so far. He manages to punch out the Right for their ravings and slap down the Left for their whining.
Thom Hartmann. Thom Hartmann is growing on me. First, he explained how the original tea party was against huge corporate tax cuts--that time for the East India Company. Now, he runs a montage assembled by Think Progress on how the Ryan Plan is inspired by Ayn Rand. The kicker was his detail that Ayn Rand's libertarianism started with her admiration for a serial killer and a brutal child molester named William Hickman. Hartmann read from Rand's diary, which saw this monster as a type of Superman, who did not care about society. He went on to say that Rand actually started a novel with an Hickman character as the hero. Nice job.
TPM uncovered the nice little historical note that Ayn Rand applied for Medicare when her husband came down with Alzheimer's. The centerpiece of Paul Ryan's Ayn Rand-inspired budget is the elimination of Medicare.
Think Progress for its wonderful montage of House Republicans espousing their belief in Ay Rand interspersed with footage of Mike Wallace interviewing Ayn Rand, where she advocates the destruction of everything about America and Christianity. Her supreme virtue is selfishness and in the tape argues that self-love is superior and that the weak don't deserve love.
Paul Krugman for explaining in his New York Times post that the S&P's warning on the national debt is a big nothingburger. TPM reminds us that the last time the S&P commented on our creditworthiness was in 1995 when Newt and company threatened not to vote for the debt ceiling. Ed Klein reminds us that the S&P gave three stars to the subprime mortgages.
Rachel Maddow for solving the mystery of why Michigan appointed an emergency manager for Benton Harbor, a small lakeside town. The reason is that the town is almost 90% black and has a per capita income of $10,000. But they do have a wonderful lakeside park, which was given to the town by their mayor in the early 20th century. Well, it seems the author of the Financial Emergency Bill has an interest in developing Lakeshore Estates, which would be a high end residential community with golf courses bordering the park. The plan has been rejected by the Benton Harbor Planning Commission. But, never fear, the Emergency Manager has fired all the planning board and installed members who favor the development. A very nice job of reporting.
Wisconsin Recall Drive. The Recall drive has now hit four Republican Senators, enough to turn that body Democratic. Our favorite Senator, Randy Hopper, the one with a mistress hired by Scott Walker, sent out a mailing to his constituents and listed a phone number if they had questions. The problem is that the number is a sex talk line. Tends to reinforce attitudes about Randy Randy.
CNN's latest poll shows that 51% of Americans back same-sex marriage.
A Marist poll shows that 70% of teabaggers are opposed to Medicare cuts.
Mariano Rivero,who saved my short trip, by saving two straight games for the Yankees against the Texas Rangers.
BOOs
David Barton,phony historian and Christian. David Barton has been hitting them out of the ballpark. Barton's latest big boner was saying that the bible was against "net neutrality". He said that the idea was "evil". Last week, Barton said that Jesus was against the minimum wage and the estate tax. But he hit two today. The second is his claim that Thomas Jefferson allowed the use of Government funds to evangelize American Indians, thereby showing that he did not believe in the separation of church and state. His evidence was the treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe which allowed for funds to pay for the building of a church and the payment of a priest. What Barton never tells his audience was that Jefferson was mortified by this treaty and tried to hide its contents from Congress, precisely because he knew this provision would spark an uproar. The Indians had converted to Catholicism in the 1600s and they had requested these two items as part of the deal. Jefferson OK'd it because of realpolitik but in his writings disavowed any attempt to evangelize the Indians.
John Boehner for hiring Paul Clement , the former Solicitor-General under George W, for $500,000 to argue the case of the Defense of Marriage Act, which has been ruled unconstitutional---and trying to stick the DOJ with the bill for the defense because the Obama Administration decided not to defend the case.
John Boehner again for turning down the opportunity to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that has-- until this year-- been celebrated on a bipartisan basis. I guess if you have access to enough money, you don't need the Hispanic vote.
Claps
Frank Schaeffer's post at his website "Obama is now and will be a great President." Just when you think the left and the right are going to eviscerate President Obama, Frank, recovering from his days as founder of the Christian Right, reminds us all what is at stake with this presidency and ably defends President Obama's record of achievements so far. He manages to punch out the Right for their ravings and slap down the Left for their whining.
Thom Hartmann. Thom Hartmann is growing on me. First, he explained how the original tea party was against huge corporate tax cuts--that time for the East India Company. Now, he runs a montage assembled by Think Progress on how the Ryan Plan is inspired by Ayn Rand. The kicker was his detail that Ayn Rand's libertarianism started with her admiration for a serial killer and a brutal child molester named William Hickman. Hartmann read from Rand's diary, which saw this monster as a type of Superman, who did not care about society. He went on to say that Rand actually started a novel with an Hickman character as the hero. Nice job.
TPM uncovered the nice little historical note that Ayn Rand applied for Medicare when her husband came down with Alzheimer's. The centerpiece of Paul Ryan's Ayn Rand-inspired budget is the elimination of Medicare.
Think Progress for its wonderful montage of House Republicans espousing their belief in Ay Rand interspersed with footage of Mike Wallace interviewing Ayn Rand, where she advocates the destruction of everything about America and Christianity. Her supreme virtue is selfishness and in the tape argues that self-love is superior and that the weak don't deserve love.
Paul Krugman for explaining in his New York Times post that the S&P's warning on the national debt is a big nothingburger. TPM reminds us that the last time the S&P commented on our creditworthiness was in 1995 when Newt and company threatened not to vote for the debt ceiling. Ed Klein reminds us that the S&P gave three stars to the subprime mortgages.
Rachel Maddow for solving the mystery of why Michigan appointed an emergency manager for Benton Harbor, a small lakeside town. The reason is that the town is almost 90% black and has a per capita income of $10,000. But they do have a wonderful lakeside park, which was given to the town by their mayor in the early 20th century. Well, it seems the author of the Financial Emergency Bill has an interest in developing Lakeshore Estates, which would be a high end residential community with golf courses bordering the park. The plan has been rejected by the Benton Harbor Planning Commission. But, never fear, the Emergency Manager has fired all the planning board and installed members who favor the development. A very nice job of reporting.
Wisconsin Recall Drive. The Recall drive has now hit four Republican Senators, enough to turn that body Democratic. Our favorite Senator, Randy Hopper, the one with a mistress hired by Scott Walker, sent out a mailing to his constituents and listed a phone number if they had questions. The problem is that the number is a sex talk line. Tends to reinforce attitudes about Randy Randy.
CNN's latest poll shows that 51% of Americans back same-sex marriage.
A Marist poll shows that 70% of teabaggers are opposed to Medicare cuts.
Mariano Rivero,who saved my short trip, by saving two straight games for the Yankees against the Texas Rangers.
BOOs
David Barton,phony historian and Christian. David Barton has been hitting them out of the ballpark. Barton's latest big boner was saying that the bible was against "net neutrality". He said that the idea was "evil". Last week, Barton said that Jesus was against the minimum wage and the estate tax. But he hit two today. The second is his claim that Thomas Jefferson allowed the use of Government funds to evangelize American Indians, thereby showing that he did not believe in the separation of church and state. His evidence was the treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe which allowed for funds to pay for the building of a church and the payment of a priest. What Barton never tells his audience was that Jefferson was mortified by this treaty and tried to hide its contents from Congress, precisely because he knew this provision would spark an uproar. The Indians had converted to Catholicism in the 1600s and they had requested these two items as part of the deal. Jefferson OK'd it because of realpolitik but in his writings disavowed any attempt to evangelize the Indians.
John Boehner for hiring Paul Clement , the former Solicitor-General under George W, for $500,000 to argue the case of the Defense of Marriage Act, which has been ruled unconstitutional---and trying to stick the DOJ with the bill for the defense because the Obama Administration decided not to defend the case.
John Boehner again for turning down the opportunity to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that has-- until this year-- been celebrated on a bipartisan basis. I guess if you have access to enough money, you don't need the Hispanic vote.
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