:: The liberal groups who fought against Bush 43's most egregious acts, now supporting President Obama. The ad shown in the video below was produced and will be aired at the expense of some of these groups, and targets certain vulnerable GOP senators on the stimulus issue. From NYT:
TAGS: GOP/Republicans, President Obama, JOBS, LABOR, Economy, Stimulus,And, in a first test of where they will fit in the new national dialogue, several of the groups that regularly battled the Bush White House are trying to sell President Obama’s economic stimulus package with a new advertising campaign designed to pressure several Republican senators to support it (unlike their House colleagues).
Sponsored by MoveOn, Americans United for Change and two labor groups – the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – the ads will begin running this week in Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska and Washington D.C.
The spots show a shuttered factory springing back to life as oratory from Mr. Obama plays in the background (“The first job of my administration is to put people back to work,” he says.) The spots call upon different senators in each state — Susan M. Collins and Olympia J. Snowe in Maine; Judd Gregg in New Hampshire; Chuck Grassley in Iowa and Lisa Murkowski in Alaska – to “support the Obama plan for jobs, not the failed policies of the past.”
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:: For the love of cats, the Republicans need to be made to understand that they LOST. That they are currently IRRELEVANT. An incomplete recitation of their activities today:
>>They voted against extending a deadline for the conversion to digital tv. Never mind that many of their constituents won't be able to view a news channel. Or maybe that's what they want? From HUFFPOST:
So let's get this straight. House Republicans don't care if their constituents have their TV cut off as a result of the mass confusion surrounding the conversion to digital television. How else to explain that only 22 of their number voted to extend the conversion deadline from Feb. 17, as it is now, to June 13? Given that the Senate had already passed the extension, it seems like a no-brainer, as it were.
And yet, rather than make sure that the people in their districts would not have to contend with snowed-out TV, 155 House Republicans wanted more to embarrass President Obama, who had endorsed the transition.
>>They blamed their failure to vote for an economic recovery package on Obama's lack of leadership. OMFG, are they freaking INSANE? Obama bent over backwards for the stupid jackasses. From Jason Linkins--bolding is mine:
When you gather together a group of establishment journalists, you're likely to hear all about how bipartisanship is a magic elixir, without which important pieces of policy cannot be enacted. That was the basic premise of this morning's dreary chat on Morning Joe, in which the House Republicans unwillingness to cast a single vote for the stimulus package was depicted as a failure for Obama's leadership. Never mind the fact that the bill did pass, and never mind the fact that if the bill clears the Senate and the policy enacted is effective, the vote totals will become largely irrelevant.
Image courtesy of Huffpost.
TAGS: GOP/Republicans,President Obama, IDIOTS, MEDIA, Stimulus,
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:: The White House Press Corp ignoredBush but goes after Obama administration as it did the Clinton administration. Show 'em the curb, Pres! From Media Matters:
Pulling a collective Rip Van Winkle, the White House press corps has awakened from its extended nap just in time to aggressively press the new Democratic administration, just as it dogged the last Democratic president during his first days in office back in the 1990s. Conveniently skipped over during the press corps' extended bout of shut-eye? The Bush years, of course.
Suddenly revved up and vowing to keep a hawk-like watch on the Obama administration ("I want to hold these guys accountable for what they say and do") and all of a sudden obsessed with trivia, while glomming onto nitpicking, gotcha-style critiques, Beltway reporters have tossed aside the blanket of calm that had descended on them during the previous administration, a blanket of calm that defined their Bush coverage.
TAGS: GOP/Republicans, MEDIA, White House, President Obama, Bush administration
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:: President Obama signs his first piece of legislation, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, one of the bills that IPD has been tracking.
TAGS: Democrats, Legislation/Bills, Legislation-Tracking, civil rights, LABOR, Congress, President Obama,
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:: Obama ready to rumble. Pushing back against GOP naysayers, the White House plans to release state-by-state figures so the GOP's constituents will understand exactly what the GOP, in their politicization of the economic crisis, voted against. From POLITICO:
TAGS: GOP/Republicans, President Obama, JOBS, Economy, Stimulus,
Pushing back against the unanimous House Republican vote against President Obama’s stimulus plan, the White House plans to release state-by-state job figures “so we can put a number on what folks voted for an against,” an administration aide said.
“It’s clear the Republicans who voted against the stimulus represent constituents who will be stunned to learn their member of Congress voted against [saving or] creating 4 million jobs,” the aide said.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the lawmakers will have to answer to their constituents.
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:: US hits all-time record in number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits. From HUFFPOST:
TAGS: JOBS, Dept. of Labor, National,WASHINGTON — The number of people receiving unemployment benefits has reached an all-time record, the government said Thursday, and more layoffs are spreading throughout the economy.
The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans continuing to claim unemployment insurance for the week ending Jan. 17 was a seasonally adjusted 4.78 million, the highest on records dating back to 1967. That's an increase of 159,000 from the previous week and worse than economists' expectations of 4.65 million.
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:: POLITICO advances false GOP claim re the stimulus plan's effect on job growth. Makes ya wonder. Why would anyone listen to the Repubs after 8 years of complete incompetence from their party? From
Media Matters:
TAGS: GOP/Republicans, tax cuts, Stimulus, JOBS,Summary: The Politico reported the GOP claim that "it may take years before the stimulus plan spurs real job growth" and highlighted a video showing "a Joint Committee on Taxation staffer tell[ing] Michigan Rep. Dave Camp that he can't promise that the $275 billion in tax cuts in the stimulus will create any new jobs." In fact, CBO director Douglas Elmendorf has stated of the bill: "According to CBO's estimates, the number of jobs would be between 0.8 million and 2.1 million higher at the end of this year, 1.2 million to 3.6 million higher at the end of next year, and 0.7 million to 2.1 million higher at the end of 2011."
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:: ZERO "yes" votes. Yesterday, every single Republican senator voted NO on the Economic Recovery. Today, they are looking at themselves. Dishonestly, at best. From House Minority Leader, Eric Cantor, in an editorial on POLITICO:
But as House Republicans gather this weekend for our annual retreat, don’t expect to find our conference sulking or looking in the rear view mirror. Bloodied but resolute, our focus is on the present and the future. We will discuss a range of entrepreneurial and market-based solutions to the challenges threatening small businesses, working families and American competitiveness.
AP photo.
TAGS: GOP/Republicans, Congress,
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:: Blackwater kicked out of Iraq. Personally, I would like to see them disappear from the US as well. From HUFFPOST:
BAGHDAD — Iraq said Thursday it will bar Blackwater Worldwide from providing security protection for U.S. diplomats because its contractors used excessive force, sanctioning a company whose image was irrevocably tarnished by the 2007 killings of 17 Iraqi civilians.
The Iraqi government has labeled the guards "criminals" and is closely watching the case.
But even before the shooting, Blackwater had a reputation for aggressive operations and using excessive force in protecting American officials, an allegation the company has disputed.
AP Photo.
TAGS: Blackwater, IRAQ, International,
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:: Obama team hopes to persuade Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to come to our side through a conciliatory letter. Not that I like this idea. At all. But diplomacy is nearly always better than the alternative. From Guardian - UK:
TAGS: IRAN, President Obama, International, Foreign policy,Officials of Barack Obama's administration have drafted a letter to Iran from the president aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way for face-to-face talks, the Guardian has learned.
The US state department has been working on drafts of the letter since Obama was elected on 4 November last year. It is in reply to a lengthy letter of congratulations sent by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on 6 November.
Diplomats said Obama's letter would be a symbolic gesture to mark a change in tone from the hostile one adopted by the Bush administration, which portrayed Iran as part of an "axis of evil".
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:: January 29 on Media Matters:
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For four hours after AP correction, Drudge flogged false claim about undocumented immigrants
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Fox & Friends' Doocy repeated false claim that stimulus package includes $4 billion for ACORN
- Fox News' Hemmer, Gallagher, Wilson baselessly suggest short-term weather impacts global warming debate
- Rove latest Fox News figure to promote false calculation of stimulus' job-creation costs
- WSJ article reported that stimulus money spent in "2011 or later" would be ineffective -- but CBO head disagrees
- WSJ prints op-ed with false claim that Army Field Manual prohibits "good-cop bad-cop"
- O'Reilly claimed that "enhanced food stamps ... will not help the economy one bit" -- but economists disagree
- Politico advanced GOP claim about stimulus plan's effect on job growth
- Suggesting Obama is being hypocritical on "fiscal responsibility and bipartisanship," USA Today ignored $70B AMT amendment added by GOP Senator
- Drudge headline falsely suggests Obama would address letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
- On O'Reilly Factor, Morris falsely claimed aid to states in recovery plan "doesn't stimulate anything"
- Myths and falsehoods surrounding the economic recovery plan
