When the mission is actually accomplished, which president does FOX News post on its home page to discuss the death of Osama bin Laden? None other than the guy who “took our eyes off the ball,” (to quote the president of the non-teabag portions of the country) but George “Let’s Invade Iraq Because Al Qaeda Attacked Us” Bush.
Look for FOX to start finding reasons to simultaneously condemn Pres. Obama’s decisions and/or the carrying out thereof while ginning up conspiracy and cover-up theories about the dispatching of bin Laden’s body.
Pres. Obama's long-form birth certificateIn reporting that Pres. Obama released his so-called long form birth certificate, Ben Smith at right-leaning Politico.com gives voice to the inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom that the president and his team bowed to pressure from birthers like Donald Trump:
Seeking to put an end to the “birther” conversation — and, incidentally, elevating Donald Trump on the day of his trip to New Hampshire — the White House says it has convinced the State of Hawaii to make an exception to state policy and release a copy of his long form birth certificate, the holy grail of obsessives.
It’s possible that Smith and some of his cohorts in the D.C. press corps actually believe that the White House was “seeking to end” the birther conspiracy, but it is highly unlikely that anyone in the White House political shop or the Obama 2012 campaign is that naive. For the sake of the future of our republic, let’s hope not.
A more realistic, albeit cynical, view is that the Obama campaign is using the controversy about the president’s birth certificate as a wedge issue — that the release of the document is intended to drive birthers batshit crazy, prompting them to escalate their conspiracy theorizing to new levels of absurdity — which in turn will force establishment Republican pols, including GOP presidential candidates, to take a position for or against a key segment of their wingnut base.
The Obama campaign is banking on the fact that the release of the long-form certificate will resolve any doubt about the president’s birth origins among level-headed swing voters. Settling the issue among independents, the constituency that will decide the presidential race in a close election, will put the eventual Republican nominee in an awkward position. He (or she) must have both the GOP’s wingnut base and sensible independents to win next year.
If you think the release of Obama’s birth certificate will put the controversy about his birth to rest, here are two words to consider: “grassy knoll.” Just take a gander at the comments on Ben Smith’s post at Politico. For every voice of reason from liberals, as shown in the first example, there are about two from birthers howling at the moon.
What House Republicans propose is that the government simply push the problem of rising health care costs on to seniors; that is, that we replace Medicare with vouchers that can be applied to private insurance, and that we count on seniors and insurance companies to work it out somehow.
Paul Krugman, Nobel-prize winning economist, New York Times columnist, and loyal opposition leader
Just in time for tax day, the White House provides this interesting little widget to make us feel better about whatever our tax return said.
On my own receipt, I’d like to see more than $20 toward science and space programs, and way less toward agricultural subsidies. Recent visits to the grocery store checkout line do not convince me of the need to prop up agribusiness, which seems to be doing all right for itself.
It’s also funny to see that I’m paying more than three times as much toward Social Security benefits as I am toward Medicare, in light of the fact that Republicans want to ax the latter.
Check it out for yourself and see how much you’re spending where.
It’s deju vu all over again during the Obama years, as yet another Republican party official has been caught sending blatantly racist emails about the president. Marilyn Davenport, a tea party activist and member of the central committee of the Orange County, Calif. Republican Party, sent the image shown with the caption, “Now you know why no birth certificate.”
Davenport defended the email, as have all her predecessors that we know of, by saying it’s not really racist, it wasn’t meant to be seen by you, and it’s the fault of the press for blowing up a minor matter into something bigger.
I actually kind of agree with Davenport on that last point. The only reason thesestoriescontinue to be publicized is because so many members of the media deny that the tea party Republican movement is racist at its core. If we could all just acknowledge that and move on, there would be no need to keep proving it by showing direct evidence.
There are many things I love about this video, but the best part is that it shows something we all know. Obama is one of us, a normal person, who understands you might have to go pick up a package if you miss the delivery driver, or that Armour-All can do wonders for your dash. It’s hard not to remember the first Pres. Bush’s discovery of supermarket scanners, or the privileged cluelessness of his son in almost every area except aimless brush-clearing.
Speaking in Republican-dominated Jacksonville, Florida had to be better than former Pres. George W. Bush’s last attempt to address crowds. That appearance, planned recently in Switzerland, was canceled after human rights advocates threatened to arrest Bush when his plane touched down.
Bush, who was known as the most incurious person to ever hold the office now says, “I’m a content guy”
Bush said that his core principles include the belief that freedom should be universal and is the “gift of almighty God.”
“Freedom will lead to the peace that we want,” he said. “Freedom was the cornerstone of my policy agenda.”
Reality check: Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, presided over passage of the Patriot Act, an omnibus piece of legislation that allowed formerly illegal searches and seizures, secret wiretapping of American citizens, and – showing no intrusion was too minor – called for libraries to turn over records of people reading about Islam.
Bush showed his puffed up ego has grown since leaving office.
From Trump’s “stolen election” lies, we can’t get no relief,
He carps on about stolen votes, but he never names the thief.
Somebody needs to tell this guy
Americans aren’t buying his lies,
And that he’s turned us into the United States of Disbelief.
“If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should be trying to stop it and throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”
“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”
“The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas during President Donald Trump’s administration so far,” Fox News reports.
President Donald Trump is asking for $1,500,000 million for the military for next year. That’s close to $600 billion (adjusted for inflation) more than we were spending on the military in fiscal year 2025, before Trump took office, Alternet reports. This increase is huge by any measure. It comes to around $4,600 per household. It is around 8% of the total budget.
A new Emerson College survey of likely 2026 voters finds the Democrats with an 11-point advantage over the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, leading 53% to 42%. President Trump holds a 39% job approval rating, consistent with the past two months, whereas his disapproval increased another point, to 57%.
A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.
Wall Street Journal: “Around 40% of voters in the 2024 election said the economy was their top issue, far outstripping any other matter. And those voters favored Donald Trump by 60% to 38%. Many say they were moved by his pledges to tame inflation, rebuild U.S. infrastructure, cut red tape and trim government waste. … About a year and a half later, more voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy than approve, 61% to 35%, an average of polls by the Cook Political Report found this month.”