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.
Pundits say that Trump’s $5,000 midterm bribe was an overreach,
And they agree that if lies were a crime, he’d be impeached.
Despite all the dividend promises he’s made,
The fact is, not one has ever been paid,
So even before the midterms, he already owes us $8,000* each.
*$5000 stimulus checks via “DOGE dividend”; $2000 stimulus checks via a “tariff dividend”; $1000-plus checks via “savings” from expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
“The man is afraid of the voice of the people and that the people understand and know what he’s doing. He’s trying to stifle the ability of journalists to let the people of America know what’s really going on with their government.”
— “Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House ‘absolutely abhorrent,’” The Wrap reports.
“Not one of them is trained in technical skills. Not one research PhD, as opposed to China, where half the cabinet is science and technology PhDs. We’re led by grifters and fools.”
— Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, on X, on President Trump’s 35-person cabinet.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far… The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
— Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), breaking with President Trump in a direct-to-camera video.
“Donald Trump made over a thousand stock sales and purchases worth between $79m and $270m in July,” The Guardian reports. “His two largest sales were of Amazon and Microsoft stock, selling between $5m and $25m each on 20 July. That same day, he also sold up to $5m worth of Oracle and Costco stock, $500,000 to $1m in Nvidia, and bought up to $5m worth of shares in Intuit and Salesforce, among dozens of other transactions.”
“The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study,” the Associated Press reports.
A new Fox News Poll finds 71% of voters think the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the Iran War, including 95% of Democrats, 83% of independents, and 43% of Republicans. Sixty percent say U.S. military action against Iran was the wrong decision, while just 37% say it was right.
“The Trump administration last year spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers as part of its plan to shrink the government and save taxpayers money, according to a new estimate by a congressional watchdog,” CNN reports.
Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.
Speaking in Republican-dominated Jacksonville, Florida had to be better than former Pres. George W. Bush’s 
