Positive Political Pundits

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Article source: http://dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/article_pdfs/d16Marshall.pdf

Review: CAPA Spring Jazz concert a “killer” show

Written by Rachael Zielmanski, The Eagle Staff Writer

On Tuesday May 8, 2012 Pittsburgh CAPA had its high school jazz band concert. It was held in the Black Box Theater in the school. Its group consisted of twenty high school students, led by Paul Thompson, the jazz director.
The show was very energetic;… Read more »

May 13, 2012 • 0 comments • Filed Under Student News

Have you heard of Khan Academy?

Written by Joel Macklin, The Eagle Editor

KhanAcademyis a new and ever-growing hub for students, teachers, and adults to expand their knowledge in any field that is in the ever-growing library of lessons. This free internet program is available to anyone around the world as long as they have… Read more »

May 13, 2012 • 0 comments • Filed Under Student News

A Titanic love story

Written by Sidony Ridge, The Eagle Staff Writer

This year was the 100th Anniversary from when the indestructible Titanic was lost in the sea. And this year, the movie The Titanic came out in 3-D, capturing a more brilliant spectrum of the love story.  From just watching this movie you could learn… Read more »

May 11, 2012 • 0 comments • Filed Under Student News

The violence must end

Written by Mariah Howze, The Eagle Staff Reporter

The daily news rarely talk about anything good going on in the community because every time I turn on the news I hear about a shooting, robbery, or arson. The crime rate is growing rapidly and the dead are getting younger. According to statistics on the… Read more »

May 11, 2012 • 0 comments • Filed Under Student News

Article source: http://www.obamaeagle.org/

Instead of wasting time sniping at Republican presidential candidates in the hopes of showing how Super Duper Conservative I am, I shall blog about this idiot president we have and why we should fire up the backhoe and drag him and his nutty administration of incompetents not only out of the White House but off the planet. To the moon as Ralph Kramden or Newt Gingrich with the Treasury secretary who does not pay taxes, the Homeland Security chief who thinks terrorists came through Canada on 9/11, the Secretary of State whose hubby invested millions in the Cayman Islands, the Attorney General who armed Mexican drug lords and of course the veep who does imitates Indian speech patterns in much the same way as Bill Dana mocked Hispanics in the 1960s.

The momentum is with Republicans. Real Clear Politics just moved Iowa and Nevada from “leans Obama” to tossup and New Hampshire from tossup to “leans Republican.” Feels more like February 2010.

Would you buy a used car from Barack Obama? Apparently not. From the Chicago Tribune:

What’s the value of a car used by Barack Obama? Apparently not $1 million. An eBay auction for a gray 2005 Chrysler 300C leased by Obama before he became president closed late Wednesday with no bids meeting that minimum asking price, after which the listing agent hinted that $1 million might have been too much to expect. Lisa Czibor, the eBay seller conducting the auction on the behalf of the car’s owner, Tim O’Boyle, said O’Boyle wants to relist the vehicle closer to this fall’s presidential election.

It’s selling about as well as the Chevy Volt.

The president woke up this morning to news that they may revoke his Nobel Peace Prize. Gee, and he worked so hard for those 12 days to get it.

Graphic courtesy of Blog Globs.

Pravda-itco, aka Politico, said the president tried to explain to those dumb, pope-following, Jesus-believing Catholics why the First Amendment no longer protects their religion:

President Barack Obama and his senior aides were more than a little concerned before he announced his controversial decision requiring Catholic hospitals and universities to provide contraception in employee health plans.

Obama — in recognition of the issue’s sensitivity to the church — picked up the phone to personally break the news to two influential Catholic leaders: New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Sister Carol Keehan, head of the largest Catholic health association in the country and a pivotal supporter of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

The president’s tone was polite but not contrite, a person briefed on the calls told POLITICO: He explained that while his health care law exempted Catholic churches from the requirement, he wouldn’t carve out other Catholic institutions even though the Vatican views artificial birth control as contrary to the will of God.

Polite but not contrite? I see him waving his sword and announcing: “By the power of Greyskull! I have the power!”

Haul his butt into court already.

Speaking of He-Man, Michelle Obama became the first First Ladey to go on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and do 25 push-ups. This breaks Dolley (yes, there is an E) Madison’s record of 22.

The unprecedented presidency proceeds.

Toss her a bag of french fries. She earned them.

By the way, she saw her shadow today. 6 more weeks of winter.

Hollywood continues to be the No. 1 supporter of Barack Obama giving him gajillions in cash. From the Canada Free Press:

On top of the campaign to pressure New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to release terrorist killer Judith Clark from prison, the far-left is asking President Obama to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, an American Indian activist who was convicted of the execution-style murders of FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.

February 4 has been declared “International Day of Solidarity with Leonard Peltier,” who was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment. A group working for Peltier’s release, in an email to its supporters, says, “Several high-level meetings (some with Administration officials) are expected to occur in Washington, D.C., in early 2012.” No officials were named, however.

No problem, Hollywood. Eric Holder put his best man on the case, the guy who wrote the pardon for Marc Rich — Eric Holder.

The Washington Post continues to run interference for President Obama, perhaps in the hopes that he will leave the paperboy another big tip next Christmas. From its Fact Checker:

“No candidate in American history has ever run more negative ads than Barack Obama.”

— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), speaking on CNN, Jan. 31, 2012.

Aha! Now they have that sneaky Cuban-American.

Except that, oops, Obama did just that. Oh well, never let a fact stop a fact-checker from making a Republican out to be a liar:

Rubio’s statement is a good example of a “fact” that needs context. On balance, it appears that Obama and McCain ran just about the same number of negative ads; certainly McCain ran a larger percentage of negative ads. Obama may well have spent more money on negative ads, but after all, he spent much more money on positive ads too.

That will show Marco Rubio not to dare to tell the truth about Barack Obama.

But things will be different in 2012. President Obama will run on his reacord. Yeah, right. From Fox News:

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and PrioritiesUSA, the super-PAC helping Obama’s re-election campaign, released a new ad in Nevada that claims that the former Massachusetts governor puts one face for Latinos and another for the rest of the country.

“His Spanish-language ads say Romney “believes in us”, but his deeds speak for themselves,” the ad says. “Let’s not be fooled. He might have two faces, but we know all too well who the true Mitt Romney is.”

Yes, we know what a big help Obama has been to Hispanics. Unemployment is up and the percentage of Latinos without health insurance is now 37% and still rising.

Meanwhile a claim for $25 million in damages was made by the family of the border patrol agent who was killed by a gun the Obama administration supplied to Mexican drug lords. From the Arizona Republic:

Congressional investigations and Department of Justice records have revealed that ATF agents allowed as many as 1,400 guns to be transported into Mexico, and that the AK-47s were purchased by a known firearms trafficker. The “gun walking” strategy used in Operation Fast and Furious remains the subject of inquiries by Congress and the DOJ’s inspector general.

I thought destroying the village in order to save the village ended with the Vietnam War. Once again, I thought wrong.

Maybe now would be a good time for Eric The Red Holder to spend more time with his family.

The president had a busy day. From the Associated Press: “WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama attends the National Prayer Breakfast this morning in Washington, along with the first lady and Vice President Joe Biden. Obama will give remarks at an event that every president has gone to since Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. It’s hosted by members of the House and Senate who meet every week for prayer at the Capitol.”

Biden? He should have brought along his old minister, Jeremiah Wright, to shake things up.

Maybe The Won can invite his new best buds, the Taliban. From Fox News:

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has taken “operational steps” to move five Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay as part of a confidence-building measure to further peace talks with the Afghan Taliban – a development that comes in advance of a hearing Thursday where senior intelligence officials will testify on national security threats, a senior congressional official told Fox News. The five detainees were said to be “hand-picked” by the Taliban preparing for the talks. The Taliban transfer issue will be a significant focus of the hearing on worldwide threats.

He may have never been in the French military, but Commander-in-Chief Obama sure can surrender like a Frenchman.

Keep bashing the Republican candidates and keep ignoring the Big O, you Super Duper Conservative bloggers, you. Obama’s Valentine’s Day card is in the mail.

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Article source: http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/50837

Well, did you choose to do your project on the positive things Barack Obama has done for the world? Don’t you already have examples in mind…..or did you just think that because all you hear is people talking about how wonderful he is?

In my opinion, he has done nothing to better this country. So, bettering the WORLD is a far, far stretch.

Article source: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120514180617AACGkKY

WASHINGTON — In the dead of the winter, as Mitt Romney campaigned across Iowa and New Hampshire, one of his senior strategists kept asking reporters the same question.

“Have you been to a job fair recently?” Stuart Stevens would ask. When the answer was almost inevitably in the negative, Stevens would then mutter softly something like “devastating.”

The latest web video put out Tuesday by Romney’s campaign certainly pulls at the heartstrings. It features three out of work Iowans talking very matter- of-factly about their hard luck.

“I’ve been looking for a job for two years, haven’t found any,” says Deborah Ragland, a 59-year-old mother of two from Webster City. “My unemployment benefits did run out, and just trying to get by.”

A piano plays a few sorrowful notes.

Troy Knapp, a 20-something from Alton, talks about what he does to make a few dollars.

“I end up going over and helping Damon in Iowa Falls,” Knapp says. “He’s a good friend of mine. He does moving and storage, and then I help him dig graves on the side.”

“I probably dug a couple hundred graves,” he says.

Jason Clausen, of Mason City, talks about losing his job and his house after his divorce, but defiantly says he has continued to find work.

“There’s two things in this world I care about,” he says. “It’s going to work and paying my child support.”

Clausen worked on the staircases at the Historic Park Inn Hotel, during a 2010 restoration of the 100-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright-designed hotel. When he finished, he wrote his name and his daughter’s name in marker on the last step.

“To this day, my daughter and I, when she’s feeling down, we go to that step. I call it our step,” Clausen says.

This is how the Romney campaign hopes to get lift, that intangible but all important quality in a message that gets it over the hump and actually moves voters to consider supporting the candidate. It will come apparently not from the campaign’s nearly emotionless candidate, but from the stories of everyday Americans.

The four-minute video released on Tuesday, the same day Romney was set to speak about the nation’s debt in Des Moines, Iowa, will serve as the source material for 30-second spots that the Romney campaign plans to run closer to Election Day, a Romney aide said.

Romney and his campaign have been resolute in staying focused on the economy. But Romney’s limited –- some would say nonexistent — ability to inspire and to speak in poetic terms about his candidacy and what conservatism means has hampered his message’s appeal.

The Romney campaign’s high command hopes to make the election about President Barack Obama first and foremost and claim that he has failed to produce any significant economic growth. The Romney team also wants to make it about Americans who are still struggling through the worst recession since the Great Depression.

“It’s hard to know where to put your trust. And it’s going to get tougher I think,” Ragland says in the ad.

The ad and its overall message run the risk of being seen as depressing. The Romney message ultimately has to be one that is hopeful, one about how Romney would help the country. It cannot simply be, as Obama adviser David Axelrod characterized Romney’s pitch on a recent conference call with reporters, “The American people have gone through a tough time, so elect me president.”

But Obama is facing his own challenges in providing undecided voters with a compelling reason to give him another four years. Like Romney, it has been difficult for him to offer a positive vision and an uplifting rationale for his candidacy.

Obama is hampered by an economic picture that, while improved, is still grim for many and by the fact many Americans don’t like the things he has done in office, such as health care reform or the stimulus. So tearing down Romney as “backward-looking,” as Obama’s campaign did last week, is an integral part of his argument that re-electing him will help move the country “forward.”

One of Romney’s biggest weaknesses is his inability to connect with voters to feelingly and persuasively defend his business career, explain who he is and win over undecided voters.

Even Ragland, one of the Iowans featured in the Romney video, told The Huffington Post by phone Tuesday that Romney had not been her first choice for president in the Republican primary.

“It was Newt [Gingrich]. But I’ll support the Republicans,” she said.

So Romney will hope that others, namely voters hit hard by the recession, can help him make the case for why he should be the next president.

Ragland voted for Obama in 2008 after supporting Republicans most of her life but said she regrets doing so. She’s now with Romney.

“I switched sides there for a minute and I wish I didn’t,” she told HuffPost. “[Obama] was in town and he seemed so sincere, and I didn’t like [John] Mccain. And I thought well let’s try something different.”

“Well obviously it’s not working,” she said. “[Obama]‘s a likeable guy but he’s just not getting it done.”

Romney is trying to introduce himself as a family man to soften his image, but his challenge in becoming a convincing persuader burst into the open last month when Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels urged him to speak more directly to “the young and poor — those who haven’t achieved the dream yet.”

The notes that both campaigns intend to play are becoming clear. They are telling, essentially, the same story about their opponents: “He has hurt you.” Or in the case of the Obama ads released this week, the message is “He has hurt people like you.” Both campaign videos feature regular Americans talking about hard times and send the message that their opponent has made life more difficult for the little guy.

“It was a like a vampire,” says Jack Cobb, an Ohio steelworker for 31 years, in the anti-Romney ad put out by the Obama campaign. “They came in and sucked the life out of us.”

The Obama campaign’s ad portrays Romney as a heartless corporate raider who profited from payouts to Bain Capital even as the steel mill in Ohio that it had bought in 1993 was shut down in 2001. A super PAC supporting the president has nearly identical ads that were released on Tuesday.

The theme in Obama’s ads is one of anger. The theme in Romney’s video Tuesday is one of regular Americans hanging on and trying to work hard, with the solution being a president who “believes in them.” In that respect, there is an element of positivity in the Republican’s ads that does not exist in the incumbent Democrat’s. However, Knapp does get in a shot at the president near the end of the Romney video.

“A lot of people, when Barack was running, everyone believed; everyone had hope. They all thought, ‘Man, this guy’s going to get something done,’” Knapp says. “When he is office now, it just seems like nothing’s getting done. It seems like it’s all talk.”

“You know, you can say whatever you want, but it’s not about saying what everyone wants to hear. It’s about doing it,” he says.

Also on HuffPost:

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/obama-romney-positive-visions_n_1518317.html?ref=barack-obama

What Barbara Walters would call a “very personal” email directed to King County Executive Dow Constantine by communications consultant Kim Fuqua, ended up going to her acquaintances — and revealing a relationship between the two.

The first paragraph of the email was published by writer Josh Feit in Crosscut.com late on Monday, and prompted a brief statement from the politician often nicknamed “No Drama Dow.”

Constantine said:

“The e-mail was intended to be a private communication from one person to another, and was inadvertently sent to a number of the sender’s acquaintances. I had a brief relationship with the sender, but decided not to continue it.

“I am sorry that this has caused pain or embarrassment to people I care about.  But this is an entirely private matter, and should remain so.”

The email saw light of a bright day during a time when Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon is being investigated to carrying on an affair on the taxpayers’ dime, and amidst disclosure of salacious details. Reardon, it seems, has emerged as the John Edwards of Snohomish County.

Constantine is unmarried but has long lived with Shirley Carlson.  The supposedly stable-partnered King County Executive was much in evidence when President Obama touched down at Paine Field in Everett on Feb. 17.  Reardon was way to the rear.

Constantine greeted Obama again last week and received presidential praise praise at Obama’s Paramount fundraiser.

Fuqua is the estranged wife of Alex Alben, a high tech executive who ran as a Democrat for Congress in 2004, but lost the 8th District primary to KIRO radio host Dave Ross.  Ross, in turn, lost to GOP Rep. Dave Reichert.

Non-state affairs in Washington have paled compared to scandals in neighboring Oregon.

Sen. Bob Packwood’s drunken advances on women ended his quarter-century U.S. Senate career.  Ex-Gov. Neil Goldschmidt lost his position as the state’s primary backstage fixer when it was revealed he had slept with his children’s 14-year-old babysitter while he was Mayor of Portland.

The current Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who is gay, has faced questions about the beginning and duration of his years-ago relationship with a teenage legislative employee with the wonderful name of Beau Breedlove.

Article source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/05/14/no-drama-dow-constantine-confirms-brief-relationship-with-consulatant/

Published by Kathy Moya

Kathy, a parent of four, loves to teach, read, research and write. She also has a passion for putting a stop to child abuse, especially institutional child abuse.  View profile

Article source: http://voices.yahoo.com/obama-drama-2025874.html

Meacham’s book American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House was published in 2008

For me, perhaps the most striking tactical story of the 2008 presidential campaign was the surprising reaction to Barack Obama in the American South. As a native of the region, I was long skeptical about the Illinois Senator’s viability in the Old Confederacy and thus about his national viability.

(PHOTOS: Inside Barack Obama’s World)

He needed at least one win among Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. After all, the last candidate for President to win the White House without carrying a single Southern state was James Garfield in 1880. (His opponent: the forgotten-but-hugely-successful-in-the-South Winfield Scott Hancock.)

And Obama did it, winning Florida, Virginia and North Carolina — to use an image favored by political scientists, an impressive picking of the lock of the GOP’s Solid South.

Can he do it again? The task would seem to have gotten a lot more difficult with the President’s newly announced support for same-sex marriage, an issue that was partly in the news because North Carolina voters overwhelmingly rejected it in a referendum. Yet Obama remains the leader in each state according to RealClearPolitics’s calculations — if only barely.

(MORE: Touré: Will Black Voters Punish Obama for Gay-Marriage Support?)

I had friends in the South e-mailing last week that Obama was now done in Dixie, but I’m not so sure. The fact that Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Missouri remain statistical toss-ups suggests that the more diverse and moderate parts of the South should now be thought of as genuine swing states rather than as breakaway republics from a post-Nixon GOP bloc.

Such a shift in thinking would have implications beyond electoral math and maps. It would, I think, signal that the country is less given to reflexive tribalism now than it has been in the past — a very good thing indeed. It would mean that neither party could safely write off whole regions. Republicans and Democrats would, instead, be forced to compete in places where they might be compelled to seek votes by appearing open to compromise and to hearing the other side’s point of view — something we see little of at the moment.

(MORE: Meacham: What History Tells Us About Obama’s Chances)

It would be wonderfully ironic if the South, so long a source of national division and discord, could help 21st century America toward a richer political conversation. Yet it may happen, and when it does, I suspect it won’t be particularly evident. The drama of red vs. blue is so beguiling in its simplicity and its power that the quieter stories of states weighing more nuanced choices often go untold until after the votes are in. That’s the nature of the process. But if Obama remains competitive in several Southern states — and there is every sign that he will — then we may just get a chance to live with that irony.

Article source: http://ideas.time.com/2012/05/15/why-obama-hasnt-lost-the-south/?iid=op-article-latest