State of The Union 2010
Posted by Rey
The other day was the President’s State of the Union address. Some folk have questioned why I’m uneasy after hearing it and I wanted to put up some of my reasoning. Don’t get me wrong, I think President Obama said some good things, and he did a great job of keying in on the heat the propelled him into office by sounding on those chords of change, hope, and bipartisanship. He reiterated worthy goals that should be in place.
Article Tags>> obama | state of the unionPrepackaged Town Halls?
Posted by Rey
Chip Reid and Helen Thomas against Robert Gibbs at the daily press briefing on the “tightly controlled” town hall meeting. Gibbs keeps saying “let’s have this discussion after the meeting.” Also look at how she grills George Bush and how he answers. Video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Article Tags>> bush | helen | obama | politicsA Message Of Hope From The Eye
Posted by Rey
Mordor, DC
The All Seeing Eye of Obama
Darth McCain
Princess Palin
Obama: President of the Harvard Law Review
Posted by Rey
This has come up enough times that I thought I should say something about it. Folk like to raise the Obama Harvard Law Review thing to prove scholarly level of intelligence and qualification. Thing is, I don’t think people have to do that. They should point to the fact that he went to Columbia and then went to Harvard and graduated magna cum laude. They should point to the fact that he was a teaching fellow (I guess an adjunct professor) in Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School. But what they don’t have to do is say he’s smart and qualified because he was voted president of the Harvard Law Review. Well, here’s why (link to Harvard Law Review):
Article Tags>> obama | politicsJeremy Pierce, Barack Obama and Abortion
Posted by Rey
Take 15 minutes. Go read this. Also read the comments. Honestly, you don’t have to participate but Jeremy does an excellent job of thinking through the issues as do his commenters.
Article Tags>> abortion | obama | politicsBarack Obama has basically declared himself incompetent to make any judgments on one of the key issues of our day, and I have to say that I agree with him. The statements he’s been making show that he’s either hopelessly ignorant on some very important policy matters or deliberately contradicting himself in order to pretend to two opposing groups that he’s on both their sides. That means he probably should have a job where these issues really are above his pay grade. There are a lot of such jobs. Unfortunately for him, the job of U.S. President (not to mention U.S. Senator, Illinois State Senator, or constitutional law professor) would not be in the list.
Fact Checking Obama
Posted by Rey
This is straight lifted off of FactCheck.org and there will likely be one for McCain soon enough. (HT: Daniel)
- Obama said he could “pay for every dime” of his spending and tax cut proposals “by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens.” That’s wrong – his proposed tax increases on upper-income individuals are key components of paying for his program, as well. And his plan, like McCain’s, would leave the U.S. facing big budget deficits, according to independent experts.
- He twisted McCain’s words about Afghanistan, saying, “When John McCain said we could just ‘muddle through’ in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources.” Actually, McCain said in 2003 we “may” muddle through, and he recently also called for more troops there.
- He said McCain would fail to lower taxes for 100 million Americans while his own plan would cut taxes for 95 percent of “working” families. But an independent analysis puts the number who would see no benefit from McCain’s plan at 66 million and finds that Obama’s plan would benefit 81 percent of all households when retirees and those without children are figured in.
- Obama asked why McCain would “define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year”? Actually, McCain meant that comment as a joke, getting a laugh and following up by saying, “But seriously …”
- Obama noted that McCain’s health care plan would “tax people’s benefits” but didn’t say that it also would provide up to a $5,000 tax credit for families.
- He said McCain, far from being a maverick who’s “broken with his party,” has voted to support Bush policies 90 percent of the time. True enough, but by the same measure Obama has voted with fellow Democrats in the Senate 97 percent of the time.
- Obama said “average family income” went down $2,000 under Bush, which isn’t correct. An aide said he was really talking only about “working” families and not retired couples. And – math teachers, please note – he meant median (or midpoint) and not really the mean or average. Median family income actually has inched up slightly under Bush.