Posts tagged Politics

WHCD: President Obama, Jimmy Kimmel roast Secret Service, Washington elite, each other The Ticket: WASHINGTON, D.C.—Jimmy Kimmel and President Obama roasted the Secret Service, Washington’s political and media elite—and each other—at the 98th White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night at the Washington Hilton. And it seemed no one at the annual gathering of media, celebrities and politicians was off limits. During his speech, Obama took a jab at the now-infamous Summit of the Americas that sparked the Secret Service sex scandal earlier this month. “Four years ago, I was locked in a primary battle with Hillary Clinton,” Obama said. “Four years later, she won’t stop drunk-texting me from Cartagena.” “Jimmy got his start on ‘The Man Show,’” Obama noted of the evening’s host. “In Washington, that’s what we call a Congressional hearing on contraception.” Last year’s dinner occurred on the eve of Osama bin Laden’s killing, and the anniversary proved to be fodder for several jokes. “Who will it be this year?” Kimmel quipped. (The Navy SEALs, he said, should focus on the Kardashians.) “We finally delivered justice to one of world’s most notorious individuals,” Obama recalled, as an image of Donald Trump appeared on a screen. The president also made several jokes about his increasingly gray hair, predicting in four years he’ll look like Morgan Freeman. “That’s not even funny,” Obama said, laughing. The president congratulated Arianna Huffington on the Huffington Post’s recent Pulitzer Prize. “There’s no one out there linking to the kinds of hard-hitting journalism that HuffPo is linking to every single day,” he said. “And you don’t pay them! It’s a great business model.” (“Yow,” Howard Kurtz, columnist for HuffPo rival Daily Beast, responded on Twitter.) Obama then took a few mild swipes at his likely opponent in November. “It’s great to be here in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom,” Obama said. “Or what Mitt Romney would call ‘a little fixer upper.’” (“I was just relieved to learn this one wasn’t a GSA conference,” Obama said, pivoting briefly to the GSA controversy. “Unbelievable—not even the mind-reader knew what they were thinking.”) “We both have degrees from Harvard,” he said of Romney. “I have one, he has two—what a snob.” Obama also looked ahead to the next four years. “In the first term I sang Al Green,” he said. “In my second term, I’m going with Young Jeezy.” (First Lady Michelle Obama nodded in approval.) “I have a lot of Secret Service jokes,” Kimmel said. “I told them for $800 I wouldn’t tell them, but they only offered 30.” Kimmel pointed to Sofia Vergara, one of a swarm of celebrities in attendance. “This is what women look like in Colombia,” Kimmel said. “What’s the Secret Service supposed to do?” He continued: “If this had happened on President Clinton’s watch, those Secret Service agents would’ve been disciplined with a very serious high-five. Palms would be beet red.” Kimmel, host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” reflected on his path to entertaining the president: “If you told me as a kid I’d be standing on the dais with President Barack Obama, I would’ve said, ‘The president’s name is Barack Obama?’” He also took a swipe at Obama’s weight. “You’re so skinny,” Kimmel said. “This is how you know how this country is in bad shape: Our president is starving. North Korea is sending him food aid.” Speaking of weight, the comedian also skewered the other end of the spectrum. “Look, it’s Chris Christie,” Kimmel told the first lady. “Get him!” “Gov. Christie, you may be misunderstanding the [New Jersey] slogan,” he added. “It’s not the ‘Olive Garden State.’” Kimmel defended fellow comedian Bill Maher in a bit about Rush Limbaugh. “Is that slut Rush Limbaugh here?” Kimmel asked. “There’s a reason Rush Limbaugh said what he said: Percocet.” “Just to clear things this up for the extreme right wingers, here’s the difference between Bill Maher and Rush Limbaugh,” Kimmel explained. “The people who watch Bill Maher know he’s an —-hole.” Kimmel, though, threw a punches at Keith Olbermann. “Under your seats, you’ll find a copy of Keith Olbermann’s résumé,” Kimmel said. “The thing about Keith Olbermann is, he’s so likeable. Olbermann’s burned more bridges than arsonists of Madison County.” The former ESPN, MSNBC and Current TV host, who was not in attendance, fired back on Twitter. “Funny that Jimmy Kimmel ripped me after his people desperately wanted me to fly to L.A, to be on his show this past Wednesday,” Olbermann wrote. “I’m not complaining about the Kimmel jokes—I’m fair game. I’m complaining about the revenge element. It reminds me of [Bill] O’Reilly.”

WHCD: President Obama, Jimmy Kimmel roast Secret Service, Washington elite, each other

The Ticket:

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Jimmy Kimmel and President Obama roasted the Secret Service, Washington’s political and media elite—and each other—at the 98th White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night at the Washington Hilton.

And it seemed no one at the annual gathering of media, celebrities and politicians was off limits.

During his speech, Obama took a jab at the now-infamous Summit of the Americas that sparked the Secret Service sex scandal earlier this month. “Four years ago, I was locked in a primary battle with Hillary Clinton,” Obama said. “Four years later, she won’t stop drunk-texting me from Cartagena.”

“Jimmy got his start on ‘The Man Show,’” Obama noted of the evening’s host. “In Washington, that’s what we call a Congressional hearing on contraception.”

Last year’s dinner occurred on the eve of Osama bin Laden’s killing, and the anniversary proved to be fodder for several jokes.

“Who will it be this year?” Kimmel quipped. (The Navy SEALs, he said, should focus on the Kardashians.)

“We finally delivered justice to one of world’s most notorious individuals,” Obama recalled, as an image of Donald Trump appeared on a screen.

The president also made several jokes about his increasingly gray hair, predicting in four years he’ll look like Morgan Freeman. “That’s not even funny,” Obama said, laughing.

The president congratulated Arianna Huffington on the Huffington Post’s recent Pulitzer Prize. “There’s no one out there linking to the kinds of hard-hitting journalism that HuffPo is linking to every single day,” he said. “And you don’t pay them! It’s a great business model.” (“Yow,” Howard Kurtz, columnist for HuffPo rival Daily Beast, responded on Twitter.)

Obama then took a few mild swipes at his likely opponent in November. “It’s great to be here in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom,” Obama said. “Or what Mitt Romney would call ‘a little fixer upper.’” (“I was just relieved to learn this one wasn’t a GSA conference,” Obama said, pivoting briefly to the GSA controversy. “Unbelievable—not even the mind-reader knew what they were thinking.”)

“We both have degrees from Harvard,” he said of Romney. “I have one, he has two—what a snob.”

Obama also looked ahead to the next four years. “In the first term I sang Al Green,” he said. “In my second term, I’m going with Young Jeezy.” (First Lady Michelle Obama nodded in approval.)

“I have a lot of Secret Service jokes,” Kimmel said. “I told them for $800 I wouldn’t tell them, but they only offered 30.”

Kimmel pointed to Sofia Vergara, one of a swarm of celebrities in attendance.

“This is what women look like in Colombia,” Kimmel said. “What’s the Secret Service supposed to do?”

He continued: “If this had happened on President Clinton’s watch, those Secret Service agents would’ve been disciplined with a very serious high-five. Palms would be beet red.”

Kimmel, host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” reflected on his path to entertaining the president: “If you told me as a kid I’d be standing on the dais with President Barack Obama, I would’ve said, ‘The president’s name is Barack Obama?’”

He also took a swipe at Obama’s weight. “You’re so skinny,” Kimmel said. “This is how you know how this country is in bad shape: Our president is starving. North Korea is sending him food aid.”

Speaking of weight, the comedian also skewered the other end of the spectrum.

“Look, it’s Chris Christie,” Kimmel told the first lady. “Get him!”

“Gov. Christie, you may be misunderstanding the [New Jersey] slogan,” he added. “It’s not the ‘Olive Garden State.’”

Kimmel defended fellow comedian Bill Maher in a bit about Rush Limbaugh.

“Is that slut Rush Limbaugh here?” Kimmel asked. “There’s a reason Rush Limbaugh said what he said: Percocet.”

“Just to clear things this up for the extreme right wingers, here’s the difference between Bill Maher and Rush Limbaugh,” Kimmel explained. “The people who watch Bill Maher know he’s an —-hole.”

Kimmel, though, threw a punches at Keith Olbermann.

“Under your seats, you’ll find a copy of Keith Olbermann’s résumé,” Kimmel said. “The thing about Keith Olbermann is, he’s so likeable. Olbermann’s burned more bridges than arsonists of Madison County.”

The former ESPN, MSNBC and Current TV host, who was not in attendance, fired back on Twitter.

“Funny that Jimmy Kimmel ripped me after his people desperately wanted me to fly to L.A, to be on his show this past Wednesday,” Olbermann wrote. “I’m not complaining about the Kimmel jokes—I’m fair game. I’m complaining about the revenge element. It reminds me of [Bill] O’Reilly.”

Yahoo!

Will Social Conservatives Come Around to Romney?

newshour:

“I’m a conservative. I don’t consider myself a Republican. It’s just the party that I have to vote in to be at play in the primary. But I think that people who believe the way that we do are tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. And that’s how I see a vote for Romney. So he’s going to have to attract social conservatives to win in November,” Lee Ann Burkholder, Tea Party member 

As five states hold primaries today, some say the presidential campaign has largely evolved into a two-man race between Romney and President Obama. But can Romney appeal to voters in the political center and the conservative base? 

Hear what other conservatives told Judy Woodruff on a recent reporting trip to Pennsylvania. 

newshour

theatlantic: What Veep Gets Wrong (and Right) About Washington It’s weird that the emerging consensus on HBO’s Veep is that it’s unenjoyable because it’s not realistic, and it’s not realistic because it’s too cynical, given that the meme for the last two or 20 years has been that Washington is broken. The show, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as an unprincipled and powerless vice president was endorsed as quite accurate by Jeff Nussbaum, who served as a speech writer for two vice presidents. Nussbaum told GQ’s Reid Cherlin that Veep hits the mark with its wall-to-wall cussing (including “pencil f—king”), the portrayal of patronizing presidential staff, the terrible advice offered by civilians, the codependency of some aides, and even the sets. And yet, it is wrong, all wrong—at least according to political reporters. “If the aim of this show is to get viewers to disrespect everybody in elected office, mission accomplished,” The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift writes. On Slate’s Political Gabfest, David Plotz said, “The West Wing was inaccurate in that it left out all the incompetence, hilarity, vanity, self-obsession, narcissism of American politics, and this show left out all the idealism and attempt to accomplish things in American politics… But as it happens, this is a moment when there isn’t a lot being accomplished in American politics, so maybe it rings more true.” Plotz’s colleague, John Dickerson, reported that, no, it’s worse: “A show that’s so soaked in cynicism about politics as a work of art smacks as lazy.” […] The West Wing’s idealism was more accurate than Veep’s cynicism, Macleans‘ Jaime Weinman says, because “if you look at political gridlock today, and the causes of it, you’ll often find that it’s caused by anincrease in idealism, and more idealistic people working in government. In the U.S., there’s a lot of hand-wringing about gridlock and the inability of government to get anything done, but the reason for that is that ideology is more important than it ever was before.” Maybe it depends on how you define “before.” The idea that “Washington is broken” is certainly repeated endlessly these days. Take, for example, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake explaining why Sen. Bob Portman’s support among political insiders makes him a bad choice for vice-president. “People really, really dislike politicians,” they write. “They hate Washington. They think politics is broken — maybe irreparably.” Maybe irreparably? Americans sound primed for a cynical show! Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: HBO]

theatlantic:

What Veep Gets Wrong (and Right) About Washington

It’s weird that the emerging consensus on HBO’s Veep is that it’s unenjoyable because it’s not realistic, and it’s not realistic because it’s too cynical, given that the meme for the last two or 20 years has been that Washington is broken.

The show, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as an unprincipled and powerless vice president was endorsed as quite accurate by Jeff Nussbaum, who served as a speech writer for two vice presidents. Nussbaum told GQ’s Reid Cherlin that Veep hits the mark with its wall-to-wall cussing (including “pencil f—king”), the portrayal of patronizing presidential staff, the terrible advice offered by civilians, the codependency of some aides, and even the sets. And yet, it is wrong, all wrong—at least according to political reporters.

“If the aim of this show is to get viewers to disrespect everybody in elected office, mission accomplished,” The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift writes. On Slate’s Political Gabfest, David Plotz said, “The West Wing was inaccurate in that it left out all the incompetence, hilarity, vanity, self-obsession, narcissism of American politics, and this show left out all the idealism and attempt to accomplish things in American politics… But as it happens, this is a moment when there isn’t a lot being accomplished in American politics, so maybe it rings more true.” Plotz’s colleague, John Dickerson, reported that, no, it’s worse: “A show that’s so soaked in cynicism about politics as a work of art smacks as lazy.” […]

The West Wing’s idealism was more accurate than Veep’s cynicism, Macleans‘ Jaime Weinman says, because “if you look at political gridlock today, and the causes of it, you’ll often find that it’s caused by anincrease in idealism, and more idealistic people working in government. In the U.S., there’s a lot of hand-wringing about gridlock and the inability of government to get anything done, but the reason for that is that ideology is more important than it ever was before.”

Maybe it depends on how you define “before.” The idea that “Washington is broken” is certainly repeated endlessly these days. Take, for example, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake explaining why Sen. Bob Portman’s support among political insiders makes him a bad choice for vice-president. “People really, really dislike politicians,” they write. “They hate Washington. They think politics is broken — maybe irreparably.” Maybe irreparably? Americans sound primed for a cynical show!

Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: HBO]

theatlanticwire.com

the20philadelphia: What “Suspending” a Campaign Really Means. It’s important to note that when Rick Santorum said on Tuesday that “we will suspend our campaign effective today,” it did not mean he was quitting the race for good. It does mean that the race for the Republican nomination is effectively over, however. From MSNBC’s First Read: It’s a euphemism often employed by modern political candidates. They rarely explicitly say what they are actually doing — “dropping out,” “getting out,” “quitting,” saying, “Adios, amigo.” Wait, so he’s not really out of it? No, not quite. “It gives you more flexibility politically” and “political cover to get back in the race,” if a candidate chooses to do so, said Michael Toner, a prominent Republican election lawyer and former Federal Election Commission chairman. By not officially terminating a campaign, a candidate can continue to raise money to retire debt. A candidate would not be allowed to “terminate” their campaign — in the technical sense with the FEC — unless they paid off their obligations and debts. One interesting aside: Santorum remains on the ballot in Pennsylvania and Delaware on April 24, so he’ll still get votes. But how many? -LD MSNBC First Read

the20philadelphia:

What “Suspending” a Campaign Really Means. It’s important to note that when Rick Santorum said on Tuesday that “we will suspend our campaign effective today,” it did not mean he was quitting the race for good. It does mean that the race for the Republican nomination is effectively over, however. From MSNBC’s First Read:

It’s a euphemism often employed by modern political candidates. They rarely explicitly say what they are actually doing — “dropping out,” “getting out,” “quitting,” saying, “Adios, amigo.”

Wait, so he’s not really out of it? No, not quite.

“It gives you more flexibility politically” and “political cover to get back in the race,” if a candidate chooses to do so, said Michael Toner, a prominent Republican election lawyer and former Federal Election Commission chairman.

By not officially terminating a campaign, a candidate can continue to raise money to retire debt. A candidate would not be allowed to “terminate” their campaign — in the technical sense with the FEC — unless they paid off their obligations and debts.

One interesting aside: Santorum remains on the ballot in Pennsylvania and Delaware on April 24, so he’ll still get votes. But how many?

-LD

MSNBC First Read

the20philadelphia

MSNBCtv:

Report: #Live Stream: #POTUS discussing the Economy and the Buffet Rule at @FlaAtlanticU http://on.msnbc.com/HGBTxp #politics #breaking 

positive-press-daily: Photo Gallery: The 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll After nearly 12 hours of fun and excitement, another successful Easter Egg Roll has come to a close. The day featured live music, a dance party, opportunities to participate in tennis, basketball and yoga, cooking demonstrations, and story time. If you weren’t able to join us on the South Lawn this year, check out the gallery of images from the day and videos from many of the performances, readings, and demonstrations will be available on our YouTube channel.

positive-press-daily:

Photo Gallery: The 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll

After nearly 12 hours of fun and excitement, another successful Easter Egg Roll has come to a close. The day featured live music, a dance party, opportunities to participate in tennis, basketball and yoga, cooking demonstrations, and story time.

If you weren’t able to join us on the South Lawn this year, check out the gallery of images from the day and videos from many of the performances, readings, and demonstrations will be available on our YouTube channel.

whitehouse.gov

Congressman Removed From House Floor For Wearing A “Hoodie”

Romney Supported Everything GOP Hates About Energy (And Then Some) TPM2012: Stop me if you’ve heard this attack: There’s a presidential candidate out there who wants high gas prices to force the government to finally increase regulations on cars, persuade Americans to stop driving those beastly SUVs, nudge people toward clean electric cars — all with the goal of combating climate change. And don’t even think about lowering gas taxes to help car owners out at the pump: That’s just a gimmick. Take a moment and guess which politician is behind these positions. If you guessed Mitt Romney, you are correct. And his long history of enviro-friendly rhetoric during past surges in gas prices is proving awkward as he slams the White House for taking similar positions today. The best example yet is probably an audio clip dug up by Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski, purportedly from a 2007 town hall, that contains in just two minutes just about everything Republicans hate about Democrats on energy. In it, Romney is asked how he feels about requiring higher fuel-efficiency standards from car companies. He says he would consider them, explaining that the government has not required high enough efficiency standards in recent years and that loopholes encourage people to drive SUVs. Not only that, he’s rooting for high gas prices to help get the job done. “The CAFE requirements have not worked terribly well over the last 20 years in part because they haven’t applied to trucks, so America has moved more and more to trucks and SUVs,” Romney said. “So the average fuel economy over the last, I think it’s 20 years, has been almost flat. I’m hopeful that with $3 gasoline being charged by Hugo Chavez and Ahmadinejad and Putin and others that you’re going to see Americans slowly but surely move to vehicles that are far more fuel efficient and you’ll see our manufacturers start competing on the basis of fuel efficiency.” Today Romney proudly touts his opposition to fuel efficiency standards on his website, telling one conservative radio host that car companies’ woes came after “the government put in place CAFE requirements that were disadvantageous for domestic manufacturers.” There’s more from that town hall. Romney specifically praised hybrid cars and electric car technology — now widely mocked on the right — as a potential solution. Romney himself has called the plug-in Chevy Volt “an idea whose time has not come” on the campaign trail and joked this month that “you can’t drive a car with a windmill on it.” But back in 2007: “I sure hope that you’re going to see more and more hybrids and much better fuel economy,” Romney said. “Plug-in cars, electric cars with better battery technology, might be a way of reducing our emissions.” This was in line with other past Romney statements that surfaced this week in which he urged Americans to channel the reality of high gas prices into support for alternative energy and conservation. The New Republic noted that Romney specifically opposed cutting the gas tax in his state in 2006 during a spike in oil prices for that very reason. “I don’t think that now is the time, and I’m not sure there will be the right time, for us to encourage the use of more gasoline,” Romney said then. “I’m very much in favor of people recognizing that these high gasoline prices are probably here to stay.” Today Romney insists that gas prices are the White House’s fault, even as the overwhelming consensus among experts is that it’s out of the government’s hands, and says that more drilling will help fix the problem. And he wants Obama to fire anyone in his administration who thinks that there are benefits to higher gas prices. “This ‘gas-hike trio’ has been doing the job over the last three and a half years and gas prices are up,” Romney said last week, referring to Cabinet members Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson. “The right course is they ought to be fired.”Even Romney’s own energy advisers are reluctant to back him up on his claims this week. Two of them, Glenn Hubbard and Greg Mankiw, have supported taxing energy in order to decrease emissions that contribute to climate change. In other words: increasing gas prices for the sake of the environment. That’s to the left of the Obama administration. Romney surrogate John Sununu defended Romney’s 2006 and 2007 positions to TPM on Monday, suggesting that the governor was merely putting an optimistic spin on a lousy time for gas prices. “I think if you look at those interviews what he was saying is we ought to take advantage of the terrible situation,” he said. He added that Romney, then and now, supports both “the production side of energy, where the governor is absolutely committed, and the conservation side” as part of the solution to America’s energy problems. But add it all up, and Romney and his advisers are on record minimizing the government’s ability to influence gas prices and supporting many of the same goals and policies espoused by Democrats to help promote energy efficiency and combat climate change. Just as his health care bill’s similarities to the Affordable Care Act have made him vulnerable to attacks, Romney’s latest energy offensive might open him up to more of the same charges he’s faced throughout his campaign — that he’ll say and do anything to get elected.

Romney Supported Everything GOP Hates About Energy (And Then Some)

TPM2012:

Stop me if you’ve heard this attack: There’s a presidential candidate out there who wants high gas prices to force the government to finally increase regulations on cars, persuade Americans to stop driving those beastly SUVs, nudge people toward clean electric cars — all with the goal of combating climate change. And don’t even think about lowering gas taxes to help car owners out at the pump: That’s just a gimmick. Take a moment and guess which politician is behind these positions.

If you guessed Mitt Romney, you are correct. And his long history of enviro-friendly rhetoric during past surges in gas prices is proving awkward as he slams the White House for taking similar positions today.

The best example yet is probably an audio clip dug up by Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski, purportedly from a 2007 town hall, that contains in just two minutes just about everything Republicans hate about Democrats on energy.

In it, Romney is asked how he feels about requiring higher fuel-efficiency standards from car companies. He says he would consider them, explaining that the government has not required high enough efficiency standards in recent years and that loopholes encourage people to drive SUVs. Not only that, he’s rooting for high gas prices to help get the job done.

“The CAFE requirements have not worked terribly well over the last 20 years in part because they haven’t applied to trucks, so America has moved more and more to trucks and SUVs,” Romney said. “So the average fuel economy over the last, I think it’s 20 years, has been almost flat. I’m hopeful that with $3 gasoline being charged by Hugo Chavez and Ahmadinejad and Putin and others that you’re going to see Americans slowly but surely move to vehicles that are far more fuel efficient and you’ll see our manufacturers start competing on the basis of fuel efficiency.”

Today Romney proudly touts his opposition to fuel efficiency standards on his website, telling one conservative radio host that car companies’ woes came after “the government put in place CAFE requirements that were disadvantageous for domestic manufacturers.”

There’s more from that town hall. Romney specifically praised hybrid cars and electric car technology — now widely mocked on the right — as a potential solution. Romney himself has called the plug-in Chevy Volt “an idea whose time has not come” on the campaign trail and joked this month that “you can’t drive a car with a windmill on it.”

But back in 2007: “I sure hope that you’re going to see more and more hybrids and much better fuel economy,” Romney said. “Plug-in cars, electric cars with better battery technology, might be a way of reducing our emissions.”

This was in line with other past Romney statements that surfaced this week in which he urged Americans to channel the reality of high gas prices into support for alternative energy and conservation. The New Republic noted that Romney specifically opposed cutting the gas tax in his state in 2006 during a spike in oil prices for that very reason.

“I don’t think that now is the time, and I’m not sure there will be the right time, for us to encourage the use of more gasoline,” Romney said then. “I’m very much in favor of people recognizing that these high gasoline prices are probably here to stay.”

Today Romney insists that gas prices are the White House’s fault, even as the overwhelming consensus among experts is that it’s out of the government’s hands, and says that more drilling will help fix the problem. And he wants Obama to fire anyone in his administration who thinks that there are benefits to higher gas prices.

“This ‘gas-hike trio’ has been doing the job over the last three and a half years and gas prices are up,” Romney said last week, referring to Cabinet members Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson. “The right course is they ought to be fired.”

Even Romney’s own energy advisers are reluctant to back him up on his claims this week. Two of them, Glenn Hubbard and Greg Mankiw, have supported taxing energy in order to decrease emissions that contribute to climate change. In other words: increasing gas prices for the sake of the environment. That’s to the left of the Obama administration.

Romney surrogate John Sununu defended Romney’s 2006 and 2007 positions to TPM on Monday, suggesting that the governor was merely putting an optimistic spin on a lousy time for gas prices.

“I think if you look at those interviews what he was saying is we ought to take advantage of the terrible situation,” he said. He added that Romney, then and now, supports both “the production side of energy, where the governor is absolutely committed, and the conservation side” as part of the solution to America’s energy problems.

But add it all up, and Romney and his advisers are on record minimizing the government’s ability to influence gas prices and supporting many of the same goals and policies espoused by Democrats to help promote energy efficiency and combat climate change. Just as his health care bill’s similarities to the Affordable Care Act have made him vulnerable to attacks, Romney’s latest energy offensive might open him up to more of the same charges he’s faced throughout his campaign — that he’ll say and do anything to get elected.

2012.talkingpointsmemo.com

Santorum explains unemployment remark

usatoday.com

Rick San­to­rum had to back­track and explain his remark that the nation’s unem­ploy­ment rate “doesn’t mat­ter to me.”

Santorum explains unemployment remark http://t.co/HH2ov7mo

Santorum on defensive in Illinois over unemployment remark

msnbc

EAST PEORIA, IL — Rick Santorum began the Monday before the Illinois primary addressing Mitt Romney’s claims that he is “an economic lightweight.” By the day’s end, it was the former Pennsylvania senator’s own words that had him on the defensive.

Making four stops in the Land of Lincoln, Santorum suggested at a rally in Moline that the nation’s unemployment rate “doesn’t matter to me.”  The point, he later explained, was that his campaign is based on more fundamental issues than the current jobless numbers and that Republicans do not believe it is the government’s role to create employment, only to create an atmosphere for job growth.

But it took little time for his chief rival for the GOP nomination to pounce on the comments. Stumping in Peoria less than two hours later, Romney used Santorum’s line to further his case that he the only candidate capable of handling the economy.

“One of the people who is running also for the Republican nomination today said that he doesn’t care about the unemployment rate, that does bother me. I do care about the unemployment rate,” said Romney.

Santorum’s remarks came on the heels of a different eyebrow-raising incident in a Louisiana prayer service on Sunday night. As Santorum sat off to the side in Baton Rouge church, pastor Dennis Terry, who introduced the Republican hopeful, delivered some fiery rhetoric about religious tolerance.  “I don’t care what the liberals say, I don’t care what the naysayers say, this nation was founded as a Christian nation,” Terry said, adding, “There’s only one God.  There’s only one God.  And his name is Jesus.”

When pressed by reporters on Monday about the comments, Santorum said he did not hold the pastor’s views.  “I believe in freedom of religion and all religions are welcome and should be. I think I’ve made that pretty clear throughout my campaign.”

The distractions came less than 24 hours before Illinois voters go to the polls to decide how their 54 delegates will be allocated.  The state is largely expected to favor Romney, but a strong showing from Santorum could further cement his place as the only candidate able to mount a challenge to the former Massachusetts governor’s front-runner status.

With more than 15 media appearances on Monday in addition to the four campaign rallies, the Santorum campaign was hoping to leave Illinois on high note.  As Romney delivered an economic address at the University of Chicago, Santorum touted his blue collar candidacy in Dixon, the hometown of GOP hero Ronald Reagan.

“We need someone who can talk and strike blows for big things like Reagan did for freedom, for America,” he said while standing in front of bronze statue of Reagan on a horse.  “Let’s just be brutally honest about it. There’s one candidate in this race who could never make this race about freedom because he simply abandoned freedom when he was governor of Massachusetts and he abandoned it when he promoted Obamacare in 2009.”

Throughout the day he called out Romney over his ties to Wall Street and a job creation record that, Santorum said, was one of the worst in the country while Romney led the Bay State.

But during his final rally outside a pizza shop in East Peoria, Santorum seemed to acknowledge the toll his off-the-cuff style has taken on him. “When you got out there and you don’t talk from a teleprompter, and you’re not, you know, reading notes that someone else gave you, occasionally you say something things, you wish you had a, you know, a do-over,” he said.

“But you know what, I think it’s important that you get a sense of how real the candidate is, mistakes and all.”

nationalpost: The words of a dictator: The rhetoric of Bashar al-AssadA year of protest and killing in Syria has resulted in the deaths of about 9,000 people. Activists show no signs of backing  down, as President Bashar al-Assad has said on many occasions.

nationalpost:

The words of a dictator: The rhetoric of Bashar al-Assad
A year of protest and killing in Syria has resulted in the deaths of about 9,000 people. Activists show no signs of backing  down, as President Bashar al-Assad has said on many occasions.

nationalpost

The 10 Most Disturbing Facts About Racial Inequality in the U.S. Criminal Justice System

anticapitalist:

1. While people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States’ population, they account for 60 percent of those imprisoned. The prison population grew by 700 percent from 1970 to 2005, a rate that is outpacing crime and population rates. The incarceration rates disproportionately impact men of color: 1 in every 15 African American men and 1 in every 36 Hispanic men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men.

2. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. Individuals of color have a disproportionate number of encounters with law enforcement, indicating that racial profiling continues to be a problem. A report by the Department of Justice found that blacks and Hispanics were approximately three times more likely to be searchedduring a traffic stop than white motorists. African Americans were twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.

3. Students of color face harsher punishments in school than their white peers, leading to a higher number of youth of color incarcerated. Black and Hispanic students represent more than 70 percent of those involved in school-related arrests or referrals to law enforcement. Currently, African Americans make uptwo-fifths and Hispanics one-fifth of confined youth today.

4. According to recent data by the Department of Education, African American students are arrested far more often than their white classmates. The data showed that 96,000 students were arrested and 242,000 referred to law enforcement by schools during the 2009-10 school year. Of those students, black and Hispanic students made up more than 70 percent of arrested or referred students. Harsh school punishments, from suspensions to arrests, have led to high numbers of youth of color coming into contact with the juvenile-justice system and at an earlier age.

5. African American youth have higher rates of juvenile incarceration and are more likely to be sentenced to adult prison. According to the Sentencing Project, even though African American juvenile youth are about 16 percent of the youth population, 37 percent of their cases are moved to criminal court and 58 percent of African American youth are sent to adult prisons.

6. As the number of women incarcerated has increased by 800 percentover the last three decades, women of color have been disproportionately represented. While the number of women incarcerated is relatively low, the racial and ethnic disparities are startling. African American women are three times more likely than white women to be incarcerated, while Hispanic women are 69 percent more likely than white women to be incarcerated.

7. The war on drugs has been waged primarily in communities of color where people of color are more likely to receive higher offenses.According to the Human Rights Watch, people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but they have higher rate of arrests. African Americans comprise 14 percent of regular drug users but are 37 percent of those arrested for drug offenses. From 1980 to 2007 about one in three of the 25.4 million adults arrested for drugs was African American.

8. Once convicted, black offenders receive longer sentences compared to white offenders. The U.S. Sentencing Commission stated that in the federal system black offenders receive sentences that are 10 percent longer than white offenders for the same crimes. The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more like to be sentenced to prison.

9. Voter laws that prohibit people with felony convictions to vote disproportionately impact men of color. An estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote based on a past felony conviction. Felony disenfranchisement is exaggerated by racial disparities in the criminal-justice system, ultimately denying 13 percent of African American men the right to vote. Felony-disenfranchisement policies have led to 11 states denying the right to vote to more than 10 percent of their African American population.

10. Studies have shown that people of color face disparities in wage trajectory following release from prison. Evidence shows that spending time in prison affects wage trajectories with a disproportionate impact on black men and women. The results show no evidence of racial divergence in wages prior to incarceration; however, following release from prison, wages grow at a 21 percent slower rate for black former inmates compared to white ex-convicts. A number of states have bans on people with certain convictions working in domestic health-service industries such as nursing, child care, and home health care—areas in which many poor women and women of color are disproportionately concentrated.

anticapitalist

statedept:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks to the press following a United Nations Security Council Meeting on the Middle East and North Africa in New York City, New York on March 12, 2012. [Go to http://video.state.gov for more video and text transcript.]

statedept

templeuniv:

On Tuesday, students from Temple University joined students from Penn State, University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University to encourage state legislatures to avoid cutting state-funding for higher education. More than 170 students, with 53 representing Temple, attended the rally in the rotunda of the Capitol Building in Harrisburg.

Read More on the Temple.News.edu

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More than 50 Temple students traveled to the state Capitol Building in a rally in support of funding for higher education and the state-related universities

Temple leaders, students appeal for funding in Harrisburg

Temple.edu:

Twice in the last two weeks, Temple’s administration has met publicly with the General Assembly to make the case for a fair Commonwealth appropriation. Lending their voice to the effort have been nearly 6,000 Temple supporters who have contacted their legislators through TALON, the Temple Advocates Legislative Outreach Network.

A proposal by Gov. Tom Corbett to reduce the Commonwealth appropriation to Temple and other state-related schools by 30 percent would mean a boost in in-state tuition and hurt those students who can least afford to take on more debt. Corbett’s proposal was part of his 2012-13 budget plan, announced in early February.

The latest appeal for Temple support came Feb. 29 before the state Senate Appropriations Committee. Anthony Wagner, Temple executive vice president, treasurer and CFO, said the relationship between the university and state has been valuable.

“Most importantly, this relationship has meant that Temple has been able to give our students access to a quality education,” said Wagner, who noted that in-state students pay $10,000 less because of state support.
Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre County, has said he wants to restore the appropriations cut proposed by the governor. He noted that during the budget discussion, some have raised the prospect of the state-related schools becoming private, and Corman wanted to know what the impact would be on Temple.

“Temple does not want to be privatized,” Wagner said emphatically. “We want to be public. We want to provide access. We do not want to walk away from this relationship.”

There was strong support for Temple from the senators, including Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia. “Temple is a special place, an incredible gem,” Hughes said during the hearing. “The crime of this (budget) proposal is that it threatens to put an education out of reach of so many people.”

Hughes also decried the cuts that are proposed for health services and education provided by the Temple University Health System and Temple School of Medicine. Hughes asked Larry Kaiser what impact the budget would have on health services for the poor in Philadelphia. Kaiser is senior executive vice president for health sciences, dean of the Temple University School of Medicine and chief executive officer of the Temple University Health System.

“Our commitment is to take care of the people in the city of Philadelphia who can’t go anywhere else,” Kaiser said. “We have to do this, even though we are already down $22 million in this year’s budget and will be down between $37 million and $40 million in the coming year.”

President Hart makes the case for state support

The venue was different one week earlier, when the leaders of Temple, Penn State University, the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University, spoke before the House Appropriations Committee.

Hart told legislators that the cuts represent a significant portion of Temple’s operating budget for its university enterprise.

If approved, the Commonwealth appropriation for Temple would be reduced by nearly $42 million to approximately $98 million. Taking into account the 19 percent reduction in the current fiscal year, plus a 5 percent “freeze” imposed by the governor in January, Temple’s Commonwealth appropriation will fall by about 50 percent over two years, if the governor’s plan is approved by the General Assembly.

In responding to questions, Hart told House members that if the university tried to make up for the lost Commonwealth support through tuition alone, it would mean a substantial increase, especially for in-state students. While Temple would not take that route, Hart said any large increase in tuition would “have a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged students and their families.”

All the presidents said the cuts would also hurt the communities where they are located, and where they serve as economic powerhouses. Temple is responsible for $6.2 billion in economic impact to the Commonwealth and 72,000 jobs statewide. In Philadelphia alone, Temple’s economic impact is $3.7 billion and 34,000 jobs.

Students, parents, employees and alumni urged to Stand With Temple

The House appearance followed a response by President Hart when the governor’s budget was announced on Feb. 7. In a video released immediately after Corbett’s announcement, Hart said that the impact would be widespread if the Commonwealth appropriation is reduced as he recommends.

“We understand that the Commonwealth is facing difficult budget decisions. As the state has struggled through a challenging economy, Temple has responded by cutting millions from its operating budget, streamlining processes, eliminating redundancies and reducing administrative staff,” Hart said in a video response to the governor’s address.

“I urge you to let your legislators know how vital their support is for schools like Temple. The best way to make your voices heard is through TALON, the Temple Advocates Legislative Outreach Network,” said the president.

Students have already been active in the effort.  On Jan. 29, Temple students joined their peers from Penn State, University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University in encouraging state legislatures to avoid cutting state-funding for higher education. More than 170 students, with 53 representing Temple, attended the rally in the rotunda of the Capitol Building in Harrisburg.