I hate this type of thing. I know someone who isn't going to vote for Obama again because of this. But the whole let's kick the poor type of move will probably get him more votes than it loses.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama_heating_aid

I don't blame them for not voting for him because of this. Just a month after tax cuts for the rich, he is cutting heat for the poor? It's something out of Dickens and Scrooge would be proud.

Barbour would probably just hire a lot of lobbyists (although Obama isn't far off from doing that). Huckabee does seem to be a wild card.

Pawlenty and Romney both do seem likely to get the nomination. Pawlenty just relies on anti-gay politicking again and again and again, along with other blatant pandering.

Edited February 12, 201114 yr by CarlD2

Baring something surprising, Romney is getting the nomination. The person who came in second during the previous GOP Primaries almost always gets the nomination next time around. EX: Romney came in second in 2008 to McCain, Mccain came in second to Bush in 2000 primaries, W Bush while didn't run in 1996 primaries many GOP elites wanted him too, Dole came second in 1988 primaries, Bush senior came in second in 1980 primaries, Reagan came in second in 1976 and 1968 primaries. So history suggests Romney, who I find about as exciting as Bob Ross...

I'd be shocked if Barbour or Huckabee got the nom. Mississippi, which Barbour is Governor of is ranked dead last in nearly everything, education, income, employment, etc...doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Plus he has controversial remarks in regards to race & civil rights. As for Huckabee, he as governor granted clemency to guy who then later in 2009 shot and killed 4 police officers...

I can never vote for Romney because of the dog thing (that and the horrible pandering).

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1638065,00.html

Wisconsin's governor says he will call the National Guard out on unions if they don't go along with his plans.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-11/wisconsin-gov-says-he-won-t-negotiate-with-unions.html

Are child labor laws going to be targeted soon? One lawmaker in Missouri seems to hope so.

http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/missouri-senator-wants-repeal-child-labor-laws/

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/18/2666033/the-stars-editorial-capitol-watch.html

I guess Ohio big business and government must be relieved that Wisconsin took any attention away from them. Their bill also includes firefighters and cops in their anti-union legislation, and it seems to say that striking will get you put in prison?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02states.html?_r=2&hp

Edited March 2, 201114 yr by CarlD2

all your items Carl are just illustrations of Republicanism in full bloom. They seek a return to a time when there were no unions, no social security, one even wants no public education dept, no hea;th care for the needy, no regulation of big business...you might as well just turn the calendar back to 1911.

Look at that...

<span style="font-size:120%;">How the big names turned against the President

Robert Redford

Actor and director

"I believe he's a really good person. He's smart. And he does represent what the country needs most now, which is change."

July 2008

"President Obama has certainly done more than any other president to advance clean energy, yet he never seemed to roll up his sleeves, bring lawmakers to the table and work to rally the American public behind it."

July 2010

Angelina Jolie

Actress

"Obama is fighting for international justice, he wants to intervene militarily in genocides abroad, and he wants to close down Guantanamo Bay."

November 2008

"How is Obama's approach to Sudan an evolution of justice? And when the administration says it intends to work to 'improve the lives of the people of Darfur', I would like to know what that means, besides the point that their lives could hardly get worse."

December 2009

Maria Shriver

Journalist

"He is about empowering women, African Americans, Latinos, older people, young people. He's about empowering all of us."

February 2008

"While I am confident that Obama never intended to offend anyone [with a joke about the Special Olympics], the response his comments have caused... demonstrates the need to continue to educate the non-disabled community."

March 2009

Spike Lee

Film director

"Everything's going to be affected by this seismic change in the universe."

June 2008

"Before this [Gulf of Mexico] catastrophe, our President was in favour of offshore drilling. And when this thing happened, he backtracked real quick."

August 2010

From an interview with Matt Damon for The Independent</span>

Edited March 6, 201114 yr by Sylph

Maria Shriver's comments should have been left out - they were not much of a criticism at all and undercut the point the writer was trying to make, since it had nothing to do with any of his policies, it was just a stupid comment on a TV show.

So it looks like Republicans are trying to limit voting from college students, and they aren't exactly being subtle about their reasons why.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/06/AR2011030602662.html?hpid=topnews

New Hampshire's new Republican state House speaker is pretty clear about what he thinks of college kids and how they vote. They're "foolish," Speaker William O'Brien said in a recent speech to a tea party group.

"Voting as a liberal. That's what kids do," he added, his comments taped by a state Democratic Party staffer and posted on YouTube. Students lack "life experience," and "they just vote their feelings."

Still, the sponsor of the measure, state Rep. Gregory Sorg, addressing a packed public hearing room late last month, focused his ire directly at the college set.

Average taxpayers in college towns, he said, are having their votes "diluted or entirely canceled by those of a huge, largely monolithic demographic group . . . composed of people with a dearth of experience and a plethora of the easy self-confidence that only ignorance and inexperience can produce."

Their "youthful idealism," he added, "is focused on remaking the world, with themselves in charge, of course, rather than with the mundane humdrum of local government."

So I guess voting based on ignorance and fear is OK only if you are not a college student, since that is the basic strategy of most of today's Republican machine.

More honesty from Republicans. The Wisconsin senate majority leader says the union-busting bill is about weakening Democrats.

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/09/scott-fitzgerald-obama/

And they managed to pass it, so they got what they wanted. They didn't even bother to vote on a budget - they just voted to strip collective bargaining.

Since they are usually good at class warfare, my guess is a lot of people in Wisconsin will say it affects those who don't deserve protections anyway, it's all the Democrats fault, and so on.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/wis-state-senate-passes-anti-union-bill-in-end-run-around-dem-boycott.php?ref=fpa

Edited March 10, 201114 yr by CarlD2

2012 can't get here soon enough.

Oops.

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/03/10/house-republican-caught-on-tape-jokes-of-give-a-handgun-to-a-schizophrenic-bill/

Geraldine Ferraro has passed away.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51981.html

I feel a special kinship, if only geographically, with Geraldine Ferraro, as her alma mater, Marymount, is not far from me in Tarrytown. May she rest in peace.