Congresswoman Wants to Kill the Phrase Job Killing

Lend An Earmark To More Lies
Cornyn sent a fund-raising letter blasting Democrats for 6,600 Earmarks in the bill totaling $8 billion (less than 1% of the total). Where did those Earmarks come from? A bunch came from Republicans, including $16 million from Cornyn himself! And he's been a top earmarker, having inserted dozens totaling $228-million just last year. Surprise, surprise! A Fox News interviewer, Bill Hemmer, actually called Cornyn on his hypocrisy. Whereupon Cornyn said he was not going to defend his Earmarks --...

Rhetoric as comfort food: The mac-and-cheese instinct
Neither the right nor the left lost any time criticizing the other after the Tucson shootings, but it's increasingly clear the suspect was not politically motivated. If only we could go back to Monday. Discussions about Saturday's shootings in Tucson, which killed six and wounded 13, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were so much simpler then: inflamed, righteous and deliciously partisan in a comfort-food kind of way. The fallout from the tragedy took a neat and predictable course: t...

A gracious but determined Sarah Palin
Addressing the country in the wake of the Tucson tragedy. America's Enduring Strength Americans will not be manipulated. Nor silenced in the face of monstrous Libel. ...We are passionate and we are committed. It's been nearly 5 years now since I started blogging, concerned about state and national fiscal issues, my own village, and the state of the media. Having been the subject of whispering campaigns and called an Extremist for asking "dangerous" questions about local issues I have the greate...

Thoughtful, On-Target Palin Responds To Attacks; Left Loses Last Grip On Reality
I know, my use of the term on-target makes me a vitriolic, hateful Rhetoric espouser in the eyes of some. It’s not conducive with the “new tone” we are all supposed to embrace for some unfathomable and delusional reason. Of course, this new tone doesn’t apply if one is speaking about Sarah Palin, who is apparently the cause of All Bad Things Ever, in perpetuity. Even here, we are on day three of no school due to snow. In South Carolina. Does Palin’s evil reach have ...

'Gabby opened her eyes': Obama
Last year, colour was reserved for cushions. Now, it’s on the sofa Would the real Lisbeth Salander please stand up? Scandal Sheet: Selena Gomez feeling gleeful? President Barack Obama hugs NASA Astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), as he arrives to attend the event "Together We Thrive: Tucson and America" honoring the January 8 shooting vi. Jeff Mason and Tim Gaynor, Reuters with files from Agence-France Presse · Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011 U.S. President ...

The Chamber of Commerce calls for the repeal of Obamacare
By mid-December, HHS had already granted 222 waivers to the law — a revealing acknowledgement that the law is unworkable,” Donohue said. “And, with key provisions under challenge in the courts by states and others, it’s time to go back to the drawing board   I have previously written about the 222 Healthcare Reform waivers granted by the Obama regime here. This is what I had to say about these waivers:  The Healthcare Reform law would have been directly responsi...

Incoming Intel for Leaders and Economy Watchers
One of the goals of this blog is to provide a heads up on what's coming your way on Gallup.com. Having now given you the Public Opinion context both before and after the Tucson shootings (coming this afternoon), we're thinking about the leadership decisions ahead. There are just some of the stories coming your way in the next week: Thursday, we'll provide our first 2011 read on what Americans see as the most important problem facing the country. Friday, we'll report on Americans' priorities fo...

Saunders Fundraises Off Arizone Murders
Bernie Saunders There has been no shortage of individuals and institutions that have sought to capitalize on the shootings in Tucson. Add Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to that list. This afternoon Sanders sent out a Fundraising appeal, seeking to raise money to fight Republicans and other "right-wing reactionaries" responsible for the climate that led to the shooting. He writes: Given the recent tragedy in Arizona, as well as the start of the new Congress, I wanted to take this opportunity...

Mitch Daniels, Deficit Arsonist: "The Building Was on Fire Anyway!"
Via Mark Thoma: Economist's View: "Bush, the Bubble, and the Deficit": Indiana's Republican Governor Mitch Daniels tries to blame the 2001 Recession for the deficits that occurred under president Bush. David Leonhardt sets the record straight: ...Here is [Wolf Blitzer] interviewing Mitch Daniels...: BLITZER: A columnist in The New York Times wrote recently ... saying if you decide to run for president, you need to explain .. “why as Budget director, [you] did not try to prevent the Bush ...

Thousands flock to Obama's Tucson memorial address (Reuters)
Tucson, Arizona (Reuters) – Thousands of people sang, clapped and cheered as they swamped a sports stadium in Tucson on Wednesday to hear President Barack Obama address a city devastated by a shooting rampage. "This is a tragedy that happened in our backyard, to people we know, to people who are us," said local water company manager Warren Penney, 49, as he stood in an overflow stadium set up for the memorial event. A 22-year-old College Dropout, Jared Lee Loughner, opened fire...

A Democratic Legislator Has Been Shot. Therefore Republicans Should Change the Name of Their Health Care Repeal Bill.
At The Huffington Post, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree says the path to civility in politics starts with changing the name of the House GOP’s Health Care Repeal bill: A good place to start a more civil dialog would be for my Republican colleagues in the House to change the name of the bill they have introduced to Repeal Health Care reform. The bill, titled the "Repeal the Job Killing Health Care Law Act," was set to come up for a vote this week, but in the wake of Gabby's shooting, it has be...

Lawmakers Consider New Curbs on Incendiary Speech
© n/a Shocked and saddened lawmakers grappled on Monday with the weekend shooting of one of their own, with some suggesting that new laws and regulations are needed to curb incendiary Speech. The aftermath of Saturday's attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) brought a rare moment of unity on Capitol Hill, but it also escalated a contentious debate over violent imagery in the nation's political discourse. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) was having a beer and eating pizza at a New Jersey...

Jews Troubled By Palin's Use Of 'Blood Libel'
By Nicole Neroulias Religion News Service (RNS) Four days after an Assassination attempt critically wounded a Jewish congresswoman and killed six others, Sarah Palin on Wednesday (Jan. 12) accused "Journalists and pundits" of Manufacturing a "blood Libel" that seeks to link her and other Conservatives to the massacre. The "blood Libel" language unsettled many Jewish groups, who say the term has been used for centuries to justify persecution of Jews. "Blood Libel" is often traced to the Gospel...

You Know, I Think Having Had Barry Eichengreen and Jeffrey Sachs (and Others) as My Teachers Gives Me an Unfair Advantage
Ryan Avent gets puzzled as he tries to work his way through the causes of Unemployment: Labour markets: Sticky, sticky wages | The Economist: what we see is a two-track labour market. Workers who never lost their jobs... have potentially enjoyed pay increases. But... jobless workers... have struggled to find work and who can generally only do so at a significant wage cut relative to their previous pay.... I mentioned a few explanations ventured by Rob Shimer.... One big issue is the problem th...

Legislators ready to think about jobs with every new bill
State Legislators, who spent much of the past campaign pledging to make job growth a top priority, now have to decide how often they want to be reminded of that. The legislature's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis, which analyzes every bill to determine its potential cost to State Government, recently filed a plan outlining how it could take a similar look at possible impacts on public- and private-sector jobs. "Frankly, I think we're stumbling around in the dark as a legislature in terms ...

McDonnell reflects on first year and looks ahead to rest of term
One year ago, Republican Bob McDonnell became the 71st Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, walking straight into the worst Budget Crisis in modern Virginia history. Still, this governor beams with optimism. WARREN: “You are a year down in your governorship now, how does it feel?” McDONNELL: “I love being Governor. It's a tremendous privilege getting a cabinet working together to solve problems and get results and I really enjoy it.” But, he’s still realistic. ...

Housing market will pick up along with job creation
An improvement in the Housing Market could begin this year if Job Creation picks up pace, industry experts said Wednesday at the International Builders' Show in Orlando.  Still, a full housing recovery isn't expected for at least two years, and could be further hampered through 2011 if hiring doesn't accelerate, according to the forecast reported by The Associated Press.  Although some in the housing industry are pessimistic, choosing to predict that the market won't get any worse, several a...

How The Fed Spent $2 Trillion And In Exchange We Got 650,000 Temp, Leisure And Retail "Jobs"
one month ago, we discovered, to our dismay, that since the start of the Depression, the US labor pool has transformed substantially from a full-time time to an increasingly more part-time dominated one. Specifically we found that "America has lost 10.5 million full time jobs, offset by a 2.8 million increase in part time jobs" and that "the US not only lost 478k seasonally adjusted full time workers in November but has lost full time jobs for 6 months in a row, for a total of 1.6 million job lo...

The Special Council for Tax Reform and Fairness gives its recommendations
 The Special Council for Tax Reform and Fairness gave its recommendations to Georgia lawmakers on Friday. The plan is being touted in the media as a Tax Increase. The plan would put a tax on groceries, Cigarettes, and other consumable products and work to reduce income taxes by 1/3 over a three year period starting in 2012.Governor Deal also stated his intentions to reduce teacher Furloughs by cutting back on some government’s jobs. (AJC, 2011) The state of Georgia, like many oth...

Rep. Pingree Calls for Name Change on Repeal of the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act
We can continue to have this debate about political Rhetoric. On the level of pure politics, I find this to be whip-smart. A good place to start a more civil dialog would be for my Republican colleagues in the House to change the name of the bill they have introduced to Repeal Health Care reform. The bill, titled the “Repeal the Job Killing Health Care Law Act,” was set to come up for a vote this week, but in the wake of Gabby’s shooting, it has been postponed at least until ...

Keeping perspective and keeping our rights
Never let a crisis go to waste. ̶ Rahm Emanuel Since the tragic shooting this past weekend in Arizona, our nation has been in mourning. Flags have flown at half-mast, and people have flocked to houses of worship. We have all felt the shock of the violence and the pain of loss. At a time like this, our nation needs to unite and offer support and prayers for those killed, wounded, and affected by this evil act. Yet, when I turn on the TV or radio, among the updates of the injured, and informa...

I refuse to say not all Muslims. Whos with me?
Phyllis Chesler writes here at NewsReal Blog : On February 24, 2011, the distinguished Lars Hedegaard, the President of the Danish Free Press Society and the International Free Press Society, [and Jesper Langballe, a member of the Danish Parliament] will stand trial for telling the truth about Islamic gender Apartheid. (…) Please note: Islamists did not launch their legal prosecution. Their own countrymen, in the language of “Political Correctness” and in the guise of opposing “hat

Daniel Hernandez Speaks At Memorial For Victims Of Tucson Shooting
Openly Gay Student intern Daniel Hernandez delivered a terrific and humble Speech tonight at the memorial for the Victims of the Tucson shooting. He may disavow all the accolades, but the president later said it for all of us: "Daniel, we've decided. You ARE a hero." (Via - AmericaBlog) Labels: Arizona, Gabrielle Giffords, Gay American Heroes, heroes New! Share this on Facebook: Share ...

The desperation of the left
Image by Getty Images via @daylife Daniel Henninger: ... They expected to take losses in November. What they got instead was Armageddon. Suddenly an authentic reform movement, linked to the Republican Party, whose goal simply is to stop the public spending curve, had come to life. This poses a mortal threat to the financial oxygen in the economic ecosystem that the public wing of the Democratic Party has inhabited all these years. The stakes for the American left in 2012 couldn't possibly be h...

Obama: Giffords opened eyes for first time
President Barack Obama says that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has opened her eyes for the first time since being shot through the head on Saturday. The president says it happened a few minutes after he left her Hospital room Wednesday evening. The president, speaking at a prayer service in Tucson for Shooting Victims, says that Giffords' husband allowed him to share the news with the crowd. That brought people to their feet amid cheering. The president says that after he left Giffords' hospi...