PushBack Politics - Live Political Blog
Republicans Want To Slash Government Spending, Can’t Name Anything To Cut (VIDEO)
The March 22, 2013 Real Time with Bill Maher made a powerful point: self-identified Republicans, including those who call themselves Tea Party, are IMPERATIVELY certain that the answer to America’s woes is to slash government spending. But when you ask them to name specific cuts, they pretty much come up with bupkus. This is what happens when people are insulated in the Fox echo chamber. They have had “must cut government spending” as a mantra, repeated hundreds of times a day, and they’ve bought in. But none of these people have any real idea about what to cut, other than “wasteful government spending”. addictinginfo read more
Rand Paul: ‘Last Two Presidents Could Have Conceivably Been Put In Jail For Their Drug Use’ (VIDEO)
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) appeared on “Fox News Sunday” this morning to discuss same-sex marriage, immigration, his potential 2016 presidential run…and drugs. Still high from his recent straw poll victory at CPAC, young Paul was eager to bestow upon us more of his Libertarian wisdom, particularly involving recreational drug use. He actually called out President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush on their own youthful adventures and used them as examples of why pot smoking should not be a crime. “Look, the last two presidents could have conceivably been put in jail for their drug use and I really think – look what would’ve happened, it would’ve ruined their lives. They got lucky. But a lot of poor kids, particularly in the inner city, don’t get lucky and they don’t have good attorneys and they go to jail for some of these things and I think it’s a big mistake,” Paul said. Interestingly, he excluded President Bill Clinton, but host Chris Wallace went ahead and brought him up. “Actually, I think it would be the last three presidents, but who’s counting?” Wallace said jokingly, and added, ”But he didn’t inhale.” Wallace was referring to Clinton’s half-admitted college pot-smoking. [...]
Jerry Sandusky: I Was Just ‘Fooling Around’ When Caught Raping Boy In Shower
Parsing rape is a well-used and weary defense, often employed by attorneys, most certainly by the rapist. And in the case of former Penn State coach and convicted rapist now serving a 30 – 60 year sentence for 45 counts of child sexual abuse, parsing rape becomes his only strategy. His parse? The witness got it wrong, says Jerry Sandusky on tapes recorded for documentary filmmaker John Ziegler and played on NBC’s “Today Show” on Monday, March 25. That witness who “misinterpreted” things would be Mike McQueary, a graduate student and assistant football coach working in the athletic department at Penn during the time of the Sandusky/Joe Paterno reign, which came to a crashing end in 2011 after a slew of rape and sexual abuse charges against Sandusky. You may recall that McQueary is the person who walked into the shower area of the locker room back in 2001 and testified later that he heard a “skin on skin smacking sound” which he interpreted as sex: “… McQueary described the incident to his father and the description mentioned hearing but not seeing a slapping sound in the other room, seeing Sandusky put his hand around the child’s waist and later [...]
Don’t Get Too Excited About February’s Unemployment Drop
More than five years after George W. Bush’s economic crash, it apparently doesn’t take much to get people excited about the state of unemployment. The Labor Department’s February employment report showing the economy generated a better than expected 236,000 jobs and the unemployment rate had fallen 0.2 percentage points to 7.7% was sufficient to get the optimists’ blood flowing. Unfortunately, they are likely to be disappointed. First of all, if the 236,000 jobs number sounds good to you, then you probably don’t keep up with actual economic news. 271,000 new jobs was reported last February, 311,000 in January of 2012. The strong winter job growth in 2011-2012 was followed by a dismal spring, in which job growth slowed to a trickle. While most economic measures implied that the economy had suddenly shifted from hot to cold, the more obvious explanation was that unusually good winter weather in the US northeast and the midwest had pulled hiring forward, as was reported by the Center for Economic and Policy Research at the time. This is likely part of the story this year, as well. While few people in the northern part of the country have been sunbathing in January and February, we [...]
Same Mistakes Being Made Now That Caused The Great Depression
By embracing the gratuitous anti-government rhetoric and archaic economic theorizing that passes for policy analysis in much of today’s G.O.P., Congress and the White House might be making the same mistake that F.D.R.’s Administration made in 1937, when it brought on another recession. And Fed Chairman Bernanke, a much-ballyhooed expert on the Great Depression has, on many occasions, shown the willingness to tell members of his own party things they don’t want to hear. Of course, his warnings are likely to be ignored, but that is beside the point. Bernanke has done his bit for sanity and reason. He and many of his colleagues are worried that by embracing austerity policies, the U.S. will be making the mirror image of the mistakes made both before and during the Great Depression. The U.S. Never Learns Not only does the U.S. voting public refuse to believe that they can get ito a situation that they can not get out of, they seem to want to prove it. The results of Europe’s experiment in fiscal shock therapy are in: austerity has failed, and failed miserably. The eurozone club of 17 countries is now plagued by mass unemployment –- 26 percent and rising in [...]
Congressional Ethics Probe Adds to Michele Bachmann’s Political Woes
Congressional Ethics Probe Adds to Michele Bachmann’s Political Woes The Hindenburg. The Titanic. Michele Bachmann. Add the Office of Congressional Ethics to the long list of probes and lawsuits that may be the only enduring legacy of Bachmann’s presidential face-plant. John Avlon exclusively reports. Source: The Daily Beast Read more
US supreme court takes up Michigan affirmative action case
US supreme court takes up Michigan affirmative action case Dispute in Michigan has roots in 2003 supreme court decision that upheld use of race as a factor in university admissions The Supreme Court is broadening its examination of affirmative action by adding a case about Michigan’s effort to ban consideration of race in college admissions. The justices already were considering a challenge to the University of Texas program that takes account of race, among many factors, to fill remaining spots in its freshman classes. The Texas case has been argued, but not yet decided. The court on Monday said it would add the Michigan case, which focuses on the 6-year-old voter-approved prohibition on affirmative action and the appeals court ruling that overturned the ban. The new case will be argued in the fall. A decision in the Texas case is expected by late June. The dispute over affirmative action in Michigan has its roots in the 2003 Supreme Court decision that upheld the use of race as a factor in university admissions. That case concerned the University of Michigan law school. Source: Associated Press Read more
BOOM! Dominican official links Daily Caller (Tucker Carlson-Editor) to paid lies about Sen. Menendez
BOOM! Dominican official links Daily Caller (Tucker Carlson-Editor) to paid lies about Sen. Menendez A top Dominican law enforcement official said Friday that a local lawyer has reported being paid by someone claiming to work for the conservative Web site the Daily Caller to find prostitutes who would lie and say they had sex for money with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). The local lawyer told Dominican investigators that a foreign man, who identified himself as “Carlos,” had offered him $5,000 to find and pay women in the Caribbean nation willing to make the claims about Menendez, according to Jose Antonio Polanco, district attorney for the La Romana region, where the investigation is being conducted. It is examining his role in advocating for the interests of a donor and friend, say people familiar with the probe. The videotaped claims of two women, made with their faces obscured, were posted last fall on the Daily Caller. The site reported that “the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000-acre resort in the Dominican Republic. . . . They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.” [...]
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