From: Judy Miriga

Wake up people……..wake up…….Voter suppression and luring old and seniors (talk radio and landline phone calls to seniors, lying and twisting Obamas’ Medicare and Medicaid to lure votes) may be the game changer for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to win the election……there are advance plan for last minute victory for GOPs Mitt/Ryan tickets………Looks like they are not ready to give up and by hooks or crooks Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan must do their things for the interest of Corporate Business Special Interest who are extremely desparate to take the Government to serve their selfish and greed.

Very very sad indeed…….

For America to move forward in a progressive manner where all have an opportunity to play by the same rule and improve lives and survival, bi-partisan good leadership must replace the Obstructionist with leaders who keep blocking facilitation of Bills for serving and progressing public needs and interests to move forward.

Electing good people is the answer we must all engage for peace and unity and for the sake of good for all………..

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – –

The ED Show – Paul Ryan gets booed at AARP convention

Published on Sep 21, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 21, 2012
Rep. Paul Ryan talked Medicare at the AARP Convention in New Orleans, but the crowd wasn’t receptive to his ideas. Ed Schultz talks to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., about the Ryan speech and more.

THE LAST WORD w. LAWRENCE O’DONNELL (September 20, 2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtQ4m_i1j0
Published on Sep 21, 2012 by Lala MAN
No description available.

The ED Show – Breaking down Romney’s tax returns

Published on Sep 21, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 21, 2012

Mitt Romney chose to release his 2011 tax returns today, along with a “summary” of his taxes from the past 20 Years. Romney used a few tricks to fool around with his rates, and ended up paying way more taxes than he should have. David Cay Johnston joins Ed Schultz to break down the numbers.

The sense of entitlement help by the rich makes me sick.?

ZombieWombles4 hours ago

Fucker paying low taxes yet benefits from the roads, power? lines and system my ancestors built.

Pay your share filthy pig!
syntaxed29 hours ago

Rachel Maddow – Romney plays tax games with 2011 return

Published on Sep 21, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 21, 2012
Rachel Maddow notices that Mitt Romney paid more in taxes in 2011 than was legally required (an act that should disqualify him from the presidency according to his own standard), and explains why Romney effectively picked his own tax rate for political reasons, having spent his whole life mastering tax avoidance.

Martin Bashir – Boos for Ryan’s AARP appearance, Romney’s tax returns

Published on Sep 21, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 21, 2012
Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., joins Martin Bashir to discuss why seniors booed Paul Ryan and his talk of “vouchers” at today’s AARP convention, and whether Romney’s release of his 2011 tax return only ramps up talk of fixing America’s tax code.

Martin Bashir: Mitt Romney Has The Heart of a Serial Hypocrite

Published on Sep 21, 2012 by politicalarticles
Stench of a Losing Campaign: ReTHUGliLOONs Begin To Turn on Rom-BOT Romney: http://www.politicalarticles.net/blog/2012/09/21/stench-of-a-losing-campaign-…

Martin Bashir Exposes Republican Joe Walsh – Owes Back Child Support
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC7WWV1VVJs
Published on Sep 21, 2012 by Don Kihot
Martin Bashir Exposes Republican Joe Walsh – Owes Back Child Support

Rachel Maddow – Americans care about taking care of veterans

Published on Sep 21, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 21, 2012
Rachel Maddow shows how the disproportionate online reaction to the story of Republicans defeating the veterans’ jobs bill should show members of the media that the story is worth amplifying.

The ED Show – Undercover video sheds new light on Romney’s crisis reaction

Published on Sep 19, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 19, 2012
A donor in that undercover fundraising tape asked Mitt Romney how he would show American strength if he were faced with a situation like Reagan’s Iran Hostage crisis. Romney answers candidly that he would “take advantage of the opportunity”. Ed Schultz talks with Jon Soltz, Chairman of votevets.org, and Sam Stein, political reporter for the Huffington Post.

The ED Show – Romney’s real view of workers

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 20, 2012
The Romney campaign is out with a misleading new commercial on the coal industry. Ed Schultz sets the record straight on the ad and takes a deeper look into Mitt Romney’s view on workers by looking at yet another clip from the “47 percent” video. Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen weighs in

Rachel Maddow – ‘Dead voters’ exposed as phantom scandal

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 20, 2012
Veronica Degraffenreid, elections liaison for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, talks with Rachel Maddow about the burden on the election boards in her state to address the frivolous claims of dead voters on the rolls by a tea party group called the Voter Integrity Project.

Martin Bashir – Ryan helps GOP farm for gridlock in return to Capitol

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 20, 2012
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., joins Martin Bashir to discuss Paul Ryan’s two-fold mission in his return to the Capitol; press a false attack about President Obama removing welfare work requirements and help rally House members around a losing ticket.

Martin Bashir – Romney fumbles delivery of 1998 ‘redistribution’ attack on Obama

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 20, 2012
MSNBC analysts Jonathan Alter, Matt Miller and Michael Eric Dyson debate whether the Romney campaign is reaching into the bottom of the ammo bag with a 1998-era attack about President Obama being in favor of “redistribution” — an attack that pales in comparison to Romney’s “47%” video.

Martin Bashir – Romney, Ryan home states may vote Obama

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 20, 2012
MSNBC contributor Jimmy Williams and Lehigh University’s Dr. James Peterson pick apart a slew of new polls — nearly all bad for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan — and discuss why conservatives are suffering buyer’s remorse in what was supposed to be a “can’t-miss” election.

Rachel Maddow – Republicans kill veterans’ jobs bill

Published on Sep 19, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 19, 2012
Patrick Murphy, former U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania and Iraq war veteran, talks with Rachel Maddow about what kind of men Senators John Boozman, Mike Johanns, Richard Burr and Pat Toomey must be to turn their backs on U.S. veterans and kill a bill design to help them – a bill that is not only bipartisan, but which these four senators helped write

The ED Show – Obama hits Romney on 47% while Republicans flee

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 20, 2012
On the fourth day of Mitt Romney’s 47% comment controversy, Republicans continued to distance themselves from Romney, while President Obama stayed on the offensive. The Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman joins Ed Schultz to analyze the damage done to the Romney campaign.

Rachel Maddow – Romney’s ‘47%’ remarks more blunt statement than misstatement

Published on Sep 19, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 18, 2012
Dan Rather, anchor and managing editor of “Dan Rather Reports” on AXS TV, talks with Rachel Maddow about new revelations in the undercover Mitt Romney fundraiser videos and the truth revealed in Romney’s remarks – that he doesn’t know what a dirty bomb is, and he thinks the middle and lower classes should pay higher taxes.

Martin Bashir – Romney doubles down on ‘47%’ amid conservative jitters

Published on Sep 19, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 19, 2012
Mother Jones’ David Corn, MSNBC analyst Richard Wolffe, and Democratic strategist Bob Shrum debate why Mitt Romney is choosing to own his “47%” remarks, and why many Republicans are distancing themselves from Romney.

Martin Bashir – No apologies from Romney for 47% comment

Published on Sep 18, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 18, 2012
MSNBC’s Krystal Ball, The Grio’s Perry Bacon and Democratic strategist debate why Mitt Romney refuses to admit that his “47%” comment was wrong, and how his comments in front of donors may confirm some voters’ opinions of Romney.

Lawrence O’Donnell – The Truth – MSNBC

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by daemperialist
MSNBC, POLITICS, OBAMA, NEWS, LAWRENCE O’DONNELL

The ED Show – Brown and Warren debate starts with cheap shot

Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 20, 2012
Sen. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren had their first debate for Brown’s U.S. senate seat in Massachusetts. Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo joins Ed Schultz to discuss the substance of the debate.

THE LAST WORD w. LAWRENCE O’DONNELL (September 17, 2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaE3MZ1ueyc
Published on Sep 18, 2012 by Lala MAN
No description available.

Wow. Way to go Romney. Next, you will make fun of Americans? that have just one underwear.
vincedeporter3 days ago

Martin Bashir – Romney campaign now with 47% more hole to dig out from

Published on Sep 18, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 18, 2012
MSNBC’s Jonathan Alter, The Hill’s Karen Finney and Lehigh University’s Dr. James Peterson join Martin Bashir to debate how Mitt Romney can dig himself out of a whole after his comments on “47%” of America — and why the election may now get a lot uglier.

The ED Show – Secret recording catches Romney’s comments about Obama supporters

Published on Sep 17, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 17, 2012
A secret recording from a fundraiser obtained by Mother Jones catches Mitt Romney saying “shocking things” about 47 percent of the electorate. Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne discuss the tape with Ed Schultz.

I think Mitt also forgets about the 280 major U.S. corporations who paid no Federal? Income Tax between 2008 and 2010 with another 30 actually getting a refund on billions of dollars of net profits. When you’re a millionaire it’s a “tax cut for job creators”. When you’re not a millionaire it’s “welfare” and a “hand-out” and a “entitlement”.
racerx9963 days ago 5

How Many times is Romney going to shoot himself in that silver foot of his? Seriously! Cameras are everywhere nowadays. Thankfully? enough this was recorded before the election so people can see what he really is like when he thinks he can be himself.
ajsanime3 days ago 2

I think Mitt Romney’s chances of President i think maybe? sinking like the Titanic.
TitanicBismarck19871 day ago

The ED Show – Romney campaign struggling with strategy

Published on Sep 17, 2012
Sept 17, 2012
The Romney campaign is in disarray, and a new article reports that the campaign in suffering from infighting and other issues. Democratic

Martin Bashir – Team Romney infighting as campaign hits ‘reset’ button

Published on Sep 17, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 17, 2012
CNBC’s John Harwood, Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page and The Guardian’s Ana Marie Cox discuss the new Politico report detailing dysfunction and infighting in Mitt Romney’s campaign. then debate why the newly “reset” Romney campaign looks the same as the old Romney campaign.

Martin Bashir – Why Romney’s errors are symptomatic of a lack of policy details

Published on Sep 17, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 17, 2012
MSNBC host Steve Kornacki, The Hill’s Karen Finney and MSNBC contributor Maria Teresa Kumar dig into the “Saturday Night Live” take on Mitt Romney; why Mitt Romney’s many unforced errors are a symptom of him trying to avoid giving detailed policy speeches.

Rachel Maddow On Why Republicans Are Out To Destroy Unions

Published on Sep 16, 2012 by HipsterBlood
Why union-busting helps Republicans, President Eisenhower on unions, what unions have given you.

Rachel Maddow – Paul Ryan shares billing with ‘former terrorist’ at fringe conference

Published on Sep 15, 2012 by Licentiathe8th
Sept 14, 2012
Rachel Maddow reports on how misunderstanding and wild conspiracy theories are fomenting violent public outbursts across the Middle East, and notes that Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is scheduled to speak at a conference featuring right wing conspiracy theorists and is billed alongside a self-described “former terrorist.”

Rachel Maddow on Harold Simmons

Published on Apr 8, 2012 by TheCrossroads2012
Harold Simmons has given Millions of dollars to GOP candidates so that he can continue to dump nuclear waste into an aquifer that supplies 1/3 of the water that irrigates land in America.

Americans are screwed. ?
Rodney925 months ago

Congress exits Washington to hit campaign trail
By ANDREW TAYLOR | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most partisan, least productive Congress in memory has skipped out of Washington for the campaign trail.

The Senate shuttered the Capitol soon after sending President Barak Obama stopgap spending legislation that will make sure the government won’t shut down on Oct. 1. It passed early Saturday morning by a 62-30 vote.

Left behind for a postelection session is a pile of unfinished business on the budget and taxes, farm policy and legislation to save the Postal Service from insolvency.
The GOP-controlled House had beat its retreat Friday morning after taking one last, futile slap at Obama — passing a bill entitled the “Stop the War on Coal Act.” The measure, dead on arrival in the Senate, was aimed at boosting the coal industry in its battle against new environmental regulations while hurting Obama’s political prospects in coal states like Ohio and Virginia.

The Democratic-controlled Senate’s middle-of-the-night session came after a spitting match between Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the chamber’s Republicans over Reid’s insistence on advancing legislation by Sen. Jon Tester of Montana to boost access to public lands for hunting and fishing. Tester is perhaps the Senate’s most endangered Democrat and Republicans protested that he was being given special treatment in a nakedly political move to boost his reelection chances. The measure eventually cleared a procedural hurdle on a sweeping 84-7 vote.

The votes came at midnight to give senators who had scattered from Washington time to return. Democrat Claire McCaskill was in Missouri Friday for a debate, while Michael Bennet, D-Colo., had been in the southwest portion of his state to attend a ceremony celebrating the new Chimney Rock National Monument. Tea party star Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was venting his frustrations with American Airlines on Twitter.

The only must-do item on the get-out-of-Dodge agenda was a six-month spending measure to fulfill the bare minimum of Congress’ responsibilities by keeping the government running after the current budget year ends on Sept. 30.

The spending measure permits spending on agency operating budgets at levels agreed to under last summer’s hard-fought budget and debt deal between Obama and Capitol Hill Republicans. That’s 0.6 percent increase from current spending rates, which represents a defeat for House Republicans, who had sought to cut about 2 percent below the budget deal and shift $8 billion from domestic programs to the Pentagon.

Reid also relented to a monthslong demand by tea party Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for a vote on suspending foreign aid to the governments of Libya, Egypt and Pakistan. Paul only got 10 votes. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., however, won sweeping approval of a nonbinding resolution supporting steps to make sure Iran doesn’t develop a nuclear weapon.

It’s the earliest pre-election exit by Congress from Washington since 1960, though lawmakers will return in November after the election to deal with its stack of unfinished work.

The approval rating for the current Congress in a Gallup poll earlier this month sank to just 13 percent, the lowest ever for an election year. The GOP-controlled House and Democratic Senate managed to come together with Obama to enact just 173 new laws. More are coming after the election, but the current tally is roughly half the output of a typical Congress.

Even so, political pundits say Republicans are strong favorites to keep the House while Democratic chances of keeping the Senate are on the upswing with Obama’s rise in the polls.

The exit from Washington leaves the bulk of Congress’ agenda for a postelection session in which it’s hoped lawmakers will be liberated from the election-year paralysis that has ground Capitol Hill to a near halt.
Topping the lame-duck agenda was dealing with the so-called fiscal cliff, which combines the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts on Dec. 31 and more than $100 billion in indiscriminate, across-the-board spending cuts set to strike at the same time as punishment for the failure of last year’s deficit “supercommittee” to strike a deal.

Also left in limbo is the farm bill, stalled in the House due to opposition from conservative Republicans who think it doesn’t cut farm subsidies and food stamps enough and Democrats who think its food stamp cuts are too harsh.
The current farm act expires on Sept. 30 but the lapse won’t have much practical effect in the near term. Still, it’s a political black eye for Republicans, especially those from farm states like North Dakota and Iowa.
The lack of productivity of the 112th Congress was the result of divided government and bitter partisanship. Die-hard GOP conservatives eager to roll back Obama’s agenda barreled headlong into an official Washington still largely controlled by Democrats — and oftentimes seemed to limit the options of their own leadership with their intransigence. The looming presidential and congressional elections caused top leaders in both parties to play it safe and stick to party positions.

The result: Congress’ major accomplishments tended to be legislation that mostly extended current policies, like a highway bill passed earlier this year and bills demanded by Obama to renew a 2 percentage point payroll tax cuts and extend student loan subsidies.

Even this Congress’ signature accomplishment — a budget and debt deal enacted last summer to cut $2.1 trillion from the budget over 10 years — punted most of its difficult decisions to the future by tasking the supercommittee with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings.
And, after the supercommittee cratered, House Republicans walked away from the budget deal by pressing for further cuts to domestic appropriations and reversing some on the pact’s Pentagon cuts.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Reid worked closely with the White House to use the Senate schedule for Obama’s political advantage, repeatedly forcing votes on closing tax breaks for oil companies and raising taxes on upper bracket earners.
But Reid failed to schedule floor debates on any of the 12 annual appropriations bills and the Democratic-led chamber, for the third year in a row, failed to pass a budget.
Republicans also point to almost 40 items of House-passed jobs-related legislation sitting stalled in the Senate.
“They haven’t passed a budget in more than three years. They have no plan to save Medicare, no plan to stop all the tax hikes, and no plan to replace the sequester,” Boehner said. “This isn’t leadership. It is negligence.”

Democrats defending the Senate point out that the balky chamber managed several bills that the House would not, including a renewal of farm programs and legislation to overhaul the Postal Service and give it an infusion of cash to stave off insolvency.

“The reality is for as closely as divided as this Senate is, we passed a large number of bipartisan bills this year, very important bills, but as you all know, it takes two chambers to pass a law,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “On the other side, too many of the Congress members, particularly the tea party folks, think compromise is a dirty word.”

Romney releases 2011 tax return, paid 14.1 percent

By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News

White House Correspondent

Looking to blunt relentless Democratic attacks, Mitt Romney on Friday released his 2011 tax return, a summary of his effective tax rates for the past two decades and, for good measure, two doctor’s notes attesting to the good physical health of the candidate and his running mate, Paul Ryan.

The tax return was released at 3 p.m. ET on the website www.mittromney.com/disclosure. Ahead of the release, the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign released a blog post summarizing the document.
Releasing information on a Friday afternoon is traditionally a way to reduce the amount of media exposure.
The move fulfills a promise Romney made earlier in the 2012 presidential campaign. But it was unlikely to quiet Democratic criticisms that Romney has failed to live up to a standard set by his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in 1968.

The Romneys paid $1,935,708 in taxes on $13,696,951 of mostly investment income for an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent. (The Obamas paid an effective tax rate of 20.5 percent in 2011, a lower rate than the president’s secretary, according to the White House.)
Romney, who is thought to have a personal fortune in the neighborhood of $250 million, gave $4,020,772 to charity, 30 percent of their income. (The Obamas gave 21.8 percent of their income to charity.)
The blog post, written by the manager of Romney’s blind trust since 2003, R. Bradford Malt, said the Romneys had filed their 2011 tax return with the IRS Friday morning. It also indicated that the Romneys’ tax preparer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, would provide a letter summarizing the tax rates that the Romneys paid from 1990 to 2009.
The Romneys paid an average annual effective federal tax rate of 20.2 percent, with the lowest rate coming in at 13.66 percent. Over that same stretch of time, they gave an average of 13.45 percent of their adjusted gross income to charity.

And Romney paid a far lower rate than the top 35 percent tax rate levied on the largest salaries because most of his income came from investments, which are taxed at far lower rates.
“During the 20-year period covered by the PWC letter, Gov. and Mrs. Romney paid 100 percent of the taxes that they owed,” the blog post read.

Democrats led by the Obama campaign have repeatedly hit Romney over his refusal to disclose his tax returns—a fight that has helped to keep Romney’s vast wealth in the media spotlight at a time when the president is trying to paint him as an out-of-touch millionaire bent on helping the wealthy.
Romney paid a price—literally—for saying that he paid at least 13 percent in federal income taxes over the past decade. He and his wife did not take the full deductions to which they were entitled for their charitable giving.

“The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year,” Malt wrote. “The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.”

Team Obama showed no sign of letting up in its attacks, with deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter saying in a statement that Romney paid a lower tax rate than some middle-class families “because of a set of complex loopholes and tax shelters only available to those at the top.”

Cutter charged that the 2011 return “continues to mask Romney’s true wealth and income from Bain Capital, leaving the American people in the dark about critical details about his finances.”

“Why does Mitt Romney not just release the full returns, instead of the bare summary he has provided of the last 20 years, so voters can make their own judgments about Mitt Romney’s finances?” Cutter asked.

Romney rips Obama on ‘can’t change Washington’
By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News

White House Corresponden

The Ticket –

Mitt Romney pounded President Barack Obama for saying, “You can’t change Washington from the inside” at a rally in the sweltering Sarasota heat on Thursday. And he proudly promised Florida voters that he would “get the job done” where the Democrat did not.

“We face a Washington that’s broken, that can’t get the job done,” the former Massachusetts governor told some 4,600 supporters. “The president today threw in the white flag of surrender again. He said he can’t change Washington from the inside. He can only change it from outside.

“Well, we’re going to give him that chance in November! He’s going outside!” Romney said to cheers from the crowd. “I can change Washington, I will change Washington! We’ll get the job done from the inside! Republicans and Democrats will come together!”

Romney was riffing on a comment Obama made Thursday at one of two town hall-style events hosted by Spanish-language network Univision at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. (Romney was at the network’s first one, held on Wednesday.)

At the forum, Obama had said, “I think that I’ve learned some lessons over the last four years. And the most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t change Washington from the inside—you can only change it from the outside. That’s how I got elected, and that’s how the big accomplishments, like health care, got done. … We mobilized the American people to speak out. That’s how we were able to cut taxes for middle-class families.

“So something that I’d really like to concentrate on in my second term,” the president continued, “is being in a much more constant conversation with the American people so that they can put pressure on Congress to help move some of these issues forward.”
Romney painted the comment not as a testament to grass-roots activism, but as a betrayal of the “Hope and Change” vision and “Yes We Can” slogan from Obama’s history-making 2008 run for the White House.
“His slogan was ‘Yes We Can,'” said Romney. “His slogan now is ‘No I Can’t.’ He went from the president of change to the president who can’t get change.
“The president of the United States says he can’t change Washington from the inside,” continued Romney, who repeated that line more than once during the rally. “Isn’t that amazing? No wonder he’s had such a hard time over these last four years.”
Lis Smith, an Obama campaign spokeswoman, said in a release that Romney is “once again” taking the president’s words out of context. “What the president said today is no different than what he has been saying for many years—that change comes from outside Washington, not inside,” said Smith. “Mitt Romney apparently doesn’t believe that change comes from the American people. Maybe that’s because he has written off half the country in this election.”

Obama: Romney hasn’t ‘gotten around a lot’
By KEN THOMAS | Associated Press – Thu, Sep 20, 2012

MIAMI (AP) — President Barack Obama said rival Mitt Romney hasn’t “gotten around a lot” if he believes that 47 percent of Americans consider themselves victims and entitled to government help. Addressing a large Latino television audience Thursday, the president also said his “biggest failure” was an inability to win an overhaul of the immigration system.

In an interview with Spanish language channel Univision, Obama says the country has gone through a challenging time and that people “want a hand up and not a handout.”

In suggesting his GOP rival was out of touch, Obama was reacting to secretly taped remarks by Romney in which the Republican declared that the 47 percent of voters who support Obama represent Americans who don’t pay income taxes and “who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them.”

Obama said Americans pay payroll taxes, gas taxes and state and sales taxes. He noted that those who don’t pay income taxes include workers who don’t make enough money to qualify, older Americans and students.

“When you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is maybe you haven’t gotten around a lot,” Obama said.

The forum gave Obama a rebuttal of sorts. Romney spoke Wednesday at the Univision forum, where he said his campaign was about “the 100 percent in America.”
The president faced tough questions on why he hadn’t accomplished comprehensive immigration reform, an important issue for Hispanic voters. Jorge Ramos, one of the moderators, put it bluntly: “You promised that and a promise is a promise and with all due respect, you didn’t keep that promise.”

Obama said he accepted responsibility but that he faced an economy “on the verge of collapse” in his first year and blamed Republicans for abandoning support for comprehensive immigration reform. He said there was “the thinking that the president is somebody who is all-powerful and can get everything done.”

Obama said he only leads the executive branch. “We have to have cooperation from all these sources to get something done,” he said.

“What I confess I did not expect, and so I’m happy to take responsibility for being naive here, is that Republicans who had previously supported comprehensive immigration reform, my opponent in 2008 who had been a champion of it and who attended these meetings, suddenly would walk away,” he said. “That’s what I did not anticipate.”

Asked later in the interview to name his biggest failure, Obama cited a lack of comprehensive immigration reform, but added: “It’s not for a lack of trying or desire.”

Obama: GOP walked away from immigration overhaul
By KEN THOMAS | Associated Press – Thu, Sep 20, 2012
MIAMI (AP) — President Barack Obama is telling a large Latino television audience that Republicans walked away from comprehensive immigration overhaul and says he has not wavered in his support for changes in immigration law.
In an interview with the Spanish language channel Univision, Obama said he didn’t offer an immigration reform package because he had to deal with the financial crisis. But he said he shouldn’t be blamed because he is not “all powerful” and wouldn’t have been able to win the 60 votes necessary in the Senate to succeed.

He pointed to administrative efforts he has taken to permit some young people who came to the United States illegally to avoid deportation

Mitt Romney fact check: Is he actually against redistribution?
Mitt Romney is treating ‘redistribution’ like a dirty word. But while he might like it less than Democrats do, Romney clearly believes in redistribution, too.
By Liz Marlantes | Christian Science Monitor – 16 hrs ago

Scrambling to change the subject from his now infamous remarks calling 47 percent of the population “victims,” Mitt Romney has jumped on a newly uncovered (though actually very old) tape of then-Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama saying he believes in “redistribution” of wealth. Excerpts from the Obama tape first ran Wednesday on The Drudge Report – and at a fundraiser Wednesday in Atlanta, Mr. Romney went all-in on the attack:

“There are some who believe that if you simply take from some and give to others then we’ll all be better off. It’s known as redistribution. It’s never been a characteristic of America. There’s a tape that came out just a couple of days ago where the president said yes he believes in redistribution. I don’t. I believe the way to lift people and help people have higher incomes is not to take from some and give to others but to create wealth for all.”

Let’s put aside the fact that the Obama tape is 14 years old – though, as The New Republic’s Timothy Noah points out, back then Romney was “still pro-choice, still pro-gun control, still pro-stem cell research, and still in favor of gays serving openly in the military.”

RECOMMENDED: Mitt Romney gaffes: 11 times the button-down candidate should have buttoned up

The real reason Romney’s attack is likely to be a flop is that the president’s remarks – when examined in full – aren’t likely to be seen by most Americans as particularly controversial. In fact, it’s clear that Romney himself essentially agrees with much of what Mr. Obama said.

Here’s the complete text of Obama’s comments (as opposed to the shortened clip circulated by Republicans), which was tracked down by NBC News:

“I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution – because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level – to make sure that everybody’s got a shot. How do we pool resources at the same time as we decentralize delivery systems in ways that both foster competition, can work in the marketplace, and can foster innovation at the local level and can be tailored to particular communities?”

First off, Obama’s statements about decentralizing delivery systems and fostering competition sound practically Republican (he was specifically criticizing the inefficiency of Chicago public housing and public schools). In context, he’s actually arguing for a more streamlined system of government that employs free-market efficiencies and makes redistribution more effective – and by implication, more economical.

More to the point, however: In his attacks, Romney is treating “redistribution” in general as a dirty word – “He believes in redistribution. I don’t” – when, in fact, it’s abundantly clear that Romney, too, supports redistribution, “at least at a certain level” (to use Obama’s own phrasing).

What would Romney call it when the government takes in tax dollars and uses them to pay for things like health care for poor folks? Is he saying he would eliminate Medicaid? We think not. Likewise, although Romney would tax the rich at a lower rate than Obama, his tax plan is still progressive.

As The New York Times’s David Firestone wrote Wednesday: “The government has long redistributed wealth, and … the country expects it to do so. That’s the point of a progressive income tax, which has been in effect for nearly a century…. The progressive tax remains so popular that Mr. Romney has promised to keep it, and he also insists he doesn’t plan to eliminate the safety net.”

Or as CNN’s Erin Burnett put it: “Mitt Romney, no matter what words he wants to use or what America he says he wants to believe in, believes in a progressive taxation system…. That is redistribution.”

Obviously, the real question – and a very legitimate one – is, how much redistribution is fair and best for society? In general, Democrats tend to want a little more, and Republicans tend to want a little less. But for Romney to pretend to be opposed to the entire concept of redistribution is totally untrue, based purely on what he himself says he would do as president.

—
Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com

From: Judy Miriga

Folks,

Skills for managing business empire is completely different from managing a Government which on the other hand demands integrity with clear judgement authorizing action in spar-of-moment that may call for short notice for resolve and clear-cut direction for action.

Government leadership cannot be run on guess work, flip flopping or in a
gamble…….It is too much of a risk to take…….

With the evidential proof we have seen in Romney’s flip flopping, Mitt is far from getting it together…….

Whats your say people…..!!!

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

Obama inches ahead in key voter polls
As the clock ticks down to Election Day and the number of undecided voters shrinks, President Obama is gaining over Mitt Romney in key polls. But overall, the race remains way too close to call.
By Brad Knickerbocker | Christian Science Monitor – 14 hrs ago

It’s been a rough week for both President Obama and Mitt Romney,
Mr. Obama has had to deal with anti-US protests around the Muslim world, including the murder of American diplomats in Libya. Mr. Romney took flak from Republicans as well as Democrats for what critics said were intemperate remarks about the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, which seemed obviously aimed to gain political advantage at a time when national unity was called for.

Obama has more responsibility than his challenger here – both for what happened in Libya and for how to respond. It could be a defining moment for his re-election bid.

But a snapshot of where things stand in the presidential campaign 51 days before the election should bring some cheer to the White House, at least according to the most recent polls.

Are you more (or less) conservative than Mitt Romney? Take our quiz!
As the Monitor’s Liz Marlantes reported Friday, Obama’s post-convention bounce apparently endures, most significantly in key battleground states.
According to a new set of NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls, Obama is now leading Romney by 7 points in Ohio and 5 points in Florida and Virginia, and the RealClearPolitics polling average right now has Obama up by 4.2 percentage points in Ohio, 1.3 points in Florida, and 0.4 points in Virginia.

A Philadelphia Inquirer poll released Saturday has Obama leading Romney in Pennsylvania, 50 percent to 39 percent, reports Politico.
“Pennsylvania Democrats are more consolidated behind Obama, with 77 percent in favor of Obama and 13 percent in favor of Romney, while Republicans are 18 percent in favor of Obama and 71 percent in favor of Romney,” according to the poll press release. “Following the conventions, Obama’s favorability rating has increased by 3 points, while his unfavorable rating has decreased by 6 points. Opinions of Romney have improved slightly following the conventions, but he still has a net negative personal popularity rating among voters in state, with 46 percent favorable/48 percent unfavorable rating.”

Politico also reports on an internal Republican poll that has Romney behind by 4 points in Ohio, not as bad as his 7-point deficit in the NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls but behind nonetheless.

“The numbers underline Romney’s longstanding problems in Ohio, where he’s taken a beating from Obama’s campaign and liberal groups,” writes Politico’s Jonathan Martin. “But it’s actually a sign of the depth of Romney’s hole in the state that the results were greeted favorably by Republicans. Polling in Ohio before the conventions last month showed Romney with an even larger deficit, closer to double-digits.”

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters has Obama widening his advantage to 7 points, a gap that’s been increasing since the Democratic convention. “What that really means is that Obama is in good shape,” said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.

“Thursday’s online poll also found far more registered voters preferred the incumbent’s policies and approach on taxes (41 percent picked Obama, 30 percent Romney), healthcare (44 percent Obama, 28 percent Romney) and Social Security (39 percent Obama, 27 percent Romney),” Reuters reported. “Asked which of the candidates had a better plan, policy or approach to the war on terrorism, more registered voters again favored Obama: 39 percent to Romney’s 25 percent.” (Note that the poll was taken two days after the attack on the US consulate in Libya.)

One sleeper poll that may have particular importance given the tension between the US and Israel over drawing a “red line” regarding Iran’s nuclear facilities: Obama has extended his lead among registered Jewish voters to 70-25 percent, according to unreleased Gallup daily tracking poll data reported by BuzzFeed.

“The data, obtained through a Democratic source, shows Obama up from leading 64-29 in polling this spring – and on par with his 2008 performance at this point when he led 69-25 over John McCain in Gallup polling,” reports BuzzFeed.

Two daily tracking polls out Saturday show just how close the race is: Gallup had Obama up by a point while Rasmussen gives Romney a 2-point edge.

Meanwhile, the number of undecided voters continues to shrink to just 5-6 percent as people become more fully engaged with the campaign now that the conventions are over and Election Day approaches.
Stay tuned for regular updates.

Op-Ed Columnist
The Foreign Relations Fumbler
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: September 15, 2012

DIPLOMACY is a minefield, and Mitt Romney spent the last week blowing up his foreign policy credentials to be president. He raised doubts about his capacity to deal with global crises, and we were left hoping that if that 3 a.m. call ever went to him, he’d have set up call forwarding.
Nicholas D. Kristof

On the Ground

Nicholas Kristof addresses reader feedback and posts short takes from his travels.

The essential problem is that every time Romney touches foreign policy, he breaks things. He went on a friendly trip to Britain — the easiest possible test for a candidate, akin to rolling off a log — and endeared himself by questioning London’s readiness to host the Olympic Games. In the resulting firestorm, one newspaper, The Sun, denounced “Mitt the Twit.”

(Imagine a President Romney making a London trip and helpfully offering off-the-cuff advice on Northern Ireland, or breaking the ice in Parliament by telling jokes about Queen Elizabeth. The War of 1812 would resume, and the British would again be burning down the White House.)

Then there was the Romney trip to Israel, where he insulted Palestinians and left some Jews uncomfortable with stereotyping by praising Jewish culture in the context of making money. Hmm.

After that trip, you’d have thought that on foreign policy, Romney might remember the adage: Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Yet with the Middle East exploding in recent days because of a video insulting the Prophet Muhammad, Romney dived in with a statement that hit a trifecta: it was erroneous, inflammatory and offensive.

Still, I was initially in a forgiving mood. Presidential candidates always have microphones in their faces, and it’s not surprising that periodically they say inane things. President Obama himself blew it a few days ago by mistakenly asserting that we didn’t consider Egypt an ally. But Obama then had the good sense to have the White House clarify that “not an ally” in that context meant “an ally.”

If Romney had similarly explained that in denouncing Obama he was actually praising the administration, the episode might have blown over. But after a night of sleep, he doubled down and repeated his denunciation of the president. That was just reckless.

(Romney also underscored his ignorance by referring to the “embassy” in Benghazi, Libya. Embassies are in capitals, so it was a consulate that was attacked in Benghazi.)

Perhaps the Romney campaign should invest in a muzzle for its candidate. It might even be tax-deductible!

Foreign policy isn’t as glamorous as it seems. Diplomacy mostly consists of managing crazies who are making unreasonable demands in impossible situations with no solutions. And those are just our allies.

In the Middle East, the basic dynamic is that extremists on one side empower extremists on the other. Thus anti-Muslim extremists released a video that Salafi Muslim extremists then publicized to provoke grass-roots outrage that would benefit them.

It’s too bad that Salafis weren’t as indignant about the massacre of Syrians and Sudanese as about the trailer of a movie that may not even exist. As a parody Twitter account of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, posted: “Wow! Good thing I just bombed mosques, killed women and children and I didn’t make an anti-Muslim video! People would be after me!”

The Republican Party is caught in a civil war on foreign policy, and Romney refuses to pick sides. In contrast to his approach on the economy, he just doesn’t seem to have thought much about global issues. My hunch is that for secretary of state he would pick a steady hand, like Robert Zoellick, but Romney has also surrounded himself with volatile neocons.
With China, Romney seems intent on a trade war. In the Middle East, it appears he’d like to subcontract foreign policy to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu recently tried to push the United States to adopt a nuclear red line that, if Iran crossed it, would lead us to go to war there. Obama was right to resist, and it has been unseemly for Romney to side with a foreign leader in spats with the United States.

(For my part, I think Obama should indeed set a red line — warning Netanyahu to stop interfering in American elections.)

Most dangerous of all is Romney’s policy on Iran, which can’t be dismissed as an offhand misstatement. As my colleagues David E. Sanger and Ashley Parker note, Romney muddles his own position on his nuclear red line for Iran. Plenty of candidates don’t write their own foreign policy position papers, but Romney is unusual in that he seems not to have even read his.

According to clarifications from Romney’s campaign, he apparently would order a military strike before Iran even acquired a bomb, simply when it was getting close. For anyone who has actually seen a battlefield, that’s a blithe, too-light embrace of a path to yet another war. It’s emblematic of a candidate who, on foreign policy, appears an empty shell.

From: Judy Miriga

Folks,

President Obama defended and confirmed his record of achievements giving specifics, the Democrats too laid down details of their progress clearly. President Obama’s struggle to establish foundation for recovery is for all our benefits so we are able to achieve better things with bright future with prospects for progress and growth. Because of his the good results, we have record of history and now we have lessons a path for achievements on forward plan. On stability of economy, President Obama reiterated that the road to recovery is not quick or easy, and that it takes some time; atleast more than a few more years to fix the economic mess he inherited. In fairness, the mess in economic crisis was huge and it will be wrong to expect President Obama to perform a miracle but to help strengthen the economy, we all must support the President on his plans to bring back jobs to America. The old economy is gone, and we must focus on the future to improve it. With determination without faltering and because we are the reason he is fighting for us, we must keep the fire on and push our country forward to finish the foundation work already started.

All speakers at DNC were all fired up………..

Prior to, VP Joe Biden gave a moving speech. Gabrielle Giffords moved many to deep thoughts and tears and with rousing cheers when she led Democrats in sighting Pledge of Allegiance, and I must accept I was captured in the moment.

Most importantly, the President reminded us that we are the change, but if we lose hope, if we stop striving, if we stop pushing, if we stop embracing people because they are not like us, our country stops. We are the engine of this great nation.

In honesty, how logical will it be to hand over the weak economy to the same people who messed it up in the first place? The People must decide……..and the Rich must play in the same set of rules like everybody else and where “everyone must get a fair shot”……People, for unity of purpose, we have work to do as a people……..We must not allow those few rich in wealth to destroy our costly peace and unity……….We need each other and we cannot afford to live in isolation hating one another…….

President Obama being the first Black American President, it is just honorable that we support his second term in office by giving him all the votes he need to win. It is not a favor but he earned it, and because of that, he should be rewarded. He has done us proud by working hard and sacrificing doing most of what he promised voters in his 2008 campaign……he is honest and can be trusted; for that we all love him and look forward to better things ahead under his leadership………..The best we can do, and irrespective of Party affilliation, we should vote responsible leaders committed to serving the people so in a bi-partisan way, and although with differences of ideas, things can be done and we all move forward in harmony and at peace with each other……..

Cheers everybody…..!!!

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

President Barack Obama Full DNC Acceptance Speech 2012

Published on Sep 6, 2012 by mncance9843
No description available.

THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA! Thank you for keeping the democratic party classy and with values NORMAL PEOPLE have. Thank you for reminding me why I voted for you in 2008 and I will be doing it again in? 2012. THANK YOU FOR BEING MY PRESIDENT. Thank you.
redheadedvegan8 minutes ago

Joe Mahoney … I’m 32 years old, a business banker and I voted for George W twice. This will be the second time I will vote for Obama. I won’t? try to explain why I changed my thinking as it will be a waste of my time and energy as you are the type of American who doesn’t want to listen and digest new ideas.
Ian Harris25 minutes ago 11

Obama: ‘America, our problems can be solved’
By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News
White House CorrespondenThe Ticket – 5 hrs ago

President Barack Obama, transformed from inspiring hope-and-change candidate into struggling stay-the-course incumbent, promised Americans wary of giving him another term that “our problems can be solved” if only voters will grant him four more years.

“Know this, America: Our problems can be solved,” he told thousands of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. “Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place. And I’m asking you to choose that future.”

His appeal aimed to build on a rousing speech from Michelle Obama and former president Bill Clinton. The first lady assured disenchanted voters who backed her husband in 2008 but are wary or wavering today that four years of political knife fights and hard compromises had not stripped her husband of his moral core. And Clinton cast the current president as the heir to the policies that charged the economy of the 1990s and yielded government surpluses.

“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have,” Obama told the cheering crowd in the Time Warner Cable Arena and a television audience expected to number in the tens of millions. “You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth. And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over a decade.”

Obama’s main vulnerability is the still-sputtering economy with a stubbornly high unemployment rate at 8.3 percent nearly four years after he took office vowing to restore it to health. In Charlotte, he ridiculed the Republican approach championed by Mitt Romney.

“All they have to offer is the same prescriptions they’ve had for the last thirty years: Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!” he said, to laughter and cheers from the crowd.

And it was with ridicule, too, that he portrayed Romney and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan as heirs to George W. Bush’s foreign policy, and unfit to manage America’s relations with the world.

“My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy, but from all that we’ve seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly,” he said.

“After all, you don’t call Russia our number one enemy—not al Qaeda, Russia—unless you’re still stuck in a Cold War mind warp, he said. “You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally. My opponent said it was “tragic” to end the war in Iraq, and he won’t tell us how he’ll end the war in Afghanistan. I have, and I will.” (In fact, Romney has supported an Obama-endorsed, NATO-approved timetable to withdraw the alliance’s combat troops by the end of 2014.)

The speech reflected Obama’s drive to convince voters to see the election as a choice, and not as a referendum on an embattled incumbent whose job approval ratings are below the 50-percent mark, a traditional danger zone.

“On every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties. It will be a choice between two different paths for America. A choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future,” he said.

At the same time, he did not spell out in detail his plans for a second term should he get one–even as he acknowledged that he is not the candidate he was when he pursued his history-making 2008 drive for the White House.

“You know, I recognize that times have changed since I first spoke to this convention. Times have changed—and so have I,” he said. “If you turn away now—if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible, well, change will not happen.”

Obama’s speech came after an evening studded with stars, from Hollywood’s Scarlett Johansson, who pressed young voters to register and cast ballots in November, to James Taylor, who quipped: “I’m an old white guy and I love Barack Obama” in between renditions of his folksy classics. And he was preceded onstage by Vice President Joe Biden, who gave a long-form version of this memorable reelection slogan: “Osama Bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive.”

In addition to the economy, the president highlighted his support for access to abortion, and offered his longest remarks on the fight against climate change in recent memory.

“Yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet—because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat to our children’s future. And in this election, you can do something about it.”

Obama had moved his speech from nearby Bank of America Stadium into the Time Warner Cable Arena citing concerns about the weather. Republicans charged he merely feared not being able to fill the 74,000-seat space. Democrats countered that they had more than 65,000 ticket holders.

Gabrielle Giffords leads Democrats in Pledge of Allegiance
By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News
White House CorrespondenThe Ticket – 9 hrs ago

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, grievously wounded in a January 2011 assassination attempt, led Democrats in the Pledge of Allegiance on Thursday as they opened the final day of their political convention.

Giffords walked uneasily onstage, relying on Democratic National Committee Chair—and close friend—Debbie Wasserman Schultz for support, as the crowd chanted “Gabby! Gabby!” Her appearance onstage at Time Warner Cable Arena brought cheering Democrats to their feet for a standing ovation.

As she led the crowd in the pledge in a strong voice, Giffords held her right hand over her heart with her left. She won more cheers when she blew a kiss to the crowd. Cameras showed delegates weeping as they clapped.

Even as the two women disappeared backstage, the crowd began chanting “fired up, ready to go.”

Below are the remarks of Sen. John Kerry as delivered to the Democratic National Convention on September 6, 2012:
Thank you. Thank you. In this — in this campaign we have a fundamental choice. Will we protect our country and our allies? Advance our interests and ideals? Do battle where we must and make peace where we can? Or will we entrust our place in the world to someone who just hasn’t learned the lessons of the last decade? We’ve all learned Mitt Romney doesn’t know much about foreign policy. But he has all these Neo-Con advisers who know all the wrong things about foreign policy. He would rely on them. After all he’s the great out-sourcer. But I say to you this is not the time to outsource the job of commander in chief.

DNC 2012: John Kerry’s speech to the Democratic National Convention (Full text)
Video: Former Presidential candidate and Senator John Kerry spoke at the DNC in Charlotte, N.C. Thursday night.

(APPLAUSE)
Our opponents — our opponents like to talk about American exceptionalism, but all they do is talk. They forget that we’re exceptional, not because we say we are, but because we do exceptional things. We break out of the Great Depression, win two World Wars, save lives fighting AIDS, pull people out of poverty, defend freedom, go to the moon and produce exceptional people who even give their lives for civil rights and for human rights. Despite…

(APPLAUSE)
…and despite — and despite what you heard in Tampa, an exceptional country does care about the rise of the oceans and the future of the planet.

(APPLAUSE)
That — that is a responsibility — that is a responsibility from the Scriptures. And that too is a responsibility of the leader of the free world. The only thing exceptional about today’s Republicans is that almost without exception, they oppose everything that has made America exceptional in the first place. An exceptional nation demands exceptional leadership.

KERRY: It demands the leadership of an exceptional president and, my fellow Americans, that president is Barack Obama.
(APPLAUSE)

Now, just — just measure the disaster and disarray that he inherited. A war of choice in Iraq had become a war without end and a war of necessity in Afghanistan had become a war of neglect.

Our alliances were shredded. Our moral authority was in tatters. America was isolated in the world. Our military was stretched to the breaking point; Iran marching towards a nuclear weapon unchecked and Osama Bin Laden was still plotting.

It took President Obama to make America lead like America again.
(APPLAUSE)

It took President Obama to restore our moral authority. It took President Obama to ban torture. The president understands that our values don’t limit our power. They magnify it.

He showed that global leadership is a strategic imperative for America, not a favor that we do to other countries. And President Obama kept his promises.

He promised to end the war in Iraq and he has. And our heroes have come home. He promised to end the war in Afghanistan responsibly and he is and our heroes are coming home.
(APPLAUSE)

He promised to focus like a laser on al-Qaeda and he has. And our forces have elminated more of its leadership in the last three years than in all the eight years that came before. And…
(APPLAUSE)

And after more than — after more than 10 years without justice for thousands of Americans murdered on 9/11, after Mitt Romney said it would be naive to go into Pakistan to pursue the terrorists, it took President Obama, against the advice of many, to give that order and finally rid this earth of Osama bin Laden.
Glenn Kessler SEP 6

FACT CHECKER | He says more jobs have been created under Democrats than Republicans. Is that correct?
(APPLAUSE)

Ask Osama bin Laden is he is better off now than he was four years ago.
(APPLAUSE)

Barack Obama — Barack Obama promised always to stand with Israel, to tighten sanctions on Iran and take nothing off the table. Again and again the other side has lied about where this president stands and what this president has done.

But Prime Minister Netanyahu set the record straight. He said our two countries have exactly the same policy. Our security cooperation is unprecedented. And when it comes to Israel, my friends, I’ll take the word of Israel’s prime minister over Mitt Romney any day.
(APPLAUSE)

President Obama promised to work with Russia to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and signed an historic treaty that just does that.

He promised to lock down nuclear materials around the world and he has done just that.

He refused to accept the false choice between force without diplomacy and diplomacy without force. When a brutal dictator promised to hunt down and kill his own people like rats, President Obama enlisted our allies, built the coalition, shared the burden so that today, without a single American casualty, Muammar Gadhafi is gone and the people of Libya are free.
(APPLAUSE)

So on one side — so on one side of this campaign we have a president who has made America lead like America again. And what is there on the other side?

An extreme and expedient candidate who lacks the judgment and the vision so vital to the Oval Office, the most inexperienced foreign policy twosome to run for president and vice president in decades.

You know it isn’t — it isn’t fair. It isn’t fair to say that Mitt Romney doesn’t have a position on Afghanistan. He has every position.
(APPLAUSE)

He — he was against — he was against setting a date for withdrawal. Then he said it was right. And then he left the impression that maybe it was wrong to leave this soon. He said it was tragic to leave Iraq. And then he said it was fine. He said we should have intervened in Libya sooner. Then he ran down a hallway to run away from the reporters who were asking questions. Then he said, the intervention was too aggressive. And then he said the world was a better place because the intervention succeeded. Talk about being for it, before you were against it.
(APPLAUSE) Mr. Romney — Mr. Romney — Mr. Romney, here’s a little advice; before you debate Barack Obama on foreign policy, you’d better finish the debate with yourself.

(APPLAUSE)
Now — President Mitt Romney — President Mitt Romney, three very hypothetical words that mystified and alienated our allies this summer. For Mitt Romney an overseas trip was what you call it when you trip all over yourself overseas.
(APPLAUSE)

You know, it wasn’t — it wasn’t a goodwill mission. It was a blooper reel.
(LAUGHTER)

KERRY: But — but — but a Romney/Ryan foreign policy would be anything but funny. Every president of both parties for 60 years has worked for nuclear arms control, but not Mitt Romney. Republican secretaries of state from Kissinger to Baker, Powell to Rice, President Bush, 71 United States Senators all supported President Obama’s new START treaty, but not Mitt Romney. He’s even blurted out the preposterous notion that Russia is our number one political/geopolitical foe.

FACT CHECKER | He says more jobs have been created under Democrats than Republicans. Is that correct?

Folks, Sara Palin said she could see Russia from Alaska. Mitt — Mitt Romney talks like he’s only seen Russia by watching Rocky IV.
(APPLAUSE)

I — I tell ya, so — so here’s the choice — here’s the choice in 2012; Mitt Romney out of touch at home, out of his depth abroad and out of the mainstream? Or Barack Obama, a president who is giving new life and truth to America’s indispensable role in the world. A commander in chief who gives our troops the tools and training they need and more, the honor and help they have earned when they come home. A man…
(APPLAUSE)

…a man — a man who will never ask other men and women to fight a war without a plan to win the peace.
(APPLAUSE)

And let me say — let me say something else — let me say something else, no nominee for president should ever fail in the midst of a war to pay tribute to our troops overseas in his acceptance speech.
(APPLAUSE)

Mitt Romney — Mitt Romney was talking about America. They are on the front lines every day defending America and they deserve our thanks.
(APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE USA! USA! USA!

KERRY: Some of us — some of us — some of us from a prior remember coming home was not always easy. President Obama has made it his mission that we welcome our troops home with care and concern and the respect they deserve. That is how an exceptional nation says thank you to its most exceptional men and women.
(APPLAUSE)

Mitt Romney says he believes in America and that he will restore American exceptionalism. I have news for him, we already have an exceptional American as president and we believe in Barack Obama. Thank you and God bless America.

From: Tony PT

Judy,

Is it RNC or DNC?

Thanks

———-

From: Judy Miriga

Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2012 08:17:10 -0700 (PDT)

Hillarious people!!!

Bill Clinton energized RNC tempo and electrified it with show-cases acknowledging and confirming the arithmetic of Fact checkers on President Obama’s leadership the reason why Obama should get 4 more years. Last night I watched zealously and very keenly with ease as his words flow from the podium of RNC…..From my view, those words came out powerfully, tearing me apart and stuffing me into captivity for Unity cause; and in agreement, for the sake of common shared values where all have available access to share their ideas aiming at shared prosperity on a level playing field. Bill Clinton reiterated that the mess President Obama found when he took office, no President, not him not his predecessors, would have found it possible to repair the amount of damage in four years. Instead Obama in no time, turned the situation around, put slab of layers for Recovery in the Recovery Act which, through the Government system, President Obama was able to stabilized the economy in a short term and created a record of 4.5 million in private sector jobs where, millions of other jobs are saved for sustainability in the future long term prospects; and although we are not there yet (at full recovery), we are on the right path, on track to full recovery. On the short term, Auto jobs created 250 thousand jobs, student loan reformed, education sector has more science and technical increased job opportunities for engineering and manufacturing innovation and prospects; what more can you question about President Obama’s leadership on track record other than vote to add 4 more years to complete work started?

Bill Clinton said that because of fact checks, he now trust and believes in President Obama version of good leadership and approach to job creation touching on Healthcare and Medicaid and confirmed that those are the same values of American Dreams. This shows that Democracy works.

Without second guess, Bill Clinton said the truth. Last night’s statement had me reconsider my options (have options open) to dialogue for purposes of cooperation for shared sacrifice so to move forward.

I am thrilled………and to get the arithmetic right, and in Pythagoras theorem, we have work to do. To all who get it, we must speed up to solicit for more swing votes for President Obama to win next election by landslide………

We cannot afford Mitt Romney’s knit-and-tied-lies to capture the Presidency……..it is all lies the GOP perpetuate in order to transfer public wealth to the 1% rich and where shall that put the rest of the population? This we cannot sit pretty………we must make it our concern that things must be done differently to benefit all fairly………The middle class and the poor must join hands to secure our future and our future are those savings we plant today……People must be afraid with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan ticket. We must all go vote President Obama……!!!

Connect the dots and get the arithmetic………

Cheers everybody…….

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

Bill Clinton speaks at the 2012 DNC (C-SPAN) – Full Speech

Published on Sep 5, 2012 by CSPAN
Former President Bill Clinton addresses the 2012 Democratic National Convention. He is joined on stage following his speech by President Barack Obama.

Bill Clinton’s math lesson for the DNC: Why Obama adds up to a good president

By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News

Political ReporteThe Ticket – 9 hrs ago

CHARLOTTE — Former President Bill Clinton, once a political foe of President Barack Obama, made a strong case that he’s one of the nominee’s best surrogates Wednesday, especially when it comes to bringing independents into the Democratic re-election effort.

In a speech that was repeatedly interrupted by standing ovations and often veered from the prepared remarks on his Teleprompter, Clinton took on nearly every criticism that Republicans leveled at Obama last week at their party convention in Tampa. Clinton’s wide-ranging speech defended several aspects of Obama’s record, including his health care law, the controversial Recovery Act, the restructuring of cash-strapped American auto companies and even his choice of Joe Biden as vice president.

“We believe ‘we’re all in this together’ is a far better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own,'” Clinton said in a speech that went on for nearly an hour. “I want to nominate a man who’s cool on the outside but burns for America on the inside.”

Clinton even took on the question that Republicans have used in their convention counter-programming this week, arguing that the country is better off than it was when Obama first took office.

“Are we better off than we were when he took office? Listen to this, listen to this,” he said, clearly enjoying an audience hanging on his every word. “When President Obama took office, the economy was in a free fall, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. Are we doing better than that today? The answer is yes.”

Speaking from experience, Clinton defended Obama from critics who blame him for overseeing what many have felt is a painstakingly slow recovery from the 2008 recession.
“No president, not me or any of my predecessors, could have repaired all the damage in just four years,” he said, going on to suggest that Obama’s work was only half finished.

The theme–that electing Republicans would stall the progress of an administration still struggling to turn around the economy–is one that has been repeated throughout the week. On Wednesday, Clinton hammered the point home.

“He inherited a deeply damaged economy,” Clinton said of Obama, “put a floor under the crash, began the long, hard road to recovery and laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for the innovators.”

The biggest problem for Democrats, Republicans point out, is that the country is still on that road–and looking for a fast way off.

But during a Democratic convention that up until this point appeared to be geared toward the liberal wing of the party, Clinton’s remarks were tailored to independents who might tune in during prime time. He made his arguments comprehensively, weaving personal stories in and out of his pitch for the president.

“Conditions are improving, and if you’ll renew the president’s contract you will feel it,” Clinton said. “Whether the American people believe that or not might decide the whole election. I just want you to know that I believe it.”

When Clinton finished, he bowed to Obama, who joined him on the stage. The two embraced before walking offstage together.

Fact check: 4.5 million new jobs created under Obama?

By Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo! News

ReporteThe Ticket – 19 hrs ago

President Obama
“HE SAVED OUR JOBS”
“HE SAVED OUR INDUSTRY”

Obama himself has recently claimed more job growth in the past 27 months than President George W. Bush created “during the entire seven years before this crisis.”

“Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took action, and now we’ve seen 4.5 million new jobs,” San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro said in his keynote address at the DNC on Tuesday night.

That statistic was echoed by virtually all of Tuesday night’s speakers, including first lady Michelle Obama, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who previously served as Obama’s chief of staff.

However, CNN fact-checked that claim and found it to be “not the whole picture.” Instead, CNN found that there has been a net increase of just 300,000 nonfarm payroll jobs since Obama took office. And if you count government jobs, there are actually 400,000 fewer people working today than in January 2009.

When Democrats use the 4.5 million jobs number, they’re referring to jobs created after the economy bottomed out in January 2010, one year after Obama took office. That time frame excludes the worst job losses, which took place in 2009, and which many Democrats argue were the result of Bush policies.

CNN concludes: “The figure of 4.5 million jobs is accurate if you look at the most favorable period and category for the administration. But overall, there are still fewer people working now than when Obama took office at the height of the recession.”

Still, a historical analysis of job growth percentages shows that Obama still fares better than some recent presidents. As of July, Obama is averaging +0.84 percent annual job growth in his term. That places him ahead of Bush, who saw +0.51 percent growth in his first term and -0.84 percent in his second term. Obama is also tracking better than George H.W. Bush, who presided over +0.69 percent growth during his one term in the White House.

However, Obama’s job growth percentages trail far behind those of some other recent presidents, including Bill Clinton (+2.60 percent and +1.60 percent), Ronald Reagan (+1.75 percent and +2.53 percent) and even Jimmy Carter (+2.30 percent).

Bill Clinton’s math lesson for the DNC: Why Obama adds up to a good president
By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News

Political ReporterThe Ticket – 9 hrs ago
CHARLOTTE — Former President Bill Clinton, once a political foe of President Barack Obama, made a strong case that he’s one of the nominee’s best surrogates Wednesday, especially when it comes to bringing independents into the Democratic re-election effort.

In a speech that was repeatedly interrupted by standing ovations and often veered from the prepared remarks on his Teleprompter, Clinton took on nearly every criticism that Republicans leveled at Obama last week at their party convention in Tampa. Clinton’s wide-ranging speech defended several aspects of Obama’s record, including his health care law, the controversial Recovery Act, the restructuring of cash-strapped American auto companies and even his choice of Joe Biden as vice president.

“We believe ‘we’re all in this together’ is a far better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own,'” Clinton said in a speech that went on for nearly an hour. “I want to nominate a man who’s cool on the outside but burns for America on the inside.”

Clinton even took on the question that Republicans have used in their convention counter-programming this week, arguing that the country is better off than it was when Obama first took office.

“Are we better off than we were when he took office? Listen to this, listen to this,” he said, clearly enjoying an audience hanging on his every word. “When President Obama took office, the economy was in a free fall, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. Are we doing better than that today? The answer is yes.”

Speaking from experience, Clinton defended Obama from critics who blame him for overseeing what many have felt is a painstakingly slow recovery from the 2008 recession.

“No president, not me or any of my predecessors, could have repaired all the damage in just four years,” he said, going on to suggest that Obama’s work was only half finished.

The theme–that electing Republicans would stall the progress of an administration still struggling to turn around the economy–is one that has been repeated throughout the week. On Wednesday, Clinton hammered the point home.

“He inherited a deeply damaged economy,” Clinton said of Obama, “put a floor under the crash, began the long, hard road to recovery and laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for the innovators.”

The biggest problem for Democrats, Republicans point out, is that the country is still on that road–and looking for a fast way off.

But during a Democratic convention that up until this point appeared to be geared toward the liberal wing of the party, Clinton’s remarks were tailored to independents who might tune in during prime time. He made his arguments comprehensively, weaving personal stories in and out of his pitch for the president.

“Conditions are improving, and if you’ll renew the president’s contract you will feel it,” Clinton said. “Whether the American people believe that or not might decide the whole election. I just want you to know that I believe it.”

When Clinton finished, he bowed to Obama, who joined him on the stage. The two embraced before walking offstage together.

Elizabeth Warren to DNC: The ‘system is rigged’ against you
By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News

Political ReporteThe Ticket – 12 hrs ago

CHARLOTTE, N.C.–In her speech to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren said that the American system of government is “rigged” against the middle class.

“People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here’s the painful part: they’re right,” Warren said in her first address to a party convention. “The system is rigged. Look around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Wall Street CEOs—the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs—still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them. Anyone here have a problem with that? Well I do.”

Warren is running against Republican Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who won the seat in a 2010 special election following the death of former Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Her full remarks:

Thank you! I’m Elizabeth Warren, and this is my first Democratic Convention. Never thought I’d run for senate. And I sure never dreamed that I’d get to be the warm-up act for President Bill Clinton—an amazing man, who had the good sense to marry one of the coolest women on the planet. I want to give a special shout out to the Massachusetts delegation. I’m counting on you to help me win and to help President Obama win.

I’m here tonight to talk about hard-working people: people who get up early, stay up late, cook dinner and help out with homework; people who can be counted on to help their kids, their parents, their neighbors, and the lady down the street whose car broke down; people who work their hearts out but are up against a hard truth—the game is rigged against them.

It wasn’t always this way. Like a lot of you, I grew up in a family on the ragged edge of the middle class. My daddy sold carpeting and ended up as a maintenance man. After he had a heart attack, my mom worked the phones at Sears so we could hang on to our house. My three brothers all served in the military. One was career. The second worked a good union job in construction. The third started a small business.

Me, I was waiting tables at 13 and married at 19. I graduated from public schools and taught elementary school. I have a wonderful husband, two great children, and three beautiful grandchildren. And I’m grateful, down to my toes, for every opportunity that America gave me. This is a great country. I grew up in an America that invested in its kids and built a strong middle class; that allowed millions of children to rise from poverty and establish secure lives. An America that created Social Security and Medicare so that seniors could live with dignity; an America in which each generation built something solid so that the next generation could build something better.

But for many years now, our middle class has been chipped, squeezed, and hammered. Talk to the construction worker I met from Malden, Massachusetts, who went nine months without finding work. Talk to the head of a manufacturing company in Franklin trying to protect jobs but worried about rising costs. Talk to the student in Worcester who worked hard to finish his college degree, and now he’s drowning in debt. Their fight is my fight, and it’s Barack Obama’s fight too.

People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here’s the painful part: they’re right. The system is rigged. Look around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Wall Street CEOs—the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs—still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them.

Anyone here have a problem with that? Well I do. I talk to small business owners all across Massachusetts.

Not one of them—not one—made big bucks from the risky Wall Street bets that brought down our economy. I talk to nurses and programmers, salespeople and firefighters—people who bust their tails every day. Not one of them—not one—stashes their money in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

These folks don’t resent that someone else makes more money. We’re Americans. We celebrate success. We just don’t want the game to be rigged. We’ve fought to level the playing field before. About a century ago, when corrosive greed threatened our economy and our way of life, the American people came together under the leadership of Teddy Roosevelt and other progressives, to bring our nation back from the brink.

We started to take children out of factories and put them in schools. We began to give meaning to the words “consumer protection” by making our food and medicine safe. And we gave the little guys a better chance to compete by preventing the big guys from rigging the markets. We turned adversity into progress because that’s what we do.

Americans are fighters. We are tough, resourceful and creative. If we have the chance to fight on a level playing field—where everyone pays a fair share and everyone has a real shot—then no one can stop us. President Obama gets it because he’s spent his life fighting for the middle class. And now he’s fighting to level that playing field—because we know that the economy doesn’t grow from the top down, but from the middle class out and the bottom up. That’s how we create jobs and reduce the debt.

And Mitt Romney? He wants to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. But for middle-class families who are hanging on by their fingernails? His plans will hammer them with a new tax hike of up to 2,000 dollars. Mitt Romney wants to give billions in breaks to big corporations—but he and Paul Ryan would pulverize financial reform, voucher-ize Medicare, and vaporize Obamacare.

The Republican vision is clear: “I’ve got mine, the rest of you are on your own.” Republicans say they don’t believe in government. Sure they do. They believe in government to help themselves and their powerful friends. After all, Mitt Romney’s the guy who said corporations are people.

No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters. That matters because we don’t run this country for corporations, we run it for people. And that’s why we need Barack Obama.

After the financial crisis, President Obama knew that we had to clean up Wall Street. For years, families had been tricked by credit cards, fooled by student loans and cheated on mortgages. I had an idea for a consumer financial protection agency to stop the rip-offs. The big banks sure didn’t like it, and they marshaled one of the biggest lobbying forces on earth to destroy the agency before it ever saw the light of day. American families didn’t have an army of lobbyists on our side, but what we had was a president—President Obama leading the way. And when the lobbyists were closing in for the kill, Barack Obama squared his shoulders, planted his feet, and stood firm. And that’s how we won.

By the way, just a few weeks ago, that little agency caught one of the biggest credit card companies cheating its customers and made it give people back every penny it took, plus millions of dollars in fines. That’s what happens when you have a president on the side of the middle class.

President Obama believes in a level playing field. He believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride or a golden parachute. A country where anyone who has a great idea and rolls up their sleeves has a chance to build a business, and anyone who works hard can build some security and raise a family. President Obama believes in a country where billionaires pay their taxes just like their secretaries do, and—I can’t believe I have to say this in 2012—a country where women get equal pay for equal work.

He believes in a country where everyone is held accountable. Where no one can steal your purse on Main Street or your pension on Wall Street. President Obama believes in a country where we invest in education, in roads and bridges, in science, and in the future, so we can create new opportunities, so the next kid can make it big, and the kid after that, and the kid after that. That’s what president Obama believes. And that’s how we build the economy of the future. An economy with more jobs and less debt. We root it in fairness. We grow it with opportunity. And we build it together.

I grew up in the Methodist Church and taught Sunday school. One of my favorite passages of scripture is: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40. The passage teaches about God in each of us, that we are bound to each other and called to act. Not to sit, not to wait, but to act—all of us together.

Senator Kennedy understood that call. Four years ago, he addressed our convention for the last time. He said, “We have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world.” Generation after generation, Americans have answered that call. And now we are called again. We are called to restore opportunity for every American. We are called to give America’s working families a fighting chance. We are called to build something solid so the next generation can build something better.

So let me ask you—let me ask you, America: are you ready to answer this call? Are you ready to fight for good jobs and a strong middle class? Are you ready to work for a level playing field? Are you ready to prove to another generation of Americans that we can build a better country and a newer world?

Joe Biden is ready. Barack Obama is ready. I’m ready. You’re ready. America’s ready. Thank you! And God bless America!