Posted by Len on Saturday, December 10th, 2011 at 9:57 am CT in Politics
“Ensuring a Fair Shot for the Middle Class”
From the White House weblog:
In this week’s address, President Obama told the American people that the United States succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, does their fair share, and engages in fair play. This is why the President nominated Richard Cordray to lead a new consumer-watchdog agency designed to protect families from being taken advantage of, but Republicans in Congress have blocked the nomination. They have also stood in the way of a balanced plan to extend the payroll tax cut for working families – and the President made clear he believes that elected officials should not go home for the holidays until they’ve done what is right for the American people and for the economy by extending this tax cut.
Click below to listen to the audio only:
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Posted by Len on Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 at 9:49 pm CT in Politics
United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to a United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland this afternoon. Her topic was gay rights…
From her opening:
Today, I want to talk about the work we have left to do to protect one group of people whose human rights are still denied in too many parts of the world today. In many ways, they are an invisible minority. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed. Many are treated with contempt and violence by their fellow citizens while authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse. They are denied opportunities to work and learn, driven from their homes and countries, and forced to suppress or deny who they are to protect themselves from harm.
I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, human beings born free and given bestowed equality and dignity, who have a right to claim that, which is now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time.
The full transcript of Secretary Clinton’s speech follows the break.
Posted by Len on Monday, December 5th, 2011 at 8:22 pm CT in economy,Politics
Statement by the President on the necessity of extending the payroll tax cuts…
Now, some Republicans who have pushed back against the idea of extending this payroll tax cut have said that we’ve got to pay for these tax cuts. And I’d just point out that they haven’t always felt that way. Over the last decade, they didn’t feel the need to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans — which is one of the reasons that we face such large deficits. Indeed, when the Republicans took over the House at the beginning of this year, they explicitly changed the rules to say that tax cuts don’t have to be paid for. So forgive me a little bit of confusion when I hear folks insisting on tax cuts being paid for.
(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain effectively ended his 2012 White House race on Saturday, saying “false and unproved” sexual accusations have made it impossible for him to carry on a credible campaign.
Cain’s conservative supporters will have to find a new home with voting to start next month in the race to determine the Republican’s presidential nominee for 2012.
Cain’s departure shapes the Republican race more clearly as a matchup between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and surging rival Newt Gingrich.
Former Godfather’s Pizza chief executive Cain said in his home town of Atlanta that he was suspending his White House bid after a Friday night meeting with his wife, Gloria, who appeared at his side and smiled throughout.
Cain said a “cloud of doubt” had settled over his campaign. He insisted that accusations that he sexually harassed several women and had a 13-year affair with an Atlanta businesswoman were simply not true.
“I am suspending my campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt,” said the 65-year-old. He said he would endorse a Republican rival.
All evidence pointed to a campaign facing severe financial woes and credibility problems even if Cain had decided to stay in.
Posted by Len on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 at 9:24 am CT in Politics
“Extending and Expanding the Payroll Tax Cut”
From the White House weblog:
In this week’s address, President Obama told the American people that although the United States has created private sector jobs for the past 21 months in a row, that is not enough for struggling Americans. We must continue growing the economy by passing the payroll tax cut, which will give the middle class a tax cut of $1,500 and provide small businesses more money to hire workers by cutting their payroll taxes in half. The President urges all Americans to tell Congress not to raise taxes during the holidays and act in the best interests of middle class families and pass the tax cuts now.
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Posted by Len on Thursday, December 1st, 2011 at 5:12 pm CT in Politics
It has been 30 years since the first cases of “gay cancer” (that’s what they called it back then) were diagnosed. Many, many people died because Ronald Reagan chose to ignore the epidemic. After all, it wasn’t affecting anybody in his circle. Today, President Obama marked World AIDS Day…
The full transcript of the President’s remarks follows the break.
