Obama General Discussion, vol. 5

[Irvine511]

All I want to know is if these lower gas prices will correspondingly lower the Uber charges on my AmEx.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by the iron horse

According to what I have read, Al Sharpton has been to the White House more than 70 times.

That to me, would be like a Republican president having the Grand Wizard of the KKK over for guidance and input.


I remember the night he won the election, Juan Williams (a black Fox News contributor) was asked about Obama being so far left politically would that be his policy.

Williams responded that he believed Obama would govern from the center (not the far left) and bring us together.

I really hoped he would.

He didn't.

hi iron horse.

below is an example of someone who holds considerable power in the House GOP and has spoken to and advocated for white supremacy groups.

instead of calling Sharpton a racist, simply because you disagree with his politics and perhaps because it feels exciting and daring to call a black person a racist, why don't you focus on those with political power who actually do have real racist backgrounds. and this isn't subtle racism, either. this is real neo-Nazi stuff, the kind of things you claimed don't exist anymore in USA 2014 in that other thread where you stated that racism was just overblown hyperbole because you didn't see it in your day-to-day life.

for all those out there that think that racism is a relic of the past, and that racism really only involves people being mean to one another or burning crosses on a lawn or actively hating those from different races and that actual racism looks like "Mississippi Burning" and not George Zimmerman, well, that's kind of what this is.

maybe it would benefit us all if the GOP and conservative and libertarians alike would take a look at their own house and their own members before being so eager to cast the "you're the real racist" stone, especially when what we have here is an actual, real racist.

House Majority Whip Scalise confirms he spoke to white supremacists in 2002


Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white-supremacist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers.

Scalise, 49, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post this year, confirmed through an adviser that he once appeared at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO. But the adviser said the congressman didn’t know at the time about the group’s affiliation with racists and neo-Nazi activists.

“For anyone to suggest that I was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous,” Scalise told the Times-Picayune on Monday night. The organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by several civil rights organizations.

The news could complicate Republican efforts to project the sense of a fresh start for a resurgent, diversifying party as the new session of Congress opens next week. In the time since voters handed control of Congress to Republicans, top GOP leaders have been eagerly trumpeting their revamped image and management team on Capitol Hill.

Monday night, some Democrats were already raising questions about whether Scalise should remain in a leadership post.

“It’s hard to believe, given David Duke’s reputation in Louisiana, that somebody in politics in Louisiana wasn’t aware of Duke’s associations with the group and what they stand for,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (Tex.), a rising star in the Democratic Party who is considered among the most prominent Hispanics in Congress. “If that’s the case and he agreed to join them for their event, then I think it’s a real test for Speaker Boehner as to whether congressman Scalise should remain in Republican leadership,” Castro said in a phone interview.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) called the news “a big deal.”

“Race still is, sadly, an ugly aspect of our politics,” he said by e-mail. “No politician should ever find himself/herself addressing a white supremacist organization except to tell them to go to hell.” Associates of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) are monitoring the situation, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s staff had no comment.

Scalise’s political circle worked furiously late Monday to quell the storm, with his confidants e-mailing reporters and House members, assuring them that Scalise did not know the implications of his actions in 2002 and describing him as a disorganized and ill-prepared young politician who didn’t pay close attention to invitations.

When Scalise was asked by the Times-Picayune how he came to appear at the conference, he cited his staff, saying he had only one person working for him at the time. “When someone called and asked me to speak, I would go,” he said. “If I knew today what they were about, I wouldn’t go.”

In a phone interview late Monday from his home in Mandeville, La., Duke recalled Scalise as a “nice guy” and said he was invited to the conference by two of Duke’s longtime associates: Howie Farrell, who had worked on Duke’s gubernatorial campaign, and Kenny Knight.

Scalise “says he didn’t realize what the conference was. I don’t know if he did or did not,” Duke said. He also said Scalise should not be forced to resign, saying Scalise was merely taking an opportunity to meet with “constituents.”

“What politician would ever pass up an opportunity to talk to his constituents?” Duke said. “It sounds like they are just playing politics.”

Duke said he spoke to the conference twice, once by phone and later by video hookup. But he did not hear Scalise speak, he said, and does not know whether Scalise heard him speak.

In a statement, Scalise’s spokeswoman, Moira Bagley Smith, emphasized that the then-state lawmaker was unaware at the time of the group’s ideology and mission. “He has never been affiliated with the abhorrent group in question,” Smith said. “The hate-fueled ignorance and intolerance that group projects is in stark contradiction to what Mr. Scalise believes and practices as a father, a husband, and a devoted Catholic.”

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a leading conservative in the House, said in an interview Monday that he stood by Scalise and believed that many conservatives in the House’s hard-right bloc would do the same.

“Jesus dined with tax collectors and sinners,” King said. “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, it’s the sick. Given that piece of Scripture, and understanding that Scalise probably wasn’t staffed thoroughly, I could understand how something like this happened. But I know his heart, I’ve painted houses with him post-Katrina, and I know he is a good man.”

Scalise’s appearance at the event was first reported by blogger Lamar White Jr., who manages a Web site on Louisiana politics.

White’s post, which was published Sunday, said Scalise spoke at the Best Western Landmark hotel in Metairie, La., a suburb of New Orleans, as a part of a two-day conference in May 2002.

“Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, former Louisiana State Representative, and former Republican candidate for Louisiana governor, was attempting to rebrand his movement into something more palatable and less incendiary, and the ambiguous-sounding EURO seemed to do the trick,” White wrote.

Ronald Doggett, the head of the Virginia chapter of EURO, said Duke participated in the conference via phone from Russia, where the former KKK leader was living at the time.

Doggett, who attended the conference, said he did not remember hearing Scalise speak but said it would not be unusual for EURO to have contact with local officials.

“If that happened, so what?” Doggett said in a phone interview Monday. “What is the big deal? There’s a different standard for whites than there are for other groups. How is this really news?”

Scalise’s aides said that because of the unavailability of Scalise’s schedule from that year, they did not have details to share about his appearance or remarks. They said he was a frequent speaker at events at that hotel — a hot spot for New Orleans-area conferences.

Scalise’s defense — that he and his staff were not fully cognizant of the group’s leanings and the nature of the meeting — contrasts with the local news media coverage generated by the Duke-coordinated conclave that spring.

The Gambit Weekly, an alternative publication in New Orleans, wrote days before the conference that the hotel distanced itself from Duke’s group. “A contract to book this event was made some time ago, and it is our practice to fulfill our contractual obligations,” a company spokesman told the publication. “Our company does not share the views of this organization.”

The Iowa Cubs, a minor league baseball team, also told the Gambit Weekly that they were concerned about housing their players, which included several African Americans, at that hotel while traveling to Louisiana.

“I’m glad we’re staying away from it,” Pat Listach, then a Cubs coach, said in an interview earlier that month. “I wouldn’t have been comfortable staying there.”

The Duke group drew additional headlines nationally in the weeks before the Louisiana meeting. In mid-May 2002, USA Today reported that the organization was active in South Carolina and had “picketed” there to support the Confederate flag flying on state Capitol grounds.

In February 2002, The Washington Post reported that Duke’s group was organizing in Virginia and “demanding that black teenagers be prosecuted for hate crimes against whites.”

The news about Scalise, coupled with the unrelated legal troubles of two other GOP lawmakers, could disrupt Republican plans to hit the ground running this January as the party takes full control of Congress.

Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.), who represents Staten Island, pleaded guilty last week to felony tax fraud and on Monday privately signaled he was readying to resign, according to House Republican staffers familiar with his calls to House GOP leaders. And Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) has been accused by a fired former staffer of creating a hostile work environment. The staffer has sued, alleging that the congressman “regularly drank to excess” and made sexually inappropriate comments to another co-worker.

A former chairman of the Republican Study Committee — the caucus of the most conservative GOP members — Scalise was elected majority whip in June, following the defeat of then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a Virginia Republican primary. Cantor’s loss and subsequent departure from Congress opened up the whip post after then-Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) decided to seek Cantor’s position as Boehner’s deputy. Scalise won the third-ranking job on the first ballot.

Shortly after Election Day, Scalise told reporters that he was excited to help lead “one of the most diverse Congresses we’ve ever had.”

“I’m excited about that opportunity to help be a part of this leadership team that’s stronger than ever and more focused on the problems this country is facing and working to get our country back on track,” he said.

But Scalise’s engagement with a white-supremacist group might create immediate disquiet for at least two members of the expanded Republican majority.

For the first time in several years, the House GOP conference will include two black members — Mia Love, a former mayor of a small Utah town, and Will Hurd, a former CIA operative, who will represent a swing district in Texas. They cast their candidacies as historic, while GOP leaders embraced them as examples of the party’s broadening appeal.

[Mrs. Garrison]

I caught the tail end of the SOTU speech last night, Obama got a zinger in on the people who applauded him when he said he couldn't run for office anymore. I'll admit, i laughed at his response.

Also watched part of the GOP response. Some lady talking about working on a biscuit line when she was a kid. Also said her shoes were worn out and she had to put bread bags over them when it rained. And i think she said she got onto a school bus and every kid on the bus had bread bags over their shoes.

I'm pretty sure i fell asleep after that. Only because i couldn't find a bread bag to put over my head and suffocate myself with.

[BEAL]

I'm ashamed she is from my home state.

Sarah Palin part 2

And the GOP wonders why no one takes them seriously when they throw out these lunatics


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[Mrs. Garrison]

Damn, sorry about that. Of course we have some real nuts where im from too, like Sally Kearns, for instance. But she is just one nut in a sea of them. We are not all like that here.

I'm beginning to think the GOP should just fold up shop if this is the best they can do. Of course the alternative fringe party (tea party), which would take over in their absence, is much much worse. At least they are unelectable for national office.

The day they're not, im fucking moving to France.

[mikal]

Originally Posted by Mrs. Garrison

I caught the tail end of the SOTU speech last night, Obama got a zinger in on the people who applauded him when he said he couldn't run for office anymore. I'll admit, i laughed at his .

I'm not even a huge Obama fan but that made my week.


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[Mrs. Garrison]

Originally Posted by mikal

I'm not even a huge Obama fan but that made my week.


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I mean, yeah, im not exactly either, but damn. Some of these people (GOP, TP) are just so bad, they make him look superior on every level. He's basically just playing with them at this point in his term.

State of the GOP is broken: I thought Joni Ernst was bad. Then I watched Ted Cruz - Salon.com

Watching Sen. Joni Ernst Tuesday night, I found myself thinking: If there’s a GOP establishment, it must consist of secret Democrats, because they so reliably sabotage their rising stars by assigning them the reply to President Obama’s annual State of the Union address, way before they’re ready. Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sen. Marco Rubio moved from 2016 contenders to punch lines in moments.

Ernst seemed headed the same way, with her robotic sing-song delivery and her head-scratching anecdotes about bread bags on her shoes and working the biscuit lines at Hardees. She was clearly working to show voters that she’s a regular person who cares about the working class, even though she told the Koch brothers last June that they “really started my trajectory.” It’s tough to square those notions, but Ernst took to the task with good cheer and the gumption you need to castrate hogs.

I always struggle with whether it’s sexist to reflexively compare female Republicans like Joni Ernst to Sarah Palin. It may well be, but it’s clear they also play similar roles in their party. Both women have been sized up as vice-presidential fodder (strangely, the GOP never seems to size up women as potential presidents, which presented a problem in 2008 when voters realized they were electing Palin to be a heartbeat away).

And to be fair, Palin and Ernst have other things in common. The GOP’s answer to feminism, its strategy for winning female votes without changing its anti-female policies, seems to be recruiting sassy frontier gals who hunt and ride motorcycles and, yes, castrate hogs, but do it all in lipstick and (camouflage) pumps. And hey, in Iowa, it worked.

But then I watched Sen. Ted Cruz’s star turn, and Ernst looked a lot better. And I realized it probably is sexist to find a robotic, sing-song delivery Palinesque: Cruz was just as robotic and staged, only with a deeper voice — until his devastating “meh” moment. “Meh – let me start over,” he says, almost a minute into his Obama attack. And someone on his staff – again, a closeted Democrat? – posted the whole thing to YouTube

[Mrs. Garrison]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesdA4aplZw

[BEAL]

So 47 GOP congressmen signed off on a letter to IRAN basically undermining the president.

How is this not considered treason?

What if the democrats wrote a letter to the Taliban stating, "Bush started this war and once he's out of power we will start to pull our forces out. So don't mind the next 8 years of bombing, cause we'll make sure to change course when we're in charge"

You openly write a letter to a known ENEMY (their words) that slaps your own president in the face.




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[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by BEAL

So 47 GOP congressmen signed off on a letter to IRAN basically undermining the president.

How is this not considered treason?

it is.

[BEAL]

Does anyone stand up against the right in these cases?

How is it they get away with it?


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[trojanchick99]

My favorite part was when an Iranian official totally schooled them on their knowledge of how the US government works.

Here we have US Senators committing treasonous acts and they are still harping on about Benghazi. It's pathetic. I can't wait to see how they react when Hillary Clinton is sworn in as our next President.

[bono_212]

What's so frustrating is stuff like this totally gets swept under the rug after a few months and no one is held accountable. Not just this situation, but this is one where I seriously feel like someone's got to put their foot down.

[Mrs. Garrison]

Originally Posted by BEAL

Does anyone stand up against the right in these cases?

How is it they get away with it?


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Depends on what you mean by "anyone" and "stand up"

I plan on doing my part. While i have voted for the GOP in the past, i can clearly say, no more. They have lost me and my vote(s) with their bullshit and childish, obstructionist behavior.

Originally Posted by trojanchick99

My favorite part was when an Iranian official totally schooled them on their knowledge of how the US government works.

Here we have US Senators committing treasonous acts and they are still harping on about Benghazi. It's pathetic. I can't wait to see how they react when Hillary Clinton is sworn in as our next President.

I hope she runs.

[anitram]

I don't know how anyone has any idea of what Hillary Clinton stands for.

[Mrs. Garrison]

Originally Posted by anitram

I don't know how anyone has any idea of what Hillary Clinton stands for.

I'm going out on a limb here but i would assume she's going to be better than the alternative.

[bono_212]

Originally Posted by anitram

I don't know how anyone has any idea of what Hillary Clinton stands for.

Well, I didn't hear it from her mouth, but when she last ran, I went to see Bill Clinton campaigning for her, and if he represents what she stands for, I was pretty all in.

[anitram]

Originally Posted by bono_212

Well, I didn't hear it from her mouth, but when she last ran, I went to see Bill Clinton campaigning for her, and if he represents what she stands for, I was pretty all in.

OK - what are her firm policy positions?

I think she lost herself a long time ago and I doubt that she herself has any idea what she believes in anymore.

This is not to say that the political circus on the Republican side, which is pathetic and laughable would in any way whatsoever be better. But to me, Hillary Clinton is the singularly most disappointing political figure of the last decade.

[Irvine511]

Watching this stupid email drama unfold on the news this morning made me want to lie down in the middle of the street. It's one reason I was so much more pro-Obama in 2008 than Hillary. I don't want to get sucked back into these bonkers 1990s Clinton non-scandal scandals and watch the right wing hiss and foam -- though the Clintons play their own part in all of this. It really has been no-drama-Obama for the past 7 years, and I've appreciated that.

I will vote for her against any conceivable GOP candidate, but I already have Clinton fatigue and she hasn't even announced yet.

[PhilsFan]

I don't think the email thing is a stupid scandal. It's rather Rovian.


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