In “Eric Deggans Confirms Own Bias in Race Baiter Part I“, I detailed the premise of Eric Deggans book, Race Baiter: How Media Wields Dangerous Word to Divide a Nation, noting how it was more a treatise on attacking Fox News and Conservatives than an examination on how media affects public discourse. The arguments in the book had holes the size of tunnels. In part II I detail the authors response to questions I had for him during a presentation he gave about his new book.

My first question to Deggans was how he could go after Fox, but leave out MSNBC or other news outlets. His response was MSNBC does not fall into that category because they hired people and focused on a strategy that had helped increase their black viewership 60% in 2012; the implication being that MSNBC was targeting inclusion of blacks and therefore exempt from racism or divisive based journalism. This is a bit of jump in logic, considering most industry insiders know MSNBC has made a decision to be the Liberal network. Therefore, its increase in black viewership is a natural consequence of blacks being Democrats, not a secret plan to target black viewers.

I also challenged his assertion that Gingrich’s comment about President Obama being the “Food Stamp” president was racial code for blacks. Considering that Deggans is well aware that more whites are receiving food stamps and welfare than blacks, any conclusions that Gingrich meant blacks were only a sign of Deggans’ own bias, not Gingrich’s. His response was typical of liberals. He cited a scientific study by Princeton professor Tali Mendelberg that concluded whites more easily associated blacks with welfare than whites. This is a frequent tactic of left leaning writers and commentators. When in doubt, say it has been proved scientifically and therefore cannot be refuted. Ignoring the old adage statistics can be used to prove anything. Yet, if we accept the comments as coded language, what does Deggans call the statement by Obama, “They cling to their guns or religion.” Does he mean Americans who believe in God and have a gun to protect their family? Or does he mean those nasty, mean and bigoted white people?

The back and forth debate between myself and Deggans culminated in his final point of the day. The concept of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is when you have a conclusion you believe, but ignore facts that contradict your conclusions. It was an ironic point to end the presentation, considering that all 288 pages of Deggans’ book and the bulk of his presentation was an exercise in confirmation bias.

Absent from his book is any detailed discussion of liberal news sites or other cable networks. Deggans can talk ad nausea about what he considers racist commentary and segments from O’Reilly or Sean Hannity, but where is the discussion about MSNBC’s Perry asking four white guests to tell their favorite racial joke? Can anyone not imagine the hue and cry from the main stream media, starting with Deggans himself, if Hannity had four white males on his show tell racial jokes? How is O’Reilly calling Deggans a race baiter for obsessing over race all the time any different from Deggans, Chris Matthews, or Rachel Maddow calling someone a sexist, and hater of women, because they believe a woman with a job can afford to and should be responsible for paying her own $10, $20, or $30 dollar co-payment for birth control?

Deggans even ignores that the blog post on Fox Nation he was complaining about was actually written by Politico.com, a left leaning news site.

If Deggans wants to write a book attacking Fox news and conservatives he is entitled to that right. He is not, however, entitled to selective outrage. If it is bad or destructive for Fox News, or talk radio to report in a certain way, then it is also wrong for CNN, ABC, MSNBC, etc., to do the same things. Deggans has a journalistic obligation to hold them to the same standard.

This brings us to the crux of the problem with Deggans’ book and liberals generally. They suffer from chronic bouts of intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy. In their world, calling George W. Bush stupid is a statement of fact, but calling Obama stupid is racist. Expecting a man engaging in sexual activity to use his own money to buy condoms as birth control is obvious, but expecting the same responsibility from an adult woman is sexist. Targeting a specific demographic is racist and destructive if the demographic is white men, but targeting the black demographic (if you believe Deggans’ assertion that MSNBC is purposely doing that) is enlightened. And creating a website dedicated to the Hispanic community who may one day be spun out into a dedicated cable news site like Fox News Latino, is to be ignored, because, as you know, Fox only caters to middle, aged white men.

If you are a critic of Fox news then Race Baiter will allow you to confirm your own thoughts about the network. If you were looking for a tome that examines the way media helps to contribute to the hyper partisan divide America is experiencing, then the book is a waste of time. You would be better suited looking for other books, or evening writing one of your own. That is how useful this book by Deggans is on the subject. The problem is not his campaign against Fox or conservatives. It is that Deggans purports his book as something else. A critique on how media is dividing the country, but he does not talk about the media. He talks about what he sees as racial demons at Fox and on the Conservative right, but ignores all-over media and the liberal left.

If that is subject matter you wish to engage in you do not have to fork out thirty bucks for it. You can catch it for free on MSNBC, CNN, the Huffington Post, or any number of other media outlets.

Image credit: Eric Deggans via Facebook

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Geopolitical chaos procreating a chaotic leaderless world is sucking the literal life out of human hope. The tentacles of austerity measures and quantitative easing are the primary catalyst of all the madness. One way or another every government financier around the world is determined to cultivate the appearance that the good times are still rolling. The only problem is that the natural rate of failure refuses to participate in the economic facade. Fiat currencies’ purchasing power dwindles, the pounding drum beat of war beckons, and an open ended hegemonic polarity struggle for commodities ensues.

While serving as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 2002, current U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave the world a glimpse into the past, present, and future all at once. In his speech, entitled “Deflation: Making Sure ‘It’ Doesn’t Happen Here,” Ben Bernanke stated:

“Although a policy of intervening to affect the exchange value of the dollar is nowhere on the horizon today, it’s worth noting that there have been times when exchange rate policy has been an effective weapon against deflation. A striking example from U.S. history is Franklin Roosevelt’s 40 percent devaluation of the dollar against gold in 1933-34, enforced by a program of gold purchases and domestic money creation.”

Today the infamous 40 percent strikes again, as Cyprus agreed to the terms of a European Union bailout in which banks will seize 40 percent of uninsured bank depositors’ wealth.

Moody’s Investors Service was quoted in Bloomberg as saying, “The seizure of larger deposits may spark tensions with Russia, the source of an estimated $31 billion in holdings in Cypriot banks.”

Proxy wars have gone beyond the spectrum of arming rogue militants and allied nations in dispersed pockets of the globe, graduating to the realm of state sponsored economic terrorism. As “Gerald Celente” consistently and aptly states, “Currency wars + Trade Wars = Real Wars.”

All of the economic wheeling and dealing continues on as the “Arab Spring” explodes into a caballing year round inferno engulfing the entire Middle East. Daily at the United Nations, permanent Security Council members China, Russia, France, United Kingdom, and the United States spar over regional influence with each passing veto and resolution.

This is most apparent in Syria where Russia opposes any intervention as it struggles to prop up the government of its last remaining ally in the Mediterranean region. Russian naval forces stationed at Tartus, Syria may be the last line of repellent preventing NATO intervention.

The lines of frienemy engagement get blurrier with every passing engagement.

Simultaneously as the United States prepares to implement its own austerity measure policy that has carefully been repackaged and marketed to the public under the label sequestration, it is arming rebels in Syria. All claims of being in financial dire straits gets immediately lost within the noise of controlling key choke points around the globe.

One cannot forget less than two years after watching the Al Qaeda flag being proudly raised in the Libyan city of Benghazi, that America’s new found ally the Free Syrian Army are the protégés of Al Qaeda.

The life cycle of keyboards do not possess the durability to correctly and fully analyze threats posed by the uncontrollable Kim Jong Un ruled North Korea. The isolated peninsula nation even managed to startle its longtime ally China into voting in favor of U.N. Security Council resolution 2094. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted as saying;

“China supports the UN Security Council’s necessary and moderate response to the nuclear test of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”

Barely beyond two weeks later newly appointed Chinese President Xi Jinping, warned the West not to meddle in Syria’s civil war while on his first visit to Russia.

Not even the mythical country of Chimerica can rescue the too big to fail world from the natural rate of failure. Governments around the world are taking sides now under the cloak of every global economic and geopolitical conflict, because nations know that a hegemonic storm is coming with no evacuation routes or shelter in sight. Once more, honesty of time is proving that which cannot last forever won’t.

Image courtesy: European Parliament

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Let’s talk about James Buchanan. No, not the last American president born in the 18th century. About James McGill Buchanan. Why him? He was a Nobel Prize laureate and American economist who got recognized for his study on public choice theory, and who just recently passed away (January 9, 2013).

So why is his work still relevant today? Mainly because Buchanan initiated research on how non-economic forces and politicians’ personal interests affect economic policy.

His research includes extensive writings on macroeconomics, constitutional economics, the public debt, public finance and voting – all that is very important especially now, at the time of global economic crisis.

What is even more important, looking at the entire government “struggle against the economy,” is that in his studies Buchanan rejects “any organic concept of the state as superior in wisdom, to the citizens of this state.” This is where the interesting part begins.

Thanks to his philosophical position the basis of constitutional economics can be formed. According to Buchanan, every constitution is created for the time period of at least several generations and therefore, it should be able to balance interests of the society, state and each individual.

Unfortunately we don’t see this happening all around us. There are, of course, exclusions, but in whole we see just the opposite. The rich are getting richer or at least are well off anyways. And middle class is getting the full blow of the recession.

It is interesting that Buchanan’s ideas were always seen as a challenge to John Maynard Keynes. And Keynes is recognized to be one of the most influential economists of the last century and founder of modern macroeconomics. He was among those who advocated the use of monetary and fiscal measures to reduce the negative effects of economic recessions.

Once Keynes’s ideas became widespread, they were adopted by leading economies. Even though the outburst of the global financial crisis in 2007 caused degradation in Keynesian thought, the principals of Keynesian economics are still used to give response to the crisis. Unfortunately, neither the administration of George W. Bush or Barack Obama developed new approaches.

In his works Buchanan poses a question, “What do individuals seek in politics if they do not seek to maximize their own expected net wealth?” Which seems to make perfect sense, doesn’t it?

The main point is that modern politics can be adjusted only through the change to the constitution. In this way individuals will be able to act according to the long-term interest of the community and not their own short-term interests.

James M. Buchanan says, “Until and unless we begin to take the long-term perspective in our private and in our public capacities, including the adoption of new and binding constitutional constraints on the fiscal and monetary powers of government, we are doomed to remain mired in the muck of modern politics.”

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As the fiscal cliff approaches, the clock starts to tick louder. For those who have yet to understand: the fiscal cliff is a soup of expiring tax cuts scheduled for the end of the year.

The core of the fiscal cliff consists mainly of the cuts passed from 2001 to 2003 under then President George W. Bush. There are also across-the-board cuts: the expiration of measures delaying the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate, and the expiration of the 2 percent Social Security payroll tax cut, among others.

If the federal government allows this to happen, the effect on a still-weak economy may be drastic, perhaps even sending it back into a recession. On the other hand the fiscal cliff can significantly decrease the federal budget deficit. This brings us to the question of possible positive effects for the economy in the long run.

According to some surveys, about two-thirds of Americans do support reduction of the federal budget deficit, even if it means cutting Medicare and Social Security. Aside from this data, it is quite hard to believe that the majority will eagerly give away their money for seemingly no good reason. It is better to not take into consideration some quavering long-term improvement projections for the common citizen who is not keen on economic analysis.

Unfortunately according to the experts, if Obama and Congress do not avert these legislative changes, America may “fall over the cliff.” It will also mean that taxes will rise the most in the last 60 years or so. The Tax Policy Center reports that middle-income families will pay $2,000 or more in taxes in 2013.

In addition to this, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that about 3.4 million people will lose their jobs. The Unemployment rate of 7.9 percent in October 2012 represents a significant improvement over the October 2009 rate of 10 percent. According to research millions of jobs would be lost after the fiscal cliff. This could result in an unemployment rate of up to 9.1 percent or more.

Some say there is a bright side. The cliff would be a long-term positive, they say. Everybody understands that at some point the U.S. government should deal with the deficit. But in what way and when are the questions. The policy of kicking the can down the road may no longer be effective or will at least become so in the near future. So will the short-term disaster be worth the possible benefits? The truth is, it’s hard to tell.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2022, the budget deficit would fall to $200 billion from $1.1 trillion now, in the fiscal cliff case scenario. But that is a pretty long shot and in order to get there, the economy would have to face certain financial difficulties.

The bottom line is the cliff will certainly result in the tax rate increases. But the problem is that increasing taxes won’t necessarily increase total tax revenue. The only right way to increase tax revenue is for the economy to recover.

So the bottom line may be that the fiscal cliff doesn’t matter that much any more. The U.S. may have passed the point of no return long ago.  For everyone with average income there is only one thing that can be suggested. Use everybody’s old favorite: cash, not credit. Congress will eventually have to learn this lesson also and finally cut back on a wasteful spending.

If you want to see what your tax life will look after the cliff you can try the links for experienced tax payers or those who want to get a simple answer.

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New York, U.S.A. — WAT-AAH!, a line of functional water for kids and teens, announces “Move Your Body 2013″  in celebration of the 3rd year anniversary of Let’s Move!. This year with the support of professional athletes and celebrities, thousands of children from over 600 schools across the United States will come together to move and dance in support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative to combat childhood obesity.

In 2011, WAT-AAH! joined NABEF, who teamed up with Beyonce as she debuted “Move Your Body” for the Let’s Move! Flash Workout event. The song and music video instructed a pre-choreographed dance routine re-recorded from her hit single “Get Me Bodied.” It was performed simultaneously by thousands of school children on May 3rd. The event gained global recognition as Beyonce surprised students at Harlem’s P.S.161 and First Lady Michelle Obama surprised students at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C. to participate in the initiative.

With the success of this initiative, in 2012, WAT-AAH! decided to continue to spread the message and spearheaded an even bigger event involving thousands of kids and NFL and NBA athletes with its nationwide “Move Your Body 2012″ event.

“The success of the last two years proved this event is not only worthwhile, but that it is also very meaningful to the children and to those involved,” says Rose Cameron, CEO and Founder of WAT-AAH! “As a brand and a company, we are more than thrilled to facilitate ‘Move Your Body 2013,’ providing the children a significant venue to stand up once again and support Let’s Move!, the fight for their health and their future,” she adds.

Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. The numbers are even higher in African American and Hispanic communities, where nearly 40% of the children are overweight or obese. Studies have shown that chronic obesity-related health problems can cause such diseases as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma among children.

This year, WAT-AAH! looks to encourage even more schools to take part in the campaign and spread the message of healthy hydration and physical activity to even more students. To resonate with kids and teens, WAT-AAH! uses fun and contemporary approaches in its initiatives, and believes that celebrities can play an important role. Some of its major partnerships have included young celebrities such as OMG Girlz, Diggy Simmons, Willow Smith, Nick Cannon, Ryan Beatty, Cody Simpson, along with NFL athletes such as Marques Colston of the New Orleans Saints and Pat Peterson of the Arizona Cardinals, who have come together to take a stand for kid’s health.

Image Courtesy : U.S. Army IMCOM

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Barack Obama won re-election, and America lost its future. Many would call that statement a sign of sour grapes the words of a poor loser. Yet, it is neither. It is the simple conclusion for anyone who has a calculator and has done the math. The national debt for the United States is 16 trillion dollars. That’s 101% of the Gross National Product. It would be like someone making $50,000 a year owing $5,000,000 dollars. Now that Obama has been reelected, the country is projected to reach 20 trillion in debt by the time he is out of office. The only thing that could change that path is if the President were willing to cut the spending spree, something he has shown he does not want to do.

Our debt is unsustainable at its current level. Now that we are guaranteed to have Obamacare written in stone and the two to three trillion dollars it will cost, by 2016 the country will be on a path that cannot be altered: insolvency. It is simple math. It has nothing to do with being a Republican or Democrat. Issues of racism or classicism makes no difference. It is zero’s and one’s. The income either adds up or it does not.

Greece is learning this lesson now. They spent too much on social programs, guaranteed state and country wide union wages, infrastructure built to provide “jobs” and higher taxes. The net result is a country that went running, hat in hand to the European countries for money to keep their country alive. The loans came with strings attached, as most loans do, and the string was a total restructuring of Greece’s spending. The result has been civil unrest, labor strikes, and riots. If you ask the rioters why they are doing these things, they will tell you because of the cuts to wages, and social programs. The very things that made them have to go begging for loans to stay afloat. It is like a person who buys the exotic sports car, and then gets mad at the person who comes to repossess the car, because they cannot make the car payment.

America is on that path, and has been for quite some time. Like the minor tremors that portent a large earthquake, little signs have been appearing: polls that show most people wanting those that make more than they to pay more in taxes, backlashes against any plan to slow down the spending and cost of medicare, men and women alike defending the idea that others have an obligation to pay for the birth control of women, support for fiscally dubious high speed rail projects across the country. Little by little, inch by inch, the mindset of the government spending the viewpoint of entitled thinking has been creeping into the psyche of the American populace.

Tonight’s election was the seismic event that was building. It signals that America has turned toward a social democracy like Europe. This has occurred not because of Barack Obama, but because people chose him. America’s populace chose tonight. They did not choose Romney because he was a bad candidate or ran a bad campaign. They chose Barack Obama, because they want the freebies, and they want someone else to pay for it. There are more people that embrace class warfare, than shun it. The days when President Kennedy said, “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” is dead and gone.

We want the healthcare, we want the free birth control; we want the government to take care of us. The only problem is we cannot afford to do it. We cannot do it at 16 trillion in debt, and moving to 20 trillion in debt will not make things better. More debt never does.

American lost tonight, make no mistake about it. America died tonight. What the country that now occupies its space on this planet ends as is pretty clear. We become Greece on steroids, and the collapse will be televised.

Image Courtesy : WCHI News

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This is the question the Republican Party has been waiting to ask for four years as part of its strategy to undermine President Obama and his reelection. It began as a group of sore losers after the 2008 election, and ever since there has been every attempt to prevent President Obama’s success. Congress has behaved like a bunch of two-year-olds having an ongoing temper tantrum, screaming, “no, no, no” to everything the President has put forth to solve our nation’s problems. We must send a clear message to Congress and the Republican Party, that obstructive government is no government at all and tell them, emphatically, that we will not have it.

Has President Obama failed you? I think not. He inherited a huge national debt, two wars, massive Wall Street and corporate corruption, wide-scale unemployment, a severely depressed housing market amid mounting foreclosures, a dying American automobile industry, uncontrolled health care costs with the burden of care for the uninsured, plus an era of baby boomers reaching retirement age and straining the already stressed Social Security and Medicare systems.

No, he hasn’t done it all in four years. How could anyone? He said in his 2008 campaign “We can do it,” not “I can do it,” and it will take all of us to do our part. Have you done yours? Vote! Don’t let Big Money buy us, or their lies sway us, or allow them to get away with suppressing votes. Tell the Republicans we have had enough of their BS!

What President Obama has done is miraculous. Thanks to the Affordable Health Care Act, I, as an RN, can get back to caring for patients instead of charge slips and insurance companies.

Osama Bin Laden is dead. The war in Iraq has ended. Our soldiers are pulling out of Afghanistan. If your soldier came home alive, you no doubt know that you are better off.

Thanks to President Obama the auto industry is alive and well. The stimulus has kept capitalism alive. Unemployed workers got extended unemployment benefits. Programs were developed to prevent foreclosures and offer down payment assistance to make homes affordable to those in need and to stimulate the plummeting housing market.

President Obama is fighting to save Medicare and Social Security so our retirement money and care do not become resources for private investors to risk. Thousands of undocumented students will benefit from the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. He is committed to protecting the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for all of our people, not just the top 2 percent.

Voters I ask you: Who would Martin Luther King Jr., Caesar Chavez, Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt vote for? Would they let anyone take their vote away? Go to the polls.

Save yourself. Save your country. Save us all. Vote Barack Obama!

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Within the last few months, people everywhere have been fixating on certain aspects of each candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Many will say, “How can you support that candidate? They did this or they support this!” However, the sad fact is that both candidates have several strong reasons why they should not be president. Here is a condensed version of the considerable list for each candidate, the “top five” reasons why neither candidate is ideal to even step foot into the White House.

Five Reasons Not to Vote for Barack Obama

1) “The president said he’d cut the deficit in half,” Romney said. “Unfortunately, he doubled it — trillion-dollar deficits for the last four years. The president has put in place almost as much debt held by the public as all presidents combined.”

2) Borrowing money from China is forcing America even more in debt and making China that much more powerful.

3) He makes excuses for his shortcomings, perhaps his most prominent being that Bush left this country so far in debt and destruction, so Obama has not been able to make many changes. It is clearly Bush’s fault, even though Obama knew the challenges when he campaigned for president.

4) Other than enacting Obamacare, he has done nothing he has promised within the last four years…but that is Bush’s fault, right?

5) Many connect Obama’s views and policies to socialism and communism.

Five Reasons Not to Vote for Mitt Romney

1) Romney has promised to immediately take away federal funding for Planned Parenthood, ultimately taking away vital resources to women.

2) Since Romney grew up wealthy, he will make changes to support the rich. What will happen to the middle class?

3) According to “I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists,” 203 Republicans voted to make abortion illegal for rape victims in July 2012. As a Republican, Romney punishes the victims of rape.

4) Romney has Mormon beliefs that heavily influence his policies and treatment of women.

5) He is not for gay marriage and gay rights like Obama.

These are some of the main reasons people are totally against one candidate, but what people forget or disregard is the fact that the candidate they support is not perfect. Both candidates have clear flaws and compelling reasons they should or should not be president. As voters, we should be well aware of both candidates’ flaws so we can make more of an educated, informed choice.

Image Courtesy : Center for American Progress Action Fund from Washington, DC (Barack Obama at Las Vegas Presidential Forum) [CC-BY-SA-2.0

], via Wikimedia Commons

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New York, U.S.A. — NewsOne.com, an urban digital media company, Interactive One’s African-American news website, published on October 23, an exclusive op-Ed penned by First Lady Michelle Obama that speaks directly to the country’s nearly 39 million Black Americans. The op-Ed addresses the importance of every vote in this November’s presidential election and Mrs. Obama encourages those who can, to vote early this year for her husband President Barack Obama.

“Now that so many states have early vote—including Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida, New Mexico, and Iowa—we can make our voices heard well before Election Day,” explains First Lady Michelle Obama. “So, if you live in a state with early voting, pledge to cast your ballot early—and then reach out to everyone you know and make sure they vote by November 6, too.”

Before reminding voters of the close results of the 2008 presidential election, the first lady recalls the long strides previous generations made to ensure the civil liberties all Americans enjoy today. She makes clear, however, that it “doesn’t mean our work is finished.” Mrs. Obama states, “Make no mistake, here in our time, it’s more important than ever that we show up to vote, not just this year, but every year and in every election. Every voice must be heard and every vote must be counted.”

Mrs. Obama’s op-Ed comes on the heels of an exclusive story published by NewsOne on October 11 where the first lady addressed issues affecting Black female voters. In the story she discusses President Obama’s latest debate performance, what’s at stake in this year’s presidential election, and whether the president has the support of Black women.

“NewsOne.com is the definitive source for news most relevant to the African-American community and our recent exclusives with First Lady Michelle Obama demonstrate that fact,” said Tom Newman, President, Interactive One. “The importance of Mrs. Obama’s message cannot be overstated. All of us at Interactive One eagerly encourage our readers to make their voices heard by voting and encouraging others to vote in next month’s election.”

To read First Lady Michelle Obama’s op-Ed, and for more information about NewsOne.com, visit their website.

Image Courtesy of Joyce N. Boghosian, White House photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Few individuals possess more knowledge of the U.S. presidency and the people who comprise it than noted historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin.  In sharing this knowledge with a packed audience at the UNF arena on October 17 at 7:30 p.m., she admitted with a chuckle that this knowledge may come back to haunt her.

“When I am dead, I fear that I may be confronted by all the presidents that I have studied, and they may all tell me that I said something wrong,” she said, to laughter from the audience.

Throughout the lecture, titled “Former U.S. Presidents and their Mark on the World,” Goodwin had nothing to fear from the audience, as they attentively listened to her personal experiences with noted former U.S. presidents, explaining the time that she spent with noted figures such as Lyndon Baines Johnson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

She started her speech by reminiscing about her time spent with LBJ, noting that he found her particularly interesting due to her “willingness to listen to his tall tales.” She then recalled a particularly humorous moment when he arranged to spend some private time with her at a lake. Here, he even provided wine and cheese, romantic trappings that initially led Goodwin to think that LBJ had other thoughts on his mind.

Those thoughts were immediately set aside once LBJ spoke to Goodwin.

“Doris, more than any other women I have ever met, you remind me of my mother,” recalled Kearns, to laughter from the audience.

That unusual moment aside, Goodwin expressed fondness for the time that she spent working under then-president Lyndon Baines Johnson.

“The older I have gotten, the more I realize what an incredible privilege it was to have spent so many hours with this aging lion of a man,” she said with pride, while also recalling some of his key legislative accomplishments, which included three great civil rights laws, as well as Medicare and aid to education.

“He opened up to me in ways that he never would have, had I known him at the height of his power,” she added.

Goodwin then pointed out to the audience that her experiences with LBJ inspired her to understand the person behind the presidency. This drive would lead her to learn about other presidents, and she focused throughout the event on Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, men that she praised for their leadership abilities during crisis periods in American history.

Goodwin noted that a key aspect of leadership is being able to motivate yourself in the face of frustration and being able to withstand adversity.

“The world breaks everyone, but afterward, many are strong in the broken places,” she said, quoting Ernest Hemmingway.

Referencing Abraham Lincoln, she praised his early love of learning and desire to read, qualities regarded as anathema in a time that emphasized physical labor and regarded such pursuits as laziness. Despite this, he loved reading and saw literature as an escape from the daily struggles of his life.

These struggles included him losing those closest to him, including his mom and first love; his mother’s final words simply emphasized that should would never return to him once she closed her eyes. It was this realization, Goodwin noted, that allowed Lincoln to realize that once a person’s life is finite and will mean nothing once they leave the earth. However, as he grew older, he tempered this thought to where he believed that if you could accomplish something greater, people would remember you for it.

This latter thought was the rationale that Lincoln took as he pursued public office; he simply wanted to leave the world in a better place than the way he found it.

When she referenced Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she spoke about the challenges he faced when dealing with polio, the fallout that reduced him to being a paraplegic.

“The paralysis crippled his body but expanded his mind and capabilities,” she noted.

This expansion, Goodwin noted, would allow him to better relate with others and empathize with their struggles.

“FDR now reached out to know people, to pick up their emotions, to put himself in their shoes. No longer belonging to his old world in the same way, he came to empathize with the poor and underprivileged, people to whom fate had also dealt an unkind hand,” she said.

These challenging times, Goodwin pointed out, helped in shaping the characters of both Lincoln and FDR and greatly influenced their leadership methods going forward.

Continuing this character study on these two former presidents, Goodwin also praised their emotional intelligence of both men, a trait that allowed them to set aside grudges and show willingness to accept praise and criticism with equal measure, as well as credit others even if the situation did not warrant it.

Goodwin noted that Lincoln always found a way to praise his Cabinet members, even if they did not always deserve any credit for their work.  This was also true for members of FDR’s cabinet as well; in fact, she noted how Francis Perkins, FDR’s Labor Secretary, praised him for renewed confidence after entering the meeting feeling overwhelmed about the responsibilities of her position.

As the event continued, she continued to praise the actions and exploits of these two individuals, before taking the time to answer questions about the event. In speaking with the audience, she expressed her interest in learning about the trials of Theodore Roosevelt, observing how many of the concerns that were a part of his era, such as workers’ rights and anti-trust suits, are now commonplace in our time as well.

As she concluded her speech, she emphasized the nobility of politics and that it is still a worthwhile endeavor, despite the polarization that is present in our current society.

“Politics is still an honorable vocation; as tough and rough as it may seem right now, I still think that there is nothing like it out there. The feeling that you have made people’s lives better and the curiosity of meeting so many people is unmatched,” she said.

Image Courtesy of  americanlibraries

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As the US election for president draws closer, dirtier the debates become. This does not only extend to President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, but to the voters themselves. Since this election is so important to the United States, people who have not previously paid much attention to politics–myself included–have been roped into the huge battle for control. The battle has now been dragged into cyberspace.

Facebook has exploded with status and picture updates about the election and who individuals support, which creates tension among friends who are supporting different candidates. I know some of my friends are hardly talking to one another strictly because of fights they have had about politics.

My family and I have an agreement to not discuss politics because we support opposing candidates, and the fights would always turn ugly when the subject came up. However, the rest of the country is letting everyone know their position for the election; political conventions and rallies are happening left and right because everyone wants to get support for their candidate. In other elections, people were not as passionate about who they planned on voting for.

Sure, the election campaigns were aired on TV and everyone was subjected to the annoying phone calls sponsoring a candidate, but friends and families were not torn apart because of politics. Meanwhile, both candidates are trying to make themselves look as saintly as possible while simultaneously trying to make their opponent seem like the anti-Christ. The presidential debates have been the most public display of this goal. The debates have caused a huge stir with voters with trying to determine who “won” the debate.

Romney had better stage presence while Obama looked like he did not want to be there. Obama kept trying to play off of Bill Clinton and emphasizing how horrible George W. Bush was while not taking ownership of any of his own shortcomings. During Obama’s reign, the country’s deficit tripled and he added more debt than any other president combined.  But none of this is his fault, only Bush’s. Obama kept twisting Romney’s plan for taxes, which Romney defended and said that Obama was purposely misleading the public.

Romney continually challenged Obama, who never really defended himself fully. Since the debates, others have tried to make excuses as to why Obama did not seem to be present and involved. However, all the debates have done is created more of a gray area while the public decides which candidate is the biggest liar.

With the debates over, political commercials are always on TV. It has gotten to the point that I refuse to watch any TV until after the election craziness is over. Neither candidate is perfect, and it gets to be very depressing watching Romney have commercials saying how horrible President Obama is while Obama projects the opposite sentiment.

The election is a month away, and it is sure to get much worse before the ballots are collected and tallied. November is guaranteed to be a political bloodbath.   Image Courtesy of   new-york-city

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Towson, U.S.A. — Exis Interactive, a Maryland based game development company has released “Execuforce” a satirical 3d game for campaign and charity fundraising. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Obama presidential campaign and the wounded warrior project.

This is the first game to be used for campaign financing, and provides a new way to reach and engage the 18-35 year old audience. People who buy the game not only donate to these worthy causes, but they also get a great experience while learning about the candidates in the game itself.

This game is another example of how American companies are innovating, bringing disparate elements together to form something new and imaginative. Working tirelessly to push boundaries and find new ways to communicate with one another and the world. Games are great tools for dissemination of information, and a powerful medium for mobilization; They’ve never been used in this fashion before, and this project represents a shift in the use of new media to spread a message.

Players can take the role of Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan in a fantastical journey that pits the leaders of the free world against evil alien forces bent on enslaving mankind. The game allows players from all over the United States to play together in an online cooperative mode and help save the game world. In the real world though, these players have a direct impact by helping the campaign and our troops.

Campaign and Charity Supporters can buy the game at http://www.ExisInteractive.com/Execuforce/.

“This is a last minute fundraising effort to benefit the Obama campaign, and to directly aid the wounded soldiers who have given so much for this country. We think it’s important for everyone participate in our democratic process, and hope that Execuforce can help inform and entertain; all while getting critically needed funds to the campaign and our wounded warriors. Games are the most engaging way to interact with your audience and spread your message. Execuforce is the first game to directly aid campaigns via fundraising and we hope that other people interested in helping these causes will champion this project. We’re a small four man team and we want to help combat the onslaught of corporate money flooding the system. “ – Peter Kojesta, Founder of Exis.

Exis is an Indie game development studio founded in 2003 and creates AAA products for partner studios and publishers. The company is located in Towson, Maryland, directly across the street from Towson University.

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What will America look like in 2016? Dinesh D’Souza, a former American Enterprise Fellow and noted author, ventures to answer this question through thorough inspection of our past, present and possible future under President Barack H. Obama. The results of his findings are documented in his film “2016: Obama’s America,” a film based on his noted text “The Roots of Obama’s Rage.”

Throughout the film, D’Souza attempts to trace the President’s early history aiming to arrive at a definitive conclusion explaining the rationale for his actions. Citing frequently from the president’s book titled “Dreams from my Father,” D’Souza ultimately concludes through a combination of detailed interviews  and reflective treks around the world that President Obama’s ‘anticolonial viewpoints’ serve as the basis for his domestic and international agenda.

However, while these viewpoints serve as the rationale for D’Souza to undergo his journey, do his motives prove worthwhile viewing for the film’s 1 hour+ running time?

The answer to that question largely depends on your opinions surrounding the president and his actions during his administration. Those skeptical of his methods during his period in office will appreciate the time that he spends detailing the president’s origins, and will appreciate the film’s early minutes where he spends time detailing President Obama’s roots, all while making surprising connections to his own period of growing up.

In some ways, apparently, President Obama and Dinesh D’Souza are not so different after all.

Republicans, and those with conservative leanings, will undoubtedly enjoy and appreciate this film, especially considering the strong early success and the fair amount of money that it has made since its release. They will likely smile and nod at the time spent detailing the president’s past associations with figures such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Edward Said. In addition, they will likely appreciate his statements ridiculing the president’s attempts to ‘equalize’ America with the rest of the world and affirm his contention that this action will cause the U.S. to lose its place as a premiere superpower.

To support these claims, D’Souza details a speech President Obama made to reduce America’s nuclear arsenal; to him, this action represents a grave misstep considering that other nations are conversely increasing their nuclear strength. D’Souza also mentions the current president’s appeared reticence in dealing with Iran as well as his decision to halt the Keystone Pipeline and siding with Palestine over Israel. In addition, D’Souza obtains secondary voices that echo his concerns, such as Paul Vitz, a NYU psychology professor and Daniel Pipes, a founder of the Middle Eastern Forum.

As for those individuals who are center or left-of-center, their mileage with D’Souza’s project may vary; although it is praiseworthy that the filmmaker spent a great deal of time and effort making this project a reality, he must also be expected to present a balanced viewpoint. It becomes clear early on that D’Souza’s only intention with this production is to tell the story that will buttress his viewpoint rather than a story that will prove factually accurate.

This is especially true during his exchange with George Obama, the president’s half-brother. D’Souza repeatedly stresses President Obama’s failure to help him as an example that he is not “looking out for his brother’s keeper.” This example, he hopes, will paint President Obama as an individual who does not keep his promises.

Interestingly, George douses D’Souza’s plans with cold water, simply responding that Barack’s responsibility is now to the world, and by looking out for that world, he is taking care of him as well.

D’Souza’s central aim to tell only ‘his’ story and not a balanced tale is even more apparent once individuals apply their own outside knowledge to his assertions; in fact, many have fact-checked the claims that he makes and have found that not every statement made in the movie holds water.

That aside, the film’s attempts to build any goodwill are promptly swept through its ignorance of any meaningful background behind President Obama’s actions. After all, it is far easier to criticize the president for wanting to reduce nuclear weapons than it is to actually look back and remember that former President Ronald Regan wanted to achieve the same objective.

In addition, the film also includes a section where the president is having trouble speaking at a rally explaining his new healthcare legislation, while ignoring the hecklers who are making it difficult for him to speak. Lastly, D’Souza opines that Obama is sympathetic to radicals, an action that Osama Bin Laden would strongly disagree with.

When you put all the pieces together, you have a project that will please conservatives, anger liberals, and cause those in the center to ask questions. The casual moviegoer will likely appreciate the extended detail that D’Souza dedicates towards explaining the President’s life, but they may also express confusion at the noted author’s interpretation of the facts. These same individuals should still take the time to see this film, if only to hear a contrasting viewpoint of the President’s life and beliefs.

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The big issues of the coming campaign are not in question. The economy, America’s growing debt, unemployment, and the role of entitlements (read: government) in Americans lives are crux of the 2012 battle for the White House. Highlighting the negative results in these areas is Mitt Romney, best hand for winning the election.

Nonetheless, foreign policy issues and threats are looming above America’s head in a big way, and will need to be addressed. The conventional wisdom is that Romney has little foreign policy and relations experience. President Obama’s own lack of experience in this area notwithstanding, his campaign zeroed in on this one reason that Romney is not the right man for job.

Governor and Romney advisor Tim Pawlenty addressed this viewpoint and other foreign policy concerns today in a symposium held by the Foreign Policy Initiative. Moderated by board member and Fox news analyst Bill Kristal, the event gave Pawlenty a forum to address how a Romney Presidency would look like in the area of foreign relations. The big take away from the event was Pawlenty’s view that Romney is on the right track.

“Romney has the right foundational and directional philosophy to make the correct decisions.” Pawlenty followed this up by reminding everyone in attendance that Reagan did not have extensive foreign policy experience. His worldview is what allowed him to be an effective foreign policy President.

Channeling Reagan is something that most, if not all, republicans attempt to do. It does not matter whether it is taxes, the economy, or dealing with America’s challenges abroad. Still, there is a large grain of truth to his statement. Governors of either party seldom have extensive foreign policy and relations experience. Their duties at times lightly touch the area, but their primary function is running their states. The lack of experience has to be made up with study and experienced, sound advisors.

Underlying it all, however, is the philosophy of the person in charge. The President can have a mindset like Carter or Winston Churchill. How he views Americas role and his mindset sets the agenda for who he has as advisers, what diplomacy targets he set, and what he will do and not do with America’s armed forces.

Pawlenty was critical of the philosophy President Obama has taken. “President Obama has decided to lead from behind. To have America take a less active role as leader in the world. That has not worked out well.” Examples given of this view were the “reset with Russia,” as the President calls it, and the missed opportunity in the Iranian uprising.

The financial challenges the country faces are grave, but the potential threats of Iran, Russia, and China are like a Damocles sword above the neck of Uncle Sam. Romney cannot afford to let the view of the President set America’s view of him in this area. The knowledge and philosophy that Pawlenty speaks of must be in full view to the American public. Foreign policy may not be issue one this election cycle, but it still cannot be allowed to be ignored.

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Thursday night, the Republican Convention culminated with the much anticipated acceptance speech of Mitt Romney. His speech will be dissected backwards and forwards. The plan he laid out will be analyzed and fact checked. The attacks on the President will be evaluated for their impact and truth. All of these items will happen over the course of the next week. But the thing many will be talking about more is the speech made by American Icon Clint Eastwood.

In a surprise visit, Eastwood stepped to the stage to a rousing standing ovation. What followed was an explosion of real time panning and praise across the social media universe. Traditional media and pundits soon followed suit after Romney completed his speech. If you are a Conservative partisan, then you found the speech funny, and a breath of fresh air from a Hollywood actor. Liberals and Obama supporters found it offensive, and rambling. The truth is somewhere in between.

In deference to the Eastwood here is the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (in reverse).

The Ugly

All actors share one trait that is maddening to groups that have them speak or support their causes: they cannot be controlled. Eastwood was scheduled for a five minute, scripted speech. He went over time and off script. He added an off color joke about an imaginary President Obama telling him (Eastwood) to tell Romney to “go do something he can’t do to himself.” The remark was NOT appreciated by the Romney camp. We are, after all, talking about a Presidential candidate for whom saying the word “hell” is noteworthy. It is not something that anyone would have signed off on. But what is there to do, walk him off the stage like they do at the Oscars? Once Eastwood is on stage, you just have to accept whatever happens next.

There is wide acceptance among the political class that President Obama has a disdain for Romney. There is little doubt, however, that he would not actually ask Romney a question or make a comment about Romney in that manner. He is not Rahm Emmanuel, after all.

The Bad

The schtick Eastwood used regarding interviewing the President, but having an empty seat, has been mocked across Hollywood. Roger Ebert remarked, “Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic.” Fellow film critic Richard Roeper tweeted, “Clint has now eclipsed the total word count of his last three films.” Star Jones had this too say, ”I can’t believe I just watched Clint Eastwood turn into somebody’s DRUNK UNCLE HARRY on the stage of the GOP RNC. He humiliated himself.”

What is interesting here is that even the film critics do not have a sense of entertainment history. The empty chair technique is an old comedic routine. Clint was around when it was used, but his age may have something to do why he performed it so haltingly. It did not translate, and probably would not have if he had delivered it in a smooth manner.

At 82, there is a legitimate question as to whether Eastwood is mentally agile enough for what he was attempting. As it turned out, all it did was take attention from Romney’s speech. It won’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but in a campaign where the President is searching for distractions, no one on the conservative side should be providing them. 

The Good

Lost in the reaction to the off-color jokes, and a comedic routine that failed because of how it was delivered, is the substance of what Eastwood said.

Liberals are quick to ignore this, because in their world you do not criticize Democrats, and not this President. It is disrespectful, it is wrong, and to many it is racist. It is not surprising they ignore the numerous jokes and just plain nasty remarks (Bill Maher) made toward republicans.

To them it is fair game: it is just jokes, it is free speech. In reality it is evidence of how thin skinned liberals really are. When they make fun of you, you should be able to take a joke. Make fun of them, and you’re crazy, kookie, or a bad person.

Clint made the very real analogy that when you have someone that is not doing the job, you have to let them go. You just do not tell Obama he should be fired or replaced in the liberal world. It is nuts to point out that he, and all politicians work for us. It is just not done to point out the pain of 23 million people out of work.

On substance Eastwood was as on target as any of the gun toting heroes he played in those old spaghetti westerns.  

Image Courtesy of  Randy Miramontez / Shutterstock.com

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On the day that Paul Ryan was to give his acceptance speech for the nomination of Vice-President, Ryan knew he had to bring it. Not just because needed to excite the base. Nor was it because he needed to set the narrative in a way that combated the attacks he has already received since Mitt Romney selected him as his running mate. No, he needed to hit it out the park, because a day and half of the same message from different people had grown, if not tedious, certainly stale.

We Built It and We Can Do better may be the rallying cry, but it needed to be told in a fresh way something fierce. If there were any worries about Ryan’s ability to get the job done, they were unfounded.

Simply put, Ryan knocked the ball out of the park.

In a speech that interwove his personal story and beliefs with the plans of a Romney-Ryan ticket, Ryan effectively made the case for the plans and policies they are fighting to implement. Many have commented on Ryan’s likeability and personable manner. Both traits came through in both tone and demeanor. Stories about his family and calling his mother, “his role model” are flatly stock in trade items in politics, but there was an earnestness that permeated through Ryan. He is not just saying these things, they are true for him. This will go a long way for him in the campaign, and made the strong medicine he threw at Obama non offensive.

In a speech that had plenty of zingers in it, Ryan nonetheless never made the attacks personal. They were, in fact, not attacks, so much as critiques. What was different in his speech, in contrast to the attacks thus far from President Obama, is that Ryan focused on the results of the last three years. He zeroed in on facts, and figures, but personalized their consequences.

He made it personal as he talked about the GM factory in his hometown of Jamesville, Wisconsin, the people that he knew who used to work there, and the Obama administrations broken promise to keep it open. This was in contrast to the half a billion the President used in Solyndra. 

Ryan is known as a policy guy. For him its about the numbers, the policy and the results that follow. Ryan, however, was able to explain, keep the speech flowing, serve red meat, and do it with in a humorous way. His best zinger perhaps being the vivid image he conjured with this line: “Americans in their 20′s should not have to move home with their parents house, living in their old rooms, looking up at fading Obama posters and waiting for life to begin.”

A comment meant to target younger voters, but still managed to convey an important message to adults as well. Its a tactic that he used more than once. Throw a funny zinger like, “The President has said he has not communicated enough. That is his job to tell a story. In the last four years we have not suffered from a lack of words from the White House. What we are missing is leadership in the white house.”

Never in the speech did it become about Obama personally or about ideology. Just the results and what needs to be done to get better results. This is why the speech was a home run. Not because he could get applause lines, or get a standing ovation from the people in attendance. They are all going vote for Romney and him anyway. No the brilliance was delivering a speech that moderates, independents, and apathetic voters can understand. The message came through because it was a truthful one delivered at partisan event that did not sound at all partisan. Not in tone. And that is what Romney will need from Ryan during the campaign.

Image Courtesy of  PBS News Hour

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There were no surprises and the Republicans pulled no punches in their opening night speeches, Tuesday night. The afternoon speakers may have drawn a line in the sand with the mantra of “We Did Build It,” chastising the President on spending, and attacking Obamacare, but the presentation in prime time colored that line bright yellow and made it glow in the dark.

Never in the modern era has there been such a stark difference between both the parties and their plans. The Democrats have not only doubled down on policies and rhetoric attacking the wealthy and successful, but their convention speakers feature Sandra Fluke, and a slate of liberal woman’s rights advocates. Fluke will be the talking poster girl for free birth control and a woman’s right.

Tuesday night the republicans took a battering ram to that poster with a night interwoven with political stars, and videos from small business owners of company’s like Sollman Electric Co. and Kimmie Candy to make their case clear.

In the 2008 campaign Obama’s off the cuff remark to Joseph Wurzelbache “lets spread the wealth,” became an instant line of attack for John McCain and made “Joe the Plumber” a house hold name. It did not, however, provide a lightening bolt of anger toward the president beyond conservative circles. The offensive nature of the statement motivated conservatives, but did not ignite within independents or moderate democrats.

“You didn’t build it,” is this years’ bad off-the-cuff comment by the President, and has ignited a big firestorm of opposition. Romney, like McCain before him, has jumped on the comment. Further, the RNC and Romney campaign are betting it will resonate further than the “Spread the wealth” comment; enough to make it the center of the convention speeches. Still, there is a question if this theme will have legs beyond the convention. The view that a person is not responsible for their success, but government is a large part of it, rankles the hairs of a lot of people. However, this election does not hinge on that notion. It hinges on the economy, jobs, the debt, and the President’s failure to fix any of those problems. The largest bat to swing is the stark reality that things are worse in those areas than when the President took office three years ago.

Governors John Kasich and Mary Fallin of Oklahoma were the best warm up speakers for the anticipated Ann Romney and Chris Christie speeches, and clearly articulated the vision the republicans believe is best for America. Kasich’s message was powerful because it showcased the results he has facing the fiscal problems of Ohio. He focused on the results in contrast to Obama. Fallin, followed a short time later further explaining the work involved in the business her and her husband started, and the results of fiscal logic in her state.

Congressional Candidate for Utah, Mia Love was inspiring, but had too short of a speech. Perhaps this was due to the changing schedule, but this was a mistake by convention organizers. Love is a Tea Party favorite. She is another example that belies the accusations from Democrats that the republican Party is against minorities. Her intelligence and poise make it clear she is no token. Judging by the round of applause she received the attendees at the convention felt that same.

Rick Santorum and Chris Christie were both expected to produce fireworks, but both stayed in their lanes. Santorum gave a typical social conservative message, but did not step on anyone’s toes. Christie followed the example of Kasick and spoke at length about telling the truth to the American politic, and focusing on solving problems, not winning elections. Christie is at his best in a debate or press conference, but it is clear that he held back.

Arthur Davis, perhaps fired the most direct shots at President Obama. A black male who voted and supported Obama in 2008, he has disavowed the Democrats, and switched parties. He went after the President, going so far as to steal his 2008 chat, “yes we can” with a spin on controlling debt, creating jobs, and supporting business owners.

The jewels of the night were of course Nikki Haley, and Ann Romney. Haley spoke at length about the 30 year journey her family made to create a successful business. She detailed how “They Built It,” and the lessons learned from watching her parents. More powerful was her description of the fight she had with the Obama administration and the National Labor Relations Board regarding Boeing opening a plant in South Carolina. As a right to work state, South Carolina is not a favorite place of unions. Haley’s description of how, no union jobs were being lost due to the plant, but Obama’s fight to block was an effective illustration of how the President has harmed the growth of jobs.

Ann Romney roll was clear, to humanize and personalize her husband. It’s a role that First Ladies and potential First Ladies all share; make their husbands seem like regular guys. What Ann did however was begin a narrative that explains the true path her husband took to his business success. Her description of their marriage beginning in a $75 a month, basement apartment is one that all Americans can relate too, and have not heard from Romney himself.

This will need to change. Few Americans can relate to someone with 240 million dollars, but all Americans love a person that starts from nothing and makes that kind of money. Romney will need to talk about his beginnings, and his wife seems to be the best person to bring this part of her husband alive. It is difficult for most people to dismiss a wife that recounts the struggles and work she saw and experienced first hand.

Image Courtesy of  PBS News Hour

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The big night is here. Mitt Romney takes to the stage at 11pm to accept the Republican Presidential Nomination and deliver the biggest speech of his life. It has been a long road for Romney. He has never been fully embraced by the party base, and there is still speculation by many on whether he will be tonight or on election day.

One of the things he will have to deal with in this election, which may appear small but is part of the larger narrative is the liberals that try to paint conservatives as a racist party. There have been more than a few stories from the liberal networks about the number of blacks at the national convention. Even though the Republican National Convention had several African-American speakers the story is that no blacks are here. The truth is that there are plenty, and they all have to deal with the question of how they can support Romney.

If you were to put aside the difference in success for blacks under Democrats versus Republicans and just focus on Mitt Romney, here is what we find: Romney’s life has been one of competency. It is a life filled with success at running things. He has turned around companies. He ran the Winter Olympics, a job offered to him because of his turnaround experience, and saved them. He has been Governor of Massachusetts and done a good job. He did not get everything he wanted, but he did leave the state of Massachusetts with a rainy day fund, something the federal government could use right now.

What do we have on the other side?

President Obama’s life is a life of personal success. He went to a good school. He went to an excellent graduate school. He managed to get elected to public office, and managed to get elected President of the United States. All of that is nice personally. But where is the record of success running things?

He has never run a business or worked in one, nor has he run a city or state. Since he never has run anything, we are left with what he has done thus far. I do not find that record a strong one. Unemployment is 8.3% – 15% in black communities – and has been as high as 10%. He promised to lower the deficit, but increased it. He did not lower the debt, he spent more than any President before. Has that spending lead to a robust economy? No. He bailed out GM, which went bankrupt anyway, and still owes the country billions.

The only thing he can really point to is a healthcare plan that is still unconstitutional—the Supreme Court notwithstanding– and will break the financial back of the country. He can point to foreign policy when it comes to Bin Laden and drone attacks, but many will argue that all of that is on the back of President Bush.

Yet, African-Americans are supposed to support him. Worst, if you support Romney, then somehow you are a racist if you are white, and self-hating if you are black.

Both are wrong. What matters in life is success. What matters is doing something and it working. Not how you feel about it, not how it sounds, and not something that is said by a black man. If a black man is in charge, and he screws up, how does that help anyone, black or white? If a white man is in charge and screws up, how does that help anyone, black or white? It does not. You need to be competent at what you are doing. You need someone in charge that can do the job.

Here is a thought. Ask any black democrat this question: “If you are a manager for a company, would you hire someone that was incompetent? Would you keep someone in a job they were failing at just because they were black?”

The answer would be no. So the real question is, why is that acceptable for the most important job in the country?

Image Courtesy of   NewsHour

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The big gun of Republican party, Chris Christie, may have been scheduled for 10:30 the first night of the convention, but that did not stop the day’s first speakers from starting the fire fight early. Congressional candidates from across the country took to the stage and laid down the foundation for this season’s election campaign.

Each speaker incorporated the basic tenets of the conservative movement; smaller government, low taxes, and protection of life, all consistent themes in the conservative movement. Nothing new there. The real shots were measured in words about the results President Obama has gotten in the last three years. Congressional candidate John Archer of Iowa summed up the theme best,

“We’ve had three years of hope and change. Where has it gotten us?”

The strategy is clear, hammer away at the economic results the President has in his first term. President Obama’s record was target rich environment that each speaker took advantage to full effect. With two debt clocks clicking away overhead, each speaker made the case against the spending that has occurred under the President. Each ridiculed the idea of government creating success with a money giveaway. The consistent applause line was any statement proclaiming that, in fact, business owners did build their success, not government.

The die has has been cast and all republicans, at all levels will make this about the Obama record, unemployment, fighting tax hikes, and repealing Obamacare. The themes of the Romney campaign, “We Built It,” and “We Can Do Better,” are not just displayed in large placards around the hall, but found their way into each speech. Congressman, Tim Scott, summed up the feeling in the room succinctly by singing out, “Hit the road jack, and don’t you come back, no more, no more, no more.”

At the end of his rendition the crowd exploded in applause.

Convention speeches, especially the early afternoon ones, are staged affairs with every candidate attempting to get their 15 minutes of time. Circulated talking and speech points are passed and shared like candy bar freebies. No matter what the primary was like, everyone supports (in their speeches) the presumptive nominee. This true of all political conventions. The Republican convention is no different in that way, but there is a difference this year. There is a palpable air of urgency in each candidate.

This is expressed in the believe that the fiscal cliff the country is heading for could remake the country in a way the founders never wanted, envisioned, or would have agreed too. This is the election that could determine the future for not just the next decade, but for a generation. It is not just empty speeches, there is belief and fear as well. Stronger than either was a determination in each speaker’s voice that they were committed to winning the election and supporting Mitt Romney.

And this was just the warm up acts. The main act tonight of Ann Romney and Chris Christie will truly set this convention off.

Image Courtesy of  NewsHour

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Denver, U.S.A. — “Mitt Romney is the architect of Obamacare,” said Jefferson George, president of the conservative tax-exempt group American Right To Life Action. “Romney has already implemented what Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton only dream of: homosexual marriage, tax-funded abortion on demand by health care reform with the individual mandate, robbing religious freedom from pro-life hospitals. The list is long. If anyone believed the ‘lesser of two evils’ con, they’d have to vote for Obama.”

“Strategists say that independents decide elections,” said Darrell Birkey, the ARTL research director overseeing the new RepublicansAgainstRomney.com website. “So the only way for pro-lifers to get candidates who won’t kill unborn children is to become independent enough to oppose liberal, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual politicians like Mitt Romney.”

Agreeing with ARTL is the longtime vice president of the nation’s first “right to life” group, Colorado Right To Life. “The Republicans Against Romney site documents that the excuses the campaign makes for Mitt’s anti-child, anti-free-market, anti-family actions are nothing but lies,” said Leslie Hanks. “Sadly, conservative talk show hosts lap it up and repeat the lies. This website even offers a$100 reward for corrections to errors of fact.”

According to the site, Romneycare is fundamentally a liberal, socialist program with its individual mandate that saps the federal treasury. Romney’s top consultants aided the development of Obamacare and put Planned Parenthood on the “health” committee that, from day one, offered $50 tax-subsidized abortion on demand. And still today Romney plans to nominate justices “like John Roberts,” who upheld Obamacare.

RepublicansAgainstRomney.com documents that Mitt Romney claimed to be pro-choice in 1994, pro-life in 2001, pro-choice in 2002, pro-life in 2004, pro-choice in 2005, pro-life in 2006 and then funded abortion in 2006. In 2012, he’s back to supporting abortion for “health reasons,” the loophole opened by the Supreme Court’s Doe v. Bolton opinion that allows all abortions, as in Colorado for example, throughout all nine months.

“And ironically,” adds Birkey, “the ’legitimate’ rape issue is Romney policy, not a Todd Akin policy. The congressman advocates protecting every child, but it’s Romney’s rape exception that requires determining whether or not there was a rape.”

Image Courtesy of   Gage Skidmore

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Lost in the backdrop of most Presidential Conventions is the reality that more than just nominating a candidate is occurring. It’s also a party for both political parties and a showcase for major entertainment acts. Even as the convention was slowed to a crawl space because of the storm, work continued in the Tampa Bay Forum Center for many of the upcoming music acts. Here is some raw video of a sound check for the house band G.E Smith.

Image Courtesy of the 2012 Republican National Convention

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In the streets of downtown Tampa, dual preparations continue as the city braces for tropical Storm Issac and the Republican National Convention. Convention officials delayed the start of the events from Monday afternoon to Tuesday as a safety precaution. Issac is not projected to hit landfall in Tampa, but that will not stop massive amounts of rain and strong winds from shutting everything down for a day.

There is one thing, however, that will continue to work inside the Forum center and serves as a loud remainder of what this election is about. That item is a large clock keeping track of the amount of financial debt, added each second. Tampa may be worried about the impending storm of Issac, but the entire country is facing a debt storm that is bearing down on everyone like a category 5 hurricane.

The optic of the clock is a perfect anchor for one of the foundational fights that will be played out this presidential election. President Obama will fight to make this election about Romney’s taxes, women’s rights, and Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan. The President’s surrogates and spokespeople will attempt to distract voters away from the economy.

Thus far, they have done an excellent job of doing so. But, the fiscal cliff that the spending of the Obama administration has enacted is a problem that Romney must keep front and center in the campaign. Nothing does that better than the backdrop of a debt calculator displaying the massive bill the country is racking up.

This is a message that the republicans must take to heart as well. The last two weeks have seen the Romney camp get bogged down over Medicare and the comments of Senate candidate Todd Akin regarding rape and abortion. The economy and the debt are problems one and two. They cannot afford to get caught in the Obama trap of defending themselves and talking about things that have nothing to do with those issues.

Many in the media will play along with President Obama and will be all too willing to cover other issues. Optics is one way around this obstacle. Do not just talk, show. Judging by the large and ominous clock clicking up every second of the convention speakers’ speeches, the Romney campaign may be on their way to making this election about what it needs to be about.

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In the past weeks the political campaign has focused in social issues like Medicare, abortion and rape; all of these are areas in which President Obama has an advantage over Mitt Romney. According to the last AP-GfK poll, President Obama is seen much more capable of handling social issues. But now Mitt Romney has tried to focus in his energy plan to boost his economic plan.

Mitt Romney is now trying to refocus the national debate to economic issues in which Obama is weaker. The high unemployment rate has been one of Obama’s weaknesses; the Obama campaign has released a new ad called “Clear Choice,” which features former President Bill Clinton, saying that this election is an opportunity to decide which candidate would be able to get the country back to work.

Clinton explains the Republican plan intends to cut taxes on the wealthy and get the country back to the regulation that got the country in so many problems. On the other hand, Clinton explained that Obama’s plan would rebuild the country investing in innovation and creating jobs. Clinton added that the plan would only work with a strong middle class, such as the one that existed when he was president.

Romney is now working on his energy plan, which he says would be able to create three million jobs by 2020. It would also open more areas for drilling off the coast in two swing states the Republicans lost in the 2008 election: North Carolina and Virginia.

Romney will be traveling to different states with his energy proposals, so voters will have the opportunity to hear them. His plan is supposed to result in $1 trillion in revenue for federal, state and local governments. Also, Romney intends to give each state the liberty to establish the form of energy production they want on federal lands, which is quite different from Obama’s administration energy policy in which the federal government currently controls these lands.

Romney’s plan will have a lot of opposition in Congress and will lead to protests from different environmental groups, especially if the oil drilling is done in the mid-Atlantic, where it is currently banned. In order to prevent these protests, the energy production would be banned in areas that are currently designated as off-limits. Romney has a big plan to finally execute the Keystone XL pipeline project, which is a pipeline that would run from Canada to Texas refineries.

Mitt Romney has recently received almost $7 million from oil executives from fundraisers in Texas. During a fundraiser in Arkansas, Romney promised that “”North America will be energy-independent by the last year of my second term.”

Steve Holland in a Huffington Post article explains that the “Republicans are eager to make greater use of the U.S. energy supply to increase jobs for Americans suffering amid an 8.3 percent unemployment rate. They would curtail some federal regulations to permit more production.”

Holland, speaking about the environmental controversy that Romney’s plan could cause, said “the plan makes little mention of climate change or greenhouse gases. Romney policy adviser Oren Cass said Romney supports green energy and government spending on energy research, but opposes loan guarantees for green companies.”

Image Courtesy of  Gage Skidmore

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No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden, is set to be released under the Dutton imprint of Penguin Publishing House next month. Subtitled The Autobiography of a Navy Seal, this book will be the first direct account of the events. Articles published after bin Laden’s death were accounts from officials who had debriefed the members of SEAL Team 6, not the members of the teams themselves.

The book is written by one of the navy seals who participated in the mission firsthand, under the pseudonym Mark Owen. The author was the leader of one of the teams during the mission that killed bin Laden on May 2, 2011. For their protection, the names of all of the SEALs on the mission have been changed. Scheduled television interview will feature the author in disguise, with his voice altered.

Co-author Kevin Maurer is a journalist that has worked for the Navy SEALs six times and is the author of four books.

Penguin plans on printing 300,000 copies for the release on September 11, 2012 and continuing through the holiday season. The book is expected to be a bestseller.

So far, the book is the best kept secret of the company. While described as a “blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen’s life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden’s death” and “an essential piece of modern history” by the publisher, other officials were caught off guard by the announcement.

John Kirby, Navy spokesman, told the New York Times that “The author did not seek Navy support/approval for this book.”

George Little, Pentagon press Secretary, told the Times that “he had not read the book and was unaware that anyone in the department had reviewed it.”

CIA spokesman Preston Golson said “As far as we can determine, this book was not submitted for pre-publication review.”

Tommy Viater, National Security Council spokesman, said “We learned about this book today from press reports,” and added, “We haven’t reviewed it and don’t know what it says.”

It is unclear whether any legal action or attempt to stop the publication will be taken as of this time. This is indeed possible: all 10,000 copies of a book by a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer who described operations in Afghanistan were destroyed before publication because the book hadn’t been reviewed by official.

The book has the potential to impact the upcoming 2012 election, putting one of President Barack Obama’s achievements in the limelight before voters cast their ballots. According to the Washington Post, it may also raise issues on their aggressive campaign toward information leaks, while supposedly allowing the press in on many secrets.

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Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and many other Republicans have been criticizing President Obama for what they consider to be failed economic policies and are accusing him of trying to get rid of work requirements in order to receive a welfare check.

Former 2012 hopeful Rick Santorum recently posted on his blog about “Obamanomics,” a term used to explain that Obama’s economic plans, instead of “spreading wealth around, in reality only spreads poverty and economic decline.”

The former Republican presidential candidate wrote that Obama does not understand the challenges many working families are facing. He thinks that the government’s economic management has led to a situation that forces companies to outsource jobs, while many American families are losing them.

Santorum asserts that the situation is so chaotic that 41 months have passed with the unemployment rate above 8 percent, something that hasn’t occurred since the Great Depression. Since WWII, no president that served while the unemployment rate was above 8 percent has been reelected. If this continues into November, President Obama will have to challenge history for reelection.

Santorum also added that one out of six Americans is currently below the poverty line and that one in four children is receiving food stamps.

The other aspect Santorum criticized from Obama’s government is unnecessary spending. Santorum wrote, “national debt has grown by over $5.2 trillion to $16 trillion dollars—an increase of 49 percent.”  Santorum also explained that this is the fourth consecutive year in which the deficit exceeds one trillion dollars.

Another accusation Santorum made against Obama is that he has only made cuts in the defense spending budget, which Santorum considers wrong. He believes that the defense system should be a priority for the federal government, but Obama’s cuts have exceeded one trillion dollars.

President Obama has defended himself from this type of accusations, an example is on a speech on Cleveland in June he explained that the Bush tax rate cuts where somehow guilty for the recession, not his economic policies. Obama stated: “The failure to pay for the tax cuts and the wars took us from record surpluses under President Bill Clinton to record deficits. And it left us unprepared to deal with the retirement of an aging population that’s placing a greater strain on programs like Medicare and Social Security.”

Obama defended his economic policies on Cleveland, he stated: “We acted fast. Our economy started growing again six months after I took office and it has continued to grow for the last three years.” He added: “Our businesses have gone back to basics and created over 4 million jobs in the last 27 months; more private sector jobs than were created during the entire seven years before this crisis, in a little over two years.” But this is exactly what Republicans like Rick Santorum are criticizing, they accuse him of not reacting in time and maintaining the unemployment rate above 8% for too long.

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Two new polls have appeared demonstrating the same thing: Obama is still slightly ahead of Romney. The surveys have been elaborated by AP-GfK and The Wall Street Journal/NBC News. Not even the nomination of Paul Ryan as Romney’s running mate has made the Republican comeback a sure thing, but Republicans still hope their Tampa Convention will turn things around.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows the Obama-Biden ticket has the support of 48 percent of registered voters ,and the Romney-Ryan ticket gets 44 percent.

In the July poll the results were almost the same. Let’s remember that during that month Ryan had not yet been designated as Romney’s running mate. The Obama-Biden ticket had 49 percent of registered voters’ support, and Romney had 43 percent. Even through all of the Republican effort, only a slight difference has been seen in the polls from July to August.

Romney’s tax record, and his Medicare plan, which is not popular, is costing him serious trouble. These are the main issues he must solve to have a serious comeback opportunity. President Obama, on the other hand, is having trouble with the unemployment rate and the nation’s direction; he must convince the voters that in four more years he will be able to take the country in the right direction.

But not all of the polls look negative for Romney. If you consider just 12 key state battle grounds: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, Obama’s advantage over Romney has gotten smaller. He now leads 49 to 46 percent, when in the same poll on June and July he had an 8 percent advantage in these same key state battlegrounds.

Obama still has minorities’ support; Hispanics and African Americans are behind him. So are women, which makes it seem that the Democrat’s campaigning regarding Republicans’ war with women has succeeded.  Romney is leading Obama on white, rural and senior voters, respectively.

The AP-GfK poll shows similar results. One of the poll’s results worthy of consideration is that amongst people who think Medicare is a very important issue, 49 percent would vote for Obama and 44 percent for Romney. This proves that Obama’s Medicare plan is more popular. On the other hand, voters still think Romney is more capable of handling the economy, 48 percent favor him and 44 percent favor Obama.

According to this poll Obama is also seen as much more capable of handling social issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage, 54 percent of them think Obama is much more capable of handling abortion, while only 33 percent think Romney is more capable.

Obama is also seen as a strong, honest and trustworthy leader, whilst Mitt Romney needs to work on his personal image in order to have a serious chance of winning this election.

Republicans are hoping their Tampa Convention will make them jump in the polls. They have prepared a Convention with speakers that could turn things around, like Chris Christie (key-note speaker) or Marco Rubio (who will introduce Mitt Romney). Also, the Convention will be an opportunity for Romney to work on his personal image and for people to know Paul Ryan’s proposals firsthand.

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President Obama has now shifted his criticism from Ryan’s Medicare plan to his education plan. Obama is saying that Paul Ryan’s budget plan will have terrible consequences for the education system; his cuts on education will be dramatic.

According to the AP, during a political rally in Ohio on August 21, the president was going to tell to the voters that “Ryan’s budget proposal would cut $115 billion from the Education Department, remove 2 million children from Head Start programs and cost 1 million college students their Pell Grants over the next decade.”

Michael Shank in an article on Al Jazeera also supports Obama’s ideas. He explains that “that under a Ryan economic regime, education spending would be cut by 45 percent, despite the fact that our educational performance in reading, science and math continues to fail to rank in the top ten of the OECD’s rich world countries.”

Also, Michael Linden in an article on the Center for American Progress is very skeptic of Ryan’s budget plan.

Linden says that “each component of the new House Republican budget threatens the middle class while doing nothing to add jobs or grow our economy. It ends the guarantee of decent insurance for senior citizens, breaking Medicare’s bedrock promise. It slashes investments in education, infrastructure, and basic research, all of which are key drivers of economic growth and mobility. And it cuts taxes for those at the top, asking the middle class to pick up the tab. It’s a budget designed to benefit the top 1 percent at everyone else’s expense.”

The Democratic National Committee also released an ad criticizing the education cuts Romney’s running mate’s budget plan would do. The ad called “shop around,” says that the Romney-Ryan education plan would not help students to pay their college tuition and the only solution Romney has proposed for the students is to “shop around” or to borrow money from their parents.  The ad also explains Romney would cut grants for nearly 10 million students. The ad finishes saying that “students cannot afford Mitt Romney.”

Ryan’s spokesman has responded to the recent criticism, stating: “Under President Obama, the costs of college have skyrocketed — making it more difficult for students to attend college — and his economic policies have made it harder for graduates to get jobs.” The spokesman also thinks these kind of accusations are intended to distract people from Obama’s terrible record in office.

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After the euphoria that followed Romney’s nomination of Paul Ryan as his running mate, two issues are now at the forefront of debate: Medicare and Romney’s tax record. Democrats are asserting that Romney has not paid taxes in a decade. The way the candidates manage these controversial issues could decide the election.

Democrats have made claims that Romney has been dishonest in how much he has really paid in taxes. On Aug. 2, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared on the Senate floor, “The word’s out that he hasn’t paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”

In his defense, Romney has said that he has paid at least 13% of his income in taxes each year during the last decade. But Romney has only made public his 2010 tax return and has stated his 2011 tax return will be released when they are ready. Romney said in a recent press conference, “I did go back and look at my taxes and over the past 10 years I never paid less than 13 percent. I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that.”

Obama’s campaign has been taking advantage of the fact that Romney’s tax return records are not public and recently offered him a deal in which they promise to stop attacking him for this matter if he releases five years of tax return records. The offer came in a letter made by Jim Messina, campaign manager for Obama for America, after Romney released his statements.

He stated, “Governor Romney apparently fears that the more he offers, the more our campaign will demand that he provide,” and added, “So I am prepared to provide assurances on just that point: if the Governor will release five years of returns, I commit in turn that we will not criticize him for not releasing more–neither in ads nor in other public communications or commentary for the rest of the campaign.”

Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, responded to Messina’s offer, stating “It is clear that President Obama wants nothing more than to talk about Governor Romney’s tax returns instead of the issues that matter to voters, like putting Americans back to work, fixing the economy and reining in spending.”

Another issue that has become controversial in this campaign is the future of Medicare. Romney, in a recent political rally, used a whiteboard to explain the difference between Mr Obama’s plans for Medicare and his own. He explained that Obama’s plans would lead to bankruptcy and that his plan’s would give solvency to Medicare. Both sides have said they want a serious debate about Medicare, an issue that has not been of similar importance in recent political campaigns.

Jim Messina immediately responded to Romney after he used the whiteboard through Twitter, “Next time Romney uses a whiteboard to explain his Medicare plan, he should probably use this one.” In his whiteboard picture Messina explains that Obama would not make cuts on Medicare benefits. On the contrary, he adds that Romney would give the insurance companies $150 billion.

Image Courtesy of  Matthew Reichbach (Flickr: Mitt Romney Steve Pearce event 057) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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During a midnight screening of the film, ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ a mass shooting occurred at a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, located at the Town Center of the Aurora shopping mall, on July 20, 2012. Seventy people were shot, and twelve were killed. In terms of the number of people injured, the shooting is one of the worst in the contemporary United States and the deadliest in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. The sole suspect, James Eagan Holmes, was arrested outside the cinema a few minutes after the shooting.

Following the mass shooting in Aurora, another mass shooting occurred on August 5, 2012, and took place at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The 40-year-old ex-army gunman, Wade Michael Page, killed six people and wounded four others. After being shot in the stomach by an officer, Page shot himself in the head. The investigation was handed over to the FBI, and they investigated possible ties to white supremacist groups because of Page’s previous involvement with neo-Nazi groups, being a member of the Hammerskins.

The lead singer of Megadeth, Dave Mustaine, recently made an accusation against President Barack Obama during the band’s live concert at Fort Canning in Singapore. The 50-year-old rocker claimed that President Obama was the mastermind behind the mass shooting in Aurora last July. According to Mustaine, Barack Obama is staging mass shootings in order to legislate gun control laws. Specifically, he suggested that President Obama had almost twenty people killed (12 in Aurora and 6 in Wisconsin).

“Back in my country, my president (makes puking sign with his finger in his mouth), he’s trying to pass a gun ban, so he’s staging all of these murders, like the ‘Fast And Furious’ thing down the border… Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there… and now the beautiful people at the Sikh temple,” he said.

“I was talking to our promoter here tonight,” he continued. “What a great guy. I was saying, ‘I don’t know where I’m gonna live if America keeps going the way it’s going because it looks like it’s turning Nazi America.’ And he said, ‘Move down here to Singapore.’”

Mustaine also told Infowars: “Nobody can deny that there were criminal rogues within the administration, and CBS News got the memos. Congress has the information, and basically, Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America, who is a highly respected person, said that if they would stage ‘Fast and Furious,’ they’d be capable of staging anything, and it was all done to blame the second amendment.”

It is not a secret that the Megadeth’s frontman was never an Obama fan. He previously questioned the President’s birth certificate and disapproved his tax policy. “I’m disgusted with this guy,” he said. “He is my President; I respect the office of the presidency, but I think as a person and the things that he says, I’ve never heard anything this offensive ever come out of the mouth of a president, and I’m 50. I’ve heard a lot of presidents talk in my life.”

Because of the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation, it is a fact that many people believe the U.S. government should not be trusted, but the accusation against Barack Obama seems unstable, since there is no proof to support it. Many of Mustaine’s fans believe that the 50-year-old singer should not mix music with politics, but of course, there are also those who think it is time for celebrities to express their opinions since they influence such a large number of people.

Image Courtesy of  Megadeth

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Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan as the Republican’s Vice Presidential candidate this Saturday. So who exactly is Paul Ryan, and what does this selection tell us about how the Romney campaign and the fight for the Presidency is shaping up to be?

Paul Ryan is the US State Representative for the state of Wisconsin, and also chair of the House Budget Committee. Over the past couple of years his plans for the US budget has been the subject of much conversation and controversy; he mostly talks up the need to cut debt and spending, and the way he seems to want to go about that is through slashing funding for welfare programs, among others. He’s very conservative politically and quite a favorite among the GOP.

Ryan seems to be widely considered very intelligent and competent. Many see him as a rising star, someone young and ambitious, and many have written about how he, in many ways, somewhat overshadows the actual presidential candidate, Romney. His plans are now what’s brought up whenever the policy of the republican presidential candidacy is discussed and he seems to be considerably more charismatic than Romney, who doesn’t seem particularly ideological or at least does not give off the impression of being genuinely passionate about ideology, and is seen as rather bland.

As someone who has made his name almost entirely on policy issues–namely his Ryan plan for the budget–there is widespread expectation that the conversations in this election cycle are finally going to go back to some talk of actual policy instead of mostly mudslinging and generally trying to point out what terrible people the other side are. Though that’s perhaps almost unrealistically optimistic.

Much like Romney and the current Republican Party, he’s anti-abortion and against gay adoption and gay marriage and has a fairly poor record for supporting women’s rights. He also supports further tax cuts for the rich and for businesses, and since taxes on the wealthy won’t be going towards cutting the debt in his plan, he intends on fighting the deficit by cutting government spending in welfare programs and education spending, which means the recipients of these welfare programs are going to be considerably worse off. Namely, the poor and seniors, whose medical care is paid for by the rather intuitively named Medicare.

These exact same stances are very similar to everything that the current Republican party seems to push for and that Romney has presented, so this was a VP pick that was reinforcing those ideas instead of trying to provide something different or appeal to a different angle or set of voters.

So what does this tell us about Romney’s campaign? Well, Romney could really have gone two different angles with his campaign now that he’s almost certainly going to be the Republican candidate for President to run against Obama. He could’ve tried to capture moderate voters who aren’t really very much on one side or the other, who almost undoubtedly, like everyone else in America, are unhappy with the economy as it is right now.

By trying to move a bit more from the right to the center and hoping that with the votes from conservatives and enough of a share from moderates, he could try to win the election. Along those lines, he could’ve even tried to reach out to groups rather alienated by Republican policies like women or Latinos.

However, Romney has never really been popular with conservatives who are the base of the Republican Party; when the primary elections to choose a party candidate to run for President were going on people, seemed to want any other choice, but all of the other options turned out to be too problematic for various reasons.

Earlier in his political career, when he was Governor of his home state of Massachusetts, Romney’s policies had been very different and not very right-wing, but now as he fights for the presidential nomination, he’s had to backtrack on a lot of it, and this gives the impression to a lot of conservatives that he hasn’t been conservative enough in the past. As a result, he’s not too popular among the conservative base.

So by choosing Paul Ryan as his VP pick, he has thoroughly burnished his credentials as a right-wing guy who’d bring about right-wing policy if elected President. This means Romney has decided that the support of an energized and enthusiastic conservative base could be more useful than attempting to win over moderates and risk losing support from the conservatives. Also, he’s doubled down on policies that would be useful to businesses and the rich–less regulation, lower taxes on them–so companies and the wealthy looking out for their own interests are more likely to back him.

Many average Americans are pretty apathetic about politics, an apathy that has only been increasing recently with widespread mistrust of all government. However, conservatives have been pretty fired up lately. He’s made the gamble that an enthusiastic base of people who are going to vote and fund a campaign, as well as guarantee lots of campaign funding from businesses and the rich to go towards ads and campaigning, is going to be more useful than hoping to get the more apathetic moderates to vote for him.

Voting isn’t compulsory in the US, so only 50-60% of eligible voters actually vote, and of course more dedicated groups are more likely to vote. Of course, now the Obama campaign will target those same moderates (already begun–the Obama campaign has been focusing a lot on how they would be so much better for the middle class and for women’s rights) because if enough of them care enough to vote, Obama has a pretty great chance of winning, but that’s the gamble Romney’s made now.

Will Obama be able to inspire those moderates enough to actually vote and convince them that voting for him would be good for them, or will lots of ads and campaigning funded by the wealthy and an enthusiastic base of conservatives who will definitely be going to vote when November rolls around, be enough for Romney to win? We’ll have to see how it plays out over the next three months.

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