Showing posts with label President. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President. Show all posts

Paul Krugman Sums Obama Up

Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winning Economist took a second look at Obama in an article published in Rolling Stones, and then a follow up with ABC News. His conclusion? Obama is likely to be the most effective, and certainly the most successful president we have ever had. 
“Bill Clinton is an incredibly gifted politician,” Krugman told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. “But, in fact, Bill Clinton was not a consequential president. And Obama, although clearly not the natural politician, is a consequential president.”
With his polls so low right now, it's difficult to get behind this kind of arithmetic, but Krugman shows that the economy is on the rise, unemployment is down, health care has been reformed and significant financial reform is in place. The environmental issues are being addressed.  No, he admits, it might not be everything you wanted, but it is more than any president has accomplished in decades.

Reading this, I felt a bit vindicated. Though I would never have claimed Obama was 'the most successful', he was doing much better than his press. What has always bothered me about his press though, was the amount of it, the shear mass of the machine.

You expect Fox News, and some jabs from the main stream editorials. Then there are the web papers on the far-right like Town Hall, National Association of Scholars, the NRA main sight,
The usual suspects. Also, the republicans in congress, just like the democrats with Bush (expected, and accepted). The Koch brothers were more active, not liking things going the way they were, especially with Obama going directly at the environment and health care.

Likely, Obama was the Koch's worst nightmare - between 1998 and now Koch has been an environmental terror (with one of the few companies I have ever heard of being tried and convicted for double homicide). Obama not only wants EPA powers to increase, he was making it happen. It wasn't going to be a few $10 million dollar fines any longer. Likely, shut downs were on the horizon. So, we also expect some flack from that area.

Some flack. Sure. .. but sweet mercy...

The girl friend video coming out of the Koch, from  Americans for Shared Prosperity should have been the real clue. That was the point the shadows were pulled back. Whether that was a purposeful move or not, it was the beacon that caught my attention. The ad, which I'm sure you have seen, has a woman who is acting like Obama is an abusive boyfriend -- and is warning us to drop him, not to vote for him again. Again? This was published on Sep 21, 2014.

This is the second term. Right? This is Anti-Obama, like two years
too late. Isn't it?

No. Not at all. They just don't appear to care any more that you notice.

I'm not capable of doing the amount of document research that would be required for a true analysis -- I'm just going to put that up front -- but I believe, just from the amount I've been able to do, that no President has been against the continuous demagoguery Obama has over his two terms. There is the slams and the mud during the election, but then people get down to doing their jobs. The sensationalist go back to writing real news, and waiting for someone, normally a Congressman, to do something extremely silly. But that didn't happen with Obama.

  • Crowds of mudslingers continued
  • Torrents of false controversies were created
  • Demagoguery was shouted at every Presidential move
  • Congress took on a culture of obstruction

For example -- despite Obama's pre-election release of his official Hawaiian birth certificate in 2008;[1] confirmation, based on the original documents, by the Hawaii Department of Health;[6] the April 2011 release of a certified copy of Obama's original Certificate of Live Birth (or long-form birth certificate); and contemporaneous birth announcements published in two Hawaii newspapers.[7] Polls conducted in 2010 suggested that at least one quarter of adult Americans said that they doubted Obama's U.S. birth,[8][9] while a May 2011 Gallup poll found that 13% of American adults (23% of Republicans) continued to express such doubts. -- Wikipedia

Hundreds of lawsuits, some filed by GOP leaders, some from Congressman, Senators, and Tea Party members. In 2009 and 2010 the numbers in the South and in the Tea Party are so high, that they are seen as useful to many of the GOP. They under mind anything Obama does, inciting angst toward any decision he makes. A few Republicans openly gaff at the claims that Obama's Presidency is not legitimate, but most do not. Colorado GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck is caught on tape complaining about walking the line between openly agreeing with the "Birthers" and denying the legitimacy of their claim to keep them going.
"Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I'm on the camera," Buck said to the worker while laughing. "God, what am I supposed to do?"

Lessons Learned : Obama Sued By Congress

Lessons Learned is for teachers who wish to add into their curriculum lessons from current events which are highlighted in the news and a focus their students are interested in. There are many very good resources out on the Internet now for focused, well made, professional CCSS aligned lesson modules. From these resources, I try to find a few so that teachers can review them and use them in their classrooms. 


Current Event : For the first time in History, Congress (as Congress) is suing the President of the United States.


When, on July 2, the Obama Administration announced a one-year postponement of the January 1, 2014 effective date for the Affordable Care Act's requirement that large employers provide their workers health insurance or pay a tax, affected businesses "cheered." But anti-"Obamacare" advocates and politicians howled. They saw a "blatantly illegal move" (Brietbart.com pundit Ken Klukowski), a government acting "as though it were not bound by law" (CATO Institute economist Michael Cannon), and an unconstitutional "refus[al] to enforce" a democratically enacted law (Congressional Joint Resolution #45, introduced July 10 by New Jersey House Republican Scott Garrett). In the Wall Street Journal, Stanford Professor Michael McConnell, formerly a George W. Bush appointee to the federal bench, huffed that the decision "raises grave concerns about [President Obama's] understanding" that, unlike medieval British monarchs, American presidents have, under Article II, Section 3 of our Constitution, a "duty, not a discretionary power" to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." Following up in the Journal this Monday, David Rivkin and Lee Casey, who helped lawyer last year's legal challenge to the ACA individual mandate, darkly intimated that the new employer mandate delay could trigger litigation that could result in "the whole statute fall[ing] while the president's suspension is in effect."


Constitution Ariticle 2 sec 3 clause 3

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Lessons for Class: 

In this blended lesson supporting literacy skills, students learn about the three branches of the United States government. Students develop their literacy skills as they explore a social studies focus on the powers that the Constitution assigns to each branch—legislative, executive, and judicial—and how the three branches work together. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities.
CCSS: Strong alignment with adaption from k5-k12


NOTE: The lesson looked so good and engaging that I am listing it but it is not aligned with Common Core. Perhaps a little bit of adjustment could make it so.
In this lesson, students will examine the duties of the President as written in the Constitution and what the Oath of Office means.
CCSS: None - only National Alignment 


This course covers American Government: the Constitution, the branches of government (Presidency, Congress, Judiciary) and how politics works: elections, voting, parties, campaigning, policy making.  In addition we’ll look at how the media, interest groups, public opinion polls and political self-identification (are you liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican or something else?) impact politics and political choices.  We’ll also cover the basics in economic, social and foreign policy and bring in current issues and show how they illustrate the process.
CCSS: None. This is a College Level Open Course for Government


Ron Paul - Great servant, but Not a Master

In an article I just read, Ron Paul declares our efforts in Syria and Iraq to be illegal, as well as part of the problem. The rhetoric is clean, and feels well thought out. Reading his words I was lulled a bit into thinking "Yeah, why the hell should we care?" Many commentators on the article suggest that our country needs a man like Ron Paul Some one who looks at things clearly, and without all the hampering of political trappings. 

I am lulled enough to almost agree... almost. Then I smell the burning. 

If this guy was president, we would have zero foreign policy, no Department of Education, no EPA. no public schools, no SSI, no unemployment insurance, no medical research, no colleges. He's a Libertarian, and the Libertarian views always sound good when you are in the middle of struggles, because they ask, "why are you doing all this stuff? Just stop. It is not our problem." 

"Finally, I think that the smallest level of government possible best performs education. Teachers, parents, and local community leaders should be making decisions about exactly how our children should be taught, not Washington bureaucrats." -- Ron Paul


Which sounds good. Until you see what is going on in Texas right now... where every social science book and history text melds biblical rhetoric (most of it wrong) into the fabric of every aspect of our history -- Moses was the founder of our Constitution. Jesus told our founders that everyone is equal under the law, Divine Mandate was our right for slaughter and slavery. Don't believe me? Look for your self



Of course this presses for home schools or on-line schools, which is the real Libertarian goal for national education. Those of us in the Middle Class would only think this is a good idea if we were non-parents. The 1% just higher a teacher. No worries. 

And getting rid of the EPA is a must because they are inconvenient for oil, coal, health, waste and profits because they insist that even if Climate Change isn't real, we still need to breath -- check out China's life without EPA. 

However, Climate Change HAS to be false, at all costs, because if it is real, then the EPA has to remain and government has to be seriously involved in our industry and business. So, Climate Change can not be real. The Koch put out millions every year in propaganda and false studies, to insure we remain on the fence about that, and pay off congressmen so they'll act like idiots in hearings. The longer Climate Change is put off, the more money the 1% will make. 

Never mind that as of 2007, when the American Association of Petroleum Geologists released a revised statement, no scientific body of national or international standing rejected the findings of human-induced effects on climate change. There are fringe people, most of whom do not show their processes or give peer review evidence (or are simply falsifying information), who continue to cry out differences, but no serious group has any doubt that Climate Change is happening, and that it is human-induced.  

None of that matters. Business first, health and life second. 

Interestingly enough, Ron Paul wants small government, a government with their hands off business and the market, but believes his personal feelings about abortion should be pressed onto women. Back off the Education, and the EPA and the FDA and anything else that stands in the way of a business man doing what he wants to do, but he'll keep is paws inside every woman's womb. Typical. 

Ron Paul opposes the War on Drugs. Believes that drugs, and their legality should be a local community issue. -- Like that has ever worked any where in the world, ever.

Ron Paul supports the elimination of the income tax and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). He asserts that Congress had no power to impose a direct income tax and has introduced legislation to repeal of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified on February 3, 1913.

"An income tax is the most degrading and totalitarian of all possible taxes. Its implementation wrongly suggests that the government owns the lives and labor of the citizens it is supposed to represent. Tellingly, “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax” is Plank #2 of the Communist Manifesto, which was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and first published in 1848." -- Ron Paul


Which sounds good, unless you believe the government should have things like a military, boarder patrols, roads, hospitals, emergency response for disasters, and just about anything else. And yes, Income tax is Plank #2 of the Communist Manifesto. So what?
In the year 10 AD, Emperor Wang Mang of the Xin Dynasty instituted an unprecedented income tax, at the rate of 10 percent of profits, for professionals and skilled labor. He was overthrown 13 years later in 23 AD and earlier policies were restored during the reestablished Han Dynasty which followed.

One of the first recorded taxes on income was the Saladin tithe introduced by Henry II in 1188 to raise money for the Third Crusade.

The inception date of the modern income tax is typically accepted as 1799. This income tax was introduced in Britain by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger in his budget of December 1798, to pay for weapons and equipment for the French Revolutionary War. 

... so it isn't an invention of the Communist Manifesto, as Ron Paul (the Transparent) implies with his statement. 

Another thing Ron Paul isn't being Transparent about is that Libertarian politics is only a small step up from Anarchy.  So no, he wouldn't engage in the Middle East, and he wouldn't care at all that your child needed to eat, or that a plague came into our country, or that medical research needed to be done to save millions. Let the world burn. He's fine with that.

Rick Perry - Neutered Koch Drone


I'm seriously appalled that a Republican candidate for President whose platform includes doing away with the Department of Education was at the top of the polls last month. Rick Perry wants to do away with Commerce, Education and Energy. Could it be possible that he is a Mouth Piece Drone for the Koch brothers? He deferentially acts like a mouth piece drone. Cracks under pressure too.
Other frightening aspects of Perry include - he is for the idea of people beating children. He sees a world where everyone is free to pray to his god in school. In fact that should be mandatory. His state (TX) has the worst school performance in the country and he cut huge amounts away from the schools. Then he turned down $700 Million in Federal aid for the schools of his state, because he didn't want to bring his schools up to the standards set by the Federal Education.. like getting the right books for kids to learn from and stuff.
This man.. this man who is a direct adversary against your child's ability to gain a basic education in public schools was at the TOP OF THE POLLS last month.
I'm not sure what TV Ads are telling you about Perry, or Obama or any candidate, but I'm very sure, they are lying to you. Find Facts! It's not that hard on the Internet. Seriously. Websites like the one I have above are very easy to locate and deal with direct quotes about the issues. I have several good research web sites listed on the side bar of this blog. Check them out. 

FACTS Not Fox

*NOTE : This was written before I realized that TEKS was already in place, and the State Board of Education had already fallen into the hands of extremist. My reaction to Perry at the time of this writing was Deep Concern and Caution. Now that I've learned more about his actions, goals and about the current status of his State, my reaction has leveled out at Horrified. 

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