Although removed (so no telling how long the video stays up), the President’s campaign team released a great commercial today spoofing Mitt Romney’s ridiculous comments that defunding PBS would somehow create a major dent in the country’s deficit. Take a look below:
Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist has endorsed President Obama for re-election. Said Crist in his endorsement statement today: .
“…an element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they’ve proven incapable of governing for the people. Look no further than the inclusion of the Akin amendment in the Republican Party platform, which bans abortion, even for rape victims.
The truth is that the party has failed to demonstrate the kind of leadership or seriousness voters deserve. Pundits looking to reduce something as big as a statewide election to a single photograph have blamed the result of my 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate on my greeting of President Obama. I didn’t stand with our president because of what it could mean politically; I did it because uniting to recover from the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes was more important than party affiliation. I stood with our nation’s leader because it was right for my state.
President Obama has a strong record of doing what is best for America and Florida, and he built it by spending more time worrying about what his decisions would mean for the people than for his political fortunes. That’s what makes him the right leader for our times, and that’s why I’m proud to stand with him today.”
It’s nice to see some rational truth come from a Republican. Thank-you Mr. Crist!
President Obama gave an excellent interview to the Associated Press’ White House correspondent Brian Feller last week. The President highlighted some of the Republican candidates’ support for irresponsible and damaging social and fiscal policy while simultaneously emphasizing some of the successes and fulfilled ’08 campaign promises. Take a look at the clip below:
A research study published today in the academic journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin links low-effort thinking with conservative political ideology. The article was written by author Scott Eidelman and colleagues from the Department of Psychology at the University of Arkansas. The researchers were able to simulate low-effort thinking in various ways and discovered an emergence of conservatism in the thought patterns and expressions of the study participants. Prior studies have shown a significant relationship between lower levels of education and conservative political ideology. But, this is perhaps the first study showing the actual relationship between lack of critically and higher intellectual thinking and conservative political ideology. The entire article can be found here: http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/03/16/0146167212439213.full.pdf+html
Tom Hanks narrates Academy Award winning director Davis Guggenheim’s mini-documentary The Road We’ve Traveled. The doc highlights the insurmountable and historic challenges faced by President Obama during his first term and the progress he made. It is definitely worth a view and is chuck full of facts that should quickly silence any critics of Obama’s Presidency. Take a look at the film below:
A new documentary film entitled Winning Our Future: The Day Mitt Romney Came to Town paints a not-so-pretty picture of the Republican frontrunner Presidential Nominee. Funded by Republicans who have been backing candidate Newt Gingrich, the documentary interviews key persons and associates of Romney’s past who demonize Romney as a greedy corporate leader who sacrificed small businesses and middle class workers in four companies he headed to line his pockets. The film obviously portrays Romney in a very negative light. Interestingly, Romney just won the New Hampshire Republican Primary; one might think the Republicans should start getting behind their probable candidate rather than releasing damning documentaries about his shady and disappointing past. Take a look at the trailer for Winning Our Future: The Day Mitt Romney Came to Town below:
A study conducted by media researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University has some not too surprising findings about viewers of Fox News. The researchers compared knowledge levels about current events in Egypt and the Middle East using a sample of men and women who watch Fox News and a sample of those who watch no news at all. The findings indicated statistically significant lower knowledge levels about current events in these foreign locations and the impact these events have on the USA in the Fox News viewers. For example, the Fox News Channel viewers were 18-points less likely to know that the Egyptian people actually overthrew their government and 6-points less likely to know the Syrians haven’t done the same. The study’s primary author and Political Science professor Dr. Dan Cassino stated the study indicated the knowledge deficits weren’t related to the network drawing more Republican viewers versus non-Republican viewers. “The results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don’t watch any news at all.” This isn’t the first study to indicate viewers of Fox News as less knowledgeable than watchers of other news channels. A 2010 University of Maryland study indicated Fox News viewers were much more likely to believe false information about American politics.
Florida is facing perhaps its largest budget shortfall in history; and it’s tough economic climate has constrained state dollars unlike ever before. However, although it is likely to cost the State of Florida millions of dollars and state and federal courts have already deemed it as unconstitutional, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed an executive order today mandating random and routine drug testing of state employees. With a workforce greater than 100,000 employees and a per test cost over $100, Florida taxpayers will spend millions of dollars per year to have every new hired employee screened at their time of hire and random testing for current employees will occur up to 4 times per year. Although Scott hailed the order as positive for the state, there is no documented evidence that drug-screening programs are effective at reducing substance abuse. Perhaps more importantly, there have been no factual data presented supporting that Florida’s state workers have higher rates of substance abuse that would warrant the screening. A great concern for resources, which are already stretched so thin, is the cost defending this order in court will cost Florida’s taxpayers. Courts have already ruled that mandatory drug testing for state and federal employees who do not directly impact public safety is a violation of the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution. Scott’s order equates to a very expensive, non-evidence based approach to solving a problem that is non-existent to begin with. Unfortunately, it will also be one that will drain financial resources from the state at a time when funds are at an all-time low. Scott’s order shows that poor leadership has consequences beyond politics. When unemployment is at an all-time high and the state is operating at a major budget deficit, drug testing state employees is a poor choice of resource allocation and only further cripples Florida’s already ailing financial situation.
With an increasing number of Floridians scratching their heads as to how on Earth Rick Scott was ever-elected Governor, his public receptions are growing colder. Only a few weeks after lawmakers filed a bill that would help ease Florida’s restrictive Constitution that prohibits public recall of its Governor, Scott showed-up Saturday to throw the first pitch of the game at the Yankees vs. Blue Jays Spring training game in Tampa. Fans in attendance gave Scott a tepid reception, booing loudly and forcing the Governor to issue a “No comment” response to media inquiries about the incident. See the WESH 2 News Report of the incident below: http://www.wesh.com/politics/27263130/detail.html
A disgraceful and discriminatory chapter in American history came to a close Saturday afternoon as civil rights took a major step forward. The United States Senate voted to repeal the Military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue” Policy, which prohibited gay men and women in uniform from serving openly. The vote was largely among party lines as all but one Democrat and only 8 Republicans voted in favor of repeal. Florida’s Senators Nelson (D) voted yay while Republican LaMieux voted nay. President Obama pledged to end the ban on the campaign trail and sided with top military officials who overwhelmingly took the position that the ban was damaging military readiness. Republicans used fear-mongering to stall the repeal, spewing data that were not based in fact but instead based in bias. Nonetheless, their efforts, spear-headed by John McCain (R-Arizona) failed.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a policy passed by President Bill Clinton during his first term. Prior to the policy, gay men and lesbians who acknowledged their sexuality were deemed ineligible to serve. Clinton fought hard against Republican-lead opposition and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was made policy out of compromise. Gays and lesbians could serve, but only if their sexual orientation remained hidden. Tens of thousands of well-qualified personnel were discharged under the policy, which came under increasing scrutiny between 2004-2005, when a group of gay Arabic linguists were discharged under the policy. A subsequent report indicated a critical shortage of Arabic linguists needed to interpret intelligence and suggested the discharges posed a major threat to national security. After taking Office, President Obama charged Congress with repealing the ban. A comprehensive study conducted this Summer by the Pentagon found the vast majority of America’s troops didn’t think repealing the ban would cause a major disruption. They also indicated most knew of gay soldiers within their unit and that sexuality had no impact on how they interacted with comrades.
This historic victory was a LONG-WAY coming! God knows this vote could NEVER have happened with the slew of incoming Republican Congressmen and Senators.
So, THANK-YOU to the Democrats (and the 8 Republicans) who voted to repeal DADT! No serviceman or woman willing to sacrifice his or her life for our country should ever have to fear losing his or her military career due to sexual orientation. It is time to put inequality and discrimination in our Armed Forces behind us. God bless our troops.
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