President Barack H. Obama: ‘End This Government Shutdown’

Source:The White House– President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) 44th President of the United States of America.

“Weekly Address: End the Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama said that Republicans in the House of Representatives chose to shut down the government over a health care law they don’t like. He urged the Congress to pass a budget that funds our government, with no partisan strings attached. The President made clear he will work with anyone of either party on ways to grow this economy, create new jobs, and get our fiscal house in order for the long haul — but not under the shadow of these threats to our economy.”

From Dazzle Site

What Democrats should be doing especially the Democratic National Committee and the House Democratic Leadership, is pressuring vulnerable House Republicans in their districts and urging voters there to call their Republican Representatives and urging them to end this government shutdown by coming out in favor of the Senate passed government funding bill, that has House Republican budget numbers (not Democratic) but is a clean funding bill without outside language in it, like repealing or defunding the Affordable Care Act.

You get 20-30 House Republicans to come out in favor of this and even be in favor of a discharge petition to get the Senate funding bill on the House floor, Speaker Boehner would see he no longer has the votes to block the Senate bill and would call for a vote of it himself to avoid being embarrassed by it on the House floor. Or would stick with the House Tea Party Caucus in order to not lose his job. Either way, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi would be able to get the Senate bill to the House floor and the government shutdown would be over.

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PBS NewsHour: Judy Woodruff: Mark Shields & Romesh Ponnuru Discuss Government Spending Showdown, Iran

Source:PBS NewsHour– syndicated columnist and PBS NewsHour political analyst Mark Shields.

“The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor.[6] It is a nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational television programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing series such as American Experience, America’s Test Kitchen, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Downton Abbey, Elinor Wonders Why, Finding Your Roots, Frontline, The Magic School Bus, Masterpiece Theater, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Nature, Nova, the PBS NewsHour, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Keeping up Appearances and This Old House.”

From Wikipedia

“Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor at The National Review, join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s top news, including the standoff in Congress over a federal spending bill, consequences of a government shutdown, warming U.S. relations with Iran’s president and a UN breakthrough on Syria.”

From the PBS NewsHour

The question in the House Republican Conference right now is whose in charge: the father (meaning Speaking John Boehner) or some of his little children the Tea Party Caucus. And right now it looks like the Boehner little children are in charge. And unless Speaker Boehner takes charge of his children, the Federal Government will shutdown next week.

Democrats will never agree to defund or repeal the Affordable Care Act just to do what the Federal Government is supposed to do every year that every other organization in the country has to do, which is pass an annual budget and pay their debts.

The Tea Party Caucus which seems to be running the House Republican Conference right now, has decided to try a last stand to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And put the rest of government at risk as a result.

You can also see this post at The New Democrat, on WordPress.

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Musha Hadeen: Charles Krauthammer- Inside Washington- ‘Republicans Trying To Defund ObamaCare Are Members of the Suicide Caucus’

Source:Musha Hadeen– Charles Krauthammer, hitting the Republican Party where it hurts with the truth.

“Charles Krauthammer: Republicans trying to defund Obamacare are members of the “Suicide Caucus”

From Musha Hadeen 

What the brilliant Charles Krauthammer is getting to here and why he’s brilliant and hyper-partisans come off as escaped mental patients and members (if not President) of the Morons of Day Club, is that if the House Republicans, with the help of Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Mike Lee (the Tea Party Caucus, really) decide to shutdown the Federal Government, because they don’t like the Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) that they’ll get hurt in the 2014 mid-terms where they should be favorite to at least win back the Senate and real seats to their majority.

The difference between an intelligent person (in this case Charles Krauthammer) and a hyper partisan or moron (in this case the Congressional Tea Party) is that intelligent people can predict the future. They’re not psychics (obviously) but they have commonsense and they can see if you do a, b will happen and b will b bad.

Whereas the hyper-partisan or moron is always thinking about now and couldn’t care less and isn’t even worried about tomorrow or further down the line, because they have no vision and are only worried about now. Sure, killing ObamaCare or shutting down the government might feel good right now for them. But what about the hangover tomorrow and how they’ll feel the next day. Well, the Tea Party is not even thinking about 5 minutes from now, let alone 24 hours or next year.

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CNN: Crossfire- Cornel West: Cornel West vs Bill Kristol- Socialism vs Neoconservatism

Source:Cornel West– Democratic Socialist vs Neoconservative.

Cornel West: “Neo-Liberalism Goes Hand in Hand With Neo-Conservatism- Privatize, Militarize, Support Big Banks”

From Cornel West 

“Crossfire (9/23/13) – Van Jones and S.E. Cupp discuss reform or repeal of Obamacare with Dr. Cornel West and The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol.”

Source:Rebuild The Dream– Neoconservative vs Democratic Socialist.

From Rebuild The Dream

Cornell West is certainly not a Neoliberal (the real Liberals) but a dedicated Leftist and even a Democratic-Socialist. Whose probably further to the left of Senator Bernie Sanders whose the only official Socialist in the United States Congress.

And Bill Kristol I believe you could easily label him as a Neoconservative in his ideological thinking, but more of an establishment Republican in the sense that he doesn’t expect national Republicans to think exactly like. Him and perhaps more of an inclusive Republican.

My main issue with Professor West is that when he talks about what je calls neoliberalism (the real liberalism) he’s actually talking about Liberalism because he believes that anyone on the Left should essentially be a Socialist whose against privatization, private schools, big national banks, private health care, and health insurance. That government needs to be running all of these social services for the people. And that anyone on the Left who isn’t against private business and private corporations and isn’t as far to the Left as he is a Democratic Socialist. Which is very hard to get to the Left of and still be a Democrat.

The Cornel West’s of the world believe you are weak and not a true Leftist when the fact is liberalism is about protecting people’s freedom. And individual rights, not trying to run their lives for them and for people to be able to run their ow life and not be dependent on government for everything, they need a certain amount of economic as well as personal freedom to make that happen for themselves.

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CNN: Crossfire- Newt Gingrich: ‘ObamaCare is Incompetent’

Source:CNN– Nira Tanden vs Newt Gingrich.

“CNN’s Newt Gingrich makes his case for defunding Obamacare and says the U.S. needs a real debate on health care. More from CNN at:CNN”

From CNN

I would love to see Newt Gingrich if we were suddenly attacked by killer walnuts tomorrow or South Florida was hit by a hailstorm and Newt were to win the Republican nomination for President in 2016, just to see what his health care plan would be, assuming that somehow Americans were to give up meat, alcohol, and new technology, and the Republican Party was able to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Speaker Gingrich has been arguing for a health care System that empowers the consumers that are too young for Medicare and make too much money for Medicaid, to be able to purchase health insurance through the private sector, through a combination of tax credits for individuals and employers. Newt has even supported the health care mandate, requiring everyone who can afford it to cover at least part of their health care costs.

Newt has even been for some type of Patients Bill of Rights so consumers can’t be kicked off of their health insurance, just because they need it.

I”ll give Newt credit for being a Conservative (in a Progressive sense) especially on spending and foreign policy. But not to the point that he believes that government has no role in helping people who need it but that government should help people by empowering them, giving them an opportunity to improve their lives through the private sector. He’s not a Reagan Conservative, more like a Nixon or Bush Progressive-Republican when it comes to economic policy.

Speaker Gingrich has even said that he wouldn’t throw out the entire Affordable Care Act as President, that there are things in it that he likes, like the tax credit, the information technology, so people can search for a health insurance policy that suits them. I believe Newt has even said he likes the consumer protections in it. Newt can’t hide from the Affordable Care Act, because a lot thats in it at least at one point he either supported or still supports today.

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The McLaughlin Group: American Exceptionalism

“The McLaughlin Group 9/13/13”

From The McLaughlin Group

The simple fact that the most of the democratic world tends to look to America when there’s a crisis like this dealing with human rights and humanitarian crisis’, is the perfect example of American exceptionalism. But that can be used to go too far when you think your power is unlimited.

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CNN: Piers Morgan Tonight- Nicholas Kristof: ‘Vladimir Putin Exudes Hypocrisy in Op-Ed’

Source:CNN– New York Times left-wing columnist Nicholas Kristof.

“Nicholas Kristof talks about Vladimir Putin being a hypocrite in the New York Times Op-ed and the U.S. response to Syria. More from CNN at:CNN.”

From CNN

If President Putin was actually serious about ending the violence in Syria, he would stop arming the Assad Regime that is using the weapons against their own people. Just throwing out a thought there. But sometimes commonsense is needed because people run out of it or ignore it.

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PBS: Newshour: ‘Shields and Brooks on President Obama’s Syria Address’

Source:PBS NewsHour– President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) speaking about Syria from The White House.

“Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff to discuss President Barack Obama’s address to the nation on the Assad regime’s chemical weapons attack in Syria, the state of diplomatic efforts and prospects for Congressional authorization of a U.S. military strike.”

From the PBS NewsHour

“The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor[6] based in Arlington, Virginia. The PBS is a publicly funded[7] nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing series such as American Experience, America’s Test Kitchen, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Downton Abbey, Wild Kratts, Finding Your Roots, Frontline, The Magic School Bus, The Kidsongs Television Show, Masterpiece Theater, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Nature, Nature Cat, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Peg + Cat, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Keeping Up Appearances, and This Old House.[8]

PBS is funded by a combination of member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, pledge drives, and donations from both private foundations and individual citizens. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source.[9] PBS has over 350 member television stations, many owned by educational institutions, nonprofit groups both independent or affiliated with one particular local public school district or collegiate educational institution, or entities owned by or related to state government.”

From Wikipedia

I believe President Obama at the end of the day helped himself with Congress which at the end of the day quite frankly is all he needs theoretically depending on your position on the War Powers Act. Not Congress as a whole but Congressional Democrats in the House and Senate with enough Republicans by the time they vote.

If the President follows through after this speech to pass his resolution narrowly in the House and Senate because of his argument about we can’t allow dictators to go unpunished when they murder their own people and that we do not want to see Americans be hit by these same weapons as well that they have to be put out of business for our security and our allies as well as the Syrian people, then this will be a constructive moment for his presidency.

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CBS News: ‘President Obama on Syria strike: This Is Not Iraq, And This is Not Afghanistan

Source:CBS News– President Obama in-between Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Minority Leader. Perhaps intentionally there to keep the two leaders from scratching, clawing, and choking each other. But I don’t know that for sure.

“The U.S. military plan for Syria is “proportional, it is limited, it does not involve boots on the ground,” President Obama told reporters ahead of his first meeting with lawmakers since announcing he would seek congressional authorization to strike in the civil war-torn country. “This is not Iraq, and this is not Afghanistan.”

Flanked by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio – who later announced his support for a Syrian military strike – Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and members of both parties from key national security committees, Mr. Obama said the plan, developed by the Joint Chiefs of staff, will degrade Syrian President Bashar Assad’s capabilities amid mounting evidence he used chemical weapons against his own people.”

From CBS News

The difference between Syria and Iraq is that we know that Syria had weapons of mass destruction, rather than assuming that they do.

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PBS: Newshour: Ray Saurez- ‘Labor Secretary Thomas Perez Reflects on the Future of Unions’

Source:PBS NewsHour– U.S. Secretary of Labor Tomas Perez on the PBS NewsHour.

“Despite a continuing decline of union membership in America, Labor Sec. Thomas Perez remains optimistic about the future of organized labor. “If we are going to bring jobs back, if we’re going to build a robust economy, we have got to recognize that we’re all in this together,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in this interview excerpt with PBS NewsHour senior correspondent Ray Suarez.”

From the PBS NewsHour

“The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor[6] based in Arlington, Virginia. The PBS is a publicly funded[7] nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing series such as American Experience, America’s Test Kitchen, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Downton Abbey, Wild Kratts, Finding Your Roots, Frontline, The Magic School Bus, The Kidsongs Television Show, Masterpiece Theater, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Nature, Nature Cat, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Peg + Cat, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Keeping Up Appearances, and This Old House.[8]

PBS is funded by a combination of member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, pledge drives, and donations from both private foundations and individual citizens. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source.[9] PBS has over 350 member television stations, many owned by educational institutions, nonprofit groups both independent or affiliated with one particular local public school district or collegiate educational institution, or entities owned by or related to state government.”

From Wikipedia

Secretary Thomas Perez made one good point that stood out with me about choice. As a Liberal, I believe in freedom of choice and I’m pro-choice on practically everything, short of hurting innocent people with the choices that we make.

The right to choose or not to choose a labor union is a perfect example of this. Big Government shouldn’t force workers to either join a union or prevent them from joining a union, for the simple fact that government couldn’t know what’s the best economic choice for people they’ve never even met. Let workers make this crucial economic decision for themselves and let the private market decide how important labor unions are in America.

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