Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Dulé Hill, Joshua Malina, Melissa Fitzgerald and William Duffy reprise their West Wing roles walking and talking their way into the Oval Office. Why? To pass one last initiative with the President: To get America walking.
Mitt Romney says US should be adding 500K jobs a month which has only happened 4 times in 50 years
The American economy added 115,000 jobs in April, and while that number fell well short of expectations, it represents the 26th consecutive month of private sector job growth. Remember, when President Obama took office the country was losing 800,000 jobs a month. While disappointing, we are at least not losing jobs today.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appeared on Fox & Friends minutes after the release of the report to say that the economy should be growing at a much faster pace. The economy should be adding more than 500,000 jobs a month, Romney said:
ROMNEY: We should be seeing numbers in the 500,000 jobs created per month. This is way, way off from what should happen in a normal recovery.
Romney’s call for 500,000 jobs a month would certainly make for a faster economic recovery. I’d love to see it happen.
However, that sort of growth is hardly “normal,” as Romney claims.
There have only been 16 months since 1939 — and only four in the last 50 years — in which the economy added 500,000 jobs or more.
Read more at ThinkProgress
The power of punctuation: men vs women
CNN: Why Obama can’t match the Reagan recovery
CNN has an excellent piece up today regarding the differences between what economic pressures President Reagan had to cope with versus President Obama today. Conservatives like to herald Reagan as a super-president, but comparing his situation at this point in his first term to President Obama’s is comparing apples to oranges.
From CNN:
Reagan had an advantage over Obama: The recession of the early 1980s was caused by runaway inflation, which the Federal Reserve countered by hiking interest rates. When inflation dropped, the Fed lowered rates and a massive economic boom resulted.
The major causes of the recent recession were a banking crisis and housing bubble that exploded during President George W. Bush’s final months in office.
Another difference: With comparatively small debt loads, Reagan was able to push through a 23% across-the-board cut of individual income tax rates. Obama, meanwhile, entered the presidency with substantial budget deficits and an economy contracting at a rate of 6.7%.
Something that doesn’t come up in the CNN article but I think bears noting: politics in 1984 were not nearly as partisan as they are today. Back in the 80s “compromise” was not a dirty word. Politicians were more statesman-like and put country first.
From the beginning of the Obama administration, the GOP in DC has stated their main goal for four years was to make President Obama a one term president. And they have done all they could to stop any progress in the US knowing that, even at the pain of the lower and middle classes, if they held progress to a minimum – while cashing their $170,000+ annual salaries – they would diminish President Obama’s chances at reelection.
Read the whole article at CNN.com
NYC budget cuts will eliminate 160 youth shelter beds
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| Carl Siciliano |
NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s newly released budget cuts $7 million to the city’s Runaway and Homeless Youth Services, and plan to eliminate 160 youth shelter beds.
Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center, NYC’s largest LGBT homeless youth shelter, released a statement this morning:
“Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to throw 160 homeless children out of their shelter beds and into the streets is cruel, reckless and contemptible. These cuts create an even bigger crisis for the LGBT teens who are thrown out of their homes and forced to endure homelessness on the streets of our city. The LGBT community needs and demands political leaders who will protect our children. Instead, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed eliminating more than half of their shelter beds. The Ali Forney Center, and all those who work with and care about LGBT homeless youth, will not be silent in the face of this decision, which offends us as a community and needlessly puts our young people in harm’s way.”
According to the Center:
Today’s cuts come in spite of the fact that the need for youth shelter beds continues to grow; in 2011 alone, the waiting list for AFC’s 77 shelter beds grew to 199 youths – an increase of 40 percent over the prior year. In total, the city only funds 250 shelter beds, for a population of 4,000 homeless youth. In response to this crisis, the Ali Forney Center and a number of allied LGBT organizations have launched the Campaign for Youth Shelter. This initiative calls on New York City and State to back an additional $3 million in annual funding, set aside to create 100 new shelter beds every year. The Campaign today calls for the city to raise its Runaway and Homeless Youth Services budget from the just-announced $5 million to $13.5 million, both revoking today’s cuts and including the city’s half of the annual $3 million.
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Gap leans forward
Today, Towleroad pointed out that Gap has jumped on the “attractive male duo” bandwagon with a billboard starring two handsome young men (caught via Twitter by Chris Votaw, or @votaw).
Earlier this week, the New York Times profiled Gap, Inc., noting that after a handful of tumultous, lethargic years, the brand is looking to recapture the sense of understated-cool that they originally heralded in the 90s.
In the 90s Gap was my store of choice. For several seasons, Gap’s “collections” of comfortable clothes perfectly suited my personality at the time. I’d love to see them return to the cost-conscious but quality fashion focus they have shown in the past.
I, personally, appreciate the effort by Gap to make such a public endorsement of support to the LGBTQ community.
I’ve actually been meaning to drop by Gap for a little shop-shop anyway. Now I have even more reason to go.
Next up, expect the advocacy group One Million Moms to start their boycott in 3…2…1…
Dogs in cars
Everyone wants to feel the wind in their hair every now and then.
Dogs rule.
(via towleroad.com)
Rick Santorum on Mitt Romney’s job creation record
Yep – you knew this was coming, didn’t you? A whole primary season’s worth of material custom made for the Democrats and President Obama.
Thank you Rick Santorum for doing our homework.
Btw – Rick Santorum will be campaigning for Mitt Romney soon. At that point I’ll be very confused on who the “flip-flopper” is…
Civil unions bill keeps moving forward in Colorado
The civil unions bill in Colorado, having already passed in the Senate, is moving it’s way through the state House.
From the Huffington Post: Later Thursday night, the civil unions bill to provide legal protections to gay couples similar to marriage passed in the Republican-led committee that rejected the same legislation last year. A Republican who previously voted against the bill said she switched her vote.
The measure faces two more committee votes, but sponsors are optimistic they have enough support to get the legislation within a week to Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is firmly behind the plan.
With passage, Colorado could join the more than a dozen states to offer gays and lesbians legal protections.
Obama campaign takes on the lies in the GOP’s latest attack ad
Stephanie Cutter, Deputy Campaign Manager, shares the facts about Big Oil’s latest attack.
“Hi I’m Stephanie Cutter I’m the Deputy Campaign Manager here at Obama for America and I wanted to arm you with the facts about the latest attach from Big Oil. You may have heard of the Koch brothers they’re secretive oil billionaires bankrolling Republican campaigns and now they’re backing Mitt Romney. Pretty simple reason for this, President Obama would take away billions of dollars in unnecessary oil tax breaks –Mitt Romney would protect them.
So now they’re spending six million dollars on an ad that is so blatantly false the Washington Post said that they have no shame.
Let’s get the facts out because it’s important that you guys know the truth. President Obama has helped create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs. Projects in all 50 states. And the way these oil billionaires and their front group completely ignore the truth is breathtaking.
Let’s take some crazy examples from their attack ad. They claim the administration gave money to build electric cars in Finland. No, the Department of Energy’s funding was specifically for U.S. jobs at U.S. facilities. Sure enough the company is employing 700 workers in California and their planning to build a plant in Delaware.
Okay another ridiculous claim: they said we sent money to China to build traffic lights. That’s wrong again. Those traffic lights were built here, in this country, and helped expand our light manufacturing industry in this country.
They said we gave money to a company building solar plants in Mexico. Nope. And again, our money is going to a solar plant here in America with American workers.
These guys are going to say whatever it takes to tear down the President. They will literally say anything. They oppose expanding clean energy. They oppose higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.
So we’re going to call their BS when we see it. And we need your help to call them on it too and to set the record straight.
So share this, Tweet it, Facebook it. I keep hearing about Tumblr and whatever that is please use that too. And thank you, for all of your help.”