At noon today the world ended as the sound of seven trumpets was replaced by the words “I, Donald John Trump…” Until then it was a fairly good run. An excellent run, in retrospect, considering what we’re losing.
barack obama
Obama Should Tell the Truth About the American Economy
The president and everybody in his administration really must stop talking about how much better off we are today than we were eight years ago. Here is the disastrous truth.
Ransom Rubbish
Oliver North would have you believe that the Obama Administration paid a $400 million ransom to Iran in exchange for three Americans. His history and compass are off. Here’s a little reminder.
“Grief Beyond Description”: In Orlando, Obama Comforts Survivors of Pulse Massacre
After meeting with the families, Obama and Biden went to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, where they placed bouquets of 49 white roses — one for each of the people who died in the attack — at a makeshift memorial there.
Master of Obstruction: Why McConnell Is Picking a Fight Over Scalia’s Replacement
It is less about blocking liberal policy goals than about boosting Republican chances. Remarkably, McConnell has chosen a path that would seem to reduce his party’s odds in November.
E Pluribus Un-American:
The Judeo-Christian Smear of Islam
President Obama’s trip to a mosque to reassure American Muslims of their importance should have been unnecessary. It reveals how deep-seated prejudice remains, especially that of conservative Christians who claim to preach acceptance.
Shirley Chisholm, “Part of the Heritage of Palm Coast,” Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom
Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for president, retired to Palm Coast in 1991. She received the posthumous medal from President Obama today as an awareness campaign about her life and impact on Palm Coast grows locally.
How George W. Bush and Benjamin Netanyahu Helped Iran Win the Middle East
Bush’s wars in the Middle East left Iran as the most influential actor in Iraq, while Netanyahu’s vulgarity and stupidity have fundamentally misunderstood the Iran challenge of regional mastery.
Obama Doctrines, Bland Rhetoric, and the Mealy-Mouthed West
From President Barack Obama’s oxymoronic first-term mantra “leading from behind” to the recent German variant “leading from the center,” empty phrases have become the currency of Western governments, writes Ana Palacio.
Israel’s Problem Isn’t Iran or Hamas.
It’s Benjamin Netanyahu.
The manner of Netanyahu’s reelection–his lies, his bigotry, his fear-mongering–lays bare the method of a man who should not be trusted, and who is taking Israel down its most dangerous paths yet.
Rudy Giuliani Loses It
Donald Kaul has been trying to make up his mind about Rudy Giuliani: “I can’t decide whether he’s a nutball or a sleazeball,” he writes. “For now I’m going with a sleazy nutball, but I’m open to suggestions.”
Lest We Get On Our High Horse: Obama’s Caution to Self-Righteous Christians
President Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast cautioned Christians against shutting their eyes to their own brutal past, but was rebuked by Evangelicals and the conservative press, often with flurries of historical inaccuracies.
In Boon for Florida, Obama Will Normalize Full Diplomatic Relations With Cuba After 53 Years of Cold War
The two nations will open embassies in Havana and Washington, D.C., 53 years and 10 presidents after Dwight Eisenhower, citing “self-respect,” closed the American Embassy in the Cuban capital on Jan. 3, 1961.
Drawing Mixed Response, Jeb Bush Says He Will “Actively Explore” Running For President in 2016
Bush, 61, made the announcement a day after giving a commencement address at the University of South Carolina — a state that plays a major role in Republican primaries. If he ultimately decides to run, Bush would seek to follow his father and brother into the White House.
Ebola Isn’t a Problem in the U.S.
Hysteria and Xenophobia Are.
There is not going to be an Ebola epidemic in the United States. There isn’t one now. But there is a an epidemic of hysteria and cowardice that’s costing more lives in Africa, and that could threaten the West if segregationists have their way.
Obama’s Poisonous ISIS Moment and
The Snare of Remote-Controlled War
It’s not enough to be fighting a losing war in Afghanistan and another against “terror” in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and wherever else Obama wants to play centurion to the world. Expanding the war to Syria is a grave error whose unintended consequences will add to 13 years’ worth of American setbacks in the Middle East.
Impeaching Obama, Ghastly Gaza, The Times Goes to Pot, Sarah Palin Goes Oprah
The GOP fantasizes about impeaching Obama, The New York Times finally loves pot legalization, Gaza explodes all sorts of myths, Sarah Palin launches a ghastly channel, Siegfried Sassoon reminds us of heroism’s ironies, and what your stomach does to a burger.
Obama as Worst President Since 1945, Pains of Being a Black Gun Owner, Target’s Gun Ban, Killing Civil Rights
A new poll finds a third of Americans rating Obama the worst president since World War II and Reagan the best, Target finally bans guns from its stores, how the Civil Rights Act could never pass today, Huckleberry Finn’s censors, and more.
Pot’s Uphill Toke in Florida, CIA Torture Cover-Up, Obama Between Two Ferns, Dieudonné: The Live Wire
Florida’s medical marijuana amendment is no sure thing, a senator reveals a CIA torture cover-up, Bill O’Reilly attacks Obama’s Between Two Ferns appearance, Kevin bacon offers up 1980s awareness, Dieudonné heats up the hate on France’s comedy circuit.
The Slow-Motion Lynching Of President Barack Obama
If this country will lynch a brilliant, civil, kind, humble, compassionate, moderate, articulate, black intellectual we’re lucky enough to have in the White House, argues Frank Schaeffer, we’ll lynch anyone. What chance does an anonymous black man pulled over in a traffic stop have of fair treatment when the former editor of the Harvard Law Review is being lynched?
The Shame of Guantanamo, 11 Years On
The irony should not be lost on us that our congressional district is represented by Ron DeSantis, the sort of fanatic who had no trouble advertising his brief service in Guantanamo’s kangaroo courts as a badge of honor while leaving silent his employment with a more legitimate Florida corporate law firm. With political charlatans like that in Congress, it’s no wonder Guantanamo endures.
Obama’s Free Press Problem: Why Reporters in the U.S. Now Need Protection
The Obama administration has made the most concerted effort since the Nixon years to intimidate officials from talking to a reporter. Paul Steiger, Paul Steiger recipient of this year’s the Burton Benjamin Memorial award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, argues for a response.
1963’s Familiar Bloodstains: Far Right Politics from JFK to Barack Obama
John F. Kennedy was called treasonous and was the target of a relentless far-right campaign to vilify and demolish his presidency by demagogues and media barons whose ideological descendants have unleashed the same tactics on Barack Obama, writes Steve Robinson.
Favoring Defense Industry Over Human Rights, Obama Loosens Restrictions on Arms Exports
The United States is loosening controls over military exports, in a shift that former U.S. officials and human rights advocates say could increase the flow of American-made military parts to the world’s conflicts and make it harder to enforce arms sanctions. In 2011, the U.S. concluded $66 billion in arms sales agreements, nearly 80 percent of the global market.
Loretta Lynn, Just Named Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient, at Peabody on Sept. 13
Last month President Obama named Loretta Lynn, alongside Gloria Steinem and Bill Clinton, among others, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. The 81-year-old country star will be at Daytona Beach’s Peabody Auditorium for one show on Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Unemployment Falls Slightly, Job Rolls Grow Slightly, Austerity’s Anemia Persists
There’s nothing terribly bad about the July unemployment report, released this morning. There’s nothing terribly good about it, either: the economy added just 162,000 jobs, and the 7.4 percent unemployment rate is the lowest since December 2008, but improvements are at a crawl.
Obama in Jacksonville Thursday in Economy Tour as GOP Ridicules Visit
President Barack Obama plans an appearance Thursday in Jacksonville to talk about economic issues, and the Republican Party of Florida has already launched a counter-attack.
Obama on Stand Your Ground and Zimmerman Aftermath: “Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago”
As protests have continued and grown, President Obama Friday afternoon spoke on the stand your ground law, the Zimmerman trial aftermath, Trayvon Martin and race more expansively and in more personal terms than he had since his speech on race from Philadelphia as a presidential candidate in 2008. The full text and video are included.
The Undoing of Barack Obama
President Barack Obama is no longer on a roll. We have become a laughingstock in the international community, writes Donald Kaul, obstructionist House Republicans are treating the immigration bill as their favorite hostage, and many more landmines await.
President Barack Aux Scandals
The Benghazi story is a bogus scandal. IRS targeting of conservative groups and the Justice Department’s hacking of reporters’ phones is not. The Obama presidency is getting derailed, and that’s without going down the path of even more serious scandals Washington and the electorate are accepting as business as usual.
Grinding Down: U.S. Unemployment Falls to 7.5% as 165,000 Jobs Are Created
The national unemployment rate ticked down to 7.5 percent in April, from 7.6 percent in March, as the economy added 165,000 jobs, a bit more than analysts had predicted. But job-creation figures for the two previous months were revised upward, with 332,000 jobs created in February (instead of 268,000) and 138,000 in March (instead of 88,000).
Obama II
Far from a dud, as these second inaugurals tend to be, Obama’s today was bracing in its realism, and hopeful, ironically, for having finally shed the imagery of hope for hope’s sake, replacing it with an agenda for equality, little heard of since the days of the New Deal and the Great Society.
The Thanks and Reverence We Owe Undocumented Immigrants
We’ve admitted that these immigrants aren’t going away. Let’s admit our co-dependence, let’s restore their dignity, and America’s, and admit that illegal immigration is as American as apple pie, if not as American as empanadas.
Obama’s Inauguration Sells Out
President Barack Obama, reversing his own honorable precedent for his first inaugural, has chosen this time to have corporations pay for his second round of big shindigs. This multimillion-dollar infusion of corporate cash is a crass intrusion by favor-seeking private interests into what ought to be a purely public occasion.
Economy Unimpressively Adds 155,000 Jobs in Holiday Month as Unemployment Rises to 7.8%
The American economy cannot shake its anemia, adding 155,000 jobs in December–not quite good enough to keep up with normal growth in the labor force, as unemployment edged back up to 7.8 percent.
Despite Sandy, Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.7%, Best Since December 2008
Despite Hurricane Sandy and economists’ predictions of a poor jobs report, the economy added 146,000 jobs in November, for a combined 416,000 jobs in the last three months. But the numbers are still lower than what they should be for a robust recovery.
Donald Trump’s Disciples: Obama’s Victory Still Birthing Dispute in a Tallahassee court
In a largely forgotten court case being litigated in Tallahassee, lawyers are still arguing about whether President Barack Obama was qualified to run for president in the first place.
Obama and the Southern Tradition
Mitt Romney and his diminishing white-male-America coalition wanted to put Barack Obama in his place. He failed. But certain realities of southern tradition endure, as does a racism in American politics that coursed through the 2012 election.
Florida’s Political Petals: Where Obama and Romney Will Win Easily, Region By Region
From Little Haiti to West Orlando to The Villages and rural northeast Florida, certain regions are sure wins for either Obama or Romney, and counties ripe for each campaigns’ get-out-the-vote ground game. An analysis.
U.S. Economy Adds 171,000 Jobs in October, Topping Half a Million in Last 3 Months
The economy added 171,000 jobs in October, exceeding economists’ expectation of 135,000, and figures for August and September were revised upward, adding 84,000 to previous tallies, for a total of 511,000 jobs in the last three months.
Obama Clings to Smallest Lead in Florida, But His Ohio Margin May Make Florida Irrelevant
The latest Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS News poll–one of the more reliable polls tracking the swing-state electorate–shows President Obama again in the lead in Florida. A larger lead in Ohio may make Florida irrelevant to Obama’s path to 270 electoral votes.
Flagler’s First Day of Early Voting Brings Out 2,172, But Turnout May Be Lower Than in 2008
The voting line snaked around at the Flagler County Public Library for most of the first day of early voting, but with one fewer voting location, four fewer days and diminished enthusiasm, it’ll take a greater surge of voting to top the 2008 tallies.
Ghost Election: Obama, Romney and The Future of the U.S. Supreme Court
The next president could very well appoint one or two new justices. And who steps down among the justices first could also depend on who’s elected. Here’s a guide to the election and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Watch the Presidential Debates in Full
In case you cannot get to a television–or in case you’re at work, or on a dull date, with your iPhone in your lap–we’re embedding Google’s YouTube feed of tonight’s presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Amendment 1: Floridians Will Get Their Say on Obamacare, But Only Symbolically
Lawmakers have proposed a constitutional amendment that, if passed, would say Floridians can’t be forced to buy health coverage. At least in the short term, the measure would appear to have little effect, but House sponsor Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, pointed to what he sees as a “basic right” that Floridians should not be “fined, taxed or penalized for our health care choices.”
Big Bird Debate: How Much Does
Federal Funding Matter to PBS Anyway?
The amount of tax dollars PBS receives is roughly .012 percent of the $3.8 trillion federal budget – or about $1.35 per person per year, compared to $22.48 in Canada and $80.36 in Britain. Public broadcasting is a popular target among conservatives, who’ve long portrayed it as an example of wasteful government spending.
Romney’s Foreign Policy Vacuums
Today’s foreign policy address by Romney, to the Virginia Military Institute, was better suited for the Hoover Historical Center in Canton, Ohio. He spoke for about half an hour. He said absolutely nothing that might have told us what his foreign policy would be–or what he thinks it is today.
Obama’s Clobbering
Mitt Romney demolished the Obama mystique in Denver while Obama surrendered: This is the Obama flincher we’ve come to know. The man of a thousand retreats. The prevaricator. The terminated.
Where Obama Fear and Loathing Comes From
Charles Kesler’s new book on Barack Obama loathing is a window into the closing of the conservative mind, which Mark Lilla’s review opens a notch to let in a breath of wit–unusual for unusually dour liberals.
Obama Opens Biggest Florida Lead Yet As Romney Reels from 47% Remark
Romney’s challenge is no longer to win just undecided voters–a very thin sliver–but to win back voters who have decided to give Obama a second term. The three October debates are Romney’s last chance to make a play for those voters.