Tag Archives: George Stephanopoulos

April 1, 2013 · 11:07 AM

Cardinal Dolan To Gay Couples: You’re Only ‘Entitled To Friendship’

Too bad some religious organizations are myopic to the cultural and political sea change occurring in modern society…

Think Progress

Cardinal Timothy Dolan told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that gay people are entitled to “friendship” but not a long-last romantic relationship in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

Appearing on the program following oral arguments at the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of two laws targeting gay and lesbian couples, Dolan said that the Church should treat same-sex couples with love, while reminding them that “sexual love…is intended only for a man and a woman”:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (HOST): And you know, especially this week – because it’s been at the top of the news – for many gay and lesbian Americans –– gay and lesbian Catholics, they feel unwelcome –– in the Church. And what do you say as a minister, as a pastor – to a gay couple that comes to you and say, “We love God. We love the Church. But we also love each other, and we –– want to raise a family in faith. What do you say to them?

DOLAN: Well, the first thing I’d say to them is, “I love you, too. And God loves you. And you are made in God’s image and likeness. And – and we – we want your happiness. But – and you’re entitled to friendship.” But we also know that God has told us that the way to happiness, that – especially when it comes to sexual love – that is intended only for a man and woman in marriage, where children can come about naturally. We gotta be – we gotta do better to see that our defense of marriage is not reduced to an attack on gay people. And I admit, we haven’t been too good at that.

Dolan has been vocal in his opposition to marriage equality, repeatedly condemning the rights of same-sex couples under the guise of love and support for the gay community.

After lobbying against New York’s marriage equality law, Dolan prohibited by decree any Church personnel or property from being utilized for same-sex marriage ceremonies under penalty of “canonical sanctions,” calling the state’s law “irreconcilable with the nature and the definition of marriage as established by Divine law.” He has also compared the “threat” posed to marriage by gays and lesbians to that of polygamy, adultery, forced marriage, communist dictatorships, and incest.

Despite his rhetoric, a majority of New York Catholics supported the marriage equality bill months before it came to a vote and still do.

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January 23, 2013 · 1:29 AM

Colin Powell to GOP – Stop This ‘Birther Nonsense’ And Voter Suppression (VIDEO)

Colin spoke truth to power on Monday…

Addicting Info

Yikes. I wonder what’s going through GOP minds as they continue to be slammed by the overall well respected former Secretary of State Colin Powell? Last week, Powell, who served in high-profile roles during the Reagan administration and both Bush administrations, told Meet the Press:

“There is also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party….They look down on minorities…When I see a former governor say that the president is shucking and jiving. That is a racial era slave term. When I see another former governor – says that the president was lazy. It may not mean anything to most Americans. But to those of us who are African-Americans, the second word is shiftless and then there is a third word that goes along with it.” (Source)

He then proceeded to defend Hillary Clinton against right-wing smears:

“Well, you can’t keep everything from happening. Benghazi was a very, very difficult one and a difficult situation and maybe they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. And I think that we have had a good review of that by Ambassador Pickering and Admiral Mullen and I don’t know whether the Congress in their examination of Mrs. Clinton will find something that they find distasteful. But I don’t think it’s a blot on her record.” (Source)

Powell even went as far as to imply that Clinton would make a good president:

”I think she’d be good at whatever she does, whether she is interested in it or not, I will let her opine on that.”

And well, of course, he endorsed President Obama in 2008 and 2012, and the GOP is still (and will always be) sore about that.

So what is he up to this week? He’s chastising the GOP for not speaking out about the lunatics in their party and he’s advising them to loudly denounce the “birther nonsense” and “other things that demonize the president.” In an ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, the four star general said:

“Republicans have to stop buying into things that demonize the president. I mean, why aren’t Republican leaders shouting out about all this birther nonsense and all these other things? They should speak out. This is the kind of intolerance that I’ve been talking about where these idiot presentations continue to be made and you don’t see the senior leadership of the party say, ‘No, that’s wrong.’ In fact, sometimes by not speaking out, they’re encouraging it. And the base keeps buying the stuff.

And it’s killing the base of the party. I mean, 26 percent favorability rating for the party right now. It ought to be telling them something. So, instead of attacking me or whoever speaks like I do, look in the mirror and realize, ‘How are we going to win the next election?”

Oh and one more thing. He accused them of voter suppression. Yes, he did.

“The Republican Party ought to be out there not restricting voting by voter ID, but saying we want everybody to vote,” he said. “It’s a party that has to stop saying, ‘We are going to appeal to you with new messages.’ You need policies — the country is becoming more minority.”

And he said the same thing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show:

“Should we really have gone after reducing the turnout of voters in those places where we thought it would make a difference?” he asked. “The Republican Party should be a party that says, ‘We want everybody to vote,’ and make it easier for people to vote and give them a reason to vote for the party, and not to find ways to keep them from voting at all.” (Source)

Many conservatives are calling Powell a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only), but he maintains that he’s still a Republican. Why?

“I grew up under Ronald Reagan and Cap Weinberger and George Schultz and George Herbert Walker Bush — that’s the Republican party I know — the Howard Bakers of the world, and I think we’ve drifted from that. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to drift a little bit back. Not because it’s just good to be moderate, but because that’s where the American people are. They lost an election — two.”

Will someone please tell the GOP that this man is trying to send them a message? He’s doing everything but parachuting into their little retreats and pulling them up by their shirt collars and saying “LISTEN”.

No, he’s not a RINO. He has no reason whatsoever to lie about being a Republican.

No, he didn’t endorse President Obama because he’s Black. He endorsed President Obama because the GOP keeps tossing up idiots as candidates. I’d bet a paycheck that if Hillary Clinton runs in 2016, he’ll be endorsing her as well.

He’s offering the GOP, free of charge, his opinion that if they don’t get their act together and move with the rest of the country, they’re definitely going to be DINOs (dinosaurs).

“The country is moving more toward the center. There are social changes taking place in this country that are irreversible and there is demographic change … you can’t just say, ‘Well, we’ll fix our message,’” he said. “It’s not the message. You have to appeal with policies and programs to these people who are going to be the leaders of our country in a generation.” (Source)

I suppose General Powell is attempting to soldier on in his attempts to penetrate the thick skulls of the Republican party leaders. I don’t have a military-like acumen, but I’ll say this: You, sir, are wasting your time. It ain’t gonna happen.

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September 15, 2012 · 2:26 PM

Mittster Tales

 

Mitt Romney / Paul Ryan - The 2 Stooges : http://mariopiperni.com/

Mario Piperni

Here’s a lovely little chat George Stephanopoulos had with Mitt Romney.

Romney: “No one can say my plan is going to raise taxes on middle-income people, because principle number one is (to) keep the burden down on middle-income taxpayers.”

Stephanopoulos: “Is $100,000 middle income?”

Romney: “No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less.”

Median household income in the U.S. is just over $50,000. I’m starting to believe the rumors that Romney really is an idiot…albeit, a rich idiot.

___

And this…

With the first presidential debate less than three weeks away, Mitt Romney is spending lots of time getting ready behind closed doors.  In his first comments on that debate prep, he told me that Sen. Rob Portman is a tough stand-in for a president who basically lies in debates.

“I think the challenge that I’ll have in the debate is that the president tends to, how shall I say it, to say things that aren’t true,” Romney said. “I’ve looked at prior debates.  And in that kind of case, it’s difficult to say, ‘Well, am I going to spend my time correcting things that aren’t quite accurate? Or am I going to spend my time talking about the things I want to talk about?”

Lovely. A serial liar is accusing his opponent of lying. This is a clear case of Romney protecting himself in advance from the mauling he’s going to take in those debates. He knows he won’t be able to defend his positions on tax cuts, health care, Medicare, immigration and foreign policy, so he’s pulling a Palin. He’ll only answer the questions he wishes to answer and even then, he’ll follow a carefully scripted set of talking points.

This guy’s evasiveness could not be more transparent. I hope he doesn’t think he’s fooling anyone.

___

We discovered yesterday that Mitt Romney asked for 10 years of tax returns from Paul Ryan but still refuses to make public more than two years of his own returns. The Obama campaign came out with this ad yesterday.

Despite the pounding Romney has taken on this issue from all sides, it’s become evident that he won’t be releasing any more returns…which just reinforces the belief that there must be something terribly ugly in those returns. Romney’s making a serious bid for Worst Presidential Candidate Ever honors.

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September 14, 2012 · 9:32 PM

Romney: Obama ‘tends to say things that aren’t true’

 

Mitt Romney speaks to ABC News

Behold, the master of cognitive dissonance…

The Raw Story

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says the upcoming debates will be tough because President Barack Obama has a tendency to “say things that aren’t true.”

“I think he’s going to say a lot of things that aren’t accurate,” Romney told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired on Friday. “I’m tempted to go back to that wonderful line by Ronald Reagan — ‘There you go again’ — but you can’t use something that’s [already been used].”

“Bill Clinton used that about you the other day during the Democratic Convention,” Stephanopoulos noted.

“I didn’t happen to see that, but doubt we’re going to pull out something from Ronald Reagan, he’s one of a kind,” the former Massachusetts governor explained. “But the challenge I’ll have is that the president tends to, how shall I say it, say things that aren’t true in attacking his opponents.”

“I’ve looked at prior debates and in that kind of case, it’s difficult to say, well, am I going to spend my time correcting things that aren’t quite accurate or am I going spend my time talking about the things I want to talk about? And that’s the challenge.”

But President Obama may also have his hands full when it comes to fact checking the Republican nominee.

MSNBC’s Steve Benen spent months chronicling Romney’s “mendacity” and claimed to have found 533 falsehoods in 30 weeks, according to a tally by blogger Fred Clark.

“I don’t know the Republican candidate personally, but from a distance, it appears there’s a part of his brain that allows him to create some kind of deliberate blind-spot,” Benen wrote during the 30th week. “It’s actually a little scary to think of a leader — a man who’d be given enormous power and influence, literally making life and death decisions on a regular basis — who can convince himself that his falsehoods are true, and that others’ truths are falsehoods.”

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June 28, 2011 · 10:15 AM

What Is Michele Bachmann’s Problem?

The woman is clearly out of touch with reality. 

In fact, her robotic like answers to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Good morning America must scare even her own supporters.

Think Progress

Straight out of the gate in the 2012 presidential race, self-described “scholarly” candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has tripped over basic facts.

Yesterday, she accidentally heralded a serial killer.

Today, on ABC’s Good Morning America, she defended her “pants on fire” statement that the “Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery” (they didn’t) by insisting that John Quincy Adams was a Founding Father (he wasn’t). After host George Stephanopoulos pointed out that John Quincy Adams — the son of John Adams — did fight against slavery “decades later,” Bachmann stood by her historical interpretation.

Watch it:

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February 17, 2011 · 2:06 PM

Michele Bachmann Refuses To Say Whether President Obama Is A Citizen On GMA

Just like “Carribou Barbie”, Michele Bachmann is absolutely clueless, yet both have aspirations on pursuing the highest office in the land.  Go figure…

Mediaite

In an interview Thursday morning on ABC’s Good Morning America, Rep. Michele Bachmann talked about her interest in the White House, how she’d handle the Middle East as president, and even Lady Gaga. What she wouldn’t say, however, was whether the president was a Christian and a citizen. “That’s not for me to state,” Bachmann told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “When the president makes his statements, I think they should stand for their own.”

Pressed by Stephanopoulos to simply express her own views on President Obama’s citizenship, if she would “declare the president is a citizen, and he is a Christian,” Bachmann refused, pivoting to talk about the stimulus package. Earlier in the interview, Bachmann–reminded that Obama had repeatedly declared himself a citizen–said she “took him at his word” but wouldn’t go beyond that.

Watch the exchange here, from ABC:

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November 17, 2010 · 6:33 AM

Bachmann: Tax Cuts For Wealthy Must Be Extended, But Not If Tied To ‘Massive Spending’ On Unemployed

Another rich, selfish Republican…

Think Progress

As Congress launches into the lame duck session, congressional Republicans are demanding an extension of all the Bush tax cuts, even for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, at an added cost to the deficit of $830 billion over the next ten years. Meanwhile, they have refused to support a continuation of unemployment benefits, which are set to expire next month, claiming that a continuation “will only add to the deficit.”

This morning, in an interview with Tea Party Caucus leader Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), ABC’s Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos picked up on the discrepancy between caring about the deficit when adding to it helps the poor, but not when it helps the rich. Asked if she would support a compromise which extended both the tax cuts and the unemployment benefits, Bachmann said no, characterizing letting the tax cuts expire as a “massive tax increase,” while dismissing extending unemployment benefits as “massive spending”:

BACHMANN: As far as a compromise goes, I want to get the current tax policy as far into the future as we can, if we can only get it extended for two years, that’s great. But I don’t think the American people should have to pay for that to have some new massive spending tied to it. If that’s the case, I don’t think you’re going to see the Republicans go along with it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But why is it OK for the wealthiest Americans earning over $250,000 a year — remember the President has called for extending all tax cuts for those under $250,000 — for them to get tax cuts extended but for people out of a job and needing unemployment benefits not to have their benefits extended?

BACHMANN: Well remember again what this is. It’s a massive tax increase and its on the people who are job creators. And people want to think that these are millionaires sitting in leather chairs lighting their cigars with $100 bills, that’s not what we’re talking about. These are people who are carpet layers who may be employed two or three other guys, or a plumber, maybe himself and his brother, and it’s $250,000 in gross sales for their business. Their the ones looking at massive tax increases. …That’s going to hurt more people than anything if we can’t have job creation. And this is a job killer if we raise taxes on the job creators.

Continue reading and see video here…

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October 25, 2010 · 1:41 AM

White House Goes Into Bunker Mode

Today begins the last full week before the midterm elections…

Daily Beast

As the GOP prepares for landslide in November (The Daily Beast’s Election Oracle forecasts a 50/50 split in the Senate and a substantial Republican lead in the House), the Obama team seems powerless to stop it. Howard Kurtz on its fascinating belief that the bully pulpit has been downsized, forcing the leader of the free world to shout for attention.

Imagine if the Chilean mining disaster had happened here in the States. President Obama would have been hammered for 69 days for failing to rescue the men, right up to the moment the first one was pulled to safety.

That’s the sensibility inside the White House these days: If there’s a bad story out there, even one far removed from the presidential orbit, the Obama crowd will own it. Every administration feels besieged at times, pilloried by the press, misunderstood by the public. But conversations with White House officials suggest a team that feels almost snakebit during a midterm election that is likely to produce substantial losses.

“There’s an alternative story here that we’re trying to tell,” says Dan Pfeiffer, the communications director. “But there’s an element of spitting in the ocean.”

During the long election slog, “a narrative takes hold, and trying to beat those narratives can be challenging and frustrating,” he says. “Some of the news coverage is focused on more of the negatives and few of the positives. But I don’t think that’s surprising, given the environment.”

Obama certainly bears responsibility for a wide range of missteps and a perverse talent for turning winning (on the Hill) into losing (in the court of public opinion). But what’s fascinating is the belief that the bully pulpit has been permanently downsized, forcing the leader of the free world to shout for attention in a cacophonous world.

It sounds absurd: Obama can instantly command attention any time he wants. He can pop onto the Today show, plop himself on Jay Leno’s couch, get himself on the cover of The New York Times Magazine, chat up the kids on MTV, diagram basketball brackets on ESPN. This week he’ll drop by The Daily Show and match wits with Jon Stewart. Everything he says is news.   Continue reading…

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September 9, 2010 · 2:47 AM

Right wing compares book burning to building a community center

It appears that all of the right wing idealogues got their  marching orders and talking points from Karl Rove or whomever is faxing them to the nut-jobs these days:

Media Matters

 

Beck: “It’s just like the Ground Zero mosque plan.” In a September 6 blog post to his website The Blaze, Glenn Beck wrote:

I’m on vacation and trying to unplug but the news can make that hard. I just read the story about the Florida church planning to burn copies of the Koran.

What is wrong with us?  It’s just like the Ground Zero mosque plan.   Does this church have the right?  Yes.  Should they?  No.  And not because of the potential backlash or violence. Simply because it is wrong.

Palin: Quran burning “is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.” In a September 8 post to her Facebook account, Fox News contributor Sarah Palin wrote:

Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.

I would hope that Pastor Terry Jones and his supporters will consider the ramifications of their planned book-burning event. It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don’t feed that fire. If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive.

Our nation was founded in part by those fleeing religious persecution. Freedom of religion is integral to our charters of liberty. We don’t need to agree with each other on theological matters, but tolerating each other without unnecessarily provoking strife is how we ensure a civil society. In this as in all things, we should remember the Golden Rule. Isn’t that what the Ground Zero mosque debate has been about?

Barnes: “[T]his is similar in one way to the Ground Zero mosque.” On the September 7 edition of Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, Fox news contributor and Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes criticized plans to burn the Quran, and claimed that “Islamophobia” was “not sweeping America.” Barnes further claimed:

But look, this is similar in one way to the Ground Zero mosque, the mosque that is planned to be built on the fringe of Ground Zero. And that is, it is what Sarah Palin called an unnecessary provocation. And this is a provocation, and that’s what General Petraeus is worried about.

Beck guest host Glover: “[T]his burning the Quran issue is very similar to building the mosque on ground zero.” During the September 8 edition of The Glenn Beck Program, guest host Dave Glover said that the debate over whether it was appropriate to burn copies of the Quran was “about wise choices” and that “this burning of the Quran issue is very similar to the building of the mosque on ground zero.” Glover further claimed, “Just because you have the right to do something doesn’t mean you should.”

Bolling and Geller agree: “The sensitivity issue” of Islamic community center and burning Qurans is “the same.” During the September 7 edition of Fox Business’ Money Rocks, host Eric Bolling claimed, “The sensitivity issue seems to be the key here for the mosque. Is it not the same issue with the Quran burning on Saturday?” He then asked, “So therefore, if you don’t want them to burn the Quran on Saturday, why wouldn’t Muslims — moderate Muslims — simply say, ‘Hey, it’s too sensitive an area downtown; move the mosque?’” Guest Pamela Geller, who has helped lead the push against the Islamic community center, said that the two were “the exact same issue.” Geller also said that “the burning of books is wrong.”

Boehner lumps in “Pastor Jones” with “those who want to build the mosque.” During the September 8 edition of ABC News’ Good Morning America, host George Stephanopoulos asked House minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) about Jones’ plans to burn copies of the Quran. Boehner invoked the Islamic Community Center in Manhattan in his response: “Well, to Pastor Jones and those who want to build the mosque: Just because you have a right to do something in America does not mean it is the right thing to do.”

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