Tag Archives: Saturday

March 7, 2013 · 7:58 AM

One of the Most Powerful Portrayals of What Has Happened to America That You WIll Ever See

They call President Obama a “socialist“ president who is taking from the rich to “spread the wealth” to lower-income Americans.  However, the following video defies that entire concept…

Alternet

A video posted to YouTube back in November 2012 is starting to go viral after Mashable posted it to its site on Saturday.

We all know there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor in the United States, but this video visually captivates viewers by showing just how much of the country’s wealth lies in the hands of the top 20 percent.

http://youtu.be/QPKKQnijnsM

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December 30, 2012 · 2:20 PM

10 things you need to know today: December 30, 2012

A pedestrian walks down Main Street in Greenfield, Mass., on Dec. 27 when an earlier storm hit the region before this weekend's snowfall.

The Week

1. OBAMA ACCUSES REPUBLICANS OF BLOCKING TAX COMPROMISE
In taped remarks for NBC’s Meet the Press, President Obama said that Republicans “have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers” to avoid raising taxes on the middle class, adding that “now the pressure is on Congress to produce.” Unless lawmakers act by midnight on Monday, a set of tax increases and spending cuts will automatically be imposed on Jan. 1, which would affect virtually every taxpayer and government program. On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said “hats off to the president,” because “he is going to get his tax rate increases” on wealthy Americans. Obama’s last offer to Republicans included keeping tax cuts for all Americans except those making more than $400,000. But Republicans were seeking more cuts to programs like Medicare and unemployment benefits, which has remained a point of contention in negotiations. [New York Times, BuzzFeed]
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2. INDIAN RAPE VICTIM’S BODY CREMATED IN NEW DELHI
A young Indian woman who died Saturday from the injuries she sustained from being gang-raped and battered on a New Delhi bus on Dec. 16 has been cremated. Her body had just been flown back to India from Singapore, where she had been transferred for treatment. The woman’s body was met at the airport by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, as officials have seen an outpouring of anger and grief by millions across the country demanding greater protection for women from sexual violence. Six suspects who were arrested for allegedly perpetrating the attack were charged with murder on Saturday. The men face the death penalty if convicted. [Associated Press]
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3. FOOT OF SNOW HITS PARTS OF NEW ENGLAND
A winter storm that began Saturday afternoon and ended early Sunday blanketed parts of New England with up to a foot of snow. Six to 12 inches of snow fell in Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and eastern Massachusetts. The storm spread over the Northeast and parts of Ohio just days after the regions was hit by another storm that moved in from the nation’s midsection. [Associated Press]
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4. SYRIAN ENVOY WARNS OF SURGE IN DEATHS
Lakdhar Brahimi, the international envoy to Syria, warned Sunday that as many as 100,000 Syrians could die in the next year if a solution to the country’s civil war is not found. Activists say that more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began in March 2011. Over the past week Brahimi went to Damascus where he met President Bashar al-Assad then flew to Moscow, one of Syria’s closest international allies, where he discussed ways of ending the country’s crisis. “The situation in Syria is bad. Very, very bad,” Brahimi said after meeting Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby. “The situation is deteriorating.” [Associated Press]
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5. NYC SUBWAY SHOVER CHARGED WITH MURDER
New York City woman Erika Menendez, 31, was charged with murder as a hate crime for allegedly pushing Sunando Sen in front of a 7 train in Queens on Thursday. Sen was crushed to death by the oncoming train. Menendez told police that she has hated Hindus and Muslims since Sept. 11 and pushed Sen because she thought he was Muslim. Sen, 46, was from India but it is unclear whether he was either Hindu or Muslim. Menendez could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. This was the second subway-pushing death this month, though such incidents are generally rare. [CBS News]
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6. FLU SEASON IN U.S. GETS EARLY START, COULD BE SEVERE
The flu season in the United States has made its earliest debut in a decade, say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which could make this flu season severe. In early December, the CDC said it was noticing an uptick in flu activity about a month before authorities normally see it. But officials said the vaccine formulated for this year is well-matched to the strains of the virus seen so far and urged those who have not been vaccinated to get a flu shot. [Washington Post]
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7. GEORGE H.W. BUSH LEAVES INTENSIVE CARE
Former President George H.W. Bush was moved out of intensive care at The Methodist Hospital in Houston on Saturday. Bush was hospitalized Nov. 23 for treatment of a bronchitis-related cough. He was moved to intensive care on Dec. 23 after he developed a fever. Bush, 88, is the country’s oldest living former president. [Associated Press]
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8. 21 PAKISTANI TRIBAL POLICE FOUND SHOT TO DEATH
Officials have found the bodies of 21 Pakistani tribal policemen in the Jabai area of Peshawar. The men, who were believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban, were found shot to death. The policemen disappeared on Thursday when militants attacked two posts in the region. Meanwhile, in southwest Pakistan, a suicide bomber driving a bus packed with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims, killing 19 people. Pakistan has experienced a spike in killings over the last year by radical Sunni Muslims targeting Shiites who they consider heretics. [Associated Press (2)]
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9. VIDEO CAPTURES DEADLY RUSSIAN PLANE CRASH
Amateur video of a Russian plane crash shows part of the passenger aircraft crashing into a highway, debris flying onto the road, before five people aboard were killed. The video shows a car swerving after the impact then straightening and continuing down the highway. Behind that car is the vehicle which had the camera, capturing the scene for just over 30 seconds. That driver dodged most of the debris and managed to pull over and stop. The plane, which is owned by the Russian airline Red Wings was carrying eight people, all of them crew members, when it careered off the runway Saturday while landing at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. The plane was traveling from the Czech Republic. [CBC News]
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10. BEYONCÉ TO BRING 100 FANS ONSTAGE DURING SUPER BOWL SHOW
As part of her new multimillion dollar partnership with Pepsi, singer Beyoncé has asked her fans to submit photos of themselves to be featured in a TV ad promoting her Super Bowl halftime show performance on Feb. 3. Of those who submit pictures by Jan. 19, 50 will be given a pair of tickets to join the singer onstage at the Superdome in New Orleans. [MTV]

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April 29, 2012 · 12:09 AM

Eric Fehrnstrom: Auto Bailout Was Mitt Romney’s Idea

Come on Mitt, you seem to want to claim everything the POTUS has done to help the economy, but you call him a miserable failure.  Which is it?

The Huffington Post

Top Mitt Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom claimed that President Obama’s auto bailout was the GOP presidential hopeful’s idea.

Fehrnstrom said Obama followed Romney’s course to help the auto industry during an appearance at a Saturday roundtable discussion hosted by the The Washington Post.

“His position on the bailout was exactly what President Obama followed,” Fehrnstrom said. “He said, ‘If you want to save the auto industry, just don’t write them a check. That will seal their doom. What they need to do is go through a managed bankruptcy process.’”

“The only economic success that President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney’s advice,” Fehrnstrom added.

Fehrnstrom made headlines back in late March for saying that Romney’s GOP primary positions were as erasable as a drawing on an Etch a Sketch. Fehrnstrom’s Saturday comments marked a different drawing on the auto bailout than what Romney penned in a November 2008 New York Times op-ed.

Headlined “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” the piece closed with these words:

“In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check,” Romney wrote.

According to The Hill, Fehrnstrom pointed to that segment of the op-ed, noting that auto companies are now profitable because of how they cut costs through a“managed bankruptcy.”

“It is exactly what Mitt Romney told them to do,” Fehrnstrom said.

Over the course of the 2012 campaign, President Barack Obama’s campaign has highlighted the successes of his administration’s 2009 auto bailout, headed by the 1.4 million jobs that were saved in the process. In a March 2012 ad entitled “Made In America,” Obama’s campaign did not forget Romney’s ’08 stance.

“When a million jobs were on the line, every Republican candidate turned their back, even said, ‘Let Detroit go Bankrupt,’” the ad said.

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November 12, 2011 · 8:17 AM

11 countries will be watching the GOP debate

Actually I cringe at the thought of so many people around the world watching the “gang of eight idiots” discussing foreign policy.  The one exception might be John Huntsman former U.S. Ambassador in China.

I wonder what kind of world do we live in where Huntsman is at the very bottom of the polls and has remained there throughout the start of the 2012 GOP campaign?  Everyone else has at some point been in the lead, except Rick Santorum (deservedly so) and Huntsman.

Politico

Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate will, at least in theory, require the candidates to explain their view of America’s role in the world. With its focus on national security and foreign policy, the CBS/National Journal debate will force the field to talk about something they’ve, for the most part, spent the campaign avoiding — a coherent vision for American foreign policy.

But with the economy overshadowing all else and most of the GOP field — aside from former Ambassador Jon Huntsman — bereft of significant experience in foreign affairs, expect frequent pivots back to jobs and the unemployment rate.

Those pressures aren’t the only forces driving the presidential candidates to look inward, rather than beyond American shores: The GOP itself is struggling to reconcile the views of the party’s hawkish wing with the more isolationist-oriented tea party wing.

Even within those confines, there are some nations and foreign policy issues that are likely to receive extended treatment in Saturday’s s debate in South Carolina. Here is POLITICO’s list of 11 countries to watch:

Italy and Greece

The deeply-in-debt Mediterranean nations are the epicenter of Europe’s financial problems and are used as cautionary tales by Republican candidates warning about the dangers of unchecked federal government spending.

Look for candidates to mention those nations, currently in the headlines as fiscal basket cases, as worst-case scenarios in the event America fails to reduce the nation’s ballooning deficit and reform entitlement spending.

Continue reading here…

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November 4, 2011 · 9:04 AM

650,000 Americans Joined Credit Unions Last Month — More Than In All Of 2010 Combined

The #Occupy movement played a huge role in convincing so many people to shift their money from commercial banks to credit unions…

Think Progress

One of the tactics the 99 Percenters are using to take back the country from the 1 percent is to move their money from big banks to credit unions, community banks, and other smaller financial unions that aren’t gambling with our nation’s future.

Now, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) reports that a whopping 650,000 Americans have joined credit unions since Sept. 29 — the date that Bank of America announced it would start charging a $5 monthly debit fee, a move  it backed down on this week.

To put that in perspective, there were only 600,000 new members for credit unions in all of 2010. “These results indicate that consumers are clearly making a smarter choice by moving to credit unions where, on average, they will save about $70 a year in fewer or no fees, lower rates on loans and higher return on savings,” said CUNA President Bill Cheney.

This Saturday, 99 Percenters are calling on Americans to move their money from big banks to credit unions and community banks on what is being called “Bank Transfer Day.” If you want to stand with the 99 Percent and take part in this action, use the Move Your Money project’scommunity bank and credit union finder tool to find out how.

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October 30, 2011 · 12:39 AM

TV that deserves the name “journalism”

I am a very pleased fan of Up With Chris Hayes, the weekend morning news show that already has over 150,000 viewers and has only been on for about a month or so.

I DVR the show since it comes on at 7am on Saturdays and 8am on Sundays…

Salon – David Sirota

Chris Hayes’ new show on MSNBC provides a rare space for the expansive, non-partisan debates we need

Waking up at 4 a.m. is rarely enjoyable, and arising at that unspeakable hour to appear on a cable news show is particularly painful. In such situations, you feel as if you’re dragging yourself out of bed only to be treated like a canine in a dogfight, with the typical show pitting you in a contrived death match against another guest who is your equally angry, equally mangy opposite. That, or you’re simply asked to play the yes-man — the Ed McMahon to the host’s Johnny Carson.

Needless to say, I’m not a fan of most cable news because I find this format mind-numbing, uninformative and tedious (and cable news’ declining ratings over the last year prove I’m not alone). So when I was asked to appear on MSNBC last Saturday morning, my initial thought was, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

But then I realized it was a new show hosted by Chris Hayes, a journalist whose work I’ve long admired. So I said yes. And crack-of-dawn fatigue aside, I’m glad I did, because to my surprise, I ended up getting the chance to participate in one of the best television programs on the air.

“Up With Chris Hayes,” which broadcasts Saturday and Sunday mornings, purposely rejects the manufactured red-versus-blue mallet that bludgeons every issue into partisan terms. Instead, the program’s host is creating a space for more expansive discussions with voices typically deemed too unconventional, provocative or dangerous to be allowed anywhere near a television set.

Continue reading here…

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