Today's edition of quick hits:
* Talking about talking: "Iran and six world powers ended two days of difficult talks on Iran's disputed nuclear program on Thursday with no clear signs of progress, but they agreed to reconvene for more negotiations in Moscow next month."
* European mess: "Economic reports Thursday showed Europe's prospects dimming as the long battle to defend the euro zone continued to undermine confidence and raised the prospect of a renewed cycle of demands for austerity."
* Quite a career: "Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney who oversaw the criminal prosecutions of successive Illinois governors on corruption charges as well as of the former Bush administration White House aide I. Lewis Libby Jr., will resign at the end of June, the Justice Department announced Wednesday."
* There's a terrific story behind this beautiful White House photo.
* What a shame: "The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which distinguished itself amid great adversity during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, is about to enact large staff cuts and may cut back its daily print publishing schedule."
* Michael Fumento worked for Reagan and wrote for National Review, but he just can't take the radicalized right anymore.
* Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) keeps finding new ways to annoy people.
* Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), hoping to end his birther mess, wrote an extended apology in the Denver Post, conceding that his comments were "boneheaded."
* Speaking of boneheaded, Fox News' attacks on Fairleigh Dickinson University are misguided. (Don't blame the messenger, Fox.)
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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As the NY Times article states above:
The relentlessly bleak data, reflecting weakness across the Continent and in Britain, came a day after political leaders again failed to break the deadlock over how to resolve the European debt crisis.
So, why is our debt any different. It may not be a big problem now, but it is growing about a Trillion a year. Maybe I'm wrong - maybe having a huge debt is only bad on other continents. Just sayin....
Your argument might work better if you used Actual Facts, since the debt is not "growing about a Trillion a year," but then most of you wingnut morons have never let reality get in the way of your fantasies for any other reason. Why don't you go back to Wingnut Whacko World, where the "theory" of gravity is just an idea. That way you can sit on your head and use your ass for your mouth without any problems.
There are so many reasons it's different in big, important ways, this blog doesn't have enough room for them all. I suggest reading the last two weeks of the London Financial Times. They've done excellent coverage of this issue.
Swiss will fund Greek bailout with hidden Romney funds.
James O'Keefe was at it again trying to deceive people of voter fraud in NC and again he will probably be investigated for illegally filming in a place of voting...
Link on O'Keefe in NC
Yet the Dow gained over 80 points today based on word from Italy's Monti (you know that Italy that has about as big a GDP/debt ratio as Greece?) that European Union states are in favor of Eurobonds. AMAZING what greed can do!!!
Romney's plans to downsize the middle class standard of living even further and cut SS and Medicare benefits that have been earned by the 99% should be the major talking point for all Dems this fall.
Make it personal and make it clear what Mainstream Americans have to lose if Romney becomes president and the Republicans regain Congress...more of Bush/Cheney without any compassionate conservatism.
The DNC must ask Bain's many victims to speak up in their own words. Whitman's 27,000 layoffs used as evidence that job creation is not in the GOP plans. Never has been. To vote for Republicans is to surrender the American Dream.
Don't talk about anything else. We have a wedge issue far stronger than Dems have had in over a generation. Go with it to the hilt. Anyone under 65 gets it instantly.
So, I see the wonderful pic of the child with Pres Obama and I thought- Oh no, I'm on the wrong thread. I need to be on the "Fake Fox Headlines" thread, because I have one ----
"Obama Coaches Child's Nazi Salute"
I feel mean tonight....
Would somebody please get Michael Fumento an editor?
With all the talk about the meaning of the word "forward"...I'd like to suggest you dig up some TV commercials from the late 1950s when Chrysler corporation used the term "the Forward Look" to describe their tail-fin adorned cars. Try 1957 to start with.
Rachel is it not true that Walker beat Barrett once in Wisconsin? If I am correct why did they choose this dark horse to run again? They should have chose another candidate to run against Walker. Don't you think? If the people like you it does not matter who runs against you...you will win!!!Looking at the stats from up that way and I am a little worried, that they may have overlook the thoroughbred for a semi safe bet.
Is Maddow ever going to shut up about that dayum parade?!!!
Enough already!
Rachel- Shame on you! Your forgot Romney's most obvious gaffe. His solution for students who can't afford to go to college? "Just borrow money from your parents!" Duh! What poor student is going to have parent who are rich enough to pay their kid's college education?
Have you guys seen this?
Ellen D. had these two kids on the show today.
http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2012/05/calling-it-now-these-little-nu.html
Obama is nothing more than a poser. He's not fighting hard enough for his base to suit me. The leader I want would be most like Andrew Jackson. This was a man not afraid to take control in a crisis and establish his authority by force. He could do more with his bare knuckles in one week than Obama has accomplished in an entire 4-year presidential term. There is plenty to dislike in Jackson, including his support for slavery and the forced relocation of indigenous native-American Indians, but as an aggressive leader and a person of authority, NO ONE crossed him without paying a very high price. Contrast that with Obama, who is regarded as the whipping boy of conservative media and talk radio. Obama has no one’s respect.
I’ll try to make this simple: If Obama wants my vote, he will wear Eric Cantor’s front teeth in a bottle on a lanyard around his neck. The sight of that necklace would make opponents including Roger Ailes, Charles and David Koch, and Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu understand that a piece of them might very well be in the next bottle. That's the kind of leader we need, and Obama has had over 3 years to become that leader. Instead, he has let us down with generous compromises for republicans and lukewarm conservative policies for his progressive base.
The sad thing is republicans win if Obama gets reelected, and they win if he isn't reelected. Right now they are getting practically everything they could have asked for from a third term of the Bush administration. The Bush tax cuts are still in effect. Guantanamo is still open. Allegations of torture were never investigated. The war in Iraq ran it's full term. Worse, Obama just signed an agreement committing the USA to roughly 12 more years in Afghanistan.
Obama promised he would force a resolution of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, but after 2 years he has not even gotten Israel to honor the obligations of it’s previous peace agreements. In particular, the Road Map Agreement signed under GW Bush requires Israel to STOP ALL Settlement construction activity. This was Israel’s obligation under Phase 1 of the Road Map. Phase 2 would commence direct negotiations between the two parties for core issues and final status.
Obama’s insistence that the Palestinians go to direct negotiations with Israel without a complete stop of Settlement construction CONTRAVENES the Road Map Agreement that he pledged to honor and uphold when he was sworn into office. Worse, Obama used his veto in the UN Security Council to protect Israel’s Settlement construction from a resolution that might have stopped it so that legitimate peace negotiations could proceed as per Road Map stipulations. Lastly, Obama has used the US leadership position in the Quartet to cripple it and prevent advancement of the agenda for peace it was formed to pursue.
I could go on, but what I've covered so far is more than enough to make any progressive democrat sick to their stomach. People, who did we really get when the democratic nominee won? Did we get a democrat? I don't think so. In fact, Obama has implemented in practice policies which are so conservative that the GOP has had to redefine itself with INSANE positions on the fringes of the radical right in order to keep some daylight between themselves and Obama.
We didn't vote for this. We didn't vote to waste our biggest chance in years to make the changes Obama talked about when he was a candidate. As a leader, Obama has presided over the biggest disappointment this party has ever seen in terms of what could have been and what actually is. In fact, I'm convinced he is secretly working for republicans to complete the unfinished work of the last administration. For example, Obama has done more to topple the governments of Arab states in the region surrounding Israel than he has done to help middle class American families facing foreclosure and loss of their homes.
We didn't vote for that either.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against Obama because he's black or because some idiot questioned his nationality. Far from it. I'm against Obama because I think he's red. Obama has kept more of George Bush's campaign promises than he has kept of his own. I didn't vote for that the first time, and I certainly will not vote for it a second. To paraphrase an infamous Bushism, fool me once, shame on you. ...We won't get fooled again.
Regards; Bruce Vandiver
That photograph brings tears to my eyes. Truly and literally touching.
Ms. Maddow, Govenor Snyder's emergency manager has just released his intentions of ending Muskegon Heights Public Schools to organize it as a k-12 for profit charter next fall. Employees have been sent notices of termination and must submit applications in order to be considered for re-emplyment in the fall without collective bargaining rights. If this is to go unchallenged I believe the strategy will be mirrored throughout the country with the goal to be to end collective bargaining. Your friends, Jack & Nancy Misner