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28
May
From the jungles of Vietnam to the mountains of Afghanistan, they stepped forward and answered the call. They fought for a home they may never return to, they fought for buddies they would never forget. While their stories may be separated by hundreds of years and thousands of miles, they rest here together side-by-side, row-by-row, because each of them love this country and everything it stands for more than life itself.
25
May
Barack Obama won a lot of hearts and minds some years ago when he talked so openly and frankly about his youthful marijuana use. That contrasted refreshingly with Bill Clinton’s hemming and hawing about not having inhaled, much less George Bush’s refusal to even acknowledge what old friends revealed about his marijuana use.
But the president has been losing lots of hearts and minds, especially those of young voters, with his striking silence on marijuana issues since he became president — apart from providing lame excuses for the federal government’s aggressive undermining of state medical marijuana laws.
Luz Graham-Urquilla, 4, watches President Barack Obama as he signs her drawing at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, May 25, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
23
May
An Obama Spending Spree? Hardly
TPM’s Sahil Kapur looks at the numbers behind a recurrent theme of recent budget debates:
A dominant theme of the national political discourse has been the crushing spending spree the U.S. has ostensibly embarked on during the Obama presidency. That argument, ignited by Republicans and picked up by many elite opinion makers, has infused the national dialogue and shaped the public debate in nearly every major budget battle of the last thee years.
But the numbers tell a different story.
The fact that the national debt has risen from $10.6 trillion to $15.6 trillion under Obama’s watch makes for easy partisan attacks. But the vast bulk of the increase was caused by a combination of revenue losses due to the 2008-09 economic downturn as well as Bush-era tax cuts and automatic increases in safety-net spending that were already written into law.
Obama’s policies, including the much-criticized stimulus package, have caused the slowest increase in federal spending of any president in almost 60 nears, according to data compiled by the financial news service MarketWatch.
Bennett Backs Off Birther Threat, Apologizes To Arizona
After days of ridicule for launching a conspiracy theory-fueled investigation into Barack Obama’s birth certificate, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett on Tuesday backed off his threat to keep the president off the ballot in November and apologized to his state.
“If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn’t my intent,” Bennett said in an interview with Phoenix radio station KTAR. “He’ll be on the ballot as long as he fills out the same paperwork and does the same things that everybody else has.”
Bennett said he still intends to keep asking Hawaii for verification that Obama’s birth certificate is authentic. But he said he only plans to use Hawaii’s answer as a way to satisfy demands from constituents who remain unconvinced Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States and so therefore eligible to be president.
Things Mr. Bennett needs for his office: A new coffee mug.
22
May
![theatlantic:
Hawaii Trolls Arizona’s Presidential Birth Certificate-Seeking Secretary of State
Hawaii is apparently so sick of people asking for proof of President Obama’s birth, that they’ve turned the tables on Arizona’s secretary of state, demanding that he’s the one who has to prove he deserves to see it.
Ken Bennett (pictured) has made headlines in the last few days for suggesting that Obama may not be on the ballot in Arizona this November without some solid proof that the President was actually born in Hawaii. Bennett, who says he’s just trying satisfy questions raised by his state’s citizens, has made several phone calls and written inquiries to Hawaii’s health department asking for “verification,” but has yet to get his answer, mostly because state officials are giving him the run around. Which is a nice way of saying he’s being clowned.
Talking Points Memo got ahold of some of the emails and they reveal some epic trolling on the part of Hawaii’s Deputy Attorney General Jill Nagamine. After Bennett sent an itemized list of all the information he wants verified, Nagamine responded with an even longer list of Hawaii statutes that spell out how they don’t give that information to just anyone and asking under what authority does Bennett thinks he’s entitled to the information.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: AP]
Hawaii, America salutes you.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4fp98VxEW1qcokc4o1_400.jpg)
Hawaii Trolls Arizona’s Presidential Birth Certificate-Seeking Secretary of State
Hawaii is apparently so sick of people asking for proof of President Obama’s birth, that they’ve turned the tables on Arizona’s secretary of state, demanding that he’s the one who has to prove he deserves to see it.
Ken Bennett (pictured) has made headlines in the last few days for suggesting that Obama may not be on the ballot in Arizona this November without some solid proof that the President was actually born in Hawaii. Bennett, who says he’s just trying satisfy questions raised by his state’s citizens, has made several phone calls and written inquiries to Hawaii’s health department asking for “verification,” but has yet to get his answer, mostly because state officials are giving him the run around. Which is a nice way of saying he’s being clowned.
Talking Points Memo got ahold of some of the emails and they reveal some epic trolling on the part of Hawaii’s Deputy Attorney General Jill Nagamine. After Bennett sent an itemized list of all the information he wants verified, Nagamine responded with an even longer list of Hawaii statutes that spell out how they don’t give that information to just anyone and asking under what authority does Bennett thinks he’s entitled to the information.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: AP]
Hawaii, America salutes you.
21
May
Rachel Maddow talks to Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker about the controversy surrounding his comments on Sunday’s Meet the Press where he called the Obama campaign’s attacks on Bain Capital ‘nauseating’ and the GOP’s response stating, “Here they are plucking soundbites out of that interview to manipulate them in a cynical manner, to use them for their own purposes… I’m very upset that I’m being used by the GOP this way.”
(Source: MSN)
19
May
Obama says eurozone crisis threatens world
US President Barack Obama, wrapping up the Group of Eight leading economies summit he hosted at Camp David, has said that the eurozone crisis was threatening the world economy but welcomed Europe’s new focus on jobs and growth as a potential remedy.
“The direction the debate has taken recently should give us confidence,” Obama told reporters on Saturday at the end of the high-level meetings in rural Maryland. “There is now an emerging consensus that more must be done to promote growth and job creation right now in the context of these fiscal and structural reforms.”
Obama said the G8 leaders recognized the painful sacrifices people in Greece are making to cope with the country’s economic problems, and repeated his view that Europe has the capacity to meet its challenges.
Earlier, the leaders said in a communique that it is “their imperative” to promote growth and jobs to reinvigorate the global economy, and gave their backing to Greece remaining in the eurozone.
“We agree on the importance of a strong and cohesive Eurozone for global stability and recovery, and we affirm our interest in Greece remaining in the eurozone while respecting its commitments.
“Against this backdrop, we commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognising that the right measures are not the same for each of us,” said the communique.
via questionall
via theatlantic
