Currently viewing the tag: “Pledge”
On Saturday, ThinkProgress interviewed GOP presidential aspirant Herman Cain regarding his controversial statements on Muslims in America. We asked the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza if he would be comfortable appointing a Muslim either in his cabinet or as a federal judge. Cain definitively declared, “No, I would not”:
An uproar over Cain’s comments ensued, both because of the GOPer’s bigotry towards Muslims as well as the obvious violation of Article 4 of the Constitution, which states that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
Today, the Cain campaign walked back his previous statement. In an interview with Salon’s Justin Elliott, Cain spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael stated that:
Mr. Cain would consider any person for a position based on merit, as anybody else would, as is the law.
While Cain’s apparent change of heart about allowing Muslims (or anyone for that matter, regardless of faith) in his administration is both positive and appropriate, questions regarding Cain’s beliefs about Muslims in general remain. After all, when ThinkProgress asked him about the controversy over his statements that Muslims “have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them,” Cain approvingly quoted his grandfather: “I does not care, I feel the way I feel.”
Just about a day after she told Greta van Susterin that she was through whining about her media coverage, Sarah Palin took to her Facebook page to explain why she will continue whining about her media coverage: (link only works for those with Facebook access)
When it comes to responding to the media, the standard warning is: Don’t pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel because calling out the media and holding them accountable is a risky endeavor. Too often the first instinct is to ignore blatant media bias, crudeness, and outright lies, and just hope the media instigator will grow up and provide fairer coverage if you bite your tongue and not challenge the false reporting of an openly hostile press. But I’ve never bought into that. That’s waving the white flag. I just can’t do it because I have too much respect for the importance of a free press as a cornerstone of our democracy, and I have great respect for the men and women in uniform who sacrifice so much to defend that First Amendment right. Media, with freedom comes responsibility.
Friends, too often conservatives or Republicans in general come across as having the fighting instinct of sheep. I don’t. I was raised to believe that you don’t retreat when you’re on solid ground; so even though it often seems like I’m armed with just a few stones and a sling against a media giant, I’ll use those small resources to do what I can to set the record straight. The truth is always worth fighting for. Doing so isn’t whining or “playing the victim card”; it’s defending the truth in fairness to those who seek accurate information. I’ll keep attempting to correct misinformation and falsehoods about myself and my record, and I will certainly never shy from defending others who are unfairly attacked. This is in the name of justice.
Color me not surprised at all.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) have pledged that they will not support any deficit reduction package that increases taxes, The Hill reports.
“This promise will make it considerably tougher to get Democrats to agree to a broad deficit reduction package.”
Ezra Klein: “Not to steal Bill Maher’s schtick, but new rule: if you’re not willing to consider tax increases, you’re not serious about deficits. Full stop. Just as rigid pacifists aren’t credible on national defense and dogmatic Christian Scientists are rarely consulted on health-care policy, a politician who has made an ideological vow to refuse to even consider tax increases is not interested in reducing deficits — and that’s true no matter how often they say the word ‘deficits.’”
Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) have pledged that they will not support any deficit reduction package that increases taxes, The Hill reports.
“This promise will make it considerably tougher to get Democrats to agree to a broad deficit reduction package.”
Ezra Klein: “Not to steal Bill Maher’s schtick, but new rule: if you’re not willing to consider tax increases, you’re not serious about deficits. Full stop. Just as rigid pacifists aren’t credible on national defense and dogmatic Christian Scientists are rarely consulted on health-care policy, a politician who has made an ideological vow to refuse to even consider tax increases is not interested in reducing deficits — and that’s true no matter how often they say the word ‘deficits.’”
Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire
When our Muslim enemy within pledges allegiance, it isn’t to our flag and the republic for which it stands — as demonstrated by Amir Abdel Malik at a Muslim Student Association conference at UCLA this year:
As pointed out in the video, Malik’s pledge draws heavily from the Muslim Brotherhood’s credo:
Allah is our objective. The prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.
Integrating this ideology with any Western conception of civilized behavior just isn’t going to happen.
Hat tips: Jihad Watch, Jawa Report. On tips from G. Fox and Oiao.
Tell me again how the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Muslim Students Association is not a subversive organization.
Video thanks to Christopher.
ABC News’ Karen Travers reports: President Obama issued a statement this morning on the earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunami warning throughout the Pacific. “Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the people of Japan, particularly those who have…
Political Punch
ABC News’ Karen Travers reports: President Obama issued a statement this morning on the earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunami warning throughout the Pacific. “Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the people of Japan, particularly those who have…
Political Punch
ABC News’ Karen Travers reports: President Obama issued a statement this morning on the earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunami warning throughout the Pacific. “Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the people of Japan, particularly those who have…
Political Punch
Washington (CNN) – House Speaker John Boehner ratcheted up a looming showdown with Senate Democrats and the President over government funding Thursday that Democrats warn could lead to a government shutdown two weeks from now.
At issue: a spending measure currently funding the government expires on March 4th. Republicans are debating a bill that would cut government spending by over $ 60 billion, but Senate Democrats call those cuts far too deep. Assuming the two sides can’t reach agreement in the next two weeks, a short term measure to keep the government running would need to pass.
But Boehner Thursday said that he would not allow a stopgap measure at current spending levels.
“I am not going to move any kind of short term CR [continuing resolution] at current levels,” Boehner said. Echoing a politically charged phrase by former President George H. W. Bush, Boehner added, “When we say we’re going to cut spending, read my lips, we’re going to cut spending.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rushed to the cameras to accuse Boehner of threatening to shut down the government.
“We’re terribly disappointed that Speaker Boehner can’t control the votes in his caucus to prevent a shutdown of government and now he’s resorting to threats to do just that without any negotiations, ” Reid said.
Reid has said that the Senate would reluctantly pass a short term measure to keep the government running while negotiations take place over the longer term spending bill.
A Boehner spokesman said later that the Speaker was not suggesting a short term CR wouldn’t pass, and underscored he was saying it wouldn’t pass at current spending levels
“If Sen. Reid is unwilling to listen to the American people and cut spending in a temporary CR, he will be responsible for the government shut-down he and Sen. Schumer are rooting for,” Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, told CNN in an email.
Neither Boehner nor his spokesman said exactly how much government spending would have to be cut for a short term measure to keep the government running.
Boehner predicted the House would pass its spending bill by the end of the week.
Senate Democrats plan to huddle Thursday to discuss their strategy. The Senate doesn’t even plan to take up a spending measure until the first week in March since Congress plans a week-long recess next week. That makes the time crunch before the March 4th deadline even tighter.
Republicans who promised to listen “to the people who sent us here” following the midterm elections will now find themselves acting against public opinion as they seek to defund the Affordable Care Act. That’s because a new CBS News poll finds that a majority disapprove of underfunding the law and “and many aren’t sure of its impact on the health care system”:
Most Americans, 55 percent, disapprove of the plan to cut off funding to the new health care reforms, and just 35 percent approve. Among Republicans, approval rises to 57 percent. Forty-nine percent of independents disapprove, and 38 percent approve.
Overall, Americans are wary of the new health care reform laws: 21 percent think the new law will make the system better, but 23 percent think the law will make the system worse. Another 44 percent say they don’t know enough to say what the law’s impact will be. Uncertainty has increased since the law was first passed last year.
And while there are partisan differences – 43 percent of Republicans think it will make the system worse, but 40 percent of Democrats see it as an improvement – large segments of Republicans, Democrats and independents don’t know what effect the law will have on the health care system.
As has been the case since the law was passed nearly a year ago, more Americans disapprove than approve of the legislation. Now, 33 percent approve, while 51 percent disapprove, including 34 percent who disapprove strongly.
Look:
But Republicans — who have pledged to press ahead with unraveling reform — have already dispensed with their pledge to listen to the people. During his speech at CPAC yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promised to push ahead with repealing the Affordable Care Act in the Senate, despite a failed party-line vote. “We’re not about to retreat,” McConnell said, insisting that Republicans were “just getting started” in their campaign to rescind the law. “When we started this debate, the president’s vision of reform had the support of about 70 percent of the American people. But here’s the problem: We didn’t swear an oath to uphold whatever’s popular. We swore an oath to uphold the Constitution,” McConnell said, referring to a recent court ruling which found the law to be unconstitutional.
In November, however, the GOP leader promised that “Republicans have a plan for following through on the wishes of the American people.” “And, above all, it means listening to the people who sent us here,” he said.
Washington (CNN) – GOP Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s committee released its official spending targets for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year, indicating Republicans plan to cut $ 58 billion in non-security funding, but when their overall spending target is compared to current spending levels for that same time frame, the cuts amount to $ 32 billion.
Either way, the proposed House Republicans’ cuts fall short of the House GOP’s campaign pledge to cut at least $ 100 billion in non-security federal spending “in the first year alone.”
House Republican staffers briefed reporters Wednesday and argued that their $ 58 billion figure does in fact meet their $ 100 billion target because it represents the pro-rated amount for scaling back spending rates to 2008 pre-stimulus levels for the remaining seven months of this fiscal year. They maintain that because the Democrats did not enact a budget when they controlled the chamber last year Republicans are left to working off levels set by Democrats for the remainder of the year.
In addition to the non-security cuts, GOP aides say they anticipate cutting another $ 16 billion from security related spending at the Defense Department, Veterans Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, for a total of $ 74 billion in cuts. Chairman Paul Ryan will submit the 2011 total allocation next week at $ 1.055 trillion when the House returns from recess, which represents a cut of $ 32 billion from the $ 1.087 trillion full year cost of funding the government at current levels. The various appropriations committees will then divvy up how the overall cut will be felt across federal agencies.
GOP aides declined to specify where the specific cuts to meet this overall target would come from, saying that those decisions will be made by the various appropriations committees-which will begin drafting a bill to lay out which agencies will feel the budget pain the most next week.
A group of conservative House Republicans pressed Speaker Boehner last week to meet the $ 100 billion goal, and has pressed for even deeper cuts, pushing GOP leaders to roll back spending to 2006 levels, which they project would cut spending by $ 2.5 trillion over the next decade.
Congressional Democrats pounced on the release of the official numbers, highlighting that the GOP was not meeting its own targets.
“As Republicans conclude their first month in charge of Congress, they have not only failed to create jobs and strengthen the middle class, now they’re breaking the very promises they made to get elected,” said Jesse Ferguson of the House Democrats’ campaign arm.
Update at 1:40 p.m. ET. Mubarak To Speak Tonight; Pledge To Not Seek Re-Election?
Reuters writes that “Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak will give a speech on Tuesday after at least 1 million people rallied across the country clamouring for him to step down, Al Arabiya television said. There was no official confirmation.”
Reuters also quotes Al Arabiya as saying “Mubarak will announce that he will step down at the next election but would stay in office till then to meet demands of protesters in that period.
This Plan C is apparently what Dr. Obama recommended, folks talking to NPR don’t think it will satisfy the protesters.
President Obama has told the embattled president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, that he should not run for another term in elections in the fall, effectively withdrawing American support for its closest Arab ally, according to American diplomats in Cairo and Washington.
From UNRWA, August 9, 2010:
The Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF) and UNRWA have signed a $ 50 million agreement to rebuild 1250 refugee homes in the Gaza Strip destroyed when Israel launched its last devastating attack on Gaza during December 2008 and January 2009.
Isn’t it heartwarming when Arabs step up to help out their fellow Arabs in Gaza?
Oops:
The media advisor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, Adnan Abu Hasna, denied that the organization had received $ 50 million from the Gaddafi Charity Foundation.
Abu Hasna said in a press release, “So far, UNRWA received only $ 2 million of the total amount.”
