Why Can't Obama Be More Like His Daughters?

by: Klyte

Mon Jul 04, 2011 at 10:12:20 AM EDT

He questioned why it is that Congress routinely dilly-dallies on important legislation while his daughters have figured out how to finish their homework in a prompt and timely manner.

"Malia and Sasha, generally, finish their homework a day ahead of time," Obama said. "They don't wait until the night before. They're not pulling all-nighters - they're 13 and 10."

He added: "You know, Congress can do the same thing. If you know you've got to do something, just do it."

Obama, Boehner and Senate AWOL

by: Klyte

Thu Apr 21, 2011 at 08:02:46 AM EDT

The debt ceiling issue is the priority at this time and none of our employees in the Government seem to understand that they work for us. Obama is busily primping for his 2012 campaign, scrambling to get Latina votes.

He has formed a committee to discuss immigration, but nothing is being done to secure our borders. April 15th Jim Chilton. a 5th generation Arizona rancher decided to take his story to Washington DC, because Obama and gang have turned a deaf ear.

Boehner is doing his thing in Afghanistan whatever that may be leaving us in a lurch again. What is he thinking - did he forget already that we hired him to do a job. He bombed out on the first one (our budget) so needless to say we're not exactly happy campers.

Frisco real estate

by: Phoner

Wed Apr 20, 2011 at 14:08:42 PM EDT

Frisco is a pleasant place which is located in the heart of the summit county. LuckyMountainHome.com offering lands, homes and condos positioning near the market rebound and lake point which is a rare feature that you won't found it from other real estate dealers. The Frisco condos for sale are all located in main streets and also available near the babbling ten mile creek within the Frisco. This is a great opportunity for all the single families to get the best single home and townhomes from a dreamful place like Frisco. Choose the home or condos which you like at their site luckymountainhome.com/frisco_real_estate/.

Obama's lost voice and transformational leadership

by: Jeremy Burton

Thu Nov 04, 2010 at 19:48:12 PM EDT

With everyone and anyone weighing in with post-election analysis, Marshall Ganz, the eminent lecturer at Harvard U has a must read piece in yesterday's LA Times about how Barack Obama went from being a transformational leader in the campaign to a transactional leader as President.  In part:

Abandoning the "transformational" model of his presidential campaign, Obama has tried to govern as a "transactional" leader. These terms were coined by political scientist James MacGregor Burns 30 years ago. "Transformational" leadership engages followers in the risky and often exhilarating work of changing the world, work that often changes the activists themselves. Its sources are shared values that become wellsprings of the courage, creativity and hope needed to open new pathways to success. "Transactional" leadership, on the other hand, is about horse-trading, operating within the routine, and it is practiced to maintain, rather than change, the status quo.

Of course, this is a topic near and dear to us at JFSJ, given our work through the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation to support social change movements that are transforming society through a combination of personal, organziational, and public movement work toward a better nation.

Read the full piece here.

Obama downplayed oil spill, duh!

by: Jeremy Burton

Wed Oct 06, 2010 at 18:02:37 PM EDT

Well if this doesn't piss me off, nothing will.  AP is reporting today that:

The White House blocked efforts by federal scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could have been, according to a panel appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission's staff reveals that in late April or early May the White House budget office denied a request from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make public the worst-case discharge from the blown-out well. The Unified Command — the government team in charge of the spill response — also was discussing the possibility of making the numbers public, the report says, citing interviews with government officials.

The big "C word" (that would be censorship) is getting tossed around.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not naive.  Administrations of both parties are bound to bend the story to their interests.  And, when you get to the voting both you have to judge the performance of a politician in the totality, and in comparison to his opponent.  But really now, really (as they are won't to say on SNL)! Does this square with the President's public message?  Is this what one does when you want to keep the pressure on the company, to bring to bear public outrage?

And then folks wonder why liberals are less than energized about the coming elections.  Unless of course this entire story is one big plot to repress the base vote, hmmmm....

As of this afternoon the WH hadn't commented on the story. 

UPDATE: 6:38pm, NBC news is running with this story.  Government was "overly casual" about the numbers & took BP's word on the estimates.  WH says "worse case data" was "publicly available."

$20 billion, bland speeches & man-eating pterodactyls

by: Erica Brody

Thu Jun 17, 2010 at 10:35:56 AM EDT

Gail Collins tends to make my lips curl up around the edges (be it smile or smirk), even when she's pointing out sad, sad things -- like missed opportunities in the midst of tragedy or disaster.

In this morning's column, a breakdown of the prezzie's Tuesday-night speech, Collins writes about her extreme disappointment at the utter lack of  an all-out declaration of war on the oil companies.

Definitely worth a read, especially with this lead -- or if the speech left you hungering for something less bland with clearer action lines and more forceful vision (oh, and fixes -- for the oil spewing, lax regulations,  livelihoods, coastline, etc.):

On Monday night in Ohio, a 62-foot-tall statue of Jesus got hit by lightning and burned to the ground. (The adult bookstore across the street was unscathed.) Less than 12 hours later, Gen. David Petraeus — who is not God, although certain members of Congress have been known to worship at his altar — semifainted at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Then Bravo announced that the White House gate-crashers were getting a TV show. Al and Tipper remained in Splitsville. And the oil kept on spilling.

So you sort of knew from the portents that President Obama’s big Oval Office speech was not going to be a terrific game-changer. The way things had been going, the president was lucky that a man-eating pterodactyl didn’t come crashing through the window during his opening remarks.

More after the jump.

Obama Designates May as Jewish American Heritage Month

by: Philip Bump

Wed May 05, 2010 at 12:05:24 PM EDT

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

In 1883, the Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus composed a sonnet, entitled "The New Colossus," to help raise funds for erecting the Statue of Liberty. Twenty years later, a plaque was affixed to the completed statue, inscribed with her words: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…." These poignant words still speak to us today, reminding us of our Nation's promise as a beacon to all who are denied freedom and opportunity in their native lands.

Our Nation has always been both a haven and a home for Jewish Americans. Countless Jewish immigrants have come to our shores seeking better lives and opportunities, from those who arrived in New Amsterdam long before America's birth, to those of the past century who sought refuge from the horrors of pogroms and the Holocaust. As they have immeasurably enriched our national culture, Jewish Americans have also maintained their own unique identity. During Jewish American Heritage Month we celebrate this proud history and honor the invaluable contributions Jewish Americans have made to our Nation.

Can you match the Obamas?

by: Rachel Berger

Tue May 04, 2010 at 17:01:11 PM EDT

Great Essay on How Protests By Different Groups are Treated Differently in America

by: Suzanne Reisman

Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 16:03:29 PM EDT

Ephphatha Poetry reprinted a very thought-proving essay by anti-racist writer and activist Tim Wise.  He asks us to imagine how conservatives would respond to protests and actions by tea partiers ifthe protestors were black (or Muslim), rather than white.  Very small excerpt (check out the full post at Ephphatha Poetry):

Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

Jewish Peddler Without Papers Arrested in Arizona?

by: Rachel Feldman

Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 17:36:38 PM EDT

Ok, so that didn't happen.  But it seems possible now.  He probably looked like he didn't have papers.

Today Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law one of the most enforcement heavy and anti-immigrant, if not out-right racist, pieces of legislation aimed at addressing the challenges we face in a country with a broken immigration system.  A great argument was made by the Immigration Policy Center about why she should not sing the bill, citing the costs of enforcement as upwards of $22,781,547 in jail costs, attorney and staff fees, and expenditures by law enforcement.

Pointing out the financial burden was smart and shows the recklessness of this bill.  And, if that wasn't persuasive enough, Obama called the bill 'misguided' and 'irresponsible', Cardinal Roger Mahony in Los Angeles said it encourages people to turn on each other in Nazi- and Soviet-style repression, and the Mexican government voiced concerned about "the potentially serious effects for its nationals’ civil rights".

But to me there was a more personally salient argument to be made against this law that will now allow police to stop people they suspect are undocumented and compel them to provide proof of legal immigration status or face arrest.  And to me, there's a reason why as Jews in particular we need to fight to repeal this legislation.