Obama Smacks Down Republicans With The Reality Of His Economic Success

Ken O’Brien

President Obama smacked down Republicans today by contrasting his record of economic success with the reality of their trickle down failures.

The president said:

Now, I want to return to the issue of the debate that we were having then because it bears on the debate we’re having now. It’s important to note that at every step that we’ve taken over the past six years we were told our goals were misguided; they were too ambitious; that my administration’s policies would crush jobs and explode deficits, and destroy the economy forever. Remember that? Because sometimes we don’t do the instant replay, we don’t run the tape back, and then we end up having the same argument going forward. 

Maybe He Was Wrong?

Ken O’Brien

During the 2012 presidential race, something you may still remember, wealthy Florida real estate person David Siegel got a bit of notoriety for sending his Westgate Resorts employees a maudlin form letter. He noted that while he couldn't "tell you whom to vote for," their jobs would be "endanger"-ed if the cruel President Barack Obama was not unseated by fellow wealthy person Mitt Romney. The ostensible cause was that his fragile empire could not possibly stand another four years of the sort of deeply onerous taxes that Siegel imagined Obama had been imposing, and that if he was going to be taxed anymore he was going to close his company and go be rich on a Caribbean beach.

Obama To Speak At Worcester Tech Graduation

President Obama will deliver this year's commencement address to graduating seniors from Worcester

Technical High School, the school's principal announced this morning.

The president will address the class of 2014 on Wednesday, June 11, at the DCU Center.

Just For The Sake Of Being "Fair And Balanced"

Smokers of the World Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Butts!

Ken O’Brien

There is a widely held belief that liberals favor a nanny state.

Well, I don’t believe that. In fact, I believe that there is a fundamental and natural convergence of values between libertarians and liberals.

I start from the premise that anyone who makes an objective evaluation of history will conclude that the basic difference between conservatives and liberals is as follows; the primary concern of conservatives is property values: the primary concern of liberals is human values.

Liberals, Conservatives and Libertarians all proclaim their devotion to freedom.

But freedom toward what end? 

Sunday Photo-‘Toons 1.32

Ken O’Brien

Romney Campaign Official Says Obama Will Win Florida

Ken O’Brien

Brett Doster, Florida advisor for the Romney campaign, has acknowledged their candidate lost in Florida, according to The Miami Herald.

According to the paper, “The numbers in Florida show this was winnable,” Doster said in a statement. “We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn’t, and for that I and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won’t happen again.”

The numbers in Florida look unlikely to change in Romney’s favor. 

JOBS?

Whither Grover Norquist?

Ken O’Brien

Lawrence O’Donnell likes to refer to him as the “most powerful man in America who holds no elective office.”

He is Grover Norquist, founder and President of Americans for Tax Reform. He is most notable for the pledge his organization requires to support candidates for U.S. Congressional office. The pledge requires that the signatories promise to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates." 

Sunday Photo-‘Toons 1.8

Ken O’Brien

Frequent O’Zone contributor I.M.Townie was apparently on an inspired high recently. The result is a six frame series that takes on his/her favorite subjects.

As a result this week’s offering takes on a heavy school committee focus. 

The Newest Republican Bag Of Gas

Ken O’Brien

The price of gasoline could hit $5 a gallon by Memorial Day.

And it’s all President Obama’s fault.

That’s the latest canard emanating from the Republican talking points broadcaster, Fox News.

 After all, they lost the initiative on the economic issue when there became a clear trend that the economy was improving. It became even more obvious when the fact emerged that the U.S. economy was outpacing European economies that had embraced the kind of austerity policies that Republicans had been advocating.

Romney vs. Economic Reality

Ken O’Brien

Willard Mitt Romney said yesterday, “If people think the economy is going in the right direction they should vote for President Obama.”

Well, for the vast number of Americans the direction of the economy has more to do with employment (i.e. jobs) than with any other single factor.

Despite all the rhetoric and sniping from Republicans, there is no doubt that our current state of affairs occurred on their watch during the Bush Administration. In the lead up to the earlier quote, Romney said, “President Obama did not cause our economic problems, but his policies made them worse.”

You Heard It Hear First! S&P Downgrade Politically Suspect

Kenneth M. O’Brien

On Sunday, August 7, I wrote an article titled “The S&P Sucker Punch”.

At the beginning of that piece I wrote, “If ever there was a situation that called for widely publicized hearings by the U. S. Senate it is the action by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the debt of the United States.”

In the midst of the post, I reminded readers that, “The most important thing to remember in this discussion is that Standard & Poor’s is a business.”

At the conclusion of that article I wrote, “In my opinion, S&P is using its influential, but misunderstood, role as an arbiter of credit worthiness to influence public policy for its advantage. Part of this is the corporatist agenda to create a narrative that will bring about the defeat of President Obama and other Democrats in 2012.”

The very next day, no less a bastion of right wing extremism than Redstate.com ran an article titled, “In All Seriousness, What If Barack Obama Is Right?”

In that article conservative doyen Eric Erickson wrote:

 “What if Barack Obama was right and S&P just got it wrong.
Here’s what I’m hearing and it gives credence to this theory….
S&P, I’m told, began telling some of its clients about the downgrade on Friday morning. That’s why the market was so screwed up on Friday….
S&P, I’m told, began telling some of its clients about the downgrade on Friday morning. That’s why the market was so screwed up on Friday.
By Friday afternoon, the Treasury Department told S&P it had made a $2 trillion math mistake.
But S&P had already told its clients about the downgrade. So it couldn’t walk it back now without a major loss of confidence in its credibility. Could you imagine that conversation? “Hey . . . um . . . Joe. Yeah, Charlie here from S&P. So . . .um . . . we made a $2 trillion math mistake in our downgrade analysis. . . . What’s that? You just lost $500 million in the market because of it? Oh . . . um . . . sorry Joe. Better luck next time.”…
But S&P did the downgrade. And by any objective measure, it would need to downgrade France for the very same reasons it gave, but it has not done so yet — though that may change.
So maybe the White House is right and S&P figured it needed to save face, do the downgrade, and come up with a loosey-goosey reason that both sides could seize on to fight it out while ignoring that S&P just made a major mistake and the country took it on the chin because of that mistake.”

Yesterday Reuters reported that the SEC had launched an investigation of Standard & Poor’s for potential insider trading relating to the downgrade of U.S. Treasury Securities.

” SEC's move is part of a preliminary examination into potential insider trading, the FT [Financial Times] said.”

The same article went on to report, “The U.S. Senate Banking committee has begun looking into last week's decision by S&P's to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, a committee aide told Reuters on Monday.”
The latter report was provided substance by John McLaughlin on his weekly PBS program “The McLaughlin Group” by forecasting such action by the Senate Banking Committee as his final prediction on this week’s broadcast.

Just to repeat, you heard it here first.

The S&P Sucker Punch

Kenneth M. O’Brien

If ever there was a situation that called for widely publicized hearings by the U. S. Senate it is the action by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the debt of the United States.

To assume that S&P is some kind of independent, wholly objective watchdog is absolutely naïve and foolish.

Months before as well as within days of the announcement of the action by S&P to downgrade the debt of the United States from AAA to AA+, conservative media outlets began putting forward arguments that the action was not politically motivated. Forbes Magazine and Fox News’ Huckabee program were in the forefront of such arguments.

“Gangster Government” Requires The “Constitutional Option”

Kenneth M. O’Brien

There’s a very old, and rather crude joke among campers who share a tent regarding the sudden nocturnal presence of unpleasant aromas. It begins with the observation, “He who say it….”.

The joke contains, however, as all jokes do, a fundamental truth about human behavior. In this case it demonstrates the presence of guilt and the immediate effort to escape such guilt and place the blame on others.