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Hat tip, commentor JWB. [Note for those not paying close attention, the cute blonde is actually Janel Benisch for TheSecondCityNetwork, not the official OFA spox. Although, yes, it would be awesome.]
Proud to Be A Democrat
Something to bring up with your Facebook friends, family, coworkers, commuters, teammates and that loud guy at the dog park
Let’s say that you own a business. Did you build the road in front of your store? No, the government built that. Using taxes. How about the three backbones of interstate commerce: canals and navigable waterways, railroads and the interstate highway system. Who made those? Does individual enterprise make sure that potholes get filled every year? Does WalMart ensure that a bridge can keep safe the ten thousand commercial trucks that roll over it every week? Railroads are only slightly more complicated. The government set aside enormous stretches of land, bought it or claimed it through eminent domain and then ‘sold’ it all to railroad companies for pennies and a pack of bubble gum. It was not hard to make a fortune when Uncle Sam happily gave you vast stretches of dirt that would go up a hundredfold in value as soon as you lay those tracks down.
Government made the internet. Most people who earn college degrees get them from state schools. Not from worthless for-profit schools, but from schools that produce an education with some value. IBM never had to teach its staff the principles of engineering because government-funded schools produce some of the top STEM graduates in the world. Did IBM pass the Morrill Act? Did Xerox set aside hundreds of thousands of acres in each state to permanently endow a college opportunity for each qualifying American? No, they did not. IBM and Xerox attracted the best talent and helped shape the modern American economy precisely because the American system gave talented entrepreneurs a leg up and granted them the freedom to focus on what they do best.
We need individual entrepreneurs to compete with one another and take risks to drive the economy forward. However, individual entrepreneurs would ‘compete’ for the protein they can find under rocks if they had to do it without the many things that government has already done for them.
Guess Who Just Got Back Today
President Obama chose Cincy’s Brent Spence Bridge as the backdrop to introducing the American Jobs Act last year, and the Queen City is once again in the spotlight today as he returns for another major visit to talk up his economic record here and what it means to the tri-state. He’ll be at Music Hall around 2 PM this afternoon. I’m hoping Kay has tickets, I’m stuck up here in Mason for the day.
Obama is holding a town hall event in Cincinnati, one of the state’s most heavily Republican areas. Ohio and Florida again are shaping up as the most intensely competitive states in the presidential race.
White House aides said Obama will cite news reports suggesting that Romney’s plans for limited taxing of overseas profits by U.S. companies would encourage foreign job growth. The two candidates have repeatedly accused each other of outsourcing American jobs.
The White House said Obama will renew his call for extending the Bush-era tax cuts on all households except those earning more than $250,000 a year. Romney says the wealthiest Americans also should keep their tax breaks because they are the most likely people to create jobs.
And no, Cincinnati isn’t as Republican as you think. Ask Mayor Mark Mallory, who is thrilled to see the President and is one of his strongest supporters in Ohio in his Enquirer op-ed this morning.
During the week of the Fourth of July, President Obama visited Ohio to talk about a great American comeback story made possible because of a bet on the American worker.
He visits Cincinnati today with the same message, reminding residents of the choice between two very different economic visions, placed on two very different kinds of bets. Where President Barack Obama bets on America’s middle class, Mitt Romney bets against them. Where Obama is moving us forward, Romney would hold us back.
And as a mayor, I believe there are two areas where that contrast is most clear: economic security and public safety. Cincinnati is moving forward with the president’s policies that invest in the soul of our economy – our small businesses and manufacturers, teachers and safety forces. We have more work to do, but our city has a partner in the White House who understands how we leverage federal investments to promote local growth.
The Enquirer of course is immediately complaining about the expected traffic snarl. That’s the Enquirer for you. Still, I expect the President to continue kicking ass on the trail like he did this weekend in Eric Cantor’s neck of the woods. There’s a reason he’s following that up with a visit to Orange Julius’s backyard today.
Guess who just got back today, driving all the orange men crazy.
Also, the Enquirer’s Amanda Van Benschoten is liveblogging the President’s arrival and visit here.
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: It’s A Poll Tax
Most of you have probably heard this already, but here’s a couple links to pass along. Retro being very “in” this season, Attorny General Eric Holder “vows to aggressively challenge voter ID laws“:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday vowed to be “aggressive” in challenging voting laws that restrict minority rights, using a speech in Texas to make his case on the same day a federal court was considering the legality of the state’s new voter ID legislation.
“Let me be clear: We will not allow political pretexts to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious rights,” Holder said in the speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “I can assure you that the Justice Department’s efforts to uphold and enforce voting rights will remain aggressive.”…
TPMuckraker adds:
Attorney General Eric Holder deviated from his prepared remarks during a speech before the NAACP on Tuesday and called voter ID laws “poll taxes.”
“Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not,” Holder said, referring specifically to the voter ID law passed in Texas. “Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes.”
That last line was not part of Holder’s prepared remarks released to the press…
There’s video at the link — “embedding disabled by request”.
I agree with Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly:
… I personally wish Holder would conduct a high-profile—made higher by the notoriety House Republicans have granted him—refutation of the idea that there is any evidence for the voter fraud that voter ID laws claim to address. Maybe he did some of that in his NAACP address (I haven’t found the full text yet), but he really does need to do it fully, particularly now that he’s been anathematized by Republicans and has no particular need to project any sort of insincere bipartisanship beyond the requirements of his job.
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What else is on the agenda today?
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: It’s A Poll TaxPost + Comments (48)
Monday Evening Open Thread: The Demon Barber of Wall Street
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My thanks to commentor Lahke, because I like Steven Sondheim even more than I loathe Willard Romney.
And for the Obama Optimists among us, for your FaceSpace Pinterest wallboard tweets, via Matt Taylor at Slate:
Sam Stein at the Huffington Post gets hold of an Obama TV spot airing in key swing states (but unannounced by his campaign) that responds to Republican Super PACs that have been pummeling him with his “the private sector is doing fine” gaffe in their ads
Apart from the ever-popular setting one’s hair on fire, what’s on the agenda for this evening?
Monday Evening Open Thread: The Demon Barber of Wall StreetPost + Comments (36)
“Sí Se Puede” On POTUS’s DREAM Deferral
So yes, it turns out that President Obama can do something about deportation, the DREAM act, and undocumented students.
President Obama will announce a new immigration policy this morning that will allow some undocumented students to avoid deportation and receive work authorization.
Under the president’s “deferred action” executive order, students in the U.S. who are already in deportation proceedings or those who qualify for the DREAM Act and have yet to come forward to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, will not be deported and will be allowed to work in the United States.
An estimated 1 million young people could benefit from the deferral. To be eligible, applicants have to be between 15 and 30 years old, live in the U.S. for five years, and maintain continuous U.S. residency. People who have one felony, one serious misdemeanor, or three minor misdemeanors will be ineligible to apply. “Deferred action” will last for two years and can be renewed.
Obama is expected to speak about this new policy later today.
The Associated Press is already using terms like “immunity” and “amnesty”. Republicans are expected to explode in 5…4…3…
[UPDATE] Yep, Malkin and Co. throwing a fit according to Memeorandum. And yes, the downside of executive branch action? This program dies screaming the instant Mitt Romney should take office. Might want to keep this in mind. [UPDATE 2] More on the announcement from MSNBC:The Department of Homeland Security said that, effective immediately, the government would no longer seek the deportation of illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, and would allow them to apply for work permits if they meet certain criteria.
“Our nation’s immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in a statement Friday.
A senior administration official said in a conference call with reporters that as many as 800,000 undocumented immigrants stand to benefit from this change. Napolitano said that the shift represented neither immunity nor amnesty — buzzwords for conservatives who oppose illegal immigration — but instead represented an instance of “prosecutorial discretion” in which the government had re-evaluated its priorities in enforcing the law.
Echoing the comments of several in this thread, “Your move, Mittens”.
“Sí Se Puede” On POTUS’s DREAM DeferralPost + Comments (167)
Open Thread: Don’t Panic
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Via Paul Constant at Seattle’s Stranger, who adds:
… [F]rankly, I’m a little surprised to hear Obama suporters suddenly worried that Romney has a chance to win the White House. Romney has always had a good chance to win the White House this November. The only thing that matters this year is how many people come out to vote. With Republicans spending 1.8 billion dollars to shit in the pool, it’s going to be a difficult job to find people who still care enough to vote.
Also via Mr. Constant, Willard Romney has one less former challenger to worry about placating. This is good news for John McCain Rick Santorum, I guess…
What else is on the agenda for (what’s left of) the evening?