yallerdawg

yallerdawg's Journal

June 21, 2015

NATIONAL: CLINTON HOLDS STEADY IN DEM RACE HILLARY GROUP

Sanders and O’Malley seen as less electable
Monmouth University Poll

In case that steady drumbeat was beginning to annoy you, too...

Despite many weeks of negative news, Hillary Clinton’s standing among Democratic voters nationwide remains strong after holding the first major event of her campaign this weekend. The latest Monmouth University Poll found that more than 3-in-4 Democrats have a favorable opinion of the former Secretary of State. Few voters feel the rest of the field has as good a shot of winning the White House in November 2016.

Currently, 78% of Democratic voters have a favorable opinion of Hillary Clinton while just 12% hold an unfavorable view. This is basically identical to her 76% to 16% standing in April.

Sanders and O’Malley have officially announced their candidacies, but most Democrats feel they wouldn’t have as much of a chance as Clinton in defeating the eventual Republican nominee next year.

In fact, 6-in-10 Democratic voters say that Sanders (59%) and O’Malley (60%) would have a worse chance than Clinton in the general election. Only about 1-in-4 say Sanders would have either as good a shot (15%) or better (13%) than Clinton. And a similar number say O’Malley would have either as good a shot (15%) or better (8%).

Much more at: Monmouth University Poll, June 16, 2015

June 21, 2015

Artur Davis: Why labeling the Charleston shooter's views matters

Present candidate for Mayor of Montgomery, home of the Governor's Mansion and Alabama State Capitol.

Guest opinion by Artur Davis, AL.com

"Some people want to call him a left wing, right wing, or no wing. He's a murderer."

That is a characterization I heard from a politician today of the home grown terrorist who slaughtered nine people in a church in Charleston. Murderer, sure, but there is so much emptiness and evasion in the rest of that sentence.

There is a temptation to disown this killer to the point that he would exist in his own box, with no connection to any brand of ideas. But there is a false comfort in failing to call a man what his own words and views make him out to be.

I don't shrink from calling the mass murder in Charleston a product of hate warped ideological extremism, and I don't run from saying that the killer was motivated by a dangerous worldview. The viewpoint is as half-baked and nonsensical as can be, but it is recognizable to the FBI and the Southern Poverty Law Center as a zone that exists in the dark reaches on the far right of American life. And this killer, while he acted alone, is not alone in his theories or his thoughts.

I've heard it said this week that to locate this man on a political spectrum is to slander people who think of themselves as conservatives. Yes, it is too true that the short hand of partisan politics drives many liberals to call any conservative an extremist, but undeserved name calling does not excuse the fact that a far-out, extreme, militant, paranoid right exits. This far-right does not value limited government, it values a limited humanity. It does not seek freedom, it seeks oppression. It is not craving a heritage, it is reaching back to the most un-American features of our past. In its passion for an America that no longer exists, it would renounce much of what makes America great. That far right is almost certainly not you, average reader, but you ought to know it is real and scary.

Recent history teaches us the left is just as dangerous when it enters "loonyland". When a murderer in New York assassinated two police officers because he was a fierce hater of the law and authority, he was correctly denounced as a left wing zealot. The Charleston shooter will be his mirror image in Hell, just from the other side of the political divide.

I wish we would all learn the language of humility: that means stop calling every conservative a vote suppressing, intolerant, equality denying creep; stop equating liberal with an America hating, race bating, faithless sort of lesser being. Sometimes we just disagree.

But can we at least agree that neither far-right nor far-left is a space that will yield the common ground our country needs? Don't we want, whatever our politics, to be rooted in the American tradition and not on a left or right ledge? God help and fix America if that sounds too unreachable.

http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/artur_davis_why_labeling_the_c.html#incart_river

June 20, 2015

Clinton breaks with Obama, opposes 'fast-track' trade authority as bill heads to Senate

Nah, you don't wanna hear this...doesn't fit the meme.

Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has come out against "fast-track" approval powers sought by the White House that would allow only the Executive Branch to negotiate trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

President Barack Obama, most congressional Republicans, and some Democrats are backing fast-track authority -- officially called Trade Promotion Authority -- which would bar Congress from debating or amending major so-called free trade agreements like the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union. The US House approved standalone fast-track authority on Thursday, meaning the Senate must now vote.

All votes on the legislation have been close, and it's unclear what way they would go during the Senate vote next week. With her political weight, Clinton was under pressure to speak her opinion on the legislation. She parted ways with Obama, her former boss and Democratic Party standard-bearer, by backing away from support for fast-track authority, telling journalist Jon Ralston that if she were still a US senator, she would not vote for such presidential power.

http://rt.com/usa/268417-clinton-tpp-trade-authority/

June 20, 2015

In Defense of President Obama and 'Those' Democrats

Trade dispute exposes House Democrats' turmoil, challenges

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press

Congress' upheaval over trade has exposed turmoil within a House Democratic caucus that's grown smaller and more liberal in recent years as moderates have been ousted in successive election bloodlettings.

Those who remain must answer to ideologically driven voters and labor unions fighting their own battles for survival, even if it means sidelining their own leaders and humbling their president in the process.

The result is a minority caucus dominated by some of its most liberal members, leaving the few remaining centrists to question whether that will make it harder for their party to retake the seats they need to regain the House majority anytime in the next decade.

House Democrats celebrated earlier this month after they derailed Obama's bid for expedited trade negotiating authority by voting down a linked worker retraining program they long had supported. But now it looks like their victory may have been fleeting. Obama maneuvered with congressional Republicans to get the trade package back on track, clearing a key House hurdle Thursday and setting up make-or-break votes in the Senate in coming days.

The revival of the trade package inflamed labor unions and liberal groups that had fought ferociously to block it, including by running ads against otherwise friendly House Democrats and threatening to mount primary campaigns against them. Unions say past trade deals bled American jobs and tanked wages. They argue that granting Obama the power to finalize trade deals that Congress can accept or reject, but not amend, would lead to more of the same, including the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership the White House has worked on for years.

"Democrats who allowed the passage of fast-track authority for the job-killing TPP, should know that we will not lift a finger or raise a penny to protect you when you're attacked in 2016, we will encourage our progressive allies to join us in leaving you to rot, and we will actively search for opportunities to primary you with a real Democrat," Jim Dean, head of Democracy for America, said in a statement following Thursday's House vote.

It's the kind of vicious infighting that has characterized GOP politics since the tea party rose in 2010 and began trying to oust anyone who disagreed with its conservative tenets. Few believe that the fissures within the Democratic Party are as stark, noting that trade is an unusually divisive issue for the party. Yet leaders are openly alarmed at the internal conflict and are warning that Democrats must move on quickly to more harmonious topics — or possibly face even more election losses.

Just in case this seems all so familiar...

June 19, 2015

New & Cool - USDA Farmers Markets Directory

If you prefer local source and seasonal - but where?

If you are a consumer searching for a farmers market to visit:

Below you can search for markets by zip code, geographic proximity, product availability, payment method and even whether the market participates in Federal nutrition programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). You can also search by selecting the state and typing the official name of the farmers market.

If you want to search for other types of operations offering locally-grown and produced products, please click here: www.usdalocalfooddirectories.com .

Link to this and lots more at USDA, now on my 'favorites':

http://search.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/default.aspx#

June 19, 2015

Hillary scores!

June 19, 2015

President Obama...

June 18, 2015

Assault on Affordable Care Act Continues

In a little five minute vote after TPA was passed today, the House voted to end another source of funding for the Affordable Care Act.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices, seeking again to remove a piece of Obamacare.

The repeal drew bipartisan support and passed on a 280-140 vote Thursday. That still may not be enough. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the bill, and Senate support likely hinges on finding a way to offset the loss of $24.4 billion in revenue over a decade.

The Obama administration has remained opposed to repealing the tax, partly because of the deficit effect and partly because of the initial rationale for its passage.

“The medical device industry, like others, will benefit from millions of new consumers who are gaining health coverage under the Affordable Care Act,” the administration wrote in its veto threat. “This excise tax is one of several designed so that industries that gain from the coverage expansion will help offset the cost of that expansion.”

The Congressional Research Service has questioned whether the tax is as damaging as the industry maintains. The effects will fall on consumers, researchers say, and the reduction in jobs and output for the companies is probably 0.2 percent at most.

“With relatively small effects on the U.S. medical device industry, it is unlikely that there will be significant consequences for innovation and for small and midsized firms,” CRS wrote earlier this year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-18/house-votes-again-to-repeal-obamacare-s-tax-on-medical-devices

June 18, 2015

BOG GROUP House Passes Trade Promotion Authority - Again

In a 218-208 vote with 28 Democrats on board, the House passed TPA again, just like last week.

This time, it was a stand-alone amendment without the Senate-attached Democratic incentive of TAA. TAA was killed last week in a bizarre move by Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats, which put aid for displaced workers in jeopardy, a program supported by Democrats since 1974.

The stand-alone TPA measure has to go back to the Senate for another vote.

The Senate had passed TPA a couple weeks ago, but had sent it to the House combined with TAA legislation as an incentive to pass the entire package and send it to the president for signature.

The Senate will determine the procedures to consider TPA, but the hope still remains TPA will be on the president's desk by Fourth of July recess.

More at: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-passes-trade-promotion-authority-bill/ar-AAbN7qI

June 16, 2015

HRC GROUP Hillary and 'Economic Statecraft' - Singapore, November 2012

For those who say, "Hillary should tell us what she thinks," maybe we should just listen?

She was Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, and she did have a lot to say - not just those parts of sentences to fit a ginned-up negative narrative.

Transcript and video - not the clipped spin and misrepresentation, the whole enchilada!

I know, I know...it's complicated and wonky. But this is where the quote the haters use - "SoS Hillary Clinton was for TPP" - this is one of the 'sources' where they got that! They just edited out all the rest!

She may be for a good TPP, and her story has never changed - but don't we all want a good TPP? Right, Nancy Pelosi?

http://m.state.gov/md200664.htm

Hillary on the infamous TPP:

And with Singapore and a growing list of other countries on both sides of the Pacific, we are making progress toward finalizing a far-reaching new trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The so-called TPP will lower barriers, raise standards, and drive long-term growth across the region. It will cover 40 percent of the world's total trade and establish strong protections for workers and the environment. Better jobs with higher wages and safer working conditions, including for women, migrant workers and others too often in the past excluded from the formal economy will help build Asia's middle class and rebalance the global economy. Canada and Mexico have already joined the original TPP partners. We continue to consult with Japan. And we are offering to assist with capacity building, so that every country in ASEAN can eventually join. We welcome the interest of any nation willing to meet 21st century standards as embodied in the TPP, including China.

But this is Hillary, and this sounds like Hillary today:

But to take advantage of a more level playing field, American businesses must step up, too. Here in Singapore, U.S. firms operate on every corner. But elsewhere, too many are sitting on the sidelines. I hear it over and over when I travel: "Where are the American businesses?" And at a time when America's domestic growth depends more than ever on our ability to compete internationally, this has to change. And when U.S. businesses do compete, we want to work with them to make sure their suppliers at every link in the chain are meeting international standards like labor rights, intellectual property, and environmental impact.

And, finally, a level playing field means lowering the barriers that keep women from fully participating in the global economy. You knew I would get to that, didn't you? Mountains of evidence make this so abundantly clear. No nation can achieve the kind of growth that we all want and need if half the population never gets to compete. And we cannot afford any longer to exclude the energy and talent that women add to our economies.

The World Bank has done some ground-breaking research on this, pointing out what it would mean to tear down the barriers, some of them still very explicit. There are countries that deny women credit, there are countries that prevent women from opening businesses or running them without male fronts. There are countries that prevent women from inheriting businesses. There are so many still existing legal barriers. And then, of course, there are the attitudinal and cultural barriers that are somewhat less obvious, but no less difficult. And in the World Bank's research, tearing down all those obstacles would raise GDP everywhere in the world, including in my own country. In my own country it would be by nine percent.

So, think about what this would mean in a time where we are still facing global economic problems. And so I always say that we've got to do more, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because we cannot afford not to do it.

For the record, what she said - her actually saying it!

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