If you’re looking for a progressive take on the current political news, ThinkProgress has you covered. Catch up on the biggest stories from the past week that you may have missed:
Rep. Joe Walsh Blasts Double Amputee’s Military Service, Says She’s Not A ‘True Hero’
GOP Governors May Turn Down $258 Billion In Obamacare Funds, Leave 9.2 Million Americans Uninsured
Over 750,000 Pennsylvanians Could Be Disenfranchised By Voter ID Law
Best,
Igor Volsky Deputy Editor, ThinkProgress
The Republican Credo. 
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Alan Grayson was back on MSNBC on Monday night, telling it like it is. The subject was Senator Rubio’s attack on President Obama. Rubio said that we “have not seen such a divisive figure in modern American history,” and Rubio criticized the President for graduating from Harvard Law School. Rubio hit President Obama, and Alan hit back. Here is what Alan said:
SHARPTON: Congressman, let`s start with you. Senator Rubio thinks the President is divisive. What do you make of that?
GRAYSON: Well, remember how President Obama first came to the public`s attention seven-and-a-half years ago. He gave a beautiful speech in which he called for one America. Not a blue America or red America, but one America. And that speech enabled him to win the Democratic nomination – because that was an idea that appealed to Americans across the board – and then to win the presidency. But what he has been faced with from the Republicans is implacable division. Division just for the sake of division. Disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing. Look what happened with the healthcare bill: more than 150 Republican amendments included in that bill, and no Republicans voted for it.
SHARPTON: Yes.
GRAYSON: Look at the “grand bargain” on the deficit that the President proposed, to end the deficit. The Republicans wouldn’t even show up and negotiate for it. But they`re not just guilty of division, they`re also guilty of subtraction. The Republicans have subtracted jobs. They`ve subtracted health care. They`ve subtracted from public education. And they want to subtract Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, student loans and unemployment insurance.
SHARPTON: Now, it`s interesting you say that, Congressman, because the fact of the matter is when you deal with this question of divisiveness and partisan politics, the President has been criticized by members of his own party, some of us that are progressive, for leaning over too much. And now to call him divisive; it almost is laughable, in some circles.
GRAYSON: Right. I think that soon they’ll wheel out Roger Clemens and he`ll say that the President is guilty of using steroids. That makes as much sense as what Marco Rubio said. . . .
SHARPTON: Now, Congressman, let me go back to you. It`s a lot of ugliness and di-viss-iveness, or de-vice-iveness, as Joe said, whichever [way] you want to pronounce it. Governor Chris Christie attacked the President this weekend while he was addressing Kentucky Republicans. [Christie] said, and I`m quoting him, “President Obama has cared more about posing and preening than progress.” And then Congressman Joe Walsh‘s town hall this weekend, a constituent at Walsh`s town hall attacked the President, and Congressman Walsh listened and said nothing. Let me show it to you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He should have said it before he was elected and said, “I`m a socialist, I believe in socialism, communism, nazi,” whatever, and say “this is where I want to lead the country,” not do it underhandedly.
REP. JOE WALSH (R), ILLINOIS: However you want to label and define it, don`t you think now after three-and-a-half years as a country, now we have a really good idea where the President wants to go.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Well, absolutely because he feels he has everyone by the cojones, now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHARPTON: I mean, real ugly kind of crazy, shrill language, but it`s being entertained, and in some cases being recycled, by some of the leaders in the Republican Party in some cases.
GRAYSON: You`re going to see nothing but personal attacks against President Obama for the next six months, because we`ve seen nothing but personal attacks against him for the past four years. You know, [like] this whole question of his birth certificate. When has a white president ever been asked to produce a birth certificate? It`s all nothing but personal attacks, because they have no answers for anything. All they can do is make ad hominem [personal] arguments. There`s a Harvard phrase for you: ad hominem arguments. They`ve got no health policy worth discussing. Their health policy is basically, “Don`t get sick.” They`ve got no educational policy worth discussing. And their economic policy is “reverse Robin Hood.” They`re stealing from the poor, and giving to the rich.
SHARPTON: Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, I have to go. Joe Madison, always good to have you on. Thank you both for your time.
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Featured picture is … Baby New Year 1905 chases old 1904 into the history books in this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon.
It is the end of 2010 and while it is snowing a bit all over the country, it is very cold. So, the voice of reason says everyone who is going to engage this New Year with something spiked to drink should stay put get cozy, watch movies, tv listen to some music; if the weather impacts you bundle up and or go to a bed/breakfast or hotel etc. and relax.
Hypocrisy and misinformation are two things of interest that should be beat back by those of us center and or left of center.
The only reliable product of an organized religion (replace w/Republican Tea Party) is a flock of hypocrites who feel that only *their* hypocrisy is divinely sanctioned. – Siddownshaddap
One of the biggest issues i hope the Democratic Party will jump on in 2011 is the overt Hypocrisy the Republican Tea Party has engaged in since electing President Obama into office.
My Urban Dictionary says a Hypocrite is…
(1) A person who engages in the same behaviors he condemns others for.
(2) A person who professes certain ideals, but fails to live up to them.
(3) A person who holds other people to higher standards than he holds himself.
The idea that what our President has engaged in anything that even resembles hypocrisy over the last two years compared to anything that most if not all Republicans and their comrades engage in without remorse is beyond me. I offer up as just one of hundreds of “pieces” of evidence Senator John McCain as one of the most well-known Hypocrisy Actor. I think most people at least respected McCain, the man who called himself a maverick but Senator McCain, having done a full 360 turn around on just about every piece of legislation that he was for while running for President. Senator McCain, the so-called maverick is now known to be a man of questionable choices by so many. In addition there are other Hypocrisy Actors like Mitt Romney who gets Government Health Care himself voted for TARP not only created but implemented Universal Health Care in his own State, voted NO on the floor of Congress that denied the rest of Americans from getting UHC or true government health-care like he gets paid for by you and me. The list of Hypocrisy Actors though long includes Republican Fox TV host Huckabee who not only spoke out against but ran on the pro-life campaign also had serious investments in embryonic stem cell research.
I have been a firm supporter of President Obama even when it looked as if legislation would sour or are voted down. It is slightly upsetting that given past histories of ”The People” or voters giving Presidents many chances some have gotten two terms and well you know where that got us. The next obvious thing one has to wonder and question is why so many would give previous Presidents so many opportunities even after a few years of seemingly falsehoods. Yet, turn on a new President so quickly, why would so many on the side of the issues have tantrums on such a regular basis and why make threats to take back your votes in what has been the worst economy since the depression? Those things on their own would be reason enough to give a new President time to find the correction let alone implement it. It is not lost on me why this President enlisted the like so of a larry summers, tim geithner and others … it is quite simple really -they know who what why where how when things got ugly, so far the fix is in though slow. In the hypocrisy or change of mind angle, it is obvious that for me every issue the President has talked about and or used during the pre-President election days are ones in which some information given underwent a change, which in turn changed Obama’s mind, his heart and warranted a change of direction. This for me is a change i welcome … for someone to have thought, selfless action, personal judgment and view for the many opposed to or for a select few right of center or even center think a change of mind is hypocrisy? Pish paw the very definition of hypocrisy since 2008 has the picture of Senator John McCain right by it –
This President has said right from the beginning that he had an open mind to solutions given by others from the Republican Party. However, they have spent two years obstructing, saying no, scaling down possible solutions, and hearing that Corporate America sent 1.4 Million jobs offshore in a time when it should be Country first – your own country. It makes me wonder just what will it take to see that those so-called people who hired folks or create jobs are doing so but outsourcing them to China and or Mexico etc. in the name of cost efficiency.
just sayin
Republican Hypocrite of the Week …by DCCC
There are so many outrageous Republican hypocrites that it’s hard to chose just one but this week – we think Rep-elect Joe Walsh of Illinois deserves a nomination!
New reports this weekend reveal that Representative-elect Joe Walsh (IL-08) believes government has done TOO MUCH for the middle class, YET he’s hired a financial services lobbyist to be his Chief of Staff and is welcoming contributions from Wall Street titan JP Morgan. Walsh ran as an anti-government outsider but is now embracing Wall Street’s agenda and argues that government takes “care of too many in the middle class.”
Voters are getting a crash course in how out-of-touch Representative-elect Joe Walsh really is after he hired a Wall Street lobbyist to run his office and said there are too many government programs, like Social Security and the Department of Education, that benefit the middle class. When Representative-elect Walsh says that government has done too much for the middle class it must warm the heart of his Wall Street staff and special interest donors – but it leaves Illinois families out in the cold. Hiring a Wall Street lobbyist as Chief of Staff is the best evidence yet that Walsh’s agenda will be driven by Wall Street’s needs, not the needs of the middle class.
below: hypocrisy over the stimulus bill
Other News …
Elizabeth Warren: Foreclosure Scams Show Need for New Consumer Agency
CSPAN …
Release of the 2011 Congressional calendar for the U.S. House of Representatives
The U.S. Senate has voted 67 to 28 to advance the nuclear arms treaty with Russia known as START. That’s the exact number needed for ratification. After this vote, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) said he has an informal agreement with Republican Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) on amendments to the treaty. He’s joined by Foreign Relations Ranking Member Dick Lugar (R-IN), who has worked on nuclear non-proliferation for a number of years.
Senate Republicans remarks on START treaty
December 21, 2010
The Senate’s number three Republican Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has said he will vote to ratify the nuclear arms treaty with Russia known as START. Treaty opponents, Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and others spoke with reporters at the Capitol about their concerns.
Senate Republicans Press Conference on START treaty
December 15, 2010
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) along with several of his Republican colleagues spoke to reporters about the nuclear arms treaty with Russia known as START. Senate Democrats want to pass the START treaty as it’s known before the end of the year. Sixty-seven votes are required for ratification.
House Speaker Pelosi signs Post 9/11Veterans Education Assistance
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was joined by other Democratic members and veterans activists in the Capitol for a ceremony that will send a 9/11 veterans bill to President Obama. The measure builds on the the so-called new G-I bill, extending education assistance to soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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