23 1 / 2013
23 1 / 2013
![theatlantic:
Looking out over a crowd of hundreds of thousands, President Barack Obama gives his inauguration address, on January 21, 2013 in Washington, D.C. [Image: Rob Carr/Getty]
See more.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/4d4cf5adafd9ed0191d71b6e415478a6/tumblr_mgzpn0xfSC1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
Looking out over a crowd of hundreds of thousands, President Barack Obama gives his inauguration address, on January 21, 2013 in Washington, D.C. [Image: Rob Carr/Getty]
22 1 / 2013
Biden Working His Way Through Scratch-Off Tickets During Obama’s Swearing-In
22 1 / 2013
@nytimes: Sasha and Malia Obama pose for a selfie during the inaugural parade
(Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images)
(Source: The New York Times)
22 1 / 2013
"On the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we reaffirm its historic commitment to protect the health and reproductive freedom of women across this country and stand by its guiding principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters, and women should be able to make their own choices about their bodies and their health care. Today and every day, my Administration continues our efforts to reduce unintended pregnancies, support maternal and child health, and minimize the need for abortion. On this anniversary, we recommit ourselves to supporting women and families in the choices they make and redouble our efforts to promote safe and healthy communities."
15 1 / 2013
JUST IN: Pres. Obama will call for universal background checks, ban on high capacity magazines and renewal of assault weapons ban Wednesday
(Source: nbcnews.com, via brooklynmutt)
11 1 / 2013
“It’s meatball with provolone.”- Joe Biden, ordering sandwiches for his staff @Potbelly today in DC.
(WH Photo-D. Lienemann)
Good choice!
04 1 / 2013
“Clearly, the VP was having more fun than anyone in Washington today!” - @PatCallaghan6
(via TPMDC)
Biden’s so full of shit. I LOVE HIM
20 11 / 2012
The Wall St. Journal names Chief Justice John Roberts "Liberal man of the year."
(Source: brooklynmutt)
18 11 / 2012
What's the Conservative Equivalent of 'Moving to Canada'?
In truth, there aren’t many places where upset Republicans could go without giving something else up. Chile got some love from Herman Cain early in the Republican primary for its privatized pension system, which appealed to fiscal conservatives until they realized the “Chilean model” is built on an individual mandate not unlike the one propping up Obamacare. It also doesn’t help that Chile’s president last year floated the idea of recognizing same-sex civil unions…
Singapore — or Hong Kong, which ranks first on the Heritage Foundation’s index of economic freedom — could be an alternative, at least for members of the 1 percent…But for the Tea Party’s more libertarian wing, Singapore would be a no-go: It has a public health-care system and a relatively restrictive government…
The lack of an obvious post-electoral-defeat “Conservative Canada” may stem just as much from principle as from practicality…Republicans tend to talk about American exceptionalism as though it were an absolute, intrinsic characteristic. If disaffected members of the GOP were to say they’re giving up on America, they’d undermine the notion that only in the United States can you find the peculiar mix of personal liberty, religiousness, and faith in free markets that makes it the greatest country on earth. If you’ve already accepted that premise, then there’s naturally no other place on the planet you’d rather be — even under President Obama.
They should move to Ireland. For one, abortion is illegal there, as evidenced by the recent death of Savita Halappanavar. See also:
(Source: downlo)
18 11 / 2012
"Well the correct answer is: [Barack Obama] is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is: what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no—that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven year old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?"
15 11 / 2012
Bodies for ballots
The fact that the Israeli elections are just around the corner (January) isn’t something that’s been emphasized enough in mainstream media coverage of the Gaza strikes. As this Daily Beast piece points out, there are internal political reasons why Israeli leadership could’ve been inclined to break the ceasefire:
Israel has tried assassinating Palestinian leaders for decades but the resistance persists. Israel launched a devastating and brutal war on Gaza from 2008 to 2009 killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, but the resistance persists.
Why, then, would Israel choose to revert to a failed strategy that will undoubtedly only escalate the situation? Because it is far easier for politicians to lie to voters, vilify their adversaries, and tell them ‘we will hit them hard’ than to come clean and say instead, ‘we’ve failed and there is no military solution to this problem.’
With Israeli elections around the corner, the right-wing Israeli government chose the counter-productive path of escalation even though civilians would pay the price and their domestic opposition rallied behind them.
Trading bodies for ballots is an equation Israeli leaders are happy to be engaged in, especially since all the ballots are Israeli and the bodies are almost always Palestinian.This is an assessment echoed by The New Statesman, which points out that a similar flareup of violence happened prior to an Israeli election in 2008:
The parallels with Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza in late 2008 are clear. Then, around 1,400 Gazans, mostly civilians, were killed in a bloody, 22-day offensive that Israel launched just after Obama was sworn-in as president and just before an Israeli election. Yesterday, Zehava Galon, who chairs Israel’s left-wing Meretz party, described the Israeli government as: “A team of pyromaniacs that want to cause war on the eve of elections.” The assessment is that prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Ehud Barak are showing some of the forceful leadership that Israelis seem to love at the ballot box. War, or course, removes other issues – such as rising social discontent – from the campaign agenda for elections taking place in late January 2013. Now Israeli politicians of all the main parties are backing Netanyahu’s strikes on Gaza – to do otherwise, when the war drums are beating, would be tantamount to treason and an electoral turn-off…
Unfortunately, western media outlets almost uniformly focus on Israeli casualties, ignoring the fact that when violence erupts in the occupied territories, many more Palestinians are injured and killed. This skewed coverage plays into the ability of Israeli leadership to portray Israel as the victim rather than the instigator of clashes. And as anyone who was paying attention in the weeks after 9/11 can attest, nothing can rally a population around a president or prime minister faster than the feeling that the country is under attack.
