Politics
Associated Press Fact-Checks President Obama’s State of the Union Address
You’re fact-checking Obama??! How about those loony GOP and Tea Party responses from Paul Ryan and Michelle Bachmann??! Scary thing is that, as I said on twitter, as crazy as Bachmann is and wild questionable with her interpretation of events & the stats (the US has ‘the world’s finest health care’?? Really??), her SOTU response might resonate with more people than Obama’s actual SOTU. Although, as The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart pointed out, what was up with her weird eye contact??
Related:
– Top House Republican downplays Bachmann SOTU response. [MSNBC First Response]
– Right-Wing Media Embrace Ryan’s SOTU Response — But Economists Disagree. [Media Matters]
And from PolitiFact.com:
Hit the jump for for more video of President Obama expand on his SOTU themes of American rising to the challenge of innovating to ‘win the future.’
News: Now Sh-t is Going Crazy in Egypt!
Read more on the Egypt unrest: The New York Times | Al Jazeera
– Sh-t is WILD for the Night in Tunisia Right Now!
– Did Fox News’ Neil Cavuto Try to Use the Tunisia Riots to ‘Pull a Palin.
Join the League of Young Voters Education Fund for President Obama’s State of the Union Address TONIGHT!
League of Young Voters Education Fund (LYVEF) and AllHipHop.com announce their official partnership for the first annual “State of the Union 2011: Roadmap to Progress” viewing party and panel discussion event on January 25, 2011.
The LYVEF and AllHipHop.com will host exclusive conversations with leading voices from music and politics following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Using the power of hip-hop, LYVEF and AllHipHop.com will chat with political figures from the nation’s largest youth organizations, including Rock The Vote, as well as media experts to address the needs and interests of the nation’s young voters.
“State of the Union 2011: Roadmap to Progress” will feature a viewing of President Obama’s third State of the Union address before Congress, followed by three 20-minute panel discussions. AllHipHop.com and LYVEF will provide simplified explanations of how each subject matter discussed in the address directly impacts our young voter’s lives, including health care, war in the Middle East, gun control, economic policies and more.
“State of the Union 2011: Roadmap to Progress” will broadcast live. Join the conversation with the best and brightest in music and politics by watching live via Ustream at www.youngvoterlive.com at 8pm EST. Viewer questions will be taken live from Ustream, Facebook and Twitter and posed to panelists and attendees so be sure to chime in!
Hit the jump to check out the trailer.
Lessons from Portugal: A Look at the Fallacy of the ‘War on Drugs’
Maybe the answers are in Portugal (see the video above) and (not what you think), the Netherlands.
Related:
– Op-Ed by Fernando Henrique Cardoso (former president of Brazil, 1995-2002): The war on drugs is lost. [Toronto Star]
Hit the jump for Reason TV’s interview with author, Glenn Greenwald who wrote a Cato Institute policy paper titled, Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies.
Read an Excerpt from O: A Presidential Novel
The last campaign had tested his self-control. The eighteen-hour days, the frenetic travel, the bad food, the loss of autonomy, and the silly expectations imposed on him. The ersatz patriotism. The feigned conviviality with strangers who asked him outlandish questions. suffering the predictable whining of reporters who swooned to his message of change but were themselves averse to change. You dropped two points in a poll or said something obviously true but too blunt for ears trained to detect danger in honesty and they were at your throat. People crowding you every waking minute. Take a few days to recharge or a couple of hours to shoot some hoops or take your wife out, and you’re cocky or lackadaisical.
But he had kept it together, mostly. In private, he could become cross when mistakes occurred or when assurances proved false or when pressed to conform to campaign orthodoxies he thought stupid. But staff who had experienced his displeasure marveled at his ability to appear unbothered and focused in public. He didn’t overreact to unexpected setbacks. He never acted impulsively when surprised. Never let his instincts, which were as insistent as any politician’s, overcome his reason. Never seemed to give a [expletive] when reporters or griping party insiders were concerned he wasn’t hustling enough, responding to attacks quickly enough, worrying enough. He never appeared anxious over the outcome or desperate for the office. He told his story. He was different and he would make the stupid, maddening business of Washington politics different.
[Click the ‘more…’ or ‘continue reading’ links below link to read the rest of the excerpt, courtesy NYT]
Related:
Obama inspired book is political science fiction. [Toronto Star]