DWC wonders why the national press uses Rep. Kristi Noem as the face of the Tea Party. Hmm... that would be a question for Fox News, since that seems to be the only national network that gives her the majority of her exposure outside South Dakota.
Rep. Noem may not be an official member of the Tea Party (she still hasn't crossed the hall to Rep. Bachmann's office to get a copy of that all-important caucus mission statement so she can figure out what the Tea Party stands for), but with her fact-impervious hypergeneralizations, she sure sounds like one. On Fox News Tuesday, Rep. Noem challenged us to "Point to one policy that this president has enacted that has actually worked."
The South Dakota Democratic Party accepts the challenge and lists ten effective policies enacted by President Obama:
- Added 4.1 million private sector jobs and seen 25 straight months of job growth. American Recovery Act.
- Rescued American auto industry, saving more than 1 million jobs and preventing the loss of over $96 billion in personal income as a result. Rescue loans to American Auto Industry.
- Repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell,"ensuring that no one ever again has to lie about who they are to serve the country they love. Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.
- Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, making progress in a decades-long battle for women to get equal pay for equal work. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act
- Provided 46 million seniors access to free preventive services like annual wellness visits and health screenings .Affordable Care Act.
- Closed the Medicare "doughnut hole," saving the average senior approximately $4,200 over the next 10 years. Affordable Care Act.
- Extended more benefits to National Guard members who have performed active service and allow education benefits to be transferred to family members. Post 9/11 GI Bill.
- Brought the war in Iraq to a responsible end. For the first time in nine years, there are no American troops fighting in Iraq.
- Doubled funding for Pell grants, making college more affordable for 9 million students a year.
- Established new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks will nearly double fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, saving American families an estimated $1.7 trillion at the pump [SDDP, "Note to Noem: Challenge Accepted," 2012.04.18].
You can add to that summary a much longer list of accomplishments compiled by Dr. Robert P. Watson of Lynn University.
I suppose Rep. Noem can weasel out of her statement by saying that when she says "worked," she means... well, whatever she wants it to mean. But to suggest that not one policy that the President has enacted has produced its desired effect is an exercise in propaganda worthy of any Tea Party candidate.
A more useful question (and yes, Messrs. Varilek and Barth, please do ask!) would be, "How many policies has Rep. Kristi Noem voted for that have actually worked?" Or better yet, "How many policies has Rep. Kristi Noem voted for that have actually been enacted?"
You don't for a second think she's actually going to hear you, right? Picture her with her fingers in her ears going "la la la la la la la" while peering into her mailbox for the next farm sub check.
Bruce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TkAlb0LDYk
Here is Noem being declared as a Tea Partier by Wolf Blitzer on CNN.
0
Got Bin Laden.
something Bush couldn't or wouldn't do
Getting bin Laden was more propaganda fuel for Obama's campaign than for security. Even if he was still on the loose, I doubt we'd see another bin Laden-led attack again.
In exchange, we've burned quite few bridges with Pakistan.
Worth it? I have my doubts.
Carter, I am open to a cost-benefit discussion of the bin Laden-Pakistan impacts. But the GOP can't be, not in the campaign. Can you imagine any Republican saying, "We should have left bin Laden alive in order to protect our diplomatic relationship with Pakistan"?
Oh, it definitely great for Obama's campaign, and I don't think the impact it had on US-Pakistan relations will be anything historically noteworthy, in and of itself.
Despite the distaste I have for Obama, he (or his advisers) is quite a sound political strategist. So far, he's hardly taken a stand at all, and the GOP has been beating at itself like a lunatic who broke out of his straight jacket.
Then again, he hasn't really taken the offensive a whole lot during his presidency, either. Maybe he's a bit timid.
"Then again, he hasn’t really taken the offensive a whole lot during his presidency, either. Maybe he’s a bit timid."
your right on that Carter. He's been driving use liberals crazy because he hasn't come out swinging at the righ-wing crazies who only want the rich to benefit.
To be honest, I don't think he really cares who benefits. I've come to believe that Obama is looking out for Obama, and he hasn't pushed anything too hard because he wants to ensure a second term.
I'm really, really hoping he'll show his liberal stripes when/if he's reelected, but I wouldn't put money on it. Obama vs. Romney is really Consummate Politician vs. Consummate Politician, if you ask me.
Carter, I think the only people who believe President Obama will let loose with some new-leaf-turning surge of hard-left policies are the Tea Party shouters who deliver ominous warnings about the Marxist revolution that man in the White House has planned for his second term.
No offense: it is possible Obama plays judo-offense, using as little force as possible, applied in the optimal way, to achieve the goals necessary. That's sort of how he beat Clinton in 2008, with strategic deployment of forces to the battlegrounds promising the most reward based on hard analysis.
A little Marxist revolution wouldn't be so bad, now and then, I think. Maybe we should start one! Пролетарии вÑех Ñтран, ÑоединÑйтеÑÑŒ! ¡Hasta la Victoria Siempre! And such. â˜
I know it's off-topic, but ... Carter, where can I find instructions on how to create Cyrillic symbols and other nonstandard symbols in HTML, and especially ones that will show up properly in Firefox?
Now back to topic: That's an impressive list of accomplishments, Cory. I really think that Obama's foreign policies and accomplishments have been effective and on-target. Moreover, I'm really surprised at how good a military mind he seems to have.
I am not quite so impressed with Obama when it comes to the economy, at least not yet. Time will tell how well some of his accomplishments, such as the fuel efficiency standards, play out.
In any case, at this point I'd be just about equally inclined to vote for Obama as for Romney. I've drifted quite a ways to the left since Obama was elected. I do believe the guy holds the welfare of the American people above the retention of his own power. I am not so sure that Romney would operate in the same way.
One thing about these two guys really impresses me. Neither one of them seems to have a lot of moral baggage. Am I missing something, or are these guys pretty straight shooters when it comes to family values? (Contrast, for example, Gingrich and Cain and even my favorite Republican, Giuliani ...)
I don't know about Cyrillic (I just copy/pasted from Wikipedia), but I'm sure you can download a font or something. Your best bet would probably be to download a font, type it in Word, and paste it to wherever you want to post. As for special characters, you'll want to look at some Unicode charts (Alt+xxxx commands) You'll need to translate them to decimal from binary, though. For example, U+262D is Alt+9773.
When you enter the code, you (usually, except on some computers) need to hold down left alt, and type the number on the numpad (with numlock on).
Note: I'm always too lazy to type special characters. I just Google them and then copy/paste!
Mahalo!
Er. I meant translate them to decimal from hexadecimal, not decimal from binary. There's lots of online translators for that.
[Hammer and sickle code is Alt-9773; peace symbol is Alt-9774. The fact that communism and peace get adjacent HTML codes clearly demonstrates the Internet is one big Marxist plot. Pirates will enjoy Alt-9760. See more codes at http://andreakalli.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/more-silly-little-alt-code-symbols-for-twitter/%5D
Stan, I agree that Obama and Romney appear to lack moral scandals. With the passion with which the GOP hates Obama, you'd think that Breitbart or James O'Keefe or someone would have dug up any major wife-cheating or other moral scandal. The worst we've gotten is smoking, bowing to foreigners, and faking Christianity (former two non-issues, latter not true!). Romney has survived the primary season with nothing worse than hauled dog on car roof. May our discussion of the merits of these candidates focus on the policy differences (slight as some may dread they may be).
And yes, that is a long list of accomplishments. Kristi Noem may not like those accomplishments. She may want to reverse many of them in favor of progress toward her own policy objectives. But she cannot claim that the President has had no effective policy accomplishments. That's empty and irresponsible rhetoric.
Last night SDPB-TV ran a documentary on electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf, Elon Musk's Tesla, and GM's Volt. The program noted that without the government aid pushed by Bush and Obama administration, that GM would have collapsed with catastrophic impact on banks and suppliers, local and state governments, etc. GM's former CEO Bob Lutz has defended the government programs after being a lifetime conservative. He also is not too happy with conservatives who attack electric cars like the Volt. Interesting documentary if you can see it.
Keeping GM alive: again, Doug, a great example of how we can debate the merits of the policy (maybe Noem thinks we'd be better off with GM and the Volt dead), but it is hard to dispute that the policy had the desired effect.
What a difference a border makes. Minnesota landlord files eviction notice to state GOP: MPR.
"The new Pell Grant regulations will also disproportionately impact American Indians, which have the highest poverty rate in the nation combined with the lowest college degree attainment (1%) and are heavily reliant on Pell Grants." Think Indian Blog.