Obama's 2013 SOTU Address & GOP Responses | In Depth

Posted 4 hours ago on Feb. 13, 2013, 6:33 p.m. EST by WSmith (2637)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

POTUS w/the Mostest | Feb 13, 2013 | http://www.randirhodes.com/main.html

Now that was a State of the Union Address that really included the ?state of the union? part. Obama told Republicans the way things are! And more importantly, he told them how things are going to be. In one beautiful moment, Obama gave a shout out to a climate change bill once pushed by John McCain! McCain grinned, but you could tell he was mad. That will all just come out at somebody else at a confirmation hearing a year from now, and nobody will know why Grandpa is so angry.

The President said every child should have high-quality pre-school. Republicans are not going to want to provide pre-school for young kids. Now if there was a way to provide pre-pre-pre-school to fetuses, they?d be all for it! Obama proposed a bipartisan commission to look into the problems with voting. It would be good to have Republicans involved?they understand this problem. Heck, they designed it! Obama said ?We can fix this.? That was a very diplomatic way to put it. He could have just said ?Republicans need to stop doing this.? The crescendo of the speech came when the President spoke about gun violence. The President made a strong case for gun control when he pointed out all the people in the chamber who had been harmed by gun violence. He probably could have made an even stronger case if he had pointed out Ted Nugent.

Marco Rubio?s rebuttal speech was a real stretch. Bada boom! The only thing that came off worse than Marco Rubio lunging for a drink of water was when Rubio was actually speaking. Marco, next time, just drink water the entire time. You can try to talk while you?re doing it. It?ll be better if people can?t understand what you?re saying anyway. Rubio?s entire presentation was shaky, sweaty, and frightened-looking. I?ve seen hostage videos where the people on camera looked more comfortable.

Rubio made a big deal that he still lives in a blue-collar West Miami neighborhood home. He didn?t mention that he?s trying to sell it for $675,000. Rubio said ?Mr. President, I still live in the same working class neighborhood I grew up in.? When you know the real story, you realize that isn?t a boast?it?s a complaint! ?Thank God I?m getting out. Hello Georgetown!?

IN DEPTH: The 2013 SOTU And Responses

If you missed the President delivering his State of the Union speech, or either GOP response, we've got them all here, to watch & read.

http://www.randirhodes.com/pages/rrnews.html?feed=393046&article=10810695

Read more: http://www.randirhodes.com/pages/rrnews.html?feed=393046&article=10810695#ixzz2KpAqWxdV

Matthews Blasts Rubio's Rebuttal Speech as 'Tinker Toy'

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/matthews-blasts-rubios-rebuttal-speech-tin

The Most Important Policies In President Obama's 2013 State of the Union Address

By National Journal Staff | February 12, 2013 | 11:33 p.m.

President Obama on Tuesday challenged Congress to find a way to dodge the sequester and seize the opportunity for more-enduring deficit reduction, using his fourth State of the Union address to paint lawmakers as the obstacle to a more prosperous and inclusive country.

On fiscal matters, immigration reform, and gun control, Obama depicted Congress?and Republicans, specifically?as the stumbling block, on the heels of a reelection campaign frequently decried for not offering concrete proposals.

Obama vowed that "America?s commitment to a unified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure,? but announced the withdrawal of 34,000 U.S. troops from that war zone within a year, and vowed that the war would be over by the end of 2014.

Citing a ?decade of grinding war? and the ?grueling recession,? Obama said, ?Together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger.?

In one of two mentions of his erstwhile rival, Obama proposed boosting the federal minimum hourly wage to $9 from $7.25, and mentioned that he and Mitt Romney ?actually agreed? on indexing the rate to cost of living.

Obama?s minimum-wage overture reflects Democratic confidence that Republicans are wedged in an electoral bear trap. Accede too willingly to the president?s agenda, and they have abandoned their base and their principles. Oppose him at every turn?particularly on a matter as salient as minimum wage?and hazard being seen as callous to the plight of the working class, and unwilling to reinvigorate the middle class. The GOP hammered Democrats during the 2012 campaign with allegations of apathy toward small businesses?recall the crowing over Obama?s ?you didn?t build that? remark?and lost, and Obama has evinced little sign of yielding that advantage.

CONTINUED: http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/the-most-important-policies-in-president-obama-s-2013-state-of-the-union-address-20130212

Source: http://occupywallst.org/forum/obamas-2013-sotu-address-gop-responses-in-depth/

betty white ed reed football schedule jo paterno dead south carolina tuskegee airmen mike james

Young People Lead the Charge Against Government Spending and Debt

Did you see the viral video of former Wyoming senator Alan Simpson dancing Gangnam Style with a guy in a can costume, urging young voters to press Congress to fix the debt? That video was from The Can Kicks Back, a nonprofit whose aim is to organize 20- and 30-somethings to force the government to get its financial house in order and stop "kicking the can." They're calling for, as the Simpson-Bowles Commission did, $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. I met the young man in the can costume, Ryan Schoenike, recently, and was curious as to why any young person would get off the couch, stop going to happy hours, and get involved in trying to solve the national debt. Are there others like him, I asked? There sure are, he said. I spoke with three of them this week.

The first, Katelyn Williams, was a freshman last year at Hofstra University when her roommate?a former valedictorian on a merit-based partial scholarship?decided that being a pre-med major was economically unsustainable. Given the looming changes to the healthcare industry and the bleak employment prospects for young people, making a good living as a doctor was going to be difficult. On top of that she would be saddled with a crushing debt: the years of student loans that she would accumulate through the end of medical school. The young woman switched to majoring in business management.

[Check out U.S. News Weekly, an insider's guide to politics and policy.]

Young people today face a tough job market, which will make paying back student loans even more difficult. Williams points to the website for The Can Kicks Back, which tells students that prolonged negotiation in Washington over the debt leads to uncertainty. "Uncertainty leads to fewer jobs; by some estimates the unemployment rate would be 2 to 3 percent lower if we had more certainty. That's between 3.1 million and 4.6 million more jobs." While other kids were decorating their dorm rooms, Williams created a Facebook page detailing the implications of the debt for each college major. After attending a Q&A session on campus with Alan Simpson and former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles, she joined The Can Kicks Back.

I spoke with Sean Bayley, a former Marine who is heading to Cal Poly in the fall to double-major in math and engineering. "I'm looking at the entire system and saying, this is not sustainable at all," he says. He sees the "insanity" of uncontrollable entitlement spending as well as the largest single defense budget on the planet. This week the Congressional Budget Office projected that in 10 years, if nothing changes, the debt will reach a whopping 77 percent of GDP. "You could likely raise our generation's tax rates to 100 percent and it still wouldn't cover the projected growth of government spending," Bayley speculates. "Reform is long overdue." After watching Simpson on The Daily Show, he signed up to join the cause too.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]

There's also Aaron Tucek, a sophomore at Emory University who is double-majoring in political science and economics and is planning to go to law school. Like many of his friends, he'll have to take on a lot of debt to continue his education. When those student loans are combined with a tough job market and higher taxes because of spiraling interest on the national debt, he gets pretty alarmed. "There simply isn't a future where this is going to go away by itself. We have to find ways to come together and actually solve the problem," he says.

The problem, Tucek notes, is that many "millennials" like him?young people born between 1980 and 2005, a generation bigger than the baby boomers?have been disgusted by the tone of politics and chosen to disengage. Bayley agrees: "We don't believe everything the Republicans on TV tell us. We don't believe everything the Democrats on TV tell us." I can't blame them.

While others were signing up for fraternity rush last year, Tucek was a campus leader for Americans Elect at Emory, then joined the movement to draft former U.S. comptroller general David Walker for president as an independent. Friends from both parties asked him to join The Can Kicks Back. He jumped right in.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]

Tucek remembers being a third-grader when the 9/11 attacks happened; our nation has been at war ever since. He says, "It feels as if, for the majority of my life so far, our country has lurched from crisis to crisis. And so, politics is really something I wanted to get involved in. I have an interest here. I want to make a difference." Bayley agrees: "The country isn't going to run itself. We need good people."

Source: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/2/14/young-people-lead-the-charge-against-government-spending-and-debt?s_cid=rss:young-people-lead-the-charge-against-government-spending-and-debt

jim jones tony stewart kurt busch kurt busch nba dunk contest 2012 act of valor woody guthrie

Kieron Pollard's controlled aggression a welcome sign, feels West Indies coach O...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151714212549409&set=a.10150261923524409.377980.50014959408&type=1

zou bisou bisou tim tebow press conference tebow press conference trina rob dyrdek oberon donald driver

Mid-turnaround, J.C. Penney boosts borrowing capacity

(Reuters) - Retailer J.C. Penney Co Inc increased its borrowing capacity under a bank credit facility by $100 million to $1.85 billion and expanded an option to borrow more at a later date, raising concerns among analysts as it works on a turnaround.

"As we enter the second year of our transformation, today's announcement reflects the confidence of our banking group in our long-term strategy and further strengthens our liquidity position as we continue to execute our plan," J.C. Penny Chief Financial Officer Ken Hannah said in a statement on Tuesday.

However, analysts expressed reservations about the move as it would increase the company's borrowing capacity from $1.75 billion to $2.25 billion.

The new arrangements included a $150 million increase in the credit facility's accordion feature to $400 million and a $250 million increase in an additional feature, analysts said. An accordion feature allows a borrower to expand a credit facility at a later date.

"The credit risk profile of (J.C. Penney) continues to escalate as the company potentially increases leverage to bring about a so far disappointing transformation strategy," BMO Capital Markets analyst Wayne Hood said in a client note.

There were no changes in credit terms or covenants, he said.

"These hurried actions are not indicative of a financially healthy company," said Carol Levenson, director of research, at Gimme Credit, an independent research service on corporate bonds.

The department store operator's existing credit agreement is the subject of a default claim by a group of bondholders.

J.C. Penney appeared to have taken extra measures to reassure its bank lenders, signing a "reaffirmation agreement" reiterating the guarantees and the grant of security interest under the credit agreement, Levenson said.

The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The arrangement of the credit facility was co-led by J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Wells Fargo Capital Finance, J.C. Penny said.

Chief Executive Ron Johnson said last week the company would return to growth in 2013, despite severe sales declines in fiscal 2012.

Penney, which operates 1,100 department stores, began a turnaround a year ago that called for the elimination of most coupons and sales events. Long-term customers, trained for years to seek out discounts, balked at the new pricing strategy and reeled in purchases.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler, Andre Grenon and Richard Pullin)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mid-turnaround-j-c-penney-boosts-borrowing-capacity-024537654--sector.html

joe avezzano kanye west theraflu joey votto the masters live mega millions winner holy thursday chris stewart

The details on Obama's State of the Union address (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/284440974?client_source=feed&format=rss

Am I registered to vote Voter registration Election Election results 2012 exit polls Presidential Polls California Propositions

HBT: Sox owner has no plans to sell club

Last fall there was a curious report from Fox Business Network that John Henry and the other Red Sox owners were exploring a sale of the team. Curious because, unlike a lot of these sorts of things, it was not met with silence or businesspeak denials. It was met with a pretty pointed and specific refutation by Red Sox owner John Henry.

Today Henry met the media down in Fort Myers and once again made it clear that the Red Sox were not for sale:

?You just don?t get an opportunity to own something like the Boston Red Sox. As long as we can do it, the three of us are committed to being here,? Henry told reporters, while acknowledging team president Larry Lucchino and chairman Tom Werner. ?These thoughts that we?re somehow selling, those are just not true.?

In an age when a baseball team can sell for $2 billion, it?d probably be irresponsible to not at least look around to see what your team is worth. But it doesn?t sound like Henry is at all interested in getting out of the baseball business.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/11/john-henry-reiterates-that-he-is-not-selling-the-red-sox/related/

jim jones tony stewart kurt busch kurt busch nba dunk contest 2012 act of valor woody guthrie

Calling all Philadelphia 76ers Fans! Enter our NBA 76ers VIP Chalk Talk Sweepsta...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/Stubhub/posts/323235074454997

powell the last lecture kim jong un josh powell madonna halftime show linsanity the alamo