Friday News Roundup - Domestic
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-31/friday-news-roundup-domestic
The Republican National Convention wrapped up in Tampa, Fla., with speeches by GOP candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. A federal court found evidence of discrimination in new Texas voting maps drawn by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. Consumer spending and personal income both rose in July. And astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died in Cincinnati, Ohio. James Fallows of The Atlantic, Laura Meckler of The Wall Street Journal and syndicated journalist Steve Roberts join Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
James Fallows
national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine.
Laura Meckler
White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
Steve Roberts
syndicated columnist and journalism professor at The George Washington University.
Friday News Roundup Video
The panel discussed what it meant to have actor and director Clint Eastwood deliver a speech at the Republican National Convention. James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, called it a "surreal monologue." George Washington University professor Steve Roberts said Eastwood's speech was borderline vulgar and changed the tone of the convention. The Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler said the most remarkable part was that the speech came on during primetime television.
Comments
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The woman who claimed to be an "NPR Liberal" was obviously a plant from the Republicans. I'm sure Diane knew this, but she's so polite she wouldn't say anything. The right wing has an operation of paid internet commenters and radio callers to confuse voters.
With all the attention on the Presidential race and the related issue/comment of the week, there are those like myself that shake our heads knowing that without a Congress willing to work together to address the problems, it really doesn't matter who the President is on domestic issues. I for one see all the problems and lack of any progress on the domestic front as a direct result of a broken branch of our government....Congress.
The woman who just called in claiming to be a " NPR liberal" was probably lying about her politics, and your panel were deficient to not pick up on that. No liberal I know would hold the views she did, especially about media bias, which smells of a regular Fox News watcher; Total stalking horse.
The Republicans' cynical lying about welfare to work waivers is a perfect example of agnotology -- the intentional creation of ignorance or doubt. A quick read of the actual document on conditions for approving demonstration projects to increase employment of welfare recipients makes is obvious that the Romney campaign's attack is false, but the GOP suggests the whole thing is just too complicated for voters to determine for themselves, and hopes they will continue to swallow this hook, line and sinker.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/policy/im-ofa/2012/im201203/im201203...
Mary Anne
This bears repeating because the facts are quite the opposite of the stereotype in voter's minds.
The majority of welfare recipients are white and hail from red states, not inner city blacks.
I work for an economic development organization in Northeast Indiana. What we are hearing often from employers is that the critical issue facing our country is a skills issue, not a jobs issue. Why is this not an issue in the campaign? Our employers can't find the qualified workers to fill their openings and this problem isn't going away anytime soon.
I'm interested that no one every questions Mitt Romney's purported strong experience as a businessman. To me a businessman is someone who creates something of value and makes money doing so. Mr. Romney, as far as I know, has never done that. Instead, he is a financier, someone who makes money for himself and his immediate circle of investors (or, perhaps, cronies), without creating anything specific of value and who is willing to make that money for himself at the expense of others.
Your guests ducked the quesion on the media favoring one party over the other. YOur caller was obviously not talking about people with twitter accounts. My observation is that the media is more inclined to promote their position than honest reporting.
kathleen wrote:
"Ok trying to be polite what can your guest say about Paul Ryans creative fact presentation?"
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Come on. Neither you, Diane Rehm, Steve Roberts, or any DR Show guest host is voting for Mitt. Were you knickers in a twist when the White House approved ad claimed Romney was responsible for the cancer death of the guy's wife?
MarcusTullius wrote:
"sane wrote:
"Poor whites are mostly Southerners."
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Right. Southern Democrats."
The ten wealthiest states in the Union are all voting consistently democratic.
The southern states live of their largesse and are net recipients of federal money.
California alone supports 45% of federal budget.
Southerners whine against Federal Government, but they do not contribute to it.
They receive more money back than they pay in taxes.
Carl Bowman wrote:
"The woman who just called in claiming to be a " NPR liberal" was probably lying about her politics, and your panel were deficient to not pick up on that. No liberal I know would hold the views she did, especially about media bias, which smells of a regular Fox News watcher; Total stalking horse."
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Come on. The lame stream media does not even deny their liberal bias.
"NY Times Public Editor Admits Paper Has a Pro-Obama Bias "
http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/ny-times-public-editor-admits-paper-h...
"In an interview on Tuesday with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, ABC News’ White House correspondent Jake Tapper addressed many of the concerns that Republicans have with the media. Tapper said that he was concerned that key issues, like the economy, were being ignored in favor of political issues like Mitt Romney’s tax returns. Tapper said that he hopes the media does not unfairly cover this election and favor one candidate over another, as he says the institution did in"
Beyond wrote:
"Have any you geniuses ever thought that maybe things were so messed up from 10 years of Republican AND Democratic policies that it would take more than 4 years to rectify?"
No that would imply that they understood nuance and complexity. This band of conservative "anyone but Obama" screamers wouldn't understand that, nor would they have the capacity to understand how long this is all going to take. They just want things back the way they were under W which is where we're heading with Mittens.
" the White House approved ad claimed Romney was responsible for the cancer death of the guy's wife?"
Proof? Proof of a direct connection between that ad and the White House?
I think that was the work of a PAC.
Regarding the Economy --- Yes it's complicated. But all one really needs to do is to choose whether one is a 'supply-sider', like the Republicans (and, one needs to keep in mind that the supply-siders seek to increase the supply of money in their own pockets). Or whether one is a 'demand-sider',like the Democrats, who seek to increase the numbers of people who have spendable money in their own pockets.
Teece Bowman wrote: "No that would imply that they understood nuance and complexity"
Who are you kidding? a few minutes ago you couldn't even identify the obvious, forget nuance and complexity.
As reporter steve roberts put the image ( once again) in the minds of the listening audience of black women being the face of "welfare queens" i would like to thank you, thank you, thank you diane for disrupting that image by making it clear that a majority of people on welfare are white americans, not black.
that is not to imply that there are no black people that abuse the system. at the same time there are white people who abuse it as well. abuse in itself is not something that people who are receiving help from the government are taking advantage of it.
roberts said correctly in reference to the subject is that ronald reagan effectively used black people in his platform speeches. he fired up the crowds with that kind of rhetoric. he brought out the worse in white americans who where ripe to buy into racism. thank goodness that then and now there are many who do not and will not be dooped by that kind of thinking. yet it is something that does not "rest in peace". i heard a woman being interviewed yesterday on a Morning Edition piece from a VETERANS for Romney rally, that she "can't stand president Obama, she can't stand to look at him and that Mrs Obama does not act like a first lady and she does not look like one" . make of that what you will but though it is obvious quite enough people feel that way it something very difficult to hear.
i would hope that Mr. Roberts forms his analysis on the subject with more thought next time he presents it
ValpoViking has hit it on the nose. Congress has not worked to improve the economy but has instead been a drag on it.
Someone at the convention said we aren't better off than we were in 2008. That's ludicrous. You can argue with a straight face that if it weren't for Obama, the recovery would have been stronger and swifter, but you cannot argue that there's been no recovery, because all the facts contradict you.
I remember feeling in 2008 that our country, like the Roman Empire was about to lose its prominent position among nations. That's what we kept hearing - about the ascendance of China and the decline of the United States. The future looked entirely gloomy. Today we have problems, the economy isn't great, we have a huge debt, but we no longer fear that we're looking at the decline and fall of the United States.
sane wrote:
"The ten wealthiest states in the Union are all voting consistently democratic.
California alone supports 45% of federal budget."
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California is bankrupt. Did you miss the Bell City, California Democratic party politicans scandal?
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/bell/
the obvious?
Like " I will keep this plant open?" or " I will prevent GM from closing this plant?" Or "My administration will personally assure each and every one of you continued employment with General Motors?"
Had he said that you'd have been apoplectic. Which may explain why you're angry now.
Yeah, that's obvious.....
pallas_athena wrote: ' You can argue with a straight face that if it weren't for Obama, the recovery would have been stronger and swifter'
Totally!
Teece Bowman wrote:
"Proof? Proof of a direct connection between that ad and the White House?
I think that was the work of a PAC."
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"White House spokesman Jay Carney declined Friday to repudiate an independent ad that ties Mitt Romney to the cancer death of a laid-off steelworker's wife, as the controversy over that misleading commercial dragged into another day."
"The Romney campaign has seized on missteps by Obama campaign aides who at first claimed not to know the details of former steelworker Joe Soptic—only to have to reverse course when it emerged that Soptic's tale played a key role in a campaign conference call with reporters. That led Romney aides to accuse their Democratic counterparts of lying about the campaign's connections to the story."
California state has problem with state budget (all these propositions restricting legislature from increasing taxes). The legislature of California is paralyzed. Same as Congress.
This does not have bearing on federal taxes Californians pay that go to support our third word states in South.
Pardon the fact checking, but the National Center for Health Statistics says about 4.1 million babies were born each year between 1990 and 1994, so we have 16.5 million newly enfranchised voters in this presidential election, not 30 million.
I might add, that in defense of my earlier support of Politifact, this was one of the ads that they criticized as being false (pants on fire). Personally I found it reprehensible, but I do not for a moment personally blame the White House for it. PAC's act on their own and they are abusing he hell out of the system.
Be that as it may....failure to repudiate an independent ad is NOT admission of guilt.
sane wrote:
"This does not have bearing on federal taxes Californians pay that go to support our thir word states in South.."
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What does it have to do with the fact that the majority of welfare recipients are supporters of the Democratic Party?
Teece Bowman wrote: "Which may explain why you're angry now"
Who's angry, you? I am feeling quite fine in the glow of the total defeat of you lame argument! You seem to forget you were wrong on the date as well, waiting for the retraction? Tell the GM Janeville employees that's not what he meant.
I repeat....
" I will keep this plant open?" or " I will prevent GM from closing this plant?" Or "My administration will personally assure each and every one of you continued employment with General Motors?"
Were not in his speech. Enjoy your little glow....heh
MarcusTullius wrote:
What does it have to do with the fact that the majority of welfare recipients are supporters of the Democratic Party?
Most of white poor live in south and vote republican.
Teece Bowman wrote:
"Be that as it may....failure to repudiate an independent ad is NOT admission of guilt."
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Since when has Obama's spinmaster Carney ever admit guilt or taken responsibility for any of the Obama Administrations problems? That POTUS Obam is OK with the ad and that his staff knew about Soptic long before the ad aired tells the whole story.
sane wrote:
MarcusTullius wrote:
"Most of white poor live in south and vote republican."
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95% of poor blacks, regardless of geography, vote Democratic. The overwhelming majority of poor whites receiving welfare, regardless of geography, vote Demorcatic Party as well.