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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (164487)1/28/2014 8:56:22 PM
From: Neeka2 Recommendations

Recommended By
locogringo
Sedohr Nod

  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 224749
 
Exactly like the untrustworthy Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Totally unelectable!

(Yes Kenneth................I know BO isn't running for anything.)



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (164487)1/28/2014 9:02:14 PM
From: locogringo2 Recommendations

Recommended By
Honey_Bee
Sedohr Nod

  Respond to of 224749
 
Please post more about Christie. Everybody here wants to read more of it.

Post a little bit about John Edwards too along with some global warming algore crap.



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (164487)1/28/2014 10:06:30 PM
From: jlallen  Respond to of 224749
 
That is why he should resign...but...he won't because he is a Dem at heart.



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (164487)1/28/2014 10:08:48 PM
From: Carolyn  Respond to of 224749
 
Ya, I know. So what?



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (164487)1/29/2014 7:55:53 AM
From: TideGlider1 Recommendation

Recommended By
Sedohr Nod

  Respond to of 224749
 
Aaaaugh! Hundreds of kids stranded at schools in Georgia, Alabama

Butch Dill / AP

Joyce Cook, an instructional aide, reads 'Snowflake Bentley' to fifth-graders stranded Tuesday night at Oak Mountain Intermediate School in Indian Springs, Ala.

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News
Every kid's nightmare came true Tuesday for hundreds of children in Georgia and Alabama, where a winter storm shut down bus service and left them stranded.

At school.

All night long.

"We're just doing what we do. We're keeping the kids happy," Don Garrett, a second-grade teacher at Grantswood Community School in Irondale, Ala., told The Birmingham News.

Teachers and staff brought out snacks and games and planned for a long night, if necessary.




"This is outside their routine, and younger kids are pretty routine-oriented, and we're trying to maintain that," Garrett told the newspaper. "The last thing we would want to do is panic the kids, so we're just doing business as usual."

In some districts, conditions were so bad that not only were buses pulled from the road, but parents were also told not to even try to pick up their kids.

"If you have not picked up your child from school, please do not rush, and stay safe," the Homewood, Ala., school system said in a statement. "Homewood City Schools has faculty and administrators that will be staying at the schools through the evening, if need be, with students and families that were not able to travel home due to the weather."

Get the latest weather news and your local forecast

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley told reporters late Tuesday that state officials didn't know how many students were stranded at how many schools, but he promised that however many it was, they would be fed and watched over.

"If you trust your teacher to take care of your child today, they will be taken care of tonight,” Bentley said.

About 600 students were in Birmingham schools early Wednesday, city schools Superintendent Craig Witherspoon said.

In Marietta, Ga., a northern suburb of Atlanta, more than 850 students were still in their schools shortly after midnight Wednesday, district Communications Director Thomas Algarin said, though that number had declined steadily over the prior three or four hours.

More than 200 students and 15 to 20 staff members settled in for the night at Marietta High School, a teacher said.

Related: Wild weather: Why it's warmer in Alaska than in Alabama

School board Chairman Randy Weiner told The Marietta Daily Journal: "I can almost guarantee every school is going to have a slumber party because the buses couldn't get out."



The 55,000-student Atlanta public school system initially said it hoped to have all students home by 8 p.m. ET. But at 8:30 p.m., it said it was still having trouble getting buses to some campuses, most of them in the northern part of the district.

Late Tuesday night, the school system issued an emergency "shelter in place" declaration for all students and staff still in city schools. It said security and food were being provided at all campuses.

Garrett, the second-grade teacher in Alabama, said the kids were posing no trouble — it was nervous parents who were causing the headaches.

"We're really kind of doing both sides of it," he said — "taking care of the parents and the kids."



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (164487)1/29/2014 8:17:38 AM
From: TideGlider2 Recommendations

Recommended By
Honey_Bee
locogringo

  Respond to of 224749
 
Fact Check: Less than meets eye in Obama speech

AP Photo: Larry Downing, Pool
President Barack Obama delivers the State of Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber on Jan. 28, 2014, in Washington.
9 hr ago By Calvin Woodward of Associated Press

A look at some of the facts and political circumstances behind President Barack Obama's claims in his State of the Union speech, with a glance at the GOP response.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama promised to clear red tape away from highway projects that actually are stalled because there's no money for them, not because rules are in the way. He's ordering a higher minimum wage for a sliver of the workforce, which affects no one now and not many later.

Going it alone — without Congress making a law — just doesn't go as far as President Barack Obama made it sound at times Tuesday night in his State of the Union speech.

A look at some of the facts and political circumstances behind his claims, along with a glance at the Republican response:

Related: Empower Americans, not government, GOP says in response

Related: Energy secretary held from State of Union speech

OBAMA: "Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled."

THE FACTS: The most recent evidence suggests that mobility hasn't worsened. A team of economists led by Harvard's Raj Chetty released a study last week that found the United States isn't any less socially mobile than it was in the 1970s. Looking at children born between 1971 and 1993, the economists found that the odds of a child born in the poorest 20 percent of families making it into the top 20 percent hasn't changed.

"We find that children entering the labor market today have the same chances of moving up in the income distribution (relative to their parents) as children born in the 1970s," the authors said.

Still, other research has found that the United States isn't as mobile a society as most Americans would like to believe. In a study of 22 countries, economist Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa found that the United States ranked 15th in social mobility. Only Italy and Britain among wealthy countries ranked lower. By some measures, children in the United States are as likely to inherit their parents' economic status as their height.

___

OBAMA: "We'll need Congress to protect more than 3 million jobs by finishing transportation and waterways bills this summer. But I will act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process for key projects, so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as possible."

THE FACTS: Cutting rules and regulations doesn't address what's holding up most transportation projects, which is lack of money. The federal Highway Trust Fund will run out of money in August without action. To finance infrastructure projects, Obama wants Congress to raise taxes on businesses that keep profits or jobs overseas, but that idea has been a political nonstarter.

The number of projects affected by the administration's efforts to cut red tape is relatively small, said Joshua Schank, president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, a think tank. "The reason most of these projects are delayed is they don't have enough money. So it's great that you are expediting the review process, but the review process isn't the problem. The problem is we don't have enough money to invest in our infrastructure in the first place."

___

OBAMA: "In the coming weeks, I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour, because if you cook our troops' meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn't have to live in poverty."

THE FACTS: This would be a hefty boost in the federal minimum wage, now $7.25, but not many would see it.

Most employees of federal contractors already earn more than $10.10. About 10 percent of those workers, roughly 200,000, might be covered by the higher minimum wage. But there are several wrinkles. The increase would not take effect until 2015 at the earliest and it doesn't apply to existing federal contracts, only new ones. Renewed contracts also will be exempt from Obama's order unless other terms of the agreement change, such as the type of work or number of employees needed.

Obama also said he'll press Congress to raise the federal minimum wage overall. He tried that last year, seeking a $9 minimum, but Congress didn't act.

___

REP. CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS of Washington, in her prepared Republican response: "Last month, more Americans stopped looking for a job than found one. Too many people are falling further and further behind because, right now, the president's policies are making people's lives harder."

THE FACTS: She leaves out a significant factor in the high number of people who aren't looking for jobs: Baby boomers are retiring.

It's true that a large part of the still-high unemployment rate is due to jobless workers who have given up looking for a job. There are roughly three people seeking every job opening, a circumstance that can discourage others from trying. But one big reason people aren't seeking employment is that there are so many boomers — the generation born in the immediate aftermath of World War II — and therefore more than the usual number of retirements.

As of December, the economy had gained 3,246,000 jobs since Obama took office in January 2009. When he was inaugurated, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent and on the rise. It peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and has been inching down ever since, to 6.7 percent this past December



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (164487)1/29/2014 11:14:50 AM
From: locogringo2 Recommendations

Recommended By
Honey_Bee
lorne

  Respond to of 224749
 
The stock market is responding to obama's boring speech.

It is not impressed.

(not many people are)