Going Rogue: GOP Field Shifting on Afghanistan

Some Republican presidential candidates are charting a different course than their GOP counterparts on the war in Afghanistan, which has raised the question of ideological rifts before a crucial election cycle.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=06b84f7638d3e29f8c56ca102960b7f6

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Congressional freshmen include dozens of millionaires, financial disclosures show

The members of this year's freshman class in Congress are far wealthier than the people they represent, with dozens of millionaires joining the ranks of the House and Senate, according to an analysis released Wednesday.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030902631.html?wprss=rss_politics

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Watch: Bristol Palin Spills Big Secrets in New Book

Sarah Palin's eldest daughter reveals true feelings about 2008 election.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=3209ba278eb415229d554ae467af621a

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Jon Huntsman: Can a Nice Guy Finish First?

The setting of Jon Huntsman's announcement was designed to evoke the launch of Ronald Reagan's general election campaign in 1980. But Huntsman's speech couldn't have been more different.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=32badbce040fc6729c287a846879d276

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Manchin: Faster withdrawal needed

In reaction to Obama's plan to drawdown troops, the lawmaker urges for more drastic reductions.

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57448.html

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Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

Visual Source: Newseum

From Netroots Nation, via Roll Call:

Despite their grousing about the administration during the Netroots Nation conference, liberal activists and bloggers are relatively happy with President Barack Obama's performance.

A straw poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research showed that 80 percent either approve or strongly approve of the president more than a year before voters head to the polls to decide whether he deserves a second term. The results broke down to 27 percent strongly approving of Obama and 53 percent approving ?somewhat.? Thirteen percent said they ?somewhat disapprove,? and 7 percent strongly disapprove of the president.

The poll of 519 people was conducted via iPad in the Minneapolis Convention Center on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

For context, here's 2010 and 2009.

NY Times, no doubt urged by the conversation with Dan Pfeiffer at NN, explores Obama's views on gay marriage.

Many gay leaders say because the president has a strong record on issues they care about ? prodding Congress to repeal the ?don?t ask, don?t tell? policy, which barred openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military, and withdrawing legal support for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman ? he is not under intense pressure to announce a change in his position before the 2012 election.

But with the political climate around gay rights changing drastically ? a handful of recent polls show that Americans, by a slim majority, now support same-sex marriage ? some strategists see little political cost to a shift in position. And a review of Mr. Obama?s record, dating to when he first ran for public office, suggests that he may have been for same-sex marriage before he was against it.

EJ Dionne:

An attack on the right to vote is underway across the country through laws designed to make it more difficult to cast a ballot. If this were happening in an emerging democracy, we?d condemn it as election-rigging. But it?s happening here, so there?s barely a whimper.

The laws are being passed in the name of preventing ?voter fraud.? But study after study has shown that fraud by voters is not a major problem ? and is less of a problem than how hard many states make it for people to vote in the first place. Some of the new laws, notably those limiting the number of days for early voting, have little plausible connection to battling fraud.

Republicans are doing this because they can. Or they think they can. There is no other reason.

Variety:

As recent events involving lewd photos being Tweeted and elected officials being shamed have reminded us, it's never a good idea to get on the wrong side of comedians.

"I think politicians are scared of us," says Bill Maher. "One thing a politician doesn't want to be is a latenight joke. That's a morbid death knell more than anything I can think of. Look at (Donald) Trump. He was riding high, and then he was a joke. That happened in the space of a week."

And it happened partly because programs such as "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," "The Colbert Report" and Maher's own "Real Time" slice up high-profile miscreants like a sushi chef.

Watchdog.org:

COMMENTARY: Is a new left rising, or is it wishful thinking?

One would have to be completely ignorant of our times to NOT declare Wisconsin the center of the political universe these days. This is where the Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan both call home. Every major political news story out of Madison seems to go national within minutes of it breaking.

ABC:

The candidates' views contrast with those of prominent Republicans Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who spoke out against a rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"I wish that candidate Romney and all the others would sit down with General Petraeus and understand how this counterinsurgency is working and succeeding," McCain said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week."

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/31PdMbh7648/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Round-up

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Justices Rebuff States on Utilities? Gas Emissions

The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit that had sought to force major electric utilities to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions without waiting for federal regulators to act.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=ca607528f5c97ae884b0264ddaaaa031

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Right Turn: Didn't Obama pledge to complete 3 free-trade deals?

The Wall Street Journal reports: "U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk on Monday appealed to congressional leaders to begin work "without delay" toward ratifying a free-trade deal with South Korea, even as Republican leaders continued to press to link such action with movement on trade pacts with C...

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/08/AR2011030804720.html?wprss=rss_politics

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Keith Olbermann Is Back

Alex Pareene, Salon
Since he left MSNBC unexpectedly in January, Keith Olbermann has not been absent from the culture. He played the Chevy part in Tom Shales' well-publicized and widely excerpted ESPN oral history. He was the subject of multiple magazine profiles and newspaper stories. He's still tweeting. But Olbermann hasn't been on television, where he so clearly belongs. That changes tonight, when "Countdown" relaunches on Current TV, where Keith isn't just a host, but also the driving force behind the reinvention of the channel as a full-time liberal news outlet, just in time...

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/06/20/keith_olbermann_is_back_257812.html

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Midday open thread

Clarence Clemons (1942-2011)  -  Reuters

• I think I speak for all of us at Daily Kos in saying that Clarence "Big Man" Clemons, legendary sax man for the E Street Band, will be most assuredly missed. Fans around the world lost a part of our youth with the news of his passing. There is an empty space inside our hearts where the sound and smile of the Big Man used to be.
• Of course, CC would want us to lift up our heads and hearts and enjoy some music rather than mope around. Go do that.
• The Republican Leadership Conference in Louisiana attracted the full spectrum of the B-team presidential candidates. Bachmann, Santorum, Cain, etc. But one potential A-lister showed up, Texas Governor Rick Perry, who makes George W. Bush seem like a scholarly intellectual. Barn burner speech rallies crowd.

  If Perry gets in, Palin stays out and its curtains for Mittens. (I miss you Sarah!)

• Accidental civilian killings notwithstanding, NATO and the Libyan Rebels appear to be coordinating well in their efforts to overthrow the Libyan Government. NATO's intervention on behalf of the Rebels in the Libyan Civil War is causing plenty of debate within the alliance and outside of it.

  Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Brussels:

  ?The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country -- yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference.?

  Gates? patience with the Europeans is, understandably, just about exhausted. Two decades after the Soviet Union disintegrated and the Red Army went home, America is still carrying 75 percent of the NATO burden for the defense of Europe.
  

  If intervening in civil wars is the sort of thing NATO is going to do from now own, it is high time the United States Military Forces start being properly compensated for doing the work.
  

• Tim Pawlenty is starting to look like a jerk. Once again he's taking the fight to Romney from behind the ropes, attacking Romney as a "co-conspirator" with Obama, this time another 1000 miles away from Romney's face. Can you believe that someone is actually politically afraid of Mitt Romney??!
• Turkey acts to assist in the political refugee crisis in Syria.
• Happy Juneteenth Day!
• So, yeah...no tie, thank God. My girls, however, did get me the Grill Grand Daddy, and it is awesome! Tried it out yesterday. My grill is sparking!

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/u03HO0KAdzo/-Midday-open-thread

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Live Chat at 2 PM (Netroots Nation/RightOnline)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/-dhC5O1DCC8/live_chat_at_2_pm_netroots_nationrightonline.php

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Corporate Social Responsibility Grows Up

Carl Cannon, RealClearPolitics
This past weekend, an art gallery at Rutgers University opened a photographic exhibit called "A View of Caring," which documents the efforts of 73 people around the world who are working to make life better for others. To be precise, the exhibit, which is being underwritten by Johnson & Johnson, shines a light on the company's efforts to improve the health of women and children in impoverished corners of the Earth.It makes obvious business sense for a pharmaceutical giant to be engaged in global health issues, but this goes further. The documentary photographers...

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/06/20/the_maturing_of_corporate_social_responsibility_110276.html

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Republican presidential hopefuls lack ideas: Axelrod

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Former White House advisor David Axelrod defended President Barack Obama's record as a pragmatic leader and champion of the middle class on Sunday and derided Republican White House hopefuls as long on rhetoric and short on ideas.

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/PoliticsNews/~3/m7p8NiL8Jao/us-campaign-obama-axelrod-idUSTRE75I1Z820110619

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Obama keeps his eye on independent voters

President Obama's Friday news conference did little to advance U.S. policy on Libya or clarify the White House's position on resolving the budget impasse in Congress. The president nonetheless conveyed one unmistakable impression: He is now focused intently on winning back independent voters.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/12/AR2011031203508.html?wprss=rss_politics

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The Fix: John Ensign to retire in 2012

Nevada Sen. John Ensign (R) will retire rather than seek reelection in 2012, he announced Monday afternoon. The decision brings to an end a tumultuous several years that saw him go from one of the party's rising stars to persona non grata.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/07/AR2011030704074.html?wprss=rss_politics

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National Guard to Stay on Mexico Border at Least Three More Months

The Obama administration is keeping the National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico border for at least another three months, with the soldiers supporting the Border Patrol by watching for people sneaking across the border.

Source: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/politics/~3/wMVFhDyLr9E/

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