Re: Occupy Wall Street

Protests that originated in New York City, and have spread around the world, against corporate greed, social inequality and related issues.

Protesters refer to themselves as the 99% protesting against the 1 %.

Even though the candidates have spent months — or in the cases of Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich, years — introducing themselves, there is a palpable lack of passion for their candidacies. It is an intense yearning to defeat Mr. Obama that creates the enthusiasm, rather than the notion of one of the candidates serving in the Oval Office.

Obama to Vie for Arizona as Latino Numbers Rise

The number of people who disagree with the Tea Party has also risen among the general public, according to the most recent of the polls in the Pew analysis, taken this month. Among the public, 27 percent said they disagreed with the Tea Party and 20 percent said they agreed — a reversal from a year ago, when 27 percent agreed and 22 percent disagreed. -11/29/2011

President Obama, who campaigned on repealing the breaks for the wealthy, angered his base last year when he agreed to extend all the tax cuts beyond their original expiration, at the end of 2010. This time, the president has vowed to veto any effort to extend the tax breaks on upper-income Americans.

Now, some political analysts argue that Obama, even with his reelection behind him, would be unwilling to risk the political damage to his party of allowing taxes on the middle class to rise.

The key question as the debate moves into next year is whether Obama would be willing to veto the entire range of Bush cuts, including those for middle-income Americans, in order to raise taxes on the wealthy. Republican aides say party lawmakers will oppose any efforts to separate the tax cuts.

On supercommittee, growing doubts about reaching a debt deal

-11/14/2011. Thanksgiving Deadline

Re: Gang of Six

On Tuesday morning, Coburn called Durbin to say he was dropping out. He later told reporters that the group was at an “impasse” and complained that Democrats were unwilling to do enough to cut spending, particularly on federal retirement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Re: Gang of Six

In addition to Chambliss and Coburn, the group includes Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), one of President Obama’s closest, and most liberal, allies; Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Budget Committee; Warner, who as the governor of Virginia negotiated with a Republican legislature to balance the state budget by raising taxes; and Crapo, a budget hawk who is close to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Moammar Gaddafi is killed
(10/20/2011)

Re: Supercommittee to Reduce the Debt

"There is no agreement on the scope of their ambitions: Should they aim to meet a savings target of at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade or “go big” with savings of $4 trillion or more? Nor is there agreement on a benchmark against which to measure those savings. And while individual ideas for savings abound, the committee has yet to assemble a comprehensive framework that would demonstrate its ability to produce a plan of any size before the Nov. 23 deadline."

Re: President Jimmy Carter

He created the Department of Education.

N.J. Governor Chris Christie

Chris Christie declines (again) to run for president
10/4/2011