Howdy, folks. I will be away from writing and television until February 6th. No, I’m not telling you where I’m going. Suffice it to say, it will be neither sunny nor warm. I look forward to some time away from the circus that is the Republican Party and the feigned-populism that is Barack Obama. But I’m sure, when I come back, we can pick up right where we left off.
In which I take Newt Gingrich to task for triggering the inherent racial biases of voters — while, mysteriously, talking about people needing to “put food on their families”. Huh???
Here’s a fun clip from my latest appearance on FoxNews.com LIVE online:
A pre-emptive response to the State Of The Union address. Funny thing about facts…
Those who are ideologically predisposed to criticize President Obama contort themselves to overlook inconvenient facts.
The fact is that, under President Obama’s leadership, we have seen 22 straight months of private sector job growth.
While Republicans are accusing the President of being a job killer, the fact is that President Obama has created 3.2 million new private sector jobs. More private sector jobs were created in 2011 in America than any year since 2005.
Oddly, Mitt Romney wants to claim credit for a hundred thousand jobs that were created after his Bain investment (and not count the many more jobs he killed but Republicans refuse to be honest about President Obama’s record of creating jobs and, slowly but surely, bringing our economy back from the brink.
My favorite part:
These baseless smears may fire up a small fringe of the anti-Obama Republican base, but the fact of the matter is most Americans care about results and character.
Voters can tell the difference between a president who is making progress turning the economy around and being honest about the obstacles he’s facing versus desperate presidential contenders who want to sling nothing but mud to distract from their decades of failed leadership that put our country in this crisis.
For a special, print section of it’s Arena, Politico asked if the State Of The Union address is still useful. I responded, in part:
Given the unprecedented sabotage and stonewalling on the part of Republicans in Congress, we might as well question whether we even need the presidency anymore!
In all the back and forth about the Obama Administration decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline permit, there’s been little coverage of the fact that oil industry repeatedly misrepresented the project — exaggerating the jobs that would be created and hiding the impact on fuel prices.
For instance:
1. Keystone XL Would Not Reduce Foreign Oil Dependency
The oil to be sent through Keystone XL pipeline was never destined for US markets. In its own presentation to investors about the proposed pipeline extension, TransCanada (the company behind Keystone XL) boasted that most if not all of the extracted and refined oil would be exported — sold in oversees markets where oil fetches a higher price (and thus turns a higher profit for the company).
and:
3. Keystone XL Overstated Number of Jobs to be Created
In 2008, TransCanada’s original permit application to the State Department said the Keystone XL pipeline would create “a peak workforce of approximately 3,500 to 4,200 construction personnel” in temporary jobs building the pipeline. By 2011, now facing growing opposition to the pipeline, TransCanada had inflated these numbers (using undisclosed formulas) to 20,000. Supporters of the proposal, backed by big oil, have since trumpeted these trumped up numbers.
Read the other four reasons the pipeline was a bad deal for our economy and our nation here.
In my latest column for the Fox News opinion page, I breakdown the facts behind the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA — which thousands of grassroots activists and websites like Google and Wikipedia are mobilizing to oppose. It’s mostly a primer on what SOPA involves and why so many liberals AND conservatives are against it. But I also offer some commentary:
As Adam Smith, the grandfather of modern capitalism himself noted, government safeguards and standards play an invaluable role in protecting a nation’s people against the potential overreach or abuse of otherwise-unchecked big business interests. But unfortunately, when our elected officials in both parties rely on Wall Street for campaign cash and big business lobbyists drown out the voices of ordinary citizens, government can be manipulated to give a helping hand to corporations and work against the public interest.
You can read the entire piece here — and share it via the links just under the headline. And you can join the #BlackoutSOPA campaign here.
Offered without comment:
In my latest $0.02 for Politico’s Arena, I write:
Scott Walker used the economic suffering of Wisconsin’s working families as a fig leaf excuse to ram through a Wall Street-driven, anti-worker agenda. History will look back on Scott Walker with astonishment that, at the moment Wisconsin’s workers needed help most, Walker simply delivered more pain and hardship. In the meantime, working people who are fed up with being attacked by their own government are going to turn the tables on Walker and show him what it’s like to get fired.
If only we could get Donald Trump out to Wisconsin to hand Walker his pink slip.
Read the post at Politico here — and please share it via the buttons on their page.
The incredible and admirable Karoli wrote a piece about my first official appearance as a Fox News contributor yesterday for the homepage of the blog Crooks & Liars. Here’s an excerpt:
I want to note that I found it interesting that Fox News has brought on someone who isn’t a liberal in name only as a contributor. Kohn’s background is not the usual Fox News centrist Conservadem fare: she’s got ties to the OWS movement, she has strong organizing credentials, and she’s decidedly liberal. Does this mean Fox News is responding to their tanking ratings, or trying to bring someone on they think the conservatives can score points on? If the latter, they may be surprised. Kohn definitely held her own in the segment and gently, but firmly, made her points.
She continues:
It was refreshing to have someone representing the liberal side of things who was well-spoken, assertive, and made her points clearly. I’ll be interested to see if Fox News brings her on more often for some extra fairness and balance. Go Sally, go!
Karoli also offers some color commentary on this clip from yesterday, when my contributor-ship was announced:
You can read the full piece here.
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