Nate Silver thinks the President is getting an Economy approval in his approval numbers…

I first put forth this hypothesis on Sunday, but Jon Cohen and Dan Balz of The Washington Post have advanced some tangible evidence on its behalf. In the latest Washington Post survey, Mr. Obama’s approval rating on the economy is 48 percent — up from 44 percent in April.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest 5/21/13: Meet the Virginia GOP’s new LG nominee, E.W. Jackson

• VA-LG, VA-AG: Oh yeah. This one’s gonna be fun. Over the weekend, Virginia Republicans nominated hyperconservative Christian minister E.W. Jackson as their candidate for lieutenant governor, in a move almost perfectly designed to alienate moderate voters who might otherwise cast ballots for the GOP.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Is Apple Computer Wrong for Not paying more taxes?

Apple is an American company, in most people’s eyes. But it is a global company, insofar as most of its employees and most of its revenue come from outside the country. Since most developed foreign economies have lower statutory rates — and because there are ways to play national tax laws off each other to further cut taxes — multinational companies like GE and Google have mastered the global tax labyrinth to save money.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

House Democrats are out with a Sequester replacement Bill ….

The bill, authored by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), contains $181 billion in replacement deficit reduction over ten years. Fifty-four percent of the reduction comes from increased tax revenue and 46 percent comes from spending cuts.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Are Oklahoma pols gonna row together to get Federal Aid?

Unless the seven unify quickly behind the alternative — that the Oklahoma twisters are the sort of natural calamity meriting immediate federal assistance without regard to spending caps — the congressional debate over a relief and recovery package will probably bog down quickly.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Political Roundup for May 21st, 2013….Democrat Michelle Nunn in Ga Senate Race?…Red Racing Horses

Georgia: After appearing at a DSCC fundraiser in Atlanta, Michelle Nunn is expected to announce her decision on a campaign within a few weeks. Either way, she sounds like a candidate.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

CBO Cuts Medicare and Medicaid projection spending by almost One Trillion Dollars…

The bottom line: Medicare and Medicaid are not in crisis. They don’t demand immediate fixes. No more than they have since at least 1990 when projections of Medicare’s looming insolvency have been wrong every single year.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Conservatives and Tea Party Leaders are are apposed to the Senate Immigration Reform Bill

Top conservative leaders, along with tea party activists from across the nation, have crafted a letter of opposition to the Senate’s bipartisan immigration overhaul.

The open letter to the Senate, which will be released Tuesday, marks the first large-scale attempt to halt the bill as it gains momentum with a key Senate committee vote expected this week.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Oklahoma Storm toll dropped to 24…President vows to help with Federal Aid and Resources…

“For all those who’ve been affected, we recognize that you face a long road ahead,” Mr. Obama said. “In some cases, there will be enormous grief that has to be absorbed. But you will not travel that path alone.”

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Breaking…51 Dead in Oklahoma Tornado…..Update Death toll dropped to 24

A massive tornado up to a mile wide chewed through Moore, Okla., a suburb of Oklahoma City, on Monday afternoon, grinding up entire neighborhoods and obliterating a school where third-graders who had huddled in a hallway were buried in rubble……

Read more »

Share on Facebook

The US begins to bolster its security for the State Department oversea’s

By late this summer, the State Department plans to send dozens of additional diplomatic security agents to high-threat embassies, install millions of dollars of advanced fire-survival gear and surveillance cameras in those diplomatic posts, and improve training for employees headed to the riskiest missions.

The price tag for the security improvements proposed after the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last Sept. 11 has reached $1.4 billion to meet the most urgent needs, including additional personnel. But diplomats and lawmakers say it will take years and billions more dollars to fully carry out the changes called for ….

Read more »

Share on Facebook

What is This place?…America in electoral detail 2012…Prez16

But here are some stark examples of the demographic divide, as illustrated by the 2012 election.

We all know about some of the demographic differences, but there are some other, really interesting ones I’d like to highlight.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Syria’s Rebels Aren’t Winning the War…

The reasons are simple and have been replicated on many a battlefield across Syria in this vastly asymmetrical war, yet they also highlight the complexity of the conflict — the difficulty of uniting rebel ranks, the inconsistency of rebel supplies of weapons and ammunition, and the creativity of Syrian army tactics.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Update on the Immigration Bill developments 5/20/13……

The Judiciary Committee has considered 99 amendments to the bill so far and will next take up interior enforcement provisions, with work still ongoing to reach deals on an assortment of contentious pieces, including the number of visas for high-skilled immigrants and whether committed gay couples will be included in the bill.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest 5/20/13: Karen Handel to run for Senate in Georgia

GA-Sen: As expected, former Secretary of State Karen Handel has entered the GOP primary for Georgia’s open Senate seat. Handel’s path was cleared when Rep. Tom Price, a political ally of hers, decided not to join the race last week.

Read more »

Share on Facebook

Political Roundup for May 20, 2013…GOP Georgia Senate field scrambled?…Red Racing Horses

GA-Sen: We’re not sure how credible this pollster is, but an early look indicates that the Republican primary is a complete tossup. Jack Kingston, Karen Handel, Phil Gingrey, and Paul Broun are bunched tightly in the mid-teens, with David Perdue at 6% and over 30% undecided.

Read more »

Share on Facebook