The 99 percent comes out to protest Romney in Seattle
Republican Mitt Romney has rarely faced a critical mass of protesters during his months-long campaign for the White House. But then, he doesn’t often visit the Left Coast. And protesters were out in force in Seattle on Thursday night when Romney held a fundraiser at a civic center in Bellevue, Washington, near Seattle, attended by the local political establishment and well-heeled locals.
The complex holding the event also contained the upscale “Shops at the Bravern” mall. After the event fund-raisers could have slipped out to pick up a few items at Hermes, Louis Vuitton or Jimmy Choo.
About 100 protesters turned up for a spirited but peaceful demonstration with signs, props and inventive chants, including some of those who have participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement. A cardboard cutout of the candidate was on the scene, holding a sign that said “Of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent.” Various protesters were dressed as buildings to illustrate Romney’s “corporations are people” meme.
Among the chants were “hey you millionaire – pay your fair share,” and “Mitt says cut back – we say fight back!” Jeanette Wenzel of Seattle held a sign that said, “if money is speech, speech isn’t free.” Other signs said “Mitts off our future” and “Money Talks; Supreme Court says so.”
“He’s having a fundraiser for some of the richest people in the country. And if he was elected he would do their bidding,” Sandra VanderVen, 44, a community organizer from Seattle, said of Romney. “It would be by and for the one percent.”
Well, come August 3rd Boehner will have a tear jerk story to tell about how he couldnt sit around for another 8 years of spendimg when Bush 2 did so much to balance the budget build a fence around mexico, free the people of Iraq, Afghanistan. Pakistan, Iran, and the great state of denial.
Will Obama be a $1 billion man? Democrats say not so fast
A persistent theme of President Barack Obama’s nascent re-election bid has been an expectation that the Democratic incumbent – who amassed a $750 million war chest when he won the White House in 2008 — will break his record this time and become the first candidate to raise $1 billion in campaign funds for 2012.
The logic behind that figure? One bit of reasoning is that Obama and his then-rival Hillary Clinton together raised far more than $1 billion in 2008, showing there are plenty of Democratic wallets out there waiting to be opened this time.
Democratic Party officials have issued repeated dire warnings about Republicans’ fund-raising prowess, especially in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision that allowed unlimited spending by corporations, labor unions and other groups. Democrats say secret donations allowed under Citizens United helped fuel the Republicans’ huge success in the 2010 mid-terms.
Jim Messina, Obama’s Chicago-based re-election campaign manager, told top donors in the weeks before the president formally launched his re-election bid that Obama would have to raise “north of $750 million” this time around, according to a variety of sources including the Chicago Sun-Times.
But more recently, party aides have said, “Not so fast” about the $1 billion figure, insisting that no one in Obama’s circle — at the White House, Democratic National Committee or the campaign team in Chicago — has used that number. Different aides have stressed that the campaign does not expect to need that much money for 2012. Their reasons? Last time, they said, Obama was a relatively unknown junior senator from Illinois who needed to raise his profile high enough to win the Democratic nomination. He also faced a protracted primary fight against well-known opponents — Clinton, a former first lady, and John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004.
Nonetheless, Obama is off to a strong fund-raising start, no matter what his goal. In just the first weeks since formally launching his bid for a second term, he has helped raise millions of dollars at appearances in Illinois, California and Texas. He is set to attend two fund-raisers in Washington, D.C., Monday — a dinner at the Saint Regis Hotel and a reception at the Capitol Hilton, to be attended by about 650 people.
“The events are designed to include the broad range of the president’s supporters with tickets starting at $44 and ranging to the legal maximum limit of $35,800,” a Democratic source said.
looks like we have to put alot of effort into beating the 1 billion dollar man dont we?
Freebies offered for a shutdown budget
No work, no trash pick-up, no Circulator bus trips around town, but at least the “non-essential” federal employee can eat like a teenager in a buffet line if the federal government shuts down after the clock hits 12 tonight.
Federal and Washington D.C. government services not deemed essential will close if Congress fails to reach a budget deal before funds run out at midnight. But local restaurants and bars are offering some compensation — deals and freebies for government workers if Republicans and Democrats fail to reach agreement.
Taylor Gourmet is offering 10 percent off orders at its H St NE location starting at 12:01 a.m. to anyone who presents a government ID and says “Shut it down.” (And check out that photo!)
Z-Burger near Tenleytown tweeted that federal employees will receive a free burger on Monday if the government closes. Capitol hangout Union Pub posted on Facebook that if there’s a shutdown, government workers can get penny beers all week between 5 and 6 p.m.
Keep an eye on event sites, such as Metromix and DininginDC.net, and Twitter hashtags like #shutdowndeals for more specials and freebies.
See Reuters’ budget battle live-blog to keep up with what’s happening on the Hill.
Some people are thinking of different ways to express their feelings about a shutdown – for example a Facebook event for the protest-oriented: “If Boehner shuts down the government I am taking my trash to his house.”
Clinton’s happy to be out of the running
Former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she is done seeking votes.
Clinton, who is secretary of state under President Barack Obama, said on Sunday she is not planning to run again for president or any other political office.
“I am very happy doing what I’m doing, and I am not in any way interested in or pursuing anything in elective office,” the former U.S. first lady told “Fox News Sunday.”
Her comments followed Washington speculation that Obama might tap her for vice president when he seeks re-election in 2012 and move Vice President Joe Biden to the State Department. The White House and Biden denied such reports.
After eight years in the White House as the wife of President Bill Clinton, Clinton won two terms as a U.S. senator from New York before losing the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination to Obama.
”I love what I’m doing,” Clinton said. “I am committed to doing what I can to advance the security, the interests and the values of the United States of America.”
Hill has always impressed me as one smart cookie, even when she was uttering nonsense about right-wing conspiracies. She is still young as Washington politicos go, and is positioning herself brilliantly. Right now she is about the most popular national politician in the country:
http://www.pollingreport.com/C2.htm#Hill ary
She has the left, she needs the middle, and the middle admires competence and ability. Palin/Gingrich/et al can have all the right they want and still not win.
She has no intention of abandoning a political career. They’re both addicts.
Stewart, Colbert rally gets ‘puzzling’ endorsement
First came celebrity endorsements from Oprah and Arianna. Now Jon Stewart’s Washington “Rally to Restore Sanity” has a more puzzling promoter.
Here’s a clue: German summer pants for little William? (10 letters)
Stumped? The answer is ”Will Shortz“. He’s editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, which today devotes no fewer than eight clues to the Daily Show host, his fellow satirist Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report and the joint rally they’re planning for Saturday on the National Mall.
For anyone flummoxed by the clues to 54 and 65 Across, Colbert’s version of the event is called the “March to Keep Fear Alive.”
The Stewart-Colbert gathering is a reaction to Fox News commentator Glenn Beck‘s “Restoring Honor” rally, which was held at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on this year’s anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Stewart is also a big fan of Shortz and appeared in the 2006 documentary Wordplay, which focused on the Times crossword puzzle editor and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Do Stewart and Colbert need the fiery presence of thousands of crossword puzzle enthusiasts? Now that’s a question. But the idea may be too inside the box for rally organizers.
“It’s great. But how does this help? That’s not something for us to answer because this is not something we solicited or planned on,” said Steve Albani, spokesman for Comedy Central, the cable TV channel that airs Stewart and Colbert. Folks at the Times were not immediately available for comment. (If they intend to respond via their puzzle, they may miss our deadline.) Meanwhile, Stewart and Colbert are expected to draw about 150,000 people to the National Mall. That’s a Wall Street Journal estimate based on the number of portable toilets ordered by Comedy Central. No _____. (4 letters).
Click here for more political coverage from Reuters.
Barack and Jon, together again, on The Daily Show next week
First he gave an unexpected endorsement to Jon Stewart’s upcoming “Rally to Restore Sanity.” Now President Barack Obama is giving the host of the satirical talk show the ultimate television “get” — himself as a guest.
Obama will appear on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on Wednesday, Oct. 27, in the middle of a week of special episodes taped in Washington ahead of the Nov. 2 midterm elections. It all culminates with a Saturday rally on the National Mall.
The Washington episodes – to air Oct. 25 – Oct. 28 – are called “When Grizzlies Attack: A ‘Daily Show’ Midterm Teapartyganza.” That’s a reference to the conservative Tea Party political movement and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin referring to conservative women politicians as “Mama Grizzlies.”
The Daily Show, watched by about 1.8 million people every night, is particularly popular with viewers under age 35. The appearance gives the president a chance to appeal to young voters just days before the election in which Republicans are expected to gain seats in Congress and possibly take the majority in the House of Representatives away from Obama’s Democrats. Earlier this month Obama appeared at a youth town hall that was shown live on MTV and two music television stations, CMT and BET.
“It’s a great way to appeal to a younger voter audience, and that is a big part of the president’s base,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
It would be Obama’s second appearance on The Daily Show, which has won consecutive Emmy awards as the best U.S. variety, music or comedy series, but his first as U.S. president.
Other political figures scheduled to appear on the show next week include Austan Goolsbee, chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors and Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman.
I’m a Liberal, Registered Democrat. I voted for President Obama. I support Obama in very many of his policies, stances and his governing. The Office of President of The United States holds great esteem and honor. For Obama to degrade this prestige by appearing on a comedy show is a compete and utter disgrace. There’s nothing presidential about being a guest on “The Daily Show.” It’s a complete mickey mouse move. I voted for a President not Baffo Obama.
The chill of the Chandra Levy murder trial
The Washington summer of Chandra Levy seems to belong to another era — one where a missing government intern and a straying congressman dominated headlines and chatter in the U.S. capital. Congress was somnolent, the country was at peace and prosperous and a new president was learning the ropes. The big concern at the Pentagon was making the U.S. military more efficient in a process dubbed “transformation.” It was the summer of 2001.
It’s now the autumn of 2010, more than nine years since Levy disappeared from her apartment on May 1, 2001, and the trial of a suspect in her murder is at hand. Between then and now, the world has changed. The 9/11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania banished the Levy case to the back pages of newspapers and a brief mention in newscasts (this was before news a la Facebook or Twitter). The military moved away from “transformation” to war in Afghanistan.
When Levy’s remains were discovered in Rock Creek Park in May 2002, it was an eerie reminder of what held Washington’s attention at the beginning of a tumultuous decade. Crisis followed crisis — the autumn of 2002 brought a pair of murderous snipers to the area — and the Levy case grew cold again. The United States went to war in Iraq. The snipers were tried and convicted. Gary Condit, the Democratic congressman who had been involved with the 24-year-old from Modesto, California, lost his bid for re-election and left the House of Representatives in January 2003.
Monday saw the start of jury selection in the trial of Ingmar Guandique in Levy’s murder, a trial expected to last five weeks, according to The Washington Post. One image can bring it all back: the portrait of Levy released by authorities early in the case, with the pale skin, confident smile and curly dark hair. Washingtonians could see a lot of that picture as the trial goes forward.
Photo credit: REUTERS (undated handout photo from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, editorial use only, not for sale, marketing or advertising campaigns)
from Summit Notebook:
Shift in power on the horizon in Washington?
Republicans stand poised to gain substantial influence in Congress, putting at stake billions of dollars in investment as a shift among power brokers throws legislative initiatives old and new into doubt. Reuters Washington Summit will bring together an influential line-up of insiders just weeks before Americans cast their votes, promising a must-read stream of exclusive news on the outlook for Congress and President Barack Obama's agenda. Editors and correspondents from the Reuters Washington bureau are sitting down with senior lawmakers, including GOP heavyweights in line for leadership, and regulators whose implementation of Wall Street and healthcare reform could be complicated by a change in control on Capitol Hill.
The Summit will generate exclusive stories, investable insights, online videos and blog postings, which will be immediately available only to Thomson Reuters clients during the Summit. Key interviews will air live exclusively on Reuters Insider - a new multimedia platform delivering relevant news, analysis and trade ideas presented through a personalized video experience. Visit http://etv.thomsonreuters.com/
from Summit Notebook:
Reuters set to spotlight financial regulation in DC
The fight over new rules that will dramatically change Wall Street and financial markets is approaching the finish line in Washington, with both lawmakers and the financial industry making last-ditch efforts to put their stamp on the reform effort. Reuters will be hearing from the key players in the debate on April 26-29 during the 2010 Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit.
Top regulators, watchdogs, lawmakers and stakeholders will provide their perspectives on how this landmark legislation will impact banks, investors, traders and consumers. The talks will focus in on proposals for a strong new consumer agency, strict oversight of derivatives and attempts to end the perception that some financial firms are “too big to fail.”
I think the protest was so cute! i really like to see it when folks can get out there and put on a show – yours was awsome. They used to do meltdowns all over my car. My husband at the time was on a Trident. At first I wanted to be able to push things around to defend my husband however he assured me that WA woulde take good care of everything and after a while I got used to the theatrics and actually look them up to see what folks are doing. I just loved the buildings. So cute! Thank you for making things fun.