Never before have the differences been starker between President Obama and his GOP challenger, Mitt Romney. Continue reading
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Author Archives: Jayne Lyn Stahl
The Romney campaign needs truth infusions
Paul Ryan ended the one and only vice presidential debate last week just as he began it, conveniently stepping on the facts. Continue reading
The Akin doesn’t fall far from the tree
Don’t you just love how deftly this latest crop of Republican candidates has managed to reframe the Roe v. Wade debate such that we’re now talking about exceptions to a ban on legal abortion? Apart from his role as distraction of the week, this was really senatorial candidate, and congressman, Todd Akin’s greatest accomplishment, creating a hyperlink to the underlying premise that, sooner or later, abortion will be prohibited, so we might as well start talking now about when to make exceptions to that ban. Continue reading
Mitt on Mitt
Mitt Romney got off to a royal start Wednesday when he visited London. Continue reading
States’ rights? Not when it comes to funding
There aren’t many things the Republican Party has been consistent about for the past several years, but defending rights of states over that of the federal government is one of them. And, the latest controversial Supreme Court ruling merely confirms that. In his interpretation of the Commerce Clause, Chief Justice Roberts reinforces his federalist stance. Continue reading
Creators of jobs growth: Fact or fantasy?
While critics of the Obama administration, pundits, and some economists point to weak job growth over the past 30 months as a failure of leadership, and lament the announcement that the Obama administration created only 80,000 jobs in June, no one is asking how about no job growth? That’s right. How about no job growth at all? Continue reading
Chief Justice Roberts: A back door man?
Last week, closing in on his seventh year as chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts was the deciding vote that enabled the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration’s key accomplishment, to stand. Continue reading
Romney on immigration: ‘softer touch’ or snow job?
On Thursday, Mitt Romney spoke before a group of Latino lawmakers in Florida, and displayed what the New York Times calls a “softer touch” on immigration. Continue reading
An expiration date for the news
It was a quiet weekend, so I indulged in a practice I seldom have time to address, checking to see how many times a story has been covered, and by how many television stations. When reaching for a glass of orange juice, I noticed that on the container was an expiration date: July 19, 2012. Why is there an expiration date for orange juice, and not for news stories? Can it be called “news,” after all, if a story is dated? Continue reading
McDrones?
These days, McDonald’s Big Macs, and McMansions aren’t enough to satisfy the ever growing American appetite for new products, as well as bigger and better ones, and they may soon become among our leading exports. Continue reading
Unzip Romney?
The sudden and equally baffling high profile wife of Mitt Romney now says we don’t know her husband. One wonders how well she knows him given that he changes his positions on issues about as often as he changes his socks. Continue reading
Women are the new illegals
Those in the Republican Party who are intent on exercising a fervent grip on women’s reproductive rights by cutting off oxygen to Planned Parenthood, yes, those like leading presidential contender, Mitt Romney, who want to “get rid of it,” aren’t referring only to Planned Parenthood when they say “it,” but to half a century of gains women have made in the workplace. Continue reading
Apps for apes. Why not for Republicans?
Amazingly, orangutans now use iPads to paint and video conference. And, if the old maxim Neanderthals have more fun is true, then we should be having more fun, too. After all, orangutans may be our closest relatives. Continue reading
The ‘nuclear renaissance’?
Here we are almost a year away from the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima that happened as a result of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on March 11 of last year, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announces that it is approving licenses to begin construction on the first nuclear power plants to be built in 30 years. The two new nuclear reactors will be in Georgia. Continue reading
Romney’s Dukakis moment
One can fake many things in life, even an orgasm, but one can’t fake military experience. Mitt Romney has never been in the military. Continue reading
Spiro T. Gingrich
Newt Gingrich’s attack on what he calls “the elite media” during last Thursday night’s South Carolina debate reminds me of another high profile Republican’s invective against the major media, Spiro T. Agnew. Continue reading
Is it the mandate or the medical loss ratio?
What’s really behind Republican contempt for what everyone from Michele Bachmann to Mitt Romney like to call “Obamacare?” Continue reading
Newt worthy
Since Gingrich has essentially been the template for Republican politics since the days of Ronald Reagan, there are a few things you might want to consider, if you haven’t already, about a fellow who’s been as close to Mount Rushmore for nearly as long as any president whose face is already carved there. Continue reading
More workers exploited by Cain than women
Arguably, Herman Cain has exploited more workers than he has women, yet the media feeding frenzy these past few weeks has centered exclusively on the Godfather Pizza CEO’s sexual exploits. Continue reading
Mitt Romney: The Ziploc® candidacy
The Republican Party has been looking to clone Ronald Reagan for a long time now. Reagan, as you recall, was often depicted as the Teflon president because no scandal could tarnish him. Continue reading
A Republican game of musical chairs
The Republicans who are running to replace President Obama in January 2013 are now playing musical chairs. Continue reading
What Romney and Madoff may have in common
We now know everything we needed to know about Herman Cain, at least we think we do. We not only know about Godfather Pizza, but about alleged peccadillos he had while heading the Restaurant Association. Continue reading
Rick Perry and his ‘aviation assets’
Rick Perry has already shown that he bends whichever way the wind is blowing, and nowhere is that clearer than when he starts talking about illegal immigration. Continue reading
Forget Wall Street, occupy the world
It sure looks like Joe Biden finally got his mojo back. Whatever mojo he had in the first place, that is. Don’t get me wrong. I like Joe Biden, and always have. He’s a straight shooter which is why he’s totally miscast in his current role of Defense Department surrogate. Continue reading
Déjà Yoo
Noam Chomsky, and others on the left, have inveighed against the recent targeted killing of al-Awlaki, claiming that the U.S. no longer bothers to detain, and interrogate alleged terrorists, but simply kills them. Continue reading
A drone for a bomb?
So, it’s now clear that it was a drone that took down al Qaeda’s alleged top operative, cleric, and U.S. citizen, Anwar al Awlaki, in what smells like the old eye for an eye operation. Not only was it a targeted hit, but one that was, according to the New York Times, two years in the making. Continue reading
Why Solyndra, and not Boeing?
President Obama faces increased scrutiny over a solar energy company, Solyndra, that received half a billion dollars from the administration, only to go belly up months later. As Democracy Now suggests, Solyndra might find itself “a household name” in the 2012 election cycle, as well as an excuse to scrap the notion of an economy fueled by green jobs. Continue reading
Collective responsibility and the president’s speech
Many elements of the president’s speech Thursday night were laudable, especially his support for collective bargaining. Continue reading
Remember this during Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate
Savor the irony of the second Republican 2012 presidential debate, not only because it takes place in the Ronald Reagan Library, but because Reagan’s economic policies are the best argument against the Republican Party platform today. Continue reading
Debt ceiling debate or war on the working class?
The debt ceiling debacle isn’t about debt any more than all the talk about balancing the budget is about the deficit. There is absolutely no need to be in a crisis. The protracted stalemate has only reached crisis proportion because the president has allowed Congress to be diverted from raising the debt ceiling to a distinctly different discussion. Continue reading
No time to negotiate
President Obama is making a huge mistake by trying to build consensus between the two parties. This is no time for negotiating, nor is this any time to be talking about reducing the national debt. Continue reading
Bring back price controls on gasoline
Posted on August 30, 2012 by Jayne Lyn Stahl
At a time when the big five oil companies, including Chevron, BP, Shell, Exxon-Mobil, Conoco, made more than $130 billion in profit last year, as CBS reports, and the price at the pump has risen exponentially in recent months, it’s time to consider price controls on gasoline. Continue reading →