Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced $2 million in grants to be awarded to community health centers in Alabama due to the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act.
Grants from the Affordable Care Act will help build and expand health centers, create jobs, and expand access to an additional 860,000 patients nationwide, according to a White House press release.
“President Obama’s health care law is making community health centers in Alabama stronger,” Secretary Sebelius said. “For many Americans, community health centers are the major source of care that ranges from prevention to treatment of chronic diseases. This investment will expand our ability to provide high-quality care to millions of people while supporting good paying jobs in communities across the country.”
Even Karl Rove, a Republican strategist and former political aide to George W. Bush, who is known as a poll numbers geek, says President Obama now holds a clear Electoral College advantage in the presidential race of 2012 — now less than eight months away in November.
In what he called the “top line math,” there are 284 votes that are “safe” or “lean” for Obama, versus 157 votes that are “safe” or “lean” for Romney.
There are 18 states (220 Electoral College votes) where Obama has a solid lead and 15 states (93 votes) polling solidly for Romney, according to the latest polling average in each state.
Then, there are six states with a combined 82 EC votes classified as “toss--ups” (IA, FL, MO, NC, SC, VA); five states (MI, NH, NV, OH, PA) with a combined 64 EC votes that “lean” Obama; and six states (AZ, GA, KY, SD, TN, TX) with a combined 79 EC votes that “lean” Romney.
In 2008, young people voted in record numbers and went for President Obama over John McCain by more than 2-to-1.1 This year, every election expert agrees that if that happens again, Obama will win easily—and the Democrats will probably win back the Congress.
And now Republicans have handed groups like MoveOn.Org a golden opportunity to fire up young people to vote in 2012.
Because of Republican obstruction in Congress, interest rates on college loans are set to double this July—pouring even more debt on a generation already drowning in student loans. President Obama is pushing back against it with Congress, but as usual Republicans have dug in their heels in opposition to the point of being obstructionists.
To make sure young people know what’s happening, MoveOn.OrgMoveOn.Org is launching one of the largest online ad campaigns in MoveOn history —- putting ads on the Facebook page of every college student in America to warn them about this “Armageddon of student debt.”
President Barack Obama’s job approval rating has increased in recent days and now stands at 50 percent in Gallup Daily tracking for April 21-23, according to the latest poll results.
The 50 percent approval mark is notable because all incumbent presidents since Eisenhower who were at or above 50 percent approval at the time of the election were re-elected, according to Gallup. Obama’s job approval rating has typically been in the mid-40 percent range for the last three months.
Obama reached 50 percent briefly earlier this month, but that soon dissipated, perhaps due to mixed news in the government’s April 6 unemployment report after largely positive reports in the prior two months. In recent days, Obama appears to be more solidly around 50 percent, averaging at least 49 percent approval in each of the last four individual nights of Gallup polling.
One possible reason for Obama’s recent rise is the decline in gas prices, which some analysts believe could indicate that prices have peaked. Rising gas prices have often been associated with a decline in presidential approval ratings.
While 99% Spring protesters are shining some sunlight on anti-worker governors in the Midwest, it may feel more like a downpour to extreme politicians like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, according to the AFL-CIO.
“If Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker hoped to quietly raise out-of-state money this week, he completely missed the mark,” the union said on its Website on Monday.
In Chicago, his visit was met by a crowd of protesters — for the third time in as many days. On Tuesday in Springfield, Illinois, a crowd of nearly 4,000 rallied outside a Chamber of Commerce fundraiser for Walker’s campaign. Later that night another 2,000 rallied outside the Walker fundraiser in Troy, Michigan.
UAW member Jeff Ditz explained why Michigan workers were protesting the Wisconsin governor, telling the the Detroit News: “What’s happening in Michigan and Wisconsin is ‘affecting the whole nation. They are destroying democracy.’”
And I Don’t Care Whether the Republican Governor-King Likes It or Not
The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson
When I was playing the drums in my high school marching band in now bankrupt Jefferson County, Alabama, we came up with a popular cheer and cadence to play at every football game.
“I – like – Falstaff – draft – beer.”
Drum roll.
How do I explain to my friends in New York, D.C., California and Europe that I am from a state where you can’t drink Dirty Bastard beer?
The poor people of Alabama also can’t buy a lottery ticket or play bingo, win a lawsuit against a corporation or an insurance company or hop a train to go anywhere.
Life has always been difficult in this place famous for two things: Violent reactions to civil rights and football.
Now that the tea party Republicans have totally taken over all three branches of government here, life is worse then ever. Before long you won’t be able to join a union or vote for a Democrat, because there won’t be any unions or any viable Democrats on the ballot.
And the entire movement is based on a big, fat lie.
The majority of people here bow down to the so-called “conservative” philosophy launched by Barry Goldwater in 1964, exploited by George Wallace in the 1960s and ’70s, and perfected by Ronald Reagan in 1980 like it was some kind of a religion.
Karl Rove and George W. Bush just extended the lie in 2000 and 2004. Many of us thought we had seen the end of that run with the election of The Obama in 2008.
While it is on the wane nationally, the lie just keeps on taking in the Heart of Dixie like a disease that gradually devours your bones like leukemia.
Let’s get something straight once and for all. Here’s the information cure for the disease.
Fifty percent of Americans say they have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in President Barack Obama to do the right thing for the economy or to recommend the right thing for the economy, while only 42 percent say that about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject, which shows that Americans have more confidence in Obama than Romney or any other economic or political leader.
Not surprisingly, 86 percent of Democrats express confidence in Obama on the economy, while only 17 percent of Republicans agree. Independents are split, with 47 percent expressing a great deal or fair amount of confidence and 52 percent saying they have only a little or almost no confidence in the president’s economic leadership. There is a seven-percentage-point gender gap, with 53 percent of women and 46 percent of men saying they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in Obama.
Americans’ confidence in Romney on the economy also varies widely by party. Sixty-nine percent of Republicans express confidence, while 25 percent of Democrats and 35 percent of independents do so. Men (43 percent) and women (40 percent) are about equally confident in Romney’s economic leadership.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday issued the final regulations required by the Clean Air Act to reduce harmful air pollution from the oil and natural gas industry while allowing “continued, responsible growth” in U.S. oil and natural gas production.
The final rules include the first federal air standards for natural gas wells that are hydraulically fractured, along with requirements for several other sources of pollution in the oil and gas industry that currently are not regulated at the federal level.
Based on public comment, EPA made a number of changes to the proposed rules to increase compliance flexibility while maintaining comparable environmental benefits, streamline notification, recordkeeping and reporting requirements, and strengthen accountability, according to the official announcement posted on the agency’s Website.
Part of this decision involves delaying key requirements until 2015 – a delay sought by the oil and gas industries, according to environmental experts who have been following the development of the regulations closely.
Right-wing gun nut rocker Ted Nugent said, “I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year” if President Obama is re-elected in November on the National Rifle Association’s so-called news channel.
The Secret Service is now looking into the remarks, according to NPR.
This guy is a total idiot and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Even Mitt Romney distanced himself from the remarks.
A spokeswoman for the Romney campaign issued a statement Tuesday saying that “divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from. Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil.”
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
