We weren't looking for a hero. Dusty rewrites MSNBC pundit John Heilemann's absurd statement.

By Dusty

President Obama: Does he like people or not?

John Heilemann was interviewed during the 2012 DNC Convention by Kelly Candaele. The topic was the differences between President Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

JH: Obama is an unusual politician. There are very few people in American politics who achieve something — not to mention the Presidency —in which the following two conditions are true: one, they don’t like people. And two, they don’t like politics. KC: Obama doesn’t like people? JH: I don’t think he doesn’t like people. I know he doesn’t like people. He’s not an extrovert; he’s an introvert.

I’ve known the guy since 1988. He’s not someone who has a wide circle of friends. He’s not a backslapper and he’s not an arm-twister. He’s a more or less solitary figure who has extraordinary communicative capacities. He’s incredibly intelligent, but he’s not a guy who’s ever had a Bill Clinton-like network around him. He’s not the guy up late at night working the speed dial calling mayors, calling governors, calling CEOs. People say about Obama that it’s a mistake that he hasn’t reached out more to Republicans on Capitol Hill. I say that may be a mistake, but he also hasn’t reached out to Democrats on Capitol Hill. If you walk around [the convention] and button-hole any Democratic Senator you find on the street and ask them how many times they have received a call [from the President] to talk about politics, to talk about legislative strategy, I guarantee you won’t find a lot of people who have gotten one phone call in the last two and a half years. And many of them have never been called.

 I’m not a psychologist, so I don’t know what the root of that is. People have theories about it. But I know in practice he is a guy who likes to operate with a very tight circle around him, trusts very few people easily or entirely. He ran his campaign that way in 2008, he runs his White House that way, and he’s running his campaign that way in 2012. President Obama just doesn’t talk to too many people.

So according to John, Barack Obama who won the 2008 election for President with 365 electoral votes over John McCain who received 173 electoral votes and Obama also received the most votes ever  in American history for the popular vote does not like people nor politics. But hey, he is a great communicator.

 It’s okay, I’ll wait while until you are done banging your head against your desk and the stars are done circling your head.

Better now? Okay let’s go take a little photo journey and see if we can find photo evidence showing President Obama does not like people. Here we go off to The Obama Diary and to Google.

Is this what John saw? 

Umm, I don't this one is it. Looks to me like the guy knows how to give and receive a hug and look there is more waiting for their turn to get and give a hug. 

No, not this one. Looks to me like a genuine display of empathy to me. Okay let's keep going. That was only two pictures.

Found it! Ahh wait wait... no darn it. The little guy looks like he is having fun with the big guy who according to John does not like people. ~Sigh~ okay off for more pictures...

Oh here is proof President Obama does NOT like people. Oh no....wrong again, he obviously likes babies.

Keep looking.

Nope, not this one either. Check out the diversity of that crowd though. 

Awesome! 

Oops, must keep looking. 

Note to self...Stay ON Task

No not this one either. Check it out he can multitask too. 

Keep going...

Let's see is high fiving something that someone who do NOT like people do? 

You're right, this is NOT a picture of a person who does NOT like people.

Moving on. Let's go to the rewrite. The red text is the rewrite.

JH/Dusty: Obama is an unusual politician. There are very few people in American politics who achieve something — not to mention the Presidency —in which the following two conditions are true: one, they have a low tolerance for BS . And two, they don’t like the politics that is demanded by the media and by fellow politicians.

All of the above pictures as well as this one shows President Obama to be a very caring and empathic person who enjoys meeting and interacting with people. A person would have to have been living totally off the grid aka Fox News Viewer to not know that our President Obama has no problem interacting with people on a personal level and real level.

A person cannot fake the emotions that are on display in this picture. 

JH/Dusty: He’s someone who has a wide circle of friends. He’s not a backslapper and he’s not an arm-twister however he can be your biggest cheerleader and will help guide you along the path you choose. He is personable figure who has extraordinary communicative capacities 

 I think John needs to read this article  Michael Lewis Profile of Barack Obama. Click on the link and read the whole article it is quite an eye-opener. Here is a couple highlights:

Why doesn’t he show more emotion? He does this on occasion, even when I’ve put the question clearly—see in what I’ve asked some implicit criticism, usually one he’s heard many times before. As he’s not naturally defensive, it’s pretty clearly an acquired trait. “There are some things about being president that I still have difficulty doing,” he said. “For example, faking emotion. Because I feel it is an insult to the people I’m dealing with. For me to feign outrage, for example, feels to me like I’m not taking the American people seriously. I’m absolutely positive that I’m serving the American people better if I’m maintaining my authenticity. And that’s an overused word. And these days people practice being authentic. But I’m at my best when I believe what I am saying.” 

snip

 But if you happen to be president just now, what you are faced with, mainly, is not a public-relations problem but an endless string of decisions. Putting it the way George W. Bush did sounded silly but he was right: the president is a decider. Many if not most of his decisions are thrust upon the president, out of the blue, by events beyond his control: oil spills, financial panics, pandemics, earthquakes, fires, coups, invasions, underwear bombers, movie-theater shooters, and on and on and on. They don’t order themselves neatly for his consideration but come in waves, jumbled on top of each other. “Nothing comes to my desk that is perfectly solvable,” Obama said at one point. “Otherwise, someone else would have solved it. So you wind up dealing with probabilities. Any given decision you make you’ll wind up with a 30 to 40 percent chance that it isn’t going to work. You have to own that and feel comfortable with the way you made the decision. You can’t be paralyzed by the fact that it might not work out.” On top of all of this, after you have made your decision, you need to feign total certainty about it. People being led do not want to think probabilistically

Bet you all know where I am going with this especially if you read the entire article. I agree with President Obama cable news channels are toxic and are not good sources of information. On any given day you can turn on any one of these networks, be it Fox News, CNN or MSNBC and you will soon be overwhelmed by the negativity, the constant second guessing and the pure speculation on topics where not a single fact can be found and even the out right lying and fear mongering of certain pundits.  President Obama is also correct when he says people want a leader who does think about them and how his decisions affect them. People do not want a leader who blindly reacts first and then gets the facts later. You'll all know who I am talking about here.

JH/Dusty:He’s incredibly intelligent, he’s not a guy who’s ever had a Bill Clinton-like network around him. He’s not the guy up late at night working the speed dial calling mayors, calling governors, calling CEOs. He IS the guy who is reading letters from the people he serves late at night. Some people (usually cable news pundits) say about Obama that it’s a mistake that he hasn’t reached out more to Republicans on Capitol Hill. But is it just as easy to make the case of it is hard to work with people who have claimed on nation television every chance they get their main objective is to limit you to one term. Also it would be very difficult to work with those in 2010 showed no loyalty or courage in supporting a member of their own party.

 I'll bet this guy knows President Obama has his back. 

JH/Dusty:I’m not a psychologist,(snark:I just play one on TV ) so I don’t know what the root of that is. Let me enlighten you John, President Obama is just man, he is not a magician nor is he a miracle worker. What is he is the man who the American voters elected to help lead this nation out of the worst economic crisis this country has ever faced while also dealing with all the other crisis that just seemed to occur one after another. President Obama has proven himself to be a leader with acts of compassion, caring, courage in spite of all the roadblocks put up by Congress, the media and also other world leaders. It is time to give the man the credit he deserves and show him some support. Just think of what President Obama could have done if he had been given the support all the other previous Presidents were given. Just maybe John, it is time to  take off those rose colored glasses and view our President with clear vision instead of with your preconceived ideas of who, what and how the man should be.

In 2008 the American voters elected Barack Obama to be the President of the United States. In 2010 there were quite a few American voters who voted against our country and against our President and quite frankly against their own best interests all because they refused to overcome their fear of change.
In 2012 the American voters get another chance to vote. I hope those voters have overcame their fear and are ready to stand up and make a difference to go forward not backwards.

Let me finish with a video from Martin Bashir of MSNBC he absolutely nails it with the difference between a true leader and an immature fear monger.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE:  Here is a link featuring the new ad from the Obama campaign, highlighting some of the key facts about the economy.

Equal Rights or Free Exercise of Religion: Which one is guaranteed by the Constitution?

By: Dusty

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

There are over 310 Religions and Dominations in the United States. According to stats from 2001 85% of  the population in the US reported to be practicing their chosen faith.  95.3% of those Americans are practicing Christianity "the religion derived from Jesus Christ, based on the Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies"   Yes Mormons, Catholics, Protestants, Seventh Day Adventists, Mennonite and Church of the Nazarene are all included in that same group of 35 different religions who are classified under the umbrella of Christianity. 

So why does the American Affordable Health Care Act have the Catholic Church in a tizzy right now?

This is why: on August 1, 2011 this announcement was made: 

"Today, as part of the Affordable Care Act, we are announcing historic new guidelines that will help women get the care they need to stay healthy," Sebelius said at a news teleconference. "Today we are accepting the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine, so no woman in America needs to choose between paying a grocery bill and paying for the key care that can save her life."

The new requirement does not affect health plans in effect before March 23, 2010. These "grandfathered" health plans include most employer-sponsored plans. However, the majority of employer plans already cover contraception.

Starting August 2012, new health plans will have to offer the expanded wellness coverage without requiring a co-payment. Insurers may "use reasonable medical management to help define the nature of the covered service," according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Religious institutions that offer health insurance to their employees may choose not to offer birth control, according to an amendment to the prevention regulation proposed by the Obama administration. The HHS says it "welcomes comment on this policy."

This is the amendment:

"Consistent with most States that have such exemptions, as described below, the amended regulations specify that, for purposes of this policy, a religious employer is one that: 

(1) Has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose; 

(2) primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets; 

(3) primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets; and 

(4) is a non-profit organization under section 6033(a)(1) and section 6033(a)(3)(A)(i) or (iii) of the Code. Section 6033(a)(3)(A)(i) and (iii) refer to churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and  conventions or associations of churches, as well as to the exclusively religious activities of any religious order. 

The definition of  religious employer, as set forth in the amended regulations, is based on existing definitions used by most States that exempt certain religious employers from having to comply with State law requirements to cover contraceptive services...The definition set forth here is intended to reasonably balance the extension of any coverage of contraceptive services under the HRSA Guidelines to as many women as possible, while respecting the unique relationship between certain religious employers and their employees in certain religious positions. Additionally, given "the Departments are waiving the 30-day delay in effective date of these amendments.

Did anyone read anywhere above or get the impression that the Federal Government has now mandated that all Catholics will now be forced to take birth control pills and will be forced to have abortions or be forced to perform abortions? No? Me Neither. What I read was that insurance policies must now provide free of cost to the insuree woman’s wellness services. Religious organizations who provide insurance coverage for their people who practices the same faith may be exempt from this provision. But that is how the Catholic Church interpreted this new law and this is how they are spinning it from their pulpit and on public media. 

Watch this segment from Hardball w/ Chris Matthews. Cardinal Tim Dolland, of New York speaks at the beginning of the segment followed by Melinda Henneberger, The Washington Post and Melissa Rogers, Wake Forest U. Divinity Schools. 

(Melinda):

Okay. Under the affordable care act, employers all have to provide free contraception to their employees. Religious employers who make up a tiny percentage of employers in this country said we cannot do what violates our conscience, what violates our church rules, give us an exemption of conscience not to be able just to be able to not give free contraception that we don't even believe in to our employees. This was sort of a worst case scenario where I'm trying to figure out how it could have been handled more poorly but I can't. So the President has a one on one meeting with the guy you just saw, Tim Dolan

(Chris)

The Archbishop of New York

(Melinda):

Yes, he is assured, they come out of it, he is feeling good. he comes out of it thinking, yes. this is going to be handled with some sensitivity. He understands our concerns, he gets it, and so at the last minute on January 20th, as everybody is showing up in town for the March for Life, all of these Catholics who support, who are pro life and who supported Barack Obama at great risk, i mean really took on so much criticism, are really thrown under the bus. The woman Sister Carol Keyan who single-handedly practically delivered, there had been no health care reform unless she who runs the Catholic Health Association had supported it, is just left out to dry by him saying no, you have to violate your conscience to stay in the business that you feel god called you to do and serving the poor and the sick.

snip

(Melinda) 

The irony though is that the very strongly pro choice folks who push so hard for this are going to get nothing if Obama is not re-elected because Catholics don't turn out for him. there won't be a health care reform bill to argue over

Go back up to the top did you read anywhere at all in the bill that states a person will be forced to participate just because they now have access to an insurance policy which provides for birth control? No you did not. Did you read anywhere at all where a person will be forced to violate their beliefs or their conscience? No you did not. Did you read anywhere at all where a person will be forced against their will to provide a service that violates their beliefs? Again No you did not. This bill states that all private and public companies who provide health insurance to their employees are now required to provide coverage that includes a wide vary of woman’s wellness services at no cost to that individual including birth control and the morning after pill if she so chooses.

Where this messaging failed begins with the Department of Health and Human Services. What this law specifically does is grant equal rights to all who do not share the same religious faith. For example a Methodist is employed at a Catholic University- under the old rules this person is denied equal healthcare coverage for the sole reason that the Catholic Church does not believe in birth control or prevention. However if a Catholic is employed at a Methodist University who does provides this health insurance coverage that person is not required aka forced to use birth control pills or any other preventive measures, however that option is available to them. The Department of Health and Human Services should have placed the emphasis on equal coverage.

This messaging also failed with the Catholic Church. The ArchBishop Dolan could have sent the message that even though the Catholic Church is against birth control and other preventive measures they also understand that some of their employees do not share their same beliefs. Some of their employees are members of other faiths and should have equal access under this law. The Catholic Church could have also stated that the only difference now is their members will have access to these services at no cost whereas right now their members have the ability to purchase those services elsewhere.

The Catholic Church is sending the message to its members that they cannot be trusted to follow the teaching of the church and must be denied those benefits as they cannot possibly resist the temptation when there are no out of pocket expense. The Church is also telling its members that they are not equal to their fellow Americans under the Constitution. Surely the Catholic Church has considered that their members can freely purchase on the open market the services it is denying its members access to via an insurance policy?

Where the media failed and especially Chris Matthews and his guest Melinda Henneberger is Chris failed to do his own research and Melinda resorted to use of prejudicial rhetoric. Chris is an intelligent guy, where it took me 5 Google searches to find the information I was looking for to write this post, he has people who are paid to do research. When a person is speaking to a national audience on a topic as important as this one I would think research would be a key component. Melinda failed as she resorted to the use of prejudicial rhetoric by first calling President Obama by his name only and then claiming he threw the all his Catholic supporters under the bus along Sister Carol Keenan whom Melinda claims single handily delivered health care reform. The making new law yet another Anti-Life and Pro-Choice fight. Melinda should have also done some research on her own, she has had since 8/1/2011 to prepare for this moment while toning down the negative rhetoric.

The answer to the question: Is it Equal Rights or is it the Free Exercise of Religion that is guaranteed by the Constitution?  Both Equal Rights and Free Exercise of Religion are guaranteed by the Constitution. One cannot be granted without the other. Chris, Melinda, the ArchBishop Cardinal and Newt seem to have forgotten we have a former Constitutional Law Professor as President of the United States. 

Health Reform, Preventive Services, and Religious Institutions Fact Sheet from the White House

• Churches are exempt from the new rules: Churches and other houses of worship will be exempt from the requirement to offer insurance that covers contraception.
• No individual health care provider will be forced to prescribe contraception: The President and this Administration have previously and continue to express strong support for existing conscience protections. For example, no Catholic doctor is forced to write a prescription for contraception. 
•  No individual will be forced to buy or use contraception: This rule only applies to what insurance companies cover.  Under this policy, women who want contraception will have access to it through their insurance without paying a co-pay or deductible.  But no one will be forced to buy or use contraception.
• Drugs that cause abortion are not covered by this policy:  Drugs like RU486 are not covered by this policy, and nothing about this policy changes the President’s firm commitment to maintaining strict limitations on Federal funding for abortions. No Federal tax dollars are used for elective abortions.
• Over half of Americans already live in the 28 States that require insurance companies cover contraception: Several of these States like North Carolina, New York, and California have identical religious employer exemptions.  Some States like Colorado, Georgia and Wisconsin have no exemption at all.

_________________________

Retweets

https://twitter.com/#!/ANomadicView/status/165490805899927553

https://twitter.com/#!/ANomadicView/status/165491971157278720

Rick Perry's anti-gay ad: The spoof videos! --- PLUS: MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski slams Newt Gingrich in must-see rant

By Patrick

Looking for some comedy relief, we only have to turn to the Republican presidential candidates. They don't seem to be provide real value as far as political and economic issues are concerned, but the comedic value they provide is immeasurable.

For a more serious look on the issue, however, I recommend the recent "review" of the whole Republican freak show in the German news magazine "Der Spiegel", in which the magazine called the Republican candidates "A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses."

A few days ago, Rick Perry has infamously released a campaign ad which has been immediately regarded by the public as anti-gay. Although in Rick Perry's defence, he probably simply didn't know what he was saying. In any case, here is the original:

This advert single-handedly broke the record on youtube (I believe) as far as the number of "dislikes" to a video are concerned:

Rick Perry's memorable advert was followed by a number of hilarious spoof adverts. Here are some of the best of them, for your pleasure:

Jesus Responds to Rick Perry's "Strong" Ad from DC Pierson

+++

To get a little more serious again, MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski delievered an epic, must-see rant regarding Newt Gingrich on "morning joe." She expressed her disgust at Newt Gingrich after he slammed the OWS-protesters.

This already happened in late November, but as Newt is now the new front-runner of the Republican freak show, Mika's rant deserves more coverage:

Many thanks and a big h/t to all of our readers who put links to some of these clips in the comments!

Hopefully you all will have a great Saturday! Next week, we will be back with more exciting stories.

+++

BONUS:

AzureGhost just posted the following clip in the comments - yes, Newt Gingrich, you surely are a "mean one":