Daily Clips: September 23rd, 2015

September 23, 2015 Nick Cassella

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PolitiFact checks this Hillary statement: And she’s not lying! PolitiFact noted, “The numbers back up Clinton’s claim since World War II: Of the 49 quarters in recession since 1947, eight occurred under Democrats, while 41 occurred under Republicans.” Nearly a 1/3 of Iowa GOP wants to criminalize Islam: Of course they do. With such a high percentage of the GOP base hating all things Islam, one can see why Donald Trump and Ben Carson have started to bring anti-Muslim rhetoric into the GOP nomination. The Public Policy Polling report had this great analysis to add: [Donald Trump is] probably not hurting himself too much with his negativity toward Muslims either – only 49% of Republicans think the religion of Islam should even be legal in the United States with 30% saying it shouldn’t be and 21% not sure. Among Trump voters there is almost even division with 38% thinking Islam should be allowed and 36% that it should not. Hillary Clinton comes out against the Keystone pipeline: Finally, Clinton has staked out a position on the deeply controversial (and partisan) issue. She’s come out with the right decision as well. “On Tuesday, she ended the game of chicken, offering a terse answer : ‘I oppose it because I don’t think it’s in the best interest of what we need to do to combat climate change.'” Short, but sweet.

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Daily Clips: September 22nd, 2015

September 22, 2015 Nick Cassella

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Jeb! hates net neutrality: Today, Jeb! unveiled policy proposals which would call for rolling back many of Obama’s actions, including net neutrality. The Hill reports, “Bush’s proposal laments the rules for subjecting Internet service providers — such as Verizon, AT&T or Comcast — to “antiquated ‘common carrier’ regulations.” There Jeb! goes again, siding with the little guy… Senator Warren standing up for women’s reproductive choices: Why isn’t she running again? Government shutdown looking more and more likely: Lawmakers (from both sides) are using the budget process to push forward their own individual agendas and predictably, that isn’t good for the nation. Washington Post gathered the opinions of congressional budget experts to hear what they had to say about the chances of a government shutdown. The results were not good. Here is an excerpt from an expert (try saying that ten times) who believes there is a 75 percent chance of a shutdown: To recap, we have the Planned Parenthood debate, the Export-Import Bank, debates over ending automatic budget cuts and the Iran nuclear deal all threatening to play a part in at least a temporary government shutdown. Oh yeah, and Congress still has to okay a fund by Oct. 29 to help pay for highways and bridges (known as the Highway Trust Fund). SCOTT WALKER IS OUT-OF-HERE! To celebrate Governor Walker’s exit from the GOP primary, here are 7 gaffes that helped doom his candidacy. One down, 15 to go.

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Daily Clips: September 21st, 2015

September 21, 2015 Nick Cassella

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Bernie Sanders says top 0.1% in US have almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%: PolitiFact checked out Sanders’ comment and found it to be “Mostly True” – which made me sigh in defeat. How can this be true in 2015? Colorado’s marijuana tax revenues nearly double last year’s figures: More good news for the legalization movement! (Also, why is it that we always hear about Colorado and not Washington when it comes to legal marijuana? Bummer, man.) The Guardian reports: Through the first seven months of this year, Colorado has brought in nearly $73.5m , putting the state on pace to collect over $125m for the year. These incredible (and surprising) numbers make the success of future marijuana ballot initiatives far more likely. The Pope is coming to town: The highly anticipated arrival of Pope Francis has the US media buzzing. However, his controversial positions on climate change and refugees has angered Congressional Republicans; indeed, some are even considering skipping his address to Congress. The discussion of abortion (especially in the light of the Planned Parenthood stand-off) will be of particular interest. Obama citizenship push stokes conservative fears: Politico reports that the Obama administration is putting together a “new initiative to nudge 8.8 million legal residents who are eligible for naturalization to become full-fledged citizens — and therefore, eligible to vote.” These new citizens would most likely vote for Democrats and this reality hasn’t been lost on the Republicans. A paper from the right-wing Eagle Forum warned: Republicans can never turn liberal-leaning immigrants and their adult children into supporters of limited government faster than the current high level of legal immigration (one million a year) is bringing in new liberal voters,” the report warns.

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Daily Clips: September 18th, 2015

September 18, 2015 Nick Cassella

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Hillary Clinton releases a great ad: Anyone that watched the GOP debate two nights ago would’ve been astounded with how little policy was actually discussed. Hillary’s communications team does a terrific job of highlighting their silence on the important issues: Planned Parenthood provides a rebuttal to Carly Fiorina: Planned Parenthood Action Fund executive vice president Dawn Laguens had some strong words for the Republican candidate: I am writing to tell you directly that your claims are completely false and that the video footage you described simply does not exist. Literally, there is no such scene on any of the heavily edited, widely discredited videos that have been released by anti-abortion extremists. Your statements last night, while vivid and attention-getting, were completely untrue,” Laguens wrote, in the message addressed to Fiorina’s campaign headquarters in suburban Alexandria, Virginia. American incomes shrink: According to Census Bureau data released earlier this week, the median annual household income in the US has fallen by 1.5 percent to $53,657. More than this, median income is still 6.5 percent lower than it was prior to the financial crisis in 2008. The good news from the report? The number of Americans without health insurance has dropped to 10.4 percent of the population, down from 13.3 percent in 2013. The Fed will raise rates…in December: After deciding not to increase interest rates from zero this week, the Federal Reserve is allegedly ready to raise rates at its December policy meeting. The futures market implied traders see a 42 percent chance that the rate hike will occur in December.

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Daily Clips: April 27th, 2015

April 27, 2015 Nick Cassella

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Daily Clips

Fracturing democracies Washington Post – EJ Dionne. Mr. Dionne has the unique ability to sift through the day to day grime of politics and find distinct patterns in our political eras. In his most recent article, Dionne takes a look at a range of Western nations and how their people are all dissatisfied and angered with the
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Daily Clips: April 24th, 2015

April 24, 2015 Nick Cassella

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It’s Not the 1 Percent Controlling Politics. It’s the 0.01 Percent. Mother Jones – Dave Gilson Let this sink in: About 125 Americans control more than 40 percent of election contributions. Within this article there are a couple informative graphs which show how this trend has accelerated after the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling. The
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Daily Clips: April 23rd, 2015

April 23, 2015 Nick Cassella

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Daily Clips

Democrats Are Rallying Around $12 Minimum Wage New York Times – Noam Scheiber Even Senator Schumer (hardly a bastion of progressivism) is behind the increase of the minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 to $12 by 2020. “The politics, substance and morality coincide to make it a winner issue for us in 2016,”
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