The RP’s BREAKING News: The Politics of Pigskin

Have you heard? Terrell Owens might have allegedly attempted suicide by way of a pill overdose. . . again. Many of you will remember the incident back in 2006 when almost the same story was reported. This time an assistant of Owens called 911 when she found him in a state of semi-consciousness. This is the last thing Owens needs as he is attempting to rehab from off-season surgery and workout for teams in hopes of getting an contract offer. Although his PR team is quelling rumors and defusing the suicide notion, this does nothing to help T.O. get back into the league. [CBS Sports]

Kristen Soltis: Make Sure Obama’s New Housing Plan is Not a Bailout

If there’s one thing that American voters are uninterested in, it is more bailouts. Unfortunately for President Obama, there’s a serious chance that’s how many voters will view the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP.

President Obama is making a wise move focusing in on pocketbook issues and on choosing an initiative he can say is aimed at the middle class, particularly one that has an impact on so many key swing states.

Despite this upside, there are two critical risks HARP presents. The first is in expanding President Obama’s “credibility gap.”

When Obama claims to have the answer to a problem, voters are increasingly skeptical that he does. The disconnect began around the stimulus and TARP. Two-thirds of voters told Pew in 2010 that the stimulus did not help the jobs situation, and 49 percent said that loans to troubled banks also did not help.

If HARP costs large sums of taxpayer money and fails to turn the housing market around quickly, voters may feel that yet again Obama overpromised, overspent and underdelivered.

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Kristen Soltis: Make Sure Obama’s New Housing Plan is Not a Bailout

THE RP’s BREAKING NEWS: Local Coverage

The Milwaukee, Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin’s largest newspaper, has quoted “The Recovering Politician” in a recent round-up of political articles about Wisconsin. The blog entry in question referred to a Journal Sentinel article about two State Senators, Dale Schultz and Tim Cullen (Republican and Democrat respectively) touring the state in support of bipartisanship. Wisconsin, of course, has been in rather short supply of that asset, especially after tense union fights early this year. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Tech

The Politics of Tech

You know those little label stickers that come on your apples? Well these fruit labels turn into soap when you wash them. Genius. [Amron Experimental]

Motherboard City [picture]

The case for piracy – a must read. [ABC.net.au]

Mac OS is no longer impenetrable. Mac users are seeing more and more malware. [Technoblog – MSNBC]

Flashback: This week 10 years ago Apple released their first iPod which debuted at $399 and was only compatible with Macs. [NY Times]

The Amazing ‘Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera’ – make sure you check this out. [The Atlantic]

The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Fame

The Politics of Fame

 

 

Did Jay Leno go easy on President Obama on The Tonight Show? [The Daily Beast]

Thomas Friedman believes the President’s foreign policy earns him the name “Barack Kissinger Obama.” [New York Times]

Would adding Marco Rubio to a republican presidential ticket be risky? [Washington Post]

The Caddie Hall of fame is leaving Florida for Chicago. [Orlando Sentinal]

 

The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Food

The Politics of Food

Good news for coffee drinkers–new research shows that enjoying a daily cup of joe may reduce the risk of the world’s most common cancer, basal cell carcinoma. [Huffington Post]

Beware of fish fraud. The red snapper or white tuna you order at a restaurant may not be what you end up eating. [NPR]

Annual Food and Beverage Trends Report shows that efficiently produced foods like greens and legumes are going to be the hot items to hit our plates. [WSJ Marketwatch]

The RP’s Recipe of the Week: Roasted pumpkin seeds.  After you’re done carving your jack-o-lanterns, turn the seeds into a delicious snack. [Allrecipes.com]

THE RP’S BREAKING NEWS: The Politics of Weight

Perhaps justifying First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative, a recent survey suggests that overweight and obese workers are costing the economy jobs and money. According to a recent Gallup survey, some 86% of U.S. workers are overweight, obese, or chronically unhealthy, costing the economy some $153 billion per year in lost productivity. [Washington Post]

Artur Davis: Will “Occupy Wall Street” Become a Left-Wing Tea Party?

Occupy Wall Street is the latest proof that populism is not a purely conservative phenomenon; instead, populism of the left or the right distrusts government as a bribed, compromised institution, and rejects consensus as a political tactic. For liberals who envy the conservative skill at converting protest movements into a sustained political force, and who want to create a left -leaning enforcer within the Democratic Party, OWS is the answer to a fantasy.

However, for Barack Obama, OWS happens to be the polar opposite of what he campaigned on as well as the message that launched him at the convention in Boston in 2004. Its “us versus them” mantra has made Wall Street its target, but its ultimate result would be a politics that is conflict-driven, divided, and bitterly conscious of the line between a “red” and a “blue” America. Obama should hear the anger in these protests, but he should recognize that it is poised to join the tea party as one more force that is pulling us apart.

Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena.

The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Laughter

The Politics of Laughter

Time to re-think those costume ideas! [comic]

So that’s how Police Medics work [picture]

Freezing [SMBC]

Jet Fuel [xkcd]

This guy answers test questions like a boss [picture]

Meanwhile, in Russia… [picture]

 

 

 

Newsweek Touts Eva Moskowitz: “Yes, Wall Street Helps the Poor”

While the “Occupy Wall Street” movement gains some steam, some critics are pointing to some of the philanthropy taking place among the masters of the universe. In the following article, Newsweek profiles the work contributing RP Eva Moskowitz is doing to improve education for poor, urban youth in New York City and her support on Wall Street:

It was a scene to curdle liberal blood. A ballroom full of New York hedge-fund managers playing poker … to raise money for charter schools.

That’s where I found myself last Wednesday: at a Texas Hold ’Em tournament to raise money for the Success Charter Network, which currently runs nine schools in some of New York’s poorest neighborhoods.

While Naomi Wolf was being arrested for showing solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, there I was, consorting with the 1 percent the protesters hate. It’s no surprise that the bread-heads enjoy gambling. But to see them using their ill-gotten gains to subvert this nation’s great system of public education! I was shocked, shocked…

Your ZIP code can be your destiny, because poor neighborhoods tend to have bad schools, and bad schools perpetuate poverty. But the answer is not to increase spending on this failed system—nor to expand it at the kindergarten level, as proposed by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times last week. As brave reformers like Eva Moskowitz know, the stranglehold exerted by the teachers’ unions makes it almost impossible to raise the quality of education in subprime public schools.

The right answer is to promote the kind of diversity and competition that already make the American university system the world’s best. And one highly effective way of doing this is by setting up more charter schools—publicly funded but independently run and union-free. The performance of the Success Charter Network speaks for itself. In New York City’s public schools, 60 percent of third, fourth, and fifth graders passed their math exams last year. The figure at Harlem Success was 94 percent.

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