By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Jan 18, 2013 at 3:01 PM ET In the wake of No Labels’ historic Meeting to Make America Work! of 1,300 citizen problem solvers and leaders in New York City last week, Washington has torn a page out of the No Labels Make Congress Work! action plan and announced support for a No Budget, No Pay concept that would dock pay for members of Congress if the Senate can’t pass a budget.
In December of 2011, No Labels introduced the No Budget, No Pay Act in the House with Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) and with Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) in the Senate. It had over 90 co-sponsors in the 112th Congress, and received a hearing in the Senate in March of 2012. This bill has been pushed by No Labels’ hundreds of thousands of grassroots supporters — Democrats, Republicans and everything in between — with 88 percent approval ratings from voters, who want more accountability in Washington.
“No Budget, No Pay is a common-sense idea that should gain the support of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate — because it’s not one party or the other that needs a budget, it’s America that needs a budget,” says No Labels Co-Founder Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“The House GOP leadership has evidently decided to endorse the No Budget, No Pay concept,” No Labels Co-Founder and former Comptroller General of the United States Dave Walker says. “This is a major step forward to helping ensure that the Congress passes a budget and is held accountable if it fails to do so.”
Do you support “No Budget, No Pay”? Then tell your Senators and Congressman RIGHT NOW. Click here for an easy link to let your Congressmen know how you feel.
No Labels is a grassroots movement of Democrats, Republicans and independents dedicated to promoting a new politics of problem solving.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Jan 18, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET It was just another Sunday afternoon.
The Kansas City Chiefs were playing the Green Bay Packers on TV. I remember that.
And my father was playing cards with some friends, probably gin rummy. My mom was hosting and I was just kind of hanging around….I remember getting one of the men there to play basketball with me earlier in the day. We had a basketball goal in the driveway but not much room toplay. So we just shot around instead of playing HORSE or one-on-one. In the back we had a kidney shaped pool and area for grilling out. It was on the beach and I loved staying there because at nighttime you could hear the ocean waves crash rhythmically against the beach sand until I fell asleep.
But this was a Sunday afternoon and I was bored amidst all the activity. Not much for an 8 year old kid to do. Mostly adult fun. And so I walked out back and looked onto the beach. An older lady in a bathing suit wrapped in a towel seemed anxious and waved to me. She had long gray hair large sun glasses and asked if I’d seen a young child wandering on the beach. She described the child but I was only half-listening. She told me that she had fallen asleep on the beach watching her grandchild and just woke up. A man from the party, I didn’t recognize him, walked up to us and listened as she explained again what had happened. Suddenly, I had something to do. Like a game almost. My job was to find this wandering baby before anyone else did. I walked up the beach a bit and down and didn’t see any young children. The older man from my parent’s party acted like he was looking hard but really wasn’t. He stood by the grill area and craned his neck a little and used his hand to block the sun from his eyes so he could get a better view. But he saw no children either.
 I felt bad for the grandmother but was also getting a little annoyed that she wanted me and not an adult to help her out. I was bored and had nothing to do but didn’t want to spend the next half hour looking for a child I didn’t even know. But I tried. Or at least pretended to, like the man from the party. I walked around to the front of the house and saw nothing. It was getting windy and a little chilly and I wondered back to where I had seen the grandmother and she wasn’t there. I figured she left. And I stepped toward the pool and walked alongside the curve where the pool was shaped like turned-in side of a kidney. My job every morning was to take a long pole and skim the pool of any debris that had collected from the day before. And I was imagining doing that as I walked toward the deep end and saw a child-like blur languishing at the pool bottom. I dashed inside and screamed to my father that a baby was in the bottom of the pool. My dad leapt out of his chair where he was playing cards, knocking it over as he ran outside and in seemingly one motion dashed outside and dove straight into the deep end and pulled out the baby. He had been a competitive swimmer growing up and got to the baby faster than anyone else there could have.
My mother called 911 and it seemed the paramedics were there instantaneously. My mother seemed calmer than she was as tears welled in her eyes and she led the paramedics to the baby. I was kept on the other side of the pool away from all the activity. I remember hearing that they turned the baby upside down and water apparently came flushing out of its tiny body. But it was too late. The baby had been underwater far too long and had drowned and could not be resuscitated.
I don’t remember much after that. It was a horrifying shock that wasn’t supposed to happen on a Sunday afternoon when parents are socializing with friends and kids are bored and it’s too chilly to be on the beach in Hallandale, Florida. And the Chiefs and Jets are playing a football game that everyone seems interested in. And a baby wanders off from a sleeping grandmother on the beach outside your house and falls into your pool and drowns…. and the whole world turns upside down and your life is changed forever. On just another Sunday afternoon.
And the waves at night never sound quite the same as they crash rhythmically against the beach sand while I try to fall asleep.
By RP Staff, on Fri Jan 18, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET  Wowza:
Read this article by Ron Fournier in theNational Journal about a dinner he attended with some of the Problem Solvers.
Read this column by Joe Klein inTIME about how No Labels is helping him to feel a little bit of hope again.
Read this article in the National Journal about a political “revolution brewing” due to No Labels’ efforts.
Read this article in theAssociated Press about the excitement and optimism that emerged from Members of Congress out of the Meeting to Make America Work.
Read an Op-Ed from Bill Galston inPOLITICO on why a Clintonian helped found No Labels
Read an Op-Ed from Sen. Joe Manchin and Gov. Jon Huntsman in The Washington Post on why they believe in the importance of No Labels
Read this article inThe New York Times about a group of No Labels lawmakers who are ready to buck the trend of gridlock.
Read this article in theNational Journal about the new leaders of No Labels, and why it shouldn’t be labeled a Kumbaya Caucus.
Read this story inThe Wall Street Journal that asks if No Labels can help lawmakers to ‘get along.’
Read this article inThe Huffington Post about how each of the No Labels national leaders decided get on board.
Read this article inThe Wall Street Journal about some of the measures No Labels has outlined in Make Congress Work.
Watch CNN’s ‘Starting Point’ interview with Joe Manchin and Jon Hunstman live from the New York “Meeting To Make America Work”.
Watch Sen. Joe Manchin and Gov. Jon Huntsman discuss the Meeting to Make America Work on State of the Union with Candy Crowley.
Watch Sen. Joe Manchin and Gov. Jon Huntsman discuss their experiences with bi-partisanship on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
Read Rebekah Metzler in U.S. News and World Report noting widespread youth enthusiasm at the No Labels New York launch meeting.
Watch this clip fromMorning Joe, where Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), former Governor Jon Huntsman (R-UT) and Co-Founder Mark McKinnon discuss an identity crisis within the Republican party.
Watch Ron Shaich, Co-Founder & CEO, Panera Bread’s interview on No Label’s pro-business agenda with Fox’s Neil Cavuto Business Report
Watch James Himes (D, CT) on Bloomberg Television as he explains how No Labels makes a difference in helping Congress to stop gridlock (segment at close of fiscal cliff intro).
Watch this interview onHuffPost Live between Abby Huntsman, Mayor Cory Booker and her father, Jon Huntsman, about No Labels.
Watch CNN’s ‘Newsroom’ covering “Meeting to Make America Work” highlighting Problem Solvers Bloc and Jon Huntsman and Joe Manchin.
Read this article by Rachel Cromidas inThe Wall Street Journal about the means by which the Problem Solvers hope to change Congress.
Read Martha Moore in USA Today observing that No Labels’ Problem Solvers Bloc is a new political force.
Watch John Avlon, No-Labels Co-Founder, on CNN’s Out Front With Erin Barnett discussing how the new No Labels Problem Solvers Bloc will address overcoming gridlock.
Read Joy Resmovits ofHuffington Post covering the Meeting to Make America Work.
Read this editorial in The Pantagraph urging No Labels as a good start toward restoration of our government.
Read this article inU.S. News & World Report explaining the ideas behind the Problem Solvers in Congress and No Labels’ Meeting to Make America Work.
Read this editorial inThe Intelligencer Journal, which says that No Labels’ ideas make sense and that it hopes that we are tested further in the future.
Watch this clip fromJansing & Co. showing an interview with Joe Manchin as he explains some of the ideas behind No Labels.
Read this article by Jennifer Harper in The Washington Times about John Huntsman and his participation at the No Labels meeting in Manhattan,New York.
Watch Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) speak on the House floor about the point of the Problem Solvers and urging his colleagues to join.
Watch CSPAN highlights of Janice Hahn’s House Floor address calling for a problem solver’s approach in Congress (via YouTube).
Read this editorial from The Frederick News Post saying that No Labels has “great potential.”
Read Ruby Cramer of Buzz Feed analyzing No Labels leader Jon Huntsman’s perspectives on environmental protection.
Watch this clip from Morning Joe, where Co-Founder Mark McKinnon says that Mayor Cory Booker “was No Labels before No Labels was cool.”
Watch this clip from Morning Joe, where Joe Scarborough says that No Labels is “very important.”
Read the rest of…
Press from No Labels’ Meeting to Make America Work
By Julie Rath, on Fri Jan 18, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET Do you ever get so sick of your wardrobe that you want to toss the whole thing out the window? I often hear that sentiment from new clients – they’re tired of wearing the same boring blue shirt and khakis every day. I don’t blame them. If you don’t work at Blockbuster, why dress like it? If you’re in this kind of rut, now’s as good a time as ever to define a new personal style. Below are eight tips on how to do that:
1) Look for inspiration from celebrities, magazines and style blogs. Earmark looks or parts of looks that you want to try.
2) Try elements of what you like and ask a friend whose opinion you value and who you know will be honest.
 3) Incorporate elements of your personality into your style. Love your Vespa? Wear a pair of cufflinks that pays homage to it. Integrating features of your unique personality into your look will help you feel more comfortable in your own skin – and make it more likely that you’ll actually wear your new items.
4) Go ground up. The easiest, most pain-free first step in a style redo is new footwear – mostly because there’s no tailoring involved, so you can literally walk out of the store in them. There’s something about a great pair of shoes that makes you stand straighter and walk with more swagger.
5) Make sure the new look you select works for your body type. How to tell? Check out your overall silhouette in the mirror. Many of us home in on a certain part of our bodies when checking ourselves out. Try a more macro approach and see yourself as a larger whole. If the overall shape appeals to you, you’ll know it’s flattering.
6) If you’re nervous to try something new, make like Gavin and take it for a test drive to the grocery store. See how you feel when you’re there. No one has to know you’re just going to the supermarket!
7) Try a little at a time. I’ve seen too many closets full of one particular style that the client went whole hog on without realizing that it wasn’t right for him (Western shirts, I’m looking at you!). So pick one to start. If you find yourself going to that item again and again, you’re ready to commit to getting more.
8) Be patient and open-minded when you look at yourself in the mirror. Your eye is used to seeing you dressed in one specific way. The new look might be jarring and take some getting used to – like a new haircut.
Defining your own personal style takes some work, but it’s definitely worth it. Try the steps above, and let me know in the comments how you do. And if you’d like more tailored help with ramping up your look, contact me.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Jan 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET  Great moments in family conversations.
Three dudes or guys (Johns, really) in a typical guy-like conversation.
The one on the right (that would be me) is enthusiastically trying to communicate something of moderate interest to himself and, he thinks and hopes of at least moderate interest to his father and perhaps some remote interest to his son.
The one in the middle (that’s my son, Johnny) knows what I am doing and knows the topic is not of any interest whatsoever to him and probably of no interest to my father either even though I think it may be —and the main goal now is to look distracted by something going on elsewhere in the room so he person can keep thinking about whatever it is he is thinking about and not be expected to respond to my comment. And eventually be able to change the subject to something of greater interest to him and his grandfather.
The one on the left (my father, Big John) is engrossed reading something of interest to him but also realizing the comment the one on the right is making is taking a very long time and some sort of response will be expected of him since it is directed his way, mostly, and he needs to hear enough of it to comment adequately without having to listen to everything I am saying, especially since the one in the middle doesn’t appear that he will help out by offering a comment of feigned interest to help out.
We have a lot of great conversations this way when we are together.
By Josh Bowen, on Thu Jan 17, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET For the past 4-5 years the fitness industry has seen the increased popularity of the kettlebell. This very simple, yet very effective piece of equipment can literally shape and form one’s physique. I can also point out that research states that no other piece of equipment burns as many calories per minute and increases lean body mass than the kettlebell. I and my clients (as you can see in the videos below) use kettlebells often. We can hit more muscles per exercise than most any other apparatus. So lets take a look at the history of this piece of equipment and show some different exercises:
Oh, you said “Kettlebell”!
The kettlebell (also called a girya) is a piece of cast iron that looks like a basketball with a suitcase handle. The kettlebell was born in Russia, and is centuries old and first appeared in a Russian dictionary in 1704. In a 1913 article “Not a single sport develops our muscular strength and bodies as well as kettlebells. The United States Secret Service utilizes a single arm snatch test: 10 minutes with a 24 kg kettlbell for 250 reps. So from a scientific point of view why would one pick kettlebells:
- Displaced Center of Gravity – The center of gravity of the KB is six to eight inches below the center of your hand. Barbells and dumbbells center the weight with your hand. The offset of the KB makes the weight “alive” in your hand and increases the difficulty and benefit of many of the drills. KBs can do anything a dumbbell can do, even better – but not vice-versa.
- Thick Handles – Thick bar training is a proven way to increase grip strength and the difficulty of certain drills.
- Variety – The number of KB drills is only limited by your imagination and safety. One KB, two KB and combination drills provide unlimited protection from boredom.
- Trains Hip Extension – Ballistic KB drills provide an intense load to the hips and posterior chain. Very similar to the vertical leap, this “grooved” hip extension transfers to many athletic skills such as jumping, running and throwing.
- Trains Deceleration – When you “catch” the KB by “throwing” it behind you, the agonists and antagonists must co-contract to produce force reduction and deceleration of the weight. This is a skill we use daily when we change directions while walking or running.
- Balance of Tension and Relaxation – Tension is strength; relaxation is speed. An athlete must balance both to maximize skill. KB training utilizes a balance of tension and relaxation.
- Training Will Power – When the KB drills are done for high repetitions, they forge an iron will and iron body. Try a 10-minute set of snatches for proof. Enjoy the pain.
- Fun – With the ability to actually “juggle,” spin, pass hand to hand and throw the KB, KB training has a fun factor and variety not found in traditional training.
Read the rest of…
Josh Bowen: The Simplicity of Results: Enter the Kettlebell
By Patrick Derocher, on Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET Florida Governor Rick Scott: A Man with One Dog
This is important? During the 2010 Florida gubernatorial campaign, then-candidate Rick Scott paraded a rescue dog named “Reagan” on the campaign trail, touting the Labrador retriever as a more down-to-earth pet choice than President Obama’s purebred Portuguese water dog, Bo. Reagan was a fixture with Scott, even after he won the election, before… disappearing. As it turns out, the Governor gave back his skittish pup shortly after being sworn-in, saying that Reagan would bark at anyone carrying anything, and that he was seriously freaking out executive branch staff in Tallahassee. Thankfully, the Sunshine State’s first family still has another rescue lab, a 7-year old named Tallee. [Tampa Bay Times]
For all the fuss the Ohio GOP made about early voting benefiting Democrats, they may have been totally mistaken. According to statistics from the Ohio Secretary of State, most in-person early votes were from Democratic-leaning counties, including 70,825 from Franklin County (Columbus) and 45,400 from Cuyahoga (Cleveland), the second- and first-most populous in the sate respectively. In terms of the percentage of a county’s votes cast early, however, Republicans hold a clear lead– of the 24 highest-percentage counties, only 8th place Athens County, home to all of 64,757 residents, voted for President Obama. [Columbus Dispatch]
If labor-backed Democrats in Michigan are hoping for a Wisconsin-style recall campaign, they may be out of luck. At the end of 2012, Republican governor Rick Snyder signed legislation altering how recalls are petitioned and conducted. Instead of being judged at a county level, petitions will be reviewed for “clarity and ‘truth’,” before being voted on by a state-level, bipartisan commission. Additionally, signatures must be collected in 60 rather than 90 days, and officials other than the governor will face an opponent (determined by a primary), rather than an up-or-down vote; the governor will be replaced by the lieutenant governor if he or she is voted down. [The Iron Mountain Daily News]
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET  We did it. The Meeting to Make America Work! was a huge success — we unveiled Gov. Jon Huntsman and Sen. Joe Manchin as new national leaders, and introduced our group of congressional problem solvers.
This group will be transformational in Washington — and national press is noticing. Here’s some of the coverage we received:
Thanks for all you’re doing to make our government work.
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
A story borrowed from Jason Brangers.
I’m calling it, “Now you’ve got my attention.”
One of my Russian martial art coaches loved chess; which may be more of a national sport than Sambo.
Often he’d see me worried about the size, strength or speed of my opponents, and he’d recount an old proverb, “After the game, the king and… the pawn go into the same box.”
He had once continued, “You have anxiety because you are getting sucked down into the mere game. Look from the top. imagine you are pieces on a chessboard. Your pawn only weakens because you feel small next to his front, and so you feel anxiety about your lack of potential. But now view it from the top, see your pawn in its full strength, what it represents to your opponent, and realize it is the most important piece on the board.”
He taught me that my pawn could have the greatest courage and cause the entire opposition to rattle. If I remained brave enough to approach the opponent’s rear line, even a pawn could transform into the most powerful piece on the board: a queen. “Even the humble, unexpected pawn can change the course of a game,” he’d insist.
So what are you going to do in this game? If all you are doing is going back into the box, if you can’t take it with you, then HOW you play the game remains the only point to this all.
Your true powers exceed the movements you may feel restricted to execute. Your importance lies not in your potential powers, but by your very courage. So, how you choose to stand, how you decide you will act while you are on the board, is the entire point of our game. Even the humble, unexpected pawn can change the course of the game through bravery. None of us are getting out of here alive, so let us enjoy the game, but more importantly, let us not be deluded into collecting pieces or wins.
Let us focus our goals upon the courage to follow our values even against overwhelming odds, even with those who have become blind to the point of he game, and the inevitability that we will all go back in the box.
Very respectfully, Scott Sonnon www.facebook.com/ScottSonnon
By RP Staff, on Wed Jan 16, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET  In BREAKING NEWS from the Pulitzer Prize winning news site, DailyPix.Me, our own contributing RP, Jason Grill, was named the #12 best looking politician under the age of 40.
With breathless pose, the reputable news agency writes:
Grill is a former Democratic member of the Missouri House of Representatives. He’s also a lawyer, writer, TV analyst, radio host and an all around handsome man! Oh and did we mention that he’s only 33?
Check out the piece here.
Of course, Jason had already been labeled, by the hard news, Cosmopolitan magazine, as one of “7 Politicians We’d Like to See Shirtless (And One Who’s Already Taken It Off).”
Wrote Cosmo when Jason was an active politician:
This smokin’ hot Dem is running for a second term as a representative in the Missouri House of Representatives. Hey Jason, if you need anyone to hang out on the campaign trail, give us a call.
While we here at The Recovering Politician are big admirers of Jason’s dreamy blue eyes (or are they brown?), we are not sure if he is the sexiest recovering politician alive.
We need your vote below. Besides Jason, here are another few choices:
 Krystal Ball
 Michael Steele repping the red states  John Y. Brown, III in best fashion mode
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