DOWNLOADS: (103)

PLAYS: (536)

Embed

A depressed Florida man shot his wife and two children before killing himself after closing his hot air balloon business and facing losing his job as a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector because of automatic budget cuts known as "sequestration."

A source told CBS News that 45-year-old Carlos Zuniga was depressed in the weeks before he shot his wife 43-year-old wife, Michelle, his 14-year-old daughter, Lauren, and his 11-year-old son, Stefan. Carlos Zuniga then killed himself.

Stefan Zuniga died at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center on Thursday morning. Both the wife and the daughter were in critical condition.

According to The Miami Herald, Carlos Zuniga was in the process of shutting down Winds Aloft Aviation Inc., a hot air balloon business that he had started with this wife in 2005. He had recently taken a job as a safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration. But the FAA is expected to be forced to furlough a "vast majority" of it's employees because of automatic budget cuts in the so-called "sequester" if Congress does not act quickly.

"FAA is going to face a cut of roughly $600 million under sequester," Office of Management and Budget controller Danny Werfel told a Senate committee last week. "A vast majority of their 47,000 employees will be furloughed for one day per pay period for the rest of the year, and, as importantly, this is going to reduce air traffic levels across the country, causing delays and disruptions for all travelers."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has also notified senators that allowing the automatic cuts "would force the FAA to undergo an immediate retrenchment of core functions."

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama warned that there would be stark consequences if Congress allowed the automatic cuts to take place.

"These cuts are not smart," Obama said on Tuesday. "They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls. This is not an abstraction -- people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again."

Former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour on Tuesday told Fox Business that "I hope and believe that Republicans will allow the sequestration to go into effect, so that we can start down a path of trying to get control of spending and reduce the deficit."

DOWNLOADS: (347)

PLAYS: (34221)

Embed

While quite a few Republicans are waking up to the fact that maybe it's not such a good idea to insult huge swaths of the voting public as Mitt Romney did when he made his remarks about President Obama winning the election because he gave "gifts" to minorities, women and young voters, it seems The Blaze's Will Cain hasn't gotten the message yet either.

This Sunday evening on CNN during Don Lemon's show, Cain appeared with regular LZ Granderson, and after Lemon played recordings of Bobby Jindal, Newt Gingrich and Haley Barbour all condemning Romney's remarks, both men were stunned when Cain decided to come to Romney's defense.

And as Granderson rightfully pointed out during the interview, besides being extremely insulting, Romney's remarks weren't even accurate, regardless of Cain's weak defense of them here. Cutting the middle man out of the student loan program, making sure women have affordable access to contraceptives, allowing people to stay on their parents' insurance plans, and allowing children who were brought to the United States to stay here instead of being deported are not "gifts." They're good policy.

If Cain wants to make sure that the Republican party remains the party of hateful old white men and help his buddy Willard make sure no one else ever wants to vote for them again, just keep talking buddy.

h/t Dave

DOWNLOADS: (157)

PLAYS: (1099)

Embed

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) says that the presidential election is now trending towards President Barack Obama because of Hurricane Sandy.

During a Sunday panel segment on State of the Union, CNN's Candy Crowley noted that the president had gotten a boost after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his endorsement in the aftermath of the super storm.

"He said that he thinks President Obama is better on the issue of climate change," CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash explained. "And that the hurricane -- the super storm -- was a reminder from his perspective of what's going on with the climate."

"But that wasn't the best thing that happened to Barack Obama this week," Barbour noted. "The hurricane is what broke Romney's momentum. I don't think there's any question about it."

"Any day that the news media is not talking about jobs and the economy, taxes and spending, deficits and debt, Obamacare and energy is a good day for Barack Obama. You had a blackout -- you had a blackout on all of those issues that started about last Saturday and lasted until about yesterday. That was what was really good for Barack Obama."

Barbour added that Obama's proactive response to Hurricane Sandy didn't "help him a bit."

"What happened is that the news media absolutely blacked out any coverage of the issues that have been the issues of this campaign," the former governor insisted. "Nothing was stopping Romney's momentum. No matter what Obama did, he couldn't stop the momentum. This blackout -- and I'm not blaming the news media -- just all the news coverage was about everything but Obama's policies and the results of those policies."

DOWNLOADS: (128)

PLAYS: (901)

Embed

On this Sunday's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, former Bush-Cheney stategist Matthew Dowd did his best to give a little cover to Mitt Romney and his presidential campaign based on an endless string of perpetual lies by playing the 'both sides" are equally terrible game.

Sadly this is the type of false equivalency we see day in and day out from the talking heads in the media, but one of the more ridiculous ones. Since when is Romney refusing to release his tax returns the equivalent President Obama supposedly not saying we're going to have to have some "shared sacrifice" when it comes to balancing our budget?

First of all, it's not even true. Unfortunately President Obama has shown more than a willingness to make a deal with Republicans, much to the ire of much of his base, and cut some sort of "grand bargain." The side which has said they refuse to budge and raise a penny in taxes has been the Republicans. Sadly I think this was an exercise in these Villagers just dying for more austerity when our country cannot afford it and insisting on balancing the budget as an excuse to destroy our social safety nets, because Republicans have always hated them since the day any of them were enacted -- as much as it was trying to muddy the waters on Romney's lies. They want the New Deal dismantled so badly, they can taste it.

Republicans never cared one iota about the deficit when their hero George was blowing huge holes in it with his tax cuts and a couple of wars he left off the books. But now what a Democrat is back in office they're all screaming to the hills about how we're "broke."

And you've just gotta' love George Stephanopoulos here saying it's not a debate moderator's job to fact-check the people debating. Sadly that's the status quo these days, but it shouldn't be.

Transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (148)

PLAYS: (655)

Embed

They just can't stop themselves from trotting out the ghost of St. Ronnie Raygun at every opportunity and the legend that exists of him in every Republican's mind and this Monday night on Greta Van Susteren's show on Fox was no exception. When asked what Mittens needs to do to make some headway with the voters who really just don't like the man, former Gov. Haley Barbour told Van Susteren that Romney needed to "pull a Ronald Reagan" at this year's convention.

I've been hearing from one talking head after the other in the media that these campaign speeches are going to "introduce Mitt Romney to the public" and that voters "just don't know enough about him yet." The man's been running for president for how many years now? And between radio, cable television and the Internet, is there really anyone out there who doesn't already have a pretty good idea of who Mitt Romney is? Sorry, but I'm not buying the idea that one speech by Romney or his wife is going to make a lick of difference once the dust settles in what voters think of him.

But that won't stop the likes of Barbour pretending it's 1980 all over again.

Transcript via:

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (136)

PLAYS: (720)

Embed

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) on Sunday said that GOP hopeful Mitt Romney was "smart" not to give voters specifics about how he would govern if elected president of the United States.

During an interview on CBS, host Bob Schieffer asked Barbour if it was going to take more for Romney to win than simply saying, "Let's get rid of Barack Obama."

"At the end of the day, Mitt Romney also has to give people something to vote for," Barbour admitted. "I think that is more a matter of timing."

"I think right now Romney is smart to wait before he starts laying out proposal after proposal, but he ultimately will."

Politico recently noted that the lack of specifics had "no-policy problem" for the Romney campaign.

"Vague, general or downright evasive policy prescriptions on some of the most important issues facing the country are becoming the rule for Romney," Politico's Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns wrote.

And it's not just Democrats that are calling on the former Massachusetts governor to lay out clear positions on foreign policy, veterans issues, immigration and how his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will be funded.

"The Romney strategy the past eight weeks has been, in a small way, shrewd: have the candidate out there talking in a candidate-like manner, but don't let him say anything so interesting that it will take the cameras off Mr. Obama," The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan wrote. "It's working, but won't for long. People want meaning, a higher and declared purpose."

Barbour also took issue with House Speak John Boehner's assertion that a lot of voters won't "fall in love" with Romney.

"I think a lot of people who know Mitt Romney will really, really like him," Barbour said. "There's a lot to love about Mitt Romney, but the election still is going to be a referendum on Barack Obama's policies."

(h/t: Think Progress)

DOWNLOADS: (268)

PLAYS: (979)

Embed

On this week's Face the Nation, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour discussed the current debate over our America's immigration laws and whether it was going to be a big issue in the upcoming presidential election.

While many Democrats are rightfully upset with President Obama's record number of detentions and deportations, as the Mayor rightfully pointed out, the alternatives being offered by the Republicans would do nothing but create a permanent under class of workers who never have any hope of becoming citizens of the United States.

Barbour tried to downplay the impact that the Republicans' policies on immigration and their opposition to the DREAM Act might have, using the same arguments I've heard them making when trying to dismiss the terrible poll numbers Republicans have with women voters right now as well, and that's the claim that President Obama has done more harm to either group because of his economic policies.

Of course when pinned down on what those policies are and what they would do differently to improve economic conditions for those groups, they always revert to their solutions for everything, which is lowering taxes and deregulation.

Barbour trying to shift their stance now saying he'd be supportive of Rubio's version of the DREAM Act and claiming the Democrats are playing politics by bringing it up in an election year is cynical at best given the fact that everything Republicans have been doing since President Obama was elected is about playing obstructionist politics to do damage to our economy and try to make sure that he's a one term president. That or playing to their base with passing hundreds of laws trying to restrict women's access to health care and abortion services. They've shown they have very little interest in actually governing unless it's to enrich their campaign donors at the expense of the rest of us.

Transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (121)

PLAYS: (238)

Embed

Former governors Howard Dean and Haley Barbour appeared on Fox News Sunday for what host Chris Wallace described as preview for what a debate in the general election between President Obama and Mitt Romney might look like. Amazingly the subject of Barbour's lobby shop being linked to Iranian nuclear efforts didn't come up during the segment. Imagine that.

For his part, Howard Dean did a fairly good job of explaining towards the end of the segment just what kind of trouble Mitt Romney is going to have during the general election, given the fact that's he's rightfully perceived as out of touch with everyday Americans and only cares about helping the 1 percent, of which he's a member.

Republicans keep pretending this long primary season was somehow good for Mitt Romney, but without is we wouldn't have the list of gaffs Dean was able to rattle off here. The more the man talks, the more he continues to stick his foot in his mouth.

Transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (401)

PLAYS: (2640)

Embed

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) on Sunday predicted that if the United States Supreme Court strikes down a key part of President Barack Obama's health care reform law, it could actually benefit him in the 2012 general election.

Dean told Fox News host Chris Wallace that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate was "something that's not really necessary."

"If the justices strike it down, it might actually help the president because people don't like the mandate," he explained. "But if the rest of the bill stays intact, I think it will ultimately seen as a victory for the president. He'll do fine."

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) indicated that his party was already planning the best way to spin the Supreme Court's decision against the president.

"I think it will be pretty interesting if former constitutional law professor President Obama's signature law gets kicked out because it's unconstitutional," the former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman quipped. "The fact of the matter is that the law is very unpopular. Unlike most entitlements, it has continued to stay unpopular after it was enacted."

For his part, Dean agreed that the law was unpopular, but Americans "actually do like what is in it."

"I think the president is in great shape in health care unless they strike down the whole bill," he added. "This is the most political Supreme Court we've ever had. Seventy-three percent of the American people believe that politics motivates the Supreme Court, and I am one of those 73 percent. So, I think a lot of this is going to be seen as politics."

Barbour suggested that the president would not be able to run against the ruling because voters "are going to favor the Supreme Court's opinion if the Supreme Court does, in fact, strike down the law."

"President Obama's policies on health care, on energy are his problem," he opined. "They're the wrong policies. They are bad for the country."

DOWNLOADS: (342)

PLAYS: (1211)

Embed

While I agree with Haley Barbour that for the United States to have a real recovery from this recession, we're going to need to see better jobs numbers and economic growth than we're seeing now, he seems to be suffering from a bout of George W. Bush-amnesia with his arguments placing the blame entirely on the Obama administration for the jobs numbers not being better during this panel discussion segment on This Week.

Barbour harkened back to the Reagan administration to tout Republicans success at job creation, conveniently ignoring the fact that we were hemorrhaging around 700,000 jobs a month when Bush left office. He also seemed to forget that gas prices were actually higher under the Bush administration and that Bush didn't have any more success than the current administration in getting OPEC to open up their spigots. Barbour was also allowed to claim with no push back that more domestic drilling was going to lower gas prices or create jobs, which it won't as Paul Krugman pointed out this week.

Sadly, no one bothered to point out to Haley Barbour that for the first time, we have a political party in the United States doing everything they can to sabotage the economy on purpose rather than see President Obama be reelected and that they deserve a good deal of the blame for the economy not recovering quickly enough as well.

Transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »