Obama's New Campaign Ad Focuses On JOBS! (Video)

Sources: Youtube

Romney Releases Anti-Obama Web Ad: Jobs! Obama's Fire??

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Today 2012 GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney Released A Web Attack Ad That Hits At Pres. Obama's Citizenship & The Current Unemployment Crisis. (i.e., "Bump In The Road")

You Know Folks I say Its About Time Pres. Obama Start Displaying Some "Fire In His Belly" By Defending His Record & Agenda With A Little More Gusto.

Of Course I'm Voting For Pres. Obama In 2012 But I Still Need Him To Strike Back Against Some Of The GOP's False Negative Rhetoric! Like Right Now!!

Especially As It Relates To TRUTH About The Unemployment Rate.

For Example Pres. Obama Needs To Let The American People Know That Since Regaining The U.S. House In November 2010, GOP Leaders Have INTENTIONALLY Refused To Pass Any Jobs Creation Bills Because They Don't Care About Helping Unemployed People.

They Just Care About Taking Down Pres. Obama By Any Means Necessary!

Even If It Means Sinking The U.S. Economy Via EXTREME, RADICAL Unfair, Unequal Budget Cuts Disguised As "Deficit Reduction".

And By The Way Where Is The Progressive Barack Obama Of 2008?

I Miss Him!

ALL Democrats & Independents Miss Him!!

We All Know That Pres. Obama Is Only Human (What A Revelation!).

If He's Tired, Then He Should Do What All Of The WHITE Former Presidents Always Did When They Were Tired, Even During An Economic Crisis!

Not Excluding Former Pres. George W. Bush!

Go To Camp David Or On Vacation To Get Some Rest & Relaxation Each Weekend.

After All Its A Scientific Fact Human Beings Function & Think Best After Resting.

Contrary To Popular GOP Belief, Pres. Obama Is NOT A SLAVE!!

He Is The Legally ELECTED Leader Of The United States Of America!

Who Cares If GOP Leaders On Capitol Hill Or 2012 GOP Candidates Talk About Pres. Obama If He Does Take A Short Break From The White House Each Weekend.

Its Better To Rest On The Weekend In Order To Be Fully Alert & On Point Monday Thru Friday, So He Can Best Serve His Constituents, Then Allow GOP Lawmakers To Break Him Down Mentally & Physically.

Which Is What They Have Been Trying To Do For 2 Years Straight!

Yes! Obama Supporters Really Need Pres. Obama To Be On Task & To Begin Striking Back At Attack Ads Like Mitt Romney's Recent "Bump In The Road" Web Ad.

I Repeat.

By The Way Where Is The Barack Obama Of 2008?

I Miss Him & I Believe Its Time He Resurfaces.

VOTE OBAMA IN 2012!!


Romney Hits ‘Bump In The Road’: Attack Ad Blasts Obama For Phrase Romney Used


Today, Mitt Romney released a new web ad excoriating Obama for saying that there will be “bumps in the road” to economic recovery. The ad features a bunch of people laying down in the road who slowly rise up and say, “I’m an American, not a bump in the road.”

Before Romney’s consultants decided the phrase would be a potent political weapon, he used it himself in the same way as Obama. From the AP, May 1, 2006:

Romney Warns of Potential ‘Bumps in the Road’ for Health Care Law

Massachusetts faces potential “bumps in the road” as it tries to turn the promises of its new health care law into a reality, Gov. Mitt Romney said Monday even as he announced another crucial step in the state’s experiment with near universal coverage. [...]

One of the most daunting tasks is the creation of an entirely new state bureaucracy, known “Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector” the bureaucratic infrastructure on which much of the new law’s innovative reforms rest.

The connector is supposed to work as a clearing house matching the uninsured with new health care plans.

Romney said for the connector to work, “the computer systems are going to need to be able to deal with a half a million people buying insurance through an entity that doesn’t exist today.”

“So many parties have to come together that achieving this timetable even if there are no bumps in the road will be very difficult,” he said.

So in this instance, Romney is telling people who need health insurance to expect “bumps in the road” before they get health care coverage. This is the same message that Obama is communicating about the recovery to people who need jobs in America.

As Romney knew then (and likely knows now), using the phrase does not communicate that those impacted are merely “bumps.” The latest ad demonstrates his willingess to exploit anything Obama says for even the smallest political advantage.


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Sources: MSNBC, Think Progress, Vanity Fair, Youtube, Google Maps

Cyber Monday Sales Top $1Billion! Sign Of Economic Recovery

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

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

Manic Cyber Monday Top $1B In Sales



Cyber Monday started as a gimmick to get people to shop at their desks on the first workday after Thanksgiving. But if you promote something enough, it can take on a life of its own.

This year, stores swamped customers with online ads and e-mail deals, and sales could top $1 billion, making it bigger than any single shopping day last year.

Online sales were already running 15 percent ahead of last year's by 3 p.m. Monday, with the biggest shopping hours of the day still to come, according to IBM's Coremetrics tracking service.

"The numbers are really strong," said the service's chief strategy officer, John Squire, who added that he expects Cyber Monday to be the biggest online shopping day of the season.

The Monday after Thanksgiving was dubbed Cyber Monday by the National Retail Federation trade group in 2005 to describe the unofficial kickoff to the online shopping season. The idea was that people returning to work after the long weekend would shop at their desks.

It never really was the busiest online shopping day of the year.

But like any good marketing angle, it spawned imitation. Nearly 90 percent of U.S. retailers offered some kind of Cyber Monday promotion this year, targeting shoppers who didn't want to venture out at 4 a.m. for those in-store deals. In 2007, 72 percent offered a Cyber Monday promotion.

"Retailers are doing everything they can to build up and extend the event aspect of it — tweeting deals every hour, running Cyber Monday ads — like it's such a big thing you can't miss out on," said Stacy Landreth Grau, associate professor of marketing at Texas Christian University's Neeley School of Business.

Rachel Bergman, general manager of e-mail marketing service Experian CheetahMail, said this year the company sent out several hundred million Cyber Monday promotional e-mails, 40 percent more than last year — on behalf of clients like Borders, J. Jill and Bass Pro Shops.

It has rarely been the biggest online shopping day of the holiday season, however — last year it was No. 2 — and this year, online deals have been stretched by retailers throughout the weekend.

Historically the biggest online shopping day of the year comes sometime in mid-December, when shoppers face deadlines for ordering to ensure delivery by Christmas Eve. Last year, it was Dec. 15, according to online research firm ComScore.

But this year, shoppers seem to be in the mood to spend more. On Thanksgiving Day, usually quiet for online shopping, Americans spent $407 million online, 28 percent more than last year. They spent nearly $650 million online the following day, up 9 percent.

Last year, Cyber Monday sales totaled $887 million. This year, $1 billion wouldn't be a surprise, analysts say.

New Yorker Joseph Gallo waited until Cyber Monday to buy the Blu-ray "Back to the Future" trilogy, on sale for $34.99, and separately a pair of headphones slashed to $45.69 from $130 from Amazon.com.

"I get the feeling of deals being better having watched Amazon all last week and today," Gallo said.

Many shoppers don't actually buy at work. They compare prices from their desks, then buy when they get home, said Graham Jones, vice president of merchant accounts for deal aggregator Pricegrabber.com. Peak activity on that site is usually 7 or 8 p.m.

Retailers like Best Buy, Target and others have extended their online deals through much of the weekend and through the week, but they were offering specific deals on Monday.

Target offered a Kodak Waterproof mini video camera, regularly $99.99, for $49.99, and it will offer more deals Tuesday and throughout the week. Walmart.com, which is pushing the event as "Cyber Week," promoted bikes for $39 and a 6.5-quart Dutch oven for $33.

Some shoppers who bypassed discounts over the weekend were rewarded on Monday. At Landsend.com, a girl's jacket was on sale for $39.99 on Sunday, a third off the retail price of $59.50. By Monday morning, the price was $35, and an extra savings came by way of free shipping.

Christy McClung, a student and quality control worker in central Oregon, said she bought a TV at BestBuy.com after she was out of town and missed Black Friday sales.

While she didn't find exactly the TV she wanted, she bought one because it was a good value, she said. "With the free shipping, it was a great deal."

Cyber Monday's share of online holiday spending has grown slightly over the past five years, from 2.5 percent in 2005 to 3 percent last year. That's partly because of shifts in the calendar that make the holiday shopping season longer or shorter, but also because "as consumers become more attuned to deals and discounts, Cyber Monday has become a more important event," said Andrew Lipsman, an analyst for ComScore.

Online spending is still a relatively small piece of the holiday pie, between 8 and 10 percent of total holiday sales.


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Sources: CNBC, MSNBC, The Shoe Dish, Google Maps

Cal Cunningham Bypasses Marshall In Fundraising, Burr Has $8M

Cal Cunningham Bypasses Rival Elaine Marshall In Fundraising


Both N.C. Democratic Senate candidates Cal Cunningham and Elaine Marshall have had to scrap to find enough money to finance their campaigns.

They've appealed to family, friends, law partners and even entertainers such as Barbra Streisand and Clay Aiken.

Although Elaine Marshall had a two-month head start, Cunningham has significantly passed her in the money contest.

He has pulled in $737,499, compared with her $514,541, as of April 14, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

This is a modest sum compared with the $8.4 million raised by Republican Sen. Richard Burr, the man they would like to replace.

Here's a look at how Cunningham and Elaine Marshall have raised their campaign kitties as they prepare for the June 22 runoff, according to an analysis of campaign records by The News & Observer.

There's no place like home

Senate candidates often raise money nationally, but Cunningham and Marshall raised most of theirs in North Carolina. Here are their five top states:

Cunningham:

North Carolina - $489,018 (77 percent)

Washington, D.C. - $34,603 (5 percent)

California - $22,116 (3 percent)

New Jersey - $14,600 (2 percent)

Hawaii - $10,250 (2 percent)

Marshall:

North Carolina - $309,256 (96 percent)

Ohio - $5,000 (1 percent)

Washington, D.C. - $4,250 (1 percent)

California - $2,900 (1 percent)

South Carolina - $1,000 (less than 1 percent)

Regional split

Cunningham, who lives in Lexington and practices law in Winston-Salem, is strongest in the west, while Marshall, the secretary of state who has homes in Raleigh and Lillington, does better in the east. Here are their five top cities for donations:

Cunningham:

Lexington - $70,707

Winston-Salem - $66,014

Raleigh - $65,100

Chapel Hill - $54,472

Durham - $39,300

Marshall:

Raleigh - $72,370

Charlotte - $27,700

Chapel Hill - $16,600

Cary - $16,550

Asheville - $13,110

All in the family

Elaine Marshall has lent her campaign $71,500. Cunningham has not lent any money to his campaign, but family members have donated at least $23,000 to his political committee.

Legal eagles

Both candidates are lawyers and receive considerable backing from lawyers. Marshall has strong backing from trial lawyers, receiving at least $38,325 from dozens of them.

Cunningham has received $19,650 from 38 lawyers at Kilpatrick Stockton, the firm where he is a partner. The 500-member law firm has represented such high-profile clients as Adidas, Blue Cross Blue Shield, British Petroleum, Google, Pepsi, Fox, Krispy Kreme andWachovia.

Hollywood

Cunningham has a somewhat star-studded donor list. He has received donations from singers Barbra Streisand and Clay Aiken; Alan Warner, president of Warner Brothers; and Dayna Bochco, a TV producer whose husband produced such series as "Hill Street Blues" and "L.A. Law."

Donors big and little

Marshall has received more of her money in small donations. Forty-three percent of her campaign donations came from people who gave less than $1,000, compared with 26 percent for Cunningham. Cunningham has tended to raise more from larger donations. Eighteen percent of Cunningham's donations came from individuals who gave $4,000 or more, compared with 4 percent for Marshall.

(These figures only apply to individual contributions, not political action committees.)

Lobbyists

A handful of Raleigh lobbyists whom Marshall regulates as secretary of state gave a total of $2,000 to her campaign. They are Coleen Kochanek, Frank Gray, Ed Turlington and Charles Wilkins.

Washington weighs in

Cunningham, who has the backing of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has received $36,000 in contributions from political committees connected to Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Thomas Carper of Delaware, Carl Levin of Michigan, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Mark Warner of Virginia and Dick Durbin of Illinois.


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Sources: F.E.C., McClatchy Newspapers, N.C. General Assembly, Youtube, Google Maps

Darth Vader Spoof Of John McCain's "Complete The Danged Fence" Video

Sources: High4entertainment, Huffington Post, Youtube

"Complete The Danged Fence" John McCain's New Ads

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Sources: Youtube, Google Maps

"Billion Dollar Bev & The Back Breakers" Video (Political Humor)

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Sources: NC GOP, North Carolina General Assembly, Youtube, Google Maps

James Sanders' Craigslist Ad Leads To His Death

3 Plead Not Guilty In Deadly Home Invasion Linked To James Sanders' Craigslist Ad


Three men accused of killing a Washington state man in a home invasion after the victim posted an internet ad were arraigned Monday, with all three pleading not guilty.

Clabon Terrel Bernaird, 23; Kiyoshi A. Higashi, 22; and Joshua N. Reese, 20, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, robbery and assault, Pierce County, Washington, prosecutor Mark Lindquist said. If convicted, they face potential sentences of around 70 years in prison, Lindquist said.

A fourth suspect in the case, Amanda C. Knight, 21, pleaded not guilty to the same charges last week, Lindquist said. He added that the four defendants are each being held on $2 million bail at the Pierce County jail. Their next court appearance is scheduled for June 9.

The four are charged with killing James Sanders on April 28 after he and his wife posted an ad on the online classified ad site Craigslist offering a diamond ring for $1,050, Lindquist said.

Lindquist said the Sanders agreed to meet prospective buyers of the ring at their home in Edgewood, Washington, outside Tacoma.

"Two people show up and act like a couple looking for a ring for the mother-in-law," Lindquist said. But once they entered the house, he said, the man posing as the husband pulled out a handgun.

The victim, his wife, and their sons, ages 14 and 10, were restrained with plastic handcuffs, Lindquist said. Two other suspects then entered the home. One pistol-whipped the older son, he said.

Sanders broke out of his restraints and attempted to defend the 14-year-old, and was shot three times, the prosecutor said. "While this is going on," Lindquist said, "other bad guys are kicking Mom in the head while she's lying on the floor."

Lindquist said of the slaying, "this is a cautionary tale."

"You hate to tell people to be wary of your fellow citizens, but the reality is you've got to be wary when you are doing something when interacting with strangers on Craigslist."


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Sources: CNN, Craigslist, Google Maps

GOP Promotes Their Health Care Reform Plan...New Web Video

GOP promotes health reform plan. House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., unleashed a fresh attack against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s health reform plan in a new Web video.

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Final health reform vote awaits U.S. House this Saturday

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Sources: MSNBC

DNC Uses Survivor Web Ad to Brand G.O.P.

"Being a Moderate Republican sometimes feels like being a cast member of "Survivor" — you are presented with multiple challenges, and you often get the distinct feeling that you're no longer welcome in the tribe."

"It is truly a dangerous signal that a Republican senator of nearly three decades no longer felt able to remain in the party."

"It didn't have to be this way."

Maine Senator Olympia Snowe (R)



Sources: NY Times, Political Base, Think Progress, Youtube