"Obama fund-raiser highlights Democrats’ political imperative" by Noah Bierman and Tracy Jan | Globe Staff August 11, 2014
WASHINGTON — It was a jarring contrast. Minutes after President Obama solemnly spoke about American airstrikes and the “difficult days ahead” in Iraq, he headed to a home perched atop a bluff in Martha’s Vineyard to charm wealthy donors at a fund-raiser.
The appearance was a reminder that Obama, despite confronting some of the most tumultuous world events of his presidency in recent weeks, is also the leader of a Democratic Party that is increasingly worried about losing its grip on the US Senate.
Who gives a f*** anymore when both parties are run by the same money?
Tickets to Monday’s fund-raiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, held at the home of child-care magnates Roger Brown and Linda Mason, were priced from $15,000 to $32,400.
Can you afford one of those, or does it cost more than you make in a year?
The imperatives of politics are pressing heavily not just on Obama and Democrats, but also Republicans in what is shaping up to be an especially costly and competitive fight for Senate control. The summer fund-raising pause, where politicians traditionally take time to eat corn dogs at state fairs and attend other retail events, barely exists anymore. Instead, candidates are courting donors to fend off attacks from outside groups and intimidate opponents.
Obama has already been mocked by Republicans for his time on the golf course. Monday’s appearance, amid a vacation day that also included time at the beach with his family, gave the GOP another opening, as the party accused Obama and Senate Democrats of a “stunning lack of awareness” and called on them to cancel the event.
“There’s never a good time, probably, to fund-raise, but he’s got to do what he’s got to do for the party,” said Jim Manley, former aide to Senate majority leader Harry Reid and former Senator Edward M. Kennedy. “Presidents can walk and chew gum.”
Obama is also scheduled to host a fund-raiser in Newport, R.I., for House Democrats later this month as well as a Senate fund-raiser a few weeks later in Baltimore.
Monday’s Martha’s Vineyard reception was Obama’s 41st fund-raiser this year and his 400th since taking office, according to Mark Knoller, the CBS News White House correspondent who keeps the most exhaustive records of the president’s schedule. Knoller said the Vineyard event was Obama’s 17th political fund-raiser during 11 visits to Massachusetts since taking office. (Six additional visits to the state did not include fund-raising activities.)
That's his real job.
Brown and Mason, the event’s hosts, are major Democratic contributors. Brown is also president of Berklee College of Music.
Senator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, was also expected to attend Monday’s event. Senator Elizabeth Warren, his fellow Bay State Democrat, attended a separate event for Senate Democrats in Martha’s Vineyard last month but was not planning to attend Monday, according to her spokeswoman, Lacey Rose.
I've got my gripes with here, the least of which is this:
"Warren has often avoided foreign policy issues, sometimes literally. When she was questioned in a hotel lobby last month by the Capitol City Project, a conservative-leaning news website, about her views on the war between Hamas and Israel, she made a beeline down a hallway. In her recent book, “A Fighting Chance,” Warren doesn’t mention Israel or China. She mentions the wars Afghanistan and Iraq, but only to discuss young troops being lured into financial scams."
And that is our populist peace candidate.
And you wonder why I'm sour on all this?
The courting of Democratic and Republican heavy hitters to fill campaign coffers began as soon as Congress broke for the August recess and is continuing all summer long.
The month kicked off with the annual Newport Summer Weekend benefiting Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat. Tickets, at $2,600 per head, included a welcome reception and dinner at historic Newport mansions, as well as entree to the Newport Jazz Festival, according to the invitation posted by the Sunlight Foundation in its compilation of fund-raising events.
Also on the fund-raising docket: a lobster bake for the Maine Democratic Party, a country club golf tournament hosted by the North Dakota Republican Party for Senator John Hoeven, and a Napa weekend winery tour for Representative John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican.
Oh, to be a member of the political cla$$. What fun.
Republican headliners — Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio — are making appearances all month long in Iowa, Illinois, South Carolina, and North Dakota, on behalf of candidates. Their Democratic counterparts — including Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Reid — are touching down in Kent, Conn., and Cherry Hill, N.J. Former president Bill Clinton hosted a luncheon fund-raising in Lexington, Ky., for Alison Lundergan Grimes, who is running against McConnell.
The biggest prize this November is the Senate, where Republicans need six additional seats to gain power. Republicans have become increasingly bold after mainstream candidates and incumbents succeeded in fending off insurgent challengers who complicated the party’s efforts in 2010 and 2012.
Not that it matters, but a fair election will have Republicans sweeping into office because Obama's presidency has been an abysmal failure -- for his own constituents, never mind those that already opposed him.
“I don’t think they have ended up with any of the type of self-destructive candidates that they’ve had in the last two [election] cycles,” said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor of the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter.
--more--"
UPDATE: This time, it’s the Democrats who are united" by Michael A. Cohen
So how is that vacation going?
UPDATE: This time, it’s the Democrats who are united" by Michael A. Cohen
So how is that vacation going?
"Obama vacation punctured by international, domestic strife" by Noah Bierman and Tracy Jan | Globe Staff August 15, 2014
WASHINGTON — Not even a week into his annual Martha’s Vineyard vacation, President Obama has twice had to don a blazer, between rounds of golf, and appear somber-faced in front of live television cameras to address national and foreign crises.
On Thursday, at a school in Edgartown, Obama spent nine minutes speaking about the targeted military strikes in Iraq and the protests in Ferguson, Mo., about the police killing of an unarmed teenager. On Monday, between a trip to the beach and a Democratic fund-raiser, he delivered an unscheduled four-minute speech on Iraq.
That is where the turn-in was, and I stopped reading after that.
I know he's got a golf game to play, unlike last year when he was immobili$ed by world events.
I hope he is paying attention this year. It's not the Vaca Per Se, it just has that same imminent false flag fleeing from 13 years ago.
That does not even account for other major calamities he continues to monitor from the vacation spot: ongoing conflicts in Israel, Syria, and Ukraine, an Ebola outbreak raging in West Africa, and an immigration emergency at the border.
Not the most uplifting, or stress-free, August break, by any standard....
Awwwww!
Well, he brought it on himself with his policies.
Even a birthday party for Obama’s friend, Ann Jordan, became the subject of political intrigue Wednesday because Hillary Clinton showed up.
And she was really mean about it, too.
Days earlier, the former secretary of state had criticized Obama’s foreign policy and the political world was dying to know how awkward the hug between the old rivals would be.
I, obviously, was not.
Obama, like all presidents, has faced criticism for his vacation.
Maybe if he had not said he wouldn't take one he wouldn't be getting criticized. That and the fact that the planet is falling apart and is on fire, mostly thanks to his government.
“Obviously, his staff didn’t think through the impression of announcing air strikes and then to be shown playing golf within a very short time,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton historian who studies presidents. “It’s a hard time to go on vacation when it seems like parts of the world are literally burning.”
Yeah, he is being very ill-served by his staff, and how are those western fires these days?
Like his predecessors, Obama has made a conscious effort to show the world how little time he has for recreation.
After Obama’s remarks in Edgartown on Thursday, the White House press office released a photo of his conversation with Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the Justice Department’s investigation of the police shooting in Ferguson. On Tuesday, he was shown with National Security Advisor Susan Rice in front of a pair of telephones. His sleeves were rolled, and he appeared deep in thought, with two fingers pressed against his temple. Rice wore a jogging suit.
“The president is never on vacation, and what’s happening right now proves that,” said Stephanie Cutter, a former adviser to the president.
Often, of course, presidents throughout recent history dealt with crises during supposed downtime.
President Reagan was vacationing at his California ranch in 1983, at the height of the Cold War, when a Soviet fighter jet struck down Korean Air Lines Flight 007. After initially resisting, Reagan flew back to the Capitol only after his staff urged him to, for public appearance’s sake, Zelizer said.
George W. Bush’s vacation on his Texas ranch was interrupted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While vacationing on the Vineyard in 1998, President Clinton ordered a strike on Al Qaeda.
On the flip side, Zelizer said, a president, by canceling a vacation, could amplify the sense of crisis.
“He’d face criticism, holed up in the White House like Jimmy Carter, for having no control of the situation,” Zelizer said. By leaving for a scheduled break, he said, the president sends the signal that “I have everything covered from here.”
Yeah, he's in control even if he is not. I feel better already.
Mixing pleasure with business can also lead to criticism, if not handled deftly. The second President Bush appeared insensitive when, vacationing at his parents’ Maine retreat in August 2002, he stood at a tee at the Cape Arundel Golf Club and railed against “terrorist killers’’ in the Middle East. Then, barely missing a beat, he turned with his golf club and told reporters, “Now watch this drive.’’
He gave up golf the following year.
Obama is scheduled to leave the Vineyard on Sunday, attend a couple of days of White House meetings, and on Tuesday resume his vacation, which he is scheduled to continue until the following Sunday. His office also has released a steady stream of descriptions of his calls to world leaders — the presidents of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ukraine, and the prime ministers of Turkey, Israel, Iraq, and Canada.
“So I think, as many have observed over the past few days, there’s never a perfect time for the President to take some time away with his family,” Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told reporters Wednesday. “But I think we can also all agree that it’s valuable to recharge your batteries.”
There is something to that, I suppose.
Turmoil has punctured the president’s island retreat in the past. Last summer, he was interrupted just once — when Egypt’s military overthrew the country’s first democratically elected president. In 2011, the day he departed the Vineyard, he appeared on live television urging Americans to hunker down for the impending Hurricane Irene.
Kennedy’s 2009 funeral might have been the most personally difficult interruption to an Obama vacation, but the president hardly shrunk from the responsibility to eulogize his political mentor in Boston.
He and his wife, Michelle, left early from Martha’s Vineyard on a Friday night to avoid a tropical depression, then the president walked through light rain through the Back Bay that Saturday morning to meet privately with Kennedy’s widow, Victoria, before the funeral. After delivering the eulogy in Roxbury, he returned to Martha’s Vineyard for a final full day on the island.
Obama’s Hawaiian Christmas plans have also been curtailed. In 2012, he cut his holidays short to address the ongoing “fiscal cliff” negotiations in Washington — then returned to the islands on New Year’s Day, just 45 minutes after Congress ushered through a bill.
Obama’s small traveling staff of close advisers had daily 3 a.m. calls with security advisers in Washington during his 2009 Hawaiian holiday after a failed attempt by a terrorist to ignite an underwear bomb on a plane.
Obama had been preparing to go snorkeling with his family when he decided to address the country, Burton said.
“He suited up, attended to his statement, delivered it, and then was off,” Burton said.
--more--"
Look who is NOT getting any time off:
WASHINGTON — Not even a week into his annual Martha’s Vineyard vacation, President Obama has twice had to don a blazer, between rounds of golf, and appear somber-faced in front of live television cameras to address national and foreign crises.
On Thursday, at a school in Edgartown, Obama spent nine minutes speaking about the targeted military strikes in Iraq and the protests in Ferguson, Mo., about the police killing of an unarmed teenager. On Monday, between a trip to the beach and a Democratic fund-raiser, he delivered an unscheduled four-minute speech on Iraq.
That is where the turn-in was, and I stopped reading after that.
I know he's got a golf game to play, unlike last year when he was immobili$ed by world events.
I hope he is paying attention this year. It's not the Vaca Per Se, it just has that same imminent false flag fleeing from 13 years ago.
That does not even account for other major calamities he continues to monitor from the vacation spot: ongoing conflicts in Israel, Syria, and Ukraine, an Ebola outbreak raging in West Africa, and an immigration emergency at the border.
Not the most uplifting, or stress-free, August break, by any standard....
Awwwww!
Well, he brought it on himself with his policies.
Even a birthday party for Obama’s friend, Ann Jordan, became the subject of political intrigue Wednesday because Hillary Clinton showed up.
And she was really mean about it, too.
Days earlier, the former secretary of state had criticized Obama’s foreign policy and the political world was dying to know how awkward the hug between the old rivals would be.
I, obviously, was not.
Obama, like all presidents, has faced criticism for his vacation.
Maybe if he had not said he wouldn't take one he wouldn't be getting criticized. That and the fact that the planet is falling apart and is on fire, mostly thanks to his government.
“Obviously, his staff didn’t think through the impression of announcing air strikes and then to be shown playing golf within a very short time,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton historian who studies presidents. “It’s a hard time to go on vacation when it seems like parts of the world are literally burning.”
Yeah, he is being very ill-served by his staff, and how are those western fires these days?
Like his predecessors, Obama has made a conscious effort to show the world how little time he has for recreation.
After Obama’s remarks in Edgartown on Thursday, the White House press office released a photo of his conversation with Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the Justice Department’s investigation of the police shooting in Ferguson. On Tuesday, he was shown with National Security Advisor Susan Rice in front of a pair of telephones. His sleeves were rolled, and he appeared deep in thought, with two fingers pressed against his temple. Rice wore a jogging suit.
“The president is never on vacation, and what’s happening right now proves that,” said Stephanie Cutter, a former adviser to the president.
Often, of course, presidents throughout recent history dealt with crises during supposed downtime.
President Reagan was vacationing at his California ranch in 1983, at the height of the Cold War, when a Soviet fighter jet struck down Korean Air Lines Flight 007. After initially resisting, Reagan flew back to the Capitol only after his staff urged him to, for public appearance’s sake, Zelizer said.
George W. Bush’s vacation on his Texas ranch was interrupted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While vacationing on the Vineyard in 1998, President Clinton ordered a strike on Al Qaeda.
On the flip side, Zelizer said, a president, by canceling a vacation, could amplify the sense of crisis.
“He’d face criticism, holed up in the White House like Jimmy Carter, for having no control of the situation,” Zelizer said. By leaving for a scheduled break, he said, the president sends the signal that “I have everything covered from here.”
Yeah, he's in control even if he is not. I feel better already.
Mixing pleasure with business can also lead to criticism, if not handled deftly. The second President Bush appeared insensitive when, vacationing at his parents’ Maine retreat in August 2002, he stood at a tee at the Cape Arundel Golf Club and railed against “terrorist killers’’ in the Middle East. Then, barely missing a beat, he turned with his golf club and told reporters, “Now watch this drive.’’
He gave up golf the following year.
Obama is scheduled to leave the Vineyard on Sunday, attend a couple of days of White House meetings, and on Tuesday resume his vacation, which he is scheduled to continue until the following Sunday. His office also has released a steady stream of descriptions of his calls to world leaders — the presidents of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ukraine, and the prime ministers of Turkey, Israel, Iraq, and Canada.
“So I think, as many have observed over the past few days, there’s never a perfect time for the President to take some time away with his family,” Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told reporters Wednesday. “But I think we can also all agree that it’s valuable to recharge your batteries.”
There is something to that, I suppose.
Turmoil has punctured the president’s island retreat in the past. Last summer, he was interrupted just once — when Egypt’s military overthrew the country’s first democratically elected president. In 2011, the day he departed the Vineyard, he appeared on live television urging Americans to hunker down for the impending Hurricane Irene.
Kennedy’s 2009 funeral might have been the most personally difficult interruption to an Obama vacation, but the president hardly shrunk from the responsibility to eulogize his political mentor in Boston.
He and his wife, Michelle, left early from Martha’s Vineyard on a Friday night to avoid a tropical depression, then the president walked through light rain through the Back Bay that Saturday morning to meet privately with Kennedy’s widow, Victoria, before the funeral. After delivering the eulogy in Roxbury, he returned to Martha’s Vineyard for a final full day on the island.
Obama’s Hawaiian Christmas plans have also been curtailed. In 2012, he cut his holidays short to address the ongoing “fiscal cliff” negotiations in Washington — then returned to the islands on New Year’s Day, just 45 minutes after Congress ushered through a bill.
Obama’s small traveling staff of close advisers had daily 3 a.m. calls with security advisers in Washington during his 2009 Hawaiian holiday after a failed attempt by a terrorist to ignite an underwear bomb on a plane.
Obama had been preparing to go snorkeling with his family when he decided to address the country, Burton said.
“He suited up, attended to his statement, delivered it, and then was off,” Burton said.
--more--"
Look who is NOT getting any time off:
"Nearly 1 in 4 US workers go without paid time off" by Katie Johnston | Globe Staff August 14, 2014
Every summer, coworkers around the country ask each other the same exhilarating question: “Where are you going on vacation?”
But many of them aren’t going anywhere — not because they don’t want to, but because they can’t.
Nearly a quarter of the American private-sector workforce, some 26 million workers, doesn’t get paid time off, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — compared with less than one-fifth in the 1990s. The United States is the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation and one of only 13 countries in the world not to do so, according to the World Policy Analysis Center at the University of California Los Angeles.
But we still are the greatest nation on earth, even with the plantation mentality.
In this regard, the United States falls in line with India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and a handful of island nations that don’t require employers to offer workers paid time off.
Quite a grouping, huh?
France, on the other hand, mandates 30 paid vacation days a year for all workers; Scandinavian countries offer 25. US citizens in Puerto Rico get three weeks off a year....
That's old Europe and a separate Carribean country (I know it is not, readers; U.S. annexed it, if I can use that word outside of Russia and Crimea, but the United States early in the last century).
--more--"
