The Hollywood Liberal

July jobs report renews concerns over a stalled recovery
The nation’s economic recovery continued to sputter in July as employers kept shedding jobs and 181,000 discouraged workers dropped out of the labor force, according to a government report released Friday.


Employment – United States – Unemployment – Job Search – United States Economy

RNC adopts new 2012 presidential primary schedule
KANSAS CITY, MO. — The Republican National Committee adopted a new schedule for the 2012 presidential primaries Friday, agreeing to a plan worked out in concert with Democrats and designed to delay the start of the campaign season.


United States – New Hampshire – Government – Elections – President

Democrats invoke Bush to get support from voters for midterm elections
As they brace for a difficult fall election, dispirited Democrats hoping to get back some of that 2008 magic are turning to the president for inspiration.



George W. Bush – United States midterm election – President – United States – Democratic

Jobs report puts a damper on Obama’s effort to keep the message positive
President Obama spent much of the week harvesting bits of good news from some of his short- and longer-term initiatives.


Barack Obama – President – United States – History – Government

Tim Pawlenty’s Restrained 2012 Plunge
Scott Conroy, RealClearPolitics
As he explores a potential presidential run, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has been branded with the “too conventional” label so many times that it's already become a cliché. But Pawlenty insists he's not as boring as many pundits have made him out to be.”I think if people get to know me better, it's just not true,” the second-term Republican said in a phone interview with RealClearPolitics between meetings in St. Paul. “But the other response I have is: compared to who? There may be some more people who are dramatically more entertaining, but…

Grateful to Truman for Dropping the Big One
Paul Kengor, Pittsburgh PG
This week marks 65 years since the United States dropped the atomic bomb. On Aug. 6, 1945, President Harry Truman delivered a “rain of ruin” upon Hiroshima, Japan, with Nagasaki hit three days later, killing 100,000 to 200,000 people.Truman's objective was to compel surrender from an intransigent enemy that refused to halt its naked aggression. The barbarous mentality of 1940s Japan was beyond belief. An entire nation had lost its mind, consumed by a ferocious militarism and hellbent on suicide. Facing such fanaticism, Truman felt no alternative but to use the bomb. As…

Conservative Fantasy & the Missouri Vote
Jonathan Chait, New Republic
On Tuesday, Missouri held a referendum on the individual mandate, and it went down with a resounding 70% of the vote. Conservatives have responded with a bout of crowing (see, for instance, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, among many others.) Now, it's certainly true, and has always been true, that the individual mandate, once a bipartisan notion and still defended by poor Mitt Romney, is the least popular aspect of the Affordable Care Act and provokes bipartisan opposition. (Many other aspects are quite popular.)But let me raise a few points that have not come up in…

Justice Adrift Under Obama
Mark Greenbaum, Philadelphia Inquirer
When Barack Obama was elected, there were many questions about how he would govern and which reforms he would pursue. Yet there was little doubt that the former law professor would bring immediate and dramatic change to the White House's approach to legal affairs and the Justice Department.A year and a half later, this assumption appears to have been wrong. The president remains puzzlingly aloof, uninterested, and indecisive on legal issues, and the Justice Department has been one of the administration's most unproductive and arguably dysfunctional agencies.