standing with the president

Jim Messina

On Tuesday night, President Obama delivered his third State of the Union address, laying out a blueprint for an America that’s built to last—where everyone gets a fair shake and does their fair share.

What’s at stake between now and November couldn’t be clearer. We’re fighting for a future that rewards hard work and responsibility, not recklessness, and where everyone has an opportunity to get ahead if they try.

If those are the kind of values you want to see in this country, too, add your name to say you’re standing with the President today.

- Jim Messina, Campaign Manager at Obama for America

In a nutshell, last night’s State of the Union address by President Barack Obama took up the populist banner and told Republicans “Game on!” For months we’ve endured the Republican primary, as would-be GOP contenders talk trash (much of it untrue) about the Obama administration, so it’s nice to hear a rational response.

He’s been a little busy, but now that we’re officially in an election year, we can expect to see a little more of the “Campaigner-in-Chief”. In his speech, Obama took on the deadbeat Congress with a consistent refrain: put a bill on my desk, and I will sign it. He also addressed his proposed “Buffett Rule” which would require millionaires to pay at least 30% in taxes. “Now, you can call this class warfare all you want,” the president said. “But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.”

Whether the Republicans nominate Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney, they already know they face a formidable opponent. Try as they may to paint him as out of touch, Obama’s message is much more in tune with the sentiments of the American public. People intrinsically understand that in a fair America, people like Romney would pay taxes at a higher rate than 15%. Americans understand that failed conservative policies helped get us into this mess, and it will take a real progressive leader like Barack Obama to set us back on track.

gold statues for everyone!

It’s time for the Oscars! That’s right, the nominees were announced today for the 84th Academy Awards to be held Feb. 26.

All of our favorite stars and Hollywood’s elite will be in attendance to find out which films were voted best of 2011.

In an incredibly indecisive move by the Academy, nine films are now vying for the top honor of the night, the award for Best Picture.

Best Picture Nominees

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

Some are already taking issue with the nominees. Extremely Loud was critically panned and some have expressed “mixed feelings” about The Help. (The Academy has a long history of racial prejudice as it is.)   Meanwhile, while we did get nine nominations from the Academy, they still left out quite a few good movies made in 2011. I did my best to monitor my Twitter stream today for tweets about films which people felt got snubbed. Some of these spurned titles included Young Adult, Bridesmaids, The Ides of March and the final installment of the Harry Potter franchise.

Also notably nominated is Meryl Streep, up for an Oscar for the 17th time of her career for her role as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Iron Lady has received its fair share of criticism, though, with some pointing to Thatcher’s hard-line conservative policies and others calling the film “surprisingly sexist” in its portrayal of the world leader.

The Academy Awards take place live Feb. 26 on ABC. While we’re all in anticipation of Hollywood’s biggest night, do you have any predictions about who will take home Oscar gold?

the facts about obama’s energy record

The Obama campaign has released its first political ad of 2012 – “The Facts About President Obama’s Energy Record“. The ad credits Obama with reducing our dependence on foreign oil and rapidly expanding jobs in the clean energy industry, as well as toughening ethics rules. It also cites fact-checkers who say attacks on Obama are “not tethered to the facts” and are funded by “secretive oil billionaires”.

This is gearing up to be an incredibly important presidential election season. If you want to join 1.3 million Americans who have donated to Obama’s campaign so far, contribute today. The president needs grassroots supporters like you to beat the GOP in November – can you help?

if you hate freedom, you’ll love SOPA

So, if you used the internet at all yesterday, I’m sure you noticed major websites like Wikipedia, Google, WordPress, Craigslist and thousands of others were participating in the largest online protest in history.

In case you missed what they were protesting, here’s a quick rundown. Congress is  currently considering two pieces of legislation: H.R. 3261, also known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and its companion in the Senate, S. 968, or the Protect IP Act (PIPA). These laws would give the U.S. government unprecedented control over the internet. (Unless you include China, North Korea and Iran as precedents.) Watch the video below for a summary of why these bills are so dangerous to the internet as we know it.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Sites each participated in the protest in their own ways. Google, for instance, censored their signature logo on their home page and linked to a petition that spread like wildfire across social channels like Facebook and Twitter. Wikipedia took it a step further and actually “blacked out” all of its English content (except for articles on censorship, SOPA, and PIPA) in an attempt to demonstrate what the web would look like without access to the user-generated online encyclopedia.

It’s really mind-boggling to me that Congress can’t see past their special interests on this issue. Anyone with half a brain would oppose SOPA and PIPA. These awful acts would completely rock the landscape of the internet today, and had they been in place in previous years, some of the most important websites of today may have never even existed.

It’s heartening, though, to see the internet rise up against these bills with a unified voice. I haven’t seen my Facebook or Twitter timelines this singularly focused in a very long time. It seems that everywhere I turned online, people were talking about SOPA and PIPA. I was also receiving texts and emails about it, and ever overheard multiple tables discussing the bills when out to dinner last night.

Amid today’s web blackout, the legislation began losing key congressional support. With historically low approval ratings, I’m not surprised that SOPA’s former supporters are buckling their knees for overwhelming public opinion. Even Texas’ very own Sen. John Cornyn appeared to withdraw his support of the bill when he took to Facebook to argue that PIPA needed “a more thoughtful, deliberative process” and should not be rammed through the Senate.

Still supporting the bill? Aside from its hypocritical author, Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, its other biggest proponent has been Chris “Bought and Paid For” Dodd, former U.S. senator from Connecticut and current CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Dodd used to be a well-respected legislator, but now he’s little more than a corporate shill and a sad reminder that the Democrats are still beholden to Hollywood’s deep pockets.

If you’re against online censorship, please take action. The protests mean nothing if we don’t call Congress and let them know what we think. Please take a few minutes to contact your representative and senators and let them know you’re a constituent who opposes SOPA and PIPA.

mountains beyond mountains

Arcade Fire has released the new video for “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” from their Grammy-winning album The Suburbs. The clip stars band member Régine Chassagne. Also be sure to check out the interactive video at Sprawl2.com.