Looks like the suits will get their Christmas bonuses:
U.S. gave up billions in tax money in deal for Citigroup’s bailout repayment
“The government is consciously forfeiting future tax revenues. It’s another form of assistance, maybe not as obvious as direct assistance but certainly another form,” said Robert Willens, an expert on tax accounting who runs a firm of the same name. “I’ve been doing taxes for almost 40 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this, where the IRS and Treasury acted unilaterally on so many fronts.”
Will your Christmas be merry?:
Trying to ease fears of lawmakers worried that Congress has not done enough to create new jobs, the House was expected to pass a plan that would redirect $75 billion from the bank bailout fund to pay for infrastructure projects around the county as well as help states and cities retain and hire emergency personnel and teachers. The measure would also pay for another four months of safety-net programs like unemployment benefits and food stamps.
House Democrats, clearly frustrated at the pace of business in the Senate, said they hoped the measure would become law next year.
Good thing that McSame guy didn’t win, huh?:
For close to a year now, the Obama administration has been playing judicial Whac-a-Mole over accountability for Bush administration torture policies. Each time an opportunity arises to assess the legality of Bush-era torture, the Obama administration shuts it down. When another case pops up, the administration slaps it down. This all started last February when the Justice Department invoked the alarming “states secrets” privilege in an effort to shut down an ACLU lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. for its role in Bush’s “extraordinary rendition” program.
Obama administration to buy Illinois prison for Guantanamo detainees
A state prison in rural Thomson will be purchased and refitted to house dozens of terrorism suspects now held at Guantanamo Bay, the administration announced. But Obama immediately drew criticism that revealed just how controversial the issue remains.
[...]
Civil liberties groups, while embracing the goal of closing Guantanamo Bay, said the administration would be wrong to move prisoners to the heartland without charging them with a crime.“If Thomson will be used to facilitate their lawful prosecution, then this is truly a positive step,” said Joanne Mariner, counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch. If not, “President Obama will simply have moved Guantanamo to Illinois.”
Oral Roberts, Fiery Preacher, Dies at 91
He was the patriarch of the “prosperity gospel,” a theology that promotes the idea that Christians who pray and donate with sufficient fervency will be rewarded with health, wealth and happiness.
He put the “fund” in fundamentalist
Cable isn’t ready to choose between Frye and Russell
Maybe Raiders coach Tom Cable is in denial, or simply can’t bear the thought of playing without quarterback Bruce Gradkowski.
Whatever the case, Cable could not bring himself to name a replacement starter for Sunday’s game at Denver.
He’d rather wait until Wednesday, when he can be absolutely certain Gradkowski cannot play on two bad knees, before choosing between unseated starter JaMarcus Russell and No. 3 quarterback Charlie Frye.
And yes, Frye is just as much in the mix as Russell, the 2007 No. 1 overall draft pick who went from arm-of-the-franchise to this in a single season.
(Russell gave himself a solid B+)
It’s not quite 4 am out here in Big Smoggy and it’s darker than Dick Cheney’s heart outside. I’m going back to bed, so if I missed anything you back-easters can add the links in the comments while I sleep. See you in the morning!
Filed under: General
Things are really getting bad. Santa’s apparently got an Elf revolt on his hands:
http://news.aol.com/article/elf-jailed-over-alleged-dynamite-hoax-at/798609
He strangely looks the part too.
I’m bringing the McCain-Cantwell story up here for morning links, hope that’s ok–
Would be a smart move for the Republicans. But don’t know how much McCain knows about banking. Maybe they’re just floating a balloon. Glad Cantwell is in there and she’s not even a Blue Dog. Romney is someone who knows about banking. He should be asked now to take a position on too big to fail. It will obviously matter for 2012. In fact, all prospective candidates should be asked now to take a position on big banking.
You don’t have to know a lot about banking to understand that we need Glass-Steagall back.
Banks, which have the FDIC guarantee backing them, should not be allowed to speculate and gamble with the full faith and credit of the US Treasury behind them.
Glass-Steagall didn’t stop them from speculating if they so wished. What it did was create a firewall. They could create an entirely separate entity, with no backing from the taxpayer, no mixing of funds, and gamble away to their heart’s content if they wished. Have at it, and make a bundle or lose it all. But not with OUR money. If those speculative ventures blew up, it had zero effect on banking as a whole.
If someone could EXPLAIN that in simple terms to the People, before the neocons and Dem bankster-buddies muddy the water with incomprehensible bullshit, the People would demand that the firewall be reinstated.
Bernanke named Time’s Person of the Year. That’s it. I’m gonna start printing my own money in the basement.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1946375_1947251,00.html
Bernanke was named the number 1 global thinker on FP’s Top 100 Global Thinkers list, too. Obama was number 2. Bill and Hillary were sixth.
Dick Cheney was number 12.
For anyone interested, Max Keiser show wil be especially entertaining this week after Bernanke is named man of year. Can see the smoke rising from our native lands right now.
Foreign Policy’s two paragraphs on Obama seem full of contradictions. It seems like another case of premature celebration.
This less flattering piece also suggests a dichotomy: “O’Connor: Is Obama a half-term president or a political genius?”
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-12-14/politics-city-county-government/politics-opinion/oconnor-is-obama-a-half-term-president-or-a-political-genius
Right now I see Obama as a dithering savant. He’s got the brains and knowledge, but when he doesn’t use them to benefit the country that employs him, no kudos!
Honestly, I think that Obama’s supposed intellect is just more myth manufactured by the Obamaganda machine. As I’ve said before, the obots who claim he is playing 11D chess are giving the man 10 dimensions too many.
I agree that any genius is in his ability to self-promote. But I do think he is intelligent. Intelligence is not an indicator of wisdom, competence or goodwill.
Well, he’s smarter than GW, but so is the average doorknob.
It’s not enough to be intelligent. You have to use that intelligence well. Tricky Dick, on the basis of raw IQ numbers, was probably one of our most intelligent Presidents. Obama’s probably several points short of that in smarts, but close on ill-will.
Both Clintons have the raw intellect and to spare. But they also have the determination to use it well, for the good of country and people. On the second measure, Obama’s not even on the same scale with them.
Yes, gxm17, I haven’t seen any proof of his brains/intellect. Please don’t bring up Harvard. I’m not sure how he got there.
It roasts my chestnuts that he was given the number two spot and is followed by Hillary and Bill. He is not even in their league…
Legacy student same as GWB, GetFit. His father went there.
I just put up a new post about this … yall can bash away at me
http://www.politico.com/livepulse/1209/Nelson_.html
Nelson and his dead skunk hairpiece need to go back to Omaha. The last thing we need is that idiot putting his force women to have babies so I can adopt them attitude.
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/15/president-obama-tells-bald-faced-lie-about-health-care-reform-cost-control/
Frozen Jack just cracked me up!
Kinda hilarious…. why did Arianna take a picture of Hillary’s portrait (scroll to the end)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/15/ariannas-white-house-chri_n_393343.html
So she could print it and throw darts at it?
Wish the mainstream media would take a closer look at the ex-Republican faux-Liberal backgrounds of people like Arianna, Sullivan, Markos, and the rest. Because if they are being honest, they may not mind at all what the administration is doing. I haven’t seen them go off on any big anti banking rants. They need to be labeled with a scary name, like “neo-cons,” but for their smarmy “progressiveness” which sounds all hopeful and granola like. Anti Bush Republican is what they really are. And maybe BO is too.
Arianna does banking rants, but she’s still a phony.
ITA. I noticed back in the primaries that many of the O-crowd sounded like rightwingers. The Democratic Party was taken over by Republicans. These a$$hats have no right to claim they speak for the left. They never have. And they never will.
I’m going to start calling them PINOs, as in the wine..or whine.
Speaking of Santa, here’s a Xmas classic; maybe a little NSFW due to oblique drug reference and brief backside nudity.
Just telling it like it is!
In response to “lying article” at FDL.
I am at work and can not link. there is a story at newscred.com about traffic lights with the new energy efficient light bulbs do not get warm enough to melt snow and are causing accidents.
I thought it fit in here with the winter theme.
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
The Oral story reminded me of this one:
From a poster on Hillaryis44, Dr. Dean pissed them off:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/HealthCare/howard-dean-health-care-bill-bigger-bailout-insurance/story?id=9349392
Bigger bailout for insurance industry than AIG.
Decisions are being made about the long-term future of this country for short-term political reasons.
Those are true statements, but Dean sold this mess and is only coming out against it when there is no chance of defeating it. Doesn’t pass the smell test.
Just great, that you lose you job because the Banksters wrecked the economy and end up collecting unemployment compensation isn’t bad enough.
You have to pay taxes on that compensation, taxes that go to the bailout funds that pay these guys bonuses and the salaries of the legislators that wrote the bill that allowed the Banksters to get away with this then bail them out.
Ain’t America grand?
Don’t you wish you could bail to a saner country?
In banking news, Denninger has uncovered this little tidbit. Remember how the One keeps touting how we are being “paid back” on TARP?
Hopenchange and 3 card Monte, suckahs.
http://market-ticker.org/archives/1736-Treasury-Handed-Out-38-Billon-Tax-Exemption.html
Doesn’t this just become unsustainable at some point? Who is protecting the people?
Probably. And as far as I can tell, no one. But the Big Boyz likely already have bags packed, private planes, and a ranch in Paraguay to retreat to when the pitchforks and torches come out.
OOps, sorry myiq – I see you posted something on this above. Need to have my second coffee before I read, or I miss stuff.
we now find out that at the same time he was “touting” the so-called “profits” The President was handing that money straight back to the bailed-out companies via tax breaks!
What’s really amazing is how stunningly stupid someone has to be to be taken by surprise. What part of he’s completely owned by the finance/insurance industries do they not understand. What part of he’s dubya 2 do they not understand.
This just in: turns out after all those years in Chicago, rubbing shoulders with liberals, radicals, and even socialists, he was playing them too. Um, duh.
Well, there are socialists and then there are socialists. Any system can be used as a tool and gamed to favor a select few. And economic justice is KEWL so long as we the best and brightest remain on top of the heap, far above the peons, managing it all for you and creating a little extra “justice” for our hangers on and lackeys.
That’s the brand of “socialism” Obama learned in Chicago.
I want to know who owned that Illinois prison that the Federal govt bought. It couldn’t be somebody or someone related to the Obama Chicago Cabal, could it? I remember when John Murtha offered up an area in PA as a site for Guantanamo prisoners….that idea was quashed. But all of a sudden an Illinois prison is bought by Federal Govt. Somethings smells big time… as always. I wonder which 0bama cohort will profit the most from this little deal. I guess only Chicago gets to have a stimulus that actually creates a couple of jobs. Not counting the fact that these prisoners have had no trial or their day in court. I guess it is more like a concentration camp than a prison.
The prison is owned by the State of Illinois.
Nah, you don’t look at the actual ownership – you look at the contracts. Who gets the contracts to run it, to supply it, to update it, to maintain it, etc? That’s usually where the pols do their dirty work, nothing so obvious as the name on the deed.
Well, since our super-duper, expensive prison (I’m from Illinois) has been closed for several years, I don’t think anyone who was involved in servicing contracts previously is necessarily in the running for a Federal gambit.
What I found far more interesting is that the Ozero focused on Illinois for a prison location. I’ve noticed that, since Obama became president, every formerly reliable Illinois liberal, from Jan Schakowsky to Dick Durbin, has dumped her/his previous liberal stances in order to support whatever Obama wants. It’s clear to me that either IL pols have been told that either they support Obama or their futures are toast. Dick Durbin voting against drug re-importation? Never would have happened without pressure from Obama.
Bottom line, I think the big zero looked for the one place where he could still apply political pressure, and that was Illinois.
Ah yes, I admire your tinfoiliness WMCB. And I’m in a betting mood, so I’ll put my money on Jarrett. Sure, Obama just happened to choose Illinois out of the blue sky. No reason, no reason at all…
Don’t expect too much push back from the media. All I heard this morning was what a wonderful time the reporters and talking heads had at The Whitehouse Christmas Party last night. Question: Was FOX invited?
According to a quick Google search, yes.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/mediaite-caption-contest-roger-ailes-and-rachel-maddow-converse-at-white-house/#more-57674
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091216032720AAe55Cw
Ben Bernanke??? For shit’s sake!!!
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/bernanke-and-the-cover-curse/?src=twt&twt=NytimesKrugman
Oh. My. God.
And Obama is going to be pissed too. After all, he won the Nobel War Prize.
Michael Barone’s column in the Washington Examiner today is about dems leaving congress. In the bottom paragraph he quotes what Michael Capuano learned on the campaign and told the democratic causus ” your screwed”.
Maybe they are starting to get the message that the New democratic party is going nowhere.
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
I liked that quote, helen:
Yup. Destroy the Dem brand, anyone? They are screwed in 2010. We told them so.
I understand Capuano is somewhat infamous for his rhetoric. This time, it appears, he was able to limit himself to the essentials.
Did he mean the Democrat Party is screwed or the Democrat Machine?
Cupauno was the Machine candidate and was rejected.
Same thing, anymore.
I have the link about Capuano below.
We interrupt the bashing of Lieberman for these words of common sense
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/feingold-dont-blame-lieberman-blame-obama/
I heard that Pelosi was on the short list for Time person of the year. She will be not happy to lose out to Ben. But better Ben than BO, or Timmy or any of a dozen other a$$hats. Ben does not rankle me. I rather like him.
Greenwald on lack of will from squanderer-in-chief.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/12/16/white_house/index.html
lol Flin–we posted the link at the exact same time
White House as helpless victim on health care
Glenn Greenwald
Of all the posts I wrote this year, the one that produced the most vociferious email backlash — easily — was this one from August, which examined substantial evidence showing that, contrary to Obama’s occasional public statements in support of a public option, the White House clearly intended from the start that the final health care reform bill would contain no such provision and was actively and privately participating in efforts to shape a final bill without it. From the start, assuaging the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was a central preoccupation of the White House — hence the deal negotiated in strict secrecy with Pharma to ban bulk price negotiations and drug reimportation, a blatant violation of both Obama’s campaign positions on those issues and his promise to conduct all negotiations out in the open (on C-SPAN).
As was painfully predictable all along, the final bill will not have any form of public option, nor will it include the wildly popular expansion of Medicare coverage. Obama supporters are eager to depict the White House as nothing more than a helpless victim in all of this — the President so deeply wanted a more progressive bill but was sadly thwarted in his noble efforts by those inhumane, corrupt Congressional “centrists.” Right. The evidence was overwhelming from the start that the White House was not only indifferent, but opposed, to the provisions most important to progressives. The administration is getting the bill which they, more or less, wanted from the start — the one that is a huge boon to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry.
Let’s repeat that: “This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place.” Indeed it does. There are rational, practical reasons why that might be so. If you’re interested in preserving and expanding political power, then, all other things being equal, it’s better to have the pharmaceutical and health insurance industry on your side than opposed to you. Or perhaps they calculated from the start that this was the best bill they could get. The wisdom of that rationale can be debated, but depicting Obama as the impotent progressive victim here of recalcitrant, corrupt centrists is really too much to bear.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/12/16/white_house/index.html
I can’t help but thing that had it been Obama instead of Eisenhower then Lyndon Johnson desegregating schools and pushing Civil Rights legislation that AA’s would still be second class citizens.
From Yes We Can, to No He Can’t in less than a year. Boo hoo hoo.
The real mantra from the B0 WH is We Don’t Want To, So Tough.
New Health Vote Math Gets Worse For Reid
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/12/15/health-vote-math-now-worse-for-reid-lieberman-positive-but-som/http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/12/15/health-vote-math-now-worse-for-reid-lieberman-positive-but-som/
—
Weiner: Senate bill getting worse
Washington (CNN) – Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner is frustrated with the course health care reform legislation in the Senate is taking, telling CNN the “bill has certainly gotten worse.”
But the liberal lawmaker from New York, on CNN’s American Morning Wednesday, said “I’m not prepared to say that we should throw out the whole process.”
Weiner, a six-term congressman who represents a district in New York City, says “what Governor Deans has said is not wrong.
Weiner adds that he reserves to right to join Dean “at the end of the day.”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/16/weiner-senate-bill-getting-worse/?eref=ib_politicalticker
Ok to link Jane? (Let me know so I will abide by RD’s protocol going forward.) This is an honest accounting:
Time To Hold Progressives In Congress To Their Promise
By Jane Hamsher
And so here we are. And we’re going to get to see if the progressive members of the House will stand by their word to hold the line, or if — as always seems to happen — they are going to “dive” in sufficient numbers to make sure that the corporatist agenda gets fulfilled. Are they going to pretend that Joe Lieberman has all the power in the party, too, and that they have none?
Because if the won’t, we’ll get to see that “good intentions” are just the public face of deep criminality and they’re really just there to hold down safe Democratic seats in order to deliver what PhRMA wants in the end.
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/15/time-to-hold-progressives-in-congress-to-their-promise/
Why should Democrat legislators fly in the face of their standard bearer?
This in not like when they would stab former President Bill Clinton in the back over proposed legislation, in this case they are going with the flow, Jane.
Something you would have foreseen had you not got that kool-ade powder in your eyes.
Are they seriously not getting that Obama and the Democrats have been passing the Hot Potato (i.e. the responsibility for the dropping of “liberal” healthcare ideas) and Lieberman willingly held it?
willingly held it for them
I should add that I think Jane’s intentions are in the right place, but my point was that the progressives in general have had the WRONG strategy. This WH enjoys being perceived as at odds with “the left of the left” — not for the sake of advancing policy, but for the sake of appearing “bipartisan.”
The two faces of O
In public, President Obama is on a tear against Wall Street. In private, not so much.
But the president’s meeting yesterday with the CEOs of the largest banks was nearly a lovefest, I’m told by attendees.
Said one CEO who attended: “I expected to be taken to the woodshed, but the tone was quite the opposite.”
Said another senior exec with knowledge of the meeting: “The whole thing was so telegraphed that not much was accomplished, other than giving Obama a PR stunt . . . He might have sounded mean on ’60 Minutes,’ but during the meeting he was a hell of a lot nicer.”
Maybe Obama’s softened tone was recognition of Wall Street’s election help. Campaign-finance filings show that firms like Goldman — now getting ready to dish out $20 billion in bonuses after nearly imploding last year — favored Obama over John McCain by a fairly wide margin. Nearly all the major Wall Street CEOs — including Dimon, Blankfein and Mack — have told people that they voted for Obama.
But the ultimate culprit for the fact that these guys are raking it in while the rest of the nation suffers isn’t Blankfein or the Wall Streeters at yesterday’s meeting — it’s their enablers in government, including the man in the White House.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_two_faces_of_oTswtJpCjQusQCFCMdiluJ
Gee, they’re not even pretending they got a whipping. I guess this is the transparency we were promised.
Don’t worry, according to Daniel—everything’s coming up roses!
Jobs Are on the Way! The pessimists are wrong.
By Daniel Gross
http://www.slate.com/id/2238099/
& lastly, Capuano tells his House colleagues the ugly truth:
Rep. Capuano Tells Fellow Dems: ‘You’re Screwed’
When House Democrats gathered on Friday for their end-of-the week caucus meeting in the basement of the Capitol, caucus chairman John Larson (D-Conn.) told the group he wanted them to hear first from Rep. Michael Capuano, who’d just returned from a primary campaign for the Senate seat in Massachusetts vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy.
Larson asked Capuano, who finished in second place, to share the wisdom he learned on the campaign trail.
Capuano took to the microphone, looked out at his colleagues and condensed what he’d learned into two words. “You’re screwed,” he told his friends in the House, according to one attendee. The room’s silence was broken only by soft, nervous laughter.
“I think I was just confirming stuff they already knew,” he said. “I focused on two things: the war in Afghanistan and jobs.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/15/rep-capuano-tells-fellow_n_392685.html
Let Capuano’s fate in Massachusetts serve as a warning to the rest of the Coat Hanger Democrats.
Yup. The Virginia governor’s race was the first warning bell: Dem voters didn’t show up. The Coakley-Capuano race is the second warning bell–and far more serious for the “beltway centrists”. Coakley was clearly more liberal than Capuano and was also the “outside D.C.” choice. They’re like lemmings– following Obama over the cliff.
Capuano isn’t a coathanger Dem. He’s quite liberal.
Capuano quote from the same article:
No kidding, Mike. Has anyone besides me noticed that no new jobs are being created? That all money is going to help states retain teachers and state workers in order to fudge the true unemployment numbers? And what ever happened after Obama’s PR stunt in Allentown, the so-called “jobs summit”? Has anyone seen a follow-up article in the press?
Did you see the Daniel Gross link just above? According to him,
the jobs are coming!
the jobs are coming!
LOL!
Huffpo:
Does anyone really think that labor will stand up to its Democrat lapdog and say, no way? Even if this reform screws their members? That is going to happen about as likely as liberal Senators standing up and saying, No and Hell No. There is a reason why these guys oppose war—they do not like conflict—argue and debate till the cows come home but let’s not get down and actually fight over something.
Andy Stern ain’t turning on Obama, no way, no how. He’ll hem and haw and act all outraged, to make his union members who are getting shafted think he’s “populist”, then he’ll do exactly what Obama wants and sell it to his members as “regrettable compromise”.
Regardless of Hamsher’s politics, she is absolutely right. When will the liberals stand and fight for what they believe in? The perfect can be the enemy of the good but so can crap. I have always like Russ Feingold and his consistent stance for so many worthwhile liberal goals. But does Russ have the spine to stand up and say, “I can not vote for this bill.” We can rough house all over Liber man but he does seem to have be willing to grind the process to a screeching halt. Obama only last week was lauding the Senate compromise ala medicare buy in and some crazy sub for a public option and he now is lauding the latest compromise and Liberman for forcing it. So where are all those precious liberals in the Senate. Do they not have a vote? Do they not have a voice?
The comments over at FDL are really good. But they did the usual of getting on the phone to whine to their representatives, and got this kind of response:
Yeah, same response we got when we called the DNC about the rampant sexism in 2008: “Huh? We have no idea what you are talking about.” The rest of the liberals are now finding out what we knew all along – they could care less about your shrieking and threats, because they know that in the end they have your vote anyway.
Time to wake up, people. Welcome to the reality we here at TC finally faced over a year ago. Calls and letters aren’t going to do SHIT. WITHHOLD YOUR VOTE.
WITHHOLD YOUR FUCKING VOTE.
Totally agree. *That* is the message callers should be sending to their reps–not asking them how they intend to vote. Tell them how *you* intend to vote if they continue to act against the interests of the American people. Let them know that all the PhRMA money in the world may buy their vote, but it won’t buy your vote.
I like that. I am calling Ms. Boxer to tell her how I am going to vote for her not in her re-election campaign. Fiorina may be flawed but she will at least be a different face with different iou’s.
This is a great line grayslady and bears repeating:
“Let them know that all the PhRMA money in the world may buy their vote, but it won’t buy your vote.”
Thanks
They are finally beginning to understand what the feeling of being hoodwinked is. Well I’ve been there, done that. Better sooner than later I guess.
& your money.
When I called Feinstein’s office about Stupak, the aide told me he’d never heard of it. I told him I thought that was outrageous and could not think of voting for Feinstein again if they were not proactive on that issue.
Obama’s Awkward Peace Prize Ceremony: SuperNews! h/t to Dragon62
Charles Krauthammer of conservative fame or not, as you see it or not, has said consistently that there would be no public option or single payer substitute and that the liberal wing of the Dem party would fold and accept it as they have accepted the Stupak amendment etc. He says the lure to the libs of getting their hands on the health care brass ring is too big a deal to pass up. That they think they can patch it up in the future.
Of course, as this mess becomes ever more unpopular with the common folks, as in voters, the Dems may face the fact that they have a lot more to worry about in their future than how to squeeze 60 Senate votes out of a 60 member Dem. caucus—when they no longer have a 60 member Dem. caucus.
I was just listening to the Ed Schultz show for awhile. The callers are outraged, and finally they are blaming Obama instead of all the other scapegoats. Then I just saw this on dkos:
A Former Obamabot’s Letter to the President.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/16/815139/-A-former-Obamabots-letter-to-the-President
Pretty funny, though infuriating
Is is possible that Obama made a deal with the Republicans to get into the WH and make sure the Dems lost their majorities in Congress?
That’s truly pathetic. He was obviously a die-hard, and even he is now seeing the sad truth:
“You have compromised yourself to the point of looking puny. You have shown throughout this year that you are willing to work on a multitude of issues for the American people but rarely fight when it really counts for them.”
It was all there in the beginning Jack…you just wanted to indulge in an orgy of fantasy feel-good, hoping for a magical pony.
Glad to see that you’ve surfaced. Recovering from the semester?
I could not quite finish the letter. The writer couldn’t have been more solicitous or disappointed. It was sad and infuriating. It is a litany of every argument we’ve heard since Obama was elected.
Do you think that perhaps Obama will achieve something really different? That there will not be any people he fools – all of the time??
Not yet. I still have to grade 88 papers and give exams tomorrow, Friday, and Monday. But I deserve some breaks, right?
Absolutely!
“I am copying David Axelrod on this letter as I believe him to be a man of great integrity”
W. T. F. ~ to quote MyIQ “koolaid is a helluva drug”
Yeah, it sure is! What a bunch of morons.
*gobsmacked* “Yeah, we no longer trust the empty image, so let’s put our trust in the marketing guru who CREATED the image instead! Yeah!”
*head desk* I swear, my 27-year-old mentally handicapped daughter has more common sense than these creative class bozos. She’s actually pretty savvy about who to trust and who not to trust.
They are really delusional, if they think that Axelrod gives a flying………
I saw this one in the comments, and almost spewed:
Oh, you just found that out? But…when Hillary said the best indicator of what someone will DO is to look at what they have DONE (as opposed to words), she was a nasty RAYYYCIST.
So you are just now coming to the realization that you need to look past pretty spaeeches and pay attention to a politicians behavior??
Jesus H. Christ on a waffle cone, we let mentally challenged CHILDREN elect us a prezident.
I know. They really were as stupid as they seemed. I thought it was just the Koolaid.
SEIU is no longer supporting health bill.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/72537-union-pulls-back-on-supporting-senate-bill?sms_ss=twitter
That is good news, but will it have any teeth?
I don’t think Obama cares what any of us do. I think he must have taken a huge bribe to get in there for one term and destroy the country and then turn it back over to the Repubs.
It is sure looking like that way. Obama is definitely a narcissistic personality disorder and I believe, a sociopath.
This is as good an explanation as any, and I tend to agree with you.
Have you guys heard that Sen. Coburn has insisted that that Bernie Sanders’ single payer amendment be read aloud in the Senate? It is close to 800 pages long! They have just started reading it.
I say it’s about time we have some transparency. BO and the dems sure aren’t providing it.
I listened to a clip of thie “reading.” John Conyers was right–you do need 2 lawyers to understand it.
KILL THE BILL!!
So much for a vote in 2009. Good move by Dr No.
Sanders pulled the amendment to stop the reading.
look who’s decided it’s kewl to be a Puma …
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/its-not-lieberman-its-oba_b_393668.html
ROTFLMAO! Is that slime still angling for an opening to claw her way up the A-list bloggers’ social ladder? It truly is pathetic.
LOL!
That piece is really poorly written. Was Taylor Marsh always that bad?
DK, have you seen this? Looks like the Gulf states are going to do what they have long threatened: Back off the dollar and create their own oil currency.
As precarious as the economy still is, this could get VERY ugly, VERY fast, if they follow through and do it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6819136/Gulf-petro-powers-to-launch-currency-in-latest-threat-to-dollar-hegemony.html
Yeah, I’ve been watching that … I’ve got a paper out for publication on that and I’m working on updating it with the data from Dubai. It’s been in the works for some time and its had its issues. Kuwait doesn’t use the dollar as a reserve currency any more but Saudi Arabia does and is also going to have the Central Bank there. That caused UAE to pull out … they’ve been in negotiations for some time.
They may fall to squabbling among themselves and never get it together. I hope they do, anyway. Because if they pulled that off, it would be a major blow to the already weak dollar, and in my mind the Fed would have zero choice but to raise rates at that point – which has its own really bad set of problems.
well, the UAE and problems with Dubai have really put a dark cloud over that … they’ve launched it, but they’ve got severe issues. The underlying fundamentals for them aren’t very good. It will destabalize them for a few years at the least and Yemen wants in and that country is a mess. UAE walk out was the biggest problem though.
I also read that India bought millions in gold from the IMF. Their representative said that the US and European economies were falling apart, hence the purchase. I’d like Dak’s read on that. Are we in the worst economic shape of our history?
Hindsight…..is always 2012
I have not visited her blog since you-know-when…
When will these idiots admit *their* part in the tragedy they unleashed?
TM will do anything to attract attention. If a mea culpa becomes fashionable or provides opportunity, she’ll do it then.
oops, posted below before reading your reply. she really is a piece o’work.
Good lord, I just read through a few comments and it looks like Taylor is poising herself to ride the crest of the disappointment wave. You go, grrrl. Work it.
I hope she gets a freaking disease. Nothing fatal – mange, maybe. Or chronic yeast infections.
she really OWNS him, that’s all I gotta say … she turned into one of the worst pimps of the election season
mange would be really cool.
Interesting. I haven’t seen anyone wish disease on Bush 2 or any of the others who have blood on their hands.
Taylor betrayed us big time, but she didn’t start any unnecessary wars.
a wee bit o’the carpal tunnel so she can rest up from the keyboard? doesn’t she deserve a bit of r and r away from it all?
Ok, that was mean spirited and I don’t like to really go there, but she has nothing to contribute and it’s really infuriating, to see her giving out advice like “cold comfort, I know….” acting like the wise and sage voice of reason now that we are all SCREWED. due in large part to opportunists like her.
: Franken’s amendment on rape included in appropriations bill
http://blog.alfranken.com/2009/12/16/minnpost-franken%E2%80%99s-amendment-on-rape-included-in-appropriations-bill/