This is how bad it has gotten out there in prog-land. This diary is rapidly moving up to the top of the rec list at the Cheeto:
Obama vs. Hypnotoad 2012
by citizenx
[You’ll have to click on the link to look at the graphic. WordPress won’t let me paste it.]
“If Hypnotoad ran against Barack Obama in a Democratic primary in 2012, which one would I vote for?”
citizenx’s diary :: :: Hypnotoad had its own television show called “Everybody Loves Hypnotoad”. It consists of a stationary camera filming the Hypnotoad and its noise continuously. Despite the odd premise behind the show, it ran successfully for over three seasons.
This has been building for a long time, and it seems like we’ve finally reached a tipping point. The prog blogs are in an uproar! Of course Glenn Greenwald has seen Obama for what he is for awhile now, but today he’s really letting it all hang out. Just watch this appearance on MSNBC (h/t Jane Hamsher at FDL):
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). Indeed, Democrats led the way yesterday in killing drug re-importation, which they endlessly claimed to support back when they couldn’t pass it. The administration wants not only to prevent industry money from funding an anti-health-care-reform campaign, but also wants to ensure that the Democratic Party — rather than the GOP — will continue to be the prime recipient of industry largesse.
But where will they get the votes to stay in office?
“This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place, so I don’t think focusing it on Lieberman really hits the truth,” said Feingold. “I think they could have been higher. I certainly think a stronger bill would have been better in every respect.”
Ah…the Schadenfreude… We tried so hard to warn them…
Back to Greenwald:
Yet numerous Obama defenders — such as Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein and Steve Benen — have been insisting that there is just nothing the White House could have done and all of this shows that our political system is tragically “ungovernable.” After all, Congress is a separate branch of government, Obama doesn’t have a vote, and 60 votes are needed to do anything. How is it his fault if centrist Senators won’t support what he wants to do?
Is there something wrong with me? I’ve gotten to the point where I’m actually laughing about this ghastly mess. I know it’s tragic, but it has gotten so bad that it’s like a horror movie that is so bad, you can’t help laughing at the gore splattering all over the place.
Here is a sampling of the writings of other outraged and disillusioned former Obots.
A NBC/WSJ poll is coming out tonight that shows a substantial spike in opposition to the Health Care bill. And the internals show the movement is mainly from liberals disappointed in the the decision to drop the Public Option.
I knew this day would come, but I never expected it to come in Obama’s first year! Feel free to add your own Schaedenfreude links in the comments. {still can’t stop laughing}
“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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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!
The Confluence 