Robbing Peter to pay Paul because Buffy and Biff need a new Yacht

Word association: Dick Armey

It is too early in the morning for this crap but here it is, splashed all over the NYTimes: Tax Deal Suggests a New Path for Obama.  Bull$@%#.  This is the same old Obama.

I can imagine how the “negotiations” with Republicans went:

O: We need more stimulus.

GOP: And that affects us…how?

O: Money’s got to come from somewhere.

GOP: Get it from Social Security.

O: Is that the best you can do?

GOP: Do you have any bourbon?  This coffee shit just isn’t doing it for me.  Wow, would you look at the time.  Gotta go.

O: Do you have to leave right now?

GOP: Yep.  I have a massage with a full release scheduled with my Lobbyist buddy from the oil bidness.  Write it up, send it to my guys.  See ya.

So, Obama wrote it up.  We get a break on our payroll taxes.  Woo-hoo!  That’s like eating our seed corn.  I can’t wait to explain it to my senior relatives some years down the road as to why we just slashed their benefits:

“See, back in 2010, Obama couldn’t think of anywhere else to get the money for the stimulus because he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was and he had no imagination.  So, instead of throwing a fit about the irresponsible Bush deficit increases or demanding that employers stop siphoning money away from the employees who work their asses off for them, or lobbying to get the Paycheck Fairness Act passed, which would have been a very popular way to add money to womens’ paychecks, he cut us working people a break and that pittance money went into the general economy and came back to the treasury as general revenue when the people who we bought stuff from paid their taxes.  And those taxes paid for stuff Republicans wanted like a huge bloated Homeland Security department and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  But it also meant that Obama could almost afford the money Bush granted to the rich with those irresponsible tax cuts.  So, that’s why you have to give up eating fresh fruits and vegetables.  Buffy and Skip needed a new yacht. Yes, I’d love to go to the beach this summer but I can’t retire.  Ever.”

By the way, Stuart Zechman, you shouldn’t be surprised at all about Obama.  You just weren’t paying attention.  And your obsession with the nefarious “Third Way” reminds me of the Da Vinci code.  If we listen to you and your friends, you would think there’s some mysterious, pagan cult that engages in group sex while chanting “D-L-C, D-L-C” to a fevered pitch.  Oh, sorry, that was the Obama supporters back in 2008.

I don’t believe in the Third Way boogieman (or woman).  But if there was one candidate in 2008 who embodied all you feared, It was OBAMA.  Here are a couple oldies but goodies from our archive:

The Audiology of Hope: Dogwhistle Economics- by Ronkseattle.  That was from January 2008.  Ronk was waaaay ahead of the curve.  He wrote another summary of Obama’s economic advisors which I am having trouble finding.  But when I do, I’ll post a link.

Here’s another from May 2008 called Friday Foibles, which cites Paul Krugman’s growing discomfort with Obama’s economic advisors.  By the way, I challenge you or anyone else to find anything racist about what we wrote back then.

Cokie Roberts Sees the Light.  When even Cokie Roberts is disgusted with the Democratic primary system, you know you’ve got a problem.  Oh, but she was just a stupid, old, uneducated working class woman, right?

That’s just a smidgeon of the stuff we posted on Obama in 2008.  I suggest you go back to the beginning and watch the transformation of this site’s authors from being mildly annoyed at Obama’s followers but not willing to write off Obama to full scale disgust with him and anyone who followed him.  I’d dig it up for you but the wordpress archive is flaky and our tags weren’t very precise back then.  So, please, be my guest Stuart.  Go back and read our posts and see what you were missing while Obama’s crack team of psychological manipulators and marketing specialists were messing with you.

And can the Third Way! hysterics.  No one here gives a flying F@#$.

In other news:

It appears that a some of the CEO’s in the Pharma industry have no background in the sciences.  Jeffrey Kindler, the guy who just got canned from Pfizer, oh, I’m sorry, is taking a sabbatical to rest his frazzled nerves after he laid off 19000 employees in the wake of a $68 billion merger with Wyeth, used to be CEO of McDonalds.  No, that’s not some pharma you’ve never heard of.  That’s the fast food chain.  And the guy who runs Glaxo Smith Kline used to be in the ketchup business.  In fact, there are pharma CEO’s who have never set foot in a lab.  It is very difficult to understand how people like Kindler make intelligent decisions about how to run a company based on R&D if they think there is even the remotest analogy to flipping burgers. See Derek Lowe’s blog, In the Pipeline, for more news on Jeffrey Kindler, and check out the comment section which just goes to show that even geeks have a sense of gallows humor. (Tsk-Tsk)

Tuesday Morning: Not holding my breath

It happened years before I was born but, I can’t post today’s news without at least a passing reference to The Day Which Will Live in Infamy:

Beacon lighting ceremony commemorates day that will live in infamy

A group of Pearl Harbor survivors will gather on Mt. Diablo Tuesday at 3:45 p.m. to commemorate the “day that will live in infamy” at the annual beacon lighting ceremony.

The 75-foot aviation beacon was removed from service on Dec. 7, 1941 as a wartime security measure but later refurbished. Dec. 7 is usually one of a few days a year that visitors can stay late enough at the top to see the sunset without camping overnight, according to park officials.

This year’s ceremony will include a color guard in WWII uniform, remembrances from three or four Pearl Harbor survivors and a featured speaker, Maj. Gen. Ronald Lowe, U.S. Army Ret.

Sanders may filibuster Obama-GOP tax deal

RAW STORY UPDATE: Bernie Sanders, the only avowed socialist in the United States Senate, has hinted that he will filibuster the tax cuts extension deal President Barack Obama struck with Republicans on Monday.

In an appearance on MSNBC’s Ed Schultz Show, Sanders, the junior senator from Vermont, said, “I’ve got to tell you, I will do whatever I can to see that 60 votes are not acquired to pass this piece of legislation.”

While that doesn’t amount to a firm commitment to filibuster, Sanders’ mention of 60 votes — the number needed to overcome a filibuster — is telling.

I’d by tickets to it if I thought he meant it. But, I expect we’ll be reading about Sander’s trip on Air Force One in a day or two.

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One of my secret vices is that I do occasionally shop at Walmart. It’s less than a mile from my house and if I just want a seam ripper or I’ve run out of dog food …. well, I’m not going to apologize (so why do I sound defensive? . . . It’s within walking distance!) Anyway, they’ve got TVs blaring weird messages and even with my extraordinary daydreaming abilities you can hardly tune them out:

Homeland Security ‘messages’ coming to Walmart, hotels, malls

Shoppers at Walmart will soon have something other than glossy magazines and chewing gum to look at when in the checkout line: A “video message” from the Department of Homeland Security asking them to look out for “suspicious” activity and report it immediately.

. . .

The Walmart video, which will soon be launched at 230 locations nationwide and may eventually be expanded to nearly 600 locations in 27 states, features Napolitano thanking the retailer by name for participating in the program.

Napolitano then says: “If you see something suspicious in the parking lot or in the store, say something immediately. Report suspicious activity to your local police or sheriff. If you need help, ask a Walmart manager for assistance.”

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Do politicians have this gene?

Thrill-Seeking Gene Can Lead to More Sex Partners

In what is being called a first of its kind study, researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York (SUNY) have discovered that about half of all people have a gene that makes them more vulnerable to promiscuity and cheating.

Those with a certain variant of the dopamine receptor D4 polymorphism — or DRD4 gene — “were more likely to have a history of uncommitted sex, including one-night stands and acts of infidelity,” according to lead investigator Justin Garcia.

DRD4 is the “thrill-seeking” gene, also responsible for alcohol and gambling addictions. The gene can influence the brain’s chemistry and subsequently, an individual’s behavior.

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In a story ignored virtually everywhere, the Obama administration cracked down on Ponzi Schemes:

Feds highlight successes against investment fraud

At a news conference headlined by Attorney General Eric H. Holder, authorities unveiled “Operation Broken Trust,” a collection of unrelated criminal and civil cases involving Ponzi schemes, foreign currency frauds, investment scams and other market cons.

. . .

Authorities said the operation involved 343 defendants facing criminal charges and 189 facing civil charges, though some will be counted in both categories. The cases represent more than $8.3 billion in investor losses and 120,000 victims.

. . .

“Fraud by well-known companies or high-profile executives gets the biggest headlines, but other scams are equally devastating to hard-working families and retirees,” said Robert Khuzami, enforcement director of the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Victims want justice and don’t much care who the fraudster is or how unique the fraud. Today’s actions underscore that law enforcement agrees and will pursue fraud in whatever form.”

My mother in law has been targeted by the Canadian Granny Scam a couple of times. Once we came home to find her tearing the house apart trying to find her checkbook so she could tell the crook her bank’s routing number. The second time, my husband happened to be there when the call came.

So, if they can put a stop to some of this, I’m all for it.

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Swiss bank freezes WikiLeaks founder’s legal defense fund

Over €31,000 set aside for the legal defense of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been frozen by the Swiss bank PostFinance, which said that Assange had given false information in creating the account.

. . .

“Assange cannot provide proof of residence in Switzerland and thus does not meet the criteria for a customer relationship with PostFinance,” the bank said. “For this reason, PostFinance is entitled to close his account.”

The bank reviewed Assange’s account because he is a “high profile” individual, WikiLeaks said.

Last week, Internet payment leader PayPal also froze a WikiLeaks-linked account containing over $60,000, the site added.

. . .

Assange was staying with a group of WikiLeaks supporters outside London last week, according to published reports.

British authorities had delayed the arrest for days citing a lack of necessary paperwork from their Swedish counterparts.

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Finally, this story is so sad I almost can’t bear it:

Elizabeth Edwards gravely ill with cancer

Elizabeth Edwards, … thanked her supporters online Monday as word spread the disease may take her life within weeks.

“The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered,” Edwards wrote on her Facebook page. “We know that. And yes, there are certainly times when we aren’t able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It’s called being human. But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful.”
. . .
The Edwards family issued a statement that said doctors have told Edwards that further treatment for her cancer would be unproductive. And a family friend who is among those who have gathered with Edwards at her North Carolina home told The Associated Press that she is gravely ill.

Edwards was briefly hospitalized last week and received treatment, but doctors have now told her that she may only have up to a couple months of life left, the friend said. The friend spoke on condition of anonymity because of the personal details divulged.