My friend told me after the State Of The Union that the Republicans looked like a bunch of "miserable old sourpusses."
"How so?" I asked.
"He is talking about uplifting stuff and they look miserable."
I wasn't even planning to watch, but happened upon it as it was just starting. The terminal, chronic negativity of the GOP was on full display. They were not moved by any rhetoric and were not inspired by any of The President's ideas. If the DNC wants some ideas for TV spots, they should just take the closeups of Republican leaders during that speech and run them in an infinite loop.
Colorado's sublimely daft Doug Lamborn decided he had to stand up for something besides killing the EPA and Big Bird, so he played the ignorance card and skipped the address. Let's imagine the reaction to a Democrat doing that to President Bush. Unfortunately, the voters in CD-5 will never look back on their decision to choose Lamborn over Jay Fawcett in '06. (Hi, Jay!)
Despite Mark Udall's continuing, lame attempts to foster bipartisanship (God Damn it, Mark, it's Dead, and you're the Last to know! (Even the Supes couldn't contain their pettiness and only a quorom of them showed up. ) If Udall has put this much effort into condemning the automatic filibuster used by Senate Republicans on almost every vote they take, no one would ever know it.
That's the only view of the nation Repubs love: a Gospel of Greed, Dog-eat-Dog, Fuck thy Neighbor, Leave us 1% Alone!!!!!! Free Market Corporate Orgy of Tax and Regulation-free, Profit-taking Society.
Anything less, and they are all frowns - exactly like last night.
President Obama raised quite a few eyebrows this morning when the White House announced a recess appointment for Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It was an unusual display - congressional Republicans abused the rules and told the president to just accept it, and Obama effectively responded, "No."
As it turns out, this more combative attitude goes beyond the CFPB. Greg Sargent has this scoop this afternoon.
Obama is also set to use recess appointments to install his picks to the National Labor Relations Board, according to White House officials and others familiar with ongoing discussions.
The move, which is arguably as important as the Cordray appointment, will ratchet up opposition from Republicans and make this an even bigger fight, since they have been attacking the NLRB regularly for its moves to streamline union elections and inform workers of their rights.
Obama is set to appoint Sharon Block, Terence Flynn, and Richard Grifin to the board - something unions have made a big priority for them in the new year.
A little late, but this is the kind of thing he was elected to do no matter how mono-partisan it is perceived to be. Speaker Boner:
"This is an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab by President Obama that defies centuries of practice and the legal advice of his own Justice Department."
"Breaking from this precedent lands this appointee in uncertain legal territory, threatens the confirmation process and fundamentally endangers the Congress's role in providing a check on the excesses of the executive branch."
Here's unprecedented, courtesy of those very same Republicans:
Barack Obama invoked Teddy Roosevelt the other day. Who the hell ever heard of "Osawatamie"? And I readTheodore Rex! We had another President who got famous quotes only half-right, if that. There's another Republican, Grover Norquist, who's said a few things of his own that have stood the test of time:
"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
And....
"Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."
He's the unelected leader of Congressional Republicans and hasn't let them falter or waiver in their support of Millionaires and Billionaires and the taxes they should-be-but-aren't paying.
And our wonderful President, The Weekend at Bernie's of Bipartisanship, while sorta talking tough, is getting ready once again to cave to ruthless and soulless Republicans as our economy is in a death stall, has forgotten the key part of the quote of his most recent lecture subject in that small Kansas town:
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far"
Democrats, and the President, need to get that big stick out, beat Republicans over the head with Fair and Popular and Just and Democratic, and quit being such a God-damned Nice Guys and start being a Mean Old SOBs. Just as Teddy Roosevelt would have.
Republicans And Business Groups Unable To Find One 'Job Creator' Who Opposes A Tax On Millionaires
From the article:
NPR put out a request to Republican offices and the business groups that have been lobbying against the surtax to find business owners who'd be affected. Unsurprisingly, Republican leadership and the business groups came up empty:
We wanted to talk to business owners who would be affected. So, NPR requested help from numerous Republican congressional offices, including House and Senate leadership. They were unable to produce a single millionaire job creator for us to interview.
So we went to the business groups that have been lobbying against the surtax. Again, three days after putting in a request, none of them was able to find someone for us to talk to. A group called the Tax Relief Coalition said the problem was finding someone willing to talk about their personal taxes on national radio.
They are probably unwilling to talk about it because it would expose their greed and selfishness. If the number of Millionaires who said they support increased taxes on the wealthy was increased by two, we would be that much closer to reversing the income inequality trend begun under the Ronald Reagan Presidency.
"It's a very cool moment," Boyles said on the air. "It'll rock 'n' roll when this happens. ... Maybe other radio talk-show hosts will do the same and see what their audiences do."
Well, too many radio haters to count have gone on the birther kick. They do it to tweak the racists in their audience and to pretend they are independent of the views and desires of their corporate bosses. Here's what a one member of Boyles' key demographic did with his birther feelings:
Huff was stopped by Tennessee officers in April 2010 and told them he was bringing guns into the state from Dallas, Ga., to support efforts to arrest Monroe County officials who refused to indict Obama.
Huff was a part of a Georgia militia and the `birther' movement that disputes Obama's U.S. citizenship.
Officers testified Huff was carrying a loaded Colt .45 in a holster on his hip plus an assault rifle and 200 or 300 rounds of ammunition in a tool box in his truck. They said he also had a document he claimed was a "citizens' arrest warrant" for officials, saying they were domestic enemies and had been charged with treason.
Peter Boyles doesn't give a shit about our democracy. He would profess to loving the Constitution. But abuse of the First Amendment doesn't constitute love; it constitutes a desire to inflame ratings by any means necessary to enhance Clear Channel profits - a good amount of which go to Boyles. His abuse of our airwaves and the first amendment comes at our expense and his profit.
The policy needs are beyond obvious. Though they've failed this basic test before, it would be politically brain-dead for Democrats, especially Colorado's Wimpy Senators Udall and Bennet, to not fully support the goals behind this speech. (I'm looking at you too, me!)
Republicans will bitch and moan about every fine point, but cannot refudiate the President's challenge that America's greatest leaders have never hesitated to invest in a future that would help their progeny at every turn. Republicans will not and cannot do what's right in today's environment. Democrats will hesitate to do what's right and might fritter away the opportunity while the economy continues to suffer. That is truly the most disconcerting part of this drama.
But I have been waiting for this President Obama for three years. I hope his team in DC sees the light and supports him in this critical plan for our economy. If they don't, then once again his eloquent words will be the narration to an empty dream. This is the dream that was expected by the millions who voted for him in November, 2008. They will never see it without unwavering support from those citizens and leaders who also said "Yes, we can" that election day.
That's the day I voted for President Barack Obama, the president we saw flashes of again last night.
Dennis K Obduskey, Co-Chair of the Progressive Democrats of Colorado[PDC-PDA]suggests that it is time for a primary challenger to President Obama.
Dennis is also vice-chair of the Park County Democratic Party, a member of the State Central Committee, a member of the State Executive Committee from the Central Rural Region, a member of the state Platform Committee from House District 60, a member of the state Outreach Committee from the 6th Congressional District, and serves as secretary/treasurer for Senate District 4 and House District 60.
What he has to say undeniably carries weight among rank and file Colorado Democrats.
Today, I received this email from Progressive Democrats of America that I thought I would share. To the best of my knowledge, until this morning, PDA would not allow discussion of a Primary Challenger to Obama, to be even discussed on it's Accountability and Justice Google Group because as it's officers said, it might impact PDA's ability to lobby for other issues and might put the very existence of PDA within the Democratic Party, at risk.
I am a 46 year Democratic voter who was recently "banned" from the ACCOUNTABILITY & JUSTICE DISCUSSION GROUP (a google group) run by the Progressive Democrats Of America. I was a long time member of that PDA group and had organized over 150 Impeach Bush-Cheney protests in Denver, CO and published the http://AngryVoters.org website.
MY CRIME? I posted the following email to the PDA google group and was immediately "banned" from the group.
Perhaps the Democratic Party WILL have a Presidential Primary.
Bob Schieffer was enjoyably prickly today as he interviewed President Obama's campaign advisor David Axelrod. After playing a clip of Obama from the beginning of his presidency telling Matt Lauer that three years later Americans will be able to determine whether he deserves a second term, Schieffer posed the question rather bluntly to Axelrod. "Is this going to be a one-term presidency?"
The question prompted this exchange, which seemed to leave Axelrod a bit shaken.
From an article in Dick & Sharon's LA Progressive - Read the whole article here: http://bit.ly/o802iY
"On Saturday, July 30th, 2011, an estimated 75 members of the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party (CDP) passed a resolution in support of a Democratic Party Presidential Primary challenge to President Barack Obama. Gathering in Anaheim during an Executive Board meeting of the CDP, the group overwhelmingly endorsed the resolution following a discussion on the importance of not only challenging the far-right agenda of unmitigated corporate greed but also the current administration's willingness to slash 650-billion dollars from Social Security and Medicare."
Immediately, it appeared that the powers that be within the California Democratic Party tried to suppress and censor the effort.
The President is proving once again that he is much better than his predecessor George Bush as a President - When it comes to getting to more oil in pristine environments and silencing critics and whistleblowers.
It was seen as one of the most distressing effects of climate change ever recorded: polar bears dying of exhaustion after being stranded between melting patches of Arctic sea ice.
But now the government scientist who first warned of the threat to polar bears in a warming Arctic has been suspended and his work put under official investigation for possible scientific misconduct.
Charles Monnett, a wildlife biologist, oversaw much of the scientific work for the government agency that has been examining drilling in the Arctic. He managed about $50m (£30.5m) in research projects.
Some question why Monnett, employed by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, has been suspended at this moment. The Obama administration has been accused of hounding the scientist so it can open up the fragile region to drilling by Shell and other big oil companies.
President Obama is asking the CEOs of Time Warner, AT&T, and other major companies in a meeting today to funnel money into the nation's public schools, which are facing steep budget cuts on the state level this year.
The Wall Street Journal's Stephanie Banchero writes that both Bank of America and Microsoft will announce new investments in K-12 education after the meeting: $50 million for programs to prepare low-income students for college and a $15 million investment in video-game technology for the classroom, respectively.
According to data from the National Association of State Budget Officers, 18 states cut spending for K-12 instruction in fiscal year 2011 by $1.8 billion. Proposed cuts for the next fiscal year are much steeper: They total $2.5 billion for K-12 schools.
He may get some slight investments from corporations who hope to eventually earn a profit from their minor good will. He may even replace the horrible multi-billion-dollar cuts, but it's doubtful. Most CEO's would choke at the thought of a no-strings-attached disbursement from their corporate coffers into the public domain.
Republicans will attack this idea and accuse the man as they've done since before Day 1 of his presidency. Obama's been playing nice while others have taken advantage of his naivaté. They have expressed their hatred of him, and by extension us, in a multitude of ways. As of last night Obama was still praising the ideal of bipartisanship with those who are working non-stop to make him fail. At some point he needs to take up their challenge and take them on with the facts and the backing of the American people.
He should welcome the hatred of the CEO, the Oligarch, the Reactionary and the Radical. He'd have Joe Sixpack on his side. He'd have me on his side, for what it's worth. It might be uncomfortable at first, but he would warm to it, and he could easily win re-election from a public still yearning for his leadership.
Many, including I, had projected a bit of FDR onto Obama as he came into office. I'm beyond hoping for that much at this point. I hope we're not all beyond such feelings.
This, from House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson is decent, but rare:
"The American people get it. They are weary of the theater and the political drama because they understand that it is their pensions, their savings, their mortgages and their 401Ks that the Republicans are playing with. This shouldn't be about who's going to be the next President or who's going to control Congress, it should be about who's going to protect their savings, their mortgages and their 401Ks in this crisis. Republicans continue to hold in disregard Americans true needs: jobs and financial security.
"For the sake of the nation, it's time to forget the politics and vote a clean debt ceiling increase, as was done seven times for President Bush."
The sheer incompetence of our employees on our side is staggering. It adds insult to injury, and I hope it leads to a massive refudiation of the Democratic Party Establishment, because they are failing massively before our very eyes.
What happened to the United States on 9/11 was no simple thing. It was an enormous tragedy that played out over several states and touched millions of lives. The impact was deep, immediate, and painful. It was an acute infection of horror.
What happened in the wake of 9/11 was something altogether different. In the end, it's what came after that is the biggest cause of prolonged suffering.
As awful as 9/11 was, it was not a threat to our survival as a nation, not a threat to our ability to project American power around the world, not a threat to our economy, not a threat to our freedoms. However, our response to 9/11 endangered all those things. It still does. Like an immune system eating itself from the feet up, we've surrendered thousands of lives, expended trillions of dollars both at home and abroad, abandoned friends, embraced enemies, and tolerated previously intolerable insults to privacy.
Having recently joined the ranks of "business travelers" I can agree with this wholeheartedly.
But instead of fixing TSA* or addressing the abuses of our liberties put into place by Karl Rove and George Bush and willingly implemented by numbskulls like Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge we waste time fighting about The President's birth certificate and other mind-numbing trivialities that generate viewers and page hits.
The answer is yes, Osama bin Laden did exactly what he wanted to the United States and its citizens with the attacks on 9/11. Republicans enabled his win almost every step of the way. Democrats sat impotent and mute as all this happened, and every flight we get on our belts and iPhones and shoes and change and underwear must be checked. And some poor, innocent schlub gets frisked by 4 TSA agents to top off the humiliation with a giant violation of the 4th Amendment, which you'll never hear civil rights activists and government reformers like Jonny Caldara or Mike "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" Brown complain about (surprise!).
Thanks alot, guys, for making OBL's dream come true before his very eyes.
* - Didn't even know the TSA certified a union. I guess this counts as a tiny win for citizens and a big FU to Senator Jim Demint.
Like Lucy taking the football from Charlie Brown's poised kicking toe, Republicans have once again punked Democrats on the budget process. Will our side ever learn that they are congenital liars and that Republican leaders cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith?
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pulled out of bipartisan negotiations to raise the nation's debt limit, according to multiple reports.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Cantor indicated an impasse over taxes prompted his exit from the budget discussions for now. A GOP aide close to the talks told The Huffington Post that the disagreement could only be settled by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.
The aide said that Cantor was open to returning to the table, but that they've come to an impasse over "not so small tax increases" that Democrats are insisting on. "We can't go there, so until Boehner and Obama resolve that, it doesn't make much sense for Eric to keep going to the meetings."
Here again Democrats have demurred on making the case for fairly taxing the rich and corporations to resolve current budget and deficit issues. Cowards like Michael Bennet continue to neglect the fact that taxes are the lowest in generations, and those who aren't paying their fair share are banking trillions of dollars as our economy continues to piddle.
Democrats had better go on the offense, had better figure out how to make tax increases an inevitable occurrence and prepare themselves for the onslaught of lies until the economy turns around.
President Obama could lead the way to sound progressive policies on the budget "crisis". He will certainly have to change some of his assumptions and tactics. Senator Bennet might have the nerve to follow. But now the issue is being kicked down the road again thanks to another strategic win by Republicans and the continuing inability of Democrats to propose common-sense solutions that the public wants and needs. In order to truly kill this ongoing recession - a recession and debt that Republicans are mostly responsible for - Democrats will have to take the heat during the next election cycle and do what's right, maybe even fight for some "not so small" tax increases........something they've been unwilling to do even after given a clear mandate in 2008.
Forty-nine percent of registered voters said they would choose Romney over Obama if the election were held today, compared to 46 who would reelect Obama, the poll found. While that lead was small enough to be considered within the margin of error, the pair are still tied at 47 percent among all Americans.
The president's political weakness appears to be driven by Americans' dissatisfaction over the state of the economy. On Monday, veteran Democratic strategist James Carville warned the president's reelection could be "very rough" if job growth doesn't rebound. And to that end, dissatisfaction with Obama's handling of the economy and the federal budget deficit is at an all-time high in the ABC/Post poll.
Barack Obama has done this to himself: his vow to look forward, not back, has let Republicans off the hook for a multitude of bad policies and most of our Trillion$ of debt; his willingness to nogotiate with himself, then let Republicans drive the debate even further to the right, has left Americans feeling he has not upheld his quite clear campaign promises and his electoral mandate.
President Obama might be proud of disasters averted or incremental improvements, but Americans are in no mood, nor position, to reward such meager accomplishments; 2010 should have told him at least that.
As Mario always says, the election isn't being held today. But all this equals one thing, at least, for now:
A question for all the folks who have spent the past 2.5 years telling the rest of us how much of an 11-dimensional chess master Obama is as he carefully steers his agenda: How's that working out with respect to judicial nominees?
A new report by the Alliance for Justice shows that the GOP's obstructionism was truly historic - the worst obstructionism any new president faced at any point in American history: [T]he Senate confirmed fewer of [Obama's] district and circuit nominees than every president back to Jimmy Carter, and the lowest percentage of nominees - 58% - than any president in American history at this point in a President's first term.
Republicans never have a failure they can't rationalize or try to blame on someone else. That's why they call(ed) themselves the party of "personal responsibility", eh? And a two-bit partisan like Michael "Heckuvajob" Brownie, who was a key player in one of the saddest failures of our government and leaders (right after that 9/11 thing) would never miss a chance to try to make people forget his miserable tenure at FEMA and try to drag President Obama down to the Bush League:
[Former FEMA Director Michael] Brown evidently thinks he has the moral authority to condemn Obama's handling of the tornado disaster. In an interview with Fox New's Neil Cavuto, Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" Brown blasted Obama for "playing ping-pong" while people died and "being more concerned with toasting the Queen" than taking care of tornado victims:
BROWN: In this situation, they're almost tone-deaf. I mean, you stop and think about it, your press office should be recognizing that the visuals that Americans are seeing is of this devastation. Don't put a visual of the president up playing ping-pong. It's awful.
Talk about tone deaf. And talk about visuals, here's one of Bush as New Orleans was being inundated. But the immediate response was the lesser evil in Bush's reaction to Katrina. When you listen to his voice in the Brownie clip you can hear the fear and pleading in Bush's voice. His half-assed concern and lack of interest in the mechanics of government and executive powers are what led to a greater disaster in NOLA than had to be. No amount of Brown-washing can change that.
Just as the 9/11 attacks might have been prevented with the proper focus of the incoming government, Katrina's damage could have been lessened by a president who gave a shit and a FEMA Administrator who had the skills to handle the job. We had neither during Katrina or 9/11.
Michael Brown is doing his best to rewrite history and take Obama down a notch to the level of failed bureaucrat, and it's typical Republican attack-mode BS. We'll probably have to keep reminding everyone, until he kicks the bucket or gets off our airwaves, of how bad Brownie screwed up as FEMA Director and how the failures of the Bush administration are being met with mostly successes from President Obama.
I know others will, I can as well, do a heckuva job highlighting the massive failures that occurred during the Bush Administration. The usual suspects - with guilty consciences and easy access to a mic, are now trying to hide their failures with attacks on President Obama. I won't let them do it without a friendly reminder of their past.
A bipartisan group of Senators has been working to craft a comprehensive deficit reduction package based upon the recommendations of the Fiscal Commission. While we may not agree with every aspect of the Commission's recommendations, we believe that its work represents an important foundation to achieve meaningful progress on our debt.
When Gang of Six talks broke down due to Senator Tom Coburn's congenital defects (hypocrisy and lying) Senator Bennet protested that the Gang was still viable and that the talks should continue:
"I don't think it's dead. And I think, in fact, I would say that has some of the most promise we have because we've got three Democrats, three Republicans, working together to try to come up with a plan."
One can only assume that Michael Bennet supported the plan of all six senators to cut up to $530 BILLION from Medicare. He supported the Gang of Six even after Coburn had quit...with one of the most pitiful quotes I've heard from a United States Senator.
And with all that one can only ask why Bennet wanted the job in the first place.
Because if he is too cowardly to tell the people of our state that he, too, thinks we need to cut that money from our elderly and sick then he is not properly representing us. And he has no business taking the $174,000 salary we pay him to analyze our nation's problems and make the tough policy decisions that the job, and our citizens, rightly demand.
