Blog Archives
Even a Conservative sees the reality of lobbyists…
“Lobbying is a form of legalized bribery.”
Here is a former speechwriter in the Reagan White House (and a fine American satirist) who made this statement on Morning Joe this morning. Interesting that he also favors President Obama over Mitt Romney… although he is upset that the Bowles-Simpson report was walked away from by the Administration. In reality, libertarian Buckley was dropped as a conservative National Review writer for endorsing Obama in 2008.
However, in commenting on his political involvement:
“My last name happens to be Buckley. That’s my only connection with politics.”
Related articles
- They Eat Puppies, Don’t They? – Christopher Buckley to speak in Columbus (collectedmiscellany.com)
- Lawrence O’Donnell: Romney Is Scared Of Conservatives Because He’s Not One (mediaite.com)
- Romney Spokeswoman in 2010: Marco Rubio is a “Wheeling-and-Dealing” “Lobbyist-Politician w/ “Questionable Ethics” (abcnews.go.com)
- Obama’s ‘naive’ lobbyist ban (politico.com)
- Lobbyists’ lobbyist draws US public’s anger (vancouverdesi.com)
- Sure, money is power. But, is it also liberty and freedom? Or, is it a tool? (warmsouthernbreeze.wordpress.com)
Why are we so stupid that we will be tied up in Afghanistan for another 12 years?
I hear it coming up in the Presidential campaign with insistence and regularity: We’re getting out of Afghanistan in 2014. Right? Yeah, it takes a long time to get all those troops and all that equipment out… 2014 is really pretty quick.
But…
Today we signed a strategic partnership pact that pledges American support for Afghanistan for 10 years after the withdrawal of combat troops at the end of 2014.
Put your fingers away… the count is to 2024. The cost in money, military death and injury, Taliban conspiracies against American cities and people, and so many other things is more than poor indebted bozos like us can sustain.
The draft of the pact has been signed at the diplomatic level and will now be sent to Mr. Karzai and to the Afghan Parliament for review and approval, and also to President Obama and the White House. It will become final when signed by both presidents… and don’t even begin to think it won’t be signed.
Look, put the moral and ethical concerns aside… ignore what the majority of Americans think about our involvement in the longest war we have EVER been involved in… WTF are we going to pay for this with?
Costs totaling $2.7 billion a year have been discussed, but it would likely be more. Add in aid for civilian programs , too.
The powers that be will say that this is a reduction from the amount the United States now spends here (about $120 billion a year), and we should all feel the financial relief that brings. We just have to bring in a few bucks compared to what we have spent already (and still owe.) So where will we get it?
Money from the Rich? Doubt it. How much do you want to bet this will make them more rich (richer?)? Money from the rest of us? You betcha!
Let me be very clear about my political view here. I am a liberal and a Democrat, but this disgusting cesspool of foreign policy can be laid just as easily at the feet of Republicans and to those of President Obama. Neither side is putting America ahead of our military-economic suckfest.
Makes you wonder who you can vote for that will make any difference. It’s a good thing it is not the only issue being considered this year.
But it is an unabating one.
Andrew Breitbart had a tape, EE Eye EE Eye Oh…
…and on that tape he had some crap, EE Eye EE Eye Oh…
With Obama here, and students there
Here a speech, there a speech
everywhere a speech speech…
Andrew Breitbart had a tape, EE Eye EE Eye Oh…
According to the Telegraph in the UK:
(A) video, pitted as Mr Obama’s coup de grace and the end of his 2012 re-election bid, promised to expose the president as a “racist radical” who had plotted to seize control of the White House with other “totalitarian freaks” for more than 20 years.
In reality the tape showed a college student campaigning for racial diversity at Harvard law School – not quite the fiery revelations right wing blogger Andrew Breitbart had pledged prior to his death.
Sean Hannity, though, tried to push the tape on Fox News as some kind of real revelation that would end Obama’s campaign. But his efforts were more or less silly with a lot of respondents outside of the Fox/Tea Party crowd having greater respect for the President and his support of a dedicated professor while he was Editor of the Harvard Law Review (I don’t think Hannity ever had that kind of status).
As to Breitbart, he died before he could create another phony attack on good people. Perhaps he is watching all this from Hell. 
Related articles
- Breitbart’s Video of Obama at Harvard on Hannity Tonight! (fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com)
- Breitbart Video Shows Barack Obama Protesting at Harvard in 1991 (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
- Breitbart Editors Preview Obama College Video With Hannity (mediaite.com)
- Andrew Breitbart Tapes To Be Released (webpronews.com)
- BREAKING: Years Old, Publicly Available Photo of Andrew Breitbart Hugging A Black Guy Found (thesuperficial.com)
- Why We’re Talking About Barack Obama and Derrick Bell Now [Andrew Breitbart] (gawker.com)
- ‘Mancow’ Muller: Breitbart Was Murdered (mountainrepublic.net)
I listened to Repub candidates propose that we could be invaded from Iran…
…but, although the USA professes itself menaced by Iran, it rather has Iran encircled by military bases:
Stars = US Bases
(thanks to Juan Cole‘s Informed Comment.)
So what I want to know is which of these Repub candidates has any kind of grasp on mid-east policy? Certainly Iran knows that they can be completely wiped out by us with little or no provocation.
Related articles
- US, Europe cautious on Iran offer for nuke talks (sfgate.com)
- GOP candidates take hard line on Mideast (politico.com)
- Can the US stop Iran going nuclear? (americablog.com)
- Russia is preparing to respond to Israeli or US military strike on Iran (irannewpearlharbour.wordpress.com)
The next time some Repub partyer argues about President Obama’s record…
… go to KEEPING HIS WORD and be supplied with a list of his accomplishments, the answers to his promises that have been kept, and all the information you need to wipe the lying bastards off the great right-wing ass.
Great information source that the White House has (finally) put up to counter the world’s least truthful party.
http://www.keepinghisword.com/
Related articles
- Tea partyers not keen about GOP presidential field (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- President Obama will present his 2013 budget plan Monday (news.blogs.cnn.com)
- White House Will Renew #40dollars Campaign On Twitter (readwriteweb.com)
- Why Congress Must Extend the Payroll Tax Cut Through 2012 (whitehouse.gov)
The Power of Catholicism
We’re waiting this morning for President Obama to come out and report any modifications to the birth control requirements in health insurance that has raised an alarm with Catholics.
Some background from the NY Times:
The ruling issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, said that only religious organizations that primarily employ and serve their co-religionists would be exempt from the requirement to provide insurance that covers birth control. Churches are therefore exempt, but Catholic hospitals, service agencies and colleges are not. The White House said that 28 states already had such mandates, so this federal rule, which is part of the health care overhaul, just applies the mandate uniformly.
—
NY Archbishop Timothy Dolan
The bishops have found allies among conservative evangelicals, who do not share the Catholic Church’s doctrinal prohibition on contraception but are delighted to see the bishops adopt the right’s longstanding grievance that government has declared a war on religion. They have been joined by the bishops of Eastern Orthodox churches (like Greek, Russian and Ukrainian) and two Orthodox Jewish groups — small constituencies but ones that lend the cause a touch of diversity.
On the other side are religious Americans and clergy members who are unmoved by the religious liberty theme, and who regard the administration’s ruling as sensible health care policy.
Here’s what I think. The Catholic Bishops are thrilled to have this conflict broadcast on all the news stations… thrilled that it is taking up so much space in C-PAC speeches… thrilled that it takes up space in newspapers (as Craig Ferguson said: “A newspaper is a thing that people used to read. It’s like a website, but all the information is from yesterday.”)… and certainly thrilled that they have something to shout out from the pulpit.
Why? Because as long as everyone is discussing this sham Constitutional complaint, no one is talking about the relationship of the Catholic Church to child molesting priests. That is quite a relief after months of revelations and and complaints about Bishops who hid information for years.
When the Birth Control/Insurance issue is all gone, we’ll get back to pederasty by priests. I’ll bet the Bishops are looking forward to that.
Related articles
- Roman Catholic Church battle over birth control coverage was well planned (mercurynews.com)
- Bishops’ Hypocrisy on Religious Freedom and Contraception. (queeringthechurch.com)
- A lay parable for Catholic Bishops to consider: The Scorpion and the Frog (erickbrockway.com)
- Enough Of The Fake Outrage Over Contraception (angrydd.wordpress.com)
- Catholic Church silent on child rape, taking to the streets over ‘intrinsically evil’ birth control (dailykos.com)
Monsanto Attempts to Lockout Socially Responsible Shareholder at Annual Meeting…
CLICK HERE
In the Organic Consumers Association blog, the report concerns Monsanto shareholder (and organic food activist) Adam Eidinger. A clip:
Eidinger, who organized last October’s a 100 person, 313 mile “Right2Know March” from New York City to the White House for federally mandated GMO food labeling says: “With the rise or
Round-Up resistant ‘superweeds‘ the company is simply telling farmers to spray even more toxic herbicides including 2,4 D, the main ingredient in Agent Orange.
I urge you to go read the article and to contact your representatives about Monsanto poisoning (and hiding their actions concerning) our food.
Tonight is Obama’s State of the Union Address…
President Barack Obama will deliver his State of the Union speech tonight at 9 p.m. EST. It is expected to last at least an hour, after which Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana will deliver the Republican response (there will be a Tea Party response from Herman Cain… don’t miss it. All speeches like this should end with humor.)
Obama is expected to use the State of the Union to pitch new initiatives on jobs, taxes and housing, in what will be billed as his opening salvo in a long 2012 election race. He will probably push tax breaks for bringing manufacturing jobs home from overseas, give ideas to help the troubled home-mortgage market and create incentives for alternative energy development. Expect him to call again for higher taxes on the wealthy – despite consistent Republican opposition – and to speak of further pressure on China over currency and trade practices.
There are a number of ways you can watch and follow the speech online. The official White House website, which will not only be streaming the speech live, but will be accompany it with charts, stats, and data that reinforce the address. On television, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC will all air the speech live. The Huffington Post will also run liveblog coverage of the event, accompanied by an embedded live video feed.
Some items based on recent Obama remarks leading up to the address:
“Before we take money away from our schools or scholarships away from our students, we should ask millionaires to give up their tax break.”
The President has promised to let the Bush tax cuts for millionaires expire at the end of 2012.
_____
“[The Affordable Care Act] is making prescription drugs cheaper for seniors and giving uninsured students a chance to stay on their parents’ coverage.”
At least 2.5 million young Americans now have health insurance through their parents’ health care plans until 26 years of age. As of November, more than 2.2 million people with Medicare had saved more than $1.2 billion on prescriptions (I’m one of them. I support this whole heartedly. - Bill)
_____
Expect the Republicans to make it clear that they will continue to oppose Obama’s positions… but also expect Obama to say that he will be seeking bi-partisan progress even though it is an election year.
It should be noted, however, that State of the Union messages have historically not effected increases in a President’s poll ratings (an exception being Bill Clinton’s 2nd address which increased his numbers by 3%.)
Related articles
- Obama to Hold Google+ ‘Hangout’ After State of the Union Address (techland.time.com)
- President Obama’s State of the Union Address Webcast (diaryofafemaleveteran.wordpress.com)
- State of the Union: President Obama’s big campaign speech (tarpon.wordpress.com)
- Obama to Answer Your Questions on State of the Union Interview on Google+ (socialtimes.com)
- Obama to shift strategy on healthcare in 2012 – The Hill’s Healthwatch (policyabcs.wordpress.com)
Obama stands up to Boehner on Payroll Tax vote…
Today, the President made separate calls to Speaker Boehner and Leader Reid. In his call to Speaker Boehner, the President reiterated the need and his commitment to work with Congress to extend the payroll tax cut for the entire year, and the fact that the short-term bipartisan compromise passed by almost the entire Senate is the only option to ensure that middle class families aren’t hit with a tax hike in 10 days and gives both sides the time needed to work out a full year solution. The President urged the Speaker to take up the bipartisan compromise passed in the Senate with overwhelming Democratic and Republican support that would prevent 160 million working Americans from being hit with a holiday tax hike on January 1st.
The President also spoke with Leader Reid and again applauded him for the work he conducted with Minority Leader McConnell to achieve a successful bipartisan compromise that passed overwhelmingly in the Senate on Saturday, and Senator Reid reaffirmed his commitment to secure a bipartisan year long tax cut after the House passes the two month extension. The President urged the Speaker to allow a vote on the one compromise that Democrats and Republicans passed together to give the American people the assurance they need during this holiday season that they won’t see a significant tax hike in just 10 days.
Boehner and the Tea Party folks are now getting the worst of the press, and they are even being criticized by other Republicans, none of whom would like the Middle Class on their tails come election time. Meanwhile, the Senate is on vacation and it doesn’t look like they are coming back to renegotiate before the short-term bill is passed.
Looks like the rest of the week will be interesting. Ho Ho Ho.
Related articles
- Obama Phones Boehner (thepage.time.com)
- Harry Reid: It’s ‘unconscionable’ that Speaker Boehner is blocking bipartisan payroll tax cut deal (dailykos.com)
- Joe Peyronnin: Ebenezer Boehner (huffingtonpost.com)
- Obama calls Boehner, urges him to allow vote on Senate payroll bill (thehill.com)
- Harry Reid to John Boehner on payroll tax cut: Put people before politics (dailykos.com)
- Obama urges Hill leaders to extend payroll tax cut (newsok.com)
Political quote for the day… are Republicans smart enough to realize what they are doing?
Paul Begala doesn’t think so.
“I cannot think of a time when the economy declined but the president was not blamed — but this may be the first. If the Republicans were smart, they would do on taxes what they did on trade: quietly pass Obama‘s proposals, knowing full well that even a million new jobs will not be enough to climb out of the hole Obama inherited. The economy isn’t giving Obama enough jobs, but the Republicans are giving him the next best thing: a villain to blame for the poor economy. By killing Obama’s jobs agenda, Republicans may just save his presidency.”
- Paul Begala
Quote of the Day… from Silicon Valley
“Mr. President. I don’t have a job, but that is because I have been lucky enough to live in Silicon Valley for a while and work for a small startup company down the street who did quite well. So, I am unemployed by choice. My question is — would you please raise my taxes?”
- Man at the Town meeting Obama held today with Linked In (later identified as Doug Edwards, former director of communications and marketing at Google.)
Ban Fracking on 9/13 — Spread the Word!
Contaminated Water from Pennsylvania Fracking
Mark your calendar: Call the White House at (888) 498-2945 tomorrow and tell the President to Ban Fracking!
Don’t think that what has happened in Pennsylvania and new York State can’t happen in West Virginia!
Help build the momentum by spreading the word for the National Call-in Day to Ban Fracking — Tuesday, Sept. 13th! (THAT’S TOMORROW!)
Related articles
- Blood Tribe Members Set Up Anti-fracking Blockade (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
- Fracking: A Tale Of Two States (themoderatevoice.com)
- Part of New York State’s Fracking Regulations Already Trails Industry Practice (treehugger.com)
- Environmental Groups Seek Fracking Rule (businesslawdaily.wordpress.com)
- Ball: ‘Over my dead body’ will fracking create Penn-type problems (timesunion.com)
The Dirtiest Fuel on the Planet…
Let’s look at this from Al Gore (from the Huffington Post):
The leaders of the top environmental groups in the country, the Republican Governor of Nebraska, and millions of people around the country — including hundreds of people who have bravely participated in civil disobedience at the White House — all agree on one thing: President Obama should block a planned pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
The tar sands are the dirtiest source of fuel on the planet. As I wrote in Our Choice two years ago, gasoline made from the tar sands gives a Toyota Prius the same impact on climate as a Hummer using gasoline made from oil. This pipeline would be an enormous mistake. The answer to our climate, energy and economic challenges does not lie in burning more dirty fossil fuels — instead, we must continue to press for much more rapid development of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies and cuts in the pollution that causes global warming.
Related articles
- The Tar Sands Sit-In: Something is Happening! (rabbibrant.com)
- Is the Keystone XL Pipeline Protest About Tar Sands or Politics? (treehugger.com)
- Daryl Hannah Arrested During Protest of Tar Sands Pipeline (abcnews.go.com)
- Why Won’t Clean Tech Community Stand Up Against Keystone Pipeline? (treehugger.com)
- Robert Naiman: Why I’m Protesting the Tar Sands Pipeline at the White House on Saturday (huffingtonpost.com)
- Key Republican announces opposition to tar sands pipeline (dailykos.com)
Friday report from the Labor Dept.: Jobs up higher than expected…
According to Reuters, U.S. job growth accelerated more than expected in July as private employers stepped up hiring, easing fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession.
It was originally expected that the number of new jobs would b3 85,000… less than the 100,000 minimum necessary to start correcting the unemployment burden. In reality, the new estimate is that the number is 117,000 which brings the unemployment rate from 9.2% to 9.1%.
How much better the situation gets in the next six months is unknown. A stand-off between Democrats and Republicans over raising the country’s debt ceiling poisoned the atmosphere for employers and consumers. Whether this new report helps them to bounce back is questionable.
Austan Goolsbee
Commenting from the White House, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee said:
“While the better than expected report is welcome news, the unemployment rate remains unacceptably high and faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn.”
Related articles
- Unemployment rate dips, economy adds 117K jobs (boston.com)
- Jobs Report Better Than Expected: Hiring Picked Up in July (themoderatevoice.com)
- An Extremely Giddy Austan Goolsbee Tells Jon Stewart: I Feel Bad Obama Has To Be Around The Folks In Washington (thenewspundit.com)
- Employers add 117,000 jobs in July, unemployment rate drops (usatoday.com)
- Relief: July report shows jobless rate slips (chron.com)
- Jobs Report Better Than Expected (coydavidson.wordpress.com)
The Idiots are “debating” all day…
… but are they coming up with anything? The Senate has kept the Boehner Bill from getting voted on…. the House has voted down the Reid Bill (which he Senate hasn’t even voted on and which they can’t agree on an up-and-down vote… in which it would pass… or a 60 person vote…which it would fail.)
The Senate is coming to a decision at 1:00 AM… I don’t know if I want to stay up this late and find that nothing takes place.
I wonder if this Congress has any idea how stupid they appear to the rest of us in America? If they did, this would probably not be happening.
Related articles
- House to vote today on Reid’s debt ceiling bill (dailykos.com)
- Timeline: How To Track The Next 80 Hours (businessinsider.com)
- Senate Debt Ceiling Watch Party (firedoglake.com)
- Senate Vote Scheduled for Middle of Night (politicalwire.com)
- House Republicans prepare to reject debt plan (nj.com)
- GOP Leaders: We’ll Get It Done (foxnews.com)
- US Senate Kills Boehner Debt Hike Plan;Reid Wants Talks W/GOP (forexlive.com)
Beginning the last few days of July and waiting for this @#^&* Congress to do something about the debt ceiling…
Michael Parenti
We’re getting awfully close to that August 2d Deadline (1 week from tomorrow) and it doesn’t look like the House and the Senate AND the White House can get together on ANYTHING (especially without using whatever they do as a 2012 election strategy event.)
I’m beginning to hope none of these clowns ever get elected again and we return the country to King George the Third and let him raise the ceiling (what? He’s dead? Crap!)
Doing some history research, I came across the book “Democracy for the Few” by Michael Parenti which was published in 2008 and updated in 2010 (incidentally he gets into my personal peeve of Monsanto with it’s poisoned farmlands and manipulated seedlings in his section on the corporatization of the country.) Taking us back to the Founding Fathers and the Constitutional Convention, Parenti shows us that things are not so different now as they were then… the control of proceedings was held by the wealthy who responded with fear when demands were made by the masses, and gave in as little as possible:
… or, to put it more bluntly, the rich used politics to manipulate the people.
So the Republicans now want a plan which raises no taxes and which will be debated, without solving the problems, right up to the elections at the end of 2012, meanwhile ruining our credit and bond ratings with other countries (and with Social Security which it could conceivably wipe out since the surplus funding we are told over and over again will hold Social Security safe until 2035 in the same Federal Bonds which are being devalued.
Obama has done more than the Republicans, and much more than his Democratic allies, to move to the center and find concessions which would help all levels of our society. Democrats have tried negotiating from Biden’s committee on down only to be faced with opposite leadership walkouts (“I’m taking my bat and going home”) and regular upping of the agreeable compromises (btw, there are NO agreeable compromises here.) Republicans seem to have two needs to fill here: 1. Support their Corporate Funders, and 2. Make sure Obama is not reelected in 2012. In other words, to hell with the American society.
I don’t know what entertainment is forthcoming on C-Span 1&2 this week… I don’t know if I can watch any more of this.
I have to get ready for a middle-class uprising.
Related articles
- White House: Debt Ceiling Talks Moving Into ‘Difficult Days’ (huffingtonpost.com)
- The Phony Debt Ceiling Debate (jonathanturley.org)
- Hitting the Debt Ceiling Is Not the End of the World (dakotavoice.com)
- Politics Of Fear and Social Security… (nostone2011.wordpress.com)
- 8 Charts You Must see To Discuss The Debt Ceiling (businessinsider.com)
- “Super Congress” of 12 Proposed As Solution to Debt Ceiling Impasse (fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com)
- Boehner ends debt talks with Obama (money.cnn.com)
- Get Rid of the Debt Ceiling (localpaper.wordpress.com)
- S&P: Dark Scenario For US (247wallst.com)
- John Boehner Debt Ceiling Plan To Be Unveiled Monday (huffingtonpost.com)
- Did Obama refuse a bipartisan deal on the debt ceiling? (hotair.com)
An Essay by my good friend John Case…
Debt-ceiling Showdown: A test of Sanity
by John Case
John Case on WSHC's "Winners and Losers"
The so-called “debt ceiling” crisis is upon us. Unless the amount the US can borrow is raised, a second financial crisis looms, partial default on our debts, the furlough of 800,000 federal workers and contractors, cancelled
checks to millions of social security and medicare and medicaid clients, and a host of other evils. Th president has said his young children are performing better on their homework, than leaders in the Republican dominated House are on theirs. He’s called for all to leave ideology at the door as he convenes them again at the White House tomorrow. But the only ‘ideologists’ are the so-called Tea Party fanatics, who act as witting or unwitting flunkies for reactionary Ag-biz, Energy, Defense and some of Wall street interests — those planning to make a killing by ‘shorting’ the whole
economy as it tanks again — while striving to distract everyone with racist and nativist ‘dialogs’, keeping women barefoot and pregnant and calling it ‘religion’, and tagging unions not banks for the deepening crisis.Its becoming a test of sanity how long it takes all reasonable people to conclude that the Republican party has painted its teeth orange, turned right, and jumped off a cliff, to mangle an old Dylan lyric. Conservative NY Times columnist David Brooks calls a) threatening to bring on another financial crisis and “stain the honor of our country” over debt, and b) refusing to raise any tax whatsoever — acts that voters will and should repudiate.
“If the debt ceiling talks fail, independents voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don’t take control, independents will conclude that Republican fanaticism caused this default. They will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern. And they will be right”
Joseph Stiglitz
Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says the problem runs deeper than psychological challenges of leading Republicans. He calls the showdown over debt ceiling and the obsession of right wing leaders with even more austerity, alongside the stubborn refusal of the rich to pay even a penny tax — “the ideological crisis of western capitalism”.
What has happened is that the entire trickle-down, free market fundamentalist premises that began with the Reagan Administration and drove financialization for the past 30 years have been proven utterly false. Some call it neo-liberalism. In any event — its failing. Those clinging to the hollowed out ideology appear less and less lucid and more narcissistic. On a personal level, If not treated, this can become a personality disease we call “sociopathic behavior” — a life without conscience or sensitivity to any other beings.
The path ahead is toward more socialism to protect a fair distribution of wealth, and to restrain super high risk private corporate behavior and concentration, of power. “Too Big to Fail” means “Too Big to Remain in Private Control.”
More socialism does not mean the end of capitalism or markets. Competitive markets — that regulation insures remain competitive! — are democratizing. They are one known key to efficient — meaning productivity-enhancing — commodity production. They are an important, although hardly the only, factor in encouraging innovation.
Every generation re-invents and reproduces almost every facet of both public and private institutions and all relations of production and exchange, including social classes and the interactions of public and private
property. The “more socialism” of the next generation will not be the same public institutions that arose in the big 20th century expansion of public sector activities across the world. It will be smarter, more scientific, more resilient and less bureaucratic or centralized. We will find the ways to make public institutions and services more accountable to,, and closer partners with, the people they serve. And it will be global in scope.I predict sanity will prevail. We will make it through this storm, as a people, though I cannot say what the toll may be, except that all will be changed. There are crazed Captain Ahabs on the decks of our ships, and they are obsessed with a whale of their imagination, when a tsunami of monumental dimensions is approaching starboard.
Related articles
- Let’s Put Our Thinking Caps On, and Really Try to Figure Out the Best Way to Respond to This Argument (coordinationproblem.org)
- Stiglitz: The Ideological Crisis of Western Capitalism (economistsview.typepad.com)
- White House Debt Ceiling Summit Aims for Grand Deficit Bargain (usnews.com)
- Editorial: Make a deal on raising debt ceiling (knoxnews.com)
- Inequality Dampening Economic Recover (ritholtz.com)
- Politics hamper efforts to solve worlds debt crisis (theglobeandmail.com)
Quote of the Day – White House weighs in on Weiner…
Jay Carney
Asked what the White House thinks of the Weiner situation and whether or not it supports the Democratic leadership that wants the Congressman‘s resignation, Press Secretary Jay Carney said the following:
“We think it’s a distraction from the important business that this president needs to conduct and Congress need to conduct. Beyond that, I don’t have any comment.”
Carney also said that Weiner’s activity was inappropriate. On the news tonight (an NBC leap into the front line), President Obama said Weiner should resign.
Related articles
- White House Weighs In On Weinergate: ‘A Distraction,’ Behavior And Dishonesty ‘Inappropriate’ (mediaite.com)
- “The president feels, we feel at the White House, this is a distraction, as Congressman Weiner has…” (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
- Carney weighs in on Weiner (whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com)
- Carney on a scandal – W.H. won’t say Weiner must go (politico.com)
- White House calls Weiner a ‘distraction’ (nydailynews.com)
- White House: Weiner scandal is a ‘distraction’ (cnn.com)
Did you see Jon Ronson on the Daily Show last night?
As Jon Stewart interviewed him on his book, The Psychopath Test, I realized this is one I have to get.
Here’s a video of Ronson:
Related articles
2 Quotes for the Morning – both about the Unreality of John Boehner’s economic views.
The Orange Cryer has Flipped!
If you heard the Speaker make hos speech the other day then you know he is insisting on spending cuts before the debt ceiling can be raised. He is also pushing the classic Republican point of view on cutting taxes on the rich because they will invest in American jobs. Of course they haven’t in the last couple of years as their taxes were slashed.
Perhaps Boehner is not aware that the “trickle-down theory” didn’t work for Reagan or either one of the Bushes. Republicans have limited historic vision… primarily because it is the multimillionaires that provide their funds.
As James Rowley and Mike Dorning said on Bloomberg this morning:
“Boehner’s statement in his Wall Street speech that government spending ‘is crowding out private investment and threatening the availability of capital’ runs counter to the behavior of credit markets… Boehner also said the 2009 stimulus program ‘hampered job creation in our country,’ a view at odds with the Congressional Budget Office‘s findings last August. The stimulus package increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million and cut unemployment by between 0.7 percentage point and 1.8 percentage point, according to CBO.”
And Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post said:
“Even more alarming, because it has consequences beyond the debt-ceiling debate, is the incoherent, impervious-to-facts economic philosophy undergirding Boehner’s remarks.”
I suppose this means that, as long as we have Boehner sitting with his historical misinformation, we will have one hell of a time straightening out our economy.
Related articles
- Boehner Speaks On Debt Ceiling (npr.org)
- Rep. John Boehner holding America hostage over debt ceiling and spending cuts (crooksandliars.com)
- Rep. John Boehner Tells TODAY: Tax Increases Are ‘Off The Table’ (mediaite.com)
- Boehner contradicts self on debt limit, criticizes Bush Treasury secretary (americablog.com)
- Speaker Boehner: Tax hikes are ‘off the table’ (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Dear John (duanegraham.wordpress.com)
And the truth shall set you free… unless it is banned by religion.
NEW YORK – The photograph showing President Barack Obama and staffers in the White House Situation Room carefully watching the raid in progress by US forces in Pakistan on the bin Laden compound last Sunday has been published far and wide.
One Hassidic paper in Brooklyn, however, has chosen to alter the photo – excising Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and another female staffer from the picture.
First reported in the blog failedmessiah.typepad.com, the photoshopped picture was published in the Yiddish newspaper Der Zeitung (The Time) on Friday, with empty spaces where Clinton had been sitting and where the female staffer had stood.
- from The Jerusalem Post
If you used this picture, as we did here at Under The LobsterScope, you would have had to follow these rules…after all this is copyrighted material that the White House is allowing distribution of:
“This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, e-mails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.”
Der Zeitung’s Photoshopped reproduction removes Hillary Clinton and one other female staffer from the mix. Reason? Der Zeitung had no comment as to why it altered the picture, but the likelihood of women and men in the same working environment… a concern that it exemplified immodesty or showed strong feelings that women should not be in positions of power… violated an extreme religious position.
Whatever the reason, it is a violation of truth on the part of the Hassidim… odd because conservative Muslims have similar restrictions on women. And for that matter, as my wife pointed out, conservative Christians have restrictions on women, mostly body related, as well.
Some day it would be nice to get past all this stuff.
Off to DC this morning…
Elly and I are heading off the Washington DC this morning, first to have lunch with our son, Bud, at Chef Geoff’s, then to see him make a presentation at American University where he is a graduate student.
I probably won’t be back to the blog until quite late, but I’ll bring my laptop with me in case I find a WiFi area to check in from.
- Bill
Related Articles
- American University Students Celebrate (auambassadors.wordpress.com)
Hypocrisy – A Republican Medical Practice…
Let me take you back to last January in Congress. Kaiser Health News ran a story on Republican doctors who were elected to the House during the teabag push who were all pledging the destruction of the Affordable Care act:
Dr. Scott DesJarlais
When Scott DesJarlais heard the American Medical Association was backing the Democratic health care overhaul, he cut up his membership card. Now the Tennessee doctor, who was elected to the House last fall, can express his disdain for the law more directly by voting this week to repeal it.
Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn.
“People didn’t want this bill,” said DesJarlais, 46, who is a Republican.
He added a blunt warning to those who think the House repeal effort is an empty gesture: “I think the Senate needs to take it seriously and the White House needs to take it seriously or they’ll have to answer to the voters in two years.”
During a hard-fought campaign against four-term Democrat Lincoln Davis, DesJarlais denounced the law as a “smoke-and-mirrors ploy to implement socialized medicine.”
Socialized Medicine is a common complaint among Republicans… although few know what the phrase actually means. And this becomes clear with a news piece that came out yesterday:
DesJarlais’ office appears to be touting a successful health reform program. According to the Crossvile Chronicle, a representative from DesJarlais’ district office was on hand last week for a groundbreaking ceremony to hand over nearly $4.5 million in grant money — entirely funded by the Affordable Care Act — for the construction of a community health clinic in Cumberland County, Tennessee. (from Think Progress)
—
In addition to ending insurance company abuses, expanding coverage to 30 million people, and reining in individual health insurance market, the Affordable Care Act provides grants for community health clinics across the country. The $4,495,730 grant touted by DesJarlais’ staff is part of round of health reform funding that was announced last year.
And it’s not like this is the only case of Republicans taking advantage of the Affordable Care act which they swore up and down to repeal. Think Progress points out:
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV… as you know, now resigning to avoid being questioned on a sex scandal) asked for nearly $1 million in doctor training grants from the law. Meanwhile, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) sent a letter to the Obama administration asking for health reform money he called “critical” for his rural constituents.
So the dreaded Obamacare is actually something they are taking extreme financial advantage of for their state programs. Some see this as hypocritical - the disease of Republican hypocrisy over the Affordable Care act needs to be cured by their doctor/members. Oh wait… as DesJarlais proves, they are the ones who are most hypocritical.
