Michael Bloomberg & Joe Scarborough: The Independent Odd Couple

Are your non-abusive posts disappearing?

There may be a rogue m0d2 in our midst. 

Here's the problem (and how some abusive HP commenters are getting to be m0d2s and scrubbing comments they don't like): 

The system can be scammed by setting up an account from which to intentionally offend and another to earn higher status by flagging it. 

You create 2 or more 'sock' accounts here at HP. In one of the accounts, you post abusive comments, and in another you flag them until the HP system rewards you with a m0d2 status. 

Then the trouble starts. 

The only way to identify and remove the abusive m0d2 is by reporting it. The internal m0ds can track the URL back to the abuser. 

Rogue m0d2s can be eliminated by reporting them. They attack after the internal m0ds have cleared a comment and posted it. When a comment vanishes, act quickly on reporting it. You'll be defending the entire thread, not to mention democracy, the first amendment, freedom, the American way, & all life continuing on the planet. ;-) 

What Should I Do If My Posts Are Disappearing?:

If you have a legitimate post scrubbed, go to your welcome page and select the "my activity" tab. Your post will be there. Above it is a color highlighted link ("commented"). Click on it to confirm your post's deletion. If it has been deleted, go back and copy the highlighted link. At the bottom of any page you will find a "contact us" link. Open it and select the link under "Report a technical problem". A menu will open; paste your copied link in the URL box and make your report. The offending deleter will be reviewed and may lose their m0d2 status and their HP account.

As a back-up, consider sending a physical hard copy with screen shots (as emails can be easily deleted before anyone can see them) to:

H.u.f .f .i .n .g .t. o. n Post 
560 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

Thank Hokeysmokes for the information.
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Bush Breaks Ground On Presidential Center In Texas

Why are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney being allowed to crawl back into polite society to rehabilitate their images and the Bush and Cheney family names, and spread revisionist history about 9/11?

Why aren't they having to spend 24/7 with their lawyers, working on a way to stay out of prison?

Oh, that's right, I forgot: Because Obama and the DLC-Democrats have blocked all investigations and prosecutions into Bush-Cheney and Republicans, and have allowed them to resurrect themselves and take back control over government.

And because of Obama's failure to restore the Constitution and return us to the rule of law, by holding Bush, Cheney, et al, accountable, JEB Bush was all over the news on election night as the man behind Florida's new Tea Party Senator, Marco Rubio. So expect a Jeb Bush run at the presidency in the not-to-di tant-future. Perhaps with Liz Cheney on the ticket with him.

This is Obama's fault -- The buck stops squarely at his feet.

When Obama came into power, the GOP wasn't on the ropes; it was down for the count because of the devastation that Bush-Cheney had caused the nation. And Obama issued Bush-Cheney and Republicans (essentially) a pardon.  None of them express any remorse or contrition.  As a matter of fact, they're rested and ready for another round of tax cuts for the rich and slicing-and-dicing Social Security, Medicare, and anything else they can get their hands on that would help the People.

And even now, Obama wants to continue to make nice with them, cave some more, water down Democratic values & legislation.

Obama's not any kind of real Democrat; he's a DINO.

And if you didn't like the Republican Party of the last 35 years, the party of Reagan (forget just the past 10), you're going to hate where Obama and the DLC are taking the 'new & improved' Democratic Party from which they hope "to govern for 100 years".  

And last week's release of the chairmen of the Deficit Commission's recommendations was the opening salvo for a plan that will get adopted -- Cutting Social Security benefits, raising the age, and privatizing the Social Security trust fund, whole or in part (Democrats have already signaled they're amenable to it).  Obama's already announced that if 14 of the 18 can agree on a plan, he's on board, and there are already more than 14 on the commission that support privatization.  

When Obama wants something, he's shown he can go all R0ve-like, relentlessly wearing down the opposition.  The problem is that he and the DLC-controlled Democratic Party don't want what the Democratic voters put them into power to get.
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Michael Bloomberg & Joe Scarborough: The Independent Odd Couple

The fact that Howard Fineman would write about this 'couple' (and that AH would publish it) says more about that "odd couple" (HF + AH) not being right in the head.

The reason we have endless political campaigns (beginning the day after an election) is because the  national media covering Washington has the attention span of a litter of puppies.
About Elections 2012
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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

Democratic House leader (DCCC),  congressm­an Chris Van Hollen made an interesting parsing slip on CNN [searchword: "partial"]­ about that very point (he never was the brightest color in the box -- Democratic voters are d00med if this is the future leadership of the party).

Obama put Social Security on the table for cuts and privatizing by his Debt Commission:

Obama Packs Debt Commission with Social Security Looters:

Obama has filled his new 'debt commission' with Wall Street insiders determined to gut Social Security

Obama Packs Debt Commission With Social Security Privatization & Benefit Cut Supporters

Meet Obama's Deficit Commission Appointee David Cote - the Most Dangerous Man in America

You don't put Social Security on the table at all before a 'Deficit Commission' (it's not in danger of going broke, to begin with) or put people like this on your commission if you weren't signaling that you're open to doing it. 

Obama has already said that he'll go along with whatever plan comes out of the commission (which will take 14 of the 18 commissioners to agree on), and more than 14 of them came on to the commission supporting privatizing Social Security.
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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

Do you know how many Senate seats are up in 2012?
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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

The Chinese.  The Japanese.  The Saudis.  

That's who is "investing" in this country.
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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

No, billy, I love the American people and this country.  Obviously you love Obama more.
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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

If Bush's tax cuts are allowed to expire as they are set to on December 31st, the deficit would be cut in half, instantly.   

If the tax cuts are continued for the rich, we would have to borrow $700 billion to pay for it.

If the tax cuts are continued for everyone, we would have to borrow $3 trillion to pay for it.

And if there is a 2-year extension "compromise", we would still have to borrow $70-140 billion for the rich's portion and $383 billion for the middle class's portion.

Obama is expanding the wars into Yemen.

Where's the money coming from?

Obama and Democratic leadership have already indicated they're on board with Social Security cuts, privatizing, etc.

There should be tax HIKES on corporations and the rich.  There should be massive cuts to the military.  Banks should be threatened with nationalization unless they begin lending to small businesses.
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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

Right after the election, the Obama administration’s Bureau of Labor Statistics proudly trumpeted that the economy had added 151,000 new jobs in October. President Obama, about to head off to India, land, where many American jobs have moved for good, made it sound like maybe the American economy had finally turned a corner. The news led to a jump in the stock market and everyone breathed a sigh of relief, because finally, we had a number that was greater than the 100,000 new jobs that we have been repeatedly told are needed “just to keep pace with the new workers who join the labor force every month.”

Only the number is a fraud. It turns out that this job number is a fictional construct created by BLS statisticians who are using outdated estimates for the number of new small businesses supposedly created every month, and also outdated estimates for the number of small businesses that go bankrupt every month. The reality is that in this deep recession, few new businesses are being started. No surprise there. It takes capital to start a business, and banks aren’t lending these days, especially to risky new start-ups. The reality too is that existing small businesses are folding at a high rate. The pace of bankruptcies of small companies is down from the record 2009 level, but is still extremely high by historical standards.

The real story on employment is told by the BLS’s household survey, which is taken every month and looks at 60,000 randomly selected households. That survey shows that far from the US economy adding jobs, 330,000 jobs were lost in October.

Read more here

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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

When politicians say that "Social Security is the third rail of politics", they mean it with a hostility that should be reserved for their Corporate Masters.  You don't see politicians putting campaign finance and election reform on their agenda from year to year as you do their continuing assaults on social safety net programs for the People.

To politicians, We The People are the problem.  If only they didn't have to deal with making us happy to get our votes that keep them employed.  If only they didn't have to serve us, they'd be able to give and give and give to Big Business (privatize national resources that belong collectively to us, the People) and deregulate so that corporations wouldn't be constrained by anything, become profit-making machines, unobstructed by piddling voter concerns, such as  health, safety, environment, etc.  And for this, politicians would be amply rewarded, and perhaps would eventually be able to join the ruling class.

You can choose to think of Obama and his intentions in whatever way makes you happy.  What you can't do is explain how any of what Obama's done these past two years has been in the People's and not the Corporations' interests.
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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

If Bush's tax cuts are allowed to expire as they are set to on December 31st, the deficit would be cut in half, instantly.   

If the tax cuts are continued for the rich, we would have to borrow $700 billion to pay for it.

If the tax cuts are continued for everyone, we would have to borrow $3 trillion to pay for it.

And if there is a 2-year extension "compromise", we would have to borrow $70-140 billion for the rich's portion and $383 billion for the middle class's portion.

Politicians WANT a high deficit so that they can create a fiscal crisis that forces us to cut vital safety net programs.  It's what Grover Norquist (president of Americans for Tax Reform, and George W. Bush's once-a-week lunch buddy for the 8 years of the Bush-Cheney Administration) meant when he said,"Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub."
During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaigning on tax cuts, "Got to get the money out of Washington", I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society. I was writing about conservatives frustration over their attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs, and their understanding that no politician would be able to end Social Security head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy, that there would be no money left in Social Security, and that's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the White House after the contentious 2000 election (when Republicans stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war". 

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservative in history.

Even conservatives didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicating him. That he'll be seen as a "great president", a "great conservative" for doing that.

Not one reporter asked him.  They still don't, as he makes his rounds on his book tour.

Democratic politicians knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.

KEEP READING
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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

When politicians says that "Social Security is the third rail of politics", they mean it with a hostility that should be reserved for their Corporate Masters.  You don't see politicians putting campaign finance and election reform on their agenda from year to year as you do their continuing assaults on social safety net programs for the People.

To politicians, We The People are the problem.  If only they didn't have to deal with making us happy to get our votes that keep them employed.  If only they didn't have to serve us, they'd be able to give and give and give to Big Business (privatize national resources that belong collectively to us, the People) and deregulate so that corporations wouldn't be constrained by anything, become profit-making machines, unobstructed by piddling voter concerns, such as  health, safety, environment, etc.  And for this, politicians would be amply rewarded, and perhaps would eventually be able to join the ruling class.

You can choose to think of Obama and his intentions in whatever way makes you happy.  What you can't do is explain how any of what Obama's done these past two years has been in the People's and not the Corporations' interests.
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Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

Exactly.

During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaigning on tax cuts, "Got to get the money out of Washington", I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society. I was writing about conservatives frustration over their attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs, and their understanding that no politician would be able to end Social Security head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy, that there would be no money left in Social Security, and that's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the White House after the contentious 2000 election (when Republicans stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war". 

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservative in history.

Even conservatives didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicating him. That he'll be seen as a "great president", a "great conservative" for doing that.

Not one reporter asked him.  They still don't, as he makes his rounds on his book tour.

Democratic politicians knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Trumka Willing To 'Accept The Consequences' Of Holding The Line On Ending Wealthy Tax Rates

FYI -

If Bush's tax cuts are allowed to expire as they are set to on December 31st, the deficit would be cut in half, instantly.   

If the tax cuts are continued for the rich, we would have to borrow $700 billion to pay for it.

If the tax cuts are continued for everyone, we would have to borrow $3 trillion to pay for it.

And if there is a 2-year extension "compromise", we would have to borrow $70-140 billion for the rich's portion and $383 billion for the middle class's portion.
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Investigate the TSA, Not Tyner

And continued under the current government controlled by Obama and the Democrats.
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Investigate the TSA, Not Tyner

Add to this: [t]he warrantless border seizure of the laptop and cellphone of a Bradley Manning supporter for the crime of visiting Manning in prison, The New York Times today editorializes in favor of greater restrictions on such searches and writes:

There is also a big difference between government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, and searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers, financial records, e-mail messages and Web site visits. . . .
The George W. Bush administration first authorized border agents to seize and view the contents of laptops, smartphones, and other devices and copy and share data with other government agencies without need for any individualized suspicion of wrongdoing.
The Obama administration has tweaked the policy, requiring approval from supervisors to hold a seized device for more than five days, for example. The fundamental flaw remains: it permits the government to engage in indiscriminate and invasive fishing expeditions.

This is the Change, the "tweaking", that Obama has brought to the nation in these areas:  we're going to keep in place and aggressively enforce George Bush's unfettered laptop seizure policy for Americans, but our Goodness is reflected by our new requirement that some low-level unaccountable "supervisor" somewhere give their approval if we want to keep the citizen's seized property for more than five days.  Well, just as long as some unseen "supervisor" agrees that my seized, searched and downloaded laptop can be permanently stolen by the Federal Government and all its data permanently stored and shared even in the absence of a whiff of suspicion that I've done anything wrong, then I'm satisfied.

http://www­.salon.com­/news/opin­ion/glenn_­greenwald/
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Michele Bachmann Open To Bush Tax Cuts Compromise -- But Only If Not Tied To Unemployment Benefits Extension (VIDEO)

I'm an old liberal FDR Democrat.

I'm against privatization of government, and for regulated capitalism (like Naomi Klein, I'm for a mixed economy). I'm for ending tax breaks and incentives for outsourcing.  I'm for reinstating the corporate tax rates of the 1960s.  I'm for ending corporate personhood, and am for public financing of elections, and for the League of Women Voters taking over the presidential debates again.  

I'm for social safety nets; those we have, those we've had, and others which we would have had had it not been for the Reagan "revolution", and which would have come in handy during tough times like this, and which might have prevented this meltdown from happening at all. I'm for clean & green sustainable energy (No Nuclear) and SMART building (No Suburban Sprawl), & massive public works projects for the 'Common Good', nationalizing utilities and commodities.  

I'm for public healthcare (single payer universal) and, most of all, I'm for education. Free to all, all the way, baby!
About Bush Tax Cuts
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Michele Bachmann Open To Bush Tax Cuts Compromise -- But Only If Not Tied To Unemployment Benefits Extension (VIDEO)

If Democrats cave and extend Bush's tax cuts, as we hear is happening, would that be Democrats working for the People or the Corporations?
About Bush Tax Cuts
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Michele Bachmann Open To Bush Tax Cuts Compromise -- But Only If Not Tied To Unemployment Benefits Extension (VIDEO)

Dems do not do group think too well.
==========­==========­========

So you think they're willing to vote against their own (Democratic) interests  and wander off to vote for Republican legislation because of Attention Deficit Disorder?

Or because Republican legislation is really what they (Democratic politicians) agree with?
About Bush Tax Cuts
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New Lawmakers Hit Fundraising Circuit 'Before They Even Find The Bathrooms'

That's a broad range of ineptness there, but no corruptness.  No possibility that Democratic politicians might actually want Republicans' legislation (for both themselves and the corporate masters who Democrats serve), but they have a constituency (voters) whom Republican legislation doesn't serve?

If it's ineptness, will you return them to office?
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New Lawmakers Hit Fundraising Circuit 'Before They Even Find The Bathrooms'

Why do you think they won't even try?

Because they're lazy?

Because they secretly support Republican legislation?

Because?
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GOP Wants To Strip Fed Of Power To Combat Joblessness

So then you support Republican legislation.  You think Republican legislation is good for the "health, safety, and economic well-being of the American people".
About The Fed
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GOP Wants To Strip Fed Of Power To Combat Joblessness

If the compromise was good for some Democratic special interest groups (let's say those Democratic voters who make over $250,000/year), but didn't go far enough, didn't benefit most or all of other Democratic special interest groups, would you support the compromise? 
About The Fed
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Michele Bachmann Open To Bush Tax Cuts Compromise -- But Only If Not Tied To Unemployment Benefits Extension (VIDEO)

Do you think that Democrats will be as effective at thwarting the Republicans as the Republicans have been in thwarting Democrats?

If you think, "No, Democrats won't be as effective at blocking Republicans," why not?
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GOP Wants To Strip Fed Of Power To Combat Joblessness

Do you think that Democrats will be as effective at thwarting the Republicans as the Republicans have been in thwarting Democrats?

If you think, "No, Democrats won't be as effective at blocking Republicans," why not?
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