Spintested: 12/10/10

Obama-Clinton Briefing: Former President Endorses Tax Cut Deal (VIDEO)

Friday, December 10, 2010

Marcospinelli 41 minutes ago (1:06 AM)

Do you know all of this need for haste, speed, "gotta get it done before the Bush tax cuts expire, because the middle class's taxes will increase!"?

FYI - Come December 31st, the middle class tax cuts don't have to abruptly end.

Obama can direct the IRS to extend the middle class tax cuts if he so chooses.

There's no hard and fast cut off on that.

logicallylogical 18 minutes ago (1:29 AM)

"You really should educate yourself before making statements like this. Laurence O'donnell did a piece about how if this didn't get done by last week that the cuts would not be implemented by the time employees received their first paychecks. But I guess in your world the president can waive his wand and poof, things get done."

=====================================================

Lawrence O'Donnell, you say?

Do you remember the Marshall McLuhan scene in 'Annie Hall'?

Watch and learn, grasshopper: Just after 9:17

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Clinton Briefing: Former President Endorses Tax Cut Deal (VIDEO)

"You really should educate yourself before making statements like this. Laurence O'donnell did a piece about how if this didn't get done by last week that the cuts would not be implemented by the time employees received their first paychecks. But I guess in your world the president can waive his wand and poof, things get done."

=======================================================

Lawrence O'Donnell, you say?

Do you remember the Marshall McLuhan scene in 'Annie Hall'?

Watch and learn, grasshopper: Just after 9:17
About Bill Clinton
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Clinton Briefing: Former President Endorses Tax Cut Deal (VIDEO)

Of course Clinton could have vetoed it. Had it been overturned, at least he would have been on the record as having tried to save it.

But he would have had to have been against it to do that. And Clinton wasn't. To this day, Clinton supports the repeal of Glass-Steagall.

Of course he's responsible. His bad behavior wound up being the vehicle by which Republicans were able to forge ahead with their anti-populist agenda. Clinton's triangulating, his caring more about his own hide than the nation's, set the stage for what Bush and Cheney were able to do this past decade.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Robo-Signer Goes On The Attack, Threatens Foreclosure Defense Lawyers

Obama is dealing away FDR's legacy.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Espionage Act: How the Government Can Engage in Serious Aggression Against the People of the United States

Thom Hartmann on Julian Assange's and W!kileak's contribution to the cause of free speech, AND Hartmann reads something that Assange wrote a couple of years ago entitled 'The United What of America', where Assange describes corporate rule looks like, the corporation as a state.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Espionage Act: How the Government Can Engage in Serious Aggression Against the People of the United States

Here: W!k!leaks Samba
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Democrats Need to Back Obama

Does Dick Cheney have Michelle Obama's mother (and a member from each of every Democratic politician's family) chained to the walls of secret underground dungeons all over Washington/Virginia/Maryland?

Is the water in Washington being spiked with hallucinogenic drugs that makes politicos like Penn think they can really sell letting the Bush tax cuts continue seem like a great idea and deal?

Has everyone lost their minds?

This is a no-brainer, and yet these politicians talk as if we all are cr@zy.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

LIVE STREAM: My Filibuster of the Tax Deal

Do you know all of this need for haste, speed, "gotta get it done before the Bush tax cuts expire, because the middle class's taxes will increase!"?

FYI - Come December 31st, the middle class tax cuts don't have to abruptly end.

Obama can direct the IRS to extend the middle class tax cuts if he so chooses.

There's no hard and fast cut off on that.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Tax Cut Deal More Expensive Than Stimulus: CBO

"I am seriously peeved about the hedge fund managers making billions per YEAR geting away with being taxed at capital gains-"

=============================================

And look who benefits from that - Bill Clinton, and hedge fund traders Chelsea and her new husband, Mark Mezvinsky.

Bill's latest 'conflict of interest' in getting involved in this.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Clinton Briefing: Former President Endorses Tax Cut Deal (VIDEO)

These are also more reasons for why there have to be investigations and prosecutions into the collapse of our economy and the 'preemptive wars' policies -- Obama has to stop blocking these processes, because we can't go forward without looking back. Voters have to know what these politicians, with aspirations for higher office, are all about. We cannot make wise decisions, not about policies and not about the politicians making these policies and leading us without knowing what the h3ll happened.

Once Americans learn the role of both parties, and who these politicians really are and who they're aligned with, they will understand that both political parties are corrupt to the core and that the solution for our political and financial woes can only come from OUTSIDE of these parties.

The 'Powers That Be' got the best of all worlds when they swapped in Obama for Hillary in 2008 -- They got an unknown to continue the Clinton-Bush1-Bush2 policies which are pro-corporate, pro-war, anti-populist, 'New World Order' (outsourcing Americans' jobs to support the rich and investor class, and slashing social safety nets).
About Bill Clinton
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Clinton Briefing: Former President Endorses Tax Cut Deal (VIDEO)

The single-most important decision that any member of Congress can make is whether to give a president the authority to use military force against another nation.

Hillary claims that she did not discuss her vote to give Bush the AUMF with her husband. She claims she based her vote on Bush's claim that Iraq had WMD. We know from the NIE that it wasn't true, and that there were no legal grounds to attack Iraq. Not only was it illegal, taking Sadd@m out was bad policy, a bad strategy that would destabilize the entire region, open up a Pandora's box and have us in a quagmire for years and decades.

Bush, no f00L he (he and Cheney wanted Congress's heads on the line, too, should it all go bad), made that NIE available to all members of Congress. It was in a locked on the Hill (a table, chair and lamp in the room), an armed guard standing outside. You had to show your ID as a member of Congress and sign in to enter the room. Bush wanted a record of it.

Senator Bob Graham, who didn't vote to give Bush the AUMF (Authorization To Use Military Force against Iraq) was one of a handful who availed himself of the opportunity, and went to the room (we can't find out precisely who did read it because the sign-in sheet is classified ). After Graham read it, he told Hillary that she'd better get herself to the room & read it. When the existence of the NIE originally became known (during Plamegate) and the little room on the Hill, certain members of Congress were asked if they'd read it before their vote to AUMF. Hillary said she hadn't. She said she knew enough about Iraq and didn't have to read the NIE. She also said that she never discussed her vote or the situation with her husband.

It's important to realize that as a former president, Bill Clinton got the same PDB that George W. Bush got. He knew Bush was Iy!ng us into a war in Iraq, he backed Bush up; still does to this day. Is anybody seriously going to say that she & her husband didn't know the truth, that Bush & Cheney were about to spend us into servitude, push us into third world nation status, all the while the Clintons were making HUNDREDS of millions from hedge funds?

Keep all that in mind and remember that Hillary is a hawk and during the campaign, she was to the right of Obama on attacking Iran. Hillary is D!ck Cheney in a pantsuit on Iran.

KEEP READING
About Bill Clinton
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Clinton Briefing: Former President Endorses Tax Cut Deal (VIDEO)

Most Americans don't know the extent of the Clintons' corruption because of a corporate media that colludes with the 'show business' of politics, because it's a good way to distract us, the 'Unwashed Masses'.

In the weeks before the 2010 midterms elections, when Bill Clinton was campaigning for candidates in states where Obama's popularity is in the tank, not one reporter asked Clinton any question of substance (including about his signing Gramm-Leach-Bliley which repealed Glass-Steagall, and which he would do all over again if he had the chance). For the media to report on it, for reporters to ask those questions or report it, those who oppose the Clintons (Republicans, a Democratic competitor , etc.) have to raise it. The media does little if any investigative reporting anymore; just stenography and gossip of the politicians' s3x lives.

Had Hillary gotten the nomination (and worse, had she been elected), we would have seen a repeat of the Clinton administration and one '-gate' investigation after another. We would have heard about Bill's infidelities (he's never stopped fooling around, even during the 2008 campaign). Whether it's relevant or matters to you doesn't matter -- Republicans would be making the most of it and the media would be covering it 24/7.

KEEP READING
About Bill Clinton
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Clinton Briefing: Former President Endorses Tax Cut Deal (VIDEO)

Just like the real debate & assessment of Reagan hasn't happened, we've never assessed Clinton's true legacy.

Clinton's eliminating the social welfare safety nets, NAFTA, Glass-Steagle, the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, rendition, privatization, the sanctions & daily bombing of Iraq (& Clinton's 'Radioactive W@r') laid the foundation for what BushCheney did to decimate our nation.

As Alan Greenspan said, "Bill Clinton was the best Republican president we've had in a while."

The Clintons benefitted greatly from the repeal of Glass-Steagall (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act), which Bill Clinton signed into law at the end of his administration, and what's behind the economic meltdown. He made $100 million in the last ten years, and much more than that (unknown, secret, which is the nature of hedge funds) from his dealings with Yucaipa and Ron Burkle.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Republican Deal Could Mean Tax Hike For One In Three Workers

Same here. I'm an old well-connected liberal activist Democrat who has been fighting the DLC since it's creation.

I can tell you without any doubt that what Obama and the Democratic Party is counting on is that they have nothing to worry about from the base, that we will fall back in line because we "have nowhere else to go" (especially if they manage to make Sarah Palin the GOP's nominee in 2012).

I've been falling for that old canard, voting for the lesser of two ev!ls (DLC Democrats) since the DLC took over the Democratic Party in the late 1980s. And I was an old liberal then. The days of Democratic voters falling for the threats, & voting for Democrats because they're the lesser of two ev!ls are fast coming to an end. Americans are realizing that Democrats & Republicans are the same ev!l.

Obama, himself, (and Bill Clinton, too) had no trouble risking the loss of the Senate (and contributed to the loss of the House) when he worked to undermine the Democrats running in Florida & Rhode Island in the midterms.

I have watched the DLC take the Democratic Party farther to the right each election cycle, promising change & reform, blaming the lack of it on voters for not electing enough Democrats liberals progressives, all the while the party leaders are bankrolling pro-corporate DINOs over true liberals & cooperating with Republicans in Congress.

Never are the party leaders using the bully pulpit of their offices to educate or inform the American people as to the great traditions of liberal Democracy & how the People have prospered under liberal Democrats.

Currently, this DINO of a president has continued just about all of the Bush-Cheney policies & gone Bush-Cheney one better in several areas. Civil rights abuses that Bush & Cheney could only fantasize about, never dare try, Obama's doing.

How does any Democratic voter defend Obama after he asserts he has the right to k!ll any American citizen without due process or oversight? And Obama's 'preventive detention'? And Obama's claims of 'state secrets' to deny courts even look at his a$a$ination program?
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Republican Deal Could Mean Tax Hike For One In Three Workers

Did you look at the link I provided?

When people lose their jobs, they still have to eat. They still have to pay the bills. They still have mortgages. And when their houses gets foreclosed on, their credit gets destroyed.

And without good credit, you can't even rent.

Without good credit, you can't even get a job anymore.

You ask what more can be done and the fact is that very little is being done. The biggest and most effective way to save people's homes is a massive job stimulus. The "program after program" that you speak of are non-existent. Obama's HAMP is a joke. Obama literally and figuratively has choked and become Hoover.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Republican Deal Could Mean Tax Hike For One In Three Workers

By the way, come December 31st, the middle class tax cuts don't have to abruptly end.

Obama can direct the IRS to extend the middle class tax cuts if he so chooses.

There's no hard and fast cut off on that.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Republican Deal Could Mean Tax Hike For One In Three Workers

After hearing Obama's news conference the other day, what was coming out of his mouth, I was reminded of the movie, 'The Competition', with Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving competing in a prestigious piano competition.

Toward the end of the movie there's a scene where the conductor (Sam Wanamaker) throws a tantrum and tells Amy Irving that she can't just suddenly choose to play a different concerto (the piano she had already begun to compete on broke a string) while they're swapping out the broken piano for another one. When her teacher and her boyfriend challenge the conductor, demanding to know, "Why not?", he comes up with excuse after excuse, each shot down as either not true, not a problem, etc., until finally the conductor sniffs, "Well, maybe I'm not in a mood for the Profofiev Third!"

Amy Irving's teacher (Lee Remick) fixes him with a glare and says: "It costs extra to carve 'schmvck' on a tombstone, but you would definitely be worth the expense!"
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Republican Deal Could Mean Tax Hike For One In Three Workers

Obama-Republican Deal Could Mean Tax Hike For One In Three Workers

Marcospinelli 6 hours ago (3:20 PM)

Unless Obama takes to the road, stops the "compromisin'" talk, really pitches the People's needs and an economic policy that works for American workers and not the Bankers and the Defense Contractors, all that this is a tactic to set the liberals and progressives up for blame and the inevitable adoption of yet another great giveaway of Americans' resources on the backs of the People.

nana4g 2 hours ago (7:07 PM)

I'm not sure taking to the road will do it. Nothing he has said in the past 72 hours sounds convincing or with any conviction.

=====================================================

Obama claims that he's for ending Bush's tax cuts for the rich. He said at his news conference two days ago. He also said that the American people are on board. The polls back that up (Obama said it). It's just the Republicans in Congress who are not, Obama says, "John Boehner, Mitch McConnell".

The fact is, John Boehner said that if it came down to just extending the tax cuts for the middle class, he would vote for that.

We also know that what Obama is saying to defend his deal (that it contains things that Republicans don't like, but that Republicans "compromised" on, gave in on), isn't true. He listed things that were either Republican legislation to begin with or things that Republican voters have come to like and want; Republicans would face an angry base if those items (Earned Income Tax Credit, the college tuition tax credit, the Child Tax Credit, small business tax cuts, etc.) weren't in the deal.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama-Republican Deal Could Mean Tax Hike For One In Three Workers

3 million foreclosures so far in this meltdown; 11 MILLION MORE IN THE PIPELINE.

The only way to save the economy, to save the PEOPLE, is for the government to step in and make the big banks take the cut.

15 million families are about to face foreclosure.

WHERE IS OBAMA?

Why is Obama stepping in to give the richest 1% (it's actually 1%, not 2%) permanent tax cuts that have us borrowing another 1 TRILLION DOLLARS that We, the People (and our children, grand-children, great-grandchildren) will be paying for, but absent on this?

Oh, now I remember:

Obama says, "More Aggressive Anti-Foreclosure Efforts Would Help People Who Don't Deserve It."

Now we know who those "people" were that Obama said "don't deserve it" -- It's us. It's We The People. It's the 99% of Americans who aren't the uber-rich.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tom Brokaw To Obama: Stop Smoking

Send cartons of Newport 100s (soft pack) to:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bernie Sanders Filibuster: Senator Stalls Tax Cut Deal (LIVE VIDEO)

The 'Rule of Thumb' about when tax cuts make sense is, "When a nation's bills are paid".

When the nation is in surplus.

You don't go on vacation when you haven't paid the rent. You don't buy a Rolls Royce when you're living in your parents' garage. You don't buy Godiva chocolates when there's no food in the fridge or the cupboards to feed your kids.

When a tax cut requires a nation to borrow more money, adding to the deficit, increasing the national debt, that's robbing the People to give to the rich. Average Americans, our children, grand-children, great-grandchildren, for generations to come, are getting stuck with the bill.

Bush's tax cuts were sold to us as "job creators" - "They'd stimulate the economy". They didn't. The money for Bush's tax cuts had to be borrowed. The money is all gone. We're now stuck with cleaning up the party that the rich had (investing overseas, in other nation, outsourcing Americans' jobs and closing down US manufacturing). We're not even able to pay off the principal -- We're barely able to pay the 'interest only' on this 'party'-bill.

Working Americans are tired of paying for the parties of the rich. But it's even worse: We're not only paying for their parties, we're taking out loans so that they can stuff their mattresses. If I'm paying for bathtubs full of Dom Perignon, I'd better d@mned well be the one soaking in it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Democrats Need to Back Obama

The pushback we're finally seeing from Americans, the kind of uprising we're seeing by Democrats in Congress, is what real leadership (leaders who are on your side and fighting for you) waits for their entire lives.

When the polls are with you, when the people are up in arms, when every single member on your side of the aisle in the House votes 'No Confidence' in your plan, YOU RUN WITH IT!

But not Obama.

Because Obama is not on 'our' side.

This is what I've been talking about, how when Obama came into office with tons of political capital and a mandate for CHANGE, a filibuster-proof Democratic caucus, forward momentum and the wind at his back, he dug in his heels, did a 180-degree turn, and sloooooowed everything down to a crawl.

With 2 members of the Democratic caucus in the Senate at de@th's door (Kennedy & Byrd), Obama blew any chance of moving the Democratic agenda that had just won the 2008 election forward.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Democrats Need to Back Obama

Obama doesn't get tough with Republicans; only the Democratic Party's base.

This White House has been saying that "ending the Bush tax cuts is raising taxes" -- That's Republican spin. This is straight out of the Republicans' playbook.

Early on we saw David Axelrod on Hardball setting up the continuance of Bush's tax cuts:

"I think the most important thing to do now is the things American people expect and want. One is to make sure they don't wake up on January 1st with a very large tax increase because the tax cuts were scheduled to expire at that time and there's a great sense of urgency on the part of the president. I think that is shared on the part of the republicans to make sure that doesn't happen."

Obama, and now the media (who live on the phone with White House aides), are using the GOP'S talking points.

But why should we be surprised that Obama would use GOP talking points when just last week in the New York Times:

"Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat (Blue Dog = Republican)."

How should Obama say it? How would he say it if he wasn't a Blue dog?

"Democrats are stopping the flow of red ink, getting America's fiscal house in order, paving the way for job creation, restoration of the middle class and the possibility of wealth creation for all".

Obama's a quisling.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Small Business: Tax Cut Deal Won't Spur Hiring

During the last 20 years, home prices were increasing at ins@ne rates, and everybody was told that "Now is the best time to buy", and if they didn't buy, they would be priced out of home ownership (the American Dream) forever. Realtors and investment counselors and mortgage brokers, etc., all pushed home buying and stretching to buy more house than you could afford right at the moment because "it wouldn't always be that way -- You'll get raises in your job, and even if you didn't, the way that houses are appreciating, you can sell or refinance in a couple of years and still profit/be in the black."

The one common thread, the one gatekeeper to this was the Banker. When banks assumed the risk of loans and weren't able to turn around and sell what they'd gambled on (and in such a hidden way, too), they made sounder judgments about the applicants and the circumstances likely for repaying the loans they were handing out.

This didn't just happen. You may have been surprised by it, but nobody in any of these businesses were. Books were written before the meltdown, warning of it, but it all fell on deaf ears.
About Small Business America
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Small Business: Tax Cut Deal Won't Spur Hiring

"Your excusing the person who KNEW he made $2000.00 a month, but signed a loan with a mortgage payment of $1500.00....And his.(additional monthly expenses of $750.00..)
So 2000 minus 1500 is 500 minus 750 equals -250.00 who did they think was going to make up the difference, The mortgage fairy?"
================================================

Your understanding is both simplistic and inaccurate. Unfortunately, the truth is not something that can be explained in a sound byte.

It's obvious to me that you haven't researched the subject to learn precisely what occurred, because your explanation isn't what actually happened, and certainly isn't what happened to everyone (not even close to most) who's been foreclosed on.

Many of the people that you're talking about lost substantial down-payments and lifetime investments in their homes. They're wiped out, and it's through no fault of their own.

The reasons for their inability to keep up with paying range from ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages), balloon payments, job losses, job transfers, unforeseen expenses (like medical bills, car repairs/replacement, etc.), to refinancing of old mortgages, taking out second mortgages (for using as living expenses during the Bush years as inflation didn't keep up with cost of living, paying off bills like rising property taxes, middle aged workers lost their jobs because it was cheaper to hire younger workers, or to remodel/upgrade as investment, resale that never happened in this glut market, etc.), etc.

There are different ways that Americans try to get ahead, prosper, and the two top ways are through stocks and real estate.

Most Americans do not invest in the stock market. If they're invested in stocks, it's through their pension funds, 401ks, etc., but they haven't any idea how to play the market. And that's a good thing. It's gambling, and if you don't have it to lose, you shouldn't be doing it.

What's left for most people is real estate. Owning a home. Not throwing away rent money, which is paying for someone else to own property.

KEEP READING
About Small Business America
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

"My sincerest apologies for the non-denial denial. To directly answer your question, nobody is paying me to comment on Huffington Post articles. That would be the most awesome job ever, but unfortunately it is not to be."

============================================

That cinches it; you're a lawyer. [ ;-) ]

This is a good illustration for anyone following this thread on how to listen to politician-speak, and how voters have been led astray by Obama's weasely lawyer-speak. It is very similar to Bush-speak ("compassionate conservatism", "No Child Left Behind", Clear Skies Initiative", etc.), but that which took an army of speechwriters for Bush to do, Obama is able to do extemporaneously while chewing Nicorette).

In your case, still no "direct" answer.

What you claim not to be doesn't cancel out your being "an operative paid to spread disinformation, discourage, or in other words, tamp down any move that would benefit people over corporations". Or even a political operative paid to do other things, or an unpaid operative.

Of course you have as much business expressing (ig.nor.ant) opinions as anyone else -- This is still America, after all.

When I question what "business" you have doing it is as a way of determining your motivation for knowingly spreading disinformation that is not in the overall American People's interest or in the individual person's interest. Why would someone ig.nor.ant of the issues be advising others of what's not in their interests (and presumably yours, too), if you weren't to somehow prosper from it? Even after you've been corrected, informed of the facts, you're unmoved.

By the way, how is HP punditry "illustrious"?
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

Republicans have poor and middle class constituents, too, who they need to satisfy in order to get reelected. Republicans are t3rrified of them, because they're very well organized. The Republican base knows how to make their elected representatives jump -- Republicans hear from their poor and middle class constituents when they cut government services for the People, like Medicare. Republicans cave when Democrats hold their feet to the fire. [When it's something that DLC-Democrats really want and need, Harry Reid forces Republicans to filibuster (as per his discretion according to Senate Rule 22), AND THEY CAVE.]

Everything that Obama said that "Republicans are giving up" in this deal, Republicans either initiated or eagerly campaigned on because their supporters liked it and there would be h3// to pay for them if they were responsible for them ending:

OBAMA: And, as I said, there are a whole bunch of things that they are giving up. I mean, the truth of the matter is, from the Republican perspective, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the college tuition tax credit, the Child Tax Credit -- all those things that are so important for so many families across the country -- those are things they really opposed. And so temporarily, they are willing to go along with that, presumably because they think they can beat me on that over the course of the next two years.

'U.S. House Republican Leader John Boehner said he would vote for middle-class tax cuts sought by the Democratic Obama administration even if it means eliminating reductions for wealthier Americans'.

This is an absolutely wretched deal (but standard for Obama, with a long record of negotiating lousy deals on ordinary citizens' behalf); if Obama was in private practice and 'Lawyer Obama' had negotiated a deal like this for a client, he would be sued, successfully, for malpractice.

And, I don't "pre-judge"; I form opinions based on hard evidence.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

"It's entirely possible that they'd chicken out; I'm not claiming to be all-knowing,"

==========================================

When you don't know what you're talking about, you should be asking questions, NOT making definitive statements that you present as fact.

For you to believe that Republicans would "chicken out", you would have to be ig.nor.ant of history, of behavior, and incapable of logical reasoning and devoid of common sense.

The real question, and what Obama is trying to force Americans to swallow is this:

Was this deal, as Obama claims, the best deal We The People could hope to have gotten?

Not on your life.

KEEP READING
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

"As for Obama exerting control over the IRS, even if it's legal, that could also cause the GOP to abandon the rest of Obama's agenda."

===============================================

It's entirely legal; presidents have done it throughout the history of the US income tax system (begun in 1861, but officially as the IRS in 1913).
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

"Really, I'm flattered. Honestly, though, if anyone who's actually in a position to fight for change can be "obstructed" by a comment on a blog post, then I'd hardly say I'm the problem."

==========================================

Non-denial denial.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Small Business: Tax Cut Deal Won't Spur Hiring

Try this link:

Obama says, "More Aggressive Anti-Foreclosure Efforts Would Help People Who Don't Deserve It."
About Small Business America
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Small Business: Tax Cut Deal Won't Spur Hiring

Schmvck (you don't mind if I call you 'schmvck', do you?) -

The BANKS gave out big mortgages to people who the banks knew couldn't afford to make the payments, then the BANKS bet on that happening, sliced and diced those mortgages with other loans (student loans, car loans, appliance loans, etc.), RESOLD them 1000 different times (slicing and dicing them at each sale so that when We The People learned about this scheme it couldn't be traced and undone), and then you and I paid to bail the BANKS out!

When houses go into foreclosure in numbers like these, it affects EVERYONE -- The value of everyone's homes plummet. And as more houses go into foreclosure, more people lose their jobs, then more homes go into foreclosure because those people can't afford to make their mortgage payment.

Are you sort of, kind of, seeing the light?

You're either a rich banker or you're real happy that breathing is an automatic function, not something that you need to remember to do.
About Small Business America
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Small Business: Tax Cut Deal Won't Spur Hiring

Have you seen this? - Home Prices Falling Fast, Eroding American Wealth and Threatening Recovery

3 million foreclosures so far in this meltdown; 11 MILLION MORE IN THE PIPELINE.

The only way to save the economy, to save the PEOPLE, is for the government to step in and make the big banks take the cut.

15 million families are about to face foreclosure.

WHERE IS OBAMA?

Why is Obama stepping in to give the richest 1% (it's actually 1%, not 2%) permanent tax cuts that have us borrowing another 1 TRILLION DOLLARS that We, the People (and our children, grand-children, great-grandchildren) will be paying for, but absent on this?

Oh, now I remember:

Obama says, "More Aggressive Anti-Foreclosure Efforts Would Help People Who Don't Deserve It."

Now we know who those "people" were that Obama said "don't deserve it" -- It's us. It's We The People. It's the 99% of Americans who aren't the uber-rich.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Effort to Claim That Economists Support Obama's Capitulation on Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

Because you can't envision it, that's it?

I'm not really interested in what you see, dearie. You're either an operative paid to spread disinformation, discourage, or in other words, tamp down any move that would benefit people over corporations, or you're a timid, frightened little schlub who has no business 'advising' the American people on anything. Whichever it is, you need to get out of the way and stop obstructing those of us working to deliver on the CHANGE that Americans thought they were getting when they put Obama and Democrats into the majority.

The way it's done is to separate these items into separate bills and then let Republicans filibuster each and every one of them on the floor of the Senate.

Since you're so worried about Obama's schedule, and time running out, the fact of the matter is that time and the bully pulpit is on Democrats' side. Obama can ALWAYS direct the IRS to extend the middle class tax cuts. He has that power.

So which is it? Who's paying you?
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Home Prices Falling Fast, Eroding American Wealth And Threatening Recovery

3 million foreclosures so far in this meltdown; 11 MILLION MORE IN THE PIPELINE.

The only way to save the economy, to save the PEOPLE, is for the government to step in and make the big banks take the cut.

15 million families are about to face foreclosure.

WHERE IS OBAMA?

Why is he stepping in to give the richest 2% permanent tax cuts that have us borrowing another 1 TRILLION DOLLARS that We, the People (and our children, grand-children, great-grandchildren) will be paying for, but absent on this?

Oh I remember now!:

Obama says, "More Aggressive Anti-Foreclosure Efforts Would Help People Who Don't Deserve It."

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

I think Weiner has a point, but the only problem is, Obama doesn't have a whole lot of time to travel around and convince people to come around on this issue.
======================================================

Then it's not all that important, so we had better just let the Bush tax cuts expire.

Congress can put up a clean bill extending unemployment benefits for all unemployed, including the 99ers. And another clean bill of extending the middle class tax cuts, although letting the Bush tax cuts expire does more for the middle class and everyone (by cutting the deficit in half instantly, as soon as they expire) than extending them does.

And then there's the fact that Obama's Deal will Raise Taxes for Some Low-Income Workers
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Tax Cut Deal More Expensive Than Stimulus: CBO

The 'Rule of Thumb' about when tax cuts make sense is, "When a nation's bills are paid". When the nation is in surplus. You don't go on vacation when you haven't paid the rent. You don't buy a Rolls Royce when you're living in your parents' garage. You don't buy Godiva chocolates when there's no food in the fridge or the cupboards to feed your kids.

When a tax cut requires a nation to borrow more money, adding to the deficit, increasing the national debt, that's robbing the People to give to the rich. Average Americans, our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, for generations to come, are getting stuck with the bill.

Ten years ago, Bush's tax cuts were sold to us as "job creators" - "They'd stimulate the economy". They didn't. The money for Bush's tax cuts had to be borrowed. The money is all gone. We're now stuck with cleaning up the party that the rich had (investing overseas, in other nations, outsourcing Americans' jobs and closing down US manufacturing). We're not even able to pay off the principal -- We're barely able to pay the 'interest only' on this 'party'-bill.

Working Americans are tired of paying for the parties of the rich. But it's even worse with Obama's 'deal': We're not only paying for their parties, we're taking out loans so that they can stuff their mattresses . If I'm paying for bathtubs full of Dom Perignon, I'd better d@mned well be the one soaking in it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Major Dem Donors Plan To Withhold Funds Over Obama Tax-Cut Deal

To say that ending Bush's tax cuts is "raising taxes" is Republican spin. It's straight out of the Republicans' playbook. It was shocking to hear David Axelrod adopt Republican-speak a few weeks ago, not because I didn't know that Obama wasn't the progressive or even centrist Democrat that his 'most ardent admirers' believe him to be, but that he and his administration were no longer pretending to be anything remotely recognizable as Democrats. David Axelrod on Hardball setting up the continuance of Bush's tax cuts: "I think the most important thing to do now is the things American people expect and want. One is to make sure they don't wake up on January 1st with a very large tax increase because the tax cuts were scheduled to expire at that time and there's a great sense of urgency on the part of the president. I think that is shared on the part of the republicans to make sure that doesn't happen." Obama (and now the media who live on the phone with White House staffers) are using the GOP'S talking points. But why should we be surprised that Obama would use GOP talking points when just last week in the New York Times: "Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat (Blue Dog = Republican)." How should Obama say it? How would he say it if he wasn't a Blue dog? "Democrats are stopping the flow of red ink, getting America's fiscal house in order, paving the way for job creation, restoration of the middle class and the possibility of wealth creation for all".
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Major Dem Donors Plan To Withhold Funds Over Obama Tax-Cut Deal

The 'Rule of Thumb' about when tax cuts make sense is, "When a nation's bills are paid". When the nation is in surplus. You don't go on vacation when you haven't paid the rent. You don't buy a Rolls Royce when you're living in your parents' garage. You don't buy Godiva chocolates when there's no food in the fridge or the cupboards to feed your kids. When a tax cut requires a nation to borrow more money, adding to the deficit, increasing the national debt, that's robbing the People to give to the rich. Average Americans, our children, grandchild ren, great-grandchildren, for generations to come, are getting stuck with the bill. Bush's tax cuts were sold to us as "job creators" - "They'd stimulate the economy". They didn't. The money for Bush's tax cuts had to be borrowed. The money is all gone. We're now stuck with cleaning up the party that the rich had (investing overseas, in other nations, outsourcing Americans' jobs and closing down US manufacturing). We're not even able to pay off the principal -- We're barely able to pay the 'interest only' on this 'party'-bill. Working Americans are tired of paying for the parties of the rich. But it's even worse: We're not only paying for their parties, we're taking out loans so that they can stuff their mattresses . If I'm paying for bathtubs full of Dom Perignon, I'd better d@mned well be the one soaking in it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Major Dem Donors Plan To Withhold Funds Over Obama Tax-Cut Deal

We'd better hope not.

Hillary would be no better. She ran to the right of Obama. She co-founded the DLC with her husband and Joe Lieberman.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Major Dem Donors Plan To Withhold Funds Over Obama Tax-Cut Deal

Democrats and Republicans work on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. One side (Republicans) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric.

Once in power, Democrats consolidate Republicans' gains from previous years, and continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertising campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what We, the People thought they were.

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigans and all the different ways they've been tricked, and start seeing Democrats as no different than Republicans, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.

Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tailored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisan cooperation' demeanor. It's smirk-worthy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude, like that's somehow "a good thing".

Obama's 'job', as he sees it, is to deliver to the top 2%. No amount of begging, imploring, wishing, pleading with Obama is going to move him off of that.

Start shopping for 2012. And not in the Democratic Party -- It's been corrupted.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

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, all politicians (Democrats included), 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 believe what you will about Democratic politicians, but the fact is that the DLC controls the Democratic Party (the DLC is referred to as the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, the pro-corporate branch), and that Democrats in Congress and in the White House have signed on to privatizing public resources and utilities and deregulation. Democrats in Congress, despite all their campaign promises, have refused regulating and overseeing both the Bush and Obama administrations. As a result, wars are still being fought off-budget with defense contractors stealing us blind.

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.

What's gotten lost in the news cycle this week is Obama's new NAFTA-like treaty with S. Korea that means more Americans' jobs will be outsourced overseas. And then there's Obama's Cat Food Commission (the next step in gutting Social Security and Medicare), along with the Dream Act trotting along.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

Why politician s want a high deficit is so that they can create a fiscal crisis that forces cutting vital safety net programs.

It's what Grover Norquist (president of Americans for Tax Reform, and George W. Bush's once-a-wee k 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 (little c's) didn't understand what he was talking about: That what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs (Social Security, Medicare, etc.), and that will vindicate him as a "great conservative", a "great president" .

Democratic politicians knew this, by the way, and they let it happen. Why? Don't Democrats work for the People? Don't Democratic politicians like and support the Great Society programs?

The answer is yes, and no.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

Biden's no better. He's who Obama sent to the House to twist arms last night.

Nobody's resigning. Nobody is going to be impeached.

This is your government in action, both parties in league, to produce for their real bosses and constituents, the transnational corporations.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

The base of the Democratic Party, 70% of Democratic voters, did control the outcome of the midterms.

Liberals lost 3 seats in all. Democratic voters not showing up is what caused Blue Dogs and others to lose.

Obama can't win in 2012 without the base showing up. He knows this, and it's why I believe that no sooner did he get into the White House than he and Rahm Emanuel went after Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, two people with no official roles in the Republican Party. After the 2008 election, Republicans were on the mat, down for the count, and Obama pardoned them. He never, still doesn't, go after Republicans.

Obama did as much to elevate the Tea Party to prominence as the Koch brothers and Dick Armey. He's counting on Sarah Palin being the Republican Party's nominee in 2012, and running a campaign of fear. That's not just to get Democrats to show up to vote for him out of fear of Palin, but moderate Republican politicians and their supporters, too. He's hoping for crossover voting, in big waves.

I'm sure there will be more Osama Bin Laden tapes surfacing right before the election, along with thwarted t3rr0r attacks.

When you're talking about trillions of dollars that can be borrowed in the names of Americans and their children and then stolen, there are no lengths these politicians won't go to.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

Anyone who had a pulse in the past 20 years knows how Republicans have succeeded in getting what they want. Just watching BushCo this past decade should have awakened every citizen to the fact that
anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politicians and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks, don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the Democratic Party's nomination) and beat out the oldest, most experienced politicians in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politicians (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks?

They know how to do it and they know how to stonewall us when they don't want to do it (and keep a good portion of us still thinking they're really nice, would like to do it, but are merely inept).

Obama doesn't want to take this fight, or any fight, to the People. To recalcitrant Republicans' states. To John Boehner's and Mitch McConnell's backyards.

I don't know how anybody can still believe that Obama is on the side of the People.

After hearing Obama's news conference yesterday, I was reminded of the movie, 'The Competition', with Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving competing in a prestigious piano competition. Toward the end of the movie there's a scene where the conductor (Sam Wanamaker) throws a tantrum and tells Amy Irving that she can't just suddenly choose to play a different concerto (the piano she had already begun to compete on broke a string) while they're swapping out the broken piano for another one. When her teacher and her boyfriend challenge the conductor, demanding to know, "Why not?", he comes up with excuse after excuse, each shot down as either not true, not a problem, etc., until finally the conductor sniffs, "Well, maybe I'm not in a mood for the Profofiev Third!"

Amy Irving's teacher (Lee Remick) fixes him with a glare and says: "It costs extra to carve 'schmvck' on a tombstone, but you would definitely be worth the expense!"
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

If We The People are Obama's client, he's a bad negotiator.

If the rich and transnational corporations are Obama's client, then he's masterful. He manages to consistently get amazing deals for them, on their behalf.

The real question, and what Obama is trying to force Americans to swallow is this:

Was this deal, as Obama claims, the best deal We The People could hope to have gotten?

Not on your life.

Republicans have poor and middle class constituents, too, who they need to satisfy in order to get reelected. Republicans are t3rrified of them, because they're very well organized. The Republican base knows how to make their elected representatives jump -- Republicans hear from their poor and middle class constituents when they cut government services for the People, like Medicare. Republicans cave when Democrats hold their feet to the fire.

Everything that Obama said that "Republicans are giving up" in this deal, Republicans either initiated or eagerly campaigned on because their supporters liked it and there would be h3// to pay for them if they were responsible for them ending:

OBAMA: And, as I said, there are a whole bunch of things that they are giving up. I mean, the truth of the matter is, from the Republican perspective, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the college tuition tax credit, the Child Tax Credit -- all those things that are so important for so many families across the country -- those are things they really opposed. And so temporarily, they are willing to go along with that, presumably because they think they can beat me on that over the course of the next two years.

'U.S. House Republican Leader John Boehner said he would vote for middle-class tax cuts sought by the Democratic Obama administration even if it means eliminating reductions for wealthier Americans'.

This is an absolutely wretched deal (but standard for Obama, with a long record of negotiating lousy deals on ordinary citizens' behalf); if Obama was in private practice and 'Lawyer Obama' had negotiated a deal like this for a client, he would be sued, successfully, for malpractice.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner: Obama Sees Presidency More As 'Negotiator-In-Chief' Than 'Leader Of Our Country' (VIDEO)

Marcospinelli 6 hours ago (3:20 PM)

Unless Obama takes to the road, stops the "compromisin'" talk, really pitches the People's needs and an economic policy that works for American workers and not the Bankers and the Defense Contractors, all that this is a tactic to set the liberals and progressives up for blame and the inevitable adoption of yet another great giveaway of Americans' resources on the backs of the People.

nana4g 2 hours ago (7:07 PM)

I'm not sure taking to the road will do it. Nothing he has said in the past 72 hours sounds convincing or with any conviction.

=====================================================

Obama claims that he's for ending Bush's tax cuts for the rich. He said so yesterday at his news conference. He also said that the American people are on board. The polls back that up (Obama said it). It's just the Republicans in Congress who are not, Obama says, "John Boehner, Mitch McConnell".

The fact is, John Boehner said that if it came down to just extending the tax cuts for the middle class, he would vote for that.

We also know that what Obama is saying to defend his deal (that it contains things that Republicans don't like, but that Republicans "compromised" on, gave in on), isn't true. He listed things that were either Republican legislation to begin with or things that Republican voters have come to like and want; Republicans would face an angry base if those items (Earned Income Tax Credit, the college tuition tax credit, the Child Tax Credit, small business tax cuts, etc.) weren't in the deal.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

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Friday, December 10, 2010

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