$100 Million ATM Receipt Found In Hamptons, Said To Belong To David Tepper
The most BS argument to date: "The cuts and the pain must be shared by all".
It presumes that the poor and the middle classes haven't born the brunt of what Republican
It presumes that the pain of losing a few million dollars when you have hundreds of millions, even billions, is equivalent to the pain of not knowing where your next meal is coming from, or losing the roof over your head and sleeping in your car or on the street. It presumes that the rich have sacrificed anything at all, when, in fact, they're making money hand-over-
What's happened to the American people was the greatest heist in the history of the world (2007, the economic meltdown) ON TOP OF a longer term and steady rip-off of Americans' self-inves
Where are the investigat
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Kaiser Poll Finds Many Unaware of Health Reform Medicare Provisions
How do you think that a single payer system in Vermont, with fewest number of citizens next to Wyoming (about 600,000) and the oldest population in the nation is going to bring the costs of healthcare in Vermont, much less in other states (and nationwide
That's why the idea of state exchanges (not even a nationwide federal one) was another BS misdirecti
How many years, by the way, do you imagine it would take for this to "spread" to other states?
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Kaiser Poll Finds Many Unaware of Health Reform Medicare Provisions
You think it makes medical treatment more affordable
It's done nothing to bring costs down. As a matter of fact, costs of everything
There are no mechanisms to lower the costs.
That being said, I'm terribly sorry to hear about your son. You need to remain vigilant and active to get single payer in, and that's not going to happen with Obama in the White House. That was the deal he made, by the way: No public option, no method by which costs could be contained. It's an absolute crime that there are people who think this legislatio
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Kaiser Poll Finds Many Unaware of Health Reform Medicare Provisions
Getting affordable quality medical care to all was what Obama and Democrats were put into power to accomplish
Obama dropped calling it "healthcar
Then Nancy Pelosi dropped both terms ("healthca
If it was about getting affordable quality medicare care to everyone, and everyone is paying for it, WHY should we pay 39 + percent in profits to private corporatio
That's what we should have been discussing
But Obama took SinglePaye
That's not a straight shooter; that's a corrupt public official in bed with Big Insurance and PhRma.
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Kaiser Poll Finds Many Unaware of Health Reform Medicare Provisions
The kind of care Gabrielle Giffords got and is getting is NOT the kind of care Obama's healthcare legislatio
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Kaiser Poll Finds Many Unaware of Health Reform Medicare Provisions
Having health insurance is not the same thing as getting medical treatment.
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Tim Geithner: 14th Amendment Says Debt 'Shall Not Be Questioned'
Talk of Democratic politician
Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-contro
If the Bush years taught us anything, it's 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 Rove were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush and Rove were just more ruthless in doing what politician
Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination
Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.
The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to achieve our alleged shared objectives.
Getting Democratic voters (and Obama's 'most ardent supporters
About Deficit
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Tim Geithner: 14th Amendment Says Debt 'Shall Not Be Questioned'
Getting “Tough” in the Debt Ceiling Debate Means More Than Words
I’m getting tired of the hand-wringing on the left about how unreasonab le Republican s are being and how “strong” Obama was yesterday. Of course Republican s are being unreasonab le: they’re threatenin g to blow up the global economy rather than raise taxes on rich people in an era of historical ly-low taxes for rich people.
Does anyone expect crazy people to act any other way but crazy?
And I’m sorry, I don’t think stating the obvious — that Republicans would rather take money out of the mouths of hungry children so that rich people can buy a few more baubles — is “tough.”
What I want to start seeing is what Obama should do. And it’s kind of depressing that the best answers I’ve found so far come from DavidFrum:
3) Why for that matter is Obama surrendering to the demand to change the subject from jobs to deficits? Surely Obama believes that rapid budget-cut ting will be deflationa ry? And therefore irresponsi ble in the context of 10% unemployme nt, near-zero inflation, and 1% interest rates on federal debt? Why has he allowed himself to be pushed into measures he regards as irresponsi ble?
4) Beyond that why isn’t he yelling his head off about the Republican default threat? Why isn’t he being specific about what it could mean? And why isn’t he doing what LyndonJohnson would do – making it clear that if H-Hour does arrive, he’ll use disburseme nt power just as politicall y as Republican s are using the power of the debt ceiling: eg, paying Medicaid bills from Blue states first, Red states later? Paying farmers and other Republican constituen cies with IOUs, while hoarding cash for Democratic voters?
Or, he could just declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional and tell the GOP to go eff themselves . Now that would be “tough.”
Can’t anyone in the WhiteHouse play this game?
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CIA Interrogation Deaths: Justice Department To Investigate Deaths Of Two Detainees
Two Dead Detainees May Get Justice. The Other 99 Will Not.
And there's more.
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Ed Rendell Calls Outlines Of Debt Ceiling Deal A 'Road Map To Disaster'
Social Security Benefits Cuts Are in the Mix in Debt Ceiling Negotiatio
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President Obama Talks Jobs
Arrests of top bankers finally begin ... in Afghanista
While Afghanistan is hardly a model of the rule of law -- the arrests were effectuate d by a corrupt government under severe pressure from outside factions on which they financiall y rely -- it's nonetheles s true that in the U.S., even that minimal level of accountabi lity seems impossible:
In November 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder vowed before television cameras to prosecute those responsible for the market collapse a year earlier, saying the U.S. would be “relentles s” in pursuing corporate criminals.
In the 18 months since, no senior Wall Street executive has been criminally charged, and some lawmakers are questioning whether the U.S. Justice Department has been aggressive enough after declining to bring cases against officials at American Internatio nal Group Inc. (AIG) and Countrywid e Financial Corp. . . .
"Can that many companies have collapsed -- large financial firms -- and not one criminal case comes out of it?" said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who previously was a federal prosecutor and attorney for the SEC. "That seems to go against the norm of the savings-and-loan crisis, and the accounting frauds 10 years ago."
Some of the biggest Wall Street firms rebounded from the crisis stronger than ever. Goldman Sachs’s 2009 profits were a record for the firm and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)'s earnings in 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 have been at an all-time high.
A bitter cynic might suggest that such prosecutions have not happened because both political parties are desperatel y competing for Wall Street cash for the 2012 election, and nothing would doom the incumbent party's chances more than holding Wall Street royalty accountabl e, along with the fact that the top levels of government are suffused with former bank officials and lobbyists -- but everyone knows that American justice isn't politicize d that way, so that can't be it (just like everyone knows that political considerat ions played no role whatsoever in the presidenti al shield of immunity lavished on high-level Bush officials) .
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
I never advise people to sit out elections, because if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. It's what p!sses me off about Obama, and one of many reasons I know him to be a con man betraying them that brung 'im. Because by shutting out liberals, the base, from his administra
A 'Tea Party'-lik
Unless Obama drops out, the only challenges to him will come from outside the Democratic Party (Republica
Michael Lerner's very powerful case for primarying Obama.
Ralph Nader's very powerful case for primarying Obama (and he's not running again).
Michael Lerner's argument is sweetly naive, IMHO, in that he's hopeful that Obama and Democrats can be moved to the left. I don't think that's true anymore. I think the party and the culture of Washington
I tell people that they're not limited to voting for just Democrats and Republican
They'd better start doing it because with each passing day it becomes impossible to turn it all around.
Does that answer your question?
About Barack Obama
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
That's a great question and I point to the frequent comment we see around here, "Voting for a third party is throwing away your vote (or insuring that Republican
I've worked for decades to break the DLC's control of the Democratic Party because it's easier to work within the system (within the Democratic Party) than to convince 50 million voters individual
There comes a time when there's a tipping point. When people get it, a lightbulb moment. It happened in 2008 with Obama's candidacy, but unfortunat
So I'm operating on several fronts. One of them is hope that, perhaps, enough people become galvanized to work within the system, take back the Democratic Party from the DLC, and get real populist candidates and policies. That's the quickest solution to the problems we're facing. But in the absence of that happening and as an old, OLD liberal Democrat who has never voted for a Republican
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About Barack Obama
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)
Rachel Maddow talking with Obama's director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcemen
Part 1:
http://www
Part 2:
http://www
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)
As far as your contention that "drilling permits have been slow", new permits shouldn't have been issued at all!
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Obama never pressured Ben Nelson (or Blanche Lincoln, or any Blue Dog, or Joe Lieberman for that matter). The Democratic leadership could've taken away committee chairs (Blanche Lincoln's, too) of members in their caucus that filibuster
The DNC could've taken away reelection funds. They didn't.
Reid could've actually forced Republican
The Progressiv
Obama DID unleash the attack dogs to go after Howard Dean when Dean said it was a lousy bill. Dean was then forced to get back into line. Obama went after Kucinich, the last remaining holdout on the Progressiv
There is nothing that Lieberman (or Nelson or Lincoln) is doing that Obama hasn't ordered. Obama & the DLC-Democr
And the proof of this is that when Obama needed Nelson re: Stupak amendment, he 'bought' his support. That's what Obama could have done for Nelson's or Lincoln's or Lieberman'
There could be 100 "progressi
Obama and the DLC worked their butts off to PREVENT more progressiv
Blue Dog Blanche Lincoln over progressiv
Republican
Republican
Republican
Republican
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Lynn Woolsey, head of the Progressiv
Democrats have had the ability to accomplish putting the wars on budget (and thus end the wars) since they took over control of Congress in 2006 and haven't done it. They haven't needed Republican
As the head of the Progressiv
Woolsey then led the 79 to renege on the pledge.
Unbeknowns
Democrats have let Obama continue with just about all of Bush-Chene
Democrats have abdicated their Constituti
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There is NOTHING that Democrats in Congress are doing that isn't being directed by the head of the Democratic Party (Obama).
Profession
Their only problem with this is that corporatio
Democrats in both chambers of Congress work as a team. And when they also hold the White House, the president controls and dictates all of it. They identify what they hope to achieve (pro-corpo
Democratic politician
Here's an example of how they tag-team us:
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You have it backwards.
We already would have had a public option had it not been for Obama and the DLC-contro
The week before and the week after the healthcare bill passed in the Senate was the one and only time a public option had any chance of happening until another generation passes.
A group of senators had mobilized behind it since the bill had to be passed through reconcilia
Obama nixxed it.
The excuse was that if the Senate did that, the bill would have to go back to the House for a vote and "There's no time!"
After the (allegedly
Obama's not only not for any kind of universal public health care, he'll do everything within his power to prevent it as long as he's in the White House. Because that was the deal that he made.
And by the way, although Obama campaigned on it (and single payer), here's journalist Richard Wolffe, out plugging his latest book written from his special access to the Obama White House, talking to a caller on CSpan a few months ago.
The caller ask him if we're ever going to get a public option to keep healthcare costs down. Wolffe made it clear that Obama and the DLC-contro
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)
So when Obama "caves", and cuts a deal with Republican
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
I wouldn't count on his "growing a backbone" -- Frankly, I don't think that's the problem. He's plenty tough when it comes to standing up to the Democratic base, and liberals, and Kucinich, and Dean.
Check this out and this.
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
Obama might want to start his job stimulus plan by talking with his friends at Goldman Sachs:
Goldman Sachs Will Lay Off Hundreds Of New York Employees
About Barack Obama
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
Actions undertaken as part of NATO or the UN aren't exempt from the Constituti
About Barack Obama
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Globalization Has Made Economic Crises More Likely: OECD
That's the public relations' spin for why we fight wars overseas ("to export Democracy"
This is not what the founder of the nation intended, that's for sure.
About IMF
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
Most important read of the day here.
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
For those who must continue to delude themselves into believing Obama's a good guy who never would have started those wars or gotten us into this financial mess, who has only the best of intentions (I don't share that opinion anymore), but got a bad deal, then think of all this as a business plan where the Corporate Masters of the Universe have charted out their plans years in advance (governmen
And after 8 years of BushCheney the American people aren't going to go for another team like that. They're going to want HOPE & CHANGE, with a persona they can believe in and trust. BarackObam
The truth is that Obama is no better than BushCheney
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
Obama's in office to mellow-tal
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
If Republican
Why isn't Obama investigat
Why are Obama-Demo
We have Obama-Demo
After just one month in the WhiteHouse
Obama and Emanuel never mentioned MitchMcCon
How does a Democratic president, on the heels of the most criminally corrupt administra
http://www
Obama's continuing just about all of the BushCheney policies, even going BushCo one better: How do any of Obama's 'most ardent supporters
As a Democrat, I don't know how any Democrat can get behind this. How do Obama's 'most ardent supporters
About Barack Obama
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
You mean by surroundin
Your ignorance is noteworthy
Obama has stood in the way of the legal apparatus as the bankers and Bush-Chene
Obama isn't playing 3D chess, has no master plan, except to put off the People from the scent of the escaping crooks, prevent the People from being able to right the wrongs, repair the damage, recover what's been stolen from them in the greatest heist in the history of the world, and prevent us from getting back on rule-of-la
About Barack Obama
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
My positions on issues are in line with the platform of the Democratic
The nation ran a whole lot better when liberal Democrats were running the government
Real Democratic policies aren't that hard to sell to the American people.
The DLC got into power by refusing to defend the word 'liberal' when RonaldReag
When informed of the issues, most Americans (70 percent) agree with liberal policies. Neither they (nor I) would characteri
For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans do not want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen
If the Bush years taught us anything, it's 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 Rove were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush and Rove were just more ruthless in doing what politician
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
I'm a mainstream American who's worked hard all my life only to see the rug pulled out from under me, pensions robbed and raided beginning in the Reagan years.
There's no "extreme" or "far left" in the Democratic
You'd do much better trying to stop pigeon-hol
About Barack Obama
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
To those who like you spew rhetoric like, "Democrats are trying, but it's those meanie Republican
The reason people are disgusted is because Democrats aren't trying, and the proof of that is evident on a daily basis.
With Bush's (now) Obama's tax cuts for the rich, the left was willing to compromise on all of the tax cuts. Obama's deal on the tax cuts for the rich wind doesn't cover the 99ers, increases taxes on the poor and sets Social Security up for failure (payroll tax holiday).
Of the 6 million people currently receiving unemployme
The left comes to the table already having compromise
And even after we compromise
In the end, with the StupakAmen
More here.
Fairly soon, Roe and overturnin
Democrats may be worse than Republican
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
David Cay Johnston on Democracy Now! on Obama's deal to extend Bush's tax cuts:
"The bottom roughly 45 million families in America or households in America—and there are a little over 100 million households —they’re going to actually see their taxes go up. Republican s got an extraordin arily good deal, that raises, I think, basic questions about the negotiatin g skills of the President. "
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
The rich have gotten rich off of the sweat and labor of others and then taken those profits to buy politician
That's the true nature of capitalism
Then, the rich took those profits and further gamed the system, by rigging the electoral process, enabling them to stack the government elected with corporate-
Over the course of US history, corporatio
Democrats (controlle
Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats were for strong regulation
The DLC-contro
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
Vast sums have been borrowed from China, from Saudi Arabia, which We The People are on the hook for, are paying interest only on (so we will be making payments for the rest of our lives, and our children and grandchild
There was a huge party for the rich, they put cases of champagne and caviar into their Rolls Royces, drove off, and left us to deal with the catering bills. And because we've been tapped out for so long (our pensions, our homes, all liquidated earlier by their scamming), the government is going to hold a fire sale of our shared resources: Everything from our forests, oil and gas, roads, land, sold off to foreign bidders.
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
The most BS argument to date: "The cuts and the pain must be shared by all".
It presumes that the poor and the middle classes haven't born the brunt of what Republican
It presumes that the pain of losing a few million dollars when you have hundreds of millions, even billions, is equivalent to the pain of not knowing where your next meal is coming from, or losing the roof over your head and sleeping in your car or on the street. It presumes that the rich have sacrificed anything at all, when, in fact, they're making money hand-over-
What's happened to the American people was the greatest heist in the history of the world (2007, the economic meltdown) ON TOP OF a longer term and steady rip-off of Americans' self-inves
Where are the investigat
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
The decimation of populist legislatio
Where's the line for you? When do you say, "That's it, they've gone too far, enough!"? Have you thought about that, identified your limit? Or are you taking it a day at a time, in which case you're that frog in the pan of water, being slowly boiled to death?
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
Since Obama got into the White House, he's cut $3 trillion in social programs, increased the military budget, and lowered taxes.
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Obama Open To Economic Stimulus As Part Of Debt Reduction Deal
What do you do for a living?
About Barack Obama
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If the Democrats Lose the Senate Our Retirement Is Toast
Do you remember when we were all told, "Relaaaaaaa
A couple of months ago on C-Span, Richard Wolffe (the journalist with an inside line to Obama and his White House) said, "There Won't Be Any Public Option--Ob
Progressiv
Once Obama's healthcare legislatio
This is Obama's 'signature
About Retirement
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If the Democrats Lose the Senate Our Retirement Is Toast
What does that vast disparity reveal? If anything, Blue Dogs -- virtually all of whom represent more conservati
Remember that before negotiatio
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About Retirement
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If the Democrats Lose the Senate Our Retirement Is Toast
What was the reasoning for the Progressiv
Because the White House told them to.
Contrary to his public claims, Obama insisted there be no public option to minimize opposition by the insurance, pharmaceut
When it comes to defiant progressiv
The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote against the supplemental war spending bill, threatenin g freshmen who oppose it that they won't get help with reelection and will be cut off from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday.
"We're not going to help you. You'll never hear from us again," Woolsey said the White House is telling freshmen.
When progressiv
The Politico’s Jonathan Martin reported this morning that Rahm Emanuel warned leaders of liberal groups in a private meeting this week that it was time to stop running ads attacking Blue Dog and "centrist" Dems on healthcare.
I'm told, however, that Emanuel went quite a bit further than this. Sources at the meeting tell me that Emanuel really teed off on the Dem-versus-Dem attacks, calling them "f**king stupid." This was a direct attack on some of the attendees in the room, who are running ads against Dems right now.
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About Retirement
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Nancy Pelosi: 'The Republicans Are The Incumbents'
From Gore's speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in February 2002:
Even if we give first priority to the destruction of terrorist networks, and even if we succeed, there are still government s that could bring us great harm. And there is a clear case that one of these government s in particular represents a virulent threat in a class by itself: Iraq.
As far as I am concerned, a final reckoning with that government should be on the table. To my way of thinking, the real question is not the principle of the thing, but of making sure that this time we will finish the matter on our terms. But finishing it on our terms means more than a change of regime in Iraq. It means thinking through the consequences of action there on our other vital interests, including the survival in office of Pakistan's leader; avoiding a huge escalation of violence in the Middle East; provision for the security and interests of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Gulf States; having a workable plan for preventing the disintegra tion of Iraq into chaos; and sustaining critically important support within the present coalition.
In 1991, I crossed party lines and supported the use of force against Saddam Hussein, but he was allowed to survive his defeat as the result of a calculation we all had reason to deeply regret for the ensuing decade. And we still do. So this time, if we resort to force, we must absolutely get it right. It must be an action set up carefully and on the basis of the most realistic concepts. Failure cannot be an option, which means that we must be prepared to go the limit. And wishful thinking based on best case scenarios or excessivel y literal transfers of recent experience to different conditions would be a recipe for disaster.
Even after Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq proved to be the mistake that we on the left warned it would be, Democratic politician
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Nancy Pelosi: 'The Republicans Are The Incumbents'
We can, obviously, only speculate, but why would you think he wouldn't have? Bill Clinton, who was to Gore's left, supported Bush's invasion of Iraq (and Hillary voted to support it).
Gore was one of the few Democratic Senators to vote for the 1991 Gulf War, and he consistent
All though the 1990s, Gore was one of the foremost proponents within the Clinton administra
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
He's certainly not weak and conciliato
I think you and I have talked about this before, so excuse it if we have, but Obama got into office by misleading Democratic voters. He ran to the left of Hillary Clinton. If you go back and watch Candidate Obama's speeches, interviews and debates in 2008, and listen with your now 'experienc
Doing what is good for transnatio
Is it intentiona
Statistica
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In other words, Obama keeps giving them what they want and they're still dissatisfi
It's not good policy, it's not making Democratic voters happy, and yet he still does it.
Who then is the id-jit? Obama, for doing the same thing (caving to Republican
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No they don't.
Democratic and Republican poIitician
Think of them as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. The annual company picnic, the manufactur
Once in power, Democrats consolidat
Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigan
Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tai
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)
Instead of non-stop fundraisin
Why is Obama, once again, getting involved in the legislativ
Where have I seen this before (Obama entering the legislativ
Every decision Obama's made has been to kneecap populist policies, to handicap and prevent the possibilit
When the vast majority of the American people were behind ending Bush's tax cuts, what did Obama do? He cut a secret deal with Republican
Obama's done similar things throughout all of government
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On Debt Ceiling: Give Republicans What They Voted For, Let Voters Decide How to Get There
What's happened to the American people was the greatest heist in the history of the world (2007, the economic meltdown) ON TOP OF a longer term and steady rip-off of Americans' self-inves
Where are the investigat
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
On Debt Ceiling: Give Republicans What They Voted For, Let Voters Decide How to Get There
The most BS argument to date: "The cuts and the pain must be shared by all".
It presumes that the poor and the middle classes haven't born the brunt of what Republican
It presumes that the pain of losing a few million dollars when you have hundreds of millions, even billions, is equivalent to the pain of not knowing where your next meal is coming from, or losing the roof over your head and sleeping in your car or on the street.
What's happened to the American people was the greatest heist in the history of the world (2007, the economic meltdown) ON TOP OF a longer term and steady rip-off of Americans' self-inves
Where are the investigat
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
<i>In the Public Interest</i>: Needed: Sane Rules About the Privatization of Infrastructure
The report describes how Chicago sold the revenues from its parking meters in 2009 to a consortium of investors led by Morgan Stanley. “Private investors gave the city an upfront payment of $1.15 billion in exchange for meter revenues for the next 75 years," the report writes. "Since private operators took over the parking meters, rates have significantly risen, whle meter maintenanc e quality has declined. Recent analysis shows that Chicago undervalue d the asset and should have received a billion additional dollars for the deal.”
Bottom line: The people of Chicago will pay higher parking fees while suffering from deteriorating meters through the year 2084. Welcome to the "efficienc ies" and "innovatio n" of the "free market."
Read the rest of the story here.
About Transportation
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<i>In the Public Interest</i>: Needed: Sane Rules About the Privatization of Infrastructure
Welcome to the next frontier in the business campaign against governmentKEEP READING. First it was the fight against regulation and public-sec tor spending, both largely successful . Now business is vying to ownthe equity assets of government through arcane lease-back and securitiza tion deals.
These strategies not only hurt us as taxpayers and citizens (through higher expenditures for less value, and through reduced public discretion over public assets). They fling open the doors to all sorts of other investor schemes to buy and privatize public assets. Next stop: the withering of the State and the arrival of the Total Market Order.
Even after subprime mortgages blew up in their faces (and ours), Wall Street continues to be on the prowl for new revenue streams to “securitize,” the process of inventing new financial instrument s that can be sold to investors for big markups. In these hard times, Wall Street has discovered that there is no more receptive client than state and local government s reeling from severe budget shortfalls .
Here’s the seductive come-on that Wall Street pitches: Sell us the right to lease and manage government office buildings, transit systems, highways, zoos, parking structures and conventional centers for a period of, say, 50 or 70 years – and we, Wall Street, will give you a big upfront payment to get you past your budget crisis. The deals are usually awful because they under-valu e the long-term value of the asset and result in worse maintenanc e and service. But that doesn’t stop quick-fix politician s from making them in order to balance their budgets and avoid raising taxes.
Deals made under duress are rarely good for the disadvantaged party, in this case, government s. The deal-makin g has gotten so bad that a Washington citizens’ group, In the Public Interest, has released a useful guidebook that deconstruc ts how clever financial schemes are ripping off government s and, ultimately , the public. “A Guide to Evaluating Public Asset Privatizat ion” reviews a range of arcane “asset privatizat ion contracts” to show how the deals disguise some very bad provisions . It should be required reading for every governor, mayor and state comptrolle r -- and publicized by news media (right after their Hollywood gossip updates, of course).
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If the Democrats Lose the Senate Our Retirement Is Toast
When NancyPelos
Democrats in both chambers of Congress work as a team. And when they also hold the WhiteHouse
Those in liberal districts get to talk a good game about being champions of the People, but when push comes to shove, if their votes are needed to cross over and kiII liberal legislatio
Here's an example of how they tag team us:
LynnWoolse
Democrats have had the ability to accomplish putting the wars on budget (and thus end the wars) since they took over control of Congress in 2006 and haven't done it. They haven't needed Republican
As the head of the Progressiv
Woolsey then led the 79 to renege on the pledge.
Unbeknowns
Democrats have let Obama continue with just about all of BushCheney
Democrats have abdicated their Constituti
About Retirement
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost