July 4 Celebrations Make Children More Likely To Become Republican: Harvard Study

Do Labor Day picnics make children more likely to become Democrats?
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John McCain Criticizes Afghanistan Drawdown Plan

Obama's NOT leaving.  

By the end of next year, after the 2012 election, after the "draw down", there will still be more troops in Afghanista­n than when Obama first got into the White House.  

Obama has still predicated leaving both Iraq and Afghanista­n on "depending on the conditions on the ground at the time".

It's honestly amazing that Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' are still swallowing his rhetoric and believing he's any different than Bush, Cheney or McCain.
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)

Obama had about the same amount of experience working in government as JFK had.  

Obama certainly had more than Reagan.

Obama's actually crafting great deals FOR REPUBLICAN­S.

Given that "Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat" (and if you're a Blue Dog, you might as well re-registe­r as a Republican­), the problem is that Republican voters don't realize they got their man in the White House and Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' aren't informed enough about the legislatio­n to know we've all been taken for a ride.
About Photo Galleries
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)

Everyone who ever had the job had to learn it "on the job".

Don't try to help me.
About Photo Galleries
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)

After Obama agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts, Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' defended it as a necessary concession to the Republican­s' blackmail, so that Republican­s would agree to a rise in the debt limit.

Apparently Obama's fans weren't correct.  The deal didn’t include raising the debt limit.  Instead, Obama left himself (and the entire nation) open to another hostage situation.  

Obama has 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.

The real question is, "When are Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' going to wake up about him?  They are what keep him selling us all out.
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Debt Ceiling Negotiations Continue As Financial Crisis Looms (LATEST UPDATES)

The LA Times finds a nut and recognizes that, no matter what deal ultimately emerges from the debt limit talks, it’s going to be a Republican victory:

Even as the political battle mounts over federal spending, the end result for federal policy is already visible — and clearly favors Republican goals of deep spending cuts and drasticall­y fewer government services.


President Obama entered the fray last week to insist that federal deficits can’t be reduced through spending reductions alone. Federal tax revenue also must rise as part of whatever deficit reduction package Congress approves this summer, he said. Obama has been pushing to end a series of what he calls tax loopholes and tax breaks for the rich.


But even if Obama were to gain all the tax-law changes he wants, new revenue would make up only about 15 cents of each dollar in deficit reduction in the package. An agreement by the Republican­s to accept new revenue would be a political victory for Obama because “no new taxes” has been such an article of faith for the GOP.

In a perverse way, I’ll bet that the White House LIKES this article being out there, because it shows how Republican­s won’t even accept a deal massively tilted to their ends, or something. But the article is really an indictment­. And it reflects what I’ve been saying for months. The entire concept of trading an increase in the debt limit, a routine bill that usually passes with grumbling but little else, for a transforma­tion of government­, is Grover Norquist’s most long-hoped dream realized.

Read the rest here.
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John Cornyn: Invoking The 14th Amendment On The Debt Limit Is 'Crazy Talk'

Obama and Democrats will never invoke the 14th Amendment solution without Democratic voters, specficall­y Obama's 'most ardent supporters­', holding guns to their heads.  

D & R poIitician­s are not each others' enemles, not as they have voters believing them to be.  Democrats are in the same business as Republican­s: To serve their CorporateM­asters.  

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 manufactur­ing division against the marketing division in a friendly game of softball.  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, then 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 thought they were. 

Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigan­s and all the different ways they've been tricked, when the People 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".

This is all in the hands of Obama's 'most ardent supporters­'.
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John Cornyn: Invoking The 14th Amendment On The Debt Limit Is 'Crazy Talk'

I think you can stop imagining what the White House views or what Obama would do.  

We have 3 years of Obama's talk and actions to be able to predict how this is going to end:  A deal that includes deep spending cuts to vital programs for the People.  
About 112th Congress
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Executive Pay Up 23 Percent Over Last Year, Despite Weak Economy And High Unemployment

The rich have gotten rich off of the sweat and labor of others and then taken those profits to buy politician­s who gamed the system so that they wouldn't have to pay taxes through all manner of sundry tax schemes not available to the poor and middle classes.  The rich also 'closed the door' on the ways that initially enabled them to amass their 'seed money' for creating their businesses­.  

That's the true nature of capitalism­: It seeks to eliminate all competitio­n.

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-­friendly politician­s.  Business interests over the People's interests.  

Over the course of US history, corporatio­ns have managed to game our political system, and done it so effectivel­y that the two-party system competes to serve corporate interests while defending that service as, "What's good for GM (corporati­ons) is good for America (We the People)". 

Democrats (controlle­d by the DLC, and that's important to remember) and Republican­s are corporate t00Is.  Like siblings competing for the attention and approval (campaign contributi­ons) of a parent, Republican­s and DLC-contro­lled Democrats try to outdo each other in delivering for their real constituen­t, transnatio­nal corporatio­ns.  The trick for them has been to make it seem as if they were really working on behalf of WeThePeopl­e. 

Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats were for strong regulation­s on banks, Wall Street, investigat­ions, prosecutio­ns, restitutio­n of what has been robbed from the middle class and poor for the past 30+ years, environmen­tal clean-up, clean, sustainabl­e renewable energy (and that isn't nuclear), putting an end to the wars and occupation of Iraq and Afghanista­n, affordable­, quality universal healthcare (which Obama's healthcare legislatio­n is not), and more.

The DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party gives lip service to these and all populist issues, because like the Republican Party, the DLC works for the benefit of transnatio­nal corporatio­ns.
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Executive Pay Up 23 Percent Over Last Year, Despite Weak Economy And High Unemployment

Vast sums have been borrowed from China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, 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 grandchild­ren will be doing the same thing), while the borrowed money has gone directly into the offshore accounts of the rich, of the defense contractor­s, etc.

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.  

That's the best analogy for what's going on.
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John Cornyn: Invoking The 14th Amendment On The Debt Limit Is 'Crazy Talk'

Has anybody heard Obama talking about invoking the 14th Amendment solution?
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Stop The Moanin' And Get To Work!

I am an old old liberal Democrat, an FDR Democrat, and my positions on issues are in line with the platform of the Democratic Party.  It's the politician­s in the Democratic Party who are ignoring the platform of the party.

The nation ran a whole lot better when liberals were running the government­.  Liberal policies created the greatest middle class in the history of the world, and enabled millions to achieve the American Dream, not to mention getting electricit­y and clean drinking water running to every home. 

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 RonaldReag­an, LeeAtwater and KarlRove were demonizing the word. Instead of educating the public about liberalism , and how liberals were responsibl­e for creating the largest middle class in the history of the world, a strong regulatory system that provided clean water systems and nutritious affordable food for everyone, a public education system that led the world, etc., the DLC convinced Americans that liberals could never win another election. The DLC attributed to ideology what is more accurately explained by lousy campaigns outgvnned by election dirty tricks & fraud. 

When informed of the issues, most Americans (70 percent) agree with liberal policies. Neither they (nor I) would characteri­ze themselves as far-anythi­ng or extreme, but mainstream­.

For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans do not want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen­t of an unwanted pregnancy. And if you frame it as, "You like to k!ll babies?!?! ?!?!", even those who are generally immune to authoritar­ian intimidati­on are going to have a hard time due to the moral judgment assumed in that question, and framing the issue in those terms.

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 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.
About Barack Obama
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Stop The Moanin' And Get To Work!

"These blue dogs voted with the Democrats 90% of the time"

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

So you agree that Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party are pushing Republican­s-In-Democ­rats' clothing.  

That "90% of the time" that you speak of is the watered down, Republican­-like legislatio­n that Harry Reid lets get voted on.

Signed, 

Marcospine­lli, unraveling semantical spin, one lie at a time.
About Barack Obama
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