Spintested: 07/19/11

GOP Struggles To Please Business Allies Without Giving Obama Win On Trade Deals

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x-fkSYDtUY
About Columbia
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GOP Struggles To Please Business Allies Without Giving Obama Win On Trade Deals

Stop the BS; the Supreme Court is already lost.
About Columbia
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Gang Of Six Unveils Debt-Reduction Plan [UPDATED]

How cowardly you are, to write as a sock puppet.

If you don't know that about capitalism, that it seeks to eliminate all competition, then you have no business being in these conversations.

I am a supporter of a mixed economy, which includes regulated capitalism and fair markets.
About Debt Ceiling
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Gang Of Six Unveils Debt-Reduction Plan [UPDATED]

It's not like we weren't warned.

Before the 2010 midterm elections, Obama broadcast that he would be doing more of the same, even if Democrats remained the majority and in control of both Houses of Congress. More caving by Obama and Democrats to Republicans:

Aides say that the president's been spending "a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0," brainstorming with administration officials about the best way to revamp the strategies & goals of the White House.

And despite the predictions that Democrats may relinquish a large degree of legislating power, including perhaps control of the House & even Senate, Obama isn't thinking of the next two years as a period that'll be marked with the same obstructive nature from the GOP.

"It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, [Republicans] feel more responsible, either because they didn't do as well as they anticipated, & so the strategy of just saying no to everything & sitting on the sidelines & throwing bombs didn't work for them," Obama says. "Or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals & work with me in a serious way."

Dick Durbin says Obama's post-election agenda "will have to be limited & focused on the things that are achievable and high priorities for the American people." Tom Daschle says Obama has to reach out more: "The keyword is inclusion. He's got to find ways to be inclusive."

Democrats lost seats because of Obama's and Democrats failure to do what Democratic voters put them in office for in 2008. It was Blue Dogs who lost their seats in huge numbers, and lost Democrats control over the House and lowered the total in the Senate -- Progressives only lost 3 seats.

Primary Obama.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gang Of Six Unveils Debt-Reduction Plan [UPDATED]

There actually is a People's Budget (read it here).

Why aren't Pelosi and Democrats talking about the ProgressiveCaucus's budget to balance the budget (reduces the deficit by $5.1 trillion)? It beats Obama's AND Republicans' plans.

As Krugman said, the Progressives' budget "balances the budget through higher taxes and defense cuts, plus some tougher bargaining by Medicare (and a public option to reduce the costs of the AffordableCareAct). The proposed tax hikes would fall on higher incomes, raising the cap on payroll taxes (takes care of SocialSecurity's solvency forever)... and unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense."

Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-controlled DemocraticParty gives lip service to all populist issues (like civil rights protections, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare, WallStreet reform, environmental and energy issues, etc.).

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 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 nomination) and the oldest, most experienced politicians in US history (including the Rove 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?

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') to understand that Democratic politicians have been taking us all for suckers and patsies is the most immediate problem and the challenge.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Michele Bachmann Campaign Disputes Report That Migraine Headaches 'Incapacitate' Candidate

And FWIW, Migraines can, indeed, be incapacitating. If she's been hospitalized for them, that's "incapacitating migraines".
About Elections 2012
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Michele Bachmann Campaign Disputes Report That Migraine Headaches 'Incapacitate' Candidate

The facts about Michele Bachmann's foster parenting:

The Bachmanns were licensed by the state from 1992 to 2000 to handle up to three foster children at a time; the last child arrived in 1998. They began by offering short-term care for girls with eating disorders who were treated through a program at the University of Minnesota, said George Hendrickson, the chief executive of PATH Minnesota, the private agency that handled the placements.

He said the Bachmann home was “technically considered a treatment home,” which offered a higher level of reimbursement.

I think it's obvious from other scams or strategies employed by the Bachmanns over the years, they indulged themselves in government hand-outs on several fronts. Whether it was for farm subsidies for their farm or grants to train personnel at Bachmann's husband's clinic, Medicaid payments for both patients seeing Bachmann's husband or the foster children they took in, or 'foster parenting' of young girls (who were sent to public school instead of being home schooled like the Bachmann's children and used as domestic help, i.e., cleaning, babysitting, etc.), they've had their hand in the government till for years.
About Elections 2012
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Michele Bachmann Campaign Disputes Report That Migraine Headaches 'Incapacitate' Candidate

It's not about feeling sorry for her (although compassion for a migraine sufferer wouldn't be out-of-line); it's about informing the electorate of a candidate's health and conditions which affect his or her ability to do the job.

I'd like to know more about Bachmann's medical history, the frequency and severity of the migraines, length of the episodes and the drugs she takes to "manage" them (prevention and/or pain management).
About Elections 2012
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gang Of Six Unveils Debt-Reduction Plan [UPDATED]

There actually is a People's Budget (read it here).

Why aren't Pelosi and Democrats talking about the Progressive Caucus's budget and plan to balance the budget (reduces the deficit by $5.1 trillion)? It beats Obama's AND Republicans' plans.

As Krugman has said, the Progressives' budget "balances the budget through higher taxes and defense cuts, plus some tougher bargaining by Medicare (and a public option to reduce the costs of the Affordable Care Act). The proposed tax hikes would fall on higher incomes, raising the cap on payroll taxes (takes care of Social Security's solvency forever)... and unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense."

But Obama takes solutions that work for the People, the vast majority of Americans, off the table. Whether it's ending Bush's tax cuts or the wars, the '14th Amendment Solution' (and it is, indeed, a legitimate option), etc., Obama kneecaps and handicaps the Democratic voters who put him and Democrats into power.

That's Obama's style, taking solutions that work for the People off the table and out of consideration when we're discussing how we want to proceed. That's what he did during the healthcare debate -- He took single payer off the table before negotiations ever began. Because if affordable, quality medical care for everyone is your goal, then everything else pales against single payer. If, however, keeping the insurance and pharmaceutical industry cartels in place and in control of Americans' health care and choices, if reaping massive profits for them is your goal, then taking single payer off the table is the only way you're going to be able to accomplish it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gang Of Six Unveils Debt-Reduction Plan [UPDATED]

MASSIVE stimulus, which should have been done as soon as Obama got into the White House, is needed. Government spending on infrastructure and green products is now the only way to save us.

Obama has to invoke the 14th Amendment solution.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama praises Gang of Six (Plus 1) Plan, which includes cutting Social Security and Medicare, as well as other programs vital to the poor and middle classes (it's basically the Simpson-Bowles 'Cat Food' Commission plan).
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost