Spintested: 04/06/11

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

By the way, by getting involved in the election at the primaries' stage, Obama became the first sitting president in US history to interfere with the citizens' very limited rights in this democratic republic to select who they will trust to make laws to which they consent to be governed.

Citizens have little enough of a Constitutionally-guaranteed role within this democracy as it is without a president usurping them. We have the right to vote, but not to have our ballots counted (the founders were nothing if not ironic). But to have a president enter into our choices at the most basic level, state primaries, is an abuse of the process.

Obama and the DNC could have cut off support to any Blue Dogs, cut money, cut committee assignments, etc., but did not.

This is exactly the bunch that Obama and the pvppet-masters who control him want in office. On both sides of the aisle. Why? Because "Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat"

Blue Dog = (might as well be registered as a) Republican

There's nothing 'left' about Obama or his policies. He's continuing just about all of the Bush-Cheney policies.

Obama, Ds & Rs in office, working on behalf of transnational corporations.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

BEFORE THE MIDTERMS, 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 & 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.

Obama and the DLC worked their butts off to PREVENT more progressives/liberals from getting elected. Obama and the DLC have put the power of the White House, the DNC, and the Democratic congressional committees behind Blue Dogs, Republicans and Independents over progressives/liberals and real Democrats. Some, but not all, examples:

Blue Dog Blanche Lincoln over progressive Democrat Lt. Governor Bill Halter.

Republican-turned-Independent Arlen Specter over progressive Democrat Joe Sestak.

Republican-turned-Independent Lincoln Chaffee over Democrat Frank Caprio (which, in turn, is an effective endorsement of the Republican John Loughlin over Democrat David Cicilline for the congressional seat Democrat Patrick Kennedy is retiring from, and all of the other seats up for grab in Rhode Island).

Republican-turned-Independent Charlie Crist over liberal Democrat Kendrick Meek.

KEEP READING
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Oil Prices 'Doing Significant Damage' To U.S. Economy, Moody's Says

Yes, he did.

Read it here and weep.
About Gas
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

It appears that the lesser of two evils, the Democrats, need a little make over while the Republicans are a lost cause. Maybe YOU should work from within the Democratic Party to replace one of those Yea votes.

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

During the Bush years, Democrats said if the People wanted change, they had to put Democrats in the majority in Congress. So in 2006, we did.

Nothing changed.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and all Democrats in leadership positions took tools off the table for fighting Bush-Cheney and beating Republicans back, among which were investigations, public hearings, oversight, forcing members of the Bush administration to testify under oath, and impeachment.

They said, "You have to give us more Democrats -- 60 in the Senate".

In 2008, we did. We gave them 60 for the Democratic Caucus. And, we gave them the White House.

Obama came into office with the wind at his back. More people voted for him, a black man in good old r@c!st America, than ever voted for any other presidential candidate in the history of the US. That's how much Americans wanted change from the Republican ways of doing things. Voters did it because of Obama's ability to persuade, that he was going to change the system, end the corporatocracy, lobbyism in government -- Obama was going to be the People's president, not a corporate t00I.

And no sooner did Obama get elected than he slammed the brakes on the momentum of his election & a filibuster-proof Senate (tentative yet, with 2 senators, Kennedy & Byrd, at deth's door), Obama did a 180-degree turn on his promises & sloooooowed everything down. To "work in a bipartisan manner with Republicans", after Republicans had already announced they were going to block everything Democrats wanted to do, vote no on everything, in lockstep.

Obama's political team and machine also disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation -- Everything was to flow through his operation. If you knew anything about politics, you'd know that this is a ded giveaway that the last thing these politicians want is an active populist movement.

Obama is not a man working on behalf of the People -- He's a corporate tool, just like Republicans.

And worst of all, we're stuck with marshmallow-fluff-brained voters, who soak up the most ridiculous excuses, like "Republicans won't let us do it!", when, in fact, Obama and Democrats don't even try. Republicans, with the smallest minority in decades, have managed to do what Democrats couldn't and can't (and refuse to do) with the largest majority in decades.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

It appears that the lesser of two evils, the Democrats, need a little make over while the Republicans are a lost cause. Maybe YOU should work from within the Democratic Party to replace one of those Yea votes.

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

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

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything and ANYONE 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 nomination) and 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?

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.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Now you think it's about getting more progressives into Congress. Here's the problem:

Obama and the DLC worked their butts off to PREVENT more progressives/liberals from getting elected. Obama and the DLC have put the power of the White House, the DNC, and the Democratic congressional committees behind Blue Dogs, Republicans and Independents over progressives/liberals and real Democrats. Some, but not all, examples:

Blue Dog Blanche Lincoln over progressive Democrat Lt. Governor Bill Halter.

Republican-turned-Independent Arlen Specter over progressive Democrat Joe Sestak.

Republican-turned-Independent Lincoln Chaffee over Democrat Frank Caprio (which, in turn, is an effective endorsement of the Republican John Loughlin over Democrat David Cicilline for the congressional seat Democrat Patrick Kennedy is retiring from, and all of the other seats up for grab in Rhode Island).

Republican-turned-Independent Charlie Crist over liberal Democrat Kendrick Meek.

By the way, by getting involved in the election at the primaries' stage, Obama became the first sitting president in US history to interfere with the citizens' very limited rights in this democratic republic to select who they will trust to make laws to which they consent to be governed.

Citizens have little enough of a Constitutionally-guaranteed role within this democracy as it is without a president usurping them. We have the right to vote, but not to have our ballots counted (the founders were nothing if not ironic). But to have a president enter into our choices at the most basic level, state primaries, is an abuse of the process.

Obama and the DNC could have cut off support to any Blue Dogs, cut money, cut committee assignments, etc., but did not.

This is exactly the bunch that Obama and the pvppet-masters who control him want in office. On both sides of the aisle. Obama, Ds & Rs in office, working on behalf of transnational corporations.

New faces within the Democratic Party wouldn't be any different from those already there. The party machinery recruits and backs those who will carry the same torch, and that's true for both the Republican and Democratic Parties.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Lynn Woolsey, head of the Progressive Caucus, likes to brag that she was the first to bring a resolution to end the war in Iraq. She, and congressional Democrats, and Obama, ran on ending the practice of paying for the wars through supplemental emergency spending bills, and putting the wars on budget (see why that is significant here).

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 Republicans to do this for two years and haven't done it.

As the head of the Progressive Caucus, Lynn Woolsey led 79 of the 82 members of the caucus to pledge that they would not vote for any healthcare reform legislation that didn't include a public option.

Woolsey then led the 79 to renege on the pledge.

Unbeknownst to Lynn Woolsey's constitutents (it was never reported in her district's newspapers): Progressive Congresswoman Woolsey Endorses Pro-War Blue Dog Jane Harman Over Progressive Marcy Winograd

Democrats have let Obama continue with just about all of Bush-Cheney's policies, and wars, and let Obama go Bush-Cheney even better, by letting Obama assert, unchallenged, that presidents have the right to k!ll Americans with no due process or oversight, push for 'preventive detention' and no transparency of anything a president asserts should be his secret.

Democrats have abdicated their Constitutionally-required role of oversight of the executive branch; they failed to perform it during the Bush-Cheney administration, and still don't with one of their own in the White House.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Here's an example of the lesser of two evils:

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

I'd go through all of the Democrats who talk a good game about supporting the People (but when push comes to shove they cave because the party has them covered by the time their next election comes around), but even I, with increased word count, couldn't fit them all in here.

I'll give you two of the Democratic Party's *big stars* who voted for it, though: Dianne Feinstein, Joe Biden. After years of saying about THE SAME BILL "Oh no, that's not a good bill for working Americans!". The difference years earlier was that Democrats didn't have the cover to get away with it.

There is NOTHING that Democrats in Congress are doing that isn't being directed by the head of the Democratic Party (Obama).

Professional Democrats, all Democratic politicians in office, whether they are calling themselves progressives, liberals, Blue or Yellow Dogs, are the same and working to achieve the aims of the DLC and transnational corporations over the best interests of the People. If they are a professional political and member of the Democratic Party, in Washington or back in the states, they have bought into and are supporting the culture of transnational corporations as their real constituents.

Their only problem with this is that corporations don't vote, and politicians need votes to get into office. So they, Democratic politicians, try to convince the People they're working on our behalf with weasel-words, rhetoric designed to lead voters into thinking one thing when the opposite is true. Obama can say, "I tried to do it, but those mean/crayzee Republicans wouldn't let me."

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-corporate legislation) and then strategize how to get it while saving each other's hides with constituents come election time. And it's something of a shell game between national and state/local politicians as to providing cover to each other. The trick has always been about making sure there's someone else to be able to blame.

Democratic politicians in liberal districts are the worst. If their votes are needed to cross over and k!ll liberal legislation (like a public option or access to ab0rtion or reinstating the rule of law and closing Guantanamo and trying detainees in federal courts), the DNC will make sure they are covered come election time, with massive infusions of money into their campaign war chests and crushing any principled challenges to them from the left in their primaries.

Here's an example of how they tag-team us:

KEEP READING
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Agreed.

Have you seen this?
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

So why should Obama and Democrats do anything for you if they know they've got you over a barrel, that you're going to vote for them no matter what, because you're terrified of Republicans?

You are the voter I'm talking about, who has wrought this nightmare on us.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Typo,

2005
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Americans Begin Paying Credit Cards First, Mortgages Second [CHART]

The only additional thing the law required

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

No.

There's a long list of additional things, including means testing and something that's akin to 'mandatory sentencing', which restricts bankruptcy judges' discretion.

The people you know who went bankrupt "a few years back" sound like they went bankrupt prior to this new law. What got protected was a portion of their homes' equity (very small amount, back when in order to purchase a house you had to put a minimum of 20% of the asking price as a downpayment) as 'homesteading'.
About The Recession
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

I understand your point now, and I couldn't agree with it more.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

If that is true why did dems actually raise taxes on the rich and Bush gave those income dollars back and the rich repaid us by sending all the jobs overseas.

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

Obama's continuing all of the same policies -- And more.

SKAFTA.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

If that is true why did they bring guns to stand 50 feet from our president.

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

And he's still alive.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

If this is true why is it Bush corralled protester at a field miles away from any place he was.

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

I haight to be the bearer of bad news, friend, but Obama's got the same "Free Speech Zones" that Bush had.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Why is it the only people who have ever balanced the budget through out history are Democrats.

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

That's a bit of a misnomer.

The way that the Democrats have done it still favors the rich over the poor and middle classes, and there's some 'juggling of the books', shifting of costs (hiding them).
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

why is it the GOP gave the tax breaks to the rich.

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

Bush's tax cuts for the rich are now Obama's tax cuts for the rich; in that Obama deal, the poor had their taxes INCREASED, and the payroll tax 'holiday' sets Social Security up for its end.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

The country is already bankrupt.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

To those who like you spew rhetoric like, "Democrats are trying, but it's those meanie Republicans":

The reason people are disgusted is because Democrats are not trying. Everything that the DLC-controlled Democrats do is intended to entrench the system rather than subvert and undermine it.

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 and increases taxes on the poor.

The left comes to the table already having compromised our positions. On everything. All the time. We've done the compromising for more than 30 years.

And even after we compromise, after we have deals, Republicans renege and Democrats still cave some more. One example of that is the Capps amendment. That was the compromise AGREEMENT on abortion in Obama's healthcare legislation.

In the end, with the StupakAmendment and Obama's executive order, Obama and Democrats have put us firmly on the path of ending all insurance coverage for abortions.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/11/17/gwu-study-yes-the-stupak-amendment-would-end-coverage-of-abortion-services-over-time/

Fairly soon, Roe and overturning it is going to be moot with all that Republicans have managed to get Democrats to "compromise" on, making getting an abortlon impossible. As it is now, you can't get an abortlon in 92 percent of the counties in the US.

If you want more, I can provide you with VOLUMES of proof that Democrats are no better than Republicans. Worse, perhaps, because Republicans make no bones about what their goals are and what they're about and who they're for. Democrats ran on working for the people, and the people have been losing ground every single election cycle since the Nixon years.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

The fact is that the success in fund raising by the Republicans have dragged the Democrats to the right. However, that fact doesn't mean that the Democrats haven't legislated in the interest of the lower and middle class, as their voting record shows.

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

Oh really?

Like the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2003 which many Democrats serving in Congress today signed on to, including Dianne Feinstein and Joe Biden), which was written to prevent average people from declaring bankruptcy but to make it easier for businesses to do it?

Bankruptcy isn't an option open to most Americans so that Americans are left with the choice of paying their credit card bills (for living expenses, like food) instead of their mortgages -- Once foreclosed on, they can always live in their cars or on the street, but they still have to eat. Democrats helped Republicans "reform" the system to let banks rob and steal from the People.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

How so, FIuffer?
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Got an answer for me?

Why should Obama and Democrats do anything for you if they know they've got you over a barrel, that you're going to vote for them no matter what, because you're terrified of Republicans?
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Americans Begin Paying Credit Cards First, Mortgages Second [CHART]

By the way, the Bankruptcy Reform Act was written to prevent average people from declaring bankruptcy but making it easier for businesses to do it.
About The Recession
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Americans Begin Paying Credit Cards First, Mortgages Second [CHART]

With the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2003 (which many Democrats serving in Congress today signed on to, including Dianne Feinstein and Joe Biden), bankruptcy isn't an option open to most Americans. They "reformed" the system to let banks rob and steal from the People.
About The Recession
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Oil Prices 'Doing Significant Damage' To U.S. Economy, Moody's Says

Obama campaigned on promising to impose 'Windfall Profits Taxes on the Oil & Gas Industry".

It was the first promise he broken after he was elected, saying, "The prices have now dropped - We'll see about doing that if or when they rise again."

Oil hit over $80/barrel (the amount that, had Obama kept his promise, the windfall profits tax would have been triggered) months and months and months ago. It's now at $108/barrel.

WHERE IS OBAMA?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

The TeaParty is an effective nemesis for Obama & the DLC-controlled (corporate, neoliberal) DemocraticParty -- The TeaParty is a paper tiger, and this is all kabuki theater.

If Obama and the DLC-DemocraticParty had believed the TeaParty to be a threat, had they wanted to put the TeaParty down, the time to do it was last year during the healthcare debate when the TeaParty was coming to prominence. When Democratic members of Congress were cancelling TownHalls because of the escalating threats of violence by gvn-toting teabaggers, disrupting Americans' long-honored traditions of peaceful debate in the public square.

Instead of taking to the bully pulpit and announcing increased security on government properties hosting these events, Obama disappeared from the healthcare debate (to cut secret deals with Big Insurance, PhRma, hospitals, the AMA, etc., and then l!e about it) as the TeaParty grew & bullied at TownHalls.

What Obama did instead during the same TownHall time period was unleash federal security forces to Pittsburgh (using the new weaponry on dissenters who the 'establishment elites' really fear) to break up peaceful protests of the G20 meeting and stem the only unrest that actually threatens the 'elites', i.e., the American people taking back their government.

Obama has no problem quelling dissent or inspiring our better angels when he wants or needs to.

Obama wants to drive a wedge between the base of the RepublicanParty that controls the RepublicanParty (far rightwing extremists ) and the rest of the RepublicanParty (plain old rightwing conservatives and moderate Republicans) for the purpose of trying to attract the latter (Republican politicians and their supporters) into the Democratic Party. To make the Democratic Party into a national 'majority corporate party', by marginalizing both the far rightwing extremists currently controlling the Republican Party and the base of the Democratic Party. In order "to govern, from the center, for 100 years".

The Tea Party serves this end in several ways. Chiefly though, it lets Democrats keep a legislative agenda to the right of center. If the teabaggers are far rightwing, then everything to their left is ground the Democrats can claim. And that's a lot of corporate-money ground.

Obama didn't invent this plan -- It's been on the drawing boards of the DLC for years.

When is the base of the Democratic Party going to get itself organized into a revolt-lobby party like the Tea Party and force Obama and the DLC-controlled Democrats to work in the People's interests instead of transnational corporations' interests? That's our only hope.

Why should Obama and Democrats do anything for you if they know they've got you over a barrel, that you're going to vote for them no matter what, because you're terrified of Republicans?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Economists: Gridlocked Congress 'Playing With Fire' As Failure To Legislate Could Devastate Economy

Democratic and Republican 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 Corporate Masters.

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, 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, 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".
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Big Business Dominating Tax Reform Talks

Democratic and Republican 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 Corporate Masters.

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, 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, 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".
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Democratic and Republican 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 Corporate Masters.

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, 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, 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".
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Big Business Dominating Tax Reform Talks

Ryan's budget is a FLAT TAX. There's nothing fair or progressive about flat taxes.

It also does nothing about what corporations are doing to escape paying ANY taxes: Tax havens. They incorporate outside of the US while actually operating in the US to avoid paying taxes.

It also ends two of the most successful and popular programs (Social Security and Medicare), throws elderly and disabled and again, those least able, under the bus.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Big Business Dominating Tax Reform Talks

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.

Bush's (which are now Obama's) tax cuts for the rich 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_a_m_n_e_d_ well be the one soaking in it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

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.

Bush's (which are now Obama's) tax cuts for the rich 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_a_m_n_e_d_ well be the one soaking in it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

You talking to me?
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Economists: Gridlocked Congress 'Playing With Fire' As Failure To Legislate Could Devastate Economy

How so, Fluffer?
About Government Shutdown
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Achieve what, tbone99?

The number of people who Republicans appear oppositional to remains the same.

Republican voters still support Republicans, Democratic voters still support Democrats, and the mushy-middle supports whoever gets to them right before they enter the voting booths.

It enables the establishment elites, the corporations, those who Ds & Rs really work for, to keep the status quo (and the booty).

What good does it do to put Obama and Democrats into power when what they do is enact Republican legislation and policies?

In 2008, the people put Obama and Democrats into power to CHANGE that system. They had what they needed to achieve the goal, and intentionally squandered it. Because they don't work on behalf of the People; they work for the transnational corporations.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

undefined
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Economists: Gridlocked Congress 'Playing With Fire' As Failure To Legislate Could Devastate Economy

Ryan's budget is a FLAT TAX. There's nothing fair or progressive about flat taxes.

It also does nothing about what corporations are doing to escape paying ANY taxes: Tax havens. They incorporate outside of the US while actually operating in the US to avoid paying taxes.

It also ends two of the most successful and popular programs (Social Security and Medicare), throws elderly and disabled and again, those least able, under the bus.
About Government Shutdown
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Economists: Gridlocked Congress 'Playing With Fire' As Failure To Legislate Could Devastate Economy

During the Bush years, Democrats said if the People wanted change, they had to put Democrats in the majority in Congress. So in 2006, we did.

Nothing changed.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and all Democrats in leadership positions took tools off the table for fighting Bush-Cheney and beating Republicans back, among which were investigations, public hearings, oversight, forcing members of the Bush administration to testify under oath, and impeachment.

They said, "You have to give us more Democrats -- 60 in the Senate".

In 2008, we did. We gave them 60 for the Democratic Caucus. And, we gave them the White House.

Obama came into office with the wind at his back. More people voted for him, a black man in good old r@c!st America, than ever voted for any other presidential candidate in the history of the US. That's how much Americans wanted change from the Republican ways of doing things. Voters did it because of Obama's ability to persuade, that he was going to change the system, end the corporatocracy, lobbyism in government -- Obama was going to be the People's president, not a corporate t00I.

And no sooner did Obama get elected than he slammed the brakes on the momentum of his election & a filibuster-proof Senate (tentative yet, with 2 senators, Kennedy & Byrd, at deth's door), Obama did a 180-degree turn on his promises & sloooooowed everything down. To "work in a bipartisan manner with Republicans", after Republicans had already announced they were going to block everything Democrats wanted to do, vote no on everything, in lockstep.

Obama's political team and machine also disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation -- Everything was to flow through his operation. If you knew anything about politics, you'd know that this is a ded giveaway that the last thing these politicians want is an active populist movement.

Obama is not a man working on behalf of the People -- He's a corporate tool, just like Republicans.

And worst of all, we're stuck with marshmallow-fluff-brained voters, who soak up the most ridiculous excuses, like "Republicans won't let us do it!", when, in fact, Obama and Democrats don't even try. Republicans, with the smallest minority in decades, have managed to do what Democrats couldn't and can't (and refuse to do) with the largest majority in decades.
About Government Shutdown
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

GE made record profits last year ($14 billion), didn't pay a dime in taxes (they're legal persons, don't you know, and can loot and plunder and pollute with all of the protections guaranteed to persons under the Constitution), AND THEY GOT $3 BILLION OF TAXPAYERS' DOLLARS IN TAX REBATES!

Now who again "spends more of someone else's money"?
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Economists: Gridlocked Congress 'Playing With Fire' As Failure To Legislate Could Devastate Economy

A double-dip recession (we're in a Depression; enough of trying to sugarcoat it) is pre-ordained.

This game that Obama and the DLC-controlled Democrats and Republicans are in is about trying to cast the other side as the party to blame when the bottom falls out. Because both sides work on behalf of the thieves who got our national treasure, and their job now is to keep the People managed, orderly, the system of unregulated capitalism and plutocracy intact while the rich get to keep the booty.

3 million foreclosures down, 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. <-- Blue highlighting means it's a link to be clicked.

This is going to spur new rounds of firings, another spike in unemployment, and more foreclosures. More Americans' jobs, good jobs, will be outsourced overseas. Corporations still enjoy tax incentives for moving their operations overseas. GE made record profits last year ($14 billion), didn't pay a dime in taxes and got $3 billion of taxpayers' money in rebates. Bush's tax cuts for the rich are now Obama's tax cuts for the rich; in that Obama deal, the poor had their taxes INCREASED, and the payroll tax 'holiday' sets SocialSecurity up for its end.

The economy isn't improving.

Obama's in office to mellow-talk us into accepting that which we'd never stand still for if we had contentious fire-in-the-belly Democratic politicians actually fighting on our behalf. Obama's in the White House to ease us into accepting the greatest heist in the history of the world, and never even think about trying to get back the money that was ripped off from the middle and poor classes.

What Obama's doing is presiding over the end game of America, letting the 'Haves' pick the (our) bones clean. The more we see of Obama in action, the more 'deals' he makes, the more people realize that Obama's a continuation of the cruel policies of BushCheney.

We need another FDR.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

One thing is for sure, republicans will keep giving huge tax breaks to billionaires even though they are not creating jobs. Republicans have no jobs plan!

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

Neither do Obama and Democrats.

And lets not forget that Bush's tax cuts for the rich are now Obama's tax cuts for the rich.

With Obama's deal to preserve Bush's tax cuts for the rich (making it Obama's tax cuts for the rich), 99ers were cut off. Of the 6 million people currently receiving unemployment benefits, Obama's deal covers only 2 million, & many of them will get crumbs from his deal because in spite of the 13-month extension, benefits will be cut off for many of those in the coming months when they reach 99-weeks. And only 25 states out of 53 states/territories in/of the US have 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, so that's even fewer still.

David Cay Johnston on Democracy Now! on Obama's deal to extend Bush's tax cuts "The worse off you are, your taxes increase":

"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. Republicans got an extraordinarily good deal, that raises, I think, basic questions about the negotiating skills of the President."

The payroll tax 'holiday' in the deal sets SocialSecurity up for its end. That's what Bush and GroverNorquist planned and why Bush believes he'll be vindicated as a great conservative in history: For ending the GreatSociety programs, by having bankrupted the nation so there's no way to pay out those benefits. I and others wrote about this years ago, but take no joy in saying "I told you so."

Extending Bush's tax cuts was an absolutely wretched deal, but standard for Obama, who 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 purpose of the deal was so that political operatives could say, "Obama helped the unemployed"; most readers won't know the actual facts of how Obama sold out the American people. Again.

Both parties are thinning the herd.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

It's important to remember that as entertaining as Jon Stewart is, he's got his own dog in this race.

Stewart's brother, Larry Leibowitz, is the Chief Operating Officer of the NY Stock Exchange, and Stewart has served as a lackey for the Obama administration.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

No kidding!

But don't tell me about it, tell Obama; he's the one who said it -- "We must all get a haircut."
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

Yes, so why heap further pain on the poor and middle classes? It does nothing about the real problem, it lets the richest and the real thieves who caused our woes keep the treasure.

You must know that (if past history is any predictor of the future) an ultimate budget with $31 billion in cuts is going to be the bare minimum slashed from services for the people who can least afford it.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

I'd love to hear more about that.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Keith Olbermann: President Obama 'Let The Terrorists Win' With Gitmo Choices (VIDEO)

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 Ronald Reagan, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove 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 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.

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 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?

Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Keith Olbermann: President Obama 'Let The Terrorists Win' With Gitmo Choices (VIDEO)

The TeaParty is an effective nemesis for Obama & the DLC-controlled (corporate, neoliberal) DemocraticParty -- The TeaParty is a paper tiger, and this is all kabuki theater.

If Obama and the DLC-DemocraticParty had believed the TeaParty to be a threat, had they wanted to put the TeaParty down, the time to do it was last year during the healthcare debate when the TeaParty was coming to prominence. When Democratic members of Congress were cancelling TownHalls because of the escalating threats of violence by gvn-toting teabaggers, disrupting Americans' long-honored traditions of peaceful debate in the public square.

Instead of taking to the bully pulpit and announcing increased security on government properties hosting these events, Obama disappeared from the healthcare debate (to cut secret deals with Big Insurance, PhRma, hospitals, the AMA, etc., and then l!e about it) as the TeaParty grew & bullied at TownHalls.

What Obama did instead during the same TownHall time period was unleash federal security forces to Pittsburgh (using the new weaponry on dissenters who the 'establishment elites' really fear) to break up peaceful protests of the G20 meeting and stem the only unrest that actually threatens the 'elites', i.e., the American people taking back their government.

Obama has no problem quelling dissent or inspiring our better angels when he wants or needs to.

Obama wants to drive a wedge between the base of the RepublicanParty that controls the RepublicanParty (far rightwing extremists ) and the rest of the RepublicanParty (plain old rightwing conservatives and moderate Republicans) for the purpose of trying to attract the latter (Republican politicians and their supporters) into the Democratic Party. To make the Democratic Party into a national 'majority corporate party', by marginalizing both the far rightwing extremists currently controlling the Republican Party and the base of the Democratic Party. In order "to govern, from the center, for 100 years".

The Tea Party serves this end in several ways. Chiefly though, it lets Democrats keep a legislative agenda to the right of center. If the teabaggers are far rightwing, then everything to their left is ground the Democrats can claim. And that's a lot of corporate-money ground.

Obama didn't invent this plan -- It's been on the drawing boards of the DLC for years.

When is the base of the Democratic Party going to get itself organized into a revolt-lobby party like the Tea Party and force Obama and the DLC-controlled Democrats to work in the People's interests instead of transnational corporations' interests? That's our only hope.

Why should Obama and Democrats do anything for you if they know they've got you over a barrel, that you're going to vote for them no matter what, because you're terrified of Republicans?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

By the way, that $31 billion figure was, originally, the Republicans' starting point (their dream 'shopping list') on which Democrats caved and now Republicans want more.

If I had a lawyer who negotiated a contract on my behalf like Obama and Democrats negotiate contracts for the People, I'd sue them for malpractice.
About Budget Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Government Shutdown Looms Large As Deal Talks Intensify

The most BS argument to date: "The cuts and the pain must be shared by all".

Why did Obama and Democrats even cave to $31 billion in cuts to programs and services for the poor and middle classes?

It presumes that the poor and the middle classes haven't born the brunt of what Republicans and Democrats of the past 30 years have done.

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.

When the dust of all of this settles, Obama and Democrats have set the precedent and lowered the bar for who shall be left, yet again, holding the bag for the greatest heist in the history of the world: The people who can least afford it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

© Blogger templates Newspaper by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP