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Subscribe to RSSElkhart four years later … State of Union stronger, but not as strong as it could be … It’s still the economy … Obama under 50% in latest polls … Dems plan to ‘win’ the sequester … Bipartisan gun deal? … Breannan pressed, but could teach Hagel a thing or two … Dempsey ‘surprised’ Clinton didn’t know about Benghazi cable.
Published 9:45 a.m. ET -- *** Elkhart (and America) four years later: Exactly four years ago tomorrow, President Barack Obama -- who had just been sworn in for his first term -- traveled to Elkhart, Ind., to sell his economic stimulus. At the time, Elkhart had a sky-high unemployment rate(19.4% as of Feb. 2009) due in large part to the city’s reliance on the manufacturing industry (especially the making of recreation vehicles). “I promised you back then [in 2008] that if elected, I'd do everything I could to help this community recover, and that's why I came back today, because I intend to keep my promise,” Obama said. Because of that promise, NBCNews.com began a series called “The Elkhart Project” chronicling the city’s recovery. Four years later, with Obama set to deliver his latest State of the Union address on Tuesday, Elkhart is pretty much the story of America: Things are better, but not back to where they were before the economy crashed in 2008. Elkhart’s unemployment rate is now 9.3%, down significantly from its peak in ’09, but below the state (8.2%) and national average (7.9%). “We’re definitely not where we want to be, but we have certainly rebounded from where we were,” said Barkley Garrett, the city’s economic development director. “All in all, considering where we were, we are doing well. But we have a long way to go.”
Aug. 5, 2009 (archival video): NBC's Chuck Todd poses questions to President Obama about the economic realities that most Americans, particularly those in economically hard-hit Elkhart, are facing during the recession. President Obama spoke at Wakarusa, Indiana announcing federal grants to support hybrid RV and pick-up manufacturers.
*** The State of the Union is stronger -- but not as strong as it could be: Speaking in Elkhart four years ago, the president acknowledged that full economic recovery would take time. “Even with this plan, the road ahead won’t be easy. This crisis has been a long time in the making; we’re not going to turn it around overnight,” he said. “Recovery will likely be measured in years, not weeks or months.” We now begin Year Five of America’s road to recovery. The state of the union -- at least economically -- is stronger than it was four years ago. But it also would be a stretch to say it’s as strong as it could be.
*** It’s still the economy: Despite the focus on guns and immigration, the economy remains the biggest story. And with analysts believing unemployment will remain in the mid-7% range into next year, the philosophical fiscal divide in Washington, mirrored across the world, will continue. There’s been no bridging the conservative view that austerity measures/spending cuts, especially in the public sector, to reduce the debt will lead to growth and the liberal view that more temporary deficit spending is necessary to provide support to a fragile economy -- and that those public-sector cuts are a big part of what's holding the economy back.
*** Not great news for Obama in latest polls: The president’s approval rating in a round of polls after his reelection showed Obama over 50%. Well, this morning the president’s approval is under 50% in both a new FOX poll (49%) and Quinnipiac poll (46%). The FOX poll also shows pessimism continues to reign.
*** Democrats plan to “win” sequester: Part of Obama’s State of the Union is going to be the sequester, Politico notes, and pushing for ending loopholes for the wealthiest, something Democrats believe they have broad support for: “Senate Democrats are digging in against Republican calls for deeper spending cuts by bringing out some of their favorite punching bags: corporate jets, Wall Street and Big Oil. With the automatic budget cuts in the sequester coming up next month, Democrats hope to vote on an alternative plan to raise taxes on some of their favorite boogeymen in hopes of shifting the blame when the GOP inevitably rejects it. … The Democratic public pressure campaign is expected to begin in earnest next week, starting with President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday and a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing expected Thursday at which senior administration officials will most likely sound the alarm that so-called sequestration cuts would devastate the economy. … According to sources familiar with the matter, Democrats are leaning toward a plan that would be split 50-50 between spending cuts and tax hikes, financed in large part by new taxes on corporate and wealthy taxpayers.”
*** Bipartisan gun deal emerging? Guns is also likely to be a topic, and AP reports that there’s a bipartisan private group that is aiming at forging a deal expanding background checks and working on mental health issues. AP: “A bipartisan quartet of senators, including two National Rifle Association members and two with ‘F’ ratings from the potent firearms lobby, are quietly trying to find a compromise on expanding the requirement for gun-sale background checks. … The senators' talks have included discussions about ways to encourage states to make more mental health records available to the national system and the types of transactions that might be exempted from background checks, such as sales among relatives or to those who have permits to carry concealed weapons, said people who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to describe the negotiations publicly.” The senators involved in the private group include Democrats’ No. 3 Chuck Schumer, Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Republicans Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois. It’s significant that, once again, Schumer’s in the middle of this, positioning himself as a dealmaker. Makes us wonder if Harry Reid’s thinking about retiring before his re-elect in 2016…
*** Brennan pressed, but could show Chuck Hagel a thing or two: The confirmation hearing for John Brennan to become CIA director began with fireworks with Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein needing to shut it down and clear the room after five protests. Eight people were arrested outside. Brennan sparred with senators over drones, torture, leaks, and Benghazi. Some senators disagreed with him and pushed him, especially on interrogation. Some might not be happy with his "I don’t know what the truth is" answer, but he was ready, confident and unapologetic. He acquitted himself much better than Chuck Hagel, the president’s nominee to be Defense Secretary. It was a stark contrast. Jill Lawrence, writing under the headline “John Brennan Shows Hagel How It's Done,” called it “a startling 180-degree contrast.”
*** The debate over kill or capture: The Washington Post notes that Brennan was challenged on why “the number of drone strikes has soared while captures of terrorism suspects have dwindled to single digits” under President Obama. “I never believed it's better to kill a terrorist than to detain him,” Brennan said in an exchange with ranking member Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). Still, the number of detainees has declined significantly, according to the Post. Is it because of better intelligence? Does it have to do with Obama wanting to avoid detainees? It’s an important question, but one no one with any knowledge is going to answer in public. (Brennan will go at it again in a closed classified hearing with the committee Tuesday.)
*** Dempsey ‘surprised’ Clinton didn’t know about Benghazi cable: Two pieces of news came out of the other hearing on the Hill yesterday before Armed Services with outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey: (1) Panetta and Dempsey said they agreed with a Hillary Clinton (State)-Gen. David Petraeus (CIA) plan to arm rebels in Syria, and (2) Dempsey said he was informed of the Benghazi cable requesting more security by the U.S. African Command, that he offered more help, but it was turned down. And then when asked how what he thought about Secretary of State Clinton testifying that she had no knowledge of the cable, he said, “I would call myself surprised that she didn’t.”
*** Obama acknowledges tension with Capitol Hill Democrats: At the House retreat yesterday, the president rallied Democrats about budget cuts and that he’s willing to fight for Democratic values in the court of public opinion with Republicans. “I have to tell you, if that's an argument that they want to have before the court of public opinion, that is an argument I'm more than willing to engage in,” he said to. But he also acknowledged tensions with Capitol Hill Democrats with this: "There will be times where you guys are mad at me, and I'll occasionally read about it." Today, Bill Clinton (10:00 am ET) and comedian Stephen Colbert (!!!) address the group.
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Sequestration: time to cut defense.
4 years without budget? Shame on you Do-Nothing-Congress!
On March 1, automatic spending cuts ("sequestration") go into effect — $1.2 trillion over 10 years, half from domestic (discretionary) programs, half from defense.
Cutting defense is the right approach. It's also time to eliminate unfair, inefficient and market-distorting
loopholes.
Pres. Obama is firm that there should be no domestic cuts. The Pres. demanded a "balanced approach," coupling any cuts with new tax increases. That is the right approach.
Paul Krugman: "The N.R.A. is now revealed as an insane organization. They have this vision that we're living in a 'Mad Max' movie and that nothing can be done about it."
Pew polls found that 73% of women believe that assault weapons make our country more dangerous.
Meanwhile, the N.R.A. opposes every kind of assault weapons ban.
Frank Luntz found that rank and file N.R.A. members support barring people on terror watch lists from gun ownership. You guessed it - the N.R.A. national leadership opposes that position too.
La Pierre's Mad Max fantasy world. It doesn't have to happen.
Let the sequester games begin!!!
The $85 billion in automatic cuts is only $25 billion more than the DC pols just borrowed from China for the Sandy bill without blinking an eye. And $25 billion is (sadly) a drop in the bucket for the Barry era trillion dollar deficits.
So, let the sequestration begin, and call it even with the Sandy spending increases.
Barry spent his dime of political capital to raise taxes on the "rich" with the fiscal cliff deal. Raising taxes is a "been there, done that" thing.
It's now time to talk REAL spending cuts.
Anyone who has ever managed ANY business entity SUCCESSFULLY knows that 5-10% of existing costs can be cut without sacrificing much of anything important in terms of quality, and customer service and satisfaction. Yeah, change sucks, and the employees that are slugs may have to actually put in a full day of work or get laid off. Sorry, it sucks to be them.
Lefty liberals like to make fun of Chris Christie's weight, while glorifying the bloated, obese, expensive, wasteful, incompetent federal govt bureaucracy.
Let the sequester games begin!!!
Life is good,
Enjoy.
(or, if you are a lefty liberal, at least try to be less miserable)
From the WSJ (emphasis added):
The Unscary Sequester
Then on Tuesday Mr. Obama warned about "the threat of massive automatic cuts that have already started to affect business decisions." He proposed tax increases and "smaller" spending cuts to replace the sequester until Congress and he can agree to another not-so-grand-bargain. It's nice to see Mr. Obama worry about "business decisions" for a change, but listening to his cries of "massive" cuts is like watching "Scary Movie" for the 10th time. You know it's a joke.
The sequester that nobody seems to love would cut an estimated $85 billion from the budget this fiscal year starting in March. Half of the savings would come from defense and half from domestic discretionary programs. Medicare providers would take a 2% cut. This "doomsday mechanism," as some in the Administration call it, was the fallback when the White House and Republicans couldn't agree during the 2011 debt-ceiling negotiations.
The White House strategy was to create a fiscal hatchet that would disproportionately carve up the defense budget to force the GOP to raise taxes. The Pentagon absorbs half the sequester cuts though it is only about 19% of the budget. This hasn't worked.
Republicans have rightly concluded after two years of being sucker-punched that the sequester is the main negotiating leverage they have and may be the only way to restrain spending. So now Democrats and a gaggle of interest groups are denouncing Mr. Obama's fiscal brainchild because the programs they cherish—from job training to education, to the EPA and energy subsidies, to money for Planned Parenthood—are about to get chopped too.
***
The bad news for Congressional Democrats and their spending interests is that the noose only tightens after this year. Mr. Obama's sequester mandates roughly $1.2 trillion of discretionary cuts over the next decade. But if Democrats really want to avoid a sequester, they should stop insisting on higher taxes and start getting serious about modernizing the entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid that comprise the other 60% of government. If they won't, then sequester away.
Enemy anyone?
The N.R.A. Institute for Legislative Action in Fairfax VA - posted up an enemies list comprising 508 separate entities from A to Y.
e.g. Ben & Jerry's are on the corporations list, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Kentucky (all those expensive gun injuries). A slew of actors, poets, journalists and cartoonists (humor is disbarred), a movie theatre, a bread company, a private Catholic University, convenience stores. Doctors, CEOs, religious leaders, civic organizations. (No good guys, please)
Women Strike for Peace, Women's National Democratic Club, Women's Action for New Directions, Women's Int'l League for Peace and Freedom, (don't want women for peace), World Spiritual Assembly, Inc., League of Women Voters of the United States*, American Medical Women's Association, American Federation of Teachers, American Association of School Administrators.
American Counseling Association, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association for World Health, American Ethical Union, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (Pls - No mental health treatment)
Ambulatory Pediatric Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing, American Medical Student Association, American Medical Association.
The National Education Association, American Firearms Association, American Trauma Society, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence ... the A & N sections are particularly mind-blowing.
Hertsburg of the New Yorker, asks what do you have to do to get ON the list:
Haven't we done enough? How much more do we have to do? How much more do I have to do?"
(Check out the complete list of good guys: http://nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=15)
Because of Republican filibuster in the Senate and their majority in the House, Congress hasn't passed a budget since before the iPad.
Do Nothing Congress, Shame on you.
If congress does nothing again, the sequester will go ahead. Let's see what voters think in November 2014. So far the polls have not been kind to the GOP.
Muslims and Commies and Drones, Oh My!
From the article above:
Well, the gig is up. The cat’s out of the bag. The thyroid-challenged lady has sung.
We progressives have been trying to keep it a secret for four years, but thanks to Michael Isikoff blabbing his guts out on The Rachel Maddow Show, all the cards are on the table now.
Courtesy of the Huffington Post
For months, this writer has been reading the RW bloggers on this site and desperately trying to hold back the urge to blurt-out the impending (whatever) that they themselves have conjured up in their tiny, paranoid, faux-Rush minds.
The drones are coming. They’re comin’ to git ya! I for one would make sure I had enough bottled water, beanie-weenie and corn-squeezin’s to last me at least to the next Mayan prediction.
We now interrupt this program to bring you the following message:
…So lock up your daughter
And lock up your wife
Lock up your back door
And run for your life
The man is back in town
So don't you mess around.
Cos I'm
T.N.T.
I'm Dynamite…
T.N.T. (1975) – AC/DC
Drinks on me, amigos!
Salud
You wish to retract your statement?
The budget need a simple majority of 51 to pass.
"More Americans have died just since 1960 from gun incidents — suicides, accidents, and homicides — than died in every war in U.S. history.
The deadliest war the U.S. has ever had is the war we waged against ourselves." (Mark Shields)
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/01/20/more-americans-have-died-from-domestic-gunfire-than-all-wars-in-u-s-history-is-that-true/
Backhouse
Enemy anyone?
The N.R.A. Institute for Legislative Action in Fairfax VA - posted up an enemies list comprising 508 separate entities from A to Y.
Backhouse, shouldn 't they put Wayne LaPierre as Public Enemy #1? After all, he is the one advocating violence throughout the land.
Meanwhile speaking of enemies, Bill is nothing arrogant fool suffering from the lying syndrome who should be on the censor list.
Bill O’Reilly : The Drone Edition
Bill O’Reilly Bizarrely Claims NBC Hasn’t Reported On Drone Strike Memo, Even Though NBC Broke The Story
Unfortunately for O'Reilly (and his staff), NBC News' Michael Isikoff obtained a copy of the memo discussing the legality of Obama's drones policy and broke the story exclusively for the network. The memo was a major get for Isikoff and the network, and has been a major topic of reporting and discussion on both NBC News and MSNBC since Monday nigh
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-oreilly-bizarrely-claims-nbc-has-not-reported-on-the-drone-strike-memo-that-nbc-broke-the-story-on/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ha ha , that's laughable!!! No wonder more people no longer believe a word of FOX NEWS!!!
..and on the drones, I think this sums up the hypocricy of Senator Obama vs President Obama
....and also a shout out to the ex-pop culture pundit Toure, who is now the new court jester.
Because of Republican filibuster in the Senate and their majority in the House, Congress hasn't passed a budget since before the iPad.
_____________________________________
Pigslop: The Dem controlled Senate REJECTED Barry's 2013 budget 99-0 in May 2012. The House has approved a budget EVERY year since Barry has been in office, the Dem controlled Senate has REFUSED to even consider bringing a budget to the floor for a vote in four years.
It must be blissful to live in your very low infomation lefty liberal bubble.
Moron.
FR:
And yet both Gallup and Rasmussen have Obama's approval rating at 52% as of yesterday. For the beltway media, good news for Obama is no news for them.
Welcome to another edition of Fact Friday. Rick-3416939 is the catalyst for this edition. Yesterday, in the condescending tone we have come to expect from right-wingers who spout nonsense, Rick wrote about "the law of averages".
There is, of course, no such thing. It falls to arithmetic literate folks to expose math-challenged right-wingers. Thus, I was morally obligated to call out this pretender. Explain "the law of averages", I wrote. Dazzle us with your understanding of something that doesn't exist. His reply:
David is one of those liberals that believes you can flip a coin a hundred times and have it always come up heads. Which equates to the fact liberals always believe they are right and that conservatives are always wrong. Or their liberal media sources always print the truth, and conservative media always lies. The law of averages suggests that is simply not possible. But as David points out, he knows better. ;)
As a matter of fact, I do not believe that you can flip a coin and expect it to always come up heads. However, it is possible and can even be demonstrated as probable. Nonetheless, it in no way equates with the fact that liberals always believe they are right. We don't, but most often, we are. One can understand why tighty-righties might think that we are ALWAYS right.
No lefty I know accepts as gold-plated truth anything that comes from the media. We question information. As a consequence we do not rely on a single source of information and look for confirmation from other venues, Rick's deflection to a mythical "law of averages" notwithstanding. Yes, as I pointed out, I do know better. Two facts for the price of one.
Over time, it has become quite obvious to many of us on the left that "facts" casually tossed out by the righties are not facts at all. Most of us know that Joe from Albaaaaaaany, cannot tell the truth. An "up" market describes the failure of the President. Fairfax Bill cites numbers from yesteryear that have no relevance whatsoever to the present. Roy Wilson cherry picks numbers and even takes them out of context to support his position.
Call these right-wingers out and they run. Caesar Augustus did have his ass handed to him as Mickey, NY observed. CA came here talking about the failure of Keynesian Economics. Show us proof, CA. Of course, he could not because there is no example of Lord Keynes' theory being put to the test anywhere. Ever. It remains an untested theory.
So it is, with the blustering right-wingers who come here flinging their unsupported and unsupportable nonsense. How many times have we seen the oft-repeated lie of a Democratic super-majority in the Senate shot down? Too many to count. How many times have we seen the oft-repeated lie that Clinton, Carter, and the CRA caused the housing crash shot down? Too many to count. Yet, it is repeated as fact time and again by fact-ignoring right-wingers.
Time wasted on fact-deniers is far better spent on energizing a base for the 2014 elections. We must insist that those who hold office and legislate on our behalf base their decisions on facts; not worthless talking points and fiction.
So says the guy with the managerial experience of running a lemonade stand. He simply thinks that 10% cut means no more sugar in his over the counter sour lemonade. What he doesn't get is sucking on sour lemons is nasty, and the simpleton ponders, "Where are my customers?". His simplistic reply, "Gosh darn Obama and his economic policies!".
They just need to declare Wayne La Pierre crazy and ignore anything he says.
You wish to retract your statement?
The budget need a simple majority of 51 to pass.
_______________________________________________
Alan: Very, very low information lefty liberals like pigslop believe in the following code:
“Thanks to God that he gave me stubborness when I know I am right.”
― John Adams
Great end to the week fellow libs, well said.
Backhouse, that is quite an article. It looks as if the NRA (not its members) has become the promoter of Joe McCarthy-style black lists. Most NRA members are not remotely like the organization itself. They should all resign and find another club because there are many excellent hunting and sporting gun groups who aren't pushing a radical, crazy agenda to sell more guns no matter the cost in human lives.
Of course, new GOP Senator Ted Cruz is giving McCarthy a run for the money in the Senate by spear-heading the Hagel Witch Hunt: must disclose all the financial, etc. information regarding the corporations on which he has been a board member; must provide copies of every speech he has given the last five years....yada yada. I thought MSNBC's point last night that no one asked Donald Rumsfeld for information about the company he was involved with which helped build nuclear reactors in North Korea or for copies of all the speeches he had given was a perfect example of how ridiculous and crazy the new GOPTP has become. Could someone please verbally bat these yahoos up side the head to knock some sense in them; they remind me of little kids who can't have a cookie so they throw temper tantrums on the Senate floor. If Ted Cruz is a new rising star in the GOP, heaven help us all.
Who knew, protecting our country would become an issue for the fascist right to make fodder of? Of course they have a past history of making political hay out of our nations tragedies so it isn't a very big step to find fault with defending our country through the use of this new weapon. The drone attacks are a very new tool in our arsenal and from what I see, saves thousands of American lives. We are at war, the rules and laws change, sometimes there just isn't time for a extraction from a hostile environment in order to take someone to court and prove their guilt, sometimes it is necessary to launch an attack on very little notice. This war is not being fought on a battle field but rather a war of concepts and reality. These so called American citizens are plotting the deaths of Americans and taking shelter in the countries that either do not have much of a government of their own or in lawless regions run by war lords. Some are worried about a rogue president turning these same drones on our own people in our own country, however I don't really think this can happen anymore then a rogue president getting elected in the first place, or turning our own military on own people unless it is to quell and armed revolution of their own making.
$85 Billion. Wow. A whole 2.4% of the proposed budget of $3.5 Trillion. Why not just cut everything in the budget that 2.4% (for the rest of this year. The $120 billion to get the $1.2T amounts to 3.4% and some change going forward) and call it a day. Cut it and freeze it and live within your budget as all of us peons have to.
In other words, more hype from the MSM and the administration in the form of scare tactics.
David Walker
That's true in the sense that it cannot be tested in a laboratory where all other factors can be controlled for. But Keynesian theory has been tested repeatedly throughout history, and it seems to work pretty well. Its latest test came last month, where a decrease of 22% in Defense Department spending caused the GDP to contract by 0.1%. The GDP would have grown at a 1% rate otherwise.
Of course, there were other factors, such as Hurricane Sandy, so Keynesian theory can't be tested in isolation. But one thing is for sure: If the Republicans let the sequestration occur, or start screwing around with the debt ceiling again, Keynesian theory is certain to be proven correct again -- by another recession, or worse.
Joe and Alan --
Why in the world would the Senate let the House budget be voted on? Nothing says they have to. It's not how it works. Period. Need the process be explained AGAIN?
As for voting down the President's budget, it was politics, nothing more, nothing less. The Senate exercised their power. Get real and get over it.
Talk,
Cuts can only be applied to the discretionary (including Defense) parts of the budget which is only about 1/3 of the budget so your 2.4% is more like an 8% cut.
So, Alan, Reason (or lack thereof) is b#tching about this? I guess they slept through the election. Or, they're still in the back room at Fox with Megyn Kelly looking for Romney votes in Ohio. Maybe Reason (and you) want to assemble a posse and go bust these guys? I'm sure they'll turn themselves in to face the bar of justice. Given the choice between drones and American lives, the proper choice was made. Any other decision is, well, un-Reasonable.
The Budget Vote ...
Democrats disputed that it was actually the president's plan, arguing that the slim amendment didn't actually match Mr. Obama's budget document, which ran thousands of pages. But Republicans said they used all of the president's numbers in the proposal, so it faithfully represented his plan. Numbers with no verbiage to support areas of spending … no one would vote for such a budget.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/16/99-0-senate-votes-down-obamas-budget-unanimously-again/
House vote on the Ryan Budget: 235 – 193
No Dems voted for Ryan's budget and 4 Republicans voted "No" and you wonder why it failed to pass in the Senate 57 to 40 with 5 Republicans voting against it.
http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/112/house/1/277
Why did Republicans vote against the House passed budget ?
Houston:
Your example of a cut in defense spending and what appears to be a resultant contraction in GDP addresses only one part of Lord Keynes' theory. It is not just about spending.
Ah, so the Republican Party is now the high-information party? Tell me, where's scientific consensus on climate change? On evolution? What do most economists say about tax cuts being "revenue-neutral"? With which party do most economists side? Which candidate won the postgraduate vote by a 65-35% margin? Which party sided with statisticians last election and which proved to know absolutely nothing about polling or statistical models in predicting the election results?
I genuinely don't know of a more stupid habit the Republican party could possibly pick up than to call Democrats "low-information" voters. A case of a pot calling the kettle black if I ever saw one. I will call out every anti-science, anti-economics, anti-education, anti-knowledge Republican out there who's hypocritical enough to utter that very phrase.
FR:
Just more beltway media herd mentality. Brennan wasn't treated with this incredible disrespect that the McCain/Graham Bobsey Twins treated Chuck Hagel, constantly interrupting him and insulting him. But both the Republicans and the beltway media are cool with using drones, so they're not going to treat one of its foremost advocates with respect. As First Read seems to have missed, Brennan's harshest critics were Democrats, but their criticism was not the Joe McCarthy type inquisition that the Republicans used on Hagel.
@Houston!
You just contradicted Mr Walker.
...and Mr Walker's quote
So explain to me how an untested theory can be considered correct (again)? I guess you are disagreeing that Mickey got his ass handed to him because from your point of view Keynesian Economics has been tested. You simply disagree over the effects.
Oh enlightened one. Care to explain why there has been no Senate budget voted on for four years? Then they could could go to conference as was done in the past.
Had Senator Cruz, been a Senator at the time, he very well may have. It's one of the reasons we worked so hard to get him elected, if they need callin out he'll do it regardless of the letter behind their name.
Someday America will realize that the economy will never get better as long as Obama is in office.
Probably around the mid-terms.
No domestic cuts? I'm sorry, but something needs to be done on the domestic side and the ugly side which never is discussed is the fraud in domestic aid programs. My wife administers such a program and witnesses fraud weekly, yet she is not allowed to pursue it. Why? Because there are no funds to pay for fraud investigations.
Just to dismiss the idea that domestic cuts are not to be addressed is just wrong. EVERYTHING needs to be addressed. And for your information, should the military cuts happen, the unemployment rate would go up along with the need for MORE domestic spending (unemployment, food stamps, medicad, section 8 housing, etc.) so what's the solution, more spending? At least with military spending, people stay employed.
David Walker
True, but it's a pretty important part. What the money is spent on is what's important in the long term.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics
Yeah because all those inner-city, single mothers and unemployed dead beat dads are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO f...ing smart. But they don't vote for Republicans do they?
And if you think Paul "Kick the Can Down the Road" Krugman is so smart because he has a Nobel prize then you think Obama should have a Peace Prize for his Drone program.
Alan -- Politics. Ideology.
Houston -- Isn't funny how they love Keynesian type SPENDING when it comes to DEFENSE?
Auntie Fascist, you know this decision isn't even close to the decision that Truman made with nuclear bombs. Thousands would be killed and maimed and its ramifications would go on for years in the name of saving lives on both sides of the war. While it is not a highlight in our history that we destroyed two of the enemy's towns, it can be used as an example of how little damage is done with these drones. How many American lives are saved by taking out a couple of rouge Americans whose only purpose is to kill Americans? I don't think anyone knows for sure, but the decision should not be used for political fodder by the opposition party in this country. However it has been.
I see we're trading heavily in the Conservative lie that a budget cannot be filibustered. Technically it's true...but only to the extent that Bill Clinton "did not have sexual relations with that woman." In other words the echo chamber is splitting hairs in order to make something seem simple when it's impossible from a practical standpoint.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2012/02/parliamentary-procedure
So there you have it. The Senate can pass a budget by 51 votes BUT ONLY IF THEY APPROVE THE RYAN BUDGET.
Since the Ryan "budget" is actually a work of fiction penned in homage to Ayn Rand and not a budget in the commonly understood sense Conservatives are lying by omission when they claim the Senate only needs 51 votes to pass.
David Walker-
Good post. I have mentioned on here many times how many of our frequent right-wing posters have at best a tenuous grasp of history and facts.
How many times have they said that President Obama has not submitted a budget? In fact he has submitted his budget proposal every year, they are even posted on the White House website.
How many times have we heard that Harry Reid has not allowed the Senate to vote on a budget? Joe in Albany makes that claim in the same post where he says President Obama's budget was voted down in the Senate. (an untruth two-fer!) In fact the Senate has voted on budget resolutions many times during the Obama presidency.
How many times have we head that Gun Control by Hitler and the Nazis led to them taking over Germany? In fact the average German was allowed to own guns, and the restrictions on Jews and other political enemies came well after Hitler gained power.
How many times have we head that the solution to our economic crisis is sever austerity measures and tax cuts? In fact there is not ONE nation of any size in the world that has prospered economically after implementing austerity measures.
Republicans claim tax cuts lead to economic growth - the facts prove they don't.
It is not surprising that the same group of people who propogate these myths were the same ones who believed President Obama was a Kenyan/Socialist/Muslim/Communist.
They probably also believe that he solution to gun violence is more guns.....
Historical data strongly supports the adage "big drop, big bounce" with a near one-to-one correlation between the depth of the recession and strength of recovery...except for this one. In what should have been the second strongest recovery in US history, we instead got the weakest recovery in US history. The Obama administration's policies have been dismal, abject, massive failures.
@DCIA
Big difference is that I am for cutting defense, getting the hell out of Afghanistan, would like at least some judicial review of the drone policy, means testing medicare, getting rid of tax loopholes - corporate and personal, and for some basic healthcare service paid for by taxes.
But above all, only spend what you can afford.
Alan, NJ
It wasn't Mickey he was talking about. It was His Nuttiness, Caesar Disgustus. It's impossible to test any economic theory thoroughly in a real economy because there are so many factors involved. But tge fact remains that Obama's mild stimulus spending preceded a slow recovery, while the conservative's austerity in Britain preceded a double-dip recession. Other recoveries were preceded by expansive government programs like the New Deal and spending on WW II by Roosevelt. Not every event is the cause of what comes after, but causes always precede effects, but there seems to be a pattern here.
Mike in SA
Yeah. It only took fifteen years and World War II to get out of the Great Depression.
Mike in SA
No they haven't.
If you have been reading all the great posts today, you would see the reoccuring theme is that the RW is full of it. Welcome to the club.
Salud
Pigotry - Someone must have dined on your pig-brain, because your posts are ignorant and untruthful. Harry Reid refuses to let a budget get passed, not the Republicans, you partisan hack.
Backhouse: I am in a very bad mood, and only making that 'list' three times did not help.
p.s. Thanks for posting it.
Mike I wonder how long your nose has grown. The worst recession was the great depression which we didn't fully recover from for a decade, it took World War l l, and lots of spending in order to straighten out the mess that Hover made. President Obama has this nation on the right track in less then 4 years while ending one war and winding down another, and with deep opposition and obstruction from the Republican party. In other words you post is complete horse pucky.
AndresTM
The House Republicans put a guy on the Science Committee who says the Big Bang theory and evolution are "lies straight from the pit of hell." And they put Michele Bachmann on the Intelligence Committee. They really are the Stupid Party.
Gross oversimplification is a Conservative specialty. The current recovery is actually part of a trend. The second slowest postwar economic recovery was from the recession of 2001. The third slowest was 1990. What we're actually looking at is the result of failed Trickle Down economics gradually sapping the vitality of the American middle class over the last 3 decades. http://oregoneconomicanalysis.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/us_emploss_0812.jpg
In fact the Great Recession differs from your garden variety in some important respects and is one of a type that hasn't occurred since the Great Depression...the financial crisis. Thanks to reforms put in place during the New Deal era we didn't experience one of these for decades. Thank failed Conservative deregulatory policies for that one.
http://oregoneconomicanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/checking-in-on-financial-crises-recoveries/
By comparison to those earlier financial panics the Obama Administration response (and Bushies get credit for TARP as well) has provided outstanding results.
So the wingnut echo chamber theory of "equal bounce" is exposed for what it is. Just another lie.
Dont_carry_it_all
The Republicans complain more loudly than anyone about the jobs lost when a defense plant or military base is closed, but they don't seem to get the connection to Keynes. Money spent on building ICBMs and burying them in an underground silo to slowly rot is good for the economy. Money spent on infrastructure, education, and health care is wasteful big government spending.
Asked and answered at 1.36. You might try reading the whole thread before you pile inaccuracy on top of lies.
John B -- Nice posts. All things are not equal.
Houston -- No kidding! It's that tunnel vision they have. They're unable to see the dots to connect them.
Alan -- Yes, I'm aware of your positions and even agree with a few.
Yes it is still about the economy. We here in Michigan are on the crest of a recovery initiated by one Barack Hussein Obama. The auto industry has been adding jobs like a raped ape for a couple years now after it had cast off its expensive older (read > 50 years old) talent/cadre of hangers-ons. HR is still scrubbing the blood off the floors at CTC after the mass slaughter of all the older people not protected by a Union contract.
Hard to find an engineer at Chrysler now who does not sport a pierced something-or-other, or even one who shaves. The luster seems to have finally worn off of the H1B Visa thing as newly-hired Indian engineers are starting to lose popularity in favor of actual American kids who can speak understandable English.
Anyway, the company has cast off all its debtors and expensive employees, but it remains to be seen if that will translate into the promised salary-driven prosperity extolled by Republican economic theory. I know in advance how it will turn out though. We've seen this movie before: the rich will get richer at the expense of the poorer.
Republicanism cannot flourish without cannibalizing the Middle Class for its nourishment.
It is just that simple.
Republicanism is simply antithetical to the existence of the working class.
Four years later and it is STILL ABOUT THE JOBS !
Yep, Mr. Obama now has a "laser beam" on GUN control and IMMIGRATION as his top issues. Seems he did the same thing back in 2009 when he had a "laser beam" on Universal Health Care for OVER A YEAR instead of JOBS which was swept under the carpet for the other THREE YEARS.
Same agenda, same President. The On-the-Job Training FAILED.
The Progressives will go into "cloak" mode when the budget sequestration cuts are implemented. But before they do, they will blame the Republicans.
True - he has submitted a budget that was voted on and garnered almost zero votes from either party. Pardon us if we feel the effort was less than sincere.
Budget resolutions are not budgets. They only keep spending at current levels. In fact the Senate has shirked their legal responsibility of passing a budget for the last 3 years. That doesn't mean they have to adopt the Ryan budget but they have to submit their changes and reconcile the differences - something they refuse to do.
So Hitler gained power - restricted Jews from having guns then systematically annihilated them. How does that strengthen the cause of gun control or diminish the point of gun advocates?
Name a country that has thrived when they spend 60% more than what they take in year after year? In fact, those countries (Greece, Spain, etc...) that are the ones forced in to major austerity programs because of their out-of-control spending. So the solution is to either rein in spending now - or have it spin so far out of control that we will be forced to adopt heavy austerity later. The numbers don't lie.
The figures on Elkhart are again misleading many of the Unemployed have dropped of the rolls completely or picked up and moved because there are no jobs. It is a shame this administration exploits so many human tragedies to further a political agenda. America deserves so much better and the Limp Noodle Repubs do not have an answer.
The difference is that our support of defense is for the security it provides - not the jobs it keeps. Cuts in defense make us weaker. Plain and simple.
Budget resolutions are not budgets.
A Budget Resolution IS the Congressional Budget. It is drafted, proposed and voted on as a Resolution.
No Q22, what's insincere is parroting a lie that was debunked ON THIS VERY THREAD. As Dennis aptly and accurately described it at 1.23;
I realize the GOP subscribes to the "Big Lie" theory that telling the same lie repeatedly makes it seem to be true, but at this point it just seems to be lame.
If a current budget resolution cannot be agreed upon the previous year's is continued. No budget or budget resolution has been passed since the Democrats lost the House so we are still under the last passed budget - the one passed by the Democrat House and Democrat Senate in 2009.
Four years later and it could not be anymore obvious that Obama has no clue what to do to help the economy. The trillion Obama wasted on the stimulus was nothing but crony capitalism and a whole lot of debt, not much else. Now Obama is running around screaming the sky is falling because sequestration will reduce planned future spending increases by 1 trillion over 10 years. Average a meager 100 billion a year for a country running trillion plus annual deficits. The federal government is projected to spend 44 trillion over the next 10 years, and if sequestration happens they will only be able to spend 43 trillion. How will our government survive? Talk about another made up crisis over an accounting gimmick, Obama is demanding sequestration relief and it is a scam. Maybe Obama should just stick to his focus group tested line of needing a balanced approach, but put nothing in writing while the economy suffers from a devalued dollar. Get ready for higher taxes, skyrocketing inflation, and persistent unemployment, because that is the path Obama has the nation on today.
Hey IDO -- You wrote:
Tell that to the idiotic, narrow minded members of the House! Last time I looked they were looking to cause even more lay-offs with their austerity measures and delusions.
Q22-
I was not trying to strengthen the cause of gun control, I was merely pointing out the inaccuracy of those right-wing posters who compare President Obama to Hitler by posting fictitious Hitler quotes and claiming Hitler used gun control to seize power in Germany.
Germany survived the financial crisis fairly well by maintaining and increasing government spending , including a comparitively massive $63 billion stimulus package. They continue to do much better than those European countries who implemented austerity programs.
Plain and simple, there is a large portion of the military budget that goes to support weapons systems we don't need and foreign bases we can't afford. Saying that cuts in defense makes us weaker is a simplistic response to a complex problem.
Q22,
You said “Budget Resolutions are not budgets” when in FACT they are.
So being wrong AGAIN you change the subject to Continuing Resolutions.
However what you fail to understand that any budget at any time in the FY can be changed, even if it is a Continuing Resolution.
You weren't "Baghdad Bob" by chance, were you? You're on a roll today, not having said a single thing all morning that isn't demonstrably false without even having to think about it. Here's what a Defense Keynesian Republican had to say;
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/defense-spending-budget-deficit-austerity-congressional-budget-office.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
The GOPTP ran a Defense Keynesian as Presidential candidate;
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/09/romney_s_ads_against_defense_cuts_treat_military_spending_as_a_jobs_program_.html
@ Backhouse & Jodi
Wow, the NRA is the only organization that has a list? I don't belong to the NRA. I think they are a piece of crap. With that said, an organization that is just as dangerous if not more is the ACLU. If you guys railed as hard against the ACLU, and their convicts have as many rights as regular citizens platform, maybe, just maybe, we can get murderers and rapists to serve a proper sentence, instead of 2 years for good behavior.
Rick,
[The trillion Obama wasted on the stimulus was nothing but crony
capitalism and a whole lot of debt, not much else.]
Yet nearly HALF was in tax cuts. I thought that tax cuts didn't create debt !?! At least that is what is said about the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.
LOL. I don't think these guys will EVER get it.
Keynesian economics is not outdated, Milton Friedman's Chicago School is an offshoot, instead of replacement, of Keynesian economics. Friedman never denied the proper role of government in the economy.
It's the right-wing extremists who have routinely denied the proper role of government in shaping the rules of the economy, such as anti-trust laws and Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that had maintain stability in the market place but unfortunately was repealed by right-wingers in 1999. But these same right-wing extremists have always supported government role in over-stimulating the military - leading to a military-industrial complex that has been responsible for most wars since WWII.
Tax cuts or tax credits? Tax cuts go in the general economy allow the individual to decide what they want to spend their money on.
The State of the Union speech should be the shortest in history.
"The State of the union is Poor and not looking to improve. But hey you knew that and you elected me anyway. Good night suckers,"
The news will say it was the greatest speech in history and Chris M will wet himself again.
Same story different day.
PATHETIC.
Jay numbers, I hate to burst your little bubble, the ACLU protects everyone's rights, not just "Convicts". Ask your hero Rush Limbaugh who went to bat for him when he was faced with becoming a convict with his drug problem. I personally am glad the ACLU exist, no matter who they protect. It is our rights not just an individuals.
On the subject of Keynes and ICBMS, a joke attributed to Keynes occurred to me. He once joked that to get out of a recession, pay half the population to dig holes and the other half to fill them up again. That's basically what's been done with our nuclear stockpiles. Many people were employed in the effort to build a stockpile that could destroy the planet many times over. Now, people are being paid to remove the ICBMs that have deteriorated over the years and destroy them and fill in the holes in the ground that the missiles occupied. I don't think Keynes ever imagined that future generations would take his joke so literally.
Houston -- Defense spending and wars is the only "economic plan" the Republican's can ever come up with.
They have nothing else to offer. EVER.
In my mind's eye I visualize all of the Bush-Bot adherents to Republican economic theory.
Waiting with their bags packed on the porch like seniors waiting to be taken home from the nursing home. Waiting for the economic prosperity promised by George Bush. Waiting.
Waiting for what will never come. Nothing sadder than a Republican waiting for their Prom date. Oh where could they be? The Pubbie Friedman philosophy promised them a well-paying job in exchange for tax breaks to wealthy people, and supine submission to corporate whim.
Oh my. What happened? They were supposed to be enjoying wealth and prosperity at an embarrassing level by now. A tidal wave of cash was supposed to crest by 2007-2009, you know,.....that Republican prosperity tide that was going to raise all boats. Right?
So Pubbies. What happened to the Bush prosperity? Where was our economy by 2008 after 16 years of 100% Republican custody and dominance?
Further, why didn't you Pubbies trot Bush out during your last Republican National Convention in 2012? Isn't it tradition to showcase your most recent President? Isn't it smart policy to promote the brand? If Republicanism is so great why didn't you people hold Bush up as the Sterling example of what Republican Orthodoxy can produce?
Because we as well as you know full well what Republicanism produced. We were living it: Failed banks, crashed Stock Market, foreclosed homes, Depression, sky-high deficits, off-shored jobs, unemployment at record levels, 750,000 lost jobs every month,.....the cataclysm had no end and no limit.
Until January 21, 2009.......
It really is sad that these media types and most of the posters on here worship POTUS the way they do, it blinds them to reality and is unhealthy, human being are falible and more over easily corrupted.Denial is so strong in the human mind. People should never worship another human being, it never ends well.
Ed B:
Reality.
Embrace it.
Great reading today, fellow liberals; too many to mention one by one.
Jay, didn't say other groups didn't have lists now did I? The article referenced the completely ridiculous groups which the NRA feels threaten them; talk about paranoid and delusional. FYI, the ACLU defends a lot of conservative beliefs and rights, too. Since the right-wingers love to pick on it, the ACLU has been pursuing the Drone activity in court for years. While I may not always agree with every fight they pick or think it silly, the ACLU does a darn good job of fighting for rights, everyone's rights and they base their fights on the Constitution--you know, that founding document right-wingers love to tout.
Liar, Liar, Pants on fire! It is funny how everybody on both sides call each other names and such.
The truth is that it's BOTH PARTIES FAULT!!! you ignorant morons!!!!!
The 540 or so people that we ELECT are who is at fault here for not doing what is in the countrys best interest. It is their fault alone as to why we are in the state we are in. Things are not getting better regardless of what your favorite biased media outlet is telling you. Look at the deficit, look at the budget, look at the spending, look at the healthcare, look at the social disorder, look at the crime rate, look at the blaming games......Jesus people.
Bless you Jody,....you rock!
Houston—yes, that's the "high-information" party for you. Big-oil surrogates and confessed creationists sitting on Science Committees and certifiable nincompoops sitting on Intelligence Committees.
It amuses my pedantic self that most Republicans who call Democrats low-information voters aren't even well informed enough to know that "low-information," if used as an adjective, must be hyphenated. "Low information liberals" is like a slightly more acceptable version of those Tea Party signs that read, "Get a brain you morans."
Dennis, Columbus, Ohio perpetuates a liberal lie that claim the stimulus was "nearly HALF was in tax cuts. I thought that tax cuts didn't create debt !?! At least that is what is said about the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts."
Even the Obama administration claimed the tax cuts amounted to 1/3, but that was a dubious calculation at best. By no stretch of the liberal imagination was the stimulus 1/2 tax cuts. The stimulus contained a hodgepodge of tax breaks making it difficult to put an actual percentage, making it as convoluted as our current tax code which is continually used for political expediency, as it was in this case. So at least try and be honest for a change Dennis, 1/2 is an outright lie. So says
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/feb/10/jon-stewart/stewart-claims-stimulus-bill-one-third-tax-cuts/
http://projects.nytimes.com/44th_president/stimulus
How can we have a recovery when we have the Republican right wing Sabotaging our Nation !!!
When Republicans fail to find fault, they just start all over - What about our economy our is that a dirty word to the old boys club !!!
Pigotry:
Stop with your utter ignorance of politics. Budget bils can not be filibustered. Take a damn civics class.
How can we have a recovery when we have an administration that doesn't know the first thing about economics?
Truth is that this is as good as it gets with the Obama administration. <2% growth and perpetually high unemployment. 4 more years of the same old stink hole and a huge bill come due when he finally leaves.
Congress HAS passed a budget. It's the Senate who hasn't done their job.
Typical deflection by liberals. Let's blame anyone and everyone else. Let's deflect on what is important (the economy) and since it sucks let's discuss tsunamis, global warming (err, sorry, now the nut jobs want to call it climate change), gun control, same-sex marriage, immigration, and even gays in the Boy Scouts.
But one thing that CAN'T be deflected is the fact this president is responsible for the WORST economic recovery in U.S. history. He is borrowing and spending (actually the Fed is PRINTING and lending it the Treasury) $1 Trillion a year. And even with that we STILL have negative GDP growth (aka economy is contracting) the last qtr of 2012 AND unemployment at 7.9% (ABOVE when Obama took office) and projected to rise further.
What OTHER achievements for this president? Oh, that's right:
1) Most on Food stamps since program was started.
2) Highest % on Welfare since the 70's
3) Lowest labor participation rate in almost 40 years
4) Highest % unemployed 6 months or more since the Great Depression
5) The ONLY president in U.S. history where the median income actually DECLINED from inauguration day and end of first term
And ALL of these "achievements" during a time where he said he would "focus like a laser" on jobs and the economy.
Yea, right. We see how THAT is turning out.............
I just have to say, people call US crazy (those on page one) anyone ever look at page two and beyond?
1SGFitzWife4ID . . .
Once and it frightened me so badly I never went back!
Feisty, I mean Pigotry has no clue...
Nope!
I don't have the stomach for it! ☺
@ Johntho
Rush is not my hero, dude. I have never listened to him. Have you ever seen me reference him or stick up for him? I think he is a piece of crap, just as I think Piers Morgan is a piece crap.
Did I say the ACLU has done nothing right? I didn't. If you think the ACLU is this holy all caring place as much as you think the NRA is satan incarnate, you're more delusional than I thought.
@ Jodi
Same as I said to Johntho in my last paragraph above. First and foremost, I am physically handicapped, and appreciate all their efforts in making sure that we who are handicapped have access. I think the ACLU does some great things as does the NRA. However, when the ACLU goes to bat for convicted felons in their crying about human rights is as hipocritic as what the NRA does.
BTW FR's I DO NOT BELONG TO ANY PARTY. NEVER HAVE NEVER WILL. So any posts to me suggesting my party's affiliation or hero's is beyond stupid
As a Independent I will "NEVER" "NEVER" "NEVER" Vote Republican again !!!
@ Pigotry. You along with all your kind still haven't learned have you. Every time our defences are down, bad people try to do bad things to the USA, and any of its friends. You will eat your words some day.
1.36 says nothing to disprove my post. It does however show that Pigotry was speaking out of its anal orifice again, in that there has never been a Republican filibuster that stopped the Senate from passing a budget.
Who cares? Though it seems unlikely that you are "a (sic) independent." You may be unaffiliated, but it's clear that you aren't independent. More likely just another liberal, DEPENDENT on my and others' taxes.
Colorado-Man (the man part is doubtful) - the Dependent on your taxes whine is so stupid but it's all the far right minions have. You know most of us work and probably outearn you but, since you really have NOTHING of value to say, you fall back on the stupid whine that has so proved to be a lie - but it's all you have - Colorado BOY!
SS, the guy above is lost, he needs directions !!!
Sea and SS
Colorado is not lost. He is not following a fool as you two clowns do. Keep being dumb. MAybe you too can move up in the Democratic party. Stupidity is all they judge you by so you two will do great.
I wonder when the Kool Aid will run dry.
I can sleep at night knowing I didn't vote for Obama.
There must be a "fullmoon" out tonight, "moonshine" works in mysterious ways !!!
The cultists from the left are so uninformed. There has been a budget passed thru the House forwarded to the Senate every year. Dirty lying Harry refuses to even allow a vote because he wants the increased wasteful spending his Party passed when they had control to continue.
Dirty Harry refuses to do his Constitutional duty and should be removed as Senate Leader.
Pigotry - The Republican House has passed budgets. Congress hasn't passed a budget in over 3 years because of Harry "the obstructionist" Reid and the Do Nothing Senate Democrats. Shame on Harry and the Senate Democrats!
Seeking Insanity - There is no evidence that "most" of you work, except perhaps for MoveOn.org, and there's no doubt I outearn you.
n
Polls have not been kind to the GOP on most issues recently. But a competitive 2 party system is so important when one party constantly does wrong, the other can save the day. When the DEMs used to support slavery and segregation, the GOP saved the day. Right now, the DEMs seem to have done most things right. I want to see a viable GOP. Best wishes.
So looking forward to the President's State of the Union Speech next week. Wonder which clown, or clowns, will voice a "That's A Lie" comment. Always seems to be one. Hatred is an awful thing, but seems so prevalent these days. Let's get these Presidential appointments confirmed and move on to more important Government matters.
NEVER reelect McCain or Lindsey. They've become an embarrassment to our Country.
GOP is done. Conservatives are fed up. Your "viable GOP" is being replaced by something more in line with conservative values. 48% of the "12 electorate voted not to give Oblamer 4 more years. Dealing with Morons now for far too long. The political arena will get even uglier now. So ... I don't cry for the demise of the GOP but I will definitely celebrate the death of liberalism when it comes to my country.
Well, more Americans call themselves 'conservative' than 'liberal,' that's for sure. Actually it has been like this for some time now.
But President Obama has taken over the center and center right, that's why he won the second term. His first term policies are too 'conservative' to the left. We should give Pres. Obama credit for his sensible moderation. It pays to exercise moderation.
But Obama's moderation has seriously threatened the GOP as a party.
Piggy, a viable 2nd party such as the GOP cannot possible be effective with the small numbers that have taken the lead in that party. It is not the majority of the GOP that believe that President Obama was born in Kenya, it is not a majority of gun owners that feels it is ok to buy as many guns as you want for resale without some restrictions and regulation of these most powerful weapons. It is only a small radical right whose unreasonable demands that the rich deserve even more and the poor become their servants. I too remember the republican party, somewhere it has gone terrifically wrong. My theory is that the pundits, (IE. Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'reilly, and Shawn Hannity) are the ones that are steering this small group of radical right into a frenzy that catches some with their clever slogans and misrepresentation of what most Americans know to be untrue.
Hey pig - you have got to have a head injury or something. Obama is moderate ?? Hardest pull by any sitting president to either the left or the right. You see, it's citizens like you who scare me far more than our current inept president.
Johntho - I do not entirely disagree with your assessment except for the fact it is half incomplete. The far left is doing the same thing. 48% of the "12 electorate did not want to give Obama a second term. That is a few more folks than a select number on the right. Many of that 48% see the bottom 50% in this country as a bigger problem/threat than the top 2%.
Hey, vik2112 who writes:
See??? That's exactly what I just tried to get at.
You right-wingers don't give the President credit for being moderate. But obviously the voters did in November 2012. Learn something here, give credit where credit is due..that might just be the first step for the GOP to move toward viability.
Johntho, did you see that I was "frist" on an afternoon FR thread yesterday? I haven't been "frist" in ages, figure you and Feisty took a couple hours off and my timing was impeccable.
Vik, that is absolutely not true, I am not denying that Dem's have a radical left wing, what I am saying is they are no where near taking over the party as the fascist radical right has taken over the republican party. The democratic party is moderate compared to the deniers and obstructionist of the republican party that will never look for middle or common ground in order to do the work for the congress. I also question your figures since there are more people in the poor class then in either the middle class or the very rich. So I asking for a source and I do not accept Fox fact nor Rush Limbaugh rants as proof.
Yeah Jody, I posted late to it. I have offered the proper congratulations for the feat. I am really proud of the representative from Hawkeye land. Land of pigs and corn. I got busy yesterday afternoon, go figure, I am suppose to be retired. LOL
U are kidding right. What figure. I only provided one. What was the split of the '12 presidential election. Was it not 52/48 approx. ???
Vik,
The 52/48 split was after Republicans picked the most moderate candidate they had. The county is moderate. Obama is moderate. It's only in the RW bubble that he's not.
On the other hand, thumbs up for the Rush avatar. My Geddy Lee Rickenbacker is sitting right behind me :- )
Vik, I think it was actually closer to 51/47, but won't argue with you over that, it really don't matter, Obama won, Romney didn't, and the country is a much better place because of it.
This is the figure that I disagree with " Many of that 48% see the bottom 50% in this country as a bigger problem/threat than the top 2%." I don't see it as that many, I see it as a few, the most radical of tea bags this country has to offer which by the way is a small minority, that feel those living in poverty is a "threat" in any way. Source please?
That's it, keep trying to minimize the importance of President Obama's win. He has in fact won the popular vote TWICE, both times by bigger margins than GW Bush...or even Ronald Reagan.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/29/news/la-pn-obama-election-victory-margin-20121129
So unless you're planning to claim every President for the last 50 years has been illegitimate you're out of rope.
Johntho, I know what you mean; I'm retired, too. Amazing how busy one can get when living off the "gubmint" entitled to us....all while trying to be FRIST.
John B, SmBus, well done rebuttals.
Many think that conservatism is dying, and I have to agree. The Nation as a whole is leading more toward Progressivism!!!
vik, you do realize that it was liberalism that declared independence, revolted against the power of Great Britain and founded the country--conservatives didn't like change in 1776 any more than they do now, that's why they supported the Red Coats! Oh, what's that, you didn't know?
Yeah, Jody, that is exactly what I was doing yesterday, spending some of that gubment money that I paid into all my life. So did you. Being frist is an awsome responsibility in the least. LOL Watching republican heads explode is another.
Yes Jody, back when Republicans were Democrats and Democrats were Republicans. weird.
BTW the new newsvine format sucks!
Pig,
I think Obama opposing the sequestrian speaks volume to his utter incompetence. Lets see: He signs it into law that he (not Congress) introduced less than one year ago and is now blaming the Repubs for wanting to stick by that law. What a joke!!!
What you low information, non accountable (LINAV) voters do not understand is that the problem in Washington IS OBAMA. That guy is the problem. He has no clue how economics work and at this point has clearly demonstrated his igonorance in this regard.
The sequestrian needs to go in effect. It will be a good start to getting the reduced defict mindset going. It will also be a non-event relative to the impact on jobs. If anything, it will give company's a shot of confidence that DC can actually reduce spending a bit (in spite of the idiot).
This country would be in a much better place if our LINAV's became High Information Accountable Voters (HIAV) like the majority of Republicans are.
With the recent news of the ordered assassintations by Obama this government has officailly crossed the line to being Big Brother. Boggles the mind why there is not more outrage.
@ truth
Sorry, but there as many uninformed republicans as there are democrats. Both have their agenda's, and both IMO have many irresponsible agenda's. Nice try though
excellent post Truth Conveyer! Unfortunately the LINAV base is attached to O via the pockets of the taxpayer. These irresponsible people do not care about the country, their family, or neighbors it's all about them and what they can steal from the hardworking people of this country. That is who the dems play to.
Dottie,
In short they play to ignorance and take advantage of the weak. Obama has this down to a science.
Obama got his increased revenues during the first fiscal cliff negotiations...he agreed to spending cuts. Now he wants to ignore his commitment and go after more taxes....this guy has proven he has no honor, no understanding of economics, and no leadership ability. And you liberals slobber him all day.....no wonder why we are becoming a woosy nation...because of people like you!
Truth Conveyor -
What the heck is a "sequestrian" - someone who rides around cutting the budget? I have heard of a sequester, even sequestration, but never a "sequestrian".
I would think a supposed "High Information Accountable Voter" would do a better job of proof-reading.
How did that work out in Q4 of 2012? No company really wants the government to reduce spending, they just don't want the resulting deficits.
Those Republican "HIAV" voted for GW Bush twice - remember him? The one whose VP said "deficits don't matter"? The one whose "deregulate everything, tax-cut and spend" approach to fiscal policy led to the economic collapse?
We won't let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers....who isn't paying attention to information??
Mayamomma and TNSEVOL,
Please look at the economic "result" under Obama's adminsitration. Virtually by every measure they have been a failure. The Obamacare implementation is only going to make it worse. Tnsevol, as you implied, Q412 was a disaster. This is a direct result of Obama's policies, the coming costs of Obamacare, and the anticipated raising of taxes that eventually took place.
In short, in Q4 employers and the public saw who won the election and they reacted accordingly in regard to the expected economic policies that Obama will try to push through. In essence, Obama won the election and the economy immediately contracted. One more quarter of this and we are officially back in a recession. Might be tough to blame Bush for this coming recession.
This is the difference between folks like you (LINAV) and me (HIAV). I hold people accountable and educate myself on the facts. LINAV's buy into sound bites, slogans and political correctness. In general LINAV's are envious of other success (financial or otherwise) and expect something for nothing.
So Maya, yes, I wish you would fact check. It would have been probably been a good idea to do it before the last election. I suspect if you would have done it then you would have voted for somebody other than a failed first term POTUS.
The numbers are the numbers. Ask anybody in the middle class if they think they are in good shape after four years of Obama's policies....painful for sure.
Sorry guys, but I know better.
Pig said,
"You right-wingers don't give the President credit for being moderate"
Obeyme is soooo far left he makes Nancy Pelosi look like a republican!!
Truth Conveyer, what standard are you using, certainly not an unbiased assessment of this presidents work.
Lets examine history, When Obama took office we were shedding 700000 jobs a month, this started even before he took office. The stock market bottomed out around 6000 in March of that year, (2009). Foreclosures were at all time highs, domestic auto companies were in danger of becoming extinct. Banks were going under and many had stopped lending. This country was in the toilet.
Today companies are enjoying record profits the stock market is banging on 14000, near a record, Cars are selling and auto companies are hiring people to keep up with demand. Housing starts are up and people are buying houses again, Just about every faction of this countries numbers are up. Mind you it is well documented that this was without the any help from the republican party. The only number that is lagging is the unemployment but from where we were to where we are is night and day as we have shown 38 months of positive job growth.
I got to call barnyard bovine excrement on you. You call the president a failure when the real failure is you. You blow smoke but nothing else, you stink as a human, you stink as an American and you stink period. You smell of that barnyard substance that I pointed out you are spreading. I am so sick of azzholes like you trying to villainize this president when in fact he has done a great job for the people in this country. My advice to you is just STFU.
Truth Conveyor - Truth? What a total joke you are. You and Dotties Girl wouldn't know the truth if it bit you. But, as usual, you're content to post lie after unmitigated lie. Does it make you feel better? You just look worse with each post as evey one of us can see through your nonsense. But, go ahead - lies are all lowlifes like you have!
TNSEVOL - Republican HIAV is a total oxymoron! LOL
Johntho and Seeking,
Spoken like a true LINAV. A couple of comments:
1). Deficit and debt. Out of control under the Obama adminstration. More than all of the history of all previous POTUS combined. The epitome of selfishness and irresponsibility
2). Unemployment: Essentially over 8% for the duration of his administration (in spite of the stimulus--and his committment to get it under 6% should the stimulus be provided. What a waste)
3). Gitmo: Still open and no talk of closing it
4). No transparency in his Administration (see Drone assassination list)
5). 25% more people on food stamps than when his adminstration started
6). Taxpayers in the hole $25 billion to prop up two completey screwed up auto companys (GM and Chrysler) and associated greedy unions. I see Ford has done just fine on their own.
7). Jack Lew sharing the same banker as Mitt Rommney (apparently) as he has hidden offshore bank accounts in the Caymans.
8). No comprehensive immigration reform in his first term of office (as he committed to).
9). Benghezi (this one is a doozy. See non-transparency item above).
Need I go on??? I always try to spell these things out for LINAV's. I think education makes for a better country. Clearly you guys bought the Obama talking points as if this country was going off a cliff. Hence, you fall into the LINAV category. Johnto, I hate to break it to you; you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. The facts are listed above and I am sorry they hurt your feelings.
I am loving the stock market now....I am making a ton of $. Too bad the middle class has not participated courtesy of Obama's policies:(
Think people, think! And BTW, grow up. You guys still in high school?
Sincerely.
Smart People
We seem to have reached one of those Dichotomies that one seems to run in to right regular when one attempts to follow the Yahoo’s down the Rabbit Hole.
I mean the dichotomy between our policy on Drone Strikes and say “Stand Your Ground” which has become popular in 26 Yahoo States and Their reaction to it.
On the one hand the President is accused of acting as “Judge, Jury and Executioner” and “acting like the Executive branch doesn’t have to follow the rule of Law”. May be true although the “Rule of Law” is rather murky and appears to be kept intentionally so for various purposes.
Yet in various “Stand Your Ground” cases across our great land the Yahoo’s heap praise upon the actions of various Yahoo’s who have “Acted where Lawful Authority wasn’t Present or Absent”. In the most famous Case so far a “Lawful Citizen” has apparently shot and killed an unarmed Teenager who was guilty of the heinous crime of “Black Walking”.
“Judge, Jury and Executioner” much. And these cases involve not the four that the President is responsible for but number in the hundreds.
Where is your concern for “Rule of Law”
Look Folks we had a chance to “codify” this issue when St. Ronnie of Raygun took up the habit of shooting Cruise Missiles at our various “Enemies”.
George Bush the Elder continued the practice. Again the Congress abrogated their responsibility. President making these decisions was just fine with them.
There were some rumblings of action being taken when Wild Willy Clinton shot up an “Aspirin Factory” in what some say was an attempt to deflect from “Monica Gate”
When George Bush the Junior changed Cruise Missile Strikes to Drone Strikes the Yahoo’s couldn’t wait to sign up for the Program. Remember“Shoot ‘Em in the Lips” and the great delight in “Taking it To the Enemy” by Remote Control. There was very little talk about “The Rule of Law” and that was quickly buried beneath a Patriotic Fervor. You’re either “With Us or Agin Us”
The President has decided that the confirmation proceedings for Brennan are a good time to have the broader Drone Policy discussion. He has even released documents to facilitate the discussion. He is apparently as uncomfortable as we are with how this Program is being conducted and where the Responsibility’s lie. He’s right. Time for a frank and open discussion is long past. Congress has abrogated their Responsibility for over thirty years choosing instead to concentrate on whether or not they “Liked” the person who is charged with carrying out the policy. But that discussion if it is going to get past the point of Partisan Sniping needs to have the proper perspective so to speak.
Is the Congress going to step up and provide some codification here (as is properly Their function) or are We going to be left with “Stand Your Ground” rules that show promise of being misused by Past, Present and Future Presidents
IR,
Your post give a great histrocial background to this whole issue.
But the GOP never lets history stand in their way when they want to flip flop on any issue.
Independent Redneck Va-
This has been a recurring theme from the GOP obstructionists since President Obama came into office.
Nicely done, once again, IR.
Salud, Amigo.
IR, Great post. Have a wonderful weekend.
"The President has decided that the confirmation proceedings for Brennan are a good time to have the broader Drone Policy discussion. He has even released documents to facilitate the discussion. He is apparently as uncomfortable as we are with how this Program is being conducted and where the Responsibility's lie."
IR - As per the Maddow Show last night, the powers that be (NOT the President):
Are refusing to submit for public viewing - the paperwork requested by the President - concerning drone policy.
For the record.
Morning Floyd. Way to end the week. Thanks!
Gee IR, I dunno. Those cruise missiles are like surgical instruments. You know when they're fired into the heart of a metropolitan area, they only kill bad guys, don't they? Cruise scalpels as it were.
It almost sounds like you're asking Republicans to be consistent. That's a trifle unreasonable, doncha think?
IR - spot on and brilliant. The nut jobs on the right are so focused on keeping their BB guns to shoot down drones that they have completely missed the point.
IR, that's just an excellent post. You would call it silliness if the ramifications weren't so damned serious.
I have a few thoughts about the drone issues rattling around my head. The first thing is that I have a hard time believing the Republicans really care about anyone's rights except for the rights of the 1%. It reminds me of the Watergate days when Nixon tried to make principled stands---just not buying it. The second is that I think Brennan is right---if an American takes up with Al Queda, he or she has to know that is treasonous and risking of the person's life. It is treason to our country.
Thanks Friends. I just think that the time for this discussion is long past. Quite Frankly I have a problem with some of our policies and the way they have been applied. And to be clear that goes for President Obama as well as all the past Presidents I have mentioned. However if we continue to have the discussion based on whether we "like" The man in charge or of what Party he is the discussion ain't going nowhere but right back in the toilet. My Thoughts are either codify it so we have some guidance on how you want it to be conducted by all Presidents or quit your bitching if the man does it to his own satisfaction. And that just ain't no way to go.
Excellent post, IR. Some congressional leaders have spoken up in these past 30 years; however, it has been, as you said mostly in opposition to the person sitting in the White House. As Senator Ron Wyden said on MSNBC last night, he was encouraged because President Obama wants to have this discussion and set some rules. I fully support that.
It seems to me the debate today should be less focused on those four American Al Qaeda members and more focused on the fact that modern technology has surpassed the rules and laws previously established.
Congress should have oversight and be more involved in Drone activity as well as CIA doings. The only thing I would demand of our legislators is that they at least appoint members to the Intelligence Committee who actually have some credibility and intelligence (think Michele Bachmann). In other words, Congress should have their own vetting process for its members when such serious responsibilities are involved. I say this because such information is highly classified, it's inadvertent release (think Darryl Issa on Benghazi) could have serious ramifications by informing enemies as well as placing Americans in harms way.
My thoughts on the drone issues:
When we elect a President, part of our decision is based on the fact that we can trust him/her to make the right decisions. We don't give the President unlimited powers, but the office does includes the responsibility as Commander in Chief to direct our country's military actions.
Al-Qaida attacked America on 9/11 and killed many of our fellow citizens. They continue to plan and carry out attacks against us and our interests. In my mind a drone strike on an al-Qaida leader is not much different than shooting an enemy soldier on the battle field.
This struggle is different, al-Qaida does not represent a country or wear a uniform. Our tactics must change. Drone strikes accomplish our mission without endangering American lives, and they minimize the risk of killing innocent civilians.
How can we claim the President is acting as "judge, jury and executioner" when the strikes target terrorist leaders who have sworn to kill Americans?
I trust our President to weigh the risks involved in capturing these leaders and make the right decision as our Commander-in-Chief, as we have trusted our prevous presidents to order cruise missile strikes or other actions.
TNSEVOL, well said.
The DOJ did release documents. As is always the case, some will dispute whether they have everything they need or rather want. Since I have no idea exactly everything Wyden and the committee requested, I can assume there are a number of highly classified documents to sort through and release before fully complying with the request.
A little patience might be in order. Seems to me the new interest is more a sudden need for some Congressional leaders (not Ron Wyden who has been asking often) to appear as if they are doing their jobs when in reality, as IR said, Congress pretty much abrogated their responsibilities for the last 30 years. I give democrats some credit here, though, because they are asking tough questions about their own side's decisions whereas in the past, it appeared more to be a protest against the other party's president.
Great post, IR and thank you for the infomration.
David Walker ...
Enjoyed your post as well . . . everybody needs a little dose of sarcasm with their morning coffee! :)
@ IR
Very nice that you would conveniently leave Bill Clinton's name off of the questionable use of missles/drones. So the party of fair and proper treatment of humanity, has no skeletons in their closet?
lol
What a great statement!
And it applies to so many of the debates currently ongoing. Like guns. And contraception.
I agree.
We are confronted by an enemy who is from no country and from every country. This enemy does not wear a uniform, does not subscribe to any convention, uses weapons ranging from box cutters to high tech, does not recognize non-combatants, does not negotiate.
As both you and Jody have so eloquently stated, the rules have changed. We must redefine how we respond.
There were some rumblings of action being taken when Wild Willy Clinton shot up an “Aspirin Factory” in what some say was an attempt to deflect from “Monica Gate” .......Jay I Don't know about you but Wild Willy equates to Bill Clinton in my vernacular. So perhaps you should read before you bitch. Geeesh you just can't make some of you Yahoo's happy.
My husband and I were discussing that only last night...
TNSELVOL,
I think you summaraized a king like or dictator position well. Review the list in the morning, assasinate in the evening. Sounds reasonable.
Jay -
From IR's post above:
Do you struggle with reading comprehension?
Truth Conveyor-
No, just some of the responsibilities inherent in the Commander-in-Chief position. As I and previousposters have stated, almost every president since Reagan has authorized the use of artillery, cruise missiles or other actions to retaliate against terrorism.
The current focus on the use of drones while ignoring historical precidence is absurd.
@ IR
So, you are going to paint a picture by using just one color to describe the painting? As a huge fan of Don Van Vliet's paintings, I never have heard him describe his paintings in one color. Its a broader picture. I like reading your posts IR, and do respect them. I just think that painting with one color does nothing for anybody. "Independent Old Rocker"
Jay, IR pointed out the Bill Clinton reference but in case you need more help, it's paragraph #9 in the original post. It pays to read something before spouting off.
fielden, thanks and, yes, it does apply to many things. Feisty, its a point of conversation the media seems to ignore.
Jay, odd, that you fail to see the many colors in IR's painting. He criticized right and left. Perhaps you are color blind?
TNSEVOL,
So Bush was right in waterboarding detainees. Please confirm that you supported Bush and Cheney policies in this regard. It sounds like--and I am glad--that you agree. Just some of the inherent responsibilities of the Commander in Chief.
If I understand you correctly, you support state sponsored assassination-correct?
The same thing applies to some of the financial instruments (like CDO's) that have been created over the last few years.
Agencies didn't know how to rate them, insurers didn't know how to insure them, regulators didn't know how to control them, and investors thought they were risk-free.
That was a big part of the financial collapse. Unfortunately, we still don't have a handle on them.
Truth Conveyor -
Apples and Oranges. Using the latest weaponry to kill enemy combatants has been taken place under almost every president.
Again, a completely different subject. Do we use drones to assassinate foreign leaders? Of course not, we use them to kill enemy combatants.
Sorry, but it seems the focus of the post was solely about Rethuglicans, with a short blurb about Bill. To me, it just derided one side. I think the issue has broader implications than one side
@ tnsevol
The last post there. No truer words spoken.
TNSEVOL
As to credit default swaps and the Pandora's box of nasties that they spawned, it is considered in just England alone that it will take some 15 years to unwind the financial mess that was created. That is probably a good timeline for the rest of the gamers.
Tnsevol,
I take it from your answer that you agree that Bush and Cheney were right all along. Given that Gitmo is still open for business it is clear that Obama also supports waterboarding. We are on the same page. Thank you.
Truth Conveyor -
I take from your answer that you struggle with both facts and reading comprehension. Torture of soldiers or enemy combatants has NEVER been the policy of the US.
Wrong again. Pres. Obama tried to close Gitmo but the funding was not approved. Also, there is no waterboarding going on anymore.
The same page? We aren't even in the same book.
I would be open to having a rational discussion about the legitimacy of drone attacks and the limits of presidential power but you cant seem to see the difference between drone attacks, assassination and torture.
Maybe you can ride off into the sunset with a "sequestrian".
Obama skips over the torture piece and goes straight to assassintation. Only in LINAV land can waterboarding (and keeping the person alive) be considered worse than someone being assassintated (without due process, I might add) by the US Gov't via somebody operating a drone out of Nevada.
I am all for getting the bad guys. But clearly, what Obama is doing validates that Bush and Cheney were right all along. BTW, do not kid yourself. They are still waterboarding at Gitmo and Obama never had any intention of closing it.
Hopefully you have learned a bit here. Come join the HIAVS!
Jay, reading comprehension is not your strong suit, right? Get someone to read IR's post to you and then explain how Clinton is absolutely discussed.
Truth - again, you pick and choose your indignation. When an American joins Al Quaida to work against the US - and is then killed by a drone attack - they've pretty much become a traitor already. They've taken their stand and it is against the US. 'nuff said!
Oh, and again HIAVS and Republicans is a complete oxymoron - well the moron part fits - whatever!
Seeking,
If you are good with the Obama assassintation list and the US sanctioning state sponsored murder, then ok. My point is that Obama has taken Bush and Cheneys enhanced interrogation one step further. He simply orders the killing of whoevery he wants in relation to the intelligence we have.
It sounds like you are ok with that and I am glad that you supported the Bush and Cheney enhanced intterigoation program that continues under the Obama administration.
We are on the same page.
FOX News...say it isn't so!
In other late breaking news, water is wet!
We know how well FOX is with numbers...and from what I read CNN will be the next station to have a problem with numbers cause ol Dicky boy is movin channels!!
Looks like some fanatics are trying to curtail Bill Gates effort to eradicate polio. Should we drone these guys?
Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead nine health workers who were administering polio vaccinations in two separate attacks in Nigeria’s main northern city of Kano on Friday, police said.
No one claimed responsibility but Islamist militant group Boko Haram – a sect that has condemned the use of Western medicine – has been blamed for carrying out a spate of assaults on security forces in the city in recent weeks.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/gunmen-kill-9-polio-health-workers-in-nigeria/article8374236/
In the news up here, John Kerry is in the neighbourhood with his first foreign visit … that pesky pipeline.
John, meet John. Now about that pipeline
In his first summit with a foreign leader, freshly-minted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet today with his Canadian counterpart John Baird. The talk will undoubtedly touch on matters of pressing international interest – the civil war in Syria in particular – but the more vexing issue will be the one closet to home – the Keystone pipeline. President Barack Obama delayed a decision on the pipeline ahead of last year’s election and a decision is expected in the coming months.
BCWC - that is all propaganda. Haven't you heard, Kerry's frist days in office will be spent reading every single cable sent from the hinterlands. On top of the list will be all cables asking for more secretaries, er um, security.
BCWC, disturbing but informative. While in this country, the anti-medicine crowd hasn't shot the health care workers (well, so far but give LaPierre & the NRA time), we have people who refuse to vaccinate their children because of fear and misinformation.
Good to see SoS Kerry making Canada his first official stop!
But the anti-abortion yahoos think nothing of offing an abortion doctor.
"And that's the way it is"....this week
While most people tried to talk about serious issues this week, the beltway media went skeet-shooting. Did he or didn't he shoot, when did he start, how often does he shoot skeet, was that real smoke, his stance is all wrong, the gun was too level. Serious times demand serious debate, et tu, Andrea M and Chuck T?
Republicans gone wild. Geraldo Rivera is thinking about running for a NJ Senate seat. Scott Brown won't run in MA but Glenn Beck's Dr. Keith Albow might. GA's tea-nut Paul Braun announced he'll run for Saxby Chambliss's seat. IA's own tea-nut Steve King may run for Harkin's seat. Karl Rove is hyperventilating!
Rand Paul will give a speech about the Constitution on Reagan's birthday; this from the guy who got his Benghazi facts from FOX, Drudge and World Net (Birther) Daily. Should be entertaining.
Despite 5 of 6 states heeding the bad press and public outcry against Priebus's plan to rig the electoral college but only in states which lean democratic, Pennsylvania didn't hear. Full-speed ahead to gerry-rig elections to go with their gerry-mandered districts. So much for freedom and democracy!
Iowa's State GOP House is proposing a bill to eliminate straight-party voting. GOPer Peter Cownie said "I think an educated voter is a better voter and this will help them do that." The bill won't benefit either party. But one must question why Mr. Cownie thinks that forcing voters of either party, who only vote for republicans or democrats, to mark the box by each name will better educate the voter. Logic??
It didn't take long for the right-wingers to blame the Super Bowl blackout on President Obama and that evil, green energy. Who do those FOXers think they're fooling...it was a Drone strike on a transformer!
During the blackout, "Heck-of-a-job Brownie" tweeted, "someone just told me there was fighting going on in the Super Bowl. Shock." Jerk!
LaPierre LaPew said law-abiding people don't want universal background checks. See, Pepe Wayne confuses criminals with law-abiding citizens because the more guns and ammunition sold to criminals, the more money the NRA receives in kick backs.
The crazy right's latest conspiracy theory about President Obama concerns the design on his wedding ring. They have yet to decide if the design proves he's secretly Muslim, or secretly gay. They're putting it to a vote; of course, government-issued photo ID is required.
Republicans love to talk about small business owners as the backbone of our economy, so why is it they do nothing to support the small-business family farmers while giving so many tax breaks to the wealthy, corporate, factory farms? Inquiring minds want to hear their answer.
Iowa's GOP Gov Branstad and Lt Gov Reynolds are being sued by a gay worker. Branstad wanted the guy to resign, he said no; so Branstad took the backdoor route. He cut the guy's salary, reduced the office budget and eliminated an assistant...only he didn't count on being sued.
It isn't enough for Karl Rove and the GOP to disenfranchise minority and democratic voters, Rove now plans to disenfranchise the far right, tea crowd by doing some weed whack-a-doing. Don't ya just love democracy GOP style?!
Eric Cantor tried on a new Immigration Suit for size--he decided the old anti-Latino one was too tight, interferred with the blood flow to GOP brains....uhh, campaigns.
In honor of her 100th birthday, the US Post Office issued a Rosa Parks stamp. Cheers. Too bad the GOP Congress in 2005 legislation strangled the USPS, forcing them to finally cancel Saturday mail. The GOPers do love the "privatize" block on their party platform.
Speaker Boehner and his cohorts stood at the microphone to complain President Obama's budget was late--not that they would do anything with it anyway. BUT what I want to know is HOW MUCH IT COST TAXPAYERS for the gigantic sign behind them, "Americans Deserve a Budget"!!! Oscar-worthy theater.
Donald Trump thinks Bobby Jindal "is the stupid" one because he should not have publicly called the GOP "the stupid party". HA! The birther guy with the squirrel tail on his head IS the GOP's poster-boy for "the stupid party".
Based on his questioning of Julian Castro at immigration hearings this week, IA's bigot Steve King is convinced that the entire planet of 6 billion will want to immigrate here if we fix the system. I really doubt that since the rest of the civilized world has universal health care and we're still stuck with Blue Cross/Blue Shield....if one can afford it.
Eric Cantor spoke to the AEI describing the new Health, Happiness & Prosperity Party--the HHP Pinafore for short. It's based on four conservative principles. Let's see, self-reliance = no free loaders or moochers; faith in the individual = you're on your own; trust in family = family values; government accountability = only when a democrat is president. In other words, the GOP is serving @!$%# on a shingle for dinner while claiming it is lobster!
Rev Al showed a fun clip Tuesday night of President Obama's previous speech along side Eric Cantor's AEI one. Little Eric recognized a good thing when he heard it, he plagiarized with a few minor tweaks. Only trouble is that Little Eric is no orator--it was obvious that he needed some Gas-X!
GOPers in MI, TN and IA are still trying to pass more anti-women's choice and anti-rights legislation; they never stop. Meanwhile, GOPers at the federal level continue to block the Violence Against Women Act. But, hey, there's no GOP War on Women, it's a figment of our imaginations.
Flashback: Proof, through the years, the GOP male politician apples never fall far from the chauvinist tree.
"Those are the prettiest witnesses we have had in a long time. I imagine you are all married. If not, you could be if you wanted to be." Strom Thurmond at a Senate hearing.
"Women are best suited for secretarial work, decorating cakes, and counter sales, like selling lingerie." Larry Koon, South Carolina state representative.
We had "binders full of women". At Bain, we had flexible hours so the women could care for their families, go home and "make dinner". Mitt Romney.
Funny how this time it was the rich people who got trapped inside the Super Dome!
Heck of a job Jody! lol
I have to wonder how much you had to leave on the cutting room floor... Decisions... Decisions! ;o)
PS: You need to re-post this on the DDI site and get some more exposure!
You continue to outdo yourself each passing week!
Jody,
Indeed what a week.
I love the image of "Repulbicans gone wild" and it is not even Spring Break time for Congress.
Good job as usual Jody.....and plenty of smiles. Lawdy those darn conservatives are 'strange' bunch and good for a few chuckles.
Have a good weekend.
Jody, Iowa-
Cheers, indeed.
Great Read, Jody.
Salud
Great wrap up of another crazy week in politics, Jody. Thanks for your hard work.
I am so embarrassed to be from Pennsylvania. Bad enough we gave the nation Rick Santorum and voter suppression but now we are going ahead with trying to gerrymander the Electoral College. I can only hope it galvanizes the Democrats in 2014.
Hi Jody, A great wrap up of the week!!! Just more proof that the far right wing is ever more the, "bat crap crazies."
Jody, marvelous exposure of all the nuttery.
"Women, it's a figment of our imaginations".
e.g. The Harvard Injury Control found that states with more guns have more female violent deaths.
No wonder the League of Women Voters of the United States, National Organization for Women, Women`s National Democratic Club etc, etc, are up La Pierre's nose on gun violence prevention.
Thanks, left a pile of GOPer intelligence on the cutting room floor, too. They can't seem to help themselves.
So true, Feisty, old "Brownie" showed how clueless he is.
Jody, always better than the week before.
If I were a betting man, I'd bet the Republicans WILL continue to try to rig the electoral system - protestations notwithstanding.
Jody, Iowa,
Great job! I really think MSNBC should offer you a job,
Uhh . . . I hope that was an unintentional pun, Jody. ;-)
(Maybe it's just my naughty mind.)
OMG! Opposition to VAWA sends me through the roof.
Excellent post, Jody!
Steeler Fan-
It could be worst you could be from Chicago (wink wink). No comments from the right winger's peanut gallery; please. You know nothing of the city I live in except the LIES from POX NEWS & right wing smear campaigns.
I hope all of you and the other northeasters are safe, warm, and have plenty of supplies.
The Iowa House GOPers have been busy with crazy this week. They're proposing enough Gone Wild legislation for several stand-alone posts.
Beverly, if MSNBC did that, I'd probably develop writer's block.
FYI, I did publish it over on NV; at least it said it was published!
Jody, brilliant as always. I agree with Feisty, this should be a routine Friday post on the new and vastly improved **cough, cough, gag, barf** Newsvine site. Perhaps Sheriff Tyler or Deputy Sally would be willing to spend a week or two with you to educate on the 100+ steps to easily post your wrap up.
Okay people from now on spot #1 needs to be reserved for Jody's "And that's the way it is"....this week"
I rarely ever agree with most of it, but I look forward to it every week!
rofl! I missed this one.
You owe me a new keyboard!
Yeah. I saw how the left treated the women for Romney. The way the left treats all non liberal women. With contempt. The same way they treat black and Hispanic republicans and conservatives. Such displays of racism and sexism. All the while calling the other side the intolerant party and philosophy. Teach your children proper folks. We have many idiots to battle.
Backhouse
e.g. The Harvard Injury Control found that states with more guns have more female violent deaths.
No wonder the League of Women Voters of the United States, National Organization for Women, Women`s National Democratic Club etc, etc, are up La Pierre's nose on gun violence prevention.
Backhouse, Not only that; but also...
Since 1968, "more Americans have died from gunfire than died in … all the wars of this country's history."
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jan/18/mark-shields/pbs-commentator-mark-shields-says-more-killed-guns/
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Normally, I give very little credit to the FACT CHECKING INDUSTRY. However, this time there is a graph with statistics.
Sometimes the jokes write themselves.
Outstanding weekend wrap as always Jody...thanks!
Great post Jody! Especially enjoyed the flashback posts at the end.
Good lord, someone could make a "bathroom" book on the "love and understanding" of women by the GOP by collecting all of their quotes. Of course, it might be too large to fit on the tank.
Happy weekend!
Jody -- I ditto all those who expressed compliments to you for your most excellent wrap-ups.
Even the naughty minded ones!
Have a wonderful weekend!
DCIA,
It's good to know I'm not in the doghouse!
Great post as always, Jody!
I heard some quotes from King last night - one of them was really disturbing:
Last time I checked we had laws against both having sex with a minor and kidnapping.
Jack -- If that joke put you there then John joined you! Ha!
As for me, I appreciate a sense of humor and wouldn't dream of putting you in the doghouse.
A wedding ring? Now they are obsessing over a wedding ring?! I'm... speechless...
RIGHT!? I didn't see this one can't wait to google it!
Mom, a democrat said this today! Mom, a republican said this last night! No way would both sides look for any dirt on the other. Really? lmao
Jack, and others, I just couldn't resist that line for ole' Terry Branstad. I still keep wondering why in the world Iowa re-elected him to a 5th term; he was a "backdoor" crook the first 16 years.
1SGFitz, thank you; I am glad that even though we disagree often, you can appreciate my effort to poke at the right and find the humor in it.
Jay, I take pokes at liberal politicians as well as give cheers to GOPers who deserve it--ala Chris Christie, and many others. The fact is that right now, the GOPTP legislatures are mostly filled with rabid, bat-crap crazy; don't blame me, they did it or said it, not me--and that's the simple truth.
Google Steve King, some of his racist remarks along with the other crazy he spews gives Rick Santorum a run for his money.
Jody- the beauty of being neither Democrat or Republican I see the humor in both. You also call out both sides when it's needed (sure you're not a closet libertarian?) You crack me up darlin. You remind me so much of PhinePhancy, she would be so proud of you.
Though I have to admit I miss NoJoe's "answer" every week. Where did she go?
Last we saw of her was the day after the election, she was leaving to go buy herself a new "mahogany" coat composed of sewer rats to soothe her pain!
I don't miss her AT ALL!
It wasn't that we sit on separate sides of the political fence, she was a pathological serial liar, plain and simple.
She would get called out and then double down on the BS for weeks on end until a new shiny object grabbed her attention.
So much for Obama shelved in 2012! lol
PS: I hope you're feeling better! {{{hugs}}}
Jody.. You missed one.
CHARLESTON, S.C. – No joke: Comedian Stephen Colbert’s sister is running in earnest for a vacant South Carolina congressional seat.
Campaign manager Bill Romjue said Friday that Elizabeth Colbert-Busch plans to file as a Democrat next week and make a formal announcement. She did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press.
Colbert-Busch will file as a Democrat seeking the vacant 1st District seat. Colbert-Busch is a Charleston native like her brother and development director at the Clemson University Restoration Institute in nearby North Charleston.
One other Democrat and at least 10 Republicans are seeking the seat along South Carolina’s south coast.
http://www.680news.com/2013/01/18/comedian-steven-colberts-sister-running-for-congress-in-south-carolina/
I love to watch both sides though Feisty so ya know.....
I am feeling better, I'm going the holistic healing this go round, it makes me less sick, thanks for asking.
Do we get to vote on Jody having the number 1 spot saved on Fridays? I vote YES!
I'm still pretty sure you're the only one here who gets that I'm not a republican or a Democrat, since I get called both daily.
I am do glad to hear it! If you feel like talking you know where to find me! ☺
Absolutely!
She sure has a way with words...
Don't feel bad, you should see what I get called! lol
I do vote for Jodi as #1. It was a good read
@ Beverly in Chicago
Since 1968, more Americans have died from drunken driving than died in all the knife inflicted deaths of this country's history."
Me too! When they're telling the truth!
Something which seems to be seriously lacking these days around here! ☺
Good luck to everybody out in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Long Island...it's WINTER STORM "NEMO"!!!
(When did we start naming these things? ...and up yours, Pixar! We found Nemo and we didn't have to look very hard for the little bastard!)
In Albany, it has started snowing...but we're not sure how much we'll get. Predictions range from "meh" to "HOLY CRAP, WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" All I know is neither Mike Seidel nor Jim Cantore are in the area so I think we're good to go.
(Sorry, Boston.)
our weather forecasters in Maine were implying it could beat the records for snowfall set in '78. (which frankly, I don't remember.)
I didn't know they had named it! Nemo - I like it!
I almost wish that my old hometown of Spokane would get pelted like that. No better feeling in winter than the closing of Freya St. To be able to sled down a hill for a mile just doesn't get any better than that
Come on MSNBC, that's who you're going with? Quinnipaic and Fox. If we relied on these two you would still be saying Romney won. If you're going to report on polling, at least report on a real reliable poll. America is not as stupid as you think we are.
Mo,
They are bringing the polling dancing back already?
Must be a slow news day.
Amy in portland ME and Pat in Boston, Stay inside, keep warm, and stay safe.
awww, Thank you Lisa S. Would you believe, I had a routine mammogram scheduled for this morning, and they didn't even cancel due to snow, so I trudged out to my health center and then back to work, feeling pretty sorry for myself, because I hate mammograms anyway. But now I'm watching the snow fall, and it is pretty. I'll be walking home later today, hopefully, before the wind picks up. I ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's last night in preparation for battling the storm!
Amy, I hate them too. But i do like Ben and Jerry's. Be careful going home from work I understand the wind is going to be the big problem. Have a great weekend.
Hey all you East-Coasters - stay safe, stay warm, stay indoors!!
East Coasters, I echo the others, stay safe. Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, worthy of any excuse to indulge!
@ Amy
How close to work are you? I walk alot to work, as I'm only 2 blocks away. Be very careful on the ice
@Joe in Albany. Got a question for you Joe, and even though it might seem personal, I don't mean it personally, OK?
You keep spouting off about how much money Obama is spending. We all know that from your present and past posts. Yet you have FAILED to do any research into which President since 1980 has spent the most. FYI, Obama has spent the least since Ronald Hussian Reagan was President.
So the question is: WHY do you keep LYING, or spouting the GOP LIES? You can't say your aren't, because the FACTS, the real HONEST FACTS proves you are LYING. I just would like to know why you always have to LIE. Care to explain, or do we just start to ignore your posts?
I am giving you the chance to explain yourself, that's all. Like I said, it's not personal. Explain away, please!
Joe probably won't engage you because he isn't paid to lose unwinnable debates- he's paid to proselytize.
If Joe couldn't lie he wouldn't have anything to post. Joe has never won a debate, he just gets angry and goes silent.
Clinton and Colbert at the Senate retreat?
I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that one...it's scheduled for ten a.m. eastern, so it's just now getting under way.
Where's C-Span when the good stuff happens?
On another topic, compare Obama's approval rating to that of Congress in general and to that of the Republican Party in particular to obtain an accurate perspective.
People are likely angry with Obama because he's not having obstructionists stood up against a wall and shot for the traitors they are.
You BO sheep just kill me. You have 2 points to every argument - Bush and then racism. Bush didn't even post his last three years in office. That bar is set pretty damn low and your idiot president can't even raise that. We should make him run a paper route for 3 months so he can get his first experiance at a real job.
Oh, also, his wife and kids are fugly. So are my cousin Ed's. That's not racist; just fact.
What does "fugly" mean?
Sheep like me have wolfskin doormats.
I see more than two points posted- it's just that you can't address the rest of them, or even the two you mention- so you ignore them.
BTW, if beauty is one of your core criteria, your opinion isn't valid anyway.
Really markinbecker? It is a combination of F**king and Ugly and ones own opinion of another persons/things attractiveness for the most part. Oh that's right, in LIV/liberal land everyone is beautiful.
And thank you FeO2 for proving my point.
Fugly = @!$%#ing ugly
Why would Parker call his relatives ugly. He must hate them like he hates the world.
FUGLY means Fat and Ugly.....please get it right Fisty
And there is this fact; you sure seem enamored by your BBF Cousin Ed. Is he Mr. Ed, and you simply like hanging around horses?
You'll never get it. I call them ugly because they are. You, on the other hand, can continue to live in a bubble.
Dreams - you can venture on to lala land all you want but it always comes back to these two.
Oh trust me, we get it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and you have one butt-fugly eye.
You say tomato - I say potato...
Sorry little man, I'm allowed to have my own interpretation whether you approve of it or not.. lol
Control freaks... meh!
I get it too, Parker is a pathetic loser.
Hey Feisty - here's another shooter with liberal leanings ..................
http://clashdaily.com/2013/02/the-entire-killer-cops-insane-facebook-manifesto-charlie-sheen-youre-effin-awesome/
RedDev . . .
Could you have summed that up just a little bit less funny? Coffee out the NOSE on that one!
Parker definitely gets the award for the most useless post of the day. Off topic and nothing but a rant leading up to his entire point about Cousin Ed. Did he kick your sorry ass out of his basement?
Fugly = Far right bat crap crazy.
@ Chris
I seem to remember back in the early 70's that we always considered it F^$King Ugly. I guess this is one of those words that got twisted around from when originated. Like Gay
Parker doesn't know the difference between FACT and his OPINION!
I always thought it meant f*ckin Ugly too just sayin
Fugly = Fat unemployed greedy liberal yahoo
Well the letters fit nice
Fugly = Fat underachieving GOP lying Yahoo
Alan, NJ
..and on the drones, I think this sums up the hypocricy of Senator Obama vs President Obama
Alan, NJ
No it doesn't .
The debate over whether to use deadly force against an American who is on foreign soil and tied to al-Qaida sounds like a hypothetical straight out of my constitutional law class in my first year of law school.
“Targeting a member of an enemy force who poses an imminent threat of violent attack to the United States is not unlawful. It is a lawful act of national self defense.”
National self defense would seem to describe the case of Anwar al-Awlaki, a citizen by virtue of his birth in New Mexico in 1971.
Al-Awlaki has been was linked through emails with Major Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who allegedly killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas. He was also linked to the so-called underwear bomber who tried to blow up an airplane bound for Detroit on Christmas in 2010, and Faisal Shahzad, the guy who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in the spring of 2010. Moreover, al-Awlaki had ties to at least two of the 9/11 hijackers.
Micheal Smerconish
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/07/morality-of-drone-strikes-is-hardball-on-the-world-stage/
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Perhaps, you and your dronzzzy friends need to read the Constitution. How could Al-Awlaki be extracted mid air to read him his Miranda rights for due process. Use your head Al-Awlak is a TRAITOR.
you mean read the patriot act right
Then please explain to me why, Hasan isn't being tried as a terrorist, and why President Obama called it "work place violence" and that we shouldn't "jump to conclusions"
Time to do some work tea party..put up or shut up..quit dancing on your balls..and do some work..put the bills on the table your party are so proud of...big balls..lets see what you have put the bills on the table
http://youtu.be/2h-tHGYntp8
Two principles:
1. For every dollar cut from the budget, a dollar should be raised by increasing taxes on the wealthy.
2. For every dollar cut from the budget for domestic spending, three dollars should be cut from the military and non-humanitarian foreign aid budgets.
Ahhhh sweet collectivism. Those damned evil rich.
yes hand your a rich greedy bastard
How about this for an ideal.
The country needs to take in more revenue to pay for the programs it is running. With an unemployment rate of near 8% for many years now and a record high number of people on some type of welfare. This is not paying into the system, the system is funded through taxes and one of the largest is income taxes. So if we get people working again, we will have more money coming into the system which is a win-win. The government can provide the programs for people that truly need it and the people who can work, will be able to provide for themselves and their families again. Currently the government is giving people fish, not teaching them how to fish. We need to get back to the values of learning how to fish so we can grow together as a country.
l like the way you think Vodi lostsanumbers
Our economy is on the verge of total recovery. The teabaggers will do anything to prevent a fully robust recovery so they are going to use the sequester card. It won't work. Obama will stick the sequester right down your throat in the State of the Union. You will have no choice but to crack. Same with immigration reform. It is obvious the teabaggers oppose it an want to slow walk it. Bad mistake. Your prospects for 2014 are dim. The democrats will re-take control of the house.
even fox news..rating have fallen..that tells them yes the one's who voted republican have jump ship
It certainly seems as though the right-wingers have been trying to create a drag on the recovery. I can't think of any way they have been helpful in the past four years.
thats right amy
Oh come on Amy, there has to be at least one thing. Ummmm, how about....no. What about.....no. OK, you are right. Wait, in my state they made it legal to spear hunt. That had to help somehow right??
Great commentary on the resiliency of the US economy and free enterprise system as it still persistently adjusts, compensates and recovers no matter what constraints or road blocks are thrown at it by this administration's Keynesian/Krugman economic policies. Demand side policies will not and have not work to sustain our free enterprise economy after a substantial recession or depression especially when it's mainly the private sector that dominates/drives our economy (Milton Friedman).
Since when is Obama a threat to free enterprise? Honest to God, the fantasies fans of Ayn Rand spin.
Tell that to the coal workers in West Virginia who are out of work becaaue of Obama's new regulations.
So Amy, you're saying you cannot refute this comment other than making a misinformed statement about Ayn Rand to detract from your inability to reply?
Hubert Hoover believed in trickle down economics and thus he ran us into the great depression. Did you ever read Grapes of Wrath? Every economist knows it was the New Deal that brought us out of the Great Depression, coupled with massive military spending starting in 1942. Obama's policies have saved us from a total depression. The American public can clearly see this and that is why he was re-elected. Your economic policies, SRM, are wrong.
yes state...your party tell people .oh we love God to get what you want..but your all an Ayn Rand..party
Mark... Now that you have shown a lack of understanding of great depression. Tell me how this administration's policies staved off a total depression? Provide me with the evidence that the economy would not have bounce back on it's own? I'm suspecting you're speculating by your statement of the military build up and don't really understand what you are talking about. Really by making that statement you reinforced my original assertion. You need to think about what really happened by the massive military build up relative to our private sector economy and why it accelerated the recovery (unlike what is happening now). You would have flunked econ 101 based on your original statement.
Elvis you are and have been irrelevant by your comments. Now Especially with the Ayn Rand comment to hide your misunderstand or lack of focus on the topic. Your goal is all ideologically motivated rather then intellectual.
sorry truth...Paul Ryan
Well SRM, since Obama did not pull a Hubert Hoover we can only go by past historical economic tragedies, like the stock market crash in October 1929. Hoover's policies of do nothing lead to the great depression. On the other hand, by creating stimulus we saved 3 million jobs when they were needed them most and that lead, slowly but surely to a recovery. Your the one clueless about any kind of economics. Absolutely 100% clueless. Why do you think the Stimulus passed Congress? Even the republican and independents in Congress knew we had to do something.
Chris ... not much of a scholar are you?
http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_8e85c44c-38c8-11e2-859c-0019bb30f31a.html
Coal workers are being hired in West Virgina. The only ones being laid off are in Utah because the owner of the mine is an ass.
Mark... Now if you eliminate the koolaid I would say you are starting to understanding how Keynesian/Krugman economics does not work. Stimulus did not do what the Military build out did 1942. That is why we are not recovering at the pace we should have if supply side economics were effectively instituted. Consumption economics does not work and it is showing those results now (other than unions maybe). Until the private sector is fully stimulated (i.e. Military build out) we will remain in the lull or status quo state. You can call it improving to meet your ideological goal but I say it's the resiliency of our free enterprise system that is making the adjustment not consumption economics. You can call me clueless all you want but the facts remain, Keynesian economics or consumption economics is not working and will not work.
State Run Media,
'Stimulus did not do what the Military build out did 1942."
1942 we were at war.
So you are saying what we really need is another full blown world world?
Enough with your eupheism of "military buildout".
We have enough weapons to blow the whole world to kingdom come.
Cut defense spending each and every year.
spend money on rebuilding our intrastructure, new technology, education, research and developement and stenghening SS and Medicare.
Keynesian economics or consumption economics is not working and will not work.
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A little factual info to rebut the contentions of the gentleman trying to sound authoritative on a topic that he really doesn't understand. Sorry, but you really need someone to pull Marshall McLuhan out from behind that "Sorrow and the Pity" poster...so...
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Keynesian economics, developed by John Maynard Keynes, is considered one of the most influential approaches to economic thought. While many economists have changed, altered, and argued Keynes views, Keynesian economics has had a lasting impression on the field. In the wake of the latest recession, Keynesian thought has experienced a resurgence among prominent economic figures and policy makers. Over seventy years after it’s introduction, Keynesian economics continues to play an important role in how people think about the macro-economy.
Keynes became increasingly skeptical of the conclusions of classical economic theory and of the classical dichotomy. His research in monetary theory convinced him that finance could affect the real side of the economy. Keynes thus set out to explain the Great Depression using this line of thinking. In 1936, he published The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, concisely known as The General Theory, which arguably became one of the most influential writings of modern economic theory.
The General Theory focuses on refuting the classical conclusions that employment is determined by the price of labor, and proposes that employment is actually determined by spending, or aggregate demand.
http://econ488.umwblogs.org/course-outline/topic-4/what-is-keynesian-economics/
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/classical-economics-vs-keynesian-economics.html
Even Milton Friedman acknowledged that “under any conceivable institutional arrangements, and certainly under those that now prevail in the United States, there is only a limited amount of flexibility in prices and wages.”1 In current parlance, that would certainly be called a Keynesian position.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/KeynesianEconomics.html
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Reading the above would give anyone a rudimentary understanding of the topic, and why one's opinions should be based on more than o couple of pieces in FORBES and AMERICAN SPECTATOR (Yes, I read them too.)
Keynesian economics has been WORKING in PRACTICE for a long, long time and anyone claiming that it has not doesn't really know about the topic or have any business pontificating on economic theory.
Now back to the storm...
The only problem with Keynesian economics is POLITICANS. The revenues obtained by Keynesian economics are supposed to pay for the stimulus that went into invoking Keynes.
Unfortunately, when Clinton was practicing Keynesian economics politicians (aka GWB) took those revenues and gave them away instead of applying them to the federal debt.
And how well have supplied-side economics worked during Reagan and the two Bushes? I remember Reagan pointing out how the Laugher (sic) Curve would work.
Some recovery...economic expansion...0.7% Wow.
Parker ....if by your post we can define fugly, then we understand.
hey tea party...this is whats cause by people like you
then Governmnet comes in a fix the problem.. yes from people like you
Timeline of the Great Depression
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Great Depression era can be divided into two parts. The initial decline lasted from mid-1929 to mid-1931. Around mid-1931, there was a change in people’s expectations about the future of the economy.[1] This fear of reduced future income coupled by the Fed’s deflationary monetary policy resulted in a Mundell–Tobin effect. This further depressed the economy until Roosevelt stepped into office in 1933 and ended the gold standard, thereby ending the deflationary policy.[2]
A true understanding of the Great Depression requires not only knowledge of the U.S. monetary system but also the implications of the gold standard on its participatory nations. The gold standard made the involved nations interdependent on each others’s monetary policy. Due to a fixed exchange rate, the only way to affect the demand for gold was through interest rates. For example, if interest rates were high in one country, then investors would have no reason to exchange currency for gold and the gold reserves would remain stable. However if interest rates were low in a different country then its investors would elect to move their funds abroad where interest rates were higher. In order to stop this from happening, each nation within the gold standard union had no choice but to raise its interest rates in correspondence with its fellow nation.[2] This interconnectivity of deflationary policy amongst so many nations resulted in the prolongation of the greatest economic downturn.
Contents
[hide]
[edit] 1928
France significantly increases its gold reserves
Germany's industrial production declines
Spring 1928: The Fed increases interest rates
[edit] 1929
U.S. decline in industrial production
August: The recession begins, two months before the crash. Production falls by 20%.
October 24: Stock market crash begins.
October 25: Brief surge on the market.
October 29: 'Black Tuesday'. U.S. Stock market collapse.
Decline in the commodity prices.
[edit] 1930
February: Federal Reserve cuts interest rates from 6% to 4%
June 17: Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act passed.
September - December: First U.S. bank failures
[edit] 1931
May: Creditanstalt, Austria's premier bank, goes insolvent.
May–June: Second U.S. bank failures / Change in people's expectation of the economy
July: Germany banking crisis
September 21: Britain goes off the gold standard.
September - October: Substantial amount of dollar assets are converted to gold in the US
September - December: Fed increases interest rates
November - Summer 1932: Foreign trade restrictions / Imperial Preference
[edit] 1932
April - June: Government conducted open market transactions to increase money supply.
July: The Government discontinued open market operations.
November 2: Franklin D. Roosevelt elected President.
[edit] 1933
Executive Order 6102 signed on April 5, 1933 by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates" by U.S. citizens. Executive Order 6102 required U.S. citizens to deliver on or before May 1, 1933 all but a small amount of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve, in exchange for $20.67 per troy ounce. Violation of the order was punishable by fine up to $10,000 or up to ten years in prison, or both. In 1933 approximately 500 tonnes of gold were turned in to the Treasury at the exchange rate of $20.67 per troy ounce.
The price of gold from the treasury for international transactions was thereafter raised to $35 an ounce. The resulting profit that the government realized funded the Exchange Stabilization Fund established by the Gold Reserve Act in 1934.
US goes off the gold standard for US currency. Gold continues to be used to settle international debts.
Since no one else has said it I will....
You sir, are absolutely the WORST copy and paster EVER! Your point is so discombobulated that it now makes absolutely no sense.
Elvis, lots of good information; thanks for posting.
it amazes me how anyone in america would be still backing up anyone of the political parties when they have screwed you and your country over and over again...!!!!!!!!!!
your still making excuses and blaming the other guy and it's only getting you farther and farther into debt and misery!!!!!!!!
it just doesn't make any sense people!!!!!!!!!
NRA membership is up, gun and ammunition sales are through the roof, and an assault weapons ban will not make it off square one in Congress. One happy day. Now the economy. If Obama wants fat cats like me to bring back $2 trillion dollars parked overseas then he needs to cut the corporate income tax rate and stop instituting new and restrictive policies which are a barrier to starting a business let alone growing one. GDP is only the true measure of how the economy is doing. Take Government spending out of the GDP and we are flat. Lets cut welfare and raise the eligibility age for SS and Medicare.
No kidding. Some freaky gunner woman bought 31 guns in 2 weeks. WTF???????
CRS-
Please give me one example of a Federal regulation passed by the Obama administration that is a barrier to starting a new business.
Don't say Obamacare because that doesn't apply if you have less than fifty employees.
Don't say environmental regulations because they impact only a few industries and most of them could not be start-ups.
Chris ...
Right .... given the fact you can't seem to look up a fact EVER I am very disinclined to believe the part about the cat. You can have the fat statement though. Oh and the $ ... right because we all post our net worth on FR.
And the death toll goes up daily because the Congress doesn't have the balls to take on these NRA redneck hillbillies that favor the mass execution of our citizens!!!
but, at least they are taking good care of all those other countries at your expense!!!!!!!!!!
your fools to keep allowing them to screw you and your families over and over again!!!!!!!!!!
and, i thought they worked for you!!!!!!!!!!!!
roflmaooooooooooooooooooo
pay for your damn wars.Republicans...then we will shut up...but do not take from my SS Medicaid medicare..to pay for it
Hoping they eliminate any cost of living increases on your SS and that they raise the eligibility age on Medicare.
That way of thinking is why conservatism is dying, and, the Nation as a whole is moving more toward progressivism.
@ chris
I've been paying into SS & medicare for 45 years. That money is mine dip@!$%#. The government has held this money without paying me a dime of interest for when I retire. So get this straight little puppy who hasn't been potty trained. You aren't going to f*%k me out of what I worked for.
I've been paying into it for 23 years Jay and I still have at least 30 more years of paying. YOU'RE screwing me out of what I paid in. Chris and I are paying for yours, just like you paid for the ones before you. I'll be getting 11.00 for every Thousand I paid in (if I even get that) how is that fair?
@ 1SG
I'm not screwing you out of anything, as I'm still paying in too. IMO the A-hole government officials who allowed the government to use those funds for anything other than it was intended, shoulld have their estates seized.
all your politicans are living high on the hog and your country can't even buy a loaf of stale bread without china's help!!!!!!!!!!
and, your all ok with that...?????????
the rich are hoarding gold again....whats up with the people at the white house..they are not doing there job..making a slow recovery
edit] 1933
Executive Order 6102 signed on April 5, 1933 by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates" by U.S. citizens. Executive Order 6102 required U.S. citizens to deliver on or before May 1, 1933 all but a small amount of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve, in exchange for $20.67 per troy ounce. Violation of the order was punishable by fine up to $10,000 or up to ten years in prison, or both. In 1933 approximately 500 tonnes of gold were turned in to the Treasury at the exchange rate of $20.67 per troy ounce.
The price of gold from the treasury for international transactions was thereafter raised to $35 an ounce. The resulting profit that the government realized funded the Exchange Stabilization Fund established by the Gold Reserve Act in 1934.
US goes off the gold standard for US currency. Gold continues to be used to settle international debts.
no comment
We don't use the gold standard anymore remember? Dr. Paul tried to say we need to and y'all called him "crazy"