Did you see McCaskill ripping them a new one on msnbc?

and hi swopa

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com…..74405.aspx

– has announced state-specific TV ads urging Republican senators to support the bill, along with a radio ad tying GOP opponents to Rush Limbaugh.

Real nice touch tying Rush to the GOPers opposing the Stimulus plan should hurt Rush’s popularity.
I still want Obama and the Dems on TV now though to sell the Stimulus!

And lest you think the Obama administration is just passively standing by, they’re rolling out job numbers to support the nominally independent TV ad campaign,

I want them on TV calling out the MSM for not showing that the GOP plan’s numbers were a lie!

I was reading down in the comments below the McCaskill article and this was part of one:

Micheal Steele is a closet Democrat! Thanks Andrea Mitchell for boldly displaying the sign of truth that the repugnant ones are choosing a closet Demcorat to run the RNC. Can’t wait to hear the premature ejaculation of hate and outrage from Mount Lushmore, the V*agra Chronicler.

Digg it!

If the plan fails to get any votes in the Senate I want tx cuts axed.
Heck half the tax cuts should be taken out of the Senate bill.
We need to show the GOP that we are serious.
All we need is one vote in the Senate to stop a filibuster, not pass laws.
Let the GOP filibuster I want Video of them opposing the Stimulus Package come election day!

A coalition of progressive groups — MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, and the AFSCME and SEIU labor unions — has announced state-specific TV ads urging Republican senators to support the bill, along with a radio ad tying GOP opponents to Rush Limbaugh.

what a shame the same organizations could not mobilize to push for a, you know, progress bill.

i guess the republicans are winning this round – they’ve even got us mobilizing to support their tax cuts.

Rush Limbaugh is the real leader of the Republican Party.

Yes, the economy problems are political in nature.

Support the home team. Ra, Ra, Ra.

Obama is our guy. We must support him. He is the home team.

Ra, Ra, Ra.

Spend taxpayer money. However. Doesn’t matter. Spend it.

You belong to the home team. Cheer for this.

has anyone here seen the movie the spanish prisoner? (directed and written by david mamet if that helps to jog the memory).

Dugg

Obama should just give up on the Republicans! They have become the part of NO. If their aren’t big tax cuts for the uber Rich they will say NO in lockstep! Time for Obama to step up on the Bully Pulpit and tell the American People that the Republicans have become the party of Obstructionist and have no intrest in helping the middle class and only care about the top 1%’ers and to hell with the rest of us!

If all the GOP can come up with is to vote totally against President Obama’s initatives in hopes that he and, as a consequence, America will fail to recover, well… there will be a lot less of them in Congress after 2010 and even less after 2012.

Even the “Mormon Belt” (UT, WY & ID) plus Nebraska, the last four “Red States,” according to Nate Silver, won’t put up with that.

I think we should all get behind this bill even if it won’t work because…well, actually I don’t have a reason for this, never mind.

Gee art maybe the taxes on the uber rich should be totally eliminated! That way we can all wait until they spend enough money so we all can have a job producing the luxuries that they want. Boy the trickle down economy has been benefiting all Americans equally, wouldn’t you agree with that art?

Bripartisanship = Rs + Ds combine to vote against the stimulus bill.

“…this is the battle you came to fight.”

Yeah!

Shucks. Why just eliminate taxes on the rich? Go for broke and eliminate taxes altogether.

No, no, poor people need to keep paying taxes. Builds character.

It’s magic: you put zero money in the magic stimulus box and bada bing, when you open it it’s full of lovely money!
Only it isn’t.

OT
Obama creates new Super A List. Invites some members of congress to the WH for the Super Bowl.

because the republicans are against it and beating them is the name of the game! …after all, it’s a game – right? i mean, no one is going to be hurt, nothing serious is at stake?

What a great idea!! Didn’t Bush say that we knew how to spend our money better than Washington did.
Of course then we would have to disband all the Armed Services and the Congress and the Senate and the Judicial and Executive branches. We could all then build all the roads and bridges and Airports and everything else that helps our country + Economy run……. /s

Heh. And we thought only Rs did magical thinking. But we were wrong. It’s bipartisan magical thinking.

I always wondered why the Ds never did the reductio ad absurdum to the Rs plan. But I am in favor of drowning the military in the bathtub.

Oh my, the man of the people, PBO, had a personal chef in Chicago.

This is the only stimulus bill we have now. If some one has a better idea then they need to do more than denigrate this bill. My senators are for this bill, I do not know if the Republicans feel safe enough to vote against this bill. If tax cuts really do work then we have nothing to worry about.

he can have 10 personal chefs for all i care – i just want a decent economic policy for the rest of us.

Tax cuts??? Hell, tax the rich fat cats right into the middle class.

No big deal. While in college I was a personal chef for a family whose parents were always on the go and often out of town.

Oh my, the man of the people, PBO, had a personal chef in Chicago.

Well, at least, he wasn’t an impersonal chef. I have two personal chefs myself. I call them Mr. Righthand and Mr. Lefthand.

Make sure Grover Norquist is in the same tub.

… a family whose parents were always on the go and often out of town.

Which, one might note, would describe the Obamas for the past two years.

Don’t recognize your screen name, but if you’ve been hanging around here for awhile, you’ll be familiar with the dozens of posts about better stimulus packages. And you’ll also be familiar with the low likelihood that this stimulus bill will accomplish the job, and that the next one may well be too late.

Ewwh. Brain bleach. Grover Norquist in a tub.

This is the only stimulus bill we have now. If some one has a better idea then they need to do more than denigrate this bill. My senators are for this bill, I do not know if the Republicans feel safe enough to vote against this bill. If tax cuts really do work then we have nothing to worry about.

Great riff on the “Whatever this is, it’s better than nothing” theme. This has given us great pieces of legislation like the Paulson $700 billion bailout. That was defended as better than nothing as well.

I was waiting for the new post, but, I’m not the man behind the strings.
A Black Man for the new republican party chairman?
I’m just amazed at the strange stuff that’s happening right now, just before the end of times.

Well, at my peak my income was higher than Obama’s, I was a single parent always on the go, and believe you, I couldn’t afford a personal chef. YMMV.

The Brainless Bush is on the NewsHour repeating many of the themes that earlofhuntingdon covered in his oxdown diary. Brooks: Obama has blown his opportunity for a bipartisan stimulus bill. Shields now talking while Brooks loads his next talking point.

Exactly. The family I worked for was upper middle class and not snobs in the least. They just wanted to make sure their children were not just eating junk food when they were out of town.

It doesn’t cost a fortune. It’s not as if one has to hire a graduate of the Culinary Institue of America.

howdy alfdom, welcome. (and if you are not a new commenter, please forgive me)

your point about doing more than denigrating the bill is a good one, it’s just that we’ve been discussing what is needed in many other threads so it can get frustrating to type (and i’m sure to read).

i think there are two big problems with the current bill.

1) too much reliance on tax cuts, which a) are not as effective as other types of spending and b) in this economic environment are expected to be even less effective.

2) we need more, far more than a stimulus. we need a restructuring to build on when the effects of the stimulus are gone otherwise the stimulus is wasted and the hole we have to dig ourselves out of is deeper. part of the restructuring will require investment and some of that should be started with this bill. part of the restructuring is not investment (it is regulatory, etc) and this bill should be designed with that in mind.

that’s my simplistic take, others here have a much better grasp of the issues…

Well, at my peak my income was higher than Obama’s…

Are you counting book royalties?

If so, can I be your friend? :-)

Yeah, tax cuts, the Republican mantra, are as effective at stimulating the economy as medieval barbers claiming bloodletting was the cure for all ailments.

Yes, can anyone out there(eCAHN?)tell me if, when Business got tax cuts (capital gains, or whatever), that there was an actual significant increase in actual jobs?

Although I understand the gist of those arguments and respect those who make them, I take a more agnostic stance. I don’t believe Obama came all this way to roll out a policy he knows will fail — especially since it should be obvious that its failure will mean his failure.

So I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he knows what he’s doing.

I was thinking along those lines earlier but focusing on corporate taxes only since that’s where the main Rethug interest seems to lie.

Don’t think his book royalties amounted to much until it looked likely that he was a viable candidate, but I have no way of knowing. After I posted my comment, I thought that perhaps Michelle works, so maybe they had 2 incomes.

I’d take what they left in tips.

Sheesh, ditto what you said Selise! It’s just a big fun game and when I win an election it’s like winning the lottery!!!! yahoo.

The short answer is NO. Even when business tax cuts were specifically tied to new hires (can’t remember which administration had such a gimick) the results were less than impressive.

obama is being advised on this by larry summers. that decision alone says a lot.

hah! closet dem, eh? well, we got some closet repukes, don’t we? I think we need a new label “Obstructionists”. I was really taken by Steele’s remark reported by msnbc, “obstructionists, get ready to get pushed out of the way”. or words to that effect.

thank you – that is what I thought. So, in terms of doing actual good for the economy and the American worker, tax cuts are a non-starter.
Oh..there is a new post by Ed Teller upstairs…

It’s their money and as long as they didn’t steal it or harm someone else to get it, it’s none of our business now they spend it.

I kinda figured that. Corporations routinely cut jobs to cut costs, which translate into profits. The shareholders get larger dividends and the executives get larger bonuses and pay raises. Hire a bunch of people and those “perks” go away.

southerndragon, i left you a reply on the previous thread wrt power.

edit – larger higher

when I win an election it’s like winning the lottery!!!! yahoo.

lol! well, except for the no money part. *g*

kind of how some people view their kids: little cost centers.

Gee, no one ever objected to remarking how famous people spend their money before in my hearing. Must have become politically incorrect since I woke up this morning.

Now if you know the right lobbyists!

Thanks. It makes the connection between her and Sunnevershines more clear. More clear? Clearer? Shit, whatever.

funniest fucking comment of the week!

It’s not a matter of being famous or politically correct. It’s simply nobody’s business how other people spend their money. I certainly would insist on my privacy to spend my money as I please as I’m sure you do.

Don’t know who your friends are, but how other people spend their money is a frequent topic of conversation among people I know, including my very middle class family, who are constantly carping about how their relatives spend theirs. Of course it’s none of our business, but those are the most interesting gossip topics. Ditto other people’s sex lives.

different rules for Rs and Ds – at least that is my interpretation (edwards’ and gore’s big homes are defended, mccain’s not)

I read a long story on the Obama’s “chef” and it didn’t sound like he worked for them full time, more like a caterer. The guy had a lot of other jobs and soup kitchen projects going on. Chicago will miss him.

Did Edwards and Gore have 7 homes each, paid for by their wives? I never have figured out why people need 10000 sq ft to live in. That’s 13+ times the size of my duplex apt. Me, I’d rattle around in something that big like a BB in a boxcar. The tigers? Now that’s a different story.

Off to watch Washington “Conventional Conservative Wisdom” Week. bbl

heh. yeah, i don’t get the attraction of a big home, but then i’m the one who has to clean it.

was just noting the different standards that appeared to be applied to Rs and Ds. wrt to having a wife pay for it – how is that different than a husband pay for it? doesn’t bother me.

On the “tax cut” mantra we are subjected to ad nauseum, how come we never hear the obvious? To wit:

1. Somebody without a home cannot pay property taxes.
2. Somebody without any money cannot buy things that charge sales or excise taxes.
3. Somebody with no job cannot generate income taxes.

So…tax cut what, exactly? Why is the MSM letting the retardates who espouse this crap get away with it? For starters, how about asking that simple question?

Let’s stop putting the cart before the horse. When people have jobs, then we can start thinking about all this “tax cut” bullshit. Until then, it’s just that, bullshit.

Hello? This ain’t exactly rocket science. And while we’re at it, can we drown Grover Norquist in the bathtub?

Dr. Kirk has a new piece upstairs!
Holdover Bush Appointees Defy Obama, Support Japanese Whaling

well said.

Eh, this is disheartening. These progressive groups should NOT be supporting this bill. It’s a travesty of a stimulus bill. It’s at least a third as large as it ought to be based on economist projections that the hole of capacity in the U.S. economy is between 1.5 and 2.5 trillion.

It’s lopsided with completely pointless tax cuts.

If those groups are going to get their ass in gear to put the heat on Congress and Obama, then they need to put the heat on to get them to pass a big ass stimulus bill the right way.

Now what we’ve got is a broken Republican bill being whipped by progressive action groups and democratic politicians. There’s a tragic irony here.

If you want them to pass something, MAKE THEM PASS AN ACTUAL PROGRESSIVE BILL!

Talk to Art, he’d love it.

You sound like Selise’s twin. :-)

Hit’em while they’re down. Good to see the Obama teem following that tested maxim.

Here’s an idea: Obama actually gets off of his duff and gives a State of the Union about the necessity of a strong stimulus (and not the watered-down half-measure that passed the house).

If Obama were a leader, this is what he would do.