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The Senate is debating various amendments to the $900 billion stimulus bill. Reid just said that the so-called "centrists" are still in a meeting deciding what they want to do, so I’m taking his assurances that he "has the votes" with a grain of salt.
These are the chuckleheads currently writing their own bill:
A group of 16 senators was meeting today behind closed doors to hammer out a package of cuts.
According to Collins, R-Maine, the group achieved an "in-depth scrubbing of the bill, going line by line item by item."
Emerging from the meeting for a midday break, Sen. Joe Lieberman said the group of Democrats and five Republicans were at a "breakthrough" moment.
And in other news:
. Barrasso won’t vote for the stimulus bill but he wants to "exempt certain stimulus-related projects from the mandatory National Environmetal Protection Act review." Don’t kick the football, Charlie Brown.
. Just as Dean Baker observed, the Republican "reinflate the Housing Bubble" amendment won’t cost $18.5 billion. The estimated cost is now $35.5 billion.
. Nelson is not backing off his "cuts" as "centrists" flex their muscle: If partisanship is dead, it’s been replaced by monomania.
. Did Gibbs pwn Tapper, or did Tapper pwn Gibbs?
. John Thune offered up his "tax cuts only bill," which he said would cost half as much and create 6 million jobs. Foothillsmike: "The republicans have a really great arithmetician that comes up with all this great stuff. A war that will pay for itself, UAW workers making $73/hr. This guy/gal is really great."
. You can cut to the chase and find out how they get to 60 votes for the low low National Journal subscription price of $1000/yr.
Update: Bowers lists the likely members of the Collins/Nelson group.
Update II: Reid calls it quits for the evening and says they’ll take it up again at 10am. Sounds like a complete clusterfuck with "paper floating around" that they all need time to study. Reid says if they can’t get anything done by tomorrow, he’ll file for cloture.
I’m not hearing "60."
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Reality is what you make of it
To paraphrase Elvis huh Jane?
a group of 16 senators, including Joe Lieberman, deciding the economic fate of our country?
no thanks
JOBS BILL. start calling it a jobs bill and maybe more people will be in favor.
which cspan channel?
this process has gotten out of control. scaring the poo outta me.
I love the Jobs bill idea. YES!
and the ads saying we are for Jobs they are ok with more of the same.
Obama and team need to win this one. We need to help them do it.
Call your senators and reps now.
and while you are at it. Dean for HHS.
anybody know who the 16 senators are? couldn’t find a list in the links above.
u got it
I understand where there is a very real need to change the way things are done in DC. I really do.
I just hope that there is the accompanying realization that you have to change some of the players.
Because they are evidently not going to change themselves.
Which of course, I would have realized if I had looked at your YouTube first instead of just riffing off the title and going and getting the same damn one.
D’oh.
what’s so funny ’bout peace love and unnnderstannnding?
no love for Nancy Pelosi today. that’s the gop strategy du jour. no ideas, lotsa scapegoats.
I’m laying here on pain meds and these senators are twice as loopy as I am.
No vision, just greedy WATB’s.
I think it’s the Koolaid…
gmta
if you’d written “14″ instead of “16″ i’d think they were selling us out on judicial nominations.
uh oh, is there any overlap between the gang of 14 and the new gang of 16?
It never frikkin’ ends.
Can I have some? I’m in pain too! did you take before or after listening?
Digg this great post, please!
Hey, ES! Stay painfree, dude.
Did everyone see the Demint Amendment that was offered tonight to stimulate the economy? No? Here’s a recap…
http://www.foxnews.com/politic…..-religion/
Just heard that they are whining about the $25 million to repair trails in national parks that it wouldn’t create jobs…… So are magic fairies going to be fixing the trail?
HOLY Sh*t….. there will be employees who survey the trails, help rebuild and spreading gravel or if they plan to pave them…… magic fairies do this work right?
RURAL JOBS creation…….
After, I promise.
When Coburn made more sense than anyone I’ve heard in over an hour.
done, Teddy
I guess I fell asleep at the switch.
Oh, jeebus, a Lieberman breakthrough! Hallelujah!
No wonder all the family planning is out the window. Ladies, start your gurneys….
Bureaucrats! The same bureaucrats who would have re-sodded The National Mall!
Thank you, Teddy.
Great moments in late night television
http://www.dailymotion.com/vid…..adio_music
Let me repeat myself:
Bad stimulus bill + no bank nationalization = depression in 18 months.
And this, folks, is the best case scenario. If the stimulus bill really stinks and Summers doubles down on his dimwitted approach to the banks, the economy could just continue to drift downhill into depression.
STD research won’t create jobs…… ??? scientists and researchers are not workers? Then I will tell my youngest son to change his major from Biological researcher…..
Contraceptive funding…… keep workers in the workforce AND can reduce Medicaid expenses……
Two were Landrieu and Collins; have not seen a list.
ditto that, es
is it too shrill to say
I HATE THESE PEOPLE/SHITWEASELS
now thats funny
That’s change I can believe in.
Do suburban unemployed Americans really believe that this stimulus bill will create a bunch of jobs for them???? If anything, it will create jobs for “laborers”…they are the ones that stand out in 110 degree heat in the summer and hammer away at hard labor….they are not the “workers” that are/were employed by companies, where you sit behind a desk on your twinkie butt and push paper, but whose job has gone away either bankrupt or overseas.
How are you doing, ES. Suz told us about your fall…
i have no more vile incantations left for these fukkkkups
You took the words out of my fingers.
Al Jazeera has a report that states India is implicating the Pakistani ISI in the Mumbai attacks.
Chimpy and Deadeye Dick’s Operation Apocalypse is going full swing.
The world is a swirling maelstrom of a shitstorm.
-G
in a depression you take any empoyment,my Da schooled me
don’t forget your shitburger, while they dine on shitlobster.
ES!!!
i hope the meds help (with both your arm and watching the senate).
how are you dear Bridgiiiittte?
Yes but…
the shit has NOT, I repeat, has NOT hit the fan. Never mind who’s killin’ who. /s
Only those that can physically do that kind of labor…can do that kind of labor.
The only alternative is to start-up businesses and be really creative and/or try to get a job with people who are innovative.
A depression is a depression.
I never want to hear another word about the wonderfulness of the two ladies from Maine…who are mainly just a pain
Thanks Jane and thanks for this timely post and thread. we really are watching the sausage factory this week.
Just taking it one hour at a time, Loo Hoo.
707!!!
I’m like you….p*ssed off!! LOL
they are serving America the steaming TURDBURGER
Best wishes, ES, I think I’m past painkillers watching this disaster unfold.
Hold the mayo
Hold the lettuce
special eff ups
don’t upset us….
just watch out for the secret sauce!
I second Hugh.
YUP,THAT POOR DEAR MAN WHO FROZE TO DEATH IN mI(OY CAPS) LEFT 600 THOUSAND DOLLARSTO THE LOCAL HOSPITAL,WE NEED 10,000 WORKERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY CHHECKING IF THESE PEEPS HAVE ENUF,FOOD,MEDS,ELECTRICITY ETC…seniors WORKFORCE
Roland sighting!
Just heard about this potentially awful part of the Stimulus. American Lands Alliance put out an alert today saying Barrasso wants to waive NEPA, and Barbara Boxer is trying to counter his amendment. If agencies did nothing for 200 and some days, NEPA would be waived.
http://wolves.wordpress.com/20…..pa-review/
Rahm will be on The Newshour tomorrow night…
what be wrong you ailing,here have a glass of Shiraz
they are truly like the Romanoffs that eat caviar,and throw us fish bones
Are you one-handed typing, ES?
What? Where? Last time I saw Burris was with you!!
oh good Keifs back
What is wrong with these so-called “Republicans”…honestly, they have no respect for life or nature or anything…They must all have some kind of psychotic personality disorder to get elected by the psychotic personality disorder voters. They only know three words “taxes” “terror”, and “war”, and that is it.
Argh.
Bingo.
Is there anything in the stimulus about Katrina damage????
Oh good, KO’s gonna ream Cheeeeeney.
the peeps would need no degrees,just a cell phone and compassion
Took a fall in an ice storm blackout and broke my arm in a couple places… No Shiraz with meds, thank you….)
One handed here, Loo Hoo! Feels funny.
Darth fallsin the category of UNINSULTABLE,its like too big to fail
oh so verysorry to hear that,broke my ankle last year…hope you havea cat…they mend bones…no Shiite!
Tap. tap. scratch…adjust…tap…tap…
Ah yes, the old cast days.
-G
“Darth” Cheney!!!!
He needs to go AWAY.
So sorry to hear that! Eeoww!!! Get better soon!!
Cats are also able to heal themselves. An old veterinary school adage avers “If you put a cat and a sack of broken bones in the same room the bones will heal”. Veterinary orthopedic surgeons have observed how relatively easy as compared with dogs, it is to mend cat bones.
A comparison between dogs and cats showed that osteo diseases found in dogs are rarely found in cats. Hip dysplasia, arthritis, and ligament and muscle damage are all common to dogs, but almost non-existent in cats. Lameness and disc disease are among the top canine problems while cats have no bone or joint problems at all.
Really? I do have a cat.
Sorry here is the whole linkabout cats aand dogs,i have both
http://news.in.msn.com/columns…..id=1396710
Special Comment on Cheney tonight!
Interesting.
Also of note, is that most wounds that a human has heals, not because of external issues, but because, if infection is prevented, the body knows how to reconstitute itself…cell by cell by cell.
yup
He’s presiding right now.
It’s still my favorite photo ever…and my Facebook picture:
http://firedoglake.com/2009/01…..s-me-jane/
I agree Katherine and something is telling me that ole Suzie-Q Collins might be eying a run for the presidency in 2012 along with the other pain…Palin! We need to go after both of these women over the next two years. Snowe is more respected here in Maine than Collins is, but we should hold her feet to the fire nonetheless.
off to watch TCM…a great nite Presston Sturgess
What’s wrong? Is bipartisanship only praiseworthy when Republicans are in charge?
Good Gawd…..I can’t afford that much popcorn!!! Bwahahaha…
They are dangerous, however.
Love the mint green!
Bipartismanship is only bipartisan when both sides play. Repugs have only one play — destruction…of themselves and they hope to take everyone else with them. In fact, those that call themselves Repubs these days are NOT Republican at all anymore. They are partisan, greedy, fanatical, hacks that don’t care about life or the earth. Spit.
BTW Geithner to announce his bank reform plan Monday:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29039174/
LOL We’re gonna be alcoholics before this is all said and done.
Bipartismanship is only bipartisan when both sides play. Repugs have only one play — destruction…of themselves and they hope to take everyone else with them. In fact, those that call themselves Repubs these days are NOT Republican at all anymore. They are partisan, greedy, fanatical, hacks that don’t care about life or the earth. Spit.
They’re just listening to their constituents. Most people in the country don’t want stimulus, see Gallup. The bill has become political cancer, and very little of it stimulates the economy. It’s one pork project after another. Who cares about AID prevention, for example. If you contract it, you deserve what’s coming. Condoms only encourage more dirty sexysex.
People want low taxes and lower spending, and praise the bipartisan coalition that bring it to us.
Remember when the republicans held records on the amount of pork & earmarks they would cram into a bill? Suddenly they hate the idea!
No we worship at the altar of bipartisanship always. Yonder goes our high priest.
Spending $2 BILLION in Iraq since March of 2003 has killed our economy. And then there’s the uber tax cuts for the uber wealthy in this country ONLY that has done a number on it. Then there’s the Shadow Economy that was legalized when the republicans controlled the White House, the US Senate, and the US House of Representatives in which they did not allow any of the Democrats to bring forth bills/amendments to fix the mess nor did they allow anyone to talk about Iraq and the cost of this illegal occupation.
Basically, the republicans have controlled the Congress since 1994 and we wonder why the nation is a disaster! The Reagan Crazies need to be thrown out of office!
Hail Joe.
funds for Mississipi River and Gulf Coast flood management infrastructure… ‘course that’s one of the provisions the rethugs object to most…
Gee a Powerline reader can string 7 half truths in a row. Amazing
Remember when the republicans held records on the amount of pork & earmarks they would cram into a bill? Suddenly they hate the idea!
There was never $500 bil of pork in a single piece of legislation.
If huge amounts of government spending were the key to prosperity, why aren’t we rolling in dough after the last 8 years?
Why can’t phonies like Paul Krugman make a concrete prediction about the current bill? We know he won the Nobel only because foreigners love the Bush- bashing. All he says is the bill should be bigger! What about the current proposal? What will unemployment be? How many private sector jobs will be created in the next 2-4 years.
8! Your amazing intellect is annoying me. Go away.
Some of these are just for me.
LOL.
no one can say you haven’t earned it.
As the old saying goes, “We gotta spend money to make money”, which is what businesses do. Since the banks are not lending out money and people are losing their jobs, then the government is the one to spend the money to create jobs!
And by the way, when did you neocons suddenly care about how much a spending bill is? Huh? We all thought Ronald Reagan was going to hold the record in deficit, but it ended up being old Georgie! The republicans spent like drunken soldiers and now all of a sudden they have fake halos over their heads.
Oh wait.
The republicans like spending money on bombs. They don’t like the idea of creating jobs, feeding people, and using birth control to keep the population down during a time of financial crisis.
Assholes.
And can someone please tell me where the $2 TRILLION dollars went that has been missing from the Pentagon coffers that Donald Rumsfeld announced was missing the day before 9/11/01? Is it possible that Rummy and Dickey hoarded this money away and have formed a new al-Qaida (completely different name! We’re gonna be surprised when we hear it!) to start dropping nukes on our country as Cheney pointed out recently was going to happen in the near future?
They shouldn’t try for 60
They should relabel it as a budget bill and pass it, tightened up, so that it barely gets 50 votes exactly, Biden breaking the tie. Leave as many of these idiots off the train as possible. We want to destroy them politically, not throw them any lifelines by giving them something that they will graciously deign to vote for. Let them vote against it and damn themselves to electoral hell. Or, at the last minute, with the thing certain to pass without them, let them cave to get on the bandwagon, and show everyone that they’re just hot air.
And by the way, when did you neocons suddenly care about how much a spending bill is? Huh? We all thought Ronald Reagan was going to hold the record in deficit, but it ended up being old Georgie! The republicans spent like drunken soldiers and now all of a sudden they have fake halos over their heads.
Come on, we all know that Bush and reagan had to spend enormous amounts of capital on Defense because the two Liberal presidents before them (Carter and Clinton) left extremely weak foreign policies. How would we nuke Iran and the Gaza Strip when the time comes, without a heavy investment in the defense sector? Expanding the military is a very effective engine for job creation, plus it led to Reagan defeating the Soviet Union and Bush liberating Iraq from tyranny. Admit it, Al Qaeda has been decimated due to the action of the last 8 years.
The republicans like spending money on bombs. They don’t like the idea of creating jobs, feeding people, and using birth control to keep the population down during a time of financial crisis.
People have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and not have sex until marriage. That’s all our party asks. By the way, YOUR PARTY is most in favor of the ethanol subsidies that increase food price.
THE BIGGEST ATTACK ON AMERICA HAPPENED UNDER GEORGE BUSH AND THAT’S BECAUSE HE AND HIS TRAITORS WERE FOCUSED ON IRAQ ON DAY ONE AND DIDN’T CARE ABOUT AN ATTACK COMING TO OUR COUNTRY, WHICH THEY WERE WARNED ABOUT OVER AND OVER.
Sarah Palin has a daughter who is an unwed baby machine! Oh that’s right! You neocons tell others how to act but don’t act that way yourselves!
Hypocrites.
By the way, Barack Hussein Obama won the election! And since you’re a neocon, you must worship him right or wrong which is what you told us liberals we had to do to George Bush. Remember: PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA! SAY IT LOUDLY, PROUDLY, AND HANG THAT FLAG & WEAR THAT PIN! Impress us.
Our military was reduced dramatically under George Bush. Care to explain why, PowerLineFan?
THE BIGGEST ATTACK ON AMERICA HAPPENED UNDER GEORGE BUSH AND THAT’S BECAUSE HE AND HIS TRAITORS WERE FOCUSED ON IRAQ ON DAY ONE AND DIDN’T CARE ABOUT AN ATTACK COMING TO OUR COUNTRY, WHICH THEY WERE WARNED ABOUT OVER AND OVER.
You think Bush didn’t care about attacks on our soil? That’s a pretty audacious statement without backup. Nobody saw 9/11 coming from any country, plus all of our allies had the same intelligence that Saddam had nuclear weapons, so don’t try that one either. Plus the fact remains that Saddam was funding Al Qaeda and harboring the terrorists.
By the way, Barack Hussein Obama won the election! And since you’re a neocon, you must worship him right or wrong which is what you told us liberals we had to do to George Bush. Remember: PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA! SAY IT LOUDLY, PROUDLY, AND HANG THAT FLAG & WEAR THAT PIN! Impress us.
I think B.Hussein Obama has some potential, but he just isn’t using it. I supported him over McCain early on, as I almost never vote for Democrat Lite. That is until going to a Palin rally in person, which aroused my opinion of the GOP in more ways than one.
Our military was reduced dramatically under George Bush. Care to explain why, PowerLineFan?
Fighting tyranny isn’t easy. There will unfortunately be casualties along the way. 650,000 men died due to Abraham Lincoln’s stubborn desire to preserve the Union, and that worked out well for us. W. Bush is the modern day Lincoln.
Hmmm, among those further watering down the bill towards complete uselessness are Evan Bayh, Joe Lieberman, Clarie McCaskill and Jim Webb. After all the crap spent saying how great these Dems were.
Just be happy with your $10 a week Tax Cut and shut up. [/Susan Collins]