8:14: McCain, who was evidently one of the primary behind-the-scenes obstructionists, now working on an aneurism.
8:13: McCain: Indignant that this is being called bipartisan because two Republicans — count ‘em two, and possibly a third, who never talked with the other thirty eight Republicans – defected. Because he knows bipartisan.
8:12: McConnell: "Most Republicans are skeptical that this can work." It’s not bipartisany enough for him.
8:10: Any Senate bill has to be resolved with House bill in conference. How much worse do you suppose the Blue Dogs are going to make this?
8:08: The Republicans will speak for 45 minutes. McConnell up. Says WW II got us out of the Great Depression, so what…let’s start a war?
8:06: Reid says that it’s "not likely" that they can move forward tonight — looks like Diaper Dave isn’t going to let them vote.
8:01: Lieberman: "I must say as a teenager I never got to join a gang. The Senate has given me some good opportunities to join some good gangs."
I must have been completely evil in a previous life.
7:58: Per Teddy: "Viquera predicted as many as two dozen House GOPs may come over to support this bill, although they might lose liberal Democrats." Common ground and "bipartisanship" ultimately more important than having something that will work.
7:55: And just when you think it can’t get any better…here’s Holy Joe.
7:51: Oh that is just fucking rich. Specter says stuff in this bill ought to be part of the regular appropriations bill, but they’re here because the administration wants them. This from the guy who never, ever lifted a finger to bring the Iraq budget under Congressional supervision but cast vote after vote to keep it in the supplemental.
7:49: I’m loving how all the Republicans are using fearmongering that the Bushies did to push TARP through last year as a reason not to vote for anything else.
7:45: Specter says there’s an unemployment problem. Ya think?
Specter says he’s getting calls opposing the bill. Someone might let him know he’s a Republican.
Now he’s reading a letter from the Chamber, happy that they got their tax cuts. Just kill me.
7:41: As Klynn notes in the comments, the Chamber of Commerce would’ve been happy with 40% tax cuts.
How could the state of Maine not notice that this woman was really, really stupid? Says they killed $870 million for pandemic flu preparedness.
7:34: Susan Colllins is ready for her closeup, Mr. DeMille. She is pleased to join her fellow narcissists bipartisan colleagues Specter, Lieberman and Nelson in working night and day to create a bipartisan compromise with this bipartisan bill. Says that the House bill was laden with everyone’s pet projects (damned near killed her not to be able to use the word "earmarks").
7:31: Ben Nelson says he has saved us from parts of this bill that "didn’t deserve to be in this particular bill which is about jobs jobs jobs." Says the bill has $350 billion in tax cuts which will put money in people’s pockets so they can buy stuff.
7:27: Chris Matthews on MSNBC says the bill is 42% tax cuts and 58% spending.
7:20: Reid is speaking in the Senate. I guess Collins and Nelson didn’t get their lights-camera-action press conference moment, but Reid is giving them props along with Specter and …wait for it…Joe Lieberman. Did that prick hold this thing up?
CNN reports that Kennedy is on his way from Florida in order to vote. McConnell was on Fox saying that he will not agree to a vote tonight. Since GOP leadership has to sign off before it could come to a vote tonight, they could drag Kennedy all the way up and then obstruct.
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Joe is the father of Jesus.
Spend, goddamnit.
Spend.
Cheer for the home team, and fucking spend.
It’s politics, goddamnit.
Just fucking spend.
Joe is an asshat.
They milked the cow and fried the bacon. Here I thought they were working on the American economy.
Oh jeebus… I need another pain pill. /s
And Jesus is dating Madonna right now.
Better hoard some. Housing package and TARP to come.
Ben Nelson is pissing McCain and Lindseed off.
Joe L is a particularly foul fungus.
$300 billion in tax cuts. Is there a health care charity I can send mine to?
So the US Chamber of Commerce does their dance and has a stronger voice than our nation’s governors. US Chamber asked for a little over 40% in tax cuts. Not-so-much-in-spending.
Collins has a shaky voice. She’s nervous with McCain sitting there?
My sister-in-law has a bumper sticker that says Speak the Truth, Even if it Makes Your Voice Shake.
when do we get out the pitchforks and torches?
Ben Nelson and Susan Collins are this Senate’s new power brokers.
What an incredibly sad commentary on American politics.
Collins is talking about layoffs at paper mills in her state and she’s giving them tax cuts? WTF?
“This debate is not about democrats and not about republicans” says Collins.
No. It’s about asshats.
Collins should be rewarded with a plush ambassadorship for her obvious incredible hard work on this Job Squad. When Nelson talks about how hard they worked, does anyone believe him? Doesn’t he mean they worked their staffs hard and worked the phones?
Could someone tell Collins to sit down and shut up… since she and her party put us here in the first place.
WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE SHOVE A SOCK IN SUSAN COLLINS’ MOUTH PLEASE? HER VOICE IS KILLING MY EARS!
Too bad about Tom Allen.
No, that’s how she talks. She’s a lispy lunatic.
HA!!
Andrea Mitchell sez these terrible unemployment numbers have put the wind in the sails of the compromisers. Tweety sez “stop doing business as usual!” I think everyone inside the Beltway is underestimating the pain in our country, I really do.
20,000 Americans lost their jobs EVERY DAY last month!
Susan Collins was fine with Halliburton stealing billions from the American people, but decided to cut out money for the children who will benefit from IDEA (individuals with disabilities act), yeah yeah, because if it’s not the military industrial complex to feed, then it’s pushing people in wheelchairs over to get out of the way so Suzie can feed them! Spit.
Tweety talks about Charlie Crist’s heroic efforts this week on behalf of the stimulus bill, but neglects to mention Crist’s abject failure in getting even one GOP to vote for it in the House.
Okay. Hadn’t heard her before. She can shut up now.
I have a friend from Oklahoma who speaks very much like Susan Collins. She’d had surgery on her jaw and sinuses that caused her to need speech therapy afterwards. I always think of her when I hear Collins.
Did you bring enough to share?
My school district passed out pink slips all the way up to teachers with 12 years tenure.
Grocery carts and cheap tents will be more in demand thanks to this vote.
Collins doesn’t like the idea of stimulus money having oversight:
http://senate.gov/legislative/…..vote=00046
‘ere!
No, they did this mess themselves. Gotta preserve their own middle-of-the-road power, dontcha know.
Can’t trust that to the help.
Let this bill fail the more time we have to build public pressure the worse for the GOP.
Given what you’ve been through, that’s a real sacrifice . . .
;)
Mr. Rev just shouted, “my God, she’s pathetic”
That’s a lot for him. He usually has little to say about or to these asses.
Oh, god, not Haggis. Why did I move into his state?
Tweety calls Arlen Specter a “key player, we’ve gotta get back to him” then cuts to commercial.
Hah!
woah…
Exactly! Mainers are ridiculously stupid when it comes to Collins. The media here protects her, her voting record, and other crap (like the time she had an affair with a Tennessee GOP operative whose wife had Alzheimer’s and they refused to bring this fact up when Collins went on WJBQ to lambaste Senator Edwards for having an affair when his wife had breast cancer!). Makes me nauseous how she’s protected all the time. SHE IS NOT A MODERATE EITHER. Voting 80%+ for George Bush’s economic (which was 88%) & foreign policies does NOT make one a moderate!
If the Center can’t deliver then Obama can give up or go Hard Left and screw the GOP I’m hopping the bill fails tonight. I want no tax cuts. I want money for schools etc.
Give Mr. Rev a thumbs up please!
Wow — she had a heterosexual affair? That’s news to me.
The Chamber of Commerce is for it. That’s all we need to know how really really crappy it is.
Me too. And if it fails what will the neocons do on Monday knowing this bill is packed full of tax cuts that don’t stimulate nothing but inside the pants of neocons? They’ll say, “See? Look at the stock market! It’s plummeting thanks to the liberals and their wasteful spending!”. Spit.
Did the lobbyist lobby her because that does sound like Prostitution then with Creative billing.
Is there another sock available to shove in Haggis’ mouth? Please?
School districts around here — on both sides of the KS and MO border — are cutting staff like mad. In some cases, they can cover it with retirements, but in others they are cutting deeper than that.
What’s worse is the cuts to “ancillary services” like the folks who work with at risk students, social workers, librarians (going from 20 to 5 in one district!), etc.
“Oh, I’m sure your face will look fine without a nose.”
Yeah, I was thinkin’ that, thanks for saying it.
I beat that the rethugs figure a way to tank the bill? Any takers?
Market went up today because WallStreet thought there would be a stimulus deal.
Well, see….there’s the other thing. When the news first broke years ago in the 1990’s, no one was sure if it was a real affair or if the Maine GOP threw it out there in the hopes that Mainers would believe she’s a hetero and not a lesbian.
I called Collins’ office up here in Maine last year and point blank asked if Collins was a lesbian. I was told she wasn’t and that she dates a guy in DC. I asked if it was her boyfriend and the young woman said, “No, not really”. I asked, “Is he a paid escort?”. Silence.
If I hear one more 160 thousand dollar a year Senator talk about how hard they are working… while I look at cut off notices for my utilities, no health care and my shattered arm.
I may just scream.
Have they no f’ ing shame?
OT: My (show text) has quit working…what about you folks?
Me too.
No I want the bill tanked.
Viquera predicted as many as two dozen House GOPs may come over to support this bill, although they might lose liberal Democrats.
the show text hasn’t worked in many many months.
No.
This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions (h/t Atrios).
I noticed that too today. Knowing the players on the stock market under George Bush for eight years, I also thought they were ecstatic that more jobs were lost which is one more step to global domination or something! LOL
Has been disabled for some time; uses huge server resources, apparently, to retrieve and display that text. If I understood the offhand comment here a long time ago, which I likely did not.
They’ve reduced the spending by what we’re spending in one year in Iraq. I bet no one brings that up.
Certainly not!
Crap. It’s Lieberliar.
Joe The Icky rises to speak.
Weird…to Deb and Teddy. Mine had worked until this evening. It does not now and neither does Reply…as you may see. Maybe they disabled both….
Oh, God, they showed in the caption on the Span that this was negotiated by Nelson, Collins, Haggis and LIEberman. I was about to say does that mean we have to listen to HIM?
Oh shit. Mr. Rev. says no. He’d rather sit outside in the freezing cold. I think I’ll go with him.
Can’t watch the debate on my teevee right now. Who’s speaking?
Excellent point.
specter is complaining about not having enough time to review the bill and that it should have been included in a regular spending bill so there would be more time.
me: this is the same senate that in dec 2000, passed an omnibus spending bill conference report (many hundreds of pages and with many changes including the CFMA preventing regulation of otc derivatives and the enron loophole) by unanimous consent about 1 hour after it was reported out of committee before the bill had even been brought to the senate floor:
mute button now pressed.
This is Obama’s first real test in Congress. Where is Biden? Is Obama depending on Reid, or does he have other oars in the water?
I guess my hope is that Nelson-Collins fails, freeing folks up to vote for the original Reid-Obama package.
Bob in HI
Atop the post, Jane sez Joe is up. She must be watching FOX, poor thing. Tweety is not subjecting us to anything but his visage, sparing our ears.
On Newshour Brooks says there was always going to be a bill…the country wants it and Repubs could not stand in the way (didn’t really give specifics about ”the” bill)
that’s so pre-9/11
Noooooo don’t make me watch….
WH Correspondent predicting a signing ceremony with Collins and Spectre in for tight shot.
Might Joe get there too?
LIEberTRAITOR is speaking. He and Suzie are a pair. When one lies first, the other comes in to back the other up. See?
Why do I smell a set-up, whereby the vote of Joe Lieberman puts the thing over the top? The resurrection of Traitor Joe is at hand.
OK: I cannot show or reply: I can only Submit. Where’s the fix?
i know i shouldn’t be influenced by such superficial concerns, but all these senators wearing what appears to be such expensive clothes while opining about the plight of laid off americans just grates.
What a jackass. They should have read the patriot act before making it the law.
Last I heard, Biden was on his way to Germany.
Also on cspan.
707!
Biden can’t help them get to 60, only break ties.
I’m watching CSpan2 with Joe LIEing his butt off as usual. But then again, I’m not listening.
What was the status of the availability of those pain pills ES was mentioning at 5?
I’m wondering if these four are the only faces they could find stupid enough to throw out in front of the cameras tonight.
Sure looks pathetic enough.
How much longer is sad sack droopy drawers going to drone on?
This cuts out way to many priorities. This bill will suck. Hopefully the House Speaker can get much of it back in conference.
We need so much infrastructure upgrading its sad the shape this country is in. But its like living in your town your whole life. After 60-70 years you’ve seen the gradual decay yet don’t see it and you don’t even realize everything is falling down around you. That’s what has happened to this country. Another analogy is needing glasses. You don’t realize you need them until your half blind.
This senate compromise is a sad day for the USA.
Holy Joe insinuated himself back into the lime light once again.
Nelson was the only Democrat on this version of the stimulus bill while the other 4 were REPUBLICANS. That right there means it should NOT be passed!
Actually, I haven’t read what they’ve done, but knowing LIEberman & Collins are on it makes me believe it has way too much right wing pork in it.
Well if Lieberliar is flapping his yap, I’m glad I can’t see or hear. Heh.
he always does. Like clockwork.
LOL
Recommend your close your browser and restart; that’s worked for me when the buttons fail.
You’re one of the lucky ones then, Yellowsnapdragon!
I am praying it does not pass. Obama needs to take the bullshit by the horns.
If this thing comes to the WH with 40% tax cuts, Obam-bi better grow a pair and veto this shit and demand a real stimulus. Otherwise he’s gonna spend the next 4 years rubber stamping for the R’s.
The stimulus bill may have looked completely different if the Chamber had attached THIS to their letter dictating 40% in tax cuts.
Compromise, or fatally compromised? — KO
Could Obama use the TARP money anyway he wants to?
no shit. but that bill in 2000 is the worst example of not doing their job i’ve yet found. did you know that phil gramm somehow snuck all that bad legislation into the conference report even though he wasn’t on the conference committee? jackasses, maybe it shouldn’t be so easy to “sneak” stuff in if (and your reference to the patriot act and specter is right on)
So the question posed somewhere else is this—if the Senate passes it and the House restores the meat in conference, does the Senate still have the ability to invoke cloture? Or do they have to then do an upperdown?
[Lieberman]
LOL
Shame has nothing to do with it. They would rather be “right” (i.e., sticking to their misguided principles) if its the last thing they do (as the Titanic slips beneath the waves.) They feel no shame in sticking to their principles. It makes them feel very self-righteous and virtuous, no matter how much pain and misery it might cost. Unfortunately, it us usually other people who suffer the pain and misery.
Bob in HI
I guess it makes all the sense in the world. Ask for 40% in tax cuts and then demand globally competitive infrastructure spending.
I’m not sure who I dislike the most , Reid Mcconnell, Liberman. What a bunch of jokes
Joe’s ego is just taking off, not landing. Here he is, center of attention. I hope he dies of happiness.
There’s Kennedy
Works for me, but have to give it some lag time after I refresh before it does. (Is this going to get me in trouble? I seem to be a snark magnet tonight.)
on the FLOOR?
hasn’t worked for me for months either on Firefox or on Safari.
We gentlemen of a certain age call that refractory time.
Hopefully, someone will get read into the record the Chamber’s Let’s Rebuild America tick list.
“Biden can’t help them get to 60, only break ties.”
But I thought he was supposed to know the Senate well enough to be an effective lobbyist for the admin, be a valuable whip, etc. It just seems odd to have one of your A-team out of town with such a big deal going on.
Bob in HI
no- pics of him on MSNBC while Richard Wolfe talks about him.
I might have to change channels. I’m trying to eat and McConman is enough to make you sick.
Well put.
Although, with the number of bank CEOs forced to accept less than $500,000 in total compensation, perhaps things are beginning to pinch.
8:08: The Republicans will speak for 45 minutes. McConnell up. Says WW II got us out of the Great Depression, so what…let’s start a war?
Because two is never enough?
I don’t see how it would matter. This is Obama’s show, he’s in charge now. Biden helped get us into this mess with the bankruptcy bill after all.
707. Seriously!
Yeah, well Bush managed to start a War and get us into one.
FYI everyone, Jay Rosen and Glenn Greenwald are supposed to be on Moyers tonight.
Setting BO up to fail?
Ooooh, McCain’s ticked. ‘This is not a bipartisan bill’
For all that war spending just what did we get in return as you know payment?
McConnell should know that because of FDR we were able to afford WW2 even though we did not get paid.
Sure WW2 kept us free the money had to be spent but that is what we call a necessary but unexpected Expense.
Not a revenue making investment!
McCrazy needs to STFU, he lost.
McCain up
Without specifying, let me just say that it’s a good thing Obama has a friend in John Sydney McCain.
/s
By the way, I heard today on the radio news that CEO’s “bonuses” will now be called “retention incentives”. See? The Big Corporate Whores are always trying to find ways to give themselves millions without feeling bad about it. Now they can say, “Well, I received this $10 million dollar check because I’m told it’s an incentive for me to stay with the company and is not actually a bonus I received after I drove the company into the ground”. Spit.
Uh, Johnny? Bees are disappearing from the planet. Don’t you think we should find out why? Jees!
WTF is McC saying? Quoting the CBO report about how many jobs will be created….but not making sense.
thanks for the update Ill switch to msnbc .
And Jesus is probably an illegal immigrant…
Perfect and thanks. Both are working again ;))
For JSM3, bees are this year’s bears.
Well, it does look that way.
Did he miss the memo from Obama when Obama made it clear some items just could not wait for the regular appropriations bill because of how bad the economy is?
gang of 16 meeting:
Looks like Joe, Collins, Specter, and whoever are now on, explaining what a great thing this compromise is and how much they’ve improved stuff. Kill me now.
!
Jane sez:
can we have a vote on that?
And all most all produced goods during the war were destroyed….. Goods that are produced, used and reused such as delivery vans and trains keep returning the original investment.
AND WWII did NOT get us out of the 1932 depression, the economy was level during WWII, it was the GI bill, the interstate roads projects and infrastructure projects of the 50’s….
My gawd. McCrazy just ended his rambling speech with a voice like he was voting for another illegal war tonight! What the hell!
*picking up bull horn*
SENATORS! YOU’RE VOTING TONIGHT TO STIMULATE THE COUNTRY AND NOT FOR ANOTHER ILLEGAL WAR IN A FAR OFF LAND THAT YOUR PRESIDENT LIED YA INTO VOTING FOR!
There. I feel better.
memo, memo? He don’t read no stinkin’ memos.
Better late than never … Digg is now open Pups. Please do Digg this Post! We need to show support for the Lake!
The Repukes are trying to lead us over the edge to a full blown DEPRESSION! I know it and You Know it. I have no idea what they think they will win by that? But I do know if they do We will scream to high heaven that it was their fault and so should Obama!
LMAO! I’m sure that’s exactly how it went down, Selise. And guess what? None of them will vote in favor of this bill tonight. You watch. ;-)
8:14: McCain, who was evidently one of the primary behind-the-scenes obstructionists, now working on an aneurism.”
Oh please, oh please, oh please.
In addition, we can still be making calls and faxing our opposition to the 40% tax cuts and the lack of increase in infrastructure.
Go down LOUD!
The yea’s have it!
I have always thought that McC might actually believe what he says about financial issues. Problem is that he doesn’t really understand economics so just repeats what his advisors have told him. He’s never listened to the flip side and is now so brainwashed that he wouldn’t believe the truth if it were laid out in front of him. And, he’s dumb….did I mention that fact?
JSM3?
And yes! The bees are today’s bears. I’m sure Johnny doesn’t want to find out that George Bush’s environmental policies have killed the bees off and this is why he’s livid that there’s $150 million in the bill to find out!
If this thing goes to conference, goopers will lose their strangle hold on the thing- and they know it. They want to go on record but NOT block it.
Please no….. our current wingnut governor would appoint someone worse than Inhoff or Vitter…..
This is quite wonderful, in a disturbing way. *g*
Solai, it’s gotta be hard for him to remember which kitchen table in which house he left his briefcase on. Give the guy a break. LOL
Do you think this whole stimulus psychodrama is a diabolical Republican plot to finish off Teddy Kennedy? /s
i was especially intrigued by the vision of lieberman stabbing his good budy mccain in the back. and then like magic mccain makes just the kind of pissed off statement i can imagine that snake lieberman enjoying.
Is McCain punishing the populace for not voting him in as POTUS?
I was serious about my comment @ 97. Get the Chamber’s Let’s Rebuild America read into the record followed by the point that the Chamber also requested 40% in tax cuts.
Any progressive you can get to do that Jane?
Does anyone know if they cut purchasing new fleet of cars?
We can call the Famine of 2009 the McCain Famine and have neon signs pointing to all
810 houses where we will line up for the soup lines….Yeah. I don’t discount that the GOP could come back like a vampire, but I suspect we’re watching them commit political hari-kari.
That’s pretty much what Washington Week is saying…more opportunity and the bill won’t go down. Live to fight another day, I guess.
New post up. ;-)
Has this bill been released? Where did Tweety get the figures on tax cuts vs spending?
They are getting plenty of help. We have primaries to think about.
I would follow that with reading into the record the Governor’s letter.
The Chamber is made up of private businesses. The Governors were elected by us.
Hmmmm. That contrast in the record would be important.
but then there are the blue dogs. What do we do to “fix” them?
I haven’t been able to see the show text for quite some time now?
Our local pizzeria won’t take checks any more and the local dog grooming won’t take credit cards any more.
My cable co. took cspan2 off the basic tier and moved it to the 3rd tier, so I only have cspan1, no msnbc or cnn anymore.
So, I’m watching PBS, David Axelrod – good answers to dumb questions–how much damage did Daschle error do, is health care ruined, etc., etc., all horse race questions even tho’ the election is over.
Never mind we are in emergency mode here!!!!!
Folks really are talking about conservatism being dead…awwww. So what will we see?
apologies if anyone has mentioned this:
Republicans link H-1B ban to bailouts
By Lalit K. Jha
Washington
Feb. 6: In what could be a cause of worry for Indian IT professionals, two US senators have introduced amendments to the economic stimulus bill, which if passed would prevent US companies receiving the federal bailout money, from hiring H-1B visa holders.
The amendment if approved by the Senate would have an immediate impact on Indian IT professionals, as it is they who are the major beneficiaries of the H-1B visa programme.
LOL
don’t know which is worse, watching Keith embarrass himself venting over BillO yet again or Coburn. Tough choice.
Tweety says that now that they have added tax breaks and cut the bill.
C-Span is now republican.
This more British author who wrote “Obamaland: I have seen your future and it don’t work” was on C-Span. A repub every day in the morn.
DUGG
GAWD these comments are hysterically funny.
breaks the tension…………
sorter
Don’t put any of em on the conference committee!
Et tu, Josephus?
Oh dear, it’s the drama queen Graham whining on and on and on…
Why does he love Joe Lie so much? Is he into prissy rug-buying boys or what?
I favor adding to that: Brought to you by the party led by Joe the Plumber and Rush “Where’d I put that cigar?” Limbaugh.
I was depending on the stimulus bill to buy them, but apparently that ‘extraneous spending’ was cut.
Ben Nelson says tax cuts will mean people have money in their pockets to spend. But are those taxcuts for individuals or businesses. People will spend, but a lot of businesses are scared just now and probably won’t spend it all. Besides, doesn’t he care if infrastructure gets fixed/built? Doesn’t he care that all these non-market-oriented things get done?
I think Nelson is a Republican. I have yet to hear of him doing anything Democratic-like.
Yep, that’s a clear sign it’s gone too far Right — and clearly further right that the nation who voted for Obama is!
The bill should be sound economically, but it should at minimum reflect the nation’s values.