Kick some ass Obama!

ANd Good Morning Jane!!

Where are McCain, Kyl and Slummy Joe going?

To Republican heaven eventually which would be considered Hell for most of us! They probably want to eat horse meat in France.

Obama Fights For His Bill At As Democrats Retreat

fixed it for you goddess

NPR’s Dianne Rehm show will be on at 10:00 a.m. EST. She recaps the weeks news with the usual inside the Beltway Villagers. It’s a call in show. Would be good if some Pups could call in and expose the Republicans for the obstructionists that they are and duplicity and ignorance of the Beltway Brahmins.

Call in Line: 1-800-433-8850
email:drshow@wamu.org

This is a widely listened to program so if you get through you’ll be heard by millions.

Thanks for the update and touch of optimism, I think. Let’s help this guy get it done.

McConnell is using the comments of the Democratic “centrists” about how bloated the bill is to punch huge holes in the bill.

Thanks, Ben Nelson. Glad to see Slummy Joe back right in the mix.

http://www.time.com/time/polit…..35,00.html

Another great line at the very end of this clip:

“Lets put Americans to work doing the work America needs done.”

That should be their theme/slogan from here on.

So far the commentary of the Villagers on the Diane Rehm show is dreadful. Harris, don’t know who she is affiliated with, says ”no one knows if this stimulus package will work.” If she looses her pampered and priviledged job she might be more receptive.

Great to hear McConnell lecture on the size of the deficit and the crap state of the economy without taking any responsibility for his role in the last 8 years in getting us there.

Thanks, Mitch McConnell.

McCain, Kyl and Holy Joe better stick around.

Otherwise, the stage production pits a young, vital and tough Chief Executive against the Swish Senators Graham and McConnell.

Not a fair fight by any means.

ZOMG a president who can go off text,and not sound like a marooooon

Kick some ass, Jane. And good morning, Obama!

A little OT, but amidst the wreckage of the crashing economy here’s a little good news (via HuffPo):

“News Corp., the global media giant controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said Thursday it lost $6.4 billion in its most recent quarter because of a massive write-down in the value of its assets.”

Villagers on the Diane Rehm show are echoing the Republican meme that the stimulus package is full of “pork.”

Gonna go munchen in Munich.

I liked Obama’s speech. Don’t know if it will help- but nice to see him fighting. Guess we’ll know soon if this thing is going to pass. It’s an unloved bastard child at best- but shit “DO SOMETHING” Don’t just stand there with your finger up your ass!

Anybody know John Harris of Politico?

I’m leaning toward a Waccamaw comment on the prior post, to call the bill as is and let the morons filibuster while unemployment snowballs. It doesn’t seem like much of the public knows disaster until it hits them. We have a whole generation which knows nothing about Keynes but responds like zombies to oppose increased government spending.

“News Corp., the global media giant controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said Thursday it lost $6.4 billion in its most recent quarter because of a massive write-down in the value of its assets asses”

That flows a little more smoothly. BillO stock sinking…

Slummy Joe back right in the mix.

—————-
as with dead Darth corpse….they will with every ounce of remaining bile,try to sabotage thenew Dem majority,the country,and BHO,the countries beloved superstar prez

If Obama gave a more impassioned speech during the campaign I missed it. It was s truly great speech.

I couldn’t agree more.

I was somewhat surprised by the “stifle-a-yawn” reception this speech was given (Ms. Maddow aside), by the talking heads afterwards.

I thought it was forceful, impassioned, and cut to the bone in outlining the ridiculousness of the Republican talking points.

He is the original WATB. (Seriously, that’s when Duncan made up the name.)

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
hope O”REALLY ,AND INSANITY geta pay cut or better yet,get pink slipped

7.6% unemployment. Lotsa lucky duckies.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..64568.html

All those mfing critics who open their buccal cavities just to proclaim, ” I don’t know if the Bill will work … ” …

How about they look into the eye of an American Worker and say, ” I don’t know if you will still have a job tomorrow … “

MAKE them actually filibuster

I suspect the repugs and BlueD’s are trying to answer to this letter.

So just checking, are we still talking about primarying Obama in 2012? Or was that just Wednesday?

The fact is the MSM are focused on reiterating Republican Talking Points and could care less if a Democrat, let alone the President, comes out with a reasonable defense of the Bill …

I swear If I hear the work “pork” one more time I am boycotting Cable News …

This is when Obama is at best!! One would think he would have learned this valuable lesson during the campaign. Forget this bipartisanship crap, cocktail parties, kissing ass and other political games! Take your case right to the American people – tell it like it really is – take the gloves off and pound, pound, pound the hell out of the Republicans at every opportunity!! Now, if he would just show Summers and Rubin the door!!

You know what? It’s time. We need to get behind him. We promised Obama we’d have his back. Am I disappointed in some of his choices? Yes I am. But he’s our best hope. Spread the word.

Don’t forget Diaper Dave.

good luck around here

The need to scroll means Jane is “hitting the nail on the head”.

That’s what happens when you let the R’s define the debate without a coordinated response for 2 weeks.

Takes awhile for the group think to come up with CW.

No, that’s changed. We’re now primarying the heck out of Jim Cooper.

and Geitner,and Judd

Hoping that during Vitter’s campaign in 2010 Louisiana activists pass out diapers at his rallies.

LOL. We’re an impassioned bunch, and sometimes a little bit fickle.

i love the guy,he has Gigundo balls

(((Raven)))

Indeed. Along with his vehement objections to funding for prevention of STD’s. Stewart had a ball with that.

Nah, Harry Reid would rather snuggle with his BFF’s across the aisle …

Forget this bipartisanship crap, cocktail parties, kissing ass and other political games! Take your case right to the American people – tell it like it really is – take the gloves off and pound, pound, pound the hell out of the Republicans at every opportunity!!

I’m gonna go out on a limb an say it was part of the plan, and it had no downside either way.

By doing all the bipartisan crap, he’s now able to say “I tried that” as he does what he wants to do anyway.

If we take a step back, he’s got the House now and will soon be 1 vote short in the Senate. I’d take that hand starting an administration any time.

I been googling. Now I’m laughing. I thought maybe it was a backyard game like bocce.

One would think he would have learned this valuable lesson during the campaign.

looking more and more exactly like what he did in the campaign – his comments earlier in the week, like his speech on Race, initial reasonable outreach of speaking to voters as if they had a functioning, rational brain followed up with the less cerebral, but equally effective brushing off of the shoulders

if correct, he will be straight up calling these bitches out NLT than tomorrow afternoon

hahahaahahahahahahaha
iloves ya too,toomuch

SCREW THE kumbaya STUFF ALREADY.

Obama doesn’t seem to realize that from the Republican perspective, Republicans working with the Democrats and Obama TAKE AWAY THE VERY REASON for the existence of the Republican Party.

What intelligent politician expects to induce his opponent to commit political hara–kiri by being “nice” to his opponent.

Also, it is non-sensical, and pro-forma, at this juncture in the colossal Explosin & Implosion of the entire Republican Manifesto for America, to say that the Republicans ALSO have good ideas, and Obama wants to hear them.

On the BIG IDEAS, the Republicans are totally Still Delusional after all these years of failure. Why would Obama want to warm-up totally failed economic and fiscal vomit to smell it again?

This is the time to dismantle the entire Republican Fairy Tale of America, not a time to pretent it still can rise again.

In the last couple of days, I’ve only seen three dems, McCaskill, Reed, and Barney Frank make our case on TV competently. Everywhere else there’s a repug incessently spouting the same RW talking points.

Is there a coordinated dem strategy SOMEWHERE to fix the TV air-time imbalance? IMO, there should be some kick-ass designated spokespeople available 24-7 to go on every show. Flood them with the facts.

Raven !

Have you heard how Norske is doing ?

By doing all the bipartisan crap, he’s now able to say “I tried that” as he does what he wants to do anyway.

Yep. Hope that’s the case.

Obama needs to pay attention to also the war on terror right now. It looks like the pentagon is involved with propaganda to try and “sell policy”: http://www.governmentalityblog…..ustry.html
As well, suicide deaths in the military outnumbered the number of soliders who died in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq during January: http://www.governmentalityblog…..itary.html

he is a sly silky smooth FOX,not to be confused with FAUX

Who was giving Obama the initial advice to try and go cuddly with the GOP?
Rahm? Axelrod? That strategy gave the obstrucionists an opening you drive a semi through.
Hopefully Obama now sees there are many, icluding a handful of Dems, who don’t give a rat’s ass about the the American people.

Does the phrase “rope-a-dope” have any meaning to you? There is this thing called strategy. Obama tends to wait until his opponents have rolled everything that they have out, and then tells them “Is that all you have?” before he starts delivering his punches. Hillary found this out. McCain found this out. Now Mitch McConnell hopefully is about to find this out.

Yesterday’s off-the-script remarks was looking toward the conference committee actions. Expect the House to hold tougher than it appeared they would. So the strategy is to get something out of the Senate and into conference.

Time is on our side. Every day that passes ratchets up the Republican pain for inaction.

And BTW, Rubin is gone, never was part of anything but the transition team. And then Citibank failed. Rubin’s days of being considered a valuable financial adviser are through. And Summers – he’s just been given a big shitpile of reality with today’s jobs report. He’s smart enough to know that the real figure is at least 13% and probably more if caclulated the same way that FDR calculated unemployment.

Right now the Villagers on the Diane Rehm show are saying very nice things about Cheney’s interview with Politico. When does Jane get her own MSM program? My god how long must we suffer the Village idiots?

Yep, I totally agree that this was Obama’s plan … talk bipartisan but get your people to dictate the terms and when the opposition cries out in anger (I’m looking at you, Boner) hammer them with speeches like the one last night.

With you on this, ma’am! I think PBO strategerie is in place. Non of this is as random as first observed. I was not among the first on board with Obama back in the day, but I am now, and it is abundantly clear to me that there are some fine minds at work here in this Congressional chess game. Gotta stay on the board and figure it out, eh?

Yes, a superb speech. And a president who laughs! O what gorgeous teeth! I wondered if he was reading a lot of the speech off the prompter or if his ‘text’ was an outline of notes on the prompter. Do we have (free at last!) our first (and therefore the best) performance president?

IMHO the media is openly hostile to democrats whether or not they make a concerted effort to appear on their shows. I mean, really — Carter? Clinton? Compare to Reagan, Bush Sr. and Bush the lesser? Especially Chimpy — they were excusing his behavior long after it was painfully obvious to the rest of us he ran our country into the ground.

Yes, condoms & diapers in LA for 2010.

This was in the Arizona Republic today. I wonder if McCain and Kyl read it. Naw, probably not, it doesn’t fit their worldview.

Arizona food-stamp requests rising at twice the U.S. rate

…

Arizona has added 123,000 food-stamp recipients since the recession began in December 2007, giving the state one of the nation’s fastest-growing caseloads. Overall, 721,318 Arizonans – more than the population of Mesa and Glendale combined – were receiving assistance as of November, according to the latest report by the state Department of Economic Security, which administers the program. Tens of thousands more are eligible, federal officials estimate.

As the recession deepens with no end in sight, officials across Arizona and the nation are likely to see an increasing demand for help providing food, the most basic of needs. The millions of additional people turning to food stamps are putting a further strain on taxpayers.

Marco Liu, who heads the food-stamp program for the DES, said many of Arizona’s new recipients have lost work or had their hours cut, pushing them to seek help.

…

I think the letter you linked to got moved because the link doesn’t work.

At work and can’t listen, but usually Diane has insightful comments, and she’s smart and liberal. I’d be surprised if she lets some of that go unchallenged. And the NYT editorial board blog had a devastating rundown of Cheney’s interview.

And why do we listen to the Politico anyway. Buncha wingnuts.

Dianne is getting long in the tooth,iremember her a few years ago defnding the chimp,needs to retire

I think he knows that. But it’s essential to factor in the fed-up-and-rising factor that permeates much of the American public. They/we need to be pacified at least momentarily, need to see evidence that we finally have someone in the Oval Office who is a sentient human being with a real honest-to-goodness brain. It seems to me they’ve got the timing thing down pretty well. But that’s just me.

Can’t buy Rahm for that role (unless it was all a three tier chess match). I really think BO believed his charm offensive would work.

Exactly ! This follows his MO during the campaign for the Dem nomination. The “brush off the shoulder and pant legs” was Pure Gold, IMO.

The Republican and Bluedog ( and frankly some progressive) sniping keep reminding me of a scene from the movie Zulu Dawn (a film about the Battle of Islandwhana), in which the British are beginning to be overrun and an old quartermaster is insisting that soldiers sent for ammo get in line and “play May-I” in accordance with peacetime drills.

teh sad that
McDummy has 9 houses you know,a jet plane,lots of food and Bud
so NO BIG WORRIES FOR HIM

BTW, Jane … this post is being flagged as p*rn, according to some Firepups. *g*

Obama doesn’t seem to realize that from the Republican perspective, Republicans working with the Democrats and Obama TAKE AWAY THE VERY REASON for the existence of the Republican Party.

I think he does realize that. Every Republican – LaHood, Gregg – that he coopts demonstrates his “bipartisanship” to independent voters and moderate Republicans. The moderate Republicans start peeling off, leaving the very small minority of cavemen left. It’s called “how do I shut off filibusters”.

It takes holding the Democratic caucus together and swinging one or two votes. Once the bill gets past cloture, you’ll find a lot of Republicans scrambling to vote for it because voters will hold them accountable. Ordinary people get that the Republicans plus the media are shucking them.

CQ points out that he almost never mentions the word “Republicans” in the speech. Why would he? The biggest obstacle are those he’s speaking to there in the room — the Blue Dogs Democrats … [Emphasis added.]

Exactly!

The Blue Dogs are Republicans with Ds after their names. So long as the Dems have a majority, the Blue Dogs are Republicans who get majority privileges. Person for person, a Blue Dog is a bigger obstacle to progressive legislation than is an honest Republican.

Also, for a progressive to win a Blue Dog’s seat, he/she has to beat two Republicans, the Blue Dog himself in the primary and then another Republican in the general.

And, who has been supporting the election of Blue Dogs for years now? Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Heck of a job, Rahmbo.

Wasn’t the whole thing about Slummy Joe that “except for the war, he votes with the Democrats…he’s a liberal”.

Thenb he goes off and votes for the biggest side of corporate pork since a BarBeeQue at K Street Greet and Bleat. He votes for McCain’s plan to give a “year long holiday” to paying the corporate share of Social Security, Unemployment and Medicare taxes…on top of cutting their Income Taxes!!!!

So Holy Joe doesn’t seem to mind gutting Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment Programs, does he?

So maybe the Hammerin’ Harry should reconsider his delkusion about Holy Joe votin’ with the Democrats?

Villagers saying Republicans are casting themselves as “saviours.” Implying that Obama’s real challenge is bipartanship and not saving the economy. Truly dreadful

When does Jane get her own MSM program?

It’s funny you bring that up; I was watching Rachel last night and thought about back in the day when the common question was “When is she gonna get her own show?” and now look at how far she’s come.

I think it would be the same result with Jane.

You know, being in Washington would make it convenient for such a development, now wouldn’t it?

very sickand cynical indeed,bletch

And why do we listen to the Politico anyway. Buncha wingnuts.

more like pack animals . . .Politico, a lifeline to deadtree villagers – much like Heritage, CATO, Regnery to wingers decades back

Yep,

I saw that. I’m trying to locate a good link on it. It’s the US Chamber letter on the Stimulus package. It reads a polar opposite to the letter from the US governors. I suspect the bill will look more like what the US Chamber wants as opposed to what the governors need.

A needs VS. wants debate…

McCain up now, he’s evidently one of the biggest behind-the-scenes obstructionists.

I have a feeling we’ll see HoJo’s tail ‘tween his legs in a coupla years, courtesy of Obama.

McCain is lecturing Nancy on bipartisanship on the Senate floor now. What a maroon!

Seems we could write a few letters down that way about McCain’s p[roposal to give corporations a “tax holiday” from SSI, Unemployment and Medicare? I wonder if the retirees down in AZ would want to go back to work for a year to compensate the SSI fund for that corporate windfall? Or if AZ workers would like this years unemployment coverage cut by 50%? Or those using Medicare want half trheir benefits cut?

Ank give all that money to Cindy McCain and her ilk to decide how they want to spend it? Maybe Johnny Quest and Cindy need some more holiday homes…maybe in Mexico, France and Bali?

Rahm probably hates “rope-a-dope”. It is Obama who is driving strategy. Don’t let his Mr. NiceGuy role fool you. He stretched out the rope-a-dope until the grassroots started applying heat to the Congress. If he could have gotten it done with bipartisanship, he would have been glad for his luck. Obama knows this is going to be a massive fight, but he can’t do it on his own; he has to motivate the grassroots and anger with his rope-a-dope is as good a motivator as any.

Sour grapes huh?

Guessing Reid ended debate last night to wait on the jobs report this am -should provide enough incentive to get some D’s off the fence.

Politico only has R’s on speed dial.

He’s obviously never faced an Italian granny in an argument, or John would know he is seriously handicapped.

And while the Republicans fiddled . . . .

Now McCain is lecturing us on economics. I am so glad that man is not my President…

Republicans are casting themselves as “saviours.”

headed to Golgotha with any luck

everybody ! Marching to Jerusalem, Marching to Jerusalem

Excellent.

Crossing fingers & hoping you’re right.

does mccain know he lost the election?

Next, he’ll be lecturing us on how to campaign and win the Presidency !

Speaking of grassroots…We need to continue to flood offices with calls…faxes…

BTW, I’m in Hickory NC, where abouts are you?

Absolutely, Rope-a-Dope has been Obama’s campaign strategy from the beginning. And like Ali, his opponents always fall into the trap.

we must keep playing this over and over to Senator 9 Homes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OunCv-7qvA

Shhh, don’t upset Gramps or he’ll get real ornery !

He’s just so inept. He just wound up dissing the R’s who in compromise talks because he thinks it should only be the wingnuts who are negotiating.

lol

Published my update on the January employment data.

see this again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OunCv-7qvA

imhungry andCOLD

later dears

“One way to be bipartisan is to tell ‘em stories that don’t go anywhere. Like the time we went over to shelbyville during the war, I wore an onion on my belt….which was the style at the time…you couldnt get those white ones, you could only get those big yellow ones……………..now where was I……..oh yeah, the important thing was I was wearing an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time, you couldnt get those…”

Thanks again for breaking this down for us lesser mortals.

Much appreciated, esp. the last table !

After Johnny lost the election with 7 little words – you would think he would back out of the spotlight in this debate.

does mccain know he lost the election?

Does McCain remember there was an election?

I wonder if McCain would even be proposing a “stimulus” bill if he’d been elected? We’d be looking at nothing but business tax cuts proposed, little/no spending, and Democrats split between the majority (opposed) and the Blue Dogs. Even Marty Feldstein would be in a panic.

McCain just cited the Republican’s favorite economist, Martin Feldstein, but if you read Feldsteing carefully, while he casts his “stimulus” in terms of “tax cuts,” in fact his tax cuts are always conditional on spending. So he supported tax deductions for auto purchases and tax credits for house purchases — IOW, you only get them if you buy a car or a house. Even he wasn’t proposing just cutting taxes and hoping people/businesses would use them to increasing private spending. So he’s implicitly bought into the spend = stimulus notion, just like Dean Baker, Krugman, DeLong, et al.

ROFL

I just finished my own update on the job creation numbers for my scandals list item 298 and was considering publishing it as an oxdown diary. It might make a good complement to your numbers.

McCain and his ilk will keep ranting until the Bush Tax cuts are made permanent.

Please post a linky here when your diary goes up.

I always like to point out that Larry Summers was one of Martin Feldstein’s graduate students. And crazy as Feldstein still is, he is a sage compared to the current crop of depression-wishing Republican goofs.

Here’s my Oxdown comparing a new effort to teach ethics in business schools with what Obama achieved quickly by moving to limit executive compensation.

Lawrence O’Donnell on Tweetyball said that Obama erred at the start by introducing the bill with 30 percent of it being tax cuts – a gift to Republicans. O’Donnell suggested that Obama should have started with 10 percent and negotiated from there.

I think O’Donnell is correct on that point. Also tax cuts should always be stated as tax cuts for big business or tax cuts for the wealthy. Unemployed people don’t worry about taxes. Nobody I know is much worried about their godamn federal income taxes.

People are getting soaked at the state level on property tax. People are getting gouged by insurance companies – homeowners and health insurance.

Again, no working stiffs are concerned much with their already low federal income taxes.

When I lived in Ohio I had a friend in Durham I would visit, so I remember the I-40 drive well. I vaguely remember stopping around Hickory and also often seeing hawks circling above the fields and woods around there.
Nice area.

With the Repukes dissing their bad math saying this bill spends $800k per job created, can a Dem please get up and remind them how much the Plantation Caucus Senators spent per job to get car plants their states?

This is from poster at Kos: Wall St. CEOs, Etc. Charged for Sex on Corporate Accounts

Wall Street CEOs, lawyers, bankers and media executives chalked up thousands of dollars in prostitution charges on their corporate credit cards — swiping their cards for $2,000 an hour prostitutes, according to a New York madam who pleaded guilty last year.

Kristin Davis, the madam in question, went public to ABC News this week; ABC will be broadcasting her interview Friday at 10 pm. Davis says she has a list of 9,800 clients, many of whom she says New York prosecutors deliberately avoided when taking her case, even though she offered them her annotated client list.

Wall Street CEOs, lawyers, bankers and media executives chalked up thousands of dollars in prostitution charges on their corporate credit cards — swiping their cards for $2,000 an hour prostitutes, according to a New York madam who pleaded guilty last year.

Kristin Davis, the madam in question, went public to ABC News this week; ABC will be broadcasting her interview Friday at 10 pm. Davis says she has a list of 9,800 clients, many of whom she says New York prosecutors deliberately avoided when taking her case, even though she offered them her annotated client list.

…

Among the names the network says it confirmed

A vice president of NBC Universal (owned by General Electric)

The part owner of a Major League Baseball team who “loves Kelsey”

The CEO of one of the country’s largest private equity firms who met “Cameron” at the Peninsula Hotel

A major New York real estate developer who, according to the list, “will come to the door wearing women’s panties”

A partner at the Wall Street law firm Cravath Swaine Moore “looking for a party girl to come fully equipped” and spent a total of $20,000

An investment banker from Lehman Brothers who saw “Kelsey and Keely together” and later saw “Aria and Skyler at the same time”

An investment banker at JP Morgan Securities who “loves Brooke” and spent $41,600

An investment banker at Goldman Sachs who “only wanted all-American girls” and spent $27,000

A managing director from Merrill Lynch who saw “Lana” using the name “Nataly”

A managing director from Deutsche Bank “who called about seeing Nataly again”

There is the Stimulus Paln and then there is stimulus! Vitter would love it!

According to Norman Mailer, Ali trained for that fight by learning how to take a lot of pain, taking punches that literally would kill most people. Rope-a-dope is a perfect analogy, but I’d replace George Foreman with Howard Cosell.

We better print that figure here. It will get to the Senate floor faster from the Dem staffer assigned to read here.

Except in the States which, not incoincidentally, have the nuttiest Senators. States like Texas, where everything is funded by sales taxes so with the recession they’re sucking hard. Schools are funded exclusively by property taxes, outraging property owners. With decreasing property values that isn’t working out particularly well either. But don’t you even dare think about mentioning an income tax to these rugged individualists down here!

Not to get involved in early celebration, but I have to say the tone of these speeches suggest that the Republicans know that the bill is going to pass without major changes. I’d say Reid got his two votes without giving much away.

After 8 years, the Repukes will resemble Cosell.

zomg!
CHRISTY HARDIN SMITH

MAKE them actually filibuster

Agree. The Dems need to learn how to run a political theater, and that would certainly do it. You could set Barack Obama up in the galley (or, as a former Senator, could he set up on the actual Senate floor?) with a cot to demonstrate how seriously he takes this, which would guarantee that it would be in every news cycle.

Here’s the link: http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/3494

Thanks Hugh … off to read.

I’m having a hard time putting my fingers on that number, although I know it’s in the same range (several hundred k per job created). Anyone have a link handy?

Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mts, beautiful area, reminded me of my home in NE PA Poconos. When I moved her 20+ years ago, Hickory was a boomtown of furniture & textile mfg. Not so much now.

oops, that was a reply to Frandor55.

Hack, I can agree on one issue and disagree on another.

Your putting down big business, but you know without them, you greatly reduce small business. If you think government is going to keep small business going, your greatly mistaken, look at modern day Russia. Government is a lumbering giant that only consumes, it doesn’t produce.

The thing that made America great was our ability to overcome any obstacle and be the best that we can be. Freedom like this is a funny thing, your not going to realize how much you miss it, until it is gone. Any one of us on this post are limited only by the limitations we place on ourselves. Unfortunately the way we are going, we are begging government to put limitations on us, thus reducing our freedom.

I do agree that property owners pay way too much in taxes. A little 2 acre parcel in MI runs approx $6000/year. With that included, I pay approx 62% of my salary in taxes/fee’s and other mandatory charges.

Childhood Home of Rick Barnes, our BBall Coach.

In answer to your question upthread, RTP.

Is the optical fiber manufacturer still going strong in Hickory? Increased broadband should bring them some business.

The filibuster rules are always applicable, but the 60 vote requirement will come from an objection on a BUDGET point of order which by statute requires 60 as well.

Beautiful country. Isn’t ‘foothills’ Yankee for ‘Piedmont’?

Wow, Jon Kyl is an idiot.

Wasn’t that always apparent ? *g*