An astonishing, gut wrenching list of ’accomplishments.’ Let us hope that each legislative defeat in the coming months renders them more and more irrelevant.

I love the title. What a hoot.

So 600,000 jobs were tossed out of House Stimulus package to coax a few Senate Repubs? And provisions for child nutrition. Listening to “I don’t know how many houses I own” McCain complain about reckless spending brought tears (of rage) to my eyes. And with the remaining sane Republican citizens migrating away from the party (though that will never get reported by corporate media so addicted to “let’s you guys fight at every opportunity”), Rush and company can now truly flex their self-aggrandizing regressive surreality. Where are the Dems spouting and standing behind their ideas. Need their earnestness. But vying with Octomom maybe for air time?

Waccamaw… how are you doing? Hope to see you one of these days. Gotta go.

Hey, Southern Conservatives! You’re Special.

I know. What if we use the stimulus money to acquire the 5 remaining red states and force them to merge, bringing the Senate down to 92 seats, only 2 of which would be red?

well… senator Shelby (T-Alabama), speaking for the Taliban Party, prophesized today that the stimulus – any stimulus – package will lead to an unspecified “disaster” for America.

Shelby is such a moron it took him longer than most Southern Conservatives to figure out he’s a Republican.

That’s how stupid Shelby is.

Oh, rats and codfish! Yer here an’ gone…so sorry to have missed you. I’m pretty dependably here between 4/5—8+a.m. ET; hope to see you soon.

Status report: other than totally heart-sick about this stim.pack piece of republican garbage and the uselessness of Dems? Doin’ OK. And you?

Mornin’, pups -

Listening to a C-Span replay of the committee hearing on waste/fraud/abuse in Iraq (with Stuart Bowen) that was held Monday. If you’ve not heard it, have something better than my miserable dial-up, and can find it on-line….you really should. Be sure to take blood pressure meds if needed and prepare to lose another layer of tooth enamel. :-(

Is it possible to beam with awe?

Proper name for that hearing =

Iraq & Afghanistan Wartime Contracting Commission

‘conservatives = assholes of the nation’

that’s it, spot-on.

Whenever I hear someone go on about how wonder Abe Lincoln was, I usually remind them he was the architect of this nation’s greatest disaster. Imagine what a wonderfully sane country this would be if we had just let the south secede. I STILL want them to secede. Please GO!

The site is overloaded but you can read it if you have Bit Torrent. Instructions as to how to get it are at wiki’s site.
*****************

” The whistleblower site Wikileaks has released more than a billion dollars of Congressional Research Service Reports, semi-secret reports that are prepared for Congress and not classified but not deliberately circulated to the public. “

” The publication of the reports online marks a new day for public transparency in government. “

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/….._0208.html

Two things: 1) You missed global warming. 2) Magnificent rant.

I wonder what rumour resulted in this?
***********

” But surprisingly, in Guantanamo’s eleventh hour, conditions are deteriorating due to a massive hunger strike. Lt. Col. Yvonne-Bradley, a lawyer of detainee Binyam Mohamed, revealed to The Observer’s Mark Townsend and Paul Harris that 50 out of 260 prisoners within Guantanamo are on strike. 20 of those are unhealthy enough to be listed as “critical.” The Joint Task Force in charge of Guantanamo has not commented on the hunger strike. “

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/….._0208.html

C-Span1 airing rerun of Q&A with Step. Miller right now.

Saw the one?two articles from English papers over at DU sometime in the last 24 or so on which that is based. If you have high speed, you’ll be able to find it much quicker than I.

bluebutterfly -

Here’s at least one:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…..tanamo-bay

Good morning, pups. It’s Cohen and Krugman today. Mr. Cohen,writing from Tehran, has a question regarding “Iran’s China Option:” Can Iran manage a Chinese-style reform where its Islamic hierarchy endures through change, or does opening to America equal Soviet-style implosion? Mr. Krugman takes on “The Destructive Center,” and says President Obama’s pursuit of bipartisanship, and the cuts imposed by “centrists,” have led to an inadequate, insufficiently effective stimulus bill.

Here they are.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready,and the biscuits are out of the oven. This was a weekend that passed waaaay to quickly, and I’m not really ready for Monday. Not that there’s a damn thing I can do about that… Have a great day.

What is it with Republicans and children? Maybe there have been some Democratic molesters, but the GOP has a long history in this area.
***********
” A wide-ranging investigation has been launched into allegations that a well-known Pueblo resident has molested many boys over the years, including most recently when he was the manager for Sen. John McCain’s presidential-campaign office in Pueblo. “

” Under investigation is Jeffrey Claude Bartleson, 52, who was arrested Jan. 29 and then re-arrested Wednesday after a campaign worker in the McCain office told police she believed Bartleson molested one of her sons. ”

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11637020
http://www.franklinscandal.com/

Great discussion begins here:
http://www.dailykos.com/commen…..015/47#c47

I too feel the frustration expressed around much of the Netroots, but I also saw a campaign, against all odds, run by Obama that was a thing of beauty, and most importantly was an exercise in fierce patience.

Most people here were saying the exact the same things throughout the campaign, where Obama was going to be ravaged by the Noize Machine, and getting played, and so on, yet he won in a landslide (I’d say that’s true in the primaries also). Funny how their selective memeory allows them to forgot this and shout down anyone who suggests there are some great things happening right now. For instance, I was accused of being a naive rube several times through the primary season for supporting Obama’s restraint, and get called the same now.

For me at least, he’s EARNED my trust in that he knows what he’s doing now, and his life and political history make me comfortable in saying that he’s not some DLC centrist drone.

If Obama eventually loses his chess match, at least the public is getting organized and engaged, largely from Obama’s urging, to levels I’ve never seen in my lifetime. Either way, there are some extreme positives that will come out of this time in history.

Not good news..thanks for the link..no high speed..

I found this over there over at DU. Good news if he stays alive; it would cut back dramatically on the anti-Iran talk from the US and Israel.
************

” Ending months of speculation, former President Mohammad Khatami, who favored détente with the West and more social and political freedom in Iran, said Sunday that he would run in presidential elections in June. “

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02…..middleeast

Oh yea, and this sentiment doesn’t mean “don’t criticize the messiah” as is often the response. I love the vigorous debate and holding elected officials feet to the fire, that’s what it’s all about and something FDL is exceptional at, and I especially love that our President is asking the electorate to do precisely that, and training and providing mechanisms which make it easier for more and more people to do it. This bodes well for our future.

Our President is doing this! Blows me away since I’ve never seen a President do anything even remotely close to this before.

I understand that the sphincter Sens. are going to want the 40% tax cuts bonuses for the rich in the package to be done this year…. the remaining 60% for jobs not so fast.

They really are desperate to have OB fail…. oh and fuck America.

Oh wow. That is great news! Yes, I hope Khatami can stay safe, and considering he’s been President before I’d think he understands how to do this fairly well.

Damn, imagining Obama and Khatami holding talks and signing treaties in the White House…could be happening later this year!

I admire your clinging to hope but I am afraid that OB has managed to surround himself with a pack of “insiders” that are the real power of corporate America, he is just a figurehead CEO, and is now finding out that the MIC runs the place and he will do as he is told.

Boy, a truth that needs to be shouted from every roof and hill top in this great nation.

Of course, you just did a serious injustice to any one who’s ever had to ride a short bus. Those people at least have human emotions and a sense of shame.

Yes, I get where that feeling comes from and I certainly have some concern that you may be right, but there’s enough positive happening now, coupled with Obama’s past successes which make my positive leanings overpower the negative. We shall see!

If you have time, I’d highly recommend that thread I linked up earlier. Very insightful take on this topic…

My heart is with you, and I so hope you, and the article, are getting it right. News today is that the stimulus will pass; pieces of the treasury plan are being released. So, it looks like things will happen pretty much as set out. We’ll see.

The rant has been updated, can’t believe I missed Global Warming.

Fact is, take any public issue in the last 232 years and the Southern Conservative has been the first one out with a knee jerk reaction that is hopelessly wrong…and they hold it as long as they can. Before moving on to the next thing to be wrong about.

BTW,

Don’t usually ask for Diggs because normally I don’t care and it’s really effing early in the morning.

But I wouldn’t mind some DIGGING this time.

Thanks

Thanks. That is a mother lode of Congressional Research Service Reports! Possible to pull up an index here. But as you said, accessing the individual reports is a problem right now.

Knowing the titles and dates of the reports is interesting on its own.

Just read it. Seems like common sense ie. “too big to fail” is not a good business plan anymore but the balance of the comment was just wishing and hoping. Many of the big international money corporations USB, AIG, Citi, BOA have had business plans that were OK during the days of Clinton/Bush greed is OK but now they have taken all the monies available from the “real people”. There is no more money to be had ergo there is no more business. But OB is not, and never was, our saviour. Our saviour is you and me and the rest of the Progressives who must beat down the damn doors to corporate America and demand accountability.
Once more unto the phones once more….

I suspect that this is part of his strategy, or want to believe it is a strategy.

He has done some excellent things pretty quickly. And some things he “promised” are barely getting underway, such as getting out of Iraq, which so many wanted to happen over night. I don’t know whether or not this is even possible, but I would like to see a real honest debate on it. The same applies to the WOT and escalation in Drugistan. We need to debate this policy not simple pursue it with a renewed purpose.

The domestic agenda will be telling. No one should have been completely blindsided if they had their ears open and feelers out as to where the economy was heading. Bursting bubbles are nothing new and the real estate bubble was a huge thing to have missed totally. The same applies to the unregulated activities of Wall Street and the financial community. As Markopolous reveals there were people whose hair was on fire for almost a decade and the collapse and subsequent revelations of the activitities of these miscreants should not have been a surprise – even the scope of it. BS to say – no one knew, no one was predicting this. His bringing on those who were clearly part of the creation of this problem and having them as his closet financial advisers is very troubling. I don’t expect these miscreants to get at the underlying problems that our credit based economy is. The finance sector is the single largest sector of the American economy and it is bankrupt and now only able to limp along on tax payer’s money to prevent the players from going home with their marbles.

Essentially the bitter pill to swallow is that we need a completely NEW system, purge the old miscreants from it and not try to triage this one or stimulate it to wake up. It’s pretty much DOA as the USA financial system and ill thought out business policies over the past several decades have put a lead sinker on the not only the US economy, but the entire world economy. It’s goig down and we need to be discussing the NEXT economy model for the world. Obama may get there out of necessity when his plans show no improvement as the death spiral continues. But he’s not even (so it appears) willing to give up on “yes we can” American “exceptionalism”.

Sigh.

I don’t like doing this,and I’ll probably get crap over it,but here I go.

Can we stop equating The Short Bus with stupid? Please?

My son is 14. He rode that short bus all through elementary school. He is autistic,and worked his ass off to get out of Special Education. He’s now a Freshman in High School,riding the big bus,taking all regular classesand making much better grades than anyone ever thought he would. He made his first friend this year too. He’s not a stupid kid,none of the kids on that little bus were. When he was little,more than one “expert”told me to forget about school,he’d never so much as learn to read or speak. He’s the bravest person I know. These assinine GOP dipshits aren’t fit to fold this kid’s laundry and they certainly aren’t brave.

I love FDL,Attaturk cracks my shit up all the time,and I’m not attacking anyone. One thing I know for sure right now,is I put my son on that little bus from K thru grade 5 and no one on that bus was stupid.

Will be interesting to see how he handles the big prime time news conference tonight. I’m pretty nervous about it because he doesn’t seem to duck spit-balls from the press very well and they are gonna be coming hard and fast. Have read assorted places in lefty-land that tradmed is in b*tch and moan mode about having to give him free time (not just tonight but in general).

I apologize for the title, but it is what it is — and yes these deliberate and proud ignoramuses are not fit to be associated with anyone’s kids, especially yours.

This is a very good point not well articulated. When you have a huge corporation it needs enormous revenue streams and profits to stay afloat. Just keeping these behemoths floating takes lots of deals and “transactions”. Without them these institutions cannot pay their investors and certainly not the big salaries that those riding the top of the corporate wave have come to expect.

We can’t have a growing economy to feed these beasts. With a sustainable one, they expire.

They will expire. We cannot live with the growth model. Don’t work.

And THAT’S what really pisses me off! You nailed it, Attaturk. They fuck up the legislation and then don’t even vote for it anyway. Look, if they are able to water down bills so they’re more to their liking… well…. i don’t like that, but I suppose that’s democracy and how the system works and how compromises get done and all that happy horsesht. if they don’t like a bill and vote against it… ditto. The way things work. But to fuck up legislation and leave the people who supported it from the get go with nothing but a piece of shit… grrrrrrr. OK, they’re pricks. But why in Christ’s name do the people on our side let this happen?

Great comment. I did the same thing. Equating “short bus” with dumb.. especially when Bush was president. Won’t do it again. You didn’t say it, but you deserve a ton of credit. Kid couldn’t have done it alone.

TERM limits.

The upside is way more of an improvement in democracy than the downside.

Democracy demands participation not encroachment of power in the individual – any individual.

There are more than enough competent people to serve.

COAL,and all its disasters

Amen….and I did not even get the reference. Clearly “the kid” (as we say in our family) does not belong with the crap pictured above.

I’m sure I forgot something

allow me;

“to supporting george bush”

The idea of term limits is competely repugnant to me. But more and more I’m believing that the praxctical effects could well be appealing. I’m moving from the theoretical to the real, I guess. People piss and moan about Congress and keep reelecting the same dickheads. thing is, even if the dickheads were term-limited, people would probably replace them with carbon copies, so what’s accomplished. And,yes, I’m talking about you Southerners.

That should ahve appeared as a question

Thing is, even if the dickheads were term-limited, people would probably replace them with carbon copies, so what’s accomplished????????

Happy Monday -or something

Here’s WJ lineup:
7:45-8:30 SEAN HIGGINS
Investors Business Daily
Washington Correspondent

Topic: Guest will give the latest on the Stimulus package.

8:30-8:55 Newspaper Articles/Phones

8:55-9:00 Abraham Lincoln hit.

EILEEN MACKEVICH Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission
Executive Director
lincolnbicentennial.gov

9:00-9:30 EZRA KLEIN
American Prospect
Staff Writer americanprospect.org

Klein blog: prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein

Topic: Guest will offer a liberal perspective on the stimulus package now being considered in Congress, and also discuss President Obama’s first few weeks in office.

9:30-10:00 AMANDA CARPENTER
Townhall.com
National Political Reporter townhall.com

Topic: Guest brings a conservative perspective on the stimulus package being considered in Congress. Will also discuss President’s Obama first few weeks in office

WRONG. ABOUT. EVERY. F***ING. THING.

hard to believe this goes unnoticed by the MSM

Wrong? MSM doesn’t do wrong and right. Objectivity, doncha know?

Well, I dunno.

The Barack Bromide says the Republicans have some good ideas.

Can PBO be just saying that without believing it?

msm is another corporate driven propaganda machine

with of course the couple of profit intensive exceptions, if not for their profit neither ko nor rachael would see a tv screen

It’s not the conservatives that upset me. I expect this behavior from them.

The ‘moderates’and Dem leaderships are the ones that get my blood boiling.

I have a great idea;

term limit with the ability to re run

also term limit with the ability to be elected as a write in candidatea

not too shabby ideas I think, this way someone who everyone simply loves can either come back or be written back in even after the term limit expires

But why in Christ’s name do the people on our side let this happen?

Maybe they’re not on our side.

I hate calling them moderates because they are not

the republicans are far from center, they are far from what the people want, when you moderate between them and the progressives you stil wind up on the far right

Orrin Hatch and John McCain are hardly “Southern”. Even Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning are only marginal “Southern”.

And it is Ben Nelson, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Arlen Specter, and Holy Joe Lieberman who have gutted the legislation.

Republican movement conservatives no longer equal “Southern Conservatives”. Just a minor point of clarification. There are loopy western Senators as well.

However the most loud-mouthed vocal and over the top Senators have been Vitter, Shelby, Sessions, DeMint, Graham, Wicker. Guess who is most in danger if Obama does turn around the economy. Guess who has most to win if he fails. Having a large minority population (with increases in Latinos) means for these Senators the handwriting is on the wall. It is only a matter of time before Southern Progressive populism reasserts itself. That is what they want to stop dead in its tracks. So they turn to the playbook of Jesse Helms; just say No and bargain, ending a hold or filibuster only when they get something. And the something that they want right now is the gelding of the stimulus package.

If I had to put a Senator on the “short bus” right now, it would be affable, social, trusting Harry Reid.

I can’t wait for Rush Limbaugh to come back to his show today after being gone for over a week. Why? Because the RNC chose a black man to lead the party while he was sunning himself on the West Coast (most likely with a young kid at his side!)! Bah hahahahahahaha! Oh, it’s going to be good. I wonder if Limbo will say, “Steele isn’t going to make me bend over and grab my ankles just because he’s black!”.

Fact is, take any public issue in the last 232 years and the Southern Conservative has been the first one out with a knee jerk reaction that is hopelessly wrong…and they hold it as long as they can.

Thankfully, for the bulk of the list of things these morans have been wrong about, the country has been able to work around them and, after a delay, make it to the appropriate position. The problem now is that if the economy really is about to head off the cliff, a delay by the Troglodyte party will cost us more than we can imagine.

At the risk of beating a dead horse we already have term limits. But in those elections is we the people that have to get the “correct” candidates voted in. Rather than the constant cry about term limits I believe we must focus on taking money out of elections in hopes that that will even the playing field.

Senator Susan Collins is NOT A MODERATE. Under George Bush over 8 years, she voted close to 80% in favor of his foreign policies and 88% in favor of his economic policies. She’s part of the reason why our nation is a wreck right now, but you’d never know it with those sappy eyes of hers today! Oh how she feels bad. Not.

Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater and others stole billions from us, so where was Suzie-Q as head of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee? Oh that’s right! She and Joe Lieberman were holding hands and doing silly little hearings that basically amounted to them asking, “Did you do anything wrong or unethical?”, and when they heard, “Nope”, they banged the gavel and went to lunch!

Billions stolen and Suzie didn’t give a flying rats ass.

I am with you that this seems like a backwards approach.

The fact is that not having term limits has allowed too many monsters to hold too much power for way too long. Ted Stevens? Mitch McConnel, Kay Hutchinson, Strom Thrumond, the list is endless.

TL may be the only way to get a clean slate each election and build from there. It’s the only truly democratic means to not have power entrench.

In a true democracy there is equality and people pitch in and then step aside and let others lead. There are plenty of competent people who can “lead” and it’s not the ones we see time and again.

You should write plays….you get the dialogue. I keep hoping it is not too late for some truth and disclosure. The contracts and other failure will likely be outed, one would think. We can hope.

Term limits is a step to getting money oout of politics.

We DON’T have a choice in our electoral system. We have machine and power politics on every level and this disenfranchises many who could, can and should and would serve except for the fact that money and power politics prevents them from getting a viewing.

I have voted for the lessor or two or more evils in every election in my entire life of 6 decades. Not much choice there. And almost all my choices have lost.

IT IS WHAT IT IS? I don’t think so. The title is easily amended.

Some easy reading about Sen. Susan Collins on how she loves feeding the military industrial complex and how she thinks feeding children in America is treasonous:

http://crooksandliars.com/2008…..al-senator

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/12/9/213312/098

http://www.politicker.com/main…..alliburton

The only reason why Allen wasn’t able to kick her out of office is because the MSM here in Maine protects Collins! Why? We don’t know! She caters to Bath Iron Works (union….the only union she likes!) and could care less that Maine lost 11,000 jobs last year in a population of 1.3 million people (not all are working of course!). Not sure what the working population is here in Maine is, but 11,000 jobs lost has hit hard. Does Suzie care? Nope! She wanted more tax cuts in the economic stimulus bill!

LOL Well, just writing about Suzie-Q is a thriller like no other! I write thrillers when I write about her. LOL

Suzie Q is a liarman sycophant. It is no surprise that the goopers gave her a ton of money in the last election, they need her supposed “moderation” to counteract the crazies , Coburn, Thune Brownback etc.

Yep. It’s the way the No Party does business. They allow the spreading of lies (Suzie being a moderate is one!) to help them win elections, because if they actually ran on their beliefs we’d all be saying, “Remember when there was such a thing as the Republican Party?”!

Ok…….now it’s back to the House. We need to LEAN on these people, people. Pelosi seems to be on our side now. Let’s get her back. It’s time to start squawking again.

Now, everybody gets it the Rethugs are totally obstructionist, maybe if we squawk enough, even Obama will give up this losing strategy….

Not until this morning did I have any clue what “short bus” meant. Coming from Europe we don’t have busses running around taking kids to school, yep we walk!!!! So now I know what it means I agree with you entirely that it is easy to change the title and with a little more thought come up with another “cute” phrase.

PS to A Mom Anon I admire you tremendously. My neighbour, bless her, works with autistic children and although at times she is frustrated she constantly tells of absolute joy with her charges. You travel a hard road that only love can soften.

PPS change the fucking title

Title changed.

You are wonderful.

From

WRONG. ABOUT. EVERY. F***ING. THING.

to

generation after generation, they’ve been the assholes of the nation.

more truth has never been spoken.

This should be posted during the day where it would get the exposure it deserves.

The time for decorum and niceties is over; people are hurting dying from their bullshit and it’s got to stop.

Then DIGG it

Let the Slave States secede again.

Good Riddance.

Great title Speak their Language.

Oh Attaturk,thank you for that,really. I’m normally not the PC police,but this one gets to me,for obvious reasons. I know that writers need freedom to create and write what they want to,and I never meant you had to change it,just consider our family’s story as this community moves forward.

Thanks.

You should feel honored; I felt so strongly about your post I finally broke down and registered with Digg.

So it’s now done, er, digged.

No problem. I try to think of punchy titles — for once there was an alternative.

Oh, I am.

Let the democrats pass it on their own then, they can take full credit for it if it works, and vise-serva. Quit whining about those horrible conservatives/Republicans, you don’t need them any more.

Lincoln had it easier

By the time he got to DC, the Southern Conservatives of his day had abandoned Congress to the half-way sane people, who were a lot easier to work with.

Thanks..impressive list..going to be some good stuff in some of those I’m sure..

” A congressional trip to Iraq this weekend was supposed to be a secret. “

” A delegation led by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, arrived in Iraq earlier today, and because of Rep. Peter Hoekstra , R-Mich., the entire world — or at least Twitter.com readers—now know they’re there. “

“Just landed in Baghdad,” messaged Hoekstra, a former chairman of the Intelligence panel and now the ranking member, who is routinely entrusted to keep some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets. “

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmsp…..0003026945

Seems like an odd time to go to Iraq. Job Creation program to be voted in Senate tomorrow, and then coordinated with House version, and these yahoos are gonna start playing political football with innocent women and children’s lives in Iraq yet one more time?!?

Of course, maybe they’re there for other nefarious reasons.

(classic move by Hoekstra…another tough talker who has never actually had a real fight in his life probably and no street skills whatsoever)

I wonder why they went there? Is he really that dumb or did he intend to let everyone know they were going to Iraq? Motive? Mission?

I suppose I’m the only one in the U.S. who thinks so, but I’ve always felt Lincoln made a tremendous mistake in fighting the southern states. He should have just kissed them goodbye. The war itself was horrendous, & blacks would have been better off in both the North & the South, in the South because slavery wasn’t working out anyway & would have died of its own weight within a decade or two. In the meantime, the underground railroad would have saved many runaway slaves. I suspect by 1875, the South — by then an economic catastrophe — would have been begging to get back into the U.S.A., & Southerners would have had to feel & demonstrate some humility.

As it turned out, instead, white Southerners remain defensive losers who are proud of their stupidity.

The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com

P.S. But likely I wouldn’t be living in Florida today.