I hope somebody, somewhere, is coordinating a Democratic media response, because the only sector of the economy apparently thriving in this environment is Republican/corporatist propaganda mills. The local Mpls Star Tribune is awash in stories and coordinated wingnut commentary talking about “the Democrat spending package” and “Democratic Senate bogs down over pork-laden bill.” It doesn’t matter that their “facts” are sheer lies (”40% is earmarks!!!” when the number is 2%), wingnuts are shrieking their lies in force and in lockstep.

If Democrats don’t get some coordinated media response, the propaganda is going to turn the public against this administration with its usual depressing rapidity.

It’s going to take more than propaganda to turn the public against him. There are a couple of reasons for this, not the least of which is the cotinuing economic implosion. For the first time in a long time — I can hardly remember how long — we have a President who exudes leadership, and not just its simalcrum. The MSM (not to mention the rethuglicans) are simply not prepared for a Democratic President they can’t lead by the nose by manipulating public opinion. Obama’s team have studied the record of the past 40 years, and they understand how the system works, and for the moment are check-mating it.

As to facts, I think we (i.e. the blogs) have a major role here to play. Bring it on!

Robert Allbritton is not amused.

they’re trying to get obama ot roll over when the right wing attacks

obama won this election because when they attacked he attacked back but harder and more abusive then they did, his was true, theirs was false

rush limbaugh made his living destroying clinton, as did ann coulter, then they made more of their living attacking gore, hillary and kerry

none of which fought back, if anything they went into defensive mode, obama did the oposite

he didn’t wait a second, he was swift and he was brutal in his return attack

so now that he’s president they want him to stop that

they want the ability to level an attack, and then not have to worry about being disabused for their effort

not gonna happen, obama has learned, you attack back, you don’t let people say crap and then have liberty of non oposing discussion

As to facts, I think we (i.e. the blogs) have a major role here to play. Bring it on!

we are the only reason america is educated on the current affairs, corporate media is nothing but a propaganda machine

I believe it is because of us we have a democratic congress and president

Did everyone see the latest one from Politico? (via Yahoo)

… uses the TelePrompter too much!

The Politico, proudly striving for new variations of “trivially vapid” every day. Ugh.

Good morning, pups. It’s Bobo and Krugman today. Bobo has produced a thing called “When Obamatons Respond.” My initial guess was that the “Obamatons” would be bloggers of a liberal stripe. Nope. Apparently we are now to refer to senior members of the administration as “Obamatons.” Classy, Bobo… At any rate, he says the Obama administration argues that the budget isn’t some grand transformation of America. It’s not the Russian Revolution. Mr. Krugman is concerned about “The Big Dither.” He says when it comes to dealing with banks, the Obama administration is dithering. And the result could be an economy that sputters along for a very long time.

Here they are.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got a selection of bagels with cream cheese today. It’s Friday, and it’s payday. Life could be worse… Have a great day.

Wonder when they’re gonna start carping about mccain and his twittering technology? :-(((

Better a president who can read from a teleprompter than one who can’t read……period. Obama has learned his lesson well; the less off-the-cuff remarks he can provide the miserable media to twist for faux-fox-fodder, the better off the country.

Four months after John McCain’s sweeping defeat, senior Republicans are coming to grips with the fact that the party is still…looking for the bottom.

But,but,but don’t they have Larry Craig?

He says when it comes to dealing with banks, the Obama administration is dithering

I could not agree more. He should bite the damn bullet and Nationalize them. Spin off the non banking, and useless, parts of them, tell the investors “tough shit you have had enough chance and ruining the country” and let the damn goopers go have a circle jerk with Limpballs.

thanx for the articles marrion!

that’s something they can use to get him off his game, all they have to do is make fun of that fact, get him to stop using it and obama becomes less effective

on the other hand I believe he’ll learn to handle it without the teleprompter pretty quick but I am surprised they haven’t gone after him over that yet

The approach thus far has struck me as docking a puppy’s tail one vertebra at a time. Much more painful and disruptive in the long run.

As Ralph the Wonder Llama said the other day on Think Progress….the right wingers are circling the drain but they’re putting on a good show on the way down!

he needs to stop worrying about keeping their support, they stole our money and gambled it away, they consolidated and sent our jobs overseas, they inflated the prices of houses and lent money on that inflated value

they need to now lose money, obama needs to stop worrying about keeping them solvent

we need nationalized “banking” we don’t need these particular banks nationalized, we especially don’t need to take on their toxic assets paying 4 times actual value on their bad loans

with rusty limpballs swimming them faster toward their demise

That Ralph’s an interesting duck…..know any background on him/her?

…..and Michelle doesn’t wear dresses with sleeves AND she was wearing PANTS the other night.

I am sending you warm weather….. hang in

good reads, thanx for posting;

I am having a tough time dealing with news that the former president of Countrywide Financial, the mortgage company that did so much to dig the hole in which we all now reside, is making a killing buying up delinquent mortgage loans from the government at bargain basement rates.

I believe these homes need to be made available to people not banks and not corporations

if a bank or corporation is going to buy one of these assets I think they need to post an intention to buy, (which is binding by law) and then everyone who is not a company or corporation has first refusal

that would make it equitable to everyone

This is a test……could swear I just saw a little pencil icon and “edit” appear in my last comment.

Confirmation from anyone else?

Oh, praise Dog! There *IS* an edit and it works!

That photo – looks like Boehner is a mean drunk.

I have been thinking of trying on a gown myself

YOOO HAAAA

[EDIT]

IF YOU CAN SEE THIS EDIT WORKS!

now all we need is a “new posts” notification and we are GOLD

Yep sounds about right. And the goopers are getting scads of air time at every move. I say take the big leap, nationalize and let the goops get all their conniptions out of the way so we can get back to having our country.
Wow editing … damnit now more excuses.

yes! Yes! YES!

****snoopy dance**** all ’round the room

I thought I was hallucinating! This IS a Red Letter Day indeed!

Thnk God, an deit that workz?

OT: Great bit on Tanya Harding on Morning Joe – but time for Washington Journal! (grabbing the clicker)

FDL… the gift that keeps on giving.

I already miss Dana P. and the Friday afternoon document dumps.

What are the Republicans going to start defending Tonya Harding too?

Only if you use it, darlin’. *G*

It will be nice to be able to fix the stupid typo that you see one millisecond AFTER you mash the “Submit Comment” button. Much less tooth grinding on my part. My dentist will be pleased.

Glutton for punishment, you are. ;-)

Standing in for Elliott:

7:30-8:00 JIM MILLS
The Hill
Columnist
thehill.com

Topic: Congress this week debates the 9,000 earmarks in the fiscal year 2009 spending package.

8:00-9:00 STEVEN PEARLSTEIN Washington Post
Business Columnist
washingtonpost.com

Topic: Guest will discuss current U.S. economic climate.

9:00-10:00 REIHAN SALAM R/T The Atlantic
Associate Editor
theatlantic.com

ARI MELBER
The Nation
Correspondent
thenation.com arimelber.com

Topic: A review of the news of the week.

Isn’t Pearlstein the half-way decent one at wapoo? Plus somebody from the Nation….might be a somewhat listenable morning.

And show text finally works again — except over at Christy’s, where it seems to be broken. Yay!!

I don’t know, people, I’m getting scared. GE, GM, the banks…they’re all tanking. That’s a lot of jobs, pensions and 401K’s that are going to go poof. Obama’s high numbers will drop dramatically if all that happens.

drive by–

the link to enter dnc contest for slogan on rush billboard
http://www.democrats.org/index.html

andnews tips–

kentucky passing a few ‘family values’ laws in the statehouse

http://www.publicbroadcasting……ID=1476005
Abortion Ultrasound
WOUB News

FRANKFORT, KY (2009-03-02) The Senate voted 33-4 in favor of the proposal.

It now heads to the House for consideration.

The measure would require abortion doctors or technicians to explain ultrasound results to women before performing an abortion.

Women would be allowed to avert their eyes.

Proponents say the plan gives women more information before having an abortion.

Opponents, meanwhile, say the proposal creates more obstacles to women already facing a tough decision.

© Copyright 2009, WOUB

and

can’t find the article, but was part of a report on local radio that the ‘child welfare adoption act’ passed in kentucky—stating that same-sex or co-habiting but not married couples cannot adopt children or have foster children.
here’s what i think is the bill.
it looks like it, but doesn’t have a verifying date on the document to denote the final bill….and i have to leave, so, out of time right now.
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=…..=firefox-a

here’s the google page for ‘child welfare adoption act’
http://www.google.com/search?q…..=firefox-a

bbl

I don’t know, people, I’m getting scared. GE, GM, the banks…they’re all tanking. That’s a lot of jobs, pensions and 401K’s that are going to go poof. Obama’s high numbers will drop dramatically if all that happens.

especially as obama is now giving the kleptocrats hundreds of billions of dollars.

When the Republicons hit bottom hopefully the American people will fill the hole to insure these ghouls never rise from the grave of their own making.

employment numbers will be released this morning by the bls. hopefully ecahn will be by to tell us about them.

He’s mean sober so why wouldn’t he be mean when drunk?

The best approach for the destruction of the right is that they keep on being obstructionist buffoons. As they move to more hard right nonsense policies and views even play bi part obi will move on without them.

They stand to take a drubbing in the next election unless they and the people pin their woes on the dems. So Obi needs to take over and start taking measures which are clearly read to be in the interest of the people and not the same old power elite that he is letting try to fix the mess he inherited. He’ll need to jettison some of his econ people to keep his creds as he’s on a trial / honeymoon period now.

But if he doesn’t get results and it may be very hard and it will be with the current milquetoast approaches he’ll go down, the dems will go down and maybe will see a military coup in this country to simply keep order and deal with rationing.

We are going to have to wake up and deal with a very different reality soon and that soon is coming faster than we / they expected. All the wealth we/they thought was there was a complete illusion. ‘

We’re up to our eyeballs in debt not wealth aside from a few thousand folks who racked it up big time who can stand to 90% and be obscenely wealthy

Present and accounted for.

Good morning. I had a really strong sleep last night and I hated to get out of bed. But about 15 minutes ago I remembered the employment data, so here I am, coffee in hand.

He “dithers” because the administration is terrified of the Republican attack machine and their allies in the corporate media. He needs to take them on by going directly to the American people. Until the stranglehold of a Republicon corporate media is completely broken the “reforms” will be too timid and will likely fail.

I’ll tell you about them now. They are trending up and will spike higher as large plants cut back and close. Expect reports of up to 15-20% by christmas 09.

There are few signs of job creation except some of the shovel ready obi projects which will barely make a dent. Construction projects in NYC are all closing down. The WTC project might be halted for lack of real estate demand and lack of financing. It’s become a save face / vanity ego project and it may be built as a monument to a bygone error when the masters of the universe traded from the WTC. But that’s becoming increasingly less likely. Look for postponements.

woo hoo edit is BACK

The finance sector in NYC has shed perhaps 50,000 or more and will continue. Citi is a goner with AIG being busted up pretty soon. Stock brokers will be selling apples on the street soon.

The Met Opera is borrowing against it’s two Chagall paintings to raise money to keepn the doors open. The Met is a $250MM ayear operation largely supported by deep pockets who are not supporting these days. NYCB ballet laid off 10 dancers.

If it all goes “poof” then the streets will be filled with an outraged citizenry and Blackwater troops.

you rock! thank you!

I don’t much about him except he’s freaking HIGH-sterical! ;-)

Thanks Nomolos! We need warmer weather. Today is nice, though. We’re @ 30 degrees today. I feel like putting my bathing suit on. LOL

And Perris, ole Rushkie is the bandleader on the RNC Titanic at the moment! Loooooove it. ;-)

we can all make predictions, but i still want some measure (even if flawed) to test our predictions against. that’s what we get today.

Any ideas where the 21st Century landless, homeless and out of work “Okies” might go. The originals could “go west” but imho California isn’t going to be much of a destination this time around.

I keep hoping Obama has some strategy that he hasn’t yet revealed. I credit him with being supremely intelligent and I truly believe he has the little guy in mind. So, I keep hoping that he’s letting this thing with the banks play out to make nationalizing them seem the only option. But, I really don’t know if that’s the case or if he doesn’t know what to do.

i think even more obama doesn’t want to go up against the banksters.

Any ideas where the 21st Century landless, homeless and out of work “Okies” might go. The originals could “go west” but imho California isn’t going to be much of a destination this time around.

if it’s not winter, and maybe even if it is, i say head to DC and camp out on the national mall..

Per Krugman: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03…..ugman.html

Why do officials keep offering plans that nobody else finds credible? Because somehow, top officials in the Obama administration and at the Federal Reserve have convinced themselves that troubled assets, often referred to these days as “toxic waste,” are really worth much more than anyone is actually willing to pay for them — and that if these assets were properly priced, all our troubles would go away.

Which brings to mind this from an October 17, 2004, New York Times Magazine article by writer Ron Suskind, quoting an unnamed aide to George W. Bush:

The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

And just as the Bush administration’s escapes from reality never quite worked, Krugman does not believe that the Obama Aminisitration’s will either:

But would it be enough to make the banking system healthy? No.

Think of it this way: by using taxpayer funds to subsidize the prices of toxic waste, the administration would shower benefits on everyone who made the mistake of buying the stuff. Some of those benefits would trickle down to where they’re needed, shoring up the balance sheets of key financial institutions. But most of the benefit would go to people who don’t need or deserve to be rescued.

And this means that the government would have to lay out trillions of dollars to bring the financial system back to health, which would, in turn, both ensure a fierce public outcry and add to already serious concerns about the deficit. (Yes, even strong advocates of fiscal stimulus like yours truly worry about red ink.)

So, the Obama administration, like their predecessors, believes that they are now masters of the universe, and the rest of us are mere here to applaud and study what they do.

How about we give them a rude surprise?

wigwam – please, i beg you, post that comment as a diary.

It was said that Alexander Kerensky was highly intelligent as well but he was ultimately nothing more than a transitional leader when a transformational leader was demanded. He was eventually swept aside by the currents of history.

Okay. Thanks.

Mornin’. True Talk at 11 on a podcast near you.

My, my, my. Show Text and Edit. I’ve done died and gone somewhere. They’ll prolly put me out with the tiger litter.

Wig,

Excellent! The 900 pound gorilla in the room here is that these big banks and lots of others are busted – they are as underwater as anyone else. They are out of cash – and the deal is how can THESE banks be made to work again. The banksters and their shareholders have absconded with the profits skimmed off the imaginary “assets” which were supposed to have value. It’s no more complicated that this:

Print a piece of paper and write $10BB on it and sell it. Take a commission. or $200MM and repeat. Take some mega bonuses for selling all this paper to investors who expected a return on their “investment” in the bank.

That’s wall street in a nutshell and why this can’t be saved. There’s no there there.

Done.

The 900 pound gorilla in the room here is that these big banks and lots of others are busted – they are as underwater as anyone else.

What kills me is that between mid-September and Christmas, Ben Bernanke slipped these guys a trillion dollars without anyone noticing, i.e., the assets and liabilities of the Fed doubled from one trillion to two. But now, he refuses to tell Congress who he gave that money to, what the terms were, and what they’ve done with it. WTF !?!?!?

thank you! going there now to recommend and comment. most excellent insight and explanation.

I’ll tell you where it went. it went to some big fat cat investor / partners of these banks – sovereign wealth funds who basically told the gov they want some of their cash OUT and will not take a hit for playing the game. They threatened to stop buying US bonds and the without idiots to buy our paper, our government cannot print money because it becomes more worthless than it already is.

Our gov is engaged in a ponzi scheme as well and without the sales of bonds and the repatriation of dollars we have nothing to use for spending on anything.

The banks are the agents who sell this paper.