Good morning.

Love Krugman’s column:

Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn’t feel right to make fun of crazy people.

It would be interesting to try to figure out what really will become of the GOPers. They are leaderless, rudderless, and well over the cliff as far as having any kind of coherent plan other than being the party of NO.

What’s next for them?

why not a “military victory,” BT?? the military was involved, obviously. and it did exactly what it was supposed to do. rescue our guy. kill the bad guys if need be – which was very likely. i’m grateful for this demonstration that our military can do more than bomb the piss out of conutries. restraint, patience, minimal use of force, no loss of innocent life. mission accomplished. that’s a true military victory in my book.

from BT’s third link:

From a friendly ghost of health care debates past comes this caution for Team Obama and Congressional Democrats:

Think smaller.

Seek less.

Don’t fail.

The caution comes from Richard A. Gephardt, a former Missouri congressman and a major figure in Democratic politics in his 28 years in the House and service as party leader. He put health coverage for all Americans at the center of his 2004 presidential bid, calling it “the moral issue of our time.”

Now Mr. Gephardt says universal or near-universal coverage cannot pass this year — and he is urging the White House to defer that goal until it enacts cost-saving reforms in health care delivery. Otherwise, he argues, the new president risks the same losing argument about paying for expanded coverage that stymied President Bill Clinton 15 years ago.

argh!!!

or, you know, they could put single payer on the table. how the hell else are we supposed to reform health care for wider access (universal!) and lower costs?

oh wait, their bankster friends in the insurance industry wouldn’t like that.

As Krugman sez in the column, they’ve been this crazy for decades, including when they were in power. So don’t rule out their regaining power.

Yet another spineless D. Too many to count.

He’s a little man, growing smaller in stature by the day.

I don’t think it has been this evident to the whole country before. Sure, we got it, but now everyone is seeing how nuts they are. And no, I don’t count on their staying out of power—the economy can cause all kinds of calamity and wreak havoc. They could well step in to make it even worse!

Good Morning Blue Texan and Firedogs -

Healthcare:

Reconciliation-is-in-for-Healthcare

Climate Change – not so much

Yep, the future of the Rs is hard to predict for a person of normal IQ and normal emotions. Back in my salad days I didn’t realize there were so many nutcases in the U.S.

Dismissing criticism of Obama’s lack of “bi-partisanship.”

right now I would LOVE a bi partisent obama because he is acting like a neo-con

Good morning to you!
This made me absolutely nuts this morning. A Saudi judge refused an 8-year-old girls right to a divorce with her husband who is 47 years old!! http://www.governmentalityblog…..-girl.html

roubini: Stress Testing the Stress Test Scenarios: Actual Macro Data Are Already Worse than the More Adverse Scenario for 2009 in the Stress Tests. So the Stress Tests Fail the Basic Criterion of Reality Check Even Before They Are Concluded

The spin machine about the banks’ stress test is already in full motion; some banking regulators have already leaked to the New York Times the spin that all 19 banks who are subject to the stress test will pass it, i.e. none of them will fail it.

But if you look at the actual data today macro data for Q1 on the three variables used in the stress tests – growth rate, unemployment rate, and home price depreciation – are already worse than those in FDIC baseline scenario for 2009 AND even worse than those for the more adverse stressed scenario for 2009. Thus, the stress test results are meaningless as actual data are already running worse than the worst case scenario.

The old maxim, “One shot, one kill” utilized very effectively by SEALs. Unless the sea is dead calm a warship, regardless of size, will “roll” from side to side. Even then some roll will be encountered from the current. Gyros in the large guns, 5 and 8 inch, keep the barrels trained on target through any roll. That’s not possible with a hand held weapon. That 3 SEALs were able to fire and hit their targets simultaneously has to be a feat that will drive instructors at Marine boot camps crazy. In Nam SEAL teams often used Marines as snipers. Times have changed. The Navy is back to one of its earliest and primary purposes, protecting ships at sea from pirates. All that said, I wouldn’t exactly put this in a “military victory” category, but then I’m not a politician.

Seems to me that the Federal Government has a moral and ethical obligation to provide health care for all our citizens just the same as providing military protection and other civil safeguards. If Obama doesn’t lead on this universal health care issue he will have failed most all of his Democratic obligations to the voters that supported him.

Good Morning, That story sounds alittle like the Oxdown story re. domestic violence and the Palin pick for Atty General. It’s enough to send one back to bed.

that would be Dick Gephardt of The Gephardt Group – whose clients include Goldman Sachs and the recently signed U.S. Chamber of Commerce

mornin’ pups!
does anyone have a link japan’s source of their bailout money? where they getting their money?
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BU…..index.html

obama never promised universal health care.

that said, i agree we need it asap and there is no excuse not to consider single payer – other than wanting to protect bankster friends in the insurance industry.

That is one very nice piece by Amy Sullivan about Rick Warren. Would that Stephanopolis had gone ahead and shown the video clips anyway.

Maybe they’ll reschedule after Rick has rested up, post-Easter, and show them then.

I think it’s a victory because wingnuts like Pat Buchanan wanted to start dropping bombs on Somalia because of these pirates. I’m so glad President Obama was in command of the Navy rather than George Bush, because can you imagine how this would have escalated and ended up being?

well, I know what you and BT are saying about this not being a “military victory.” a nucular power taking out a few scumbags doesn’t exactly rank up there with Iwo Jima, say. I guess it’s just that we’ve seen our military misused so often the last several years (and it continues to be, imo, anyway),I consider it a victory to see te military used well. the right wingers are still hung up on the bogus info that Phillips jumped overboard a second time and that forced Obama’s hand and he should have done this the first time he went over. LOL.

Interesting, that’s exactly the connection I made. Here’s the link to EdwardTeller’s diary on Palin’s pick for Anchorage AG. It’s a fascinating read.

lol. they are fucking everywhere.

thanks for that info.

let’s see, “military victory” . . . .

Grenada?

I never could figure that one out.

We need laws forbidding former members of either house of Congress from lobbying. Forevah. A huge step in reforming Congress.

I won’t be holding my breath. He’s got a lot of equivocating to do, eh?

don’t see any sign of it, but i actually hope some semi -sane Rs take over the party. the country needs less batshit crazy.

and their staff.

It overstates it. It was a small hostage crisis.

“Military victory” is a tad over the top, and besides, it’s about the SEALs, not the POTUS.

Peterr:

Nice post on saturday. meant to get this (or something similar to you).

http://arewethereyet-davisfarm…..esday.html

don’t forget the Turks paid his firm (among others) to stifle Pelosi’s Armenian Genocide Resolution -
in hindsight, did she bring it to the Floor merely to give a former colleague a business oppty ?? nah, that never happens :D

Yup. Shrub, Gates and Petraeus would have carpet bombed Iran, saying the pirates got their weapons from the Iranians.

sunny beautiful day here. maybe i should have skipped the news. *g*

I see your point. it is about the seals, i agree. on the other hand, even with the successful resolution, Obama is till getting ripped by some nut-jobs and was getting ripped even more prior to yesterday afternoon. so i think it’s the right thing to do to put a word in for him.

i couldn’t have forgotten that, because i never knew it. thanks again!

Yes.

And no.

See, that’s the problem with pleading exhaustion. Sooner or later, you are expected to have recovered.

Morning all,
SD – there is something about all of the stories I have heard regarding this event that doesn’t pass the smell test. The capt was tied up and in the cabin; One of the pirates was holding a gun to his head; all three pirates were in plain view?

Thanks — that’s an interesting history piece!

(And I’ve gotta try that pretzel recipe)

Very true..Obama never promised universal health care. He did give us the idea that ‘yes we can’ create a system of justice for all. So far I haven’t any reason to now believe. I’m very discouraged.

yeah. definately should have skipped the news. more from the roubini link above:

This financial crisis was one due to opacity and lack of transparency in financial markets and due to regulators that were asleep at the wheel. But now the administration officials and regulators have decided to add to the fog of opacity by adding to the lack of transparency in financial markets: regulatory forbearance that allows banks such as Well Fargo to declare charge-off rates and to set aside reserves for loan losses that make no sense relative to the state of the economy and relative to their loan book; partial suspension of mark-to-market accounting that allows – starting with Wells Fargo – to hide losses and reduce the amount of write-downs on securities; likely reinstatements of some variant of the uptick rule that will restrict shorting of stock and will artificially boost equity prices (a form of legalized manipulation of the stock market by regulators that are trying to prevent short-sellers to do their job, i.e. make stock prices reflect fundamentals and prevent bubbles in stock prices); and now stress tests that fail the basic test of a reality check by making assumptions – that even in the worst case scenario that is designed from start to be too mild to be a sensible realistic stress test scenario – that are obsolete based on actual data for the economy as of Q1 of 2009. Call it a generalized “fudge test” rather than a true “stress test”.

Time will tell, won’t it?

For a guy who loves to have his mug in front of the camera every chance he gets, somehow I think we’ll be seeing less and less of him.

I’ve yet to see a picture of the lifeboat but I’ve never seen one with a cabin. For one thing they’re not big enough. The large inflatables have a tent-like covering that can be erected and the standard lifeboat may have something similar but not a separate structure. I think all 4 people were visible and those 3 SEALs will remember that shot for the rest of their lives.

Of course you’re right, but it was fun to see how the right and MSM were morphing it into a serious Obama problem, for which it appeared there could be no satisfactory outcome. I hadn’t paid much attention for a couple of days and was surprised to hear MTP and Stephanopoulos discussions reminding me of the Iranian hostage crisis and Jimmy Carter. So, it was neat to see a resolution a couple of hours later, and Gingrich,et. al., get their disengenuous tactics shoved up their backsides.

Been saying the Serenity Prayer a lot lately. All of this has gotten to me far too much and it shows. So I am taking it a day at a time and not letting it all make me crazy. I can’t live like that.

He likes it, as long as he’s got control of the camera.

He’s not going away, but he’s going to have to figure out if he wants to be Billy Graham (and appear to be above politics) or Jerry Falwell (and dive right into politics).

As a rancher friend once told me, straddling a barbed wire fence is a rather uncomfortable place to sit.

i4u2bi, you are exactly right. obama did promise a “yes, we can” government. i see no reason to give up on that – regardless of whether obama meant it or not.

warren said in a boston globe interview : “I don’t have a badge and a gun. The power of this panel is derived entirely from the voice of the American people.” (it wasn’t about health care, but i think the sentiment applies. short diary has links)

we still have our voices.

one more thing about the pirates…. i was thinking this a.m. about Rush and others who want Obama to fail. In that situation, failure would have meant the death of an innocent person. serious stuff. in a very real way, Rush was rooting for the death of Captain Phillips. I’m sure he wasn’t sitting in front of TV saying “Die! Die!” And maybe I’m being too harsh. But my point is, rooting for failure isn’t just nonsensical on its face, it’s very serious stuff with very serious consequences. and its craven in the extreme to hope for it just to score piolitical points.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

I, for one, am glad that he put himself on that barbed wire fence. Hope it pinches him in all the wrong places.

(((RevDeb)))

The life boats were 20′ long, steel fully enclosed and self righting. There is hardly any deck space.

from David Niewert’s new book –

“Transmitters” of fringe ideas into the mainstream have two audiences. The first (and by far the largest) is made up of the many millions of ordinary mainstream conservatives who tune in and log on to the Right’s army of media talking heads and movement leaders. The second includes their xenophobic counterparts on the far Right, where the memes come from in the first place. For the latter, these transmissions signal that their formerly unacceptable beliefs are gaining acceptance; they hear these transmissions as an invitation for them to move into the mainstream without having to change their views. The former hears them as an invitation to think more like the latter without shame.

OT Goldman Sachs has hired a legal firm to shut down a negative blogger – your tax dollars at work
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fin…..-site.html

Alternate universe scenario.

In response to a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia, President John McCain has ordered a massive bombing campaign of the Barbary Coast and Vice President Sarah Palin has put the Alaskan Air Nationa Guard on alert for any sign of the hovering head of Captain Jack Sparrow.

-G

I agree with you. The lifeboat had only two ports and was not transparent. I don’t see how all three “pirates” could have been visible from the deck of the Bainbridge, but I would be surprised if actual tactics were disclosed.

Get out those old Grenada plans. Tortuga!!!!!!!

To me, it looked like a giant floationg litter box.

It will be interesting to learn today how Limpy Limbaugh will spin the Navy’s rescue of Captain Philips into an attack on Obama. It is sad that he will do so free of any consequences for himself.

do they come in orange?

Selise you are so on point..you are blessed with ‘good energy’.

well, maybe not the color. but if they don’t they should.

what took him so long??

he deserves no credit. the SEALS get all the credit.

why did he negotiate?

he only did what he’s supposed to do. big deal. the real question is what does he do now? he’ll probably call for a multi-lateral solution and that’s a recipe for disaster.

the liberals are praising him and they’re appeasers. if this was Bush, they’d be hollering he didn’t need to kill the pirates he sould hav e just paid ransom.

the only reason he authorized force is because the French used force and he didn’t want to look bad.

The pirates will cut some throats next time and the shit heads will scream that Obama acted rashly.

“he should ahve bombed Somalia where the pirates are and there would have been nobody to do this.”

Remember when the Seals came ashore in Somalia and there were TV cameras with floodlights waiting for them? Those were some lucky news people that didn’t get smoked.

Really.

From the NYT that day.

TV Army on the Beach Took U.S. by Surprise

Have a great day…Let’s all cut through the lies of Laura, Sean, Limpy. Our President deserves a chance…look how long they overlooked the idiot W and his antics and gaffs and most of all, his lies. I want Obama success with all my heart.

Asked how the snipers could have killed each pirate with a single shot in the dark, Gortney described them as “extremely, extremely well-trained.” He told NBC’s “Today” show that the shooting was ordered by the captain of the Bainbridge.

Yeah, right.

It’s called a sniper scope.

http://vipertechonline.stores……altub.html

I agree with Blue Texan. Let’s keep our perspective. The more we deal with piracy and terrorism as police actions rather than a “war on terror”, the more we can start to walk back from “empire” and the need for 761 military bases in 150 countries.

We must be very wary of this militaristic language. The U.S. is trying to establish AFRICOM, a military answer to supposedly tribal unrest but instead is the U.S. trying to control Africa’s resources (oil,coltan, uranium, etc). We were behind Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia in 2006 that got rid of the “Islamic Courts Union” which policed piracy. After that piracy soared. http://www.fpif.org/fpifzines/wb/5834

Better for us to support a United States of Africa that would be responsible for policing the waters off Somalia.

“One shot, one kill” utilized very effectively by SEALs. Unless the sea is dead calm a warship, regardless of size, will “roll” from side to side.

I read in one article that they had towed the pirate “ship” to calmer waters. Perhaps they were thinking about the snipers aim!

I’m so glad President Obama was in command of the Navy rather than George Bush,

Dubya would probably have attacked mainland Somalia (or Alaska) immediately because they have oil. I wonder if economic hitmen have run Somalia’s economy and government into the ground. It’s hard to imagine an oil-rich nation flopping about on-shore like a fish.