Hi, BT
There’s really nothing to say about this, is there?
Beyond disappointed.
Funny Wheelie Diva

Indeed.

wow.

What did Obama get for his relationship with Ahnald?
Exactly what he deserves.

Mr. President – they are going to come after you, no matter what you say or do. They will not stop, they will not slacken off. So you may as well step up, and step into them, and do the right thing, every time. Reid and Pelosi and Hoyer be damned.
Time to suit up and serve.

Meanwhile, the republicans in the California state legislature continue to block everything the Democrats want to do, but yet, it’s the Democrat’s fault of course! Personally, I’m sick of this.

I highly doubt President Obama said, “I’ll fix that Beck woman’s ass. I’m gonna cut her salary to the point she has to eat dog food out of a can!”. Please. The Arnold is a moron and he deserves to be the Governor of California at this time.

And I’m waiting, as someone who ACTUALLY voted for him, for him to go ahead and be MY president instead of taking me for granted as he contorts into a prezel trying to please those who opposed, and continue to oppose him.
Hope that makes sense.
OT, Rachel is taking apart his speech on detention/Gitmo.

Funny Wheelie Diva

Obama’s even forgotten he’s supposed to be a D.

Following fd’s OT on Gitmo: apparently BO has again reversed himself and has declared that we can hold detainees indefinitely. And I had finally convinced myself to cut him some slack as he reversed policies beginning the FISA vote. I now can see him bringing the country all the anguish Bush did. aaaarrrggghhh Balderdash on the slack cutting!

Heh. Judge Judy is on cnn. She lives in my apt. bldg.

The Devil Plays For Keeps, Four Wheelie Drive.. I mean Funny Wheelie Diva

Poppa Wheelie Springs

Yeah, sorry about that disillusion thing, buddy. At least you/we have plenty of company…
Glenn Greenwald has been all over this over at Salon.com. As have others.
Anyway, I think the pretty oratory makes the actions and actual proposals even worse. And I feel foolish for having been seduced by it during the campaign. And that only adds to the mad I feel about the policies themselves.

Sorry about the OT, again, BT!

Funny Wheelie Diva

Thanks, Big Wheelie!
I’ll remember to have a good listen after Rachel and KO. Sounds like catchy fun, though.
Then there’s “Minimum Wage” by They Might Be Giants. No linky now, sorry.
Funny Wheelie Diva

Yep, if only you had voted for McCain and Palin shit would be way better.

Yup. Lesser evil. “Well, at least he isn’t hanging people on hooks in America’s name!”

That bar sure is placed high.

I thought the whole point of the stimulus package was to help people like Pauline Beck. When Obama “walked a day in her shoes” she was earning $12.50 an hour, even with her union contract. She still had to work a second job and go to a food bank to support herself.

Who has Obama gone to bat for so far? Wall Street or people like Pauline Beck? It was great to invite her to the Democratic convention to speak and to have YouTube videos with her family but when Arnold and his business friends push back he has no problem throwing her under the bus.

Maybe Obama can help her find a third job.

Amazing. I had forgotten about this episode in the campaign. What a nice episode it was too. Too bad it was all bullshit.

Perhaps this isn’t about Obama caving. Perhaps Obama really is playing for the other team, as it were.

He only pulls this kind of crap several times a week now. Ms. Beck must be glowing in appreciation for Obama’s thoughtfulness.

I suppose the smart thing would have been not to vote at all and then get one of those peppy “don’t blame me” bumper stickers.

Everything is all bullshit.

Yep. If W hadn’t intervened, I wonder how we’d be ranking the Obama prez.

I cannot imagine anything that could have persuaded me to vote for McCain and Palin. But I did have some enthusiasm when I voted for Obama. Today was just one in a long spell of shit sandwiches he’s fed us to which we’ve replied with a quiet Oh-Oh, but give him time. He’s got his reasons. Can’t this nonsense be over NOW? I guess not.

Gosh. Some of you guys slay me.

Hell, I’ve had plenty of arguments here with people who praise that lying fuck LBJ because of the “progressive” things he did.

I probably will deny ever having said this, but at least with McCain/Pain we knew exactly would we would be in store for, awful as it was.

Doesn’t make it a better option, does it?

Torturous.

OK, let me get this straight. Because of the situation with Ms Beck in the campaign Obama should have punished how many people by denying “billions in stimulus in retaliation”?

LBJ’s an interesting case because he did some very good things and some very bad ones.

Umm, dipping my toe in nervously -

How would withholding “billions” in stimulus money help Pauline Beck and the milllions of people like her?

California’s legislature flatly refused to raise taxes and put in motion huge cuts in every state budget.

Forgive me, but I seriously doubt that in the midst of this firestorm, any threat regarding cuts in pay for one group of workers would have any effect.
But California trying to do without the stimulus money would surely put the state government and ALL Californians in even deeper s**t than they will be anyway.
I’m sorry, I can’t agree that this was a terrible stab in the back. REally, I think Ms. Beck would be in worse trouble if the stimulus funds were lost, too.
If someone can explain to me how this is not so, I am glad to listen.

Uh huh, and the book is closed on this dude already right?

thank you

Hi Raven! Either I ower you a beverage, or we will be standing with our backs to the wall together (that’s a mild joke, people).

Gosh I wish I didn’t get so sleepy so early!

Actually, I was typing while you were putting your post up, too. But, you know, great minds…..

fuck em if they can’t take a joke (old Army saying. . .like “it don’t mean nuthin”!

and sewers

I don’t think we can begin to imagine what McCain and Palin would have been like because we have never lived under a dictator. We’re talking Blackwater in the streets and no rights at all. I’ll take my chances with what we have and be thankful for it.

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5366

Yeah, blah blah blah.
Cue “leave Obama alooooooone!” in 3…2…1
Because voting for him based on his campaign “promises” and because at least one alternative would have been WORSE and because Repukes are still acting like ass-hats means that he should now be given a pass and we should all just STFU. Because, ya know, being just a little teeny, tiny, tiny, bit better than the worser of the options is, ya know, totally acceptable!
The concern trolling is getting way fecking old.

Funny Wheelie Diva

Rolling evaluations, just like is done with every prez. When he does something good, we’ll praise it.

Nothing could have made m/p a “better option.” But , BO seems to off on a course that will find us in not better shape in 4/8 years that we were on 1/20/09. Before I get pilloried, yes, some positive things have happened. They seem quite overshadowed by the negative. Drugs, I think I need drugs. And lots of sleep.

Divas Irae.
You! Said! It! I just love balls!

Interesting. But it doesn’t change my point of view that all Californians would be worse off without the stim money.

And raises the issue of how the stim bill was written. Looks to me like O’s admin tried to interpret in favor of workers, but was stuck with language. we already knew that the bill was full of compromise and inadequacies, but given who’s in Congress, that’s how it came out.

Do you have a link showing that the decision was based on “not altering contracts?” With what is in that piece, it doesn’t sound logical. Are you assuming, or do you have more specifics?

Your comment is sheer bovine excrement; the ‘aid’ could have been given a waiver just like so many of those he has appointed despite his words.

I live in CA and know some caregivers; $10 an hour isn’t close to a ‘living wage’.

Keep on hoping; someday you’ll judge Obama just like you do LBJ.

Obama is a big fan of altering workers’ contracts. Fat cats’, not so much.

I just love it when people who don’t live in CA think they know something about us that we don’t. But, watch out. Some folks here think they know everything. Some.

No, nobody here is saying “give him a pass.”
Raven and I are saying (well, I speak only fo rmyself) Take a step back, listen to yourself, and see the fatal flaw in this complaint.

Of course we can complain, of course we can be angry about broken campaign promises, but we also need to look dispassionately at facts, what can be done, and what can’t.
Neither Raven nor I said “don’t whale on Obama.” We said this outcome is surely better than following through on the threat would have been.
And I for one believ the threat had no chance of working.
(especiallly if it wasn’t based on the stimulous statutes language)
Okay? Let’s all take a breath and recognize that everyone here is basically on the same page, we just disagree on some specifics.

Sure there have been a few minor set backs, but look at all the successes, like….well he gives a hell of a speech. I am starting to think that maybe all the hope stuff was a bit over sold.

All one really has to know is Ahnold’s conference with Sebelius, keeping in mind he wanted to do this anyway. CA is one of three -just 3- States that require a 60 per cent majority to pass a budget and the Repugs are adamanat about ‘no new taxes’.

And the ‘not breaking a contract’ relates to auto workers,healhcare workers, and what was said about Wall St. bonuses for those guilty of fraud that the AG doesn’t want to pursue.

Nobody said $10 is a living wage.
Please, don’t use the Fox/Repub tactic of raising a straw man.

The problem is – well, just read my and Raven’s posts.
And for heaven sake, if you knnow Raven at all, you should be able to give him a little more respect than that post shows.

OK, so the progressive things LBJ actually did are meaningless because he was a lying fuck?
And, what, his pretty speeches and lip-service to the Rule of Law make Obama’s manifestly ANTI-progressive ACTIONS (via policies/policy proposals) acceptable or immune to criticism?!
All hail Obama The Good. If he does it, that means it’s never a bad thing.
Yeah, right.

Funny Wheelie Diva

Wail.

On the streets in Manhattan you can buy that famous poster with the “O” changed to a “Y”.

Yeah, I’m not arguing there haven’t been problems here, notably the bankers vs. the auto workers.
I’m just saying this isn’t necessarily what happened here.

And I still don’t see a link to the language of the decision as being based on not-changing-contracts.
Like I said, if someone shows me that, I will read it and maybe be required to change my mind. Until then, I’m not making assumptions; what I’ve seen so far would lead me to a different assumption.
Fair?

Thank you, dear.
I’ve been holding back on that one for weeks, but I have limits.
That said, I’ve said my say and, unlike some, will not be repeating myself every time the issue re-surfaces.

Funny Wheelie Diva

All one really has to know is Ahnold’s conference with Sebelius, keeping

You have to be kidding me. Not without knowing what the decision was based on, it is NOT all one really has to know.

You got something more than “I know what I know cause I know it”?

I’ve been waiting to see it.

The problem is that Obama now has a record, and it’s not pretty. So while shitting on home health care workers would have been overlooked in light of the totality of the decision, it takes on another meaning in light of the one-sided record.

Yep. And, we may be on the same thread, but, no we are not all on the same page. Not all the time. Sometimes, yes. Sometimes No.
I’m going to listen to some music and read.
New Page, as it were.

Actually, I’ve already said all the rest of the things in this post, but reached a different conclusion.

demi – does your “wait” mean you’re looking up the missing info? As I said, I can be persuaded. Just not seeing anything persuasive YET. thanks.

demi – what did you ask me to wait for?
Frankly, I’m ready to pick up my new books from the library, but I thought you were going to give me more evidence for your view.
Seriously – I have no snarky intent here.

demi May 21st, 2009 at 7:03 pm
51
In response to tejanarusa @ 46 (show text)

Wail.
You said whale. I said wail. Persuaded?

I love books. No snark here either.

There’s a good deal of Kabuki in the homecare paycut drama.

Homecare hours have already been rationed to such an extent that in many cases only a third of the hours actually spent caring for recipients are compensated. Compensation was cut $2 in the Budget Compromise in January and will be cut another $2 an hour due to the failure of the initiatives on Tuesday. The State is also moving to cut off many recipients entirely, even though doing so will mean they have to be placed in board and care or nursing homes which is a far, far more expensive alternative. Some of the recipients are simply going to die. And nothing at all will be done about it.

SEIU has not exactly been energetic about opposing these cuts, and from the point of view of many homecare workers, SEIU’s efforts have actually been in favor of deal-making with Schwarzenegger and HHS. Andy Stern and the SEIU leadership, nationally and in California, have largely been absent without leave, a situation that is extremely frustrating for homecare worker/union members.

Some of California’s media (and George Will) has been on a crusade to smear and denounce homecare workers for fraud and “undeservingness” (some workers, after all, are family members of the service recipients.) There is almost no one standing up for them in California.

And with the administration’s cave to Schwarzenegger’s plan, what Californians are going to see is major pay cuts for homecare workers — making it impossible for some to continue serving their client/recipients. Californians are also going to see some recipients be left alone to die of neglect. Many others will be have to be placed in care facilities which will be 6 to 10 times more costly than their previous home care workers. A number of those placed in facilities are going to die from neglect, too, because that’s what happens in those places. Many people who need care are not going to receive it as eligibility rules are made more and more restrictive; many who are receiving care now will be cut off.

For whatever reason, the State is making homecare workers the scapegoats for so many of the current budget problems (even though their cost is a tiny fraction of the state budget) and is making them take the brunt of
attack and punishment. SEIU is not standing up to the assault. And the administration has essentially told Ahnult to “go for it.”

It’s sickening.

Thanks for this, Che.
Looks like I should be stopping by your blog regularly, too.
You’re the same Che that hangs out over at Glennzilla’s, right?
Funny Wheelie Diva

Have a good night, you. No offense meant. I just have a thing about communication, which sometimes includes spelling. I didn’t mean to be patronizing. Sorry.

Ohhhhhhhhh. Blushing. I read that as a t, not an l.

Yeah, actually, though, ones “whales on” a person, thing, etc. – “wails’ pertains to making noise. It’s of course, “informal, colloquial.” per my College Webster’s, “whale. verb…to beat, whip, thrash.”

Uh-oh, now the grammar/word/spelling maven has reared her ugly head — I try to keep her tamped down, but sometimes fail…

Yes, it is; did you know this about SEIU?
http://www.democracynow.org/20…..loans_from

When he does something good, we’ll praise it.

In all sincerity, that is hysterical. Oh, and completely untrue for many who dominate these threads.

No, I hadn’t seen that. Not surprised…

Thanks.

Yeah, I try to cheer myself up over at Glenn’s place at least once a day! H

;~)

Yep. Isn’t it peculiar how it’s easier to tear down, or, whale on someone or something than to praise. But, when the shoe fits. *g*
It’s been a long, hard, hot week.

If you had lived in CA for as long as I have, you’d understand what I meant by ‘all you have to know’.

Look at the history where the Obama Admin said ‘CA might have violated terms of the ‘bailout’. Hard to believe you’d be arguing for the cuts to caregivers.

Keep hoping; it’s the neurosis of modern man.

Fine. You live in California. But if you want to persuade me, or any other non-CAlifornian of your argument, you need to supply some meat for that argument.
I keep saying, I will read any evidence you have.

But, honestly, how does your California history tell us what a new federal administrative agency based its decisionn on?

Just give me something more than your declaration and you may well persuade me that this is yet another betrayal by Ob ama.
Right now it simply appears to b e a tragedy put in motion by California’s idiot anti-tax legislature and its governor. Persuade me it’s more.

Oh, hey, nobody worse than me about spelling. *g*. I gather you hadn’t read my later post yet.

We commented at the same time, and yes I did, see my h/t at #70.

you mean like this thread?

http://firedoglake.com/2009/01…..edemption/

thanks

One of the reasons SEIU may not be too energetic is because it’s spending so much effort raiding other unions (UNITE HERE, Puerto Rican teachers, LA employees) and trying to stop its own dissidents (NUHW). Stern’s always conflated deal making with organizing. SEIU’s throwing its resources into preventing the Home Healthcareworkers from voting to go with NUHW. There’s a critical election in Fresno the beginning of June but you’d never know it if you relied on the progressive blogosphere.

The majority of the legislature is not anti-tax. But we have a two-thirds requirement for passing a budget and the Republicans have used that requirement to hold the rest of the state hostage for years. The majority of the citizens don’t appear to be anti-tax either, according to a poll released today: http://www.calitics.com/diary/…..pid-things
But I do agree that the governor is an idiot. After all, he’s a Republican.

would you being willing to write a diary – or direct me to a link where i can learn more about the election you mention? thanks.

all i know is what i’ve heard on democracy now! re the puerto rican teacher’s union battles.

DSA’s Talking Union blog is a good place to start: http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/. Do a search on SEIU on their site and you’ll find several interesting articles, most of them pretty even handed. Anything written by Steve Early about labor is worthwhile and informative. For more on the internal SEIU fights and SEIU’s fights with other unions (from an anti-SEIU perspective) you can check out http://perezstern.blogspot.com/ or http://adiosandy.blogspot.com/. They give a lot of details but can be vitriolic. Still worth reading if you want to follow the firings of stewards and the SEIU-NUHW fight hospital by hospital and bargaining unit by bargaining unit. NUHW’s web site is http://www.nuhw.org/. And of course SEIU’s own web site will give you their version.

By the way, NUHW won its first election in a hospital in California today; it was a small hospital – the vote was NUHW 158, SEIU 24. The home health care workers vote in Fresno should be interesting. SEIU is pulling out all the stops to beat NUHW and is shipping in a lot of out of state troops. No wonder they can’t concentrate on political work.

thank you!

Thanks SeanP.

I was aware of the NUHW v SEIU fight but not many of the details, and your cites help a lot.

Ultimately it’s all about putting the greatest burden on those least able to cope. The frailest. The oldest. The sickest. The poorest. Then looking so amazed, “Who would ever have thought it would turn out badly? My stars!”

Here’s something he did ‘right’.

If you can’t recongnize ‘deal making’ when it stares hyou in the face I don’t know what to say. And yes,it IS “a tragedy put in motion by California’s idiot anti-tax legislature and its governor.” which is why I -and others- are supporting an initiative to do away with the ludicrous 60 per cent vote margin for budgets.

BUT the topic is the witholding of funds from CA because of Ahnold’s desire to cut caregiver/unionized wages; such did NOT have to be done !!

Obama has never forgotten he’s a D. The difference being his D stands for DOLLARS.

We’re back to the Democratic party of being responsive only to big donors with satchels full of dollars.