Helen over at Margaret and Helen has a great new post up…
Excellent blend of snark, sass and common sense.
Really, I mean it.

Morning Attaturk and Pups!

FunnyWheelieDiva

Scissor kicks would be accompanied by distinctively triumphant kungfoo grunt, yes? To see Boehner blanch would be nice.]

The keeping his cool while all about him are losing theirs (or in wingnut language, looosing) is a nice touch, I think. And it drives them crazier.

Negotiating with lunatics like, say, Kim Jong Il is necessary to conduct diplomacy. It takes great diplomacy to meet an irrational mob, as well. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Burning

Why just short of Boner’s orange face? A well-measured kick would raise your approval % 10 points.

Any mention of a Frank Capra movie is a good thing, Attaturk.

The perfect, the good, the bad and the ugly. Know the difference, grasshopper. Do not give up the perfect simply for the privilege of being at the table with the bad. Make no secret deals with the ugly. Let the good know there are consequences for straying from the path. This is the Way of Mojo.

“a Gandhi-like figure, at least if Gandhi also launched the occasional missile into Afghanistan”

Also, a Martin Luther King Jr-like figure, at least if MLK also wanted to hold people in jail indefinitely

Krugman:

What, then, should Mr. Obama do? It would certainly help if he gave clearer and more concise explanations of his health care plan. To be fair, he’s gotten much better at that over the past couple of weeks.

What’s still missing, however, is a sense of passion and outrage — passion for the goal of ensuring that every American gets the health care he or she needs, outrage at the lies and fear-mongering that are being used to block that goal.

So can Mr. Obama, who can be so eloquent when delivering a message of uplift, rise to the challenge of unreasoning, unappeasable opposition? Only time will tell.

Good morning, pups. August is being a wonderful month — Bobo is still on vacation, so it’s just Prof. Krugman again in the Times. In “Republican Death Trip” he says President Obama had campaigned to move beyond divisive politics, but instead he is facing an opposition that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.

Here he is.

The coffee and tea are ready, the cold drinks are in the fridge, and I’ve got waffles with warm maple syrup this morning. We had another storm last night, and it’s raining now, with flash flood warnings. In case you missed her show last night — Rachel said she’s going to be on Press the Meat this week, opposite Dick Armey. She did an absolutely wonderful job yesterday of illustrating the hypocrisy of folks like Sarah and Newtie and Rush. I may make an exception this week and actually tune in to Press the Meat. Have a great day.

It would be bad enough if Obama only had to deal with the opposition in Congress. He’s also faced with a media corpse that insists on fanning the flames after they’ve poured a gallon or two of gasoline on them.

corpse is right!

oops, forgot you would post that, my bad.

EG Marshall was in that flick!

Well done, Attaturk.

No — your good. The more people who read him and get the word out the better!

Billy Jack versus Dick Armey

Boehner would piss himself and should be followed by a dropkick to Boehner and Mitch would make my day OHMMMMMMMM, OHMMMM

Dems never seem to go for the jugular in the same way that the repubs do. It’s got to be genetic. I had a heated discussion with someone who supported Bush a few years back and (since he was losing big-time on the facts) he ended using the argument (paraphrased) ‘you’re just a girl, what do you know.’ It’s not a tactic I would even consider in a debate.

I “would sure like to see”"you doing scissor kicks”"right now.” Too!

I stopped liking obama the second he turned his back on campaign promises and abandoned the constitution on fisa

the decline in my eyes began when he told the democrats to sign bush’s bill giving more of my money to those same crooks who destroyed this economy in the first place

there’s not alot this president has done right as far as I am concerned and if he ran as a republican and won we would be brutalizing his depraved decisions right now

not to mention that the worst thing for the anti war movement was getting obama in office, the anti war movement took a turn for the worse with no doubt

he’s being bush and because we voted for him he gets a pass

It’s a shame we lost John Edwards’ voice in the Healthcare debate. Remember his promise that if there were no HC reform, Congress would lose their insurance? I would like to see that threat brought up again.

not to mention that the worst thing for the anti war movement was getting obama in office, the anti war movement took a turn for the worse with no doubt

So true, and so disappointing. I thought we were going to be smarter.

Sign these petitions for single payer health care

http://BIT.LY/single_payer_ross

http://BIT.LY/HR676

Read our blog http://blog.democratz.org

Follow the GOP money. Boycott GOP contributors.

See the message above this one.

Okay, I think this is one of the best lines I’ve heard in a while:

And I know and you know that’s really f*%$ed up, but this is America, and f*%$ed up is clearly how we roll.

Nice post. It’s our job to keep the pressure on Obama, but I’m trying not to sink to the same level of cynicism as some of the posters here (although I have my moments where I can be just as cynical).

What I really don’t understand is how Obama’s gang got so wrong-footed on healthcare. Don’t they remember what happened to Hillary, or have they bought the meme that it was all her fault. I was visiting from the UK at the height of that and was astounded by the vitriol and lies being peddled in TV ads. Didn’t they know it would happen again? If not, why not? Who’se doing spin for Obama and why hasn’t he/she been fired?

And basically on the same topic, this has got really big in the UK. The best bit has been David Cameron, that’s the leader of the Conservatives, our main party of the right, saying clarly how much he believes in our National Health Service. He lets his minions talk of increasing market forces but we all know he’ll just tinker when he gets to be Prime Minister as barring some major upset, he will next year. And for what it’s worth, we know he is sincere. His son who had major birth defects and died tragically a little time ago was treated through his short life by the NHS and Cameron was clear on how much he appreciated that. And by the way Cameron is seriously rich. Get that into an ad, please.

Obama has turned out the be a disappoint so far. He either sees the country as divided and so he needs to accommodate the nut cases that make up what he sees as 150 million people, and he needs to bow down to the corporations which pull all the strings in the background.

I suspect he understands that anything that is the the left of Genghis Kahn is verbotten and will lead to waking up dead. The health care debate has awoken the militia nuts on the right and they cleaning their weapons and stocking up on ammo.

The banks came in and said this is our show, we run it and we need some bucks to settle a few scores or else we take all our marbles and go home and everything stops. Everything.

The health industry is pulling out all stops to prevent their cash cow from being taken away from them and I suppose behind closed doors they too scared the pants of Obama that the system would grind to a hault and people would be dying left and right and he would be blamed for the genocide of his own people. But he would be knocked off anyway.

The military marched in and announced that no president is putting them out of business. Their tentacles reach into every state and they are oiling the empire. If that all stops the economy will tank and anyway we need to have an enemy to inspire patriotism, fear and keep the people’s focus away from the misery at home.

Then the congress seems to be bought and sold and on a make it for me know so I can coast along and let others deal with the nation. They don’t want to help because they don’t want their cushy lives upset by the rough road ahead called reform.

The rational and progressives ones do not have the power or the wealth to support the reforms and so they are dismissed as dreamers and unrealistic, unpatriotic, nazis, socialists, communists and definitely hateful of the FREEDOM that the market system embodies. They hate freedom.

Not a great hand to play there Obama. But you could at least stop the happy talk and show some balls and go down trying.

There will be no change or reform that doesn’t come from the people – masses demanding change. All power ultimately comes from the bottom of the pyramid, it’s foundation… not the top.

That is a great post. I’ve never seen their blog before, but I plan to return. That’s great stuff.

All power ultimately comes from the bottom of the pyramid

Worth highlighting.

There will be no change or reform that doesn’t come from the people – masses demanding change. All power ultimately comes from the bottom of the pyramid, it’s foundation… not the top.

Thanks for saying that yet again. Obama’s not going to be the change – he never was and no president is. It’s up to us to change the culture.

The change we want isn’t going to come overnight, and its not going to come in one election cycle. The Radical Right has been working on bringing American culture to this point for years by whittling away at education and the middle class and they’re seeing the fruits of their labors. (albeit, disgusting, bitter poisonous fruit – but that’s what they like).

It’s going to take a sustained effort on our part to try to bring the culture back to a reasoned, intelligent democracy (okay a constitutionally-limited, democratic republic).

I bet he’d cry.

Of course, this begs the question – what wouldn’t make Boehner cry?

Thanks for the Sibel Edmonds’ deposition link the other day. Tomorrow there will be a hearing of Krikorian’s case.

A preliminary hearing in the case will be conducted by the Ohio Elections Commission in Columbus tomorrow. It will be open to the public, beginning at 9:30am, according to the Krikorian press release.

Great post, Turk. Thanks. If only it would happen. Here’s what I was thinkin’ last night. Don’t laugh, OK? Promise?

Obama is playin’ it like he is ’cause he’s OK with no health care reform now. He knows he can’t get it done right this year. So he’ll go around campaigning for Congressional candidates next year really pounding away at the health care issue and that’ll be THE issue next year. More dems will get elected and we can pass good health care reform with a really robust public option. He’ll say “I tried working with the R’s. Can’t do it. So elect D’s.”

Big problem with that is they’d have to recruit progressives to run against vulnerable R’s and that ain’t gonna happen.

Just saw Late, Late Night from last night. I already listened to that this a.m. Guess I’m on the same page as Suzanne.

Commin’ into Los Angeleeeese

I can’t wait to see the transcripts of her deposition. I keep checking over at BradBlog, who’s all over this like white on rice.

i think PBO will get the public option out of the congresscritter hacks.its stictly MY FEELING

By the looks of the American citizenry turning out for these town hall meetings, we’re doing a fine job of killing ourselves with fast food, cigarettes and an overindulgence of ignorance.

Their posts are few and far between….but perfect they are. :-) Too bad there aren’t more Margarets and Helens at these hideous THs.

Wouldn’t Congress have to vote to strip itself of insurance? Not happenin’. Right now I’m not longing for a President who made promises he can’t or won’t keep. Had enough of that.

Agree completely.

Our conversations should be much more about HOW TO “change the culture,” in other words the best ways to create social change from the ground-up, instead of 98% of the time “holding feet to the fire.” The balance around many Liberal circles is way, way off.

Of course, “holding feet” is much easier, so maybe that has something to do with it.

NPR has featured Sen. Menendez, head of the DSCC, and asked him to comment on the town halls. Renee Montagne kept repeating loudly that the town halls were a “rout” and completely controlled by the protesters who, she implied, represent the real American majority.

The good senator, in typical Democratic fashion, mumbled on and on about “legitimate questions,” “polls,” and “some who were unhappy with the results of the last election” but he sounded completely unprepared and unable to address the facts. He completely failed on the “death panel” needling, just repeating “that’s outrageous” and then trying a lengthy explanation about end-of-life counseling. Total fail,

Until the Democratic party gets over their queasiness when it comes to slamming crazies like Limbaugh, Beck, Grassley, and other Republican evil, and until they learn to speak assertively to reporters in a way that controls the spin instead of affirming Republican talking points, we are doomed.

I’m frankly amazed that Obama, who did such a masterful job during the election, is unable to get his party’s stuff together long enough to control the message and actually lead the debate instead of continuous mumbling responses to Republican idiocy and outrageousness.

I wrote the Democratic party pretty much the same thing yesterday when they sent me a fundraising request. Get it together! Play hardball! Fight back and take control, you morans! The Republicans have nothing to lose!

Sigh . . . . Yes? We? Can?????

Yes, and there’s a new report that Edwards is going to admit to being the father of that kid.

Russ Feingold said from the very beginning not to trust that guy, yet so many Liberals did. Can’t believe we’re still talking about what this Liar would or would not being if in the White House.

Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) claims that President Obama told him “he’s willing to be a one-term president if that’s what it takes to get health care and energy reform,” reports Radio Iowa.

Said Boswell: “The president (said), ‘I’m not going to kick the can down the road.’ And he said that and I said, ‘Well, that’s something I’m kind of used to from southern Iowa, you know. I know about kicking the can down the road.’ And he said, ‘No, if it makes me a one-term president, I’m going to, we’re going to take it on because the country is in need of us taking this on.’ I respected that very much.”

Ironic considering Leonard Boswell has already leveraged his soul repeatedly to win elections.

The DLC/Clinton wing of the DemocratIC Party is perhaps our number one obstacle. Has been for decades now. Menendez is part of that.

During the campaign, there was great discord among Democrats. Obama successfully navigated the choppy waters and won in a landslide. He took down the Lanny Davis/Terry MacAuliffe/Clinton, Repub, and BigMedia machines all at the same time.

Identify the true enemy and attack them. Obama is not part of those groups. Never has been. It was fairly easy to predict all this that’s happening with Healthcare and the various players reacting the way they are, so I have little doubt that Obama didn’t anticipate this.

He’s proven he knows what he’s doing. Doesn’t matter that much anyway, since there is plenty “we” should be doing each and every day to make these things happen, regardless of what one person does.

Yes, and certainly Obama appreciates it when others blab publicly about what he said or didn’t say in private meetings.

So much of these kind of stories are PR games designed to control media narratives. I’m always skeptical of that kind of stuff.

Brilliant missive. The Billy Jack payoff — magnifique!

Obama has a Christ-like demeanor, though he claims not to have been born in a manger. But even Jesus lost his cool occasionally–threw the money changers out of the temple. So, Mr. President, take that jawbone of an ass (Boehner or Grassley’s come to mind) and go out there swinging. Nobody expects you to be angry (except the kneejerkers calling you an angry black man just on principle). So take them over your knee, and wale away.

“There will be no change or reform that doesn’t come from the people – masses demanding change. All power ultimately comes from the bottom of the pyramid, it’s foundation… not the top;” but isn’t this exactly what those yelling and screaming at townhall meetings are trying to do – undo an election where the devil incarnate, a democrat, won?

yes, we know there are bought and paid for blue tics who like the feeling of so much power, and there are those like baucus and grassley who have succeeded in delaying reform, and yes we know all the outrage has been played to and enabled by the msm; so the question is: what can we progressives do?

i hate the feeling, after all our hard work getting president obama elected, we are once again disenfranchised, flummoxed and handicapped by our own sense of fairness and right from wrong.

I couldn’t agree with you more,I’ve been saying the same thing for months. I have also said how I thought Obama was playing chess while the competition plays checkers. Being smarter and wiser has been how he operates, but it tries my patience. A bit of righteous indignation is more than called for, at this point. Palin having started with the “Death Panel” screed; doubling down on it now after herself having backed the process while she was Governor. Gingrich, Grassley, Coburn; the list will be endless of mind numbingly compromised Rethuglicans jumping on this bandwagon further sullying up the conversation. If not Obama, some Democrat of note MUST come forward to deflect these garbage lies before they succeed in doing their desired damage. And it better be soon.

Your comments are consise; however, when one begins using name-calling techiniques, my repect wanes considerably. I am a person who is directly in the middle . . . reform needs to happen. I do not agree that persons with preex should be excluded from coverage; cost controls should be implemented; and everyone should be required to pay into the system. I do not; however, feel that a goverment expansion into the healthcare industry is the way to go. And beleive me, I’m blogging the same message to other side. If each side continues to name call and cannot compromise, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. I can guarantee you that those who share my opinion comprise more of the “base of the pyramid” than any other group.

I think if Obama went just over Boehner’s face…and took off his rug..thus showing the distinction between his carotene generated Spray-On Tan and his true pasty complexion.

BTW Gandhi never compromised his essential positions with the British ASFAIK. It was the other way ’round. The bans on producing local salt and cloth were dropped. The Brits eventually acceded to a plan for the gradual transfer of power to the Indians. Obama would have said…okay, in the interest of working with the British we”ll only produce salt and cloth every third month between sunset and dawn. And we’ll create a Parliament with the British controlling the House of Lords, and appointing the PM…but we’ll get a majority in the Commons and couple of Minister positions…maybe Religious Affairs, Transportation, and Public Works.

So much for either Satyagraha or “Bringin’ a Bigger Knife”

To suggest that liberals are above screaming like a 2 year old confirms my suspicion that you arrived from another planet in the past six months.

“I do not; however, feel that a goverment expansion into the healthcare industry is the way to go.”
i guess dear southernpch, that is the question isn’t it – is health care a right for all or a privilege for the few? if the answer is the former, then should there be a “for-profit” health care industry; and if the later, what then is the government’s role?

health care is not selling cars, or steel or airline tickets or even gasoline, it is people’s lives at stake; and while we debate and yell and scream and name call, 14,000 people will die this year alone from lack of coverage, many more people will lose their health care and many will be forced to file for bankrupcy because of medical bills.

while nothing as we learned from physics, is 100% efficient; social security, medicare, the VA, fdic and yes, even the postoffice, are government run programs that, for the most part, provide services most of us have come to depend and rely on – hell the military is a government run program.

Not a great hand to play there Obama. But you could at least stop the happy talk and show some balls and go down trying

This is what pisses me off so much about Obama, and about the endless apologists for him — the ones who say “he’s only been in office 7 months,” or “he’s only one guy.”

I don’t think any of us expect him to do this immediately or single-handedly. We do, however, expenct him to have some smarts, and to fight — not to make backroom, closed door deals with the “enemy.”

Unfortunately, Obama seems to have taken the wrong lesson away from the Clinton failure on health care. He decided not to present Congress with a plan [so as to not offend their tender egos], and to let them “build” it. As a result, he’s got the whole “herding cats” situation, plus “getting cats to construct something” plus “a lot of cat-killers on the loose.”

As several people have noted, he should have just come in and said, “we’ve got a ‘government system’ that works. It’s called Medicare. We’re going to extend it to everyone.”

That would have shut up the whole “government-provided health care doesn’t work” crowd, and would have put all those screamers [almost all of whom are ON Medicare] back in their seats. Are they really going to say that it’s fine for them, but screw kids and everyone else? [Well, yeah, they are, but it would diminish the force of their argument.]

Yep, this would have changed the meme from health INSURANCE to health CARE, and it would have pissed off the whole insurance industry, as they could watch their Evil Empire being threatened, but rallying against health insurers — their capricious decisions, their immoral compensation to executives, their endless and costly paperwork — would have been something that would appeal to a far wider swath of America, and would have been an easier row.

Oh, cost. Hey, a surtax on the idiots making more than $250K or $350K, and a “securities transfer tax” to hit the traders, ought to be a good start.

And how about putting the cost out there as “necessary to our national security,” and then cutting other stuff [e.g., Afghanistan, Iraq, TARP] to make room for it.

I am so, so disappointed in this man.

Oh.my.gawd. Not to sound like a valley girl, but really, gag me with a spoon, even.
I haven’t heard that argument since I was a girl, really 40 + years ago.

May be people thinkin’ it, but out loud? Of course, maybe it just means you’re willing to engage with people, and I tend to avoid (in person, anyway).