“No Mo Chairman Joe”

Me likee.

Mornin’, BT

If you Tweet, be sure to use the hashtag #DumpJoe.

Joe is an abomination.

Happy National Cat Day!

You’d think I’d have known that, wouldn’t ya? Fooled ya. Now I’ll prolly be stuck on that damn site all day.

Well, maybe not.

glen and rachael are making a fatal error, one that defeats their purpose;

they are assuming lieberman is a democrat, they are assuming he’s going to fillibuster for his own interests

he is a republican and while it might be true his interests are served by a fillibuster there is no doubyt he would NOT fillibuster if his republican masters told him they didn’t want him to

he is a trojan horse that we know is manned by the enemy, he is a judas sheep that we know is leading us to slaughter, he is a wolf in sheeps clothing who we know howls at the moon

he is a republican

I would have much preferred rachael call him out right from the start, she gave joe a “benefit of doubt” that “he didn’t understand the public option and that’s why he’s saying things that are clearly false”

there is NO doubt, joe understands the public option, he’s not “saying things he doesn’t understand” he’s lying

this should have went;

“either joe lieberman is lying or he is a moron, I kind of think he’s not a moron but who knows”

Hearing that the House health care bill is going to be less than a “robust” public option with negotiated rates. The Blue Dogs defeated a robust public option. Would have saved 85 billion. The Blue Dog version saves 25 billion. Now that’s fiscal responsibility from the Blue Dogs.

Your point is what? Or were you just venting?

So, what is the most effective way to draw attention to the corruption of the Liebermans and the Bayhs? This is so blatant a crime whether it is legal or not. There has to be way to make a huge issue out of this so that they have to vote with the Party to save their as**es. How do you get the broad media to run with this, to confront them, to demand explainations? Apparently, Lieberman will not go on Rachel. What’s the deal with the WH and no pushback? Obama disappoints more everyday. I am becoming convinced that whatever healthcare Bill finally emerges will be worse than no Bill at all.

tiz nothing but morning vent, it goes with morning jaba

but lieberman is not a democrat, he never gives us a vote we need, he gives us votes we don’t need and makes believe he votes with us the majority of the time

simple bait and switch and the democrats fall for it

Are you familiar with this one? It’s Steven Colbert’s favorite.

Well, Short Ride doesn’t seem to be shamed or embarrassed by anything so that option’s out.

He’s so pissed at the citizens of CT for choosing Lamont over him that he’s going to do everything he can to screw them, and the rest of us in the process. Remember, it’s always been about Short Ride and will always be about Short Ride.

If Short Ride joins the Rethugs in a filibuster of any legislation there should be enough Dems in the caucus to strip him of his chairmanship and toss his ass out of the caucus. Lightbrain Harry Reid, however, would prolly put a screeching halt to any attempt at consequential action.

Oh, I’d forgotten about that one. Endless kitten pix.

Legalized corruption and legalized extortion and Joe puts his and wife’s interests ahead of 62% of voters that he represents.

“He’s with us on everything but the war health care the Democratic Party:

i wish lieberman was our problem. sadly our problems are much bigger than him. according to jon, the house has stripped medicare+5 rates from the po. and reports are also that pelosi has stripped the kucinich amendment from the bill (even though it passed the committee with strong bipartisan support)

A sobering reminder about the cost of war this morning, Obama meets returning plane at Dover. I threw up a quick diary over at The Seminal.

As for Lie-berman in bed with lobbyists. Show me a Congresscritter who’s not. They all do it. Wives, sons, daughters, siblings…we have the best government money can buy.

Yeah, I’m in a sour mood this morning. The stark contrast of Obama honoring returning fallen troops with the pretentious preening on both sides of the aisle for those who walk upon us as “leaders” is striking.

Actually, always ready to cave Harry might just not cave this time because his seat is on the line in Nevada. If anything will get Harry to do the right thing for once, it will be his own political survival. The PO seems to be the hot potato that no one wants to be responsible for the blame if it fails, except for Joe, of course. Do you think Obama is betraying us because he has already made promises to the insurers and pharma? I can’t figure the political calcuation. A lousy Bill is going to shred his base and cost many seats in 2010. They don’t seem to get this. They think DEMs have no where else to go so they’ll stick with them. Don’t they know many will simply sit home on election day?

Harry Reid owns Joe Lieberman’s vote. If Liarman obstructs health care for all and Reid doesn’t strip him of his assignments then both of them must go.

Notice that when Joe betrays the Party, the result is usually that people die (as in the War and now healthcare).

I’m hearing the House has put a mandate in its bill. Looks like we’re gonna end up having to kill the whole thing. Then we’ll have to overcome the reich saying the progressives killed health care reform.

We can do that. Ain’t nobody said this was gonna be easy.

Never. Give. Up.

Stewart and Colbert also took a bite out of his useless ass last night.

Speaking of bought and paid for, whazzup with Imus turning on his good buddy Corzine? He’s got Chris Christie on this morning.

And yes, I do watch Imus from time to time, but since he’s joined Fox its more of the hold-your-nose ’cause you need to keep an eye/ear on what the other side’s doing. Mr. Sunshine philosophy for why he listened to Limbaugh from time to time.

Glenn was fabulous on this issue. Pointing out the stark facts about the huge amounts of money Lieberman and Bayh receive from the insurance industry SHOULD help to remind folks [voters; media] what whores they are.

I’d really like to see the MSM tag both Lieberman and Bayh with their deserved identity as corrupt, bought-and-paid-for Senators, who DON’T represent their constituents or the American public in general, but only do what will line their pockets.

This, it seems to me, is an effective way to diminish their influence and scare other wavering Senators off siding with them.

I don’t agree with the “stay at home” scenario. People across the country are seriously engaged. Look at the protests directed at banks and the health care industry. These people, and their friends and neighbors, are not gonna stay home next year. They’re gonna be out there trying to put in the change we were promised last year. Just cuz yer wounded doesn’t necessarily mean ya can’t fight.

What’s the Kucinich Amendment?

Morning!

Excellent point. Joe kills.

Ann Telnaes on Liarman
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/opinions/anntelnaes/

After 2006 elections the Democratic Party failed to multiply much if any political capacity in Congress. Pelosi was more interested in not taking on the Bush WH or GOP in Congress. Democrats in WashingtonDC played into Bush/Cheney WH gaming and ruses over and over.

Last year in 2008 the Democrats were given election results that placed them in all roles of majority rule across Congress and the WH then too.

A year later it is plain to see Harry Reid could have 80 Ds in U.S.Senate and Pelosi twenty more Ds in the House and still it would not matter.

Barack Obama let Lieberman diss him last summer in Twin Cities at the GOP Convention held there. That should have been the end of Joe in D politics.

Should have been but instead Obama did the roll over and now here in late 2009 Joe is going to prove again why he needed to be kicked out a year ago.

Meanwhile Iraq Occupation,Afghanistan Invasion,Wall Street Bailout and now this so called healthcare reform are riddled with Democratic incapacity to do much genuine in way of leadership politics,integrity politics or exercise much in way of progressive politics in WashingtonDC.

The two party regime has become fully bankrupt and short of a major reset of American poltical power redistribution there is little reason to think otherwise.

Barack Obama has done more to give legitimacy to Bush/Cheney regimes than not. Pelosi and Reid are far too comfortable with empty gestures.

Joe Lieberman should have been banished from the Democratic Party a year ago instead he was allowed to stay and now we are seeing the outcome.

Basically I hope the Democrats take a big hit in 2010 elections just for failure to get this healthcare reform right or take the political hits trying to get it right. It is pathetic.

As for Barack Obama if he continues to do what he has done since last Jan.20 he should be voted out of the WH in 2012 based on his audacity of telling lies,letting the crooks on Wall Street off the hook. For displaying a very disturbing inability to give this healthcare reform leadership of vision,action and willingness to take some real political hits to do the right thing. Instead with Barack Obama it appears to be much more about keeping the already comfortable comfortable and making sure there is more loot for them to drag off as well.

Based on what Barack Obama said he would do and stand for during his campaign to get into the WH he has shown himself to be a fraud.

Repeatedly.

Americans needed a champion to get this healthcare reform in place and done right. Instead we got a used car salesman slick. Its over.

On Oct 5, Jane posted an article entitled “Countdown to Lieberman” in which she called it exactly as it has unfolded this week:

[...]

It doesn’t make any sense — Harkin says there are 54-57 votes for a public option. That’s a clear majority. And it would certainly pass the House. No, the only reason to pass a bill without a public option is if the White House doesn’t want one. But who is going to let the public know? Who is going to make the announcement that there will be no public option? Who’s going to take that political hit?

The White House doesn’t have the stomach for it. They want someone else to take the hit. Maybe Harry Reid? Um…no:

Having deferred the issue to Baucus this summer, Reid signaled on Thursday that he is prepared to join Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who both pushed a public option amendment that failed in a committee vote last Tuesday.

There are certainly Democrats in the Senate who have said that they won’t support a public option, but so far nobody has stepped forward to say they’ll join a Republican filibuster to stop it. Nobody wants that hot potato alone.

But they have to do something, because if a public option winds up in the Senate bill, it’s going to be damn impossible to get out of there.

So the best model, the safest model (relatively speaking) is one of distributed responsibility. Some group (say, a “gang”) stepping forward to announce that they have arrived at an agreement that everyone can live with, some abomination that makes the insurance companies happy and has some code language in there for “triggers.” They’ll present it as a “solution,” and won’t mention that the “problem” only exists because they’re willing to join with the GOP in a filibuster but won’t say so. Then nobody will point out the obvious — that anyone who is willing to do this should lose their gavels immediately. That’s how we’ll know everyone is on board, despite their angry rhetoric.

That camera hog Lieberman has been awfully quiet lately. Wonder if the President has been calling him and twisting his arm?

It seems to me that most of the protests have come from the FOX generated right and the Libertarians that are opposed to government intervention and spending of any kind, not from the left. What I am concerned about is that the right will be out in force on election day and the left will be fed up and stay home. Obama has not exactly been out front restoring the Constitutional rights that Bush trashed. He has been all for maintaining all the executive power Bush claimed. He hasn’t asked Justice to investigate anything in the previous Administration. His financial team is right out of Goldman Sachs. And now, he seems more than happy to give it up to the insurers and pharma and call it healthcare reform, when it screws the public even more than no Bill at all. How is any of this going to get the left to the polls in 2010?

Never. Give. Up.

thanks SD!

the thing is i don’t know about killing it. it’s a sucky bill that will make the insurance companies stronger, but it does have the subsidies, the guaranteed issue and community rating (as far as i know)… so, want to ask people like ES who don’t have insurance for some guidance as i don’t think i have the right to decide the issue for the people who are going to be most affected.

What I liked was Glenn using the word “corrupt” or “corruption” at least twice when he was talking about Lieberman’s and Bayh’s involvement with insurance, campaign donations, etc. We need to use “corruption” more often in regards to a LOT of our elected reps, IMHO.

Uh, the protests at the ABA conference last weekend and the ongoing protests at Cigna et al state headquarters were not generated by Fox and are certainly not from the reich. The teabaggers were a flash in the pan.

moring loo hoo!

here ya go: Kucinich Amendment Stripped from House Bill

I was using a worst case scenario. We’ll just have to wait to see what really comes to the floor for a vote in the House and Senate. I am, however, prepared for a complete sellout with a meatless bone thrown in so they can say they accomplished reform. Either way we need to start now on working for single payer. We’re gonna run the show this time. Fuck Obama, Rahm and the rest of ‘em.

Liarman could care less
http://www.squarestate.net/diary/8863/joe-lieberman-must-be-ok-with-this

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Irak: 4353

US KIA Aghanistan: 906

US MBS 2009: 37,324

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

I couldn’t agree more.

I was using a worst case scenario. We’ll just have to wait to see what really comes to the floor for a vote in the House and Senate. I am, however, prepared for a complete sellout with a meatless bone thrown in so they can say they accomplished reform.

i think you are right on. and in fact that if the bill coming out looks like we think it will, it will deserve to be killed. i’m still going to be angsting about it though. i hate having to pick sides when i know either way people are going to die unnecessarily.

Either way we need to start now on working for single payer.

amen amen.

evidence based policy. no more of this policy by substance free talking points.

p.s. moving upstairs…..

Summary

Some state and local governments that have attempted to expand health care coverage have been successfully challenged in court under the terms of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). ERISA pre-empts states from enacting legislation if it is “related to” employee benefit plans. It reserves that right to the federal government. Section 514 of ERISA states that Title V (Administration and Enforcement) and Title IV (Fiduciary Responsibility) of ERISA “shall supercede any and all State laws insofar as they may… relate to any employee benefit plan.” There is no provision for an administrative waiver of these rules.

The Kucinich amendment to HR 3200, approved by a recorded vote of the House Education and Labor Committee, would remove this barrier for states that have enacted and signed into law a single payer system.

linky

Mornin’ Everyone

I despise Liebermann as much as anyone does. He ranks with Iago, Gollum, and all the slimiest, nastiest characters in fiction and history. But, satisfaction in being able to shun him aside, would there have been any greater possibility of being able to to wring anything useful out of him if he had been driven out of the caucus after the election? We wouldn’t have ended up with sixty votes that way either, but if he had been banished, there would have always been the claim that Reid and Obama stupidly allowed their desire for revenge to destroy any possibility that a filibuster could have been prevented. Having said that, I’m ready to make him walk the plank, and to hell with any possible future legislation he might have been pressured into cooperating on.

Good morning CBL and pups.

Its time to just let this bill die. It is so bad and watered down that it is going to do more harm than good, especially when the final bill has mandates and some kind of lipstick PO, most likely triggers. Pelosi is now showing her true colors by butchering the House bill. Supporting a bill that makes insurance companies richer at our expense without any real benefit to the American people is irresponsible on our part. Passing this bill is not going to save people from death by spreadsheet or any of the other systemic problems in the medical/industrial complex. Let Lie-berman kill the bill and let the Dems hang at the polls. Its what we keep threatening them with anyway. Like it makes a difference which party is in control the results are the same. Maybe by letting the Dems go down in flames will finally send a message to the Dem leadership that they are not immune to the consequences of their actions. Pelosi and Hoyer and Reid may not lose their seats but if they lose thier majorities and thier power is diminished, they may wake up and start serving the people they were elected to represent.

I detested Liebermann before it was cool. Over time my antipathy for him has grown. Yet, I agree with you.

It’s simple. He does not put the United States of America first. He’s a bit distracted by other national interests.

Notice that when Joe betrays the Party, the result is usually that people die (as in the War and now healthcare).

nice little talking point there

Lets not forget the other Democrat mentioned in that segment of Rachel’s show – Senator Bayh!

He and his wife have done rather well over the last few years selling influence to the Insurance Companies.

“we have seen a parade of aged satraps from vast, windy places stepping forward to tell us what is off the table. Every week, there is another Max Baucus of Montana, another Kent Conrad of North Dakota, another Ben Nelson of Nebraska, huffing and puffing and harrumphing that we had better forget about single-payer health care, a carbon tax, nationalizing the banks, funding for mass transit, closing tax loopholes for the rich. These are men with tiny constituencies who sat for decades in the Senate without doing or saying anything of note, who acquiesced shamelessly to the worst abuses of the Bush Administration and who come forward now to chide the president for not concentrating enough on reducing the budget deficit, or for “trying to do too much,” as if he were as old and as indolent as they are.”http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/07/0082562

Yeah, like Israel’s.

Rape gurney joe was very worried about offending the religious sensibilities of the fundamentalist administrators of catholic and (ostensibly) jewish hospitals who might have to treat rape victims. Joe is a very moral man. Also, hospitals haven given him lots and lots of money. There is probably a direct relationship between joes morality and the amount of money he’s been given. If I knew
the amounts of money joe was given and the dates he was given it, based on his legisaltive activity and public speechifying i could probably come up with a way to quantify and predict joes realtive morality, on any given issue.

Joseph Lieberman (Fredo-CT)