Is there something he has against being President? How do you explain all this?

Hell if I know. Of course, there’s always the theory that he’s simply the president for corporations and rich people just like the last, uh… several.

Is he so desperate to be liked that he’s afraid to move in any direction? What’s wrong with him? All those things he talked about during his campaign; this will be done and that will be done. How did he think anything would get done without anybody doing the leading? Did he envision the job of President as jovial referee? I’m totally puzzled.

…but does he really want to bet his presidency on it?

I think he’s more afraid of carving any position into stone, and then seeing *that* fail to pass.

If he “stays above” the fray, he can always blame congress for failing to pass what he will later say was his consistent desire.

did that make any sense?

heya Eli!

Why should ANYONE in the house (or senate. Sanders? Leahy?) go out on a rotten limb for a White House that pretends its not even involved?

Heya jayt! That’s possible, but if so it’s really really pathetic.

I think the Democratic base is going to mirror Obama’s enthusiasm and engagement at the ballot box.

Someone needs to tell Obama

that he needs to do everything he can, both publicly and privately, to push the Senate Democrats to pass a sidecar fix, and push the House Blue Dogs to vote for both the current Senate bill and the sidecar bill.

But Pelosi and Reid are looking for the right combination of the fewest changes possible to the Senate bill that would make it acceptable to House Democrats. In other words, the votes aren’t there to use sidecar reconciliation to improve the Senate bill with a public option, so they’re looking to use sidecar reconciliation to make it worse, anything, so long as they can pass something they can call comprehensive health care legislation.

Even if Obama were to get involved at this point, the choices are the Senate bill in some slightly “fixed” version, a piecemeal approach, or nothing.

My point, simply, is that there’s no point in continuing to expect Obama or anyone else to pressure legislators to enact real comprehensive health care reform.

Hi Eli, do you think there is any chance that Plouffe will engage with people here or anywhere on line in his new role to try to commune with little people, to rebuild the Obama machine?

Was the “nudge” bit a jab at Sunstein? ‘Cause that’s how I read it. Heh.

If they pass something like the Senate bill and Obama signs it, voters will show their anger at the ballot box.

There’s that..but if it is such a conflicted need to please & not offend anyone….let Michelle do it. If it is truly love of the corps, he should be fought on all fronts.

you mean a Doc Martens?

Why should the voters go out on a limb for him, either?

…if so it’s really really pathetic.

well – yeah.

I haven’t noticed that sticking his neck out for *anything* is a part of the way he rolls.

And also not possible at this point. They tried to blame him for the financial collapse before he was even inaugurated. Theres NO WAY Obama can run against Bush or an “obstructionist Republican party” again. no way. and he has no right to. Most of Obamas bad decisions fall into the letting well enough alone category. HCR is one place the white house has inserted itself into policy in any meaningful way and its a disaster.

Seems like the administration is only worried about message…. not substance.

Seems like the Obama machine – OFA – is doing just fine.

I think Plouffe needs to speak to Obama more than to us. Besides, if Plouffe speaks to us on behalf of Obama’s agenda thus far, wouldn’t he just be providing a better class of spin?

Im sure not going to. at least, unless and until he changes his behavior, which i dont look for happening

What did he think being President was going to be about? (Hint: It isn’t ribbon cuttings and Rose Garden signings ….)

He isn’t stupid. He’s just absolutely corrupt like many of the rest of them. He’ll keep saying one thing and doing something else damaging to most Americans just like a Republican. He’s one of the fucking monsters.

Seriously, someone Obama actually listens to (Reid? Pelosi? Plouffe? Axelrod?)

I think the “someone Obama listens to” qualifier limits it to Rahm & Geithner, and I don’t think either of them is going to be giving him the advice we’d like.

Incidentally, have you seen Frank Rich’s column of today + 923 comments, most making the same lament about Obama “not getting it.” [Mine's @ 594.]

Here Mr. President—here is how a political pragmatist did it 50 years ago:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/24-11

John Kennedy didn’t write Profiles in Courage for no good reason—perhaps you should read his book.

OT ;) Are the Saints still tied?

They sent a law professor to a street fight.

Hes a self interested Pol that’s for sure. He’s not in this for the “change” unless its the spendable kind. and hes getting horrible advice. He does not seem to be a competent manager.

OFA may be doing fine, but I unsubscribed some time back, when it became clear that they didn’t really want our input, just our praise.

tied at the half..

Go Colts!

Just wow…after all that Kennedy endorsement. Not likely to get the award, I guess.

But the move comes with political risk, because it would open Democrats up to charges that they pressed ahead with roughly the same health care bill that voters appeared to reject in the Massachusetts Senate race Tuesday. Republican Scott Brown won on a pledge to try to block Obama-style health reform.

Ugh. The polling made it pretty clear that the MA voters’ problem with “Obama-style health reform” was that it was crap, and that they would have been perfectly happy with a more progressive healthcare bill with a public option.

Nudge hell, he needs a swift kick in the ass!

Did you notice this week, the Ohio speech?

Obama wasn’t wearing a tie. And the Villagers gave a pass; in fact David Gergen was on CNN that evening, and he wasn’t wearing a tie either.

I thought that was wierd, given tie-gate in early 2009. Some messaging and some personal style works with those Villagers, and some doesn’t. It’s so bizzarre.

I wish I could take credit for that, but no.

I think he’s going to try.

Dude, instantly delete that comment, and take credit for a two-fer!

God. Wake. Up. Obama isn’t doing anything then what he is. He is a Corporate tool with a dual citizen COS in Rahm that looks out for the Corporate Master ane of course his one love Israel.

Idiots that think Obama is gonna change are the problem not the solution.

Barack Obama needs a new agenda entitled, “Cojones Grande.”

Step 1

Expand health care coverage to 40 million people useing reconciliation:

Expanding Medicaid to everyone below 215% of the FPL, and expanding SCHIP coverage to all uninsured children, should give roughly 30 million more Americans insurance for a cost of just under $800 billion.
The Medicaid expansion could be structured to also work as a de facto extreme catastrophic insurance policy for people over 215% FPL. You could set it up so that if anyone suffered from a major medical emergency, which cost so much it effectively made their yearly income below 215% FPL, they would, at that point, be covered by Medicaid. This would effectively put an end to medical bankruptcy in this country.
Early Medicare buy-in could be added for people without insurance who are between 47-65. This is the group who, even if they have money, tend to have the toughest time finding affordable, quality health insurance.
Expanding Medicaid, Medicare, and SCHIP are all doable under reconciliation. A bill that does these three things would only need a simple majority in the Senate, would be cheaper than the current Senate bill, and probably be no more than 30 PAGES long.

Have Wall Street fat cats and other low-life pay for it all.

Step 2

Create monumental Infrastructure Bank for large job creation and investing in future productivity (Krugman was right. President didn’t do enough the first time with the “stimulus” program). Have the professionals make all of the decisions and not pork-barrel politicians.

Step 3.

Put Elizabeth Warren in charge of the new Consumer Protection Agency.
Replace Bernanke with Volker. Fire Summers, Geithner and Rhambo.

Step 4

The United States Senate is an inane, corrupt and dysfunctional institution that no longer serves the interests of the American people. Bypass it on energy. Use the full powers of the EPA to mandate change!

Step 5

Get out of Iraq immediately! Leave a few drones. Reverse dumb decision on Afghanistan escalation. (Remember, Mr. President you don’t like dumb wars). Leave a lot of drones.

Mr. President – you have allowed the Congress to create a 2000 page health care bill monstrosity and you call it a success. With respect, that’s Bull Shit! It’s time for you to descend from the clouds (or at least, the golf course) and walk upon the earth and make a critical decision. Are you for the people or against the people? The fate of the Democratic Party and the nation awaits your decision.

Mod Note: Feel free to write a diary. Please do not post the same comment in multiple threads.

Yeah, Obama will stay above the fray except when he has Rahm passively-aggressively work behind the scenes and doing anonymous leaks to the press.

Yeah, that’s the problem. I’m not sure there’s any overlap between the set of “People Obama actually listens to” and the set of “People who don’t give Obama shitty advice”.

Getting him and the rest of the Corporatists and Stepford Wives out of Congress is Change We Can Believe In

Step 3.

Put Elizabeth Warren in charge of the new Consumer Protection Agency.
Replace Bernanke with Volker. Fire jail Summers, Geithner and Rhambo.

jail or, um, something.
“not only for the safety of the people, it is an imposition of the people”

The thing is, regardless of whether he’s a corporate tool or not, if he doesn’t get a healthcare bill that doesn’t piss everybody off, he’s not going to get a second term.

So unless he’s willing to take that one-term-failure bullet for his corporate masters (and he very well may be), then he needs to throw the people a bone.

It’s kind of the inverse of the idealistic politician who reluctantly agrees to play ball with corporations so he can stay in office to keep helping the people.

FWIW, around here it’s considered rude to repeatedly post the same comment on multiple threads.

There ought to be some overlap, since I would think Michelle falls into both categories.

As far as I can tell, OFA’s a propaganda machine that’s infested DK. If Obama’s agenda were actually progressive, I wouldn’t mind so much what they do.

Obama has always been this way. Ask anyone who knew him in the Illinois senate. Or as president of Law Review at Harvard, a position he won by going round to the conservatives who might have blocked his election and promising not to do anything that would rock their boats. And he didn’t, rock their boats, that is. If your goal is not to upset anybody’s applecart, you wind up with status quo. This man is not an agent of change, he isn’t even a facilitator of change. Given the background articles that were available on the web during the campaign, I don’t know why anyone thought so.

This guy is a disaster of epic proportions. The Republic hasn’t been this ill served since John Wilkes Booth. He’s an egotistical Trojan Horse.

I have no expectation of him doing the right thing for the right reasons. But if he’s as smart and savvy as he’s supposed to be, he could conceivably do the right thing for simple self-preservation.

I’m not seeing it yet. It’s only been a few days, but so far it looks like he’s going to focus more on messaging than action.

Ugh. The polling made it pretty clear that the MA voters’ problem with “Obama-style health reform” was that it was crap, and that they would have been perfectly happy with a more progressive healthcare bill with a public option.

I agree with you, but since the special election last Tues we’ve learned that there are not the 51+ Senate Democrats who will come forward and support anything that significantly changes the Senate bill.

See Jon’s In Act Of Collective Insanity, Senate Democrats Don’t Collectively Back Reconciliation Sidecar (Jan 22, 2010).

The fact that you, I, and MA voters want it isn’t going to make it happen. House and Senate leadership are not going the way you and I want, and Senate Democrats have been bullshitting us all along.

(Which *also* sounds pretty Republican)

Congress writes the laws. The President signs them into law. Why does the far left and far right fail at basic civics?

Of course, there’s always the theory that he’s simply the president for corporations and rich people just like the last, uh… several.

That theory passes the Occam’s Razor test IMO.

Unless he has a cunning plan… possibly involving a painted wooden duck, a miniature trumpet, and a Robin Hood costume.

That should give him another month or two. After that I’d support a move for impeachment for dereliction of duty.

I just don’t understand why none of them want to get re-elected.

But Obama’s still got the audacity of hope.

He hopes congress will act on healthcare.
He hopes republicans will help craft the bill.
He hopes he’s appeased the healthcare and pharma industries enough.
He’s hopeless.

Maybe because they believe they can shame or guilt us into supporting them at the last minute?

Because they already have their applications in to Wall Street.

Obama and the Democrats are intent on committing electoral suicide. After the MA vote, Obama started talking about fighting the banks but he is still trying to get Helicopter Ben reconfirmed. He talks being for ordinary Americans but then puts together a stealth deficit commission whose principal aim is to slash Social Security and Medicare. On healthcare, his plan was always to make deals with the big companies and his refusal to “enter” the fray is actually just a ploy to guard these. Indeed he would rather see healthcare fail than modify those industry deals.

At this point there is nothing left for us to do than get out the popcorn and watch the wreck.

The president surely plays a role, or is powerless.

Which is it you advocate?

When was the last time a U.S. President threw his base under the bus and had a successful presidency?

I totally don’t get it either. If they pass the Senate bill after using sidecar to make a few “fixes” (nothing like advancing a public option, and perhaps even making matters worse, as Jon wrote yesterday in Pelosi And Reid Team Up For Potential Party Suicide Pact) voters will not react well in Nov. As Jon put it, it’s insane.

Hell, they’re already being paid by Wall Street. They really ought to be wearing logos on their clothes.

Suppose we could cheer on the Republicans. Why draw the charade out any longer?

Well, that’s obviously not happening. But the voters in 2010 and 2012 aren’t going to care whether FDL or the netroots supported the shitty bill or not, they’re just going to know that Obama and the Democrats pushed through a shitty bill.

And if they know that the Democrats had the option of using reconciliation to fix the shitty bill and couldn’t be bothered, it’s going to be even worse.

He doesn’t imagine the President will lay out a way forward in his State of the Union address next week, and he won’t push any buttons in the Senate.

Orahma will effectively lay down and destroy the party in his one and only term. I thought was bush did in 8 short years was bad, but Orhama is going to make him look like a rocket scientist.

Obama’s thinking there’s always a first time. He’s due!

This voter isn’t reacting well now. If they want to see a trainwreck from the inside of the train, they’re doing a good job of setting it up.

Congress writes the laws. The president signs the laws. We’ve already had a president who whipped Congress into doing his bidding. George W. Bush.

It’s feeling more and more like the 1850s, where the Whigs and the whatever-the-other-party-was self-destructed and the Dems and the Repubs appeared.

I just don’t want it to end like the 1850s did.

LBJ.

Congress writes the laws. The President signs them into law. Why does the far left and far right fail at basic civics?

When was the last time a presidential candidate ran on the platform “I’ll faithfully execute whatever congress sends my way and I like and sign into law.”

The legislative process often involves negotiations between the branches so that the product of the legislation is more palatable to the executive so that the exercise is not academic.

When a president runs on a platform to reform health care with specific promises like no individual mandate, and then punts to Congress to write it up, and Congress comes up with an individual mandate and the President is okay with that, it raises all sorts of question.

What is this stealth commission to cut SS and Medicare? Please tell me how they plan on doing this.

Right – the president has power, and can do tons of things without a majority, by aggressively whipping.

You concede then that Obama is not powerless, and hasn’t used his position for doing good for us. Thanks.

Wishin’ and hopin’…however,

It is impossible to substitute a wishbone for a backbone.

We need Silent E.

Who can turn spin into a spine…

hahahah

Good example.

See previous post.

Right up at the top the previous post.

I agree – the “force/power of his convictions” is not be seen – on anything

Avoiding criticism or blame – from the right – appears to be his game plan – and Sunday talk is about how blame from the right is not deserved – and there is not much talk about policy pushes that he is making in any area.

I have no positive expectations for the remaining 3 years of his term – even on Judge appointments he does not seem progressive or liberal or even center left.

The stimulus, saving GM and Chrysler, pushing for health care reform, financial reform, cap and trade.

Yeah, he’s not doing anything. What a loser.

Obama’s had a year and during that year everyone said, give him time, give him time, the last administration left a mess. In that year we’ve seen Obama is not serious about cleaning up the mess on Wall Street and in DC. He’s turned his back on Main Street thinking that tossing a few crumbs is good enough. He’s shown more concern about the delicate sensibilities of the Republicans who despise him than his own base that elected him. He’s promised more war and a blank check to the military/industrial complex. He now supports another “bipartisan” commission that is charged at cost cutting measures to address the deficit (privatize, privatize, privatize). This guy is an even bigger danger to the nation than the “Decider.” It’s time to go to the mattresses.

Exactly, the president sets the agenda.

The No Spine Zone

For that matter, Ronny wasn’t too bad at getting Congress to give him whatever he asked for. I suspect having a golden tongue helps.

Until he landed at the WH, Obama was whatever he made himself out to be because, let’s face it, even US senators and reps are a remarkably obscure bunch, more so state office holders. You have to do something pretty spectacular to get any notice, at all, and even at that, lots of people won’t notice or won’t remember. But the president is under constant, merciless scrutiny. Obama has never experienced that before. There is, literally, nowhere to hide, no cover of who cares? obscurity. And the press doesn’t protect the president, anymore. Those days are gone.

It hasn’t sunk in, yet. It may never. Obama has spent most of his life doing extraordinarily well just as you see him. We’ll live, we’ll see.

Good agenda. Obama should have rushed out of the gate with that and the fairly simple plan to expand Medicare while he had authentic momentum and low polls showing 56% of voters favoring a national plan.

Stupid as Bush was, he was a hammerhead. Problem with Dems is they want to make love to the Republicans instead of using the hammer when they have the advantage. The Pugs will never love back and they see the Dems as stupid pussies. Dems keep repeating the same thing over and over again, always hopeful for a different result.

Now there, Eli, is a “narrative” which rings true.

How’re ya doing?

Feeling energized and reinvigorated after the last week?

Believe it or not, understanding IS flourishing, confusion yet reigns, but the people’s awareness is getting very concentrated.

DW

Stimulus, GM and Chrysler are corporations, so not suprised.

What is this pushing you speak of as regards health care? He’s certainly not pushing for PHrMA? O that’s right, he made a deal with PhrMA.

There’s no HCR ye, no financial reform yet including the execrable Bernanke (Republican, failed at this same job already) no cap and trade yet.

Lotsa fluff, no substance. See Coakley, Martha and related polling.

I’m pretty good, but obviously frustrated by congressional thickheadedness.

How do we get through to all the low-information voters in the House and Senate?

Stimulus too small (and he was told that), giving GM to the bankers, the push for health insurance reform is only speeches, there’s zero push for health care reform, for repeal of DADT and DOMA only speeches, for getting out of Afghanistan we’re now being told that he didn’t really promise that (as he sends in more troops to a region that hates our guts), financial reform is being done by the same guys who broke the system in the first place, and cap-and-trade isn’t going anywhere thanks to the idjits like Inhofe and Graham.

and this.
deficit commission

And Obama thickheadedness, of course. Oy.

Best way I know is kick them out.
Second best is to primary them – you don’t need someone who can win, necessarily, but you do need someone who can scare the daylights out of the incumbent.

pushing for health care reform

He hasn’t.

financial reform

He got this done without anyone noticing? What are you referring to specifically?

cap and trade

A scam.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/01/23/obama-endorses-statutory-fiscal-commission/

I also wrote an entry (136) on this for my Obama scandals list.

On January 19, 2010, Vice President Biden and Democratic Congressional leaders: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Majority leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV), together with Obama’s OMB director Peter Orszag agreed to establish an 18 member panel ostensibly to cut government deficits. The true purpose is to slash entitlements (Medicare and Social Security), a policy that Orszag has long advocated. The true authors of this idea are Biden and Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Judd Gregg (R-NH). Nor would this be a toothless commission as so many are. Its recommendations would go directly to the floor of the two houses for an up or down vote with no hearings or amendments allowed. The Obama Administration first tried to sell cutting entitlements back in February 2009 (item 25) shortly after taking office but went on to concentrate on healthcare after the negative reaction this effort received.

It is little short of amazing that the very day Democrats lost Teddy Kennedy’s old seat in Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states in the union, to a right wing Republican with Teabagger (Don’t touch my Medicare!) connections that the Obama and the Democrats would sign off on such a politically suicidal plan.

Haven’t read the comments, so I might be redundant.

Nudge? Paging Cass Sunstein.

Oh, Eli.

Can I please give now too?

Oh no not the big bad corporations! Wake up. Many blue collar workers work at GM and Chrysler where would they have gone if those companies collapsed? Ford would have gone with them. Unemployment would be even higher than it is now.

When was the last president to push this agenda? Answer: never

PHrMA could kill any reform overhaul. Now even more so after what the Supreme Court did. I don’t have a problem with dealing with them if we can get a better system that saves lives and helps our most vulnerable. But I guess we should just not do what we can and let a lot of people die because Jane Hamsher told you to be upset.

I went there.
Eli says no, dammit!

Exactly, the president sets the agenda.

The agenda is set between the President and Congress to varying degrees. That is why there is a veto override, and that is why there are vetoes.

This notion that Congress is the sole source of policy initiatives is simply false. Even in your own city, Mayors often introduce legislation which is has the same standing as if a municipal legislator had.’

The reason why it is raised is because Congress gnawing health care reform into health insurance reform has reflected poorly on their approval. Those who like this wish for it to happen more, with less (if possible) presidential interference because it hinders the abstract cause of health care reform which progressives and liberals supports and undermines in a quite concrete manner the political position of the Democrat Party, the alleged bearer of that cause.

Obama’s a Republican Trojan Horse. Now what is his Achilles Heel?

Right! Let’s bend over for PhrMA since they could kill it! Preznit has no power!

Look, either the President has power, and isn’t using it, or he doesn’t have power, so it doesn’t matter.

Pick a side of that coin and stick with it, because you can’t have it both ways.

PJEvans said it all in three letters “LBJ”
The President needs to whip out his Johnson, Lyndon that is’
LBJ used endless repetition , sleep deprivation, hyper manipulation, the FBI and anything else he could conjure up, on the intractable Dixiecrat’s Block, until he won them over one by one. Feel free Mr President: Show ‘em your Johnson

Congress writes the laws. The President signs them into law. Why does the far left and far right fail at basic civics?

As long as we are on the subject of stealth entry 134 from my list:

A January 8, 2010 article by Charlie Savage of the New York Times reports that the Obama Administration has committed to a policy of stealth signing statements. Signing statements are not Constitutional. A President can veto a bill or sign it. If signed, he is obligated to execute all aspects of the bill. He does not get to pick and choose (a line item veto). If he thinks some part of a bill is unConstitutional, he can go to the courts to have it overturned or he can seek changes through further legislation.

Signing statements have been around since the 19th century. During most of that time, they were rare and usually used as a notification that in executing a law the Executive was not ceding or implying any cession of powers to the legislature. Under Bush, signing statements became declarations that the Executive would not carry out or enforce specific provisions detailed in the signing statement (a line item veto). Bush used signing statements more than all of his predecessors combined.

Rather than curtailing the use of signing statements, the Obama Administration has added its own twist to them taking them to a whole new level. The Administration will not repeat a signing statement if a provision is included again in later bills. The original signing statement is to extend to these as well. More than this, if the Administration raises objections to a provision outside the venue of the signing statement, no signing statement will be issued but the Administration will act as if one has been made. In short, Obama is saying that he will only obey and execute those provisions of the law which he wishes to but leaves it to the country to guess which provisions he will not obey and execute. This is another example of the Obama Administration’s contempt for the rule of law and its retention and extension of a Bush era abuse.

I’m wracking my brain to think how it could be any worse, but I come up snake eyes. What a debacle, that the Republicans are sure to gloat over. I guess the good part is, they couldn’t make things any worse, and we can’t afford more wars. Obama has killed the Democratic party in a way of which Karl Rove only dreamed.

Hey eCahn, I had a previous commitment. How was the Stiglitz/Black salon?

We don’t, Eli.

It matters little what the epiphitcs, including Obama, do.

It is possible that, by accident or unintentionally, they might do some small thing right.

The epiphitics do not know when enough is enough.

While “we” need to help with broader and deeper understanding, the public, generally, is getting an education the like of which they have never seen nor imagined.

The chatter about Social Security has penetrated deeply and the mood is not happy …

DW

Seems like the administration is only worried about message…. not substance.

yup!

Pick a side of that coin and stick with it, because you can’t have it both ways.

what we need is a three-sided coin.

No shit the stimulus was too small, but what should we have done? Nothing. Good idea. Obama and his team have been pushing health care through Congress all year. He’s been negotiating between the House and Senate. He’s took a beating in poll numbers to get this done. No president has done this yet. But I always forget that the lemmings here just think words will get things done. Reforming health care is one of the hardest endeavors a president could do.

Sometimes I just don’t care anymore. The left has had one of it’s best chances to accomplish their agendas, but y’all pissed it away because it wasn’t the perfect solution that you wanted. Oh well, there’s always next generation to take another stab.

I posted about this ,yesterday on another thread, and was admonished that I was ,in essence, being a chicken little.

Or,at least that was how I perceived it.

And yes. I did make a point of including the fact it was passed the same day of the Massacre in Masachusetts.

We’re like “those meddling kids” in Scooby-Doo…

It would seem that Obama would like to see the U.S. return to the pre Herbert Hoover wonder years.

But I guess we should just not do what we can and let a lot of people die because Jane Hamsher told you to be upset.

See this is what happens when you come to a site and know nothing of its history. There are a lot of single payer advocates around here and many of us were battling it out with Jane and other main posters. So no we don’t do what Jane tells us. And as I said many of us were criticizing Jane from the left.

I have to say at least Jane was trying to fight for at least a marginal bill, something that Obama and the Congressional Democrats never even tried to do.

And there’s the tell – disassociation:

The left has had one of it’s best chances to accomplish their agendas, but y’all pissed it away…

You’re kidding, right?

Re: healthcare Orhama never stood for anything after he was elected. He still doesn’t.
He is a piss poor excuse for a leader and all he’s done is re-arrange deck chairs on the Titanic.

I’m shocked, I say – shocked!

Wrong. The President has power and so does the drug, insurance lobbies. They have more money to spend on killing any reform. Lefties forget that America is still a right-leaning country. We have a great chance to reform the system, but the purists on the left destroyed that chance. There’s always next generation.

2010 to 2012 will be some triangulations years. Thanks guys!

Rather than curtailing the use of signing statements, the Obama Administration has added its own twist to them taking them to a whole new level.

What ?!

If he thinks some part of a bill is unConstitutional, he can go to the courts to have it overturned…

No – can’t. The top of the legal food chain is still The Kennedy Court.

…or he can seek changes through further legislation.

I believe we’ve just been discussing the president’s prowess at pushing legislation – or more accurately, the lack thereof.

“So let me get this straight – after his brilliant float-above-the-fray strategy resulted in a hideously compromised Senate healthcare reform bill which America hates so much that the Democrats lost a Senate seat in Massachusetts, Obama’s Cunning Plan to fix the healthcare reform mess is… to float above the fray some more?”
____

Maybe he really just wants to be Our Host. Barack O’Winfrey or something. Barack O’Brady, “Making S%!t Up,” “‘Whose Line Is It Anyway”

In case you hadn’t noticed, Chrysler got bought by the investment bankers years ago – a group headed by nice conservatives like D Quayle. Didn’t help them at all; they’ve been gutted and are basically dead. (That’s what happens when you let finance guys run manufacturing/producing businesses.)

As far as the misnamed HCR, it’s not going to help a lot of people, with its taxes, its mandates, and its lack of regulation, and, since it doesn’t even take effect until four years after it passes, it’s going to help fewer even than if they put in a Medicare buy-in tomorrow.

A 900 billion dollar bill that extends coverage to over 30 million and reforms the insurance industry is not marginal. If the left wants to deny America this step in the right direction, go for it.

Or an 18 dimension chess board. /s

I really don’t know what you guys are talking about. According to Gibbs, Obama, Axelrod and Jarrett, Obama won the election in Massachusetts. According to them, people were really voting in favor of him. They loved his way of doing things so much, they voted for the Republican to show their appreciation.

So, it seems, all is well. And, if any of the Democratic Congressmen or Senators are worried about their re-election, he will happily come campaign for them.

No shit the stimulus was too small, but what should we have done? Nothing. Good idea.

Nice use of a strawman. But it’s a cheap argument. What Obama could have gone over the head of Congress and made a case for a real stimulus. Instead he let Congress, mostly the Blue Dogs and Republicans like Snowe write the bill. This is what we should have expected really. Obama is a Blue Dog.

what’s your personal record for combined misinformed and insulting statements crammed into one comment?

The hospitals killed the Medicare buy-in.

Thank you for playing, concern troll. You’ve really got some Joementum going now.

America is a left center nation.

http://www.alternet.org/election08/106276/

Pelosi wrote most of the stimulus bill. Remember condoms in the bill?

Those are his Constitutional options. What Obama is doing, following in the footsteps of George Bush, is pursuing an unConstitutional one.

I’m Single Payer (after voluminous study and, experience in the field).

I keep coming here, and no one’s cracked on me or banned me.

I find most of the tactical fighting over scraps here poignant.

And, tarheel, the pols are gonna leave ‘em to die in any event. Even short of that, nearly all of us will remain one serious accident or illness away from BK.

I can easily see this scenario in 2013, 3 years from now:

Obama giving a speech; “The reason my Presidency was a failure was because of George W. Bush. If I had not inherited such a mess, I would have been a great President instead of a failure. Those of you who depended on me to get some progressive programs implimented have only my predecessor to blame.”

A Republican just won Ted’s Senate seat.

Well, your wonderful conservative buddies made it really really clear that they aren’t interested in anything even resembling governing.
(Guess they would prefer to be barons and counts, back in the early middle ages.
I’m willing to let all y’all live in the past, but you don’t get to drag anyone else back with you. Buy a small country somewhere – I think you can get Haiti for a billion dollars cash right now, and we can fit in their remaining population – and run it the way you think a country should be run.
Just don’t expect help from us, because you haven’t been earning it.)

then all you fucking expected was a scribe?!

Further dis-association at #131. Purely disruptive.

*setmousetoignore*

Yeah, Social Security didn’t exist until AFTER Hoover’s presidency.

Yes, let’s have hearings on Single Payer!! Why did we not have big hearings on Single Payer?

I’m sure in your crystal ball President Palin will be the next Reagan. Go be a teabagger somewhere else.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Yes, because policy wasn’t progessive enough. Do you read, or does faux give you talking points. And Brown will be out in 2 years. MA isn’t going to keep that teabagging idiot. It was a statement from the Dems who mostly stayed home.

A 900 billion dollar bill that extends coverage to over 30 million and reforms the insurance industry is not marginal

No, it isn’t, but it also isn’t what any of the bills contain. As I said, you come to this site and have no idea how closely we have tracked all the twists and turns in the HCR debate. We have discussed and argued over all of the ramifications in detail. You coming here with some one-liners is going to convince absolutely no one.

Yeah, because just signing laws is what the president does.

Civics fail.

“A 900 billion dollar bill that extends coverage to over 30 million and reforms the insurance industry”
___

Overwhelmingly yet unaffordable “coverage” combined with “reforms” that will be disembowled before they can even take effect.

Are you really so naive?

We do have some resident trolls. That one is reasonable at first, but gradually reveals itself.

President Pander wanted single payer off the table even though he said it was the best solution for lowering health care costs and covering everyone. The delicate sensibilities of the Republicans, however, would never have accepted “socialized” medicine. Obama was merely being considerate to his esteemed Republican allies, I mean, colleagues.

I know he will be out in two years, but a Republican still won Ted’s seat. Either the left and middle makes peace and tries to get some shit done or more teabaggers will be going to Congress.

Civics fail.
He does sign bills. That’s most of his official day-to-day job. The speeches are not, except for the State of the Union.

Please do not name a political movement after your own personal habits.

Besides, I was simply saying, please quit the excuses and get some damn thing done! Now, maybe you don’t care if any progressive bills are passed. But, I think a lot of people do! And, they are tired of excuses. If it keeps going, you WILL hear the speech above.

No, the Democrat LOST Ted’s seat.

I have no expectation of him doing the right thing for the right reasons. But if he’s as smart and savvy as he’s supposed to be, he could conceivably do the right thing for simple self-preservation.

I’m not seeing it yet. It’s only been a few days, but so far it looks like he’s going to focus more on messaging than action.

Eli, that’s exactly what I think.

PJ,you GOTTA read this story about Cerberus and the plasma rip off they are doing -making billions for being bloodsuckers-literally.

Cerberus Capital: Literally Blood-Sucking the Poor to Make Their …25 posts – 5 authors – Last post: Jan 15
You might think that America would be ashamed of being the world’s top vampire nation. But actually, to the faux-market freaks like Cerberus …
http://www.alternet.org/…/cerberus_capital:_literally_blood-sucking_the_poor_to_make_their_billions/?... – Cached

No, “The President Proposes, the Congress Disposes.”

This President has abdicated his leadership role here that might have made a serious difference.

Pelosi did write the House version. The blue dogs and Snowe didn’t write the bill. They influenced it, but without their vote we wouldn’t have had any stimulus bill.

Why did we not have big hearings on Single Payer?

Because Baucus and Obama took it off the table as did the House.

Yep.

No I do care. I just don’t care if they are 40% progressive of 80% progressive. The progressives here and on other forums fail to realize that the Democratic Party is not an entirely progressive party. We don’t have 218 progressive votes in the House and 60 progressive votes in the Senate. Try to live in the real world.

The fucking insurance lobby wrote the bill.

I am always touched when I see the denizens of the lake take pity on small, confused, or even bewildered creatures.

It is an admirable trait.

However, some of these wee beasties are, if not rabid, highly challenged in the appreciation and understanding department.

Some suffer from deafness of a peculiar sort as well as a blinkered vision …

And, a few bite.

And they all have bedraggled tales which they drag around like a signal-flag of achievement, capacity and significance …

Ah, I’m a cold-hearted curmudgeon, as you all know.

Feed ‘em if you must, but don’t be surprised if they make a mess on the floor.

To a Republican in Massachusetts.

No they didn’t. They are fighting this bill. I would love to put them out of business, but I also live in the real world.

707!

ROTFL.

Really? Most Congresspeople who are not fully behind Obama’s agenda are from states or districts that went for McCain. Obama’s public push on them would do more harm than good.

The progressives here and on other forums fail to realize that the Democratic Party is not an entirely progressive party

The Democrats fail to realize that they can’t win without the progressives. That’s the price for enacting a Blue Dog-Republican Lite agenda.

Spare me OK, Mr. Real World.

Then Why The Fuck Did He Take The Job?

A scribe with an agenda – sounds fucking ominous, if you ask me!

Translation: they’re Blue Dogs or DINOs.
Which we already knew.

On the other hand, with a president who actually was leading, they’d have so much coattail to ride that they’d be easy winners.

Cerberus Capital: Literally Blood-Sucking the Poor to Make Their Billions

By Mark Ames, AlterNet. Posted January 9, 2010.

How one company made $1.8 billion by paying peanuts to human plasma donors, and then manipulated the market by restricting supply to the desperately ill.

Cerberus Capital, one of Wall Street’s most notoriously ruthless leveraged-buyout firms (or “private equity firms” in PC-speak), recently made a $1.8 billion killing on its human plasma investment, a company called Talecris. Talecris was purchased for a mere $82.5 million just four years earlier, meaning Cerberus made 23 times its investment on human plasma.
This was accomplished by the most savage, heartless means possible: by paying peanuts to impoverished human plasma donors, who increasingly come from Mexican border towns to blood-pumping stations set up on the American side, jacking up the price of plasma by restricting supply (a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission accused Cerberus Plasma Holdings of “operat[ing] as an oligopoly”), and then selling the refined products to the most desperately ill—patients suffering from hemophilia, severe burns, multiple sclerosis and autoimmune deficiencies.
The products cost so much—one, IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin) cost twice the price of gold as of last summer—that American health insurance companies have been dropping or denying their policyholders in increasing numbers, endangering untold numbers of people.
Cerberus is the same shady fund that bought Chrysler and GMAC in 2007 and drove them into the ground, blamed everything on unions (even after firing 30,000 Chrysler employees), and dumped the companies onto American taxpayers—but only after lining up tens of billions in taxpayer-funded bailout funds.
Cerberus is led by some of the most aggressive “free market” Republicans of our time. The chairman of Cerberus is former Treasury Secretary John Snow, who oversaw the destruction of America’s economy while serving under Bush from 2003 to 2006, bragging during his tenure, “We are the envy of the world.”

Snow bragged again in 2007 after Cerberus acquired Chrysler. A year later, Snow was running around Washington begging and screaming for government handouts.

Excerpt,Alterent,link above

never has figured out why we refer to ourselves as DFHs.

Yup, they’re fighting all the way to the bank. The insurance stocks aren’t up either right….

What do they clutch in lieu of pearls in the Tar Heel state?

After Brown’s win, they are up.

Reruns of Schoolhouse Rock?

Got me, I’ve never been there. I know people I could ask, though.

And progressives fail to realize that they can’t win without the Democratic Party.

Once I owned a conservative car. It had some unusual features. It had seating for two adults and one adulterer. The transmission had one forward speed(slow), a special stall gear that only spins, and three reverses(Hamiltonian, ante-bellum, and Prescott. I always drove it in the left lane when I was on the Interstate with the required blinking signal.

and that was his plan all along, because as psychologist, Drew Weston said, Obama is “averse to conflict.” It’s truly frightening that the country has this Caspar milk toast at the helm. In fact it is downright maddening.

If memory serves, Cerberus took over Chrysler to get its financial arm. There were some half-hearted attempts to keep the auto division going but these were quickly stifled by those who saw it as a turkey to dump.

we plan to win with the independents, 51% declared themselves so in MA, – remember MA?

Without progressives, there is no Democratic party, only a Republican-lite party. We’re the base, not the ornament on top of the flagpole.

We can only hope he comes to his senses.

But I am not holding out hope.

That is the really puzzling thing to me too. At this point I’m ready to start a fund for a primary challenger to Kerry in 12. Three months ago I would have said that would be pointless but at this point he might even be vulnerable to the “throw the bums out” sentiment that is going to sweep the blue states for the next two years.

The bailout of GM in the context of Chrysler’s bailout:

“The failure of Chrysler is a big deal, but it leaves the private equity firm with a finance arm to blend with and strengthen its GMAC operation.”

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/01/news/companies/cerberus.chrysler.fortune/index.htm

“As part of the automaker’s decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Cerberus will retain the assets of Chrysler Financial, the auto financing arm. It will work through the existing portfolio, which will hopefully generate a modest income stream as the loans come to maturity.

More importantly for Cerberus and its investors, Chrysler Financial’s future business will be folded into GMAC, the auto finance company that the private equity firm bought from GM in 2006.

“GMAC and Chrysler Financial are effectively being merged,” says David Whiston, an analyst who covers GM for Morningstar. “This could be a very profitable endeavor for Cerberus if they continue to have a stake in GMAC.”

When Cerberus took an interest in Chrysler, there was a swirl of speculation that it was really investing in the automaker’s finance arm and getting the car manufacturing business for free. The finance arm had long been the only profitable piece of their parent manufacturing company.”

etc, etc…

hahahahahahaha

Without progressives, moderates, and centrists the Democratic Party won’t have a majority. We need moderates and centrists to keep pushing America in the progressive direction.

The sad part of this mess is that congress people who could stand up and be counted are scared into the shadows because they want to fall into party lines. Just think of the powerful impact it would make if a bunch of Dem. Reps would hold a public press conference and lay out their anger,frustration, and feelings of betrayal by the administration, or at least threaten this kind of conference at a meeting with Obama. Let him
squirm a bit and think through his passive aggressive indifference.

Cerberus: the three headed dog that guarded hell. What an appropriate name for these financial vampires. Hell is exactly where they belong.

And when you think Cerberus, think Romney.

And progressives fail to realize that they can’t win without the Democratic Party.

Yes, but as long as Democrats freeze our people and ideas out of government and enact conservative legislation, progressives have exactly zero reason to vote for them. We don’t vote for Republicans and we shouldn’t vote for Democrats who act like Republicans, period.

We need moderates and centrists to keep pushing America in the progressive direction.

Whaa?!?

Oh, I get it. I’m thirsty, so I need some sand to drink.

what you need, imo, is some clarity of mind, some kind of a brain enema, or sumpthin’.

He didn’t strap the Guardian Of Hades to the top of his car, did he?

Yup, I am so sick of hearing about Bush as an excuse for Obama’s incompetence. If I remember correctly, was it Krugman in one of his recent columns, who faulted Obama for failing to continuously communicate the mess he inherited from Bush. Krugman claimed that was the communication problem.

ROFL!

Hamsher lemmings are still pissed about losing to Obama. I remember when you sniffling little brats were all sure John Edwards was going to be president. Maybe that’s all you have to do to get the respect of Hamsher’s lemmings, just say what they want to hear. Never mind what factors the real world throws at you, just say a bunch of progressive ideas and when nothing gets done you can still feel good about yourselves because you stuck to your principles. Why don’t you brats just form the Jane Hamsher Party and be done with it.

“I am so sick of hearing about Bush as an excuse for Obama’s incompetence.”
____

Ditto that. That dawg won’t hunt any more.

In that vein, I was troubled to hear Obama merge himself with Brown, or identify with him by saying that both were elected because voters wanted change. Give me a break, how dare Obama ride side saddle with Brown when the MA election was a REPUDIATION of him.

Show me how the Democratic Party minus moderates and centrists can win nationally to push our agenda? We do need more than 25% of the vote to gain control of Congress. You know that, right?

Bain Capital had huge stakes in Cerberus, both being vulture capitalists. Cerberus went public, Romney wins big money. Cerberus/Chrysler gets bailed out; think Romney as counter-party.

.

Teabagger in drag, show me the thriving economy and stable world that Bush left Obama.

Time to form the U party.

troll, go back to bridge.

Sonny, why don’t you just take your juvie anonymous handle Concern Troll shit somewhere where it’ll get some traction?

For the record, I am a “centrist independent” who caucused for Hillary, then got behind Obama (basically two words, net: Sarah Palin).

He sold me on both his acumen and sincerity. I now come to seriously doubt both.

Plouffe will quickly realize that Obama’s sudden, opportunistic populism, is powderfuff b.s. that will not be backed up by actions of substance.
The high flying rhetoric worked on the campaign trail because Obama hadn’t yet been tested in office. Now he leaves a trail of betrayal, and sellouts to corporations behind him that he can’t erase.

s
c
r
o
l
l
because that’s purest right-wing troll

All you got is insults. You wanna go there? I am Shiva to your Gomer.

So vote Republican.

“Lemmings” “Brats” “Teabagger in drag” are all fine nuances to convince the progressive to move centrist.

I dare powderplouffe to show up on this forum and interact.

All y’all have is tears and bitching. Go form the Jane Hamsher Party. Then you can talk about how awesome your ideas are and that should be enough to help you eek out a life.

LOL! Yo, Kelly.

:)

I say primary the Dem incumbents who are playing ball with big insurance and pharma and spitting on the people who put them in office

“eek”?

eke, bro’

Beautiful, that.

What I’m noticing lately are “centrists” throwing temper tantrums, engaging in childish name-calling, then patting themselves on the head for being the only adults in the room. Strange.

How many votes is the Socialist Party pulling these days? 10,000 nation wide, maybe 15,000? We should just listen to Hamsher’s parrot brigade and wait another 25 years to attempt at reform health insurance. Good idea.

*note to self; add “parrot” to the list.*

You’re veiled attempt at taking a shot at me was weak. I’m no centrist by any stretch. I’m just sick of getting nothing done because progressive love to draw lines in the sand rather than getting people coverage so they can see a doctor.

Need to find a Progressive who will not be afraid to piss off the Prez and Blue Dogs.

I think he was crackin’ on me. But, you’re the one calling all the names.

Why are you angry at people on this site for wanting and demanding what this man promised? Why is it poster’s at FDL, who are to blame, for this president being a complete failure with either no spine, OR he is more corrupt than Bush was, and that would be some kind of record. No, you need to realize, this president gave great speeches, rallied the troops, then shit on them after he was elected, while people like you continue to make excuse after excuse after excuse. Reading all your posts you have an excuse for every single failure. Is that you Rahm?

Hamsher lemmings are still pissed about losing to Obama

Careful you are showing your inner troll. You aren’t going to persuade anyone here. Even among those of us who disagree around here you are too lightweight. All spit and no argument. So what do you expect to accomplish beside wasting our time.

Have you started you Hamsher Party yet? Go join the Socialist Party, comrade. They march and bitch about being oppressed by corporations and how Obama is a fascist. You’d like it. All of you should try it.

Thank you.

If you’re cynical and you know it don’t be.
That is precisely what the opposition wants.

Dude, but John Edwards said all of the right words. That’s all that matters. Forget trying to accomplish anything. Just words will cure the sick. It will work, it has to work.

Trollism, period.

True, but my Schoolhouse Rock crack — which you utterly missed — was at least worth a chuckle.

“getting people coverage so they can see a doctor”

You mean, “getting people mandates so they can see a bankruptcy lawyer”, right?

Sorry, not everything makes it through the parrot translator in my head.

Quite obvious this is no progressive, or leftist, or the anger sure as heck wouldn’t be spurred at FDL.

Cerberus …. makes sense

Cerberus, (pronounced /ˈsər-b(ə-)rəs/[1]; Greek form: Κέρβερος, pronounced [ˈkerberos][2]) in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed hound (usually three-headed[1][3][4]) which guards the gates of Hades, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping. Cerberus featured in many works of ancient Greek and Roman literature and in works of both ancient and modern art and architecture, although, the depiction and background surrounding Cerberus often differed across various works by different authors of the era. The most notable difference is the number of its heads: Most sources describe or depict three heads; others show it with two or even just one; a smaller number of sources show a variable amount, sometimes as many as 50. (wiki)

Товарищ! Пойте Internationale гордо!

“You mean, “getting people mandates so they can see a bankruptcy lawyer”, right?”
____

LOL.

Precisely.

You’re killin’ me…LOL.

Hi Eli, If you are still checking in and if the name calling isn’t too crazy, and if Plouffe is interested in what is going on here, I would be interested in how we can help to change the game.

I am not too optimistic, but I don’t give up and still want to live with some hope, however slim it may be.

We are here, we want change.

When I was a young lad, I rescued a young opossum from a garbage can, in which he had become trapped.

I fed him and took him out into the woods to let him go.

In his gratitude he bit me.

Well, actually he bit me on (to be precise, through) the thumb of my right hand.

Unfortunately he panicked, and forgot to let go.

As my consternation swiftly swelled, reaching a spontaneous “OUCHHHHHHHH” my resolve, such as it was, deflated at the same speed …

What to do?

I now know that virtue is its own reward, but, to be honest, that was not going through my mind at that moment.

I thought about sweetly asking that I be unfanged, for a nano-second, perhaps … and then, forgive me, I punched him in the nose.

That tactic did not succeed.

In fact, it made the “situation” more … um fraught.

So, in desperation (mine, not his) I grabbed him by the back of the skull and pulled him off my hand …

I fear we shall ultimately do something of the sort with our epiphitics, the difference being that they have us by the throat.

Why squander our rescources on opossums and deranged beasties?

Please do not feed the trolls…..

Like O. said to that Rep. from MICH who fathered the single payer bill, when that person was pissed off about all the b.s. surrounding health care:
“Maybe you want to come to the White House and have a chat.”
That’s how Obama handles head on conflict about everything and it is really riling a lot of people.

*g*

You’re right. It’s not like Obama is trying to do anything progressive. He only is trying to fix our health care system that shuts out millions. He’s pushing for a consumer protection agency, cap and trade, we will get to immigration reform and then there’s so much we could do about our dismal education system.

But you’re right guy on the internet who bitches about stuff. Obama is a total loser. He’s the first self made, black president, born to a single mother, Harvard educated loser.

Obama is having trouble because the left is full of condescending, spoiled brats like you who get week knees the first sight of anything that doesn’t pass your litmus test.

Come 2011 Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader McConnell will be appreciating your lack of balls.

He seems to be more and more, the guy Rethuglicans wanna sit around and talk to. As opposed to Bush, who they just wanted to have a beer with.

Saints Win

I think the next step is going to be putting pressure on the House progressives who promised not to vote for a bill without a public option. Because they seem to be getting wobbly.

Silver lining in all this: We won’t be hearing any more nonsense about political jujitsu, rope-a-dope or 3 dimensional chess.

“Why squander our rescources on opossums and deranged beasties?”
___

Boyz just wanna have fun.

NFC championship game was pretty good this year.

Come 2011 and 2012, if that is the case, then the people who were elected to do their jobs AND DIDN’T will be the ones responsible. You make about as much sense as people that blame Nader because Gore just..well..his campaign sucked! Live in your nice little fantasyland, and good luck with that forced insurance on people that have no money to buy it.

My anger is at the left. The left dithered about health care and bitched and complained because everyone didn’t agree with our agenda.

Have fun with Republicans running the House and Senate.

“It’s not like Obama is trying to do anything progressive. He only is trying to fix our health care system that shuts out millions.”
___

Via abdication of leadership. How inspiring.

So now McCain is suggesting he’ll vote against Bernanke (today on Sunday Talk TV).. Obviously McCain is scared to death of losing his senate seat so he may as well jump on the populist bandwagon and at the same time vote opposite the Prez on the issue.

I wish.

Trollism, period.

Yes, the typical troll throws out point after point. Each is rebutted in turn. Then they start repeating their points all over again Or as here they start getting all nasty and accusatory. It’s all just to hijack threads and garner attention because they really don’t have any argument or evidence just a hodgepode of talking points.

“week knees”
___

OK.

There’s subsidies to buy it if you can’t. At least pretend to know what you’re talking about.

82% of Americans have health insurance. There has to be a mandate unless you want premiums to skyrocket.

Jane Hamsher leader of the minority within a minority. LOL!

OK, go Saints! I was conflicted. The Favre story was good, but the Saints – Colts Superbowl will be pretty dramatic.

Nice try at changing the subject.

Now, you show me how moderates and centrists are going to keep pushing America in the progressive direction, starting off with examples of how they have ever pushed America in the progressive direction.

Then, I’ll explain to you that the Democratic Party agenda, based on it’s actions, is not my agenda and I am not going to sacrifice my principles to support the Democrats based on the bogieman argument.

And by the way, do you really believe you can persuade anyone to your point of view by belittling them? Of course my question assumes your intent was ever to change anyone’s mind.

you just ignored my counterpoint. If this insurance reform is better than nothing, how are all these unemployed (who are the ones without insurance by the way) going to be covered? A magic wand? I know, I’ve heard the claptrap about government helping at X income, but everyone knows that is not going to work. Here’s your choice. You have no job, a family, and you can either pay the mortgage and eat, or have MANDATED health insurance. Whatcha gonna do? Be insured but homeless?

Interesting radio gossip today on the MA election and how the police union supported Brown over Coakley whose hubby is on the force. The comment was made that the police over there were also pissed off that Obama called the cops stupid after they arrested Professor Gates.. who was later invited to the White House for a beer with O and the arresting cop.

Oh please explain that one, will you? People have to be mandated to buy insurance, or the premiums will go up? How does that work? So if I don’t buy car insurance, does your’s go up?

Will Brown be invited to the White House for a brewskie?

Keep hope alive, brother.

It’s a waste of time and bandwidth.

So you insult us and you expect us to support you.
Great plan.
Like cutting suspension-bridge cables while you cross it.

It’s always so successful.

Let it not devolve into cruelty or abuse, vb.

Someday you’ll regret it, if you do.

Be kind to those less well-endowed with usable gray matter, else you may diminish yer own.

It would not surprise me rach. This administration has one thing that it is very well at doing and that is p*ssing people off with their flippant remarks and arrogance. Someone compared Gibbs to Dana Perino, and after listening to him I agree. They speak before they think it seems, or really don’t care.

*sigh*…I was actually hoping this poster had a response that would convince me! Instead it’s nothing but a circlejerk of excuses and subject changing.

McCain would change his party designation just like Lieberwhore if he thought it would get him re-elected. What’s best for his constituents and the country at large, don’t factor in at all.

It’s too much.
It can’t be just incompetence.
He can’t be that clueless.

Our president simply must be on the take.

Please do not conflate objectively rebuttal snark with “cruelty or abuse,” OK? I don’t start the name-calling shit, but neither will I back down. At some point it just becomes funny. Laughs are good.

Apparently he can only be presidential when it comes to getting Bernanke reconfirmed and getting rid of drug reimportation. When he wants to insert himself, he does, and it’s no holds barred. He just doesn’t care enough about this, probably doesn’t know what course is politically safest, so he isn’t doing anything about it.

Eli at 244, OK, will talk with my rep who did not take pledge but knows what’s what. See what we can do here.

Someone compared Gibbs to Dana Perino, and after listening to him

Gibbs seems just incredibly uninformed. He may not be doing his job or the Administration may be shutting him out or more likely it almost never has a well formed policy he can actually cite.

Awesome! Thanks.

If you feel such activity is of value, then, by all means, shower the finest of your intellectual “grasp” on those who appreciate it not, but do not suppose it impressive to any but yourself.

You are merely taunting and toying with words.

But, if that be your heart’s desire, and brings you joy or pleasure of a sort, then have at it, vb.

DW

It takes two to tango. Corporate lobbyists can’t do anything unless Congressmen give their votes to the corporate lobbyists. What specific members of Congress were bought by the Hospitals and PhRMA so that way we know to vote them out of office and ease your concern?

Whatever. Who made you Ethical Hall Monitor?

‘night.

Good night, vb, pleasant dreams.

DW

OFA opened an office here this weekend, but I had family emerg. and could not attend. I can’t give up hope or would die. This was a brutal week, we have to keep working.

Thank you for being here.

My pleasure. Besides, where else am I gonna go?

But according to you Presidents can’t accomplish anything because they are just scribes. You can’t have it both ways.

Well then, everything has worked out fine, ‘cuz we’re all glad you are here and don’t (apparently) hanker to go away.

Eli, your threads are always a pleasure.

And also, damned excellent.

Thank you.

DB

So you think Obama giving all his political capital to Baucus was a smooth move then?

He is inexperienced. His entire political career has been spent voting ‘present.’ Progressives are going to have to experience the stages of grief before they can accept that this man was never a leader, merely a political celebrity. Obama called himself a blank screen and when people tell you who they are, we should believe them.

agree!

blank screen, exactly his own quote in his book.. frighteningly foreboding.
If I remember correctly the NY Times had a magazine spread either before the election or shortly after, where they posed the prospects for O’s presidency based on his senatorial voting and positions.

OK, I just sent some stuff and hope it will get to where it counts. Thank you again, I have been so under it this week, but I climb up and try to make a difference.

I thought that Brown challenged Obama to a basketball matchup first.

Thanks, DWB! Much appreciated.

Wake up. You’re dreaming.

Woe is me, woe is me! The health care “bill” is a putrid insult to the People, a gift to the already bloated/evil avaricious insurance companies and a vicious screwing to everyone else, but the worst thing about it IS…Obama’s gonna set back an’ not crack the whip to get this dog passed!! An’ that we might LOSE this awesome preznit thereby!

WOE.

Oh please pass this health “care” and save the Obama presidency, pray God please! It’s all I live for.

Communication is NOT the problem. Actions speak louder than words.

The President SHOULD give a nudge—-toward officially changing the US Constitution. You wonder why a group (Congress) can’t get above the 35% approval mark? Well read Sen Brown’s comments and look at what he’s saying: Congress is hopelessly disfunctional and lacks ANY Leadership within it’s own respective body (house or senate)…Since that’s obviously the case, let’s go ahead and change our system of gov’t. I suggest Sen Brown (or Anthony Weiner) introduce the “we’re lacking Leadership and we’re incapable of doing our jobs” bill. FORGET the fact that congress is given the responsibility to “write the laws”. It’s clear that the can’t. Let’s have an “independent commission” to tell them what to do on: Energy, Healthcare, Immigration, etc. If Brown’s not up to introducing THAT bill, how about someone give Congress a nudge to just buck up and do your jobs?!

Keeping the oxygen levels low in the White House press room

In this adminstration’s rhetoric only zone, Gibbs’ job is to deflect and refract any efforts to pin them down in the leap between they say and what they do.

Anoxia is a pretty effective tactic.

I’ve never called a troll a name, but this troll is just stupid.

White House Decides to Outsource NASA Work

“The White House has decided to begin funding private companies to carry NASA astronauts into space, but the proposal faces major political and budget hurdles, according to people familiar with the matter.

The controversial proposal, expected to be included in the Obama administration’s next budget, would open a new chapter in the U.S. space program. The goal is to set up a multiyear, multi-billion-dollar initiative allowing private firms, including some start-ups, to compete to build and operate spacecraft capable of ferrying U.S. astronauts into orbit—and eventually deeper into the solar system.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704375604575023530543103488.html?mod=rss_US_News

This is in support of an ideology that has always been antithetical to Democrat governance. This is a choice Obama is making, nobody is forcing him. Even Bush wouldn’t have dared go there.

@232

Cerberus-the three faces of Evil.

“The idea of outsourcing a portion of NASA’s manned space program to the private sector gained momentum after recommendations from a presidential panel appointed last year. The panel, chaired by former Lockheed Martin Corp. Chairman Norman Augustine, argued that allowing companies to build and launch their own rockets and spacecraft to carry American astronauts into orbit would save money and also free up NASA to focus on more ambitious, longer-term goals.”

America sold to the highest bidder, how Republican like, bipartisanship in full blooming glory. Fuck Obama and the Dems!!!

From an earlier posting: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/400

Among the Madoff feeder-funds, closest attention has focused on Ascot Partners. But, J. Ezra Merkin also operates a hedge firm, Gabriel Capital, which partnered with Cerberus in the takeover of the distressed U.S. auto industry and made a big move into the defense sector during the Bush years.
The partnership left companies in both sectors worse off for their attentions, but made these hedge funds owners hundreds of millions richer. Money lost in operating failing companies have been made up by lucrative government contracts and bailouts, a not entirely unexpected bonus.
The new TARP loans now being sought are in addition to the $13.4 billion the US Treasury lent earlier to Merkin’s GM, and Fineberg’s Chrysler. In 2006, GM sold 51 percent of Merkin’s GMAC to Feinberg’s private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP (which also owns Chrysler).
In May 2004, Feinberg’s private equity group, Cerberus Capital Management, LP (Cerebrus is the three-headed dog that guards Hades), became majority owner of IAP Worldwide Services, Inc, one of the US Army’s largest contractors in Iraq. IAP was at the center of the Walter Reed Army medical center privatization scandal. For the sordid details of this fetid corner of pirate capitalism, see, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/10/21 …

NOTE: J.Ezra Merkin was head of GMAC-and Merkin was one of Madoff’s biggest clients.

Jane Hamsher a voice of facts growing demands of Truth and Honor.Good for The People Of The United States Of America.Thank you Jane the talking heads could learn I hope you can keep it up.

.

the http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/10/21 …link takes me to the splash page. Would you please make an adjustment, would like to read it.
Thanks

Obama with the Hi IQ self made growing up in the house of a bank manager.Havard educated.Fails in the common Intelegance of honesty,honor,trustworthy and loyalty to the people.

It’s the APATHY, stupid!

Does anybody in the White House realize that 13 million strong Obama supporters in OFA no longer have a reason to vote if they don’t have any hope of something changing. We are tired of waiting for Godot, I mean Congress, to realize Obama isn’t going to do anything for us.

The Democrat Incumbents can loss a lot of seats without the for The People Progressives.

@#303

What killed the auto industry? – Democratic Underground9 posts – 8 authors – Last post: Dec 14, 2009
Among the Madoff feeder-funds, closest attention has focused on Ascot Partners. But, J. Ezra Merkin also operates a hedge firm, …
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all...

He’s a lousy president if you can even call him that. Seems more like a greeter at wallmart, but at the whitehouse.

Feh.

Why does the far left and far right fail at basic civics?

Why does the craven Obamabots and doe-eyed Kossacks fail at basic grammar?