Robert Redford’s the guest for the hour (after headlines) on democracynow.

Thanks BT.

IMHO, this chart of the 35% growth in Health Care Select Sector SPDR since October confirms everything FDL has been saying about the feudalism built into the Senate version.

Anyone have a link to one of those work sheets that help the serfs poor and the middle class figure out how much they will be paying for shitty insurance?

TIA.

Not quite on topic so I’ll apologize upfront because I like the conclusions.

It’s Not Rahm’s Fault. It’s Obama’s Fault.

If this is Clinton 2.0 are we looking at our David Gergan moment this week? Maybe they will bring on McCain or Lieberman as policy advisor. Palin is probably an outside shot since she tends to up and quit so often.

Can we call FDL a religion, form a non-profit cooperative, and opt out of the government plan like the Amish? For the record, the Amish do not attend school beyond eighth grade. If they are able to figure out how to take care of their health care needs without subsidizing the big insurers, how come no one else can?

Link – http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/16/health-care-mandate-applies-amish/

Get tougher. Attack. Blame Bush more. Beef up political staff. Retool message.

These are all just words. And words we have all heard before.

Jobs. We need to get Americans working. We need to give incentives across the private sector to grow business and hire new workers. This administration is assaulting and demonizing the business community for political gain. It’s not working. The private sector is paralyzed with fear, waiting for a barrage of taxes, fees and regulations to which they will have to adapt. But the policies coming out of Washington are slow to come and what we have seen is interpreted as either painfully expensive or woefully vague. 77% of U.S. investors see Obama as anti-business. Many more see the corrupt ‘cronie capitalism’ in which this administration has been brazenly engaged and they are outraged.

Doubling down on bad policies that the American voters have had plenty of time to examine, digest and reject is bad politics, poor leadership. To get angry at the electorate for rejecting Obama’s policies, a man who so captured our political esteem, will not restore that regard. It will harden opposition to and distrust in the establishment in Washington.

Obama needs to tell the American people, “It’s not you it’s me.” Then he must become the ‘change’ he wants to see. But that will not happen. The blank screen IS, blank.

Mornin’, BT, pups

A Senatorial deficit panel? Hell, just cutting the Pentagon’s budget in half would be a good start. We doan need no steenking panel for dat.

For the past week , we have been raising money for ShelterBox at Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix …….. We are now working on buying our 3rd box , any help from the Lake would be greatly appreciated.

Trail Mixers for Haiti

But, but, but… That would mean we’re soft on terra… [snarl]

Political roundtable on Morning Joe interesting discussion this morning with Matt Bai about his NYT Magazine article. Also references MoJo’s Newsweek article.

Jon Meacham trying to sound relevant. Not making it.

Going to read those pieces now…

Happy Monday, pups.

The idea of a bipartisan commission on budgeting is ludicrous. We already have one: it’s called Congress.

We send representatives to Washington to make those decisions in the open, not in some smoke-filled backroom that allows Congress to escape accountability.

Democrats desperately want the bipartisan commission to provide cover for the tax hikes they need to pay for their expensive, expansive legislative agenda.

No, the WH should not have toughened their talk six months ago. obama should have governed as he said he would during the campaign. jarrett says that “the people are sick and tired of Washington not delivering…,” means that we are supposed to look for some nameless, faceless Washington (she hopes we see repug as the villain). I see the WH as not delivering, specifically obama from day one. I don’t want to hear about “he’s only been in for a year, and it took the repugs eight years, etc.” In that one year he has done nothing on major legislation to lead the nation. obama’s team should ALL be out on their collective ear. obamarahma’s actions in the case of the HCR fiasco is emblematic of his uselessness.

Krugman is fast losing me as thinking that he has a good handle on what he is talking about. His switch from opposition to support of an HCR that is essentially worthless (no point in reworking the obvious) makes me wonder what special deal was given to him. His less than tepid defense of bernanke was better left unwritten. He really should simply say that he is too close to the subject to fairly comment.

The piece is flawed and comes to the defense of three people I would not have around me as a leader.

It’s unfortunate that Krugman is probably right about Bernanke and the Fed board. Packed with monetarists their biggest concern is inflation. The sticking point is that the inflation is in the prices of the goods be buy, particularly food. Not a damn thing the Fed can do about that. Raising interest rates won’t make the price of collard greens go down.

Jobs. Yeah, we need jobs. Where are we gonna find them? With half a million being laid off each month those jobs are never coming back. Every business in town, and I’m not talkin’ about retail stores, is making more money with fewer employees to eat up those profits. Making green/renewal energy components is not going to put all these folks to work, nor will building roads, bridges, etc. That may work in the short term but jobs that provide a lifetime of income are gonna be increasingly hard to come by.

But what do you do with all of those newly unemployed mercs from friendly businesses like Xe? All that talent and experience and high unemployment back home.

Every time Congress gives away part of it’s constitutionally mandated powers we all suffer and the oversight panel will be no exception. Great way to make some lobbyist cash though. Get on the panel and the money that Frank or Bachus bring in might look like chump change.

Hell, just cutting the Pentagon’s budget in half would be a good start. We doan need no steenking panel for dat.

I wonder if any vets would complain about their benefits being cut in half?

Not sure about major flaws. I don’t care for the three and Klaus certainly doesn’t seem to either. The three people you wouldn’t allow around were hired to do their job and their boss could tell them to go any time is suits him.

Right-to-work and all that.

People coming out of the military, and mercs, don’t have a lot of marketable skills. It was impossible to find a civilian job where an extensive knowledge of heavy weapons was required. Not a lot of employers lookin’ for a dude who can field strip and reassemble a .50 cal machine gun blindfolded.

Benefits come from VA, which is not part of DOD.

If eCAHN comes back, I left a link to the d’oh being added to the Merriam Webster dictionary at the bottom of the last thread.

I heard it’s easier to get a job if you know how to field dress a moose.
Good Morning, Dragon. That was some post you hosted yesterday.

obama’s move to help estabish and support a “bipartisan commission” on debit reduction in the face of KNOWING that there is no “bipartisan” desire on the part of the majority of voters is simply more evidence of his corporatism. The repugs did not get elected in ’08, the dims did. There is ample evidence to show that the repug policies were not desired by the electorate, but obama is running to the repugs for support. He is not getting it overtly, but maybe he has a backroom deal in this case, as he has in so many other cases. The “commission” is really just a sneaky was to get into gut Medicare and Social Security. The repugs couldn’t do it, so they have hired a dim to do their dirty work, and he is happily going about it is almost every case.

Krugman is becoming a major disappointment. His argument for approving Bernanke is we don’t want more hearings and we can’t find a better appointment. Hmmm, what an inspiring justification.

That was fun. Didn’t get a damn thing accomplished yesterday.

Is that the part you would identify as waste and cut?

Yes, when will the conversation shift from “Bipartisanship” to something like: “National Will” to recover our national prosperity? Who, other than Obama, gives a fuck about bipartisanship, really? Not the voters, not the Rethugs, no one!

Why does Obama want to loose so badly?

Other than facilitating a great thread. And, hanging out guilt free with your tigers. People really enjoy the non-violent posts, imo.

New post up top…

Agreed.

Dr Dick lost his 20 year old kitty yesterday.

Yep. And it also applies to non-combat positions. The USAF failed to tell the airplane and avionics mechanics that their active duty experience did not include getting commercial licenses necessary to use the experience gained. Or folks like me who worked in accounting and finance who discover that we have great experience in systems that have nothing in common with everyday accounting positions.

Join the military! See the world! Gain all sorts of useless job experience!

Yeah, arguing the benefits of different cat foods is different from discussions about politics and wars.

Damn, what thread did you see that on?

I saw that. Sad, yet 20 years is long for a cat, isn’t it? Blessing on the Good Doc. He’s still young, after his grief subsides a little, maybe he’ll find a new friend.

Indeed. Maybe we should collaborate some Saturday and have a cat food recipe thread…kidding.

The thing that worked for me was I knew how to type. Learned that in high school, not the Navy.

I think it was Teddy’s, last night.

15-16 is the average lifespan but tigers kept indoors statistically live longer. 20+ is not unusual anymore. Missy was 22 and Min was 19.

Thanks. I’ll look that up. Headlining with the loss of another furry friend isn’t my favourite thing but…

His facebook

There was a part time high school girl working at the gym this summer. I caught her two finger typing on facebook and asked her when she was going to learn to type with 10 fingers. She said never. I asked her how she was going to write reports when she gets to college. I got the deer in headlights response. ‘Nuff said, I guess.

xlv (health care stocks) price differed little from the stock market as a whole since October and has lagged the market since the low last March. Graph suggests they were a little concerned early on (Apr-May) that a little reform might get through.

Go to: http://finance.yahoo.com

Enter xlv in the ‘get quote’ box, click on ’1 year’ under the graph, click on the compare box, click S&P 500 box

I remember how devastating it was when Min passed over the Bridge. Dick’s got to be tore up.

He’s on your FB.

Thanks.

21 1/2 years

Yes, on Teddy’s, last night.

Good morning, all.

Regarding Bernanke, isn’t it odd that our universe offers such a paucity of choice?

Cinderella hours, pixie dust, and magical thinking …

And always, we never have any real choices, just the crisis of the day, which impells us to … make hasty, and often (deliberately) ill-considered choices.

What a fine kabuki.

DW

We understand it better, by and by.

A truly venerable soul.

Did you check where the Veterans Benefits and the Pentagon’s budget mesh.Not sure there the same.

One of my wife’s uncles worked in journalism after the war until he retired at 65. Always typed with two fingers.

I still have a hard time with Min and Yang.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Irak: 4,374

US KIA Afghanistan: 973

Iraki and Afghan casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M

US MBS 2010: 2,976 and rising

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Especially good resources this morning, bluetexan. very interesting insight as to how mobs form..

Thank you. I try to read your posts every am.

karen

Oh, man. That’s rough.

I guess that shows us the importance of keeping the eyes on the prize and looking at bigger pictures. I try not to buy into the crisis of the day. I agree with you about what influences ill-considered choices.
Holding our breath and also hyper-ventilating interferes with the brain functions. Si?

Excellent diagnosis, demi

(Take yer time, breathe deeply, relax and “be happy” …)

DW

Feurae has turned out to be quite the prize. Has to be something about the name. *g*

Much appreciated.

My daddy always said Debbie, you gotta have faith. ‘Course he was a naturally worrisome guy too. Especially when it came to his kids.

Geithner just announced that Ben Bernanke MUST be reappointed to the Fed or else! The blackmail continues.

This a very cynical and pessimistic attitude not shared by the millions of creative, ambitious entrepreneurs and small business owners in this economy. All these people need are policies enacted to actually support and give them incentives to aggressively pursue those ambitions.

These are the INDEPENDENT voters who swung the election to Obama and the Democrats.

These job creators are positioned smack dab in the ‘middle class’. That vast political frontier that abhors collectivism and prizes individuality. Its upper reaches include the entrepreneurs and small business owners that bring economic vitality. Virtually every aspect of Obama’s agenda is designed to injure or burden small businessmen, and this is no accident. Despite their angry rhetoric about giant corporations, this administration has little trouble controlling them. Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Goldman Sachs, AIG, GM, GE, the AMA, have all jumped on the bandwagon to support the Obama agenda. Be it through bribery, extortion and protection, makes no difference, they have all stepped in line.

Giant corporations often do business directly with the government, as vendors… and, through lobbyists, as customers. They generally employ members of labor unions, which serve as a de facto arm of Big Government, injecting the agenda of the State directly into the corporate bloodstream.

Members of the lower class, clients of the government. The lower class and those who advocate for them, keep the lower class convinced that government is the only moral actor in the economy.

It’s the INDEPENDENTS, the small business owners and self-employed, along with those who aspire to join their ranks, who are the most difficult to control, and the most likely to muster effective electoral resistance to the statist agenda. The middle class is filled with people who pay attention to the second page of their paycheck stubs and they are REJECTING Obama’s agenda.

Now, we all know that you cannot please all of the people all of the time. It is clear that Obama has chosen to please both the upper and lower classes, and now the middle class is beginning to revolt.

and we know what your solution is. Tax cuts and eliminate the unions and the U.S. will be a middle class utopia.

Graph suggests they were a little concerned early on (Apr-May) that a little reform might get through.

Appreciate you making my original point better than I did.

Since they were concerned (down) in April and May that a little reform might get through, according to your analysis, they should have headed further south after October.

Were you wrong in April – May or were you wrong from October – January?

Since Scott Brown won, they are down, because they are concerned the Senate version/feudalism might not pass.

Health insurance cartel has a terrific business plan; socialize losses, privatize profits. They skim the cream of the premiums from people who don’t need health care (young) and keep it. They have already legislated everyone else onto the backs of the taxpayers via Medicare and Medicaid.

This a very cynical and pessimistic attitude

Cynicism is accepting the status quo, thinking nothing will be done about it. I’m not a cynic.

It’s not policies we need, it’s a rebuilding of our manufacturing base we need. An economy based solely on the financial sector cannot survive.

The entrepreneurs of the country don’t need policies, they need folks to be able to purchase their product. Folks other than the government.

We know Obama defends the rich. What exactly has he done for the poor?

He keeps them the benefactor of government largess and convinces them that the government is the only moral authority in our economy.

So, can you give me examples of how Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase et al have functioned as a “moral authority in our economy?”

Well, that’s one way to twist the real operation of keeping more than one third of the country in poverty. Opps, I forgot, your just here to spew right wing and talking points and call them independent.

Opps, I’m feeding trolls again. Slap Slap. I’ll try to be better.

Policies that encourage manufacturers to create, grow and expand their businesses is an anathema to the coalition that Obama has created. Big corporations have no desire to encourage competition. The power of the State can be extremely valuable to corporations, for manipulating markets and thwarting upstart competitors.

Obama does NOT want folks to be able to have the economic freedom to choose how and where they spend their money. Tax cuts for business who subsidize favored ‘green’ industries, supporting ‘green jobs’ and creating profits for favored firms of the administration is what we are treated to. Tax cuts that provide the fullest amount of economic freedom to producers and consumers will never be supported by this administration. Just look at the failure of the ‘stimulus’ bill. This money, our money did not go to the private sector. It went to the state governments who then, instead of cutting spending, used the money to fill it’s budget gaps, sending our hard-earned dollars into the black hole of ‘government spending.’

What do you think would have happened to our money if we all got some of it back? I’ll tell you what. It would have been used to buy things, create things, produce jobs and (gasp) profits for those with the ingenuity, discipline and ambition to work hard for themselves.

He has helped some, but not enough to this point.

Here is what some of our political opponents on the right think. Last Friday the Lt. Governor of SC said:

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/politics/story/1199662.html

It would have been used to buy things

Ah yes, the vaunted trickle-down consumer society. Buying things made from China after all the jobs are exported there.

Yeah, that’ll work

They have not. The GOVERNMENT seeks to assume moral authority over the economy while it bails out firms that the free market would have seen collapse under the wait of their own greed and incompetence. Recipients of bailout $$ fall into to 2 categories: those who are favored (Goldman) and those who are demonized (BOA). Either way these huge corporation are in existence today because of the government.

Supporting the trickle-down government subsidized society has not created jobs. Billions wasted and still no jobs, only ephemeral, vacuous ‘jobs saved’. Jobs that IN FACT would be the last jobs to be cut from any state budget but that are always trotted out as the jobs that are most endangered.

So given your last two replies, I will repeat the question asked by real world, how has Obama helped the “lower class” in all of this?

You make some good points, but you hurt your credibility somewhat when you mix in ‘let’s blame those poor folks for not being rich and living on the dole’ and claiming the government safety net is the problem.

IMNSVHO

Thats a problem.In your world you know what Indie would do.You only know yourself.Close the mind and repeat.

The poor in this country are for the most part convinced that the evil corporations and the entire private sector offer them very little economic opportunity WITHOUT the government there to advocate for them or provide for them. A middle class utopia is the enemy of the collectivist, statist agenda.

Given the corporations that have knowingly polluted the environment, continually fight global warming measures, take jobs to other countries, avoid taxes by setting up shell corporations in the Caymans and other off-shore hide-aways, created housing and energy bubbles (Enron anyone?) is there any reason to NOT believe:

that the evil corporations and the entire private sector offer them very little economic opportunity WITHOUT the government there to advocate for them or provide for them.

You seem to be blaming the poor for having a reality based perspective on the world today, but doing so by claiming it’s all the governments fault for making them believe this.

St Ronnie and the ghost of Ayn Rand would be so very proud of you.

This is where absolutism does little to advance your argument.

Who advances the notion that the ENTIRE capitalist system and private sector are against the poor? Who benefits from this idea? Surely NOT the poor, otherwise poverty would have been obliterated by the effectiveness and absolute virtue of the benevolent government.

Take for example, the Head Start program. After collecting data on more than 5,000 three and four-year-old children randomly assigned to either a Head Start or a non Head Start control group, the Department of Health and Human Services found ‘few sustained benefits’. Yet we continue to advance the idea that without this government program, poor children would be worse off.

And now we learn, “As part of the stimulus program, Congress gave the Energy Department’s Weatherization Assistance Program a big funding boost. The program, which fixes up homes for low-income people and usually has a budget of around $200 million a year, got a $5 billion injection.

Yet a year later, just $441 million has been spent, raising questions as to just how effective the program is at stimulating the economy…

Her optimism echoed that of state officials, who were chided recently in the Dallas Morning News for having weatherized just seven homes in the whole state of Texas as recently as last month.

Now that number is up to 49, said Gordon Anderson, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Action.

Sorry if you are so ideologically blinded that you cannot see the virtue and validity in much of what Reagan or Rand espoused. I am not so rigid or absolute in my thinking. Government should exist to keep the private sector from exploiting it’s citizens with effective regulation, but when the government is in bed with big business, and the exploiters are propped up, and kept in existence by the government itself, how are free individuals of any economic class benefiting from the government’s actions?

And the center Democrats and the center Republicans give the thumbs up to corporations.While fighting for the lobbiest dollar and walking on the people.Telling you what sounds good but never deliver.Or the price is to hi. Ragan’s deregulatetion,1st Bush’s New World Order,Clinton’s Nafta for jobs,more deregulation,Bush’s deregulation,I’m a war president.Obama same pattern for the corporations.We need soneone For The People.

Take for example, the Head Start program. After collecting data on more than 5,000 three and four-year-old children randomly assigned to either a Head Start or a non Head Start control group, the Department of Health and Human Services found ‘few sustained benefits’.

The Head Start gains are not sustainable because the children are placed in schools without the funding and initiatives necessary to maintain and build on the initial progress.

For a fact, I do wish that all the Rand acolytes would just go ahead and “go galt” and see just how long you can sustain your life.

No. The people are their own best advocates. Not all business is evil. Our federal government is too big, too corrupt and too wasteful. We would see less corporations deemed ‘too big too fail’, fewer bailouts, less lobbying, and more efficient government programs if we limited the size and scope of the power of the federal government.

Here are the links to the article re: head start and the weatherization programs.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/24/news/economy/stimulus_weatherization/
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hs/impact_study/reports/impact_study/executive_summary_final.pdf

Yes, if we would only throw even more money at the problem and expand the role of government in our educational system. What the hell have we been doing for well…my ENTIRE lifetime. Spare me. Where is the choice and competition in education? Denied, discouraged by the federl government and the teacher’s unions.

As for going Galt…the Amish have done it for hundreds of years and they seemed to be held up by some here at FDL as excellent role models. They have figured out a way to remain free and economically viable with a MINIMUM of government control and intervention.

Be careful what you wish for…

A) So, you’d prefer to go back to the educational systems that included “separate but equal.” (You see, I AM old enough to know what was going on in the years prior to things like the federal government becoming involved in education.) I rather like the idea of public schools, having been educated in them for the first 8 grades and again for college. The only reason I went to a private military high school was because my English Teacher/Librarian mother was on staff there. Since I had and have public school teachers on both sides of my family through multiple generations, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on the efficacy of public schools (stated in anticipation of your call for a voucher program designed to destroy public schools in the name of “competition”)

B) I doubt very seriously that you are Amish and willing to do all the necessary physical labor that would be needed. And the Amish community as I understand it, does understand that all have to work together and rise together, not go off in a pout because they don’t like the collective decision making.

C) For someone who decries ‘painting with a broad brush’ you seem quite intent on painting with an even broader brush.

And center right and left has grown the goverment starting with Ragan and deregulatetion to the point of to big to fail.Carter was able to break up Ma Bell’s to big to fail monopoly.Now we bail them out without creating the first job that produces goods that we all use.

Oh please. I am advocating injecting parental choice and private sector competition into our flawed and failing public education system.

You know nothing of me and my work ethic. How dare you assume so.

Less government is better for everyone. Please note that I do not advocate the notion of NO government, just smaller, more responsible, accountable, transparent government. I thought that was what Obama was about. My eyes have been opened. I see all too clearly who he is and who he seeks to support and enrich and those he seeks to depress and control.

I do not buy this line of thinking. The growth of the federal government and the consolidation of power in DC has lead to more problems, more corruption among both political parties. The only way to break up the monopoly of power between Wall Street and Washington is to reduce is size and sphere of the federal government’s influence. Bush grew and expanded government with the support of Democrats in Congress. Obama has eclipsed the spending and deficits beyond our comprehension.

I am not a Bush/GOP apologist nor am I an Obama/Dem acolyte. I am independent and libertarian in my thinking and I can see how the federal government is too big, and more of a problem than the private sector.

Some of your thoughts make sense. The gratuitous attacks on other commenters, not so much. You might want to consider substituting oligopolies for large corporations. It connotes the lack of competition in established markets.

Government, aka, the regulator, needs to be bigger and stronger than the industries it regulates.

That doesn’t mean all government institutions have to be big. It strongly suggests, however, that some, DOJ, Patents and copyright, Anti-Trust, FDA, EPA, SEC,….. have to be really robust, REALLY TRANSPARENT, and really cutting edge.

One way to accomplish that is to enforce TBTF in such a way as it does not cripple our ability to compete with international cartels.

The growth of Goverment consolidation of power for the masters of the lobbiest And the deregulatetion was the removal of a lot of good rules.Play a ball game without rules based on fairness and greed will take advanage.

You know nothing of me and my work ethic. How dare you assume so.

You mean like how you presumed to know my thoughts based on some comments on a blog?

And as for this:

… parental choice and private sector competition into our flawed and failing public education system.

It is a veiled attack on public schools, no matter how you spin it. Are you going to subsidize ALL children to go to private schools? So much for hating “big government.” How do you intend to pay for it?

How about instead, parents get more actively involved with their local school districts, active in PTA and so forth. There are already mechanisms in place for parental voices and choices to be made.

Look. I think we probably share concerns and perspectives on a lot of issues. But it has been my experience that many folks who espouse libertarian thinking manage to pick and choose just where they want the liberty while also being actively willing to disallow others that same liberty on other topics. Randian philosophy offers very little other than a (to my eyes and thinking) sophomoric desire to take their marbles and go home if things aren’t as the Randians think they should be.

Does government at all levels have inefficiencies? Of course it does. But your remedies would destroy the good aspects of government in desires to create a non-existent utopian world. FWIW, you would probably enjoy the writings of Robert Heinlein, who also seemed unable to accept the good things government can do.

…..But it has been my experience that many folks who espouse libertarian thinking manage to pick and choose just where they want the liberty while also being actively willing to disallow others that same liberty on other topics. Randian philosophy offers very little other than a (to my eyes and thinking) sophomoric desire to take their marbles and go home if things aren’t as the Randians think they should be……

Bullseye, thank you.

US Patent office is seriously underfunded. This helps oligopolies leverage their size against competitors with more efficient solutions.

Indie sounds a lot like Greenspan, pre 2008, all we need are counter parties.

If s/he is not a troll, they are just an ignorant mouthpiece, cheerleading for feudalism, a weak central goverment, which is controlled behind the scenes by the oligopolies.