Noticed that Gibbs was having a sore throat yesterday for the presser, guess it’s the effect of eating your own s…….shoes.

Legalizing marijuana is more popular than Congress or the President. Maybe they should take a few bong hits and think before they speak.

Thank you, Mr. Gibbs, for reaffirming just what the Obama administration thinks of progrssives.

Unfortutately I’ll be unable to vote in November because I’ll be busy smoking crack.

The informed analysis is that they undermine the democrat majorities in the midterms to maintain the excuse that they can’t do anything because “we don’t have the votes”. Gibbs is doing his job.

How deep a hole it must eat through the bottom of his soul to do it. Poor sad little man.

Jeez, professional left. That means gettin’ paid to do it and making the big bux, huh? Man, we should all quit our day jobs.

Fire that turkey Gibblets. I don’t even want to see his face any more.

This particular “professional dope smoking leftist” is no longer a registered Democrat thanks to the pricks in the WH. I have no interest in being associated with the “professional money grabbing hypocritical corporatists” and their drive to fuck the poor and give blow jobs to the rich.

Looks to me like a misreading of the professional left, as in all the professionals have left.

They can kiss my ENTIRE left-wing ass, and I still won’t vote for Obama Bushlight enablers and acolytes.

At least with Repubs we KNOW they’re gonna stick it in and break it off, so, like guy in the back of the cow costume when the bull looks interested, we can brace ourselves.

Yep, the doubling down on the strategy of taking the “We suck a little less than the Republicans” message out for a spin in November and guilting your former supporters is in full gear. The fact that it’s been demonstrably proven that it doesn’t even work in frigging Massachusetts is a bit of a problem, but oh well. Prepare for sunshine and roses.

Obama must be the unluckiest President ever. Right after Bush uses the power of the Presidency to run the country into the ditch over 8 years through Republican and Democratic Congresses, Obama comes into the Presidency to discover that the office has no power.

At this point, you have to assume that Obama would prefer a Republican Congress, because he’s not stupid enough to be doing this stuff by accident.

Of course if Gibbs comes out with this kind of idiocy in public it does make one wonder just what the private conversations are like in the WH. Do they really hate us this much for holding their feet to the fire?

Obama has been habitually moving to the back of the bus, and I am tired of it.

I am not too crazy to vote blindly for any democrat. Republicans and Democrats (with the exception of a few) are the same party with two names. I tend to vote for Independents when ever possible. Of course I am labeled to waste my vote in presidential elections. I suppose we are expected to vote for a winner. How could have I voted for Obama when during campaign he was making all kind of promises. It was so transparent that he was full of it. I wish people who volunteered for him should have done a better job in clarifying their expectations. According to two “senior” White house “intellectuals”, those volunteers and supports were/are “Retards” and “F.. Nuts” and should be treated as such. These nuts dont have any place to go. That is the bottom line. No place to go.

Good morning, pups. MoDo is solo today since The Moustache of Wisdom is off. Since it’s approaching back to school time she’s given us “Don’t Send In the Clones,” in which she says college students are refusing to be strangers in a strange land by using online scouting and matching services to pick their roommates. Valuable lessons will be missed with campuses full of replicant roomies.

Here she is.

The coffee and tea are ready, the cold drinks are in the fridge, and I’ve got blueberry pancakes this morning. I’ve reached the point where I just don’t give a crap any more, just like it’s obvious that the solons inside the Beltway don’t give a crap about people like me. Screw ‘em. Have a dandy day.

I’m almost looking forward to the Daryl Issa scandal du jour industrial complex.

It’s ironic that the “professional left” are precisely the ones who bought into Obama in the first place. The fact that they and the administration are at one another’s throats after less than two years of Obama demonstrates the incredible divisineness of the Obabacrats. In truth, Democrats have been leaving the party ever since Obama came on the scene.

The Corporate Way, a satyric rant.

Valuable lessons will be missed with campuses full of replicant roomies.

Sad, sad, sad. One wonders if it is a desire not to be disappointed or a fear of the unknown that makes them do this?

For a consensus builder he sure is an alienator.

My guess is fear of the unknown “other.” Which is sad.

Sad to think that entering freshmen are avoiding new experience, it was one of my goals back then.

attaturk, the real problem we have is we’ve let them talk about us as if we’re fringe, as if we’re the same as the republican base only on the other side of the spectrum

we are not fringe though, he insulted the majority not just the base and he re-defined the majority as fringe so to get a point across

he insulted progressives as if we are in the minority, and we allowed the redefinition as “base”

big mistake on our part

Gibbs has a soul to eat through? O_o

The majority of the country keep saying they want a national health program like Medicare to cover all Americans. Pretty big, that professional left…

that was my point too kall, the progressives are actually in the majority, we’re not “the base” we are not some small limb, we are the mind and the body

they have succesfully defined the mind and the body as some kind of limb

THAT is the problem, he has created a common villain with the republicans and in the same stroke created a theme the public will believe, that progressives are somehow a small faction

I wonder if he wants to be impeached? Because that will be their first priority. My guess is war crimes.

i would hazard a guess that gibbs’ comments reflect rhambamba’s grand strategy of trying to discourage the left and keep it from the polls and move the country further to the right. They really do play for the other team.

If I were Obama I would have contempt for those who he played to get elected.

Just like murder trials where you can’t serve if you’re against the death penalty, no one is allowed in the presidential final two who isn’t a consummate warmonger.

As Glenn Greenwald reminded us yesterday, in a September 2008 campaign speech, Obama stated,

I want to hold our government accountable. I want you to hold me accountable.

His tune has certainly changed, hasn’t it? Too bad. I plan to grant his 2008 wish.

Oh but you are the fringe, the left fringe. That’s the part you all don’t get – you are the TEA party lefty style. Also, the reason for all the gnashing of teeth over here about what Gibbs said is because he is right er, correct. He was a buffon in the way he went about it but correct none-the-less.

ps, the correct term is ‘liberal’ not ‘progressive’… have some damn pride and ownership.

Here is I what I wrote to our Spanish-speaking readers and whom all have had a proud history for having served in our nation’s military, and consequently, these 30,000 persons will be “piling-on” in support of the “professional left”. Equally important, each sees in himself or herself for being an “aggressive” Moderate, and by way of reputation, prefer to be recognized as the ultimate in “shit disturbers”. And nothing fancy here but Obama’s “reality” that cannot be cavalierly dismissed with misplaced or the “inartful” use of the words found in the English language.

__________

“Amateur Hour At The White House”

When it comes to political hygiene, if I were to attend a function in the White House, I would dress appropriately, and equally important, my comments would be deemed to be both prudent and constructive, but when I read that Robert Gibbs has taken to the print media to demonize President Obama’s critics within the Democratic Party, I am amused. And because politics is meant to be fun, it’s for this reason that I am amused.

Obviously, President Obama has seen polling numbers that show Hispanic support for his agenda is sinking to a disastrous level and which has caused his political operatives to express themselves due to the increasing exasperation and frustration that Hispanics aren’t part and parcel for being the ‘backbone’ of his fan club. To date, Gallup has Hispanic support for President Obama at 54% but if you’re from Arizona, support for Obama is far much lower and dropping daily and to the point that he has failed and thusly, deserving of an “F” if he were in an academic environment.

To date, his effort on reorganizing the health insurance industry and which did not include a provision for “open access” to health care delivered via the VA, Medicare, or Indian Health Services components of our federal government, has been critical to this waning support. Moreover, he refuses to address immigration reform unless a bi-partisan accommodation can be reached with the Republicans in the Senate. And as to Jobs, he also refuses to “listen” to Hispanics and who are demanding for today’s equivalent that “Jimmy Carter Cared, and Barack Obama Doesn’t!” and that means that President Obama will not consider or address any implementation for On-the-Job Training Contracts beneficial to the long term unemployed, and with the relative costs incurred due to the financial accrual from the expiration of the tax cuts for the wealthy, and starting in January of next year. In short,Hispanics have now been disabused of all the Hope and Change, that drew Hispanic voters to his Cause.

In an interview given to The Hill, Robert Gibbs, the spokesperson for the White House, castigated the liberals and progressives and which is President Obama’s “base” when it comes to political activism and campaign contributions. And it’s well understood by Hispanics that Republicans “fear the base” and Democrats “hate their base”.

As of earlier today, Gibbs is now saying that his expressions were “inartful” but still, his intent remains the same and an apology won’t cut it, despite the White House’s effort to ‘walkback’ the Gibb’s statement. Regardless, Gibbs’ use of the “professional left” reminds me of years ago, when we Hispanics had to defend ourselves from the daily onslaught that all of us were “professional Hispanics” and not Hispanic professionals. But equally important, is that “eliminating the Pentagon” and wanting “Canadian-style healthcare” system is the Democratic equivalent for “playing” in the political gutter. Gibbs should know better, and some are even now calling for his resignation. But reality intrudes, and President Obama sent Gibbs out into the public arena to express the thoughts Obama is unwilling to say in public to Hispanics and all because of our waning support for his political agenda. He too knows the poll numbers, just as we do.

There is much to be said, but in the next few days, the White House will be hearing much from this pejorative and in particular, from a “professional left” and it will not be in kind words, but in words that will not brook any more neglect for the ‘demands’ being expressed by the Democratic “base”. And with the Democratic incumbents now into their Congressional recess and as they commence their respective campaigning for re-election, these Democrats are going to have to explain themselves relative to President Obama’s “amateur hour” for this unwittingly expressed but incendiary hubris.
____________

Jaango

Gibbs said what his boss, and Obama, believe.

We are an irritant. We get in the way, asking the President to keep his promises.

And we should be drug-tested. Also, do you want Sarah Palin as prez? That is the sum of their argument.

IF you think we are the fringe, you have no clue, there is NO question the majority of Americans have the same political positions we have, however corporate media and their puppet masters get people like yourself believing otherwise

It’s too late for me to have my ass kissed. I’m done with the Democrats, who are no different than the Republicans. I won’t be voting for any incumbents in the fall or Obama in 2012. I don’t know if it will matter, or if I’ll be part of allowing a bunch of right-wing lunatics take over. But, so be it. If that’s what it takes for left-wing politicians to get some cojones and do something, then that’s what it takes. The current administration is despicable. They pretend to be something they are not, and many still fall for it. They are ruining the country.

Obama is trying to pull a Clinton – lose control of Congress and then use that as an excuse for passing corporatist legislation while at the the same time use the Republicans to build up your popularity. It’s been clear that Obama has zero respect for Pelosi and the House Dems despite all the water they’ve carried for him, but he’d like nothing more than for her to lose the Speakership and a lot of others to be sent home. I’d feel bad for Pelosi, but she’s been such a fake populist who has done the corporatist dirty work that I think she has it coming to her. Obama just can’t say he wants to at least lose the House so he can blame his failures on Republicans.

Ghost you think Rahm Obomber operates on logic and reasoning.

When he gets shellacked and he will, he’ll blame it on not being “bi partisan” aka caving into the assholes enough.

He’ll go further right because Rahm Obomber is a right wing reaganite stooge.

What brought me to FDL was my support of the Public Option, which was supported by the majority of the public – it was actually opponents of the PO who were on the fringe. The WH has the fringe corporatists, while much of what goes on in FDL is mainstream populist.

Gibbs is an asshole.

Canadian healthcare is better than american healthcare so why the hell shouldn’t we want “canadian style socialist healthcare”….Oh right, Obomber is a right winger and he’s trying to pander to the flag waving idiots who’d rather have shitty healthcare because some corporate genius branded the failed healthcare system uniquely american….Well it is extremely wasteful, inefficient and will rip you off as often as it can so I guess that label fits to a T.

VORE is anagram of ROVE

No’Bama lost me with his actions, not the words of his press secretary.

When Obama threw my wife & myself overboard and sided with the for-profit health insurance industry I knew he needed to go. And it has been downhill ever since.

There is no rehabbing Obama. Gibb’s moment of public honesty is nearly meaningless compared with the corporatist agenda. My vote and political donations will go to anybody who runs against him. We need a viable candidate and then start beating the drums for a primary challenger.

Lol amen! His ass needs to account for not being there? What is this high school and you’re trying to ditch a test? I want a doctor’s note. I hope they grill him today.. Oh wait, it’s the White House Press Corps who just want to be on the inside, they won’t say anything. Or it will be a single question.

Attaturk,

U.S.A. = United States of Asininity. Bring on the Stupid!!!

Anyone who is surprised by the blatant dishonesty of Gibbs, Rahm, Obama, or any other Democrat for that matter should be drug tested……….

Forget this progressive idiocy. Any honest LIBERAL should have thrown the Democratic Party overboard a long time ago………………

The hit is going to be big in November.
(Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.)
And I could give a rat’s ass.

For example –
In yesterday’s Colorado primary, even though both parties’ senate races were extremely close, the Republicans received 407,000 to the Dems 339,000 votes. That’s a 55%/45% split of the electorate. You can put good money that most of the purple states and districts that swung Dem in 2006 and 2008 will vote GOP this year.

Speaking of asses – the only asses this administration has been kissing –
Are right-wing ones. My max contribution this fall will be a tube of Chap-Stick.

If the best the Democrats can do with 60% majorities in the House and Senate and a “Hopeful Changer” in the White Houses is what we have seen – - then there really is no reason to support the Democrats.

Professional Left? Who the fuck is hiring us these days?

The worst aspect of this

Not that anyone should care what Gibbs thinks of us (compared to the stakes of the public policy issues we write about, hurt feelings and bunched panties on either side simply do not rate consideration of any kind), but his statements are extremely unlikely to reflect what he actually thinks. PR is his job. Everything he says is artful, certainly anything he might say on the record.

If you look at what Gibbs says with an eye to figuring out why the WH would want to appear to diss the blogging left, what leaps to my mind as the reason for such a thing is that they think our side is going to do very badly in November, and they’re getting started on the narrative that will ackowledge that defeat yet preserve as much continued power in the WH after that outcome.

No, I don’t think that I’m Columbus and I just discovered America. The administration has been triangulating from day one. But that’s my point. There is absolutely no reason, almost two years after the triangulation started, among even the thinnest-skinned among us, for any of the shock of a supposedly just-discovered betrayal.

One observation that I offer, not as a justification — I think that this whole business is categorically amoral — but as a style point, is that the villain in this narrative they’re creating is at least us, and not (so much, so far) the Congressional Dems. If you need to anchor your triangulation against some villain, it is much preferable to use audience members rather than actual fellow players, because you don’t want to undermine potential allies. I don’t care how big and how devoted a readership you think you have, until and unless you convert that into the gold of their realm by using that hold over that readership to get elected to something, you are just audience, not a player. Running over you, then backing up to run over you again, if it gives them any advantage whatever in the game against the real players, is like free money. You don’t count, period. If you don’t like that, get elected to something so that running you over carries a price tag.

On a brighter note, just because the WH is sending out signals tending to the idea that they don’t think that we’ll do well in November, doesn’t mean that that is how it will play out. They’re not magicians, they have no special insight or inside information. (What separates them from us isn’t inside information, it is wholly that they are in office and we are not. They have to behave amorally, we aren’t allowed.) They may, in fact, be as unclear on that as you or I, but simply feel that starting the narrative is a sound safety play. If we do better than expected in the election there will be smiles and cheers all around, and the narrative gets quietly ditched, or put on hold for the run up to the next election.

A political movement only needs to rally its base, its enthusiastic supporters who aren’t actual players, who don’t hold any office, when and if it plans to widen dramatically the scope of play, and bring many new people into the game. It’s that “gather your armies” thing. Literally. All sorts of previous mere audience members suddenly became players after our politicos signed the Declaration of Independence, or after Louis XVI fled to Varennes.

Right now, we see the other side rallying its base, merely rhetorically so far, while our side engages in politics as usual. If you’re going to fault the WH for this statement of Gibbs, and triangulating against us in general, the only rational basis for that would be the idea that our side needs to be gathering its armies as well, that politics as usual has about reached the end of its rope and we need to get ready to continue political conflict “by other means”. Well, I’m less close-minded about that possibility than most on our side, but even I doubt we’re there quite yet.

Until the day when you need to be gathered into an army, our side’s politicos are going to treat you like dirt. It’s your role. Not very edifying, but it sure beats actually getting shot at.

The talking heads and pundits of the right always refer to themselves as “conservatives ” first and religiously adhere to a set of core principles notably smaller government and lower taxes. Their loyalty is directed foremost to their principles, not to the republican party or individual office holders. No republican office holder would dare to disrespect a fellow conservative the way the WH disrespects liberals.

As much as I disagree with them, the conservatives demonstrate a remarkable discipline in at least giving lip service to their core principles. Remember conservatism doesn’t fail, only impure conservatives do.

The democrats on the other hand adhere to no principles with any consistency, except occasionally during the election season. The democratic party has become a club or more appropriately a street gang where loyalty to its leaders trumps principle every time.

The unity of the republicans has proven remarkably resiliant even as they remain idealistically a minority while the liberals are a disjointed voice in the wilderness as the democratic party becomes increasingly rudderless.

It’s sort of sad, really.

The Republicans embrace the craziest of the loons on the right.

But the Dems can’t stand the sensible left of the party.

Go figure.

My guess would be for turning over command and control of a branch of the US armed forces to a foreign for-profit corporation.

BP. Gulf blow-out.

Any arguments that BP wasn’t running the US Coast Guard? If you don’t believe it then you are in denial.

+1 internet.

You hit the mark exactly. I would only add that if, after running the ‘left’ constituency over, some of its members continue to vote (D) because the alternative is ostensibly so much worse — note that several regular contributors to FDL have already explained they will vote (D) in 2010 and 2012 — well, that’s the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.

I have a counterargument.

Bush was electoral poison.

Let’s vote tea party.

I’m not just a liberal but a socialist.

The best socialist policies in this country came about when capitalism ran over ordinary people and crushed them in a vice.

We had good social democratic policies for so long that the average person is used to them and can imagine life without them not being too badly effected.

So let’s vote tea party, go full capitalist, go off the rails, become american somalia and elect a modern FDR in the 2040s.

The average person won’t realize how good socialism is unless they lose all benefits of having a mixed capitalist/social democratic policy. After they see how much they lost thanks to unrestrained capitalism, they’ll get off their asses and become socialist to get back what the greedy bastards took from them.

The more democrats we elect the further right we become. The repulicans can move the ball to the right end of the field 50 yards at a time. Dems settle for 3 or 4 yard short passes and when they hit 10 yards they make a compromise to be bi partisan and give the right one yard so they can call themselves bi partisan.

Under corporatist dems we’ll lose what made america great by degrees.

Under tea party republicans we’ll lose what made america great exponentially faster.

When the corporatist dems sell off american institutions and install corporate fascism they do it in degrees which don’t seem small at first.

Clinton deregulated the stock market and the country boomed until the great recession. That idiot laid the groundwork for the destruction of our economy but because it happened so slowly noone blames him for his f**k up.

Bush did what clinton did a hundred times faster so he gets the blame.

Everyone knows the toad in a cooking pot analogy so I don’t need to repeat it. Electing corporatist dems heat the water slowly, while electing tea partiers is a windup to throwing the toad into a lit fireplace. Sure it might kill the toad, but the toad might come out badly burned and never go near the sadistic **** that threw it into the fireplace again.

You know the crazy economic bills they try to pass, the one that makes it impossible to raise taxes? Let’s let the republicans pass it, cripple the country, then get rid of it and marginalize the supporters of it as cooks like what happened to alcohol prohibition when everyone realized it was a policy disaster.

We can let the country die slowly, or give it the tea party shock treatment so we can have a real FDR style reform movement that throws Republican social, foreign and economic policy into the dustbin of history.

I thought of posting this on FDL as a standalone thing to comment on…would anyone want to see me post this? Sorry I’ve never done anything like that before.

OMG! That is toooooo damn funny. Thanks for that.

Totally agree. People need to stand up and say that loud and often.

At this point, you have to assume that Obama would prefer a Republican Congress, because he’s not stupid enough to be doing this stuff by accident.

Absolutely true. And as I posted before, in a New Yorker article, “a senior WH official” brags that Obama has raised less cash for his party than any recent President. GOP passes right wing policy, Obama signs it, no need for kabuki. What’s not to like?

I have had the same thoughts. It’s like they are deliberately undermining those in their OWN party. Why would that be? It makes no sense-unless-well you know-there is only really one party.

Oh I can top that. I think I plan to be in CANADA (the horror!) smoking something while protesting the pentagon. Isn’t that more productive than voting these days?

whattheincorporated,

I do not think that your argument counters what gtomkins wrote and I agree with your sentiments as well. During the 2008 elections I said that I hoped McCain would win because — and I admit outright the ‘inartful’ phrasing here — “Americans clearly haven’t suffered enough.” My opinion was that the average American voter (and potential voter) needed to experience more than just two straight presidential terms of the worst neoliberal policy and conservative social ideology in order to really, fully understand its effects.

Aside from his various legislative duds, the long-term consequence of Obama’s election is that it will become much more difficult now for actual progressives to be elected to office, because although Obama is not a progressive he is perceived as one by many voters (or at least, that is the title conferred upon him) and his tenure has been and will likely be a near-universal disappointment. In the future, when a progressive candidate promises changes in the form of specific policy proposals, s/he will be faced with the somewhat legitimate response, “Oh yeah, well Obama said the same thing and see what happened then?”

For the voters who matter (i.e. those who do not simply throw their votes away along party lines), this sentiment will likely extend beyond national elections to state and local contests as well; that, in my opinion, is where the real problem lies, a chicken-and-egg scenario. Post-Obama, I would not vote for a candidate without a significant, long-term progressive record. Holding office is one way to develop this record, except that now it has become occluded in many constituencies for precisely this reason. Where do progressives get their start and can demonstrate their progressive values, in fields that translate for voters into political competency?

Anyhow, I would love to read a more comprehensive post on your part about these issues. Please send me a PM if you do so!

hahahahaha.

It’s a lovely place to live, and as extra incentive voting actually matters in Canada because of the existence of a couple DFH political parties.

LOL.
Gibbs….you’re my man….you’re my main man!

Oh let’s just agree that he is in for a world of hurt come January.

I’m not a writer, just someone who gets ****ed off and likes to kill time thinking about unconventional ways to change things.

I also don’t know how to put a post up on FDL or even how to PM.

But I’d definately add something about how Obama is sabotaguing the left by making middle of the road or even right wing policy and letting it be called commie socialism and he himself calls crap like his health insurer bailout progressive.

McCain wouldn’t have changed anything, but he wouldn’t have forced us to buy crap coverage or receive a penalty like Obomber.

Now the Bob Dole Mitt Romney Care is british style commie social marxist maoism…so say goodbye to real healthcare reform for a hundred years at least.

I don’t know how to pm or receive pms, so could you tell me what to do to get this up at FDL in this post…if you can’t get modded for that :D.

whattheincorporated,

1. Click on “The Seminal” tab on the list of options just below the FDL header banner.

2. Direct your attention to the right-hand sidebar and scroll down a bit until you see the “toolbox” section (just above the “blogroll” section).

3. Click “Post Diary” and away you go!