call their bluff, make them veto it

Tex, I believe the jury’s in on your question.

Verdict came back about two weeks ago.

Now, we’re conversing with Mr. Quack, the lamest lame-duck prez in a lonnnng time.

Woops. Almost forgot, Mr. Preznint:

“Next!”

They say they will insist on keeping in place all the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003.

And yet these criminal gangster douchebags can’t bring themselves to extend unemployment benefits for the (so-called) “99ers.”

Obama has passed all the legislation he is ever going to get passed, with the exception of continuing resolutions. There is absolutely no gain in trying to deal with the Thugs to get a few more pieces of legislation on the table. They won’t do it. His role from here on in is to use his executive authority to the considerable extent it has increased since 2001 to do at least a little good, an his veto to stave off the bad at least to 2013. He blew it, but he can at least minimize the damage.

So are Americans ready to institute Presidential Rule by Executive Order? Obstructed and obstructive Congresses make conducting the nation’s business all but impossible.

The Right in this country seem to prefer a monarchy; shiny and authoritarian.

Oh dear god. He’s in a bubble within a bubble. He’s trying to live this grandiose fantasy of bipartisan harmony that exists only in his head, all while listening to DC hacks who consider a hard-right stance as the “center”. It’s going to take a HELL of a lot to push through all that delusion and detachment. God help us all.

he is saving battles for after the next election. Did someone tell him he would not be around after the next election?

Christ, Obama is completely clueless.

he’s partiZANY

there must be some things we can agree on.

If he really believes that, he should just resign. After 2 years of abuse and obstructionism, how can he be so ridiculously naive?

The newly emboldened Republicans, however, have shown little enthusiasm for compromise.

The formerly emboldened Republicans didn’t show much enthusiasm for compromise, either.

Of course, saying that Obama’s looking for compromise assumes that he’s a progressive whose views are at the other end of the spectrum.

He’s not. They’re not. By progressive, I mean that he sees his role as making sure that corporations prosper only when the rest of America prospers, someone who protects the middle class and advances the common good.

In the right-left bs, he’d be center-right, which makes him left of most of the rest of the Democratic-Republican duopoly.

Obama’s a failure. Time for him to go so Americans can support a real progressive, i.e. what they wanted in 2008, but didn’t get.

Cue the Kabuki Show!!! As Jackie Gleason used to opine: aaanndd aawaaaay we go!

Can it get any more vapid and duller than this? We all know what’s up for the rest of the laaaaaame duck Presnitcy… a big fat old NADA. The same old Trojan Horse that this empty suit rode into DeeCee on will be the Trojan Horse Obummer rides outta DeeCee on in 2012… to his next lucrative payola corporatist gig.

Thanks for NOTHING, Obummah.

Yeah, dry wit that headline writer displays.

I’ve been trying to formulate how I would put this to Obama or his staff, or for that matter to any of the loyalists who seem to be in denial.

This is it:

Yes, in general, and in more normal times, compromise is probably a pretty good thing.

However when the Republicans are saying “The President’s positions are far, far, to the left, he’s a Socialist or maybe a Communist, and he wants to make you Communists too, by implementing his extreme left wing takeover of the private sector by the government, and then he wants to eat your family for breakfast, so watch out…”

In that case, if your response is “I realize that I need to compromise with the Republicans a little more”, what do you expect the voters to think? That you’ll only eat their family a little bit?

If you validate an extreme, crazy position by talking about being “bipartisan” with those who are espousing it, it just makes voters think that they’re right. If the Right is way out in crazy town the way I characterized above, and you’re out there talking about meeting it half way– you’re still in crazy town! And you’re telling people that it’s not crazy.

By the way if anyone thinks what I wrote above is an exaggeration, you really haven’t been listening to them lately. It’s more nuts than ever.

Hannity explains all: his sources state “Obama is unhinged. He’s losing it….”

Either that or he has his own, inexplicable agenda or he’s met his Peter Principal. Take your pick. Maybe FDL should take a poll ala dailykos why the Pres. keeps doing the same unsuccessful thing time after time after time ∞.

I feel so sorry for obama! He didn’t have enough dims in either house of
Congress to get anything done. The repugs were simply too strong in their numbers. In addition, for most of his agenda, he didn’t have enough support among the population; he barely sqeaked out a victory and most of the country wanted him to “look forward, not back.” If he had looked back, he would have had to think about investigating torture and who authorized it, but nobody wanted him to do that.

You forgot to mention that they also want to carve out the Social Security Trust Fund that we all paid into.

I’m curious why they weren’t waged before the previous election. When he had majorities in the House and the Senate. Weird, huh?

Yep. All that money we’ve given with the promise of getting some of it back… fuck us, right?

There is no damage. obama is getting exactly what he wants. he has been so….. successful in what he has wanted to do. him voting for spying before he was even elected and not speaking out about the police state in St paul Mn and then now his thugs, (NOT REPUBLICAN THUGS, GOING AFTER THE ANTI-WAR PEOPLE IN MN. They dropped it right before the election,(must have been afraid of bad PR) but they are all being re-supeoned by Obamas administration. This is not bush, they is not republicans.

Don’t fall for the Faux Partisan Theatre. Despite the performances for distraction and amusement, he and they agree more than they disagree.

His statements are just part of the theatre, part of the performance. They’re not worth taking seriously, other than to make sure everyone see through them.

He won’t be resigning. It’s up to the American people to vote him out by voting for a real progressive in 2012.

Time for him to go so Americans can support a real progressive

Kucinich ’12

he is not naive. They are all thugs on the same team and until we in this country figure this out, we are screwed.

Dito on that!!!!

Yup, that’s right. Someone pointed out that with all their money, the uber-rich are not happy people. The only satisfaction they are able to get is by making others miserable.

Jesus H. WTF is wrong with WaPo?

you’re out there talking about meeting it half way– you’re still in crazy town!

I like it! “Halfway to Crazy Town is still Crazy Town”.

He’s either that naive or there’s some money changing hands somewhere. That’s really the only thing I can figure. Just…mind-boggling…

For all of you crying that obama is a failure, you can dry your tears. he is not a failure! obama has almost accomplished all that he set out to do:
1. Get elected by stating or hinting progressive positions
2. See that w, et. al., were protected by not investigating or prosecuting war crimes
3. Get phony health care reform. Make it a real gold mine for the insurance corps with a few goodies thrown in that the insurance people would allow
4. Eliminate the dim base by insulting them and punishing them and ignoring them
5. Continue to ‘work’ for bi-partisanship so that the dims realize that nothing they do will get him out of that track
6. Make sure that total actions ruin the dim party for years to come, if not actually destroy it

SOMEBODY….remind me why does PREZ. OBAMA insist on sitting down with these ‘Clowns’ masquerading as the republican leadership, again? does the president understand the meaning of ‘insane?’ Doing the same thing and expecting a different result. They have no real interest in working with Obama and the dems, thus, compromise shouldn’t be an option. Mr. President, WAKE UP, before it’s too late…

GOP congressional leaders told the White House that scheduling conflicts will prevent them from attending a meeting Thursday to which Obama invited them during a news conference two days after his party’s drubbing in the midterm elections. They said the timing was bad

Timing is everything in politics and comedy. I am not sure which this is. But the R’s are humiliating the President and they are laughing out loud.

I do not care if the President wants to be a national laughing stock. But let’s at least replace the hapless DNC failure, Tim Kaine. I have heard Michael Steele might be available for that job.

Agreed. Obama has accomplished about 2/3 of the policies he campaigned on. However, those policies have been too small and too timid to make real change.

Obama’s problem wasn’t in the tactics or strategy of bipartisanship that he started bleating about as soon as he was elected. He believes in bipartisanship as a strategy because he believes in right wing policy. He has handed out 1% of the HAMP money because he thinks those home owners should be punished. He rewards the bankers because he likes them. He punishes teachers because he hates unions and all conservatives hate teachers (for some reason). And on and on. If he had been properly labeled as a Republican years ago, the same guy wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about “bipartisanship”.

Notice that to the people he disagrees with, liberals, he and his posse of grifters have no problems taking off the gloves. He sees no need to compromise with liberals. The message to THEM is buck up, STFU, quit whining, crazy libs want to shut down the Pentagon, etc.

So expecting Obama to take that tactic with Republicans is a fool’s errand.

The question is IMO how does he intend to get re-elected after having done all that? Does he begin the campaign by saying that he is going to fix all these things and “yes, we can?”

I’m afraid you’ve nailed it. Obama is living in a fantasyland of his own making.

Maybe if he tries HARDER to make them like him…and offers to meet them halfway…No, MORE than halfway…and shows how, like, REASONABLE he is…maybe, just maybe, they’ll be nice to him. At least he can hope…

The sooner we admit we elected a Republican who does these things because HE wants to, not because they are bipartisan, the sooner we get to the truth of the matter.

It’s Clinton all over again.

Obama is NOT this stupid. He is too smart to keep saying, “I just have to compromise more” with them.

Obama is so clueless and ridiculous on his desire for acceptance with Repubs, that one has to question his sanity.

Maybe when Obama is impeached, convicted, dragged out of the White House, convicted in criminal court, and sentenced to a symbolic prison term, he’ll figure it out.
Or maybe not. He may see that as his failure to compromise.

Meanwhile the orange satan is praising Obama for meeting with Democrats today. WooHoo! Take that Republicans! How sad is that when they have to praise something so lame and routine? I can’t wait till they vote him a capital fellow for not asking Boehner if he can scratch his ass.

Republicans don’t like president Obama and never will like him. In fact, i think its safe to say, they hate the man. The sooner he accepts that reality…the better it’ll be for him and for the rest of America. If he continues to embrace this ‘Bipartisanship’ pipe dream, then were’ll all doomed.

The President’s version of bispartisnaship was 100% Republican. We were never part of the equation.

He may have been shallow, amoral, and intellectually lazy…but (God it hurts to say this) George W. Bush was a hell of a lot more effective as a leader than Obama.

Maybe when one of you people hoping for impeachment figures out what grounds you think he’ll be impeached on, (not to mention actually being convicted on), you’ll let me know.

Right. That’s just a bunch of hot air from the Rs. He hasn’t done anything impeachable – in fact, he hasn’t done anything at all.

you know, this was actually broadcast when obama took office, they said outright through their policy czar limbuah, that if obama wanted it they would opose it

this dictum really came down when the democratic congress made a record 100 hours of positive legislation, rush put an end to that immediately telling the republicans to impede any democoratic initiatives

what, obama didn’t believe rush when he said it?

what, he didn’t get it the first time they stabbed him in the back on a compromise then voted against it?

obama is either a moron or on their team tasked with the job of destroying the democratic party and whatever was left of the middle class

in fact, he hasn’t done anything at all.

And therein lies the problem.

Did his hero reagan compromise this much ?

Hey Margaret.
I don’t hope they impeach him, at all. I just believe the Republicans are completely capable of it. Grounds? I have no idea, but I’m sure some bright young Republican idealogue can come up with something.
Is that better stated?

What we need is to find common ground among ourselves so that we can vote for a far better alternative in 2012.

I certainly can’t read obama’s mind about 2012, but I’m not sure that his corporate handlers told him that he would be elected for a second term. If he completes the mission of sending SS and Medicare treasury notes to the waste basket and destroying teacher unions, he will be well rewarded above the corporate boards that he will be joining. I think that the monetary rewards will soften the blow of losing in 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h38srxvt6qE

did he watch too much of this as a kid?

in fact, he hasn’t done anything at all.

Yes, but he’s not doing nothing fast enough. Not enought poor people are living on the street to make the Rethugs happy.

To the uber-rich, Obama gives tax cuts. To the rest, he gives hope.

It is not only Repubs who dis Obama. The South Koreans pissed on him pretty good. One wonders how that happened. The State Department supposedly negotiated a done deal. For Obama to go to South Korea in a widely publicized tour to have an agreement rejected is inexplicable. Did Hillary cut him off at the knees?

Margret,

I’m sorry, but your talking out of your ass. Seriously, He hasn’t really done anything at all? I think you’ve been to way too many tea bagger parties. Don’t get me….I’m not defending Obama. In fact, i think bipartisanship has crippled his ability to be a truthful and effective president, but saying He hasn’t really done anything at all is simply reckless.

All I know is that corporate executives have been doing better and better and taking more and more since Reagan, while their employees have done worse and worse and getting less and less as they work more and more (and those are the lucky ones not to have been laid off so the corporations can increase executive compensation).

Obama has made this problem no better and has maybe helped make it worse.

NOT FUCKING CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN.

They need to hire a Special Prosecutor to start the fishing expedition. Like with White Water, a shady real estate transaction is a good start. Might lead to a blow job or something even juicier. Ya never know!

What you say makes perfect sense in one way but it simply won’t compute in my mind that anyone would plan to be a one-termer. Not that any of this makes sense to me ever. I have been trying to figure it out for at least the last year and can’t get a handle on it.

Hey look, I wasn’t trying to start a quarrel, I just don;t think that even if the Republican do manage to impeach him on something, (after all it only takes a party line vote in the House), there is no way he’ll be convicted by the Senate. Si “impeached” I can see. “Convicted, dragged out of the White House, convicted in criminal court and sentenced to prison”? That still takes compelling evidence that a crime has been committed and that the accused is responsible for it. No young Republican is going to be able to manufacture that kind of evidence, ideologue or otherwise.

Yep. Rezko in Chicago would be a good fishing spot.

And I’m sorry but you have no idea what you’re saying so I invite you to refrain from further comment until you can do so without making yourself look as silly as that one did.

Are you a troll?

Well, or halfway to the extreme far border of Crazy Town is still in Crazy Town, I guess was my point. “Halfway to Crazy Town” might actually be in the reasonable area before Crazy Town starts. That is so not where these nut cases are standing though.

No quarrel at all. (((Margaret)))
You are of course literally correct..I was simply trying to make the point that his maddeningly myopic insistence on a bipartisanship that no one but him wants or cares about would probably even survive the hypothetical that I laid out.

I think I know who the troll is here. And here’s a news flash: So does everyone else.
Just sayin’…

Understood. No harm, no foul. I thought it was probably rhetorical in nature. :)

ekunin has been here forever. No troll…but I will mildly answer in the negative. I don’t believe Hillary would do that; I think she would try to appear better than Obama, not more treacherous than him. My wild-ass guess is that it probably had something to do with domestic S. Korean politics.

In the previous administration, when “W” called a meeting for Congressional leaders, the Dems would rush to the White House, drop trou, bend over and ask “W” to autograph their butt cheeks. The Dems were pilloried and apologized almost immediately for not applauding enthusiastically enough at Bush’s State of the Union addresses. While both parties may be chock full of corporatist hustlers and enablers, the differences in their social manners are pretty stark.

Obama’s a wounded bird that will not fly again. He will spend the next two years in his gilded cage flapping his wings and trying to appear strong and confident, but if ever left to his own devices, he will be quickly consumed by predators. It’s so sad we wasted precious time and resources on this man. I believe a real Depression is needed and perhaps the Republicans will deliver. Nothing like standing in a soup line to wake you from your ignorant slumber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9EcmTeQ8Tw&feature=related

America as cultural leader. Imagine getting kids to listen to Vince Guaraldi without them even knowing it? Sadly, many of those kids are in charge of things today. How could it go so wrong?

Sadly, Obama has concluded the Presidency is about him, not about us.

Nothing like standing in a soup line to wake you from your ignorant slumber.

14% of Americans on Food Stamps

50 million Americans food insecure; 1 in 4 children

That ship’s already sailed.

To accuse Margaret of tea bagging tells me you are either a troll, or that you totally misunderstand the political spectrum. If you have ever read Margaret’s contributions here, you would know that she’s across the street and far down the block from the tea baggers.

Also, have the basic decency to spell her name correctly.

A bit OT but:
Mayor Of London Warns George W Bush-War Criminal: ‘Bring Book Tour To Britain & Never See TX Again’

It is not yet clear whether George W Bush is planning to cross the Atlantic to flog us his memoirs, but if I were his PR people I would urge caution. As book tours go, this one would be an absolute corker. It is not just that every European capital would be brought to a standstill, as book-signings turned into anti-war riots. The real trouble — from the Bush point of view — is that he might never see Texas again.

“Waterboarding” is a disgusting practice by which the victim is deliberately made to think that he is drowning. It is not some cunning new psych-ops technique conceived by the CIA. It has been used in the dungeons of dictators for centuries. It is not compatible either with the US constitution or the UN convention against torture. It is deemed to be torture in this country, and above all there is no evidence whatever that it has ever succeeded in doing what Mr Bush claimed. It does not work.

How could America complain to the Burmese generals about the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, when a president authorised torture? How can we talk about human rights in Beijing, when our number one ally and friend seems to be defending this kind of behaviour? I can’t think of any other American president, in my lifetime, who would have spoken in this way. Mr Bush should have remembered the words of the great Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, who said in 1863 that “military necessity does not admit of cruelty”. Damn right.

We just might hope Chimpy is still so dumb so he does go.

Does anybody know whether the presnit can summarily fire the Vice presnit?

Because, if he may do that, it would then make possible what would be a history making … decision of stepping aside and delivering the presidency to the next one in line… Speaker of the house: Pelosi.
Nothing against Biden per se, just no pressing need, to switch.

Now would be a good time to show some nobility, chivalry, and selflessness, deciveness, for a change, and would give Nancy a needed boost too. I’m not that much of a fan of hers, but I think it would be theatrical and entertaining.

The first Black presnit, turns it over to the first female presnit. Then she can show her stuff, with the replithugs who might not know the drill about “not on the Table”…

Heh, showed up with a sign around its neck, no less.

Wow! Thanks for getting my back! :)

Right? Flashing neon and screaming.

Peg a Troll how fucking funny is that I ask yer?? shit her comments are some of the best written here at the Lake.
Waving to Peg ☺ ☺

Obama to Boehner:

“I’ll bring the vaseline, you bring the “hose”.

If President Obama has any genuine philosophical disagreement with Republicans, what would that be?

Okay,we had eight years of the Republicans who gave us unnecssary war, tax breaks for the wealthy, trillions in deficits, and torture. If I had wanted more of those fun and games, I would have voted for McCain and Palin. Why does “Mr BiPartisan” give us the same old pile of junk?

To George W Bush, War Criminal, from the Mayor Of London:

‘Bring Book Tour To Britain & Never See TX Again’

Right on!

If Bush and co are ever going to face justice, it won’t be done by the current leaders of this country.

Thanks! Waving back. Don’t wanna be mean or anything but it might be wise for somebody new to lurk and read for a bit before jumping in with both feet and making themselves look silly. Maybe RU4862 is genuinely interested in being part of the community and that’s fine. Judging somebody by one comment without the necessary context of knowing the commentator isn’t a great way to start.

true dat Peg. True dat. I know I lurked for a while before I started commenting, of course that was a few years ago….

I know I lurked for a while before I started commenting

Me too! It’s just common sense. And I certainly got to know the community before whipping out the insults.

Same here. I lurked for a year before saying anything.

Yeah, it was like a couple for me. I commented innocuously from time to time but I never injected myself where I was out of my ken.

I agree with you that the verdict is in. However, about Obama being a weak lame duck, well that simply is not true. Obama is a rightwing Republicanized Democrat. What that means in the grand scheme of things is simply this: By continuing to play the stupid “bipartisanship” card, he is in effect bringing California style of gov’t to the national scene; he is essentially giving the minority complete veto power over anything true liberals and true progressives would want. What this results in is that the only legislation or policies that are passed are firebreathing dragon Republican ideas from the 1990s. Check out Rachel Maddow and the Obama kool-aid drinkers over at MSNBC. They openly whine and complain about firebreathing dragon Republicans now voting against their own ideas of the past; these same ideas that Obama is now supporting. Go figure……………………….

Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like the Man of Steel.

Late Late nite is where I came out!! There are a bunch of great pups during those threads!!!

And the conversations go all over the map.

I’m looking foward to 2012 and if Donald J Trump that who I’ll be backing.Donald Trump is the only person with the ability and understands how to put the USA back to work.The people of the USA need liveable wage jobs.Bill and Newt’s NAFTA Killed the factories that produced products we used everyday.The foundation of the USA jobs.

Trump? Trumpy?

I don’t see it. Well, I see it (the horrendous hairpiece), but not the Grumpy Trumpy as Mr. Prez.

Why of course Trump. Why he can do for the country what he’s done for his casinos. At least twice. After all, he’s such an awesome bidness man he’s taken his casinos into bankruptcy at least twice that I can recall.

*snort* Not the first time you’ve run that raggedy ass flag up the pole.

Please tell me this is snark.

I don’t see this comment as trollish, though in another area I guess I am. Tell me what you found about the comment you found trollish. Is arguing with Jane the mark of a troll?

Some OT, what peckerheads voted this guy out of the United States Congress:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/18/alan-grayson-five-things-_n_785657.html

This is what Barack Obama should have come into office doing. If he had, he’d be Captain America, instead of “leading” the new, bi-partisan quack-attack.

Smilodon! What do you mean: “horrendous hairpiece”?

What have you got against a road-kill possum dyed orange?

The thousands of registered Democrats who decided to stay home, voted for some unknown bozo or wrote in “public option” on 2 Nov to teach the Dems a lesson. Those folks got their first reward today when the House voted down the unemployment benefits extension, with many more rewards coming their way over the next 2 years. Also.

Even that should not have been enough. Grayson, while not perfect, is so outspoken on so many of the right things, that he should get re-elected anywhere he ran.

Alas…

Obama feckless shit was too much for him to overcome.

Bald is beautiful! :)

SD@100 and tanbark@101:

I know it’s probably impossible, but I would love to find out just how many people wrote in “public option” or otherwise cast a protest vote.

It very well may be that even if all the protest voters had voted dem, we’d be in exactly the same boat anyway. We can’t know for certain, but I suspect that not too many people cast a protest vote. I think it’s more likely that the whackadoodle-in-the-noodle TPers came out of the woodwork and voted straight-ticket R.

Oooo!!!!! 5pm 5pm 5pm 5pm!! I’m outa here….will pick it back up when I get home.

That’s prolly true. The stay-at-homes in FL really hurt us. Sink lost the governorship by under 90,000 votes out of over 5M cast.

Just how goddamn stupid is Obama? I thought he was pretty smart but he is proving every day with every capitulation that he his learning curve is more of a flat line.

Elizabeth Warren & Congresswoman Shakowsky in 2012
I will certainly consider Kucinich, at least as Secretary of Labor or Homeland Security which should be about a WPA Infrastructure Rebuilding not feelin up the neighbors when their flying around the country

Elect Elizabeth Warren in 2012

It’s like President Obama looked at the “unitary executive” policies of his criminal Republican predecessors and decided that he’d try a “dis-unitary executive” approach, which appears more dis-uniting than uniting (especially regarding the Democratic Party base) and more dysfunctional than functional.

And Democrats paid a hefty price in the midterms for this “dis-unitary executive” approach, especially with all the problems facing America and America’s citizens, many held over from the previous criminal Republican administration, with only half-steps seeming to come from (or be proposed by) the “dis-unitary executive” Obama administration. FDR = bold and sane and caring. GWB = bold, but insane and sociopathic. President Obama = kind of wishy-washy.

Neither Republicanized Democrats or Firebreathing dragon Republicans care aout control of the Congress. They only care about who controls the Presidency, period…………..

Trust me, at the Obama White House it’s full speed ahead to the continuation of the passage of extreme rightwing legislation…………