Makes you wonder what might have been.
If you had somehow managed to filter out all the news of November’s midterm elections, you could be forgiven for thinking in the past few weeks that perhaps Congress had finally buckled down, stopped posturing and gotten to work – maybe started early on some new year’s resolutions.
Look at all that was passed: a huge compromise tax bill, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a major food safety bill, the New START treaty and the 9/11 first responders health-care measure.
That was the work of the lame-duck Congress. But the idea that this Congress limped out or was in any way lame seems risible.
The 111th Congress capped its remarkable term – which historian Alan Brinkley called “probably the most productive session of Congress since at least the ’60s” – with a flurry of legislative activity that President Obama described as “the most productive post-election period we’ve had in decades.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) called the end-of-session frenzy “a capitulation in two weeks of dramatic proportions,” adding on Fox News Radio on Tuesday: “Harry Reid has eaten our lunch.”
The “compromise” tax cut for millionaires aside, they got some good stuff done. Was fun while it lasted — enter Speaker Boehner.



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Good morning, pups, and happy whatever holiday you recognize at this time of year. I plan to take the next couple of days off from politics and enjoy my family, good food, and good company. Hope you all can find something to celebrate, too!!
How much of this lame duck kabuki was preprogramed behind closed doors?
ALL of it. I don’t mean to take credit away from those who pressed their case “outside” the WH. That’s what kept it on the table. But, IMHO, it was ALL part of the tax cut deal.
As usual, Jane hits the nail on the head. The good stuff got done because the activists didn’t back down. DADT was done entirely because of the activists. It had nothing to do with Obama, who couldn’t have looked more shocked that it passed.
Mornin’, BT, pups
Actually I had an idea to go to Christian churches who hold services tonight and tomorrow and ask them how many homeless/unemployed they were helping to feed on Christmas.
Krugman – The Humbug Express
Joe Scarborough hinted as much with Valerie Jarrett. She, of course, denied it.
Well this seems unlikely:
Cynical as I am of the administration in general and loath Ken Salazar as I do, I have to wonder how this makes money and who for?
U.S. Approved Business With Blacklisted Nations
All profit, all the time.
Profit over people, forevah.
Nice try Jane putting a positive spin on it, but I don’t really see that much to write home about. Just saying, the very least our government could do is give soldiers willing to die for our country full rights under the Constitution.
heck, Mr. 9/11 himself went to France to speak on behalf of an Iranian Marxist group that’s been designated a terrorist organization by the United States. It’s all about the dance. Giuliani dances his dance of terrorists here to remain relevant and goes overseas to dance his dance of support for his crumbs.
As has been mentioned often on FDL, there was nothing in the so-called tax cut “compromise” that the Rs really objected to. The real compromise was IMHO outside the deal.
Wildly popular initiatives were “bought” with wildly unpopular initiatives. Typical WH stunt.
Not all of our soldiers got that right. Just sayin’
Ain’t going to no Christian churches for nobody, no way.
I’m sure many of them do help the homeless. But without real first-hand knowledge, I’d bet the fundy evangelicals do less helping and much more preaching.
My former Unitarian Universalist church did a LOT of stuff with the less fortunate, and a LOT of political activities, and a LOT less evangelizing. Which is probably why it’s a small denomination.
It may be “undeveloped” for a reason.
I’m thinking that if they’re telling the logging interests to get bent, they must have had a higher bidder. I’m just wondering who that is and why?
Might get some real rain today here. It’s been incredibly dry for a couple of months. I’ll bet it makes the ducks down the street happy.
Other than the Society of Friends (Quakers)and the AA churches I haven’t seen any evidence of our local churches doing much for anybody.
There’s a small AA church on the next block from my hooch that puts out a huge table of bread every Tuesday morning. When I go by on the way home in the evening it’s pretty much gone.
Why did the Rs give anything up, either inside or outside the tax cut deal? Wouldn’t O have given them tax cuts for the rich without demanding anything in return?
“Underdeveloped.”
Good catch. I’d missed the switch in terminology.
Note that the debate occurs under the aegis of a false premise–i.e., that the lame duck Congress was a success. This is the Obamacrat PR machine (which could accurately be called “Rovean”) in action.
Agree. The big loser in this lame duck session–the middle class. The President’s tax cut cave amounts to trading Manhattan for trinkets.
NPR doing a piece on worse CEO of the year…..Hoot. Merry Christmas All. Rev.
Murra Chrimbus Eve!
So some things finally got passed. The price tags dangling from it all remind me of Minnie Pearl’s hat.
(I am a Minnie Pearl fan, and in no way do I intend to be disrespectful of her! It an unofficial law: Friends of Dorothy are also supposed to be friends of Minnie.)
“See my pretty hat! Did you notice it’s new?”
The question is, what does that price tag represent?
Here’s the multiple choice:
A) The price tag lets you see how frugal the purchaser is.
B) The price tag lets you see how wealthy the purchaser is.
OT: There is no Chrimbus fun like a critical server crash on Chrimbus Eve.
I haven’t either to be honest.
Well, I don’t think giving up stuff that is wildly popular and on which certain Rs feel a need to vote “yes” is really giving up much. But I do believe O was under great pressure to get backroom R assurances on these other “victories” — because of what Jane said: the relentless pressure of activists.
But, then again, I am so cynical about this POS in the WH that I may be reaching a bit :-)
I take your point.
The plebes will be happy with crumbs.
And who is this “worst” they’re discussing? I can think of several candidates…
No, I think you’re fairly spot on. Jane only gave Obama props for START and that was more in the context of “Hey! Morons! THIS is what Obama wanting something looks like and that’s not what happened with DREAM or DADT repeal”.
Lame duck bullshit. Too little too late my spouse says. Nothing was passed that could not have been passed earlier if the will had been there. Nothing was passed without giving away the bloody store to the goopers before even starting to “negotiate”. I have absolutely no faith that Ø is about to do anything that will not benefit the corporate powers that be. Ø is a whore, a backstabbing lying fascist whore. Other than that I have no opinion on the bastard.
Happy greedmas all.
There’s only one area in which the administration’s performance has exceeded my expectations: Self-congratulation.
Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.
US KIA Afghanistan: 1,442
US KIA Irak: 4,430
Iraki, Afghan and Pakistani casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M
US MBS 2010: 44,268 and counting
Blue Christmas
Be good to yourselves, and all other living things
Namaste
I am sorry I do not recall…someone having an affair, etc…several were mentioned. Hayward was mentioned;)
And there were several things that haven’t even been brought up: ENDA, the EFCA, help for the 99ers just to name a few. I’m inclined to agree that most of what got done was in exchange for the tax Cuts for Billionaires Act. And DADT? I believe it was supposed to get a vote in exchange but it was never supposed to pass. I don’t think the Repugs expected Collins, Snowe or Brown to flip and they certainly should have factored Murkowski in. I don’t believe she’s as grateful to Democrats who voted for her as she is pissed at the GOP which threw her under the bus but it works out the same in this case. Nope. DADT repeal was supposed to get a vote. THAT was our bone, not actually passing it.
I guess one of the reasons I stopped attending was the hypocrisy of these organizations. They feed the hungry on Christmas (and Thanksgiving). What do the “poor” do the other 363 days a year. Are they supposed to be like camels and engorge themselves these 2 special days a year, and then live off the stored bounty the other 363 days? The self-congratulations and public acknowledgements (via local media feel-good stories) soured me on most of this good Christian ‘charity.’
Worst CEOs of 2010
I’m at my daughter’s and other stuff is going on so I can’t play the clip now, but will save it for later.
Wonderful Jane, always brilliant and beautiful. She nailed it DADT would never have passed without grass roots efforts and Lt Dan Choi.
My UU church (mentioned above) participates with other area churches (this was in the greater Detroit area and I no longer live there) in taking turns housing the homeless overnight for a week, providing transportation to daytime shelters and beds for homeless families. Each participating organization takes a week, as I recall. It has always been an all-church volunteer effort. They also offer a portion of the plate collection to a charity every month.
Jane’s last word was the key: “uncompromising” – that’s why the activists succeeded, in stark contrast to the strategy of caving that we’ve consistently seen from the White House.
Great…sorry I wasn’t more help ;)
One thing that people usually don’t think about when it comes to shelters is that there is a total of one shelter in this entire nation that will house transgendered residents. One. All of the others will turn a homeless transgendered person away. Every. Single. One.
Obama Is Set to Shuffle His Staff
Right. Different faces, same old stale/failed ideas.
Fuck you, Obama
Good morning all, I want to wish you all a good holiday season anyway you celebrate it. Thanks to everyone for allowing me to participate in your group. Thank you for your thoughts and insights into the most important issues of our time. Peace to all.
G’ morning, pups, and Holly Hippo Days.
Tangential– Remember in 2009 when the Dutch and UK centralized financial interests of the international casino put a whole country, Iceland, on a terrorist list in 2009? Well, they’re back: “Dutch Consider Outlawing Calling for a Bank Run.”
Jane is cool. Pretty sharp. And not just by comparison because O’Donnell is a dickhead, either.
Oh shit! Later than I thought! Gotta go tto the butchers, still have stuff to wrap, then go to the ex’s and see the kids. Have a great Christmas!
When will progressives learn. We did not win a fucking thing. Gays were “given” the repeal of DADT, when their rights should never have been abridged. And, it’s bullshit because this equality occurred in a subset of the American population. There are 309 million Americans and less than 2 million Americans in the armed forces. Did gays in the general population get the right to marry or have identical rights of a heterosexual couple?
And, all the bullies charged us for laying off the gays in the military is $850 billion in tax cuts.
BTW, Obama personally still doesn’t endorse gay marriage, he’s “evolving”.
Chumps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ54bKRE0ig
Obama and team have not changed their rhetoric – always coming from the left as they regret the security measures they must do, but also understanding of companies.
They have also not changed their actions – never doing any heavy lifting on any Democratic Party proposals or ideas – as they are just into doing heavy lifting for tax cuts for the rich, modifying Dem proposals like health care into conservative clones of GOP proposals, and Reagan treaty extensions.
But they do a few things that actually cost the rich a few dollars – albeit minimal amounts – as in equal wages for women – so I guess we should vote for Obama in 2012.
The R’s got what they wanted, tax breaks for billionaires and tax breaks to continue off shoring jobs. Obama gave them all that and more. Jane’s right, everything else was because people got in Obama’s face.
Obama is a Democratic party disaster. If that’s the only choice Dems have in 2012, then they’ve already lost the WH and the rest of the Senate.
Four short years to destroy a political party that was completely in charge in 2008. That’s got to be a record.
Jane nails it. My favorite were the 9-11 responders going into Capitol offices of GOP legislators and using their “bully pulpit”. The response to bullies (GOP) is a personal “in your face” confrontation in a relatively safe place like the Capitol in DC.
Jane is correct, however we didn’t get what we wanted. All I want is my country back and a Representative system who votes with those who elect them, not those who have turned this country into an Oligarchy and somehow believe that is the definition of “Free Enterprise”! No such thing.
I agree completely. I think what we are going to see in the first six months of 2011 is going to blow even the most ardent Obamabots out of the water. I think the true scale of the betrayal will become evident, and far too big to either hide or ignore. Unfortunately, it will also be too big to stop. I predict that talk of a primary challenger will go from speculation about “if” to speculation about “who” right quick.
I couldn’t agree more! This trick is a republicrat!
I urge progressive thinking Americans to consider a voter revolt at the first sign, in the new year, of this incompetent turning to run again from his sworn duty to lead! This is criminal what he is doing to this country in tandem with Bush.
How sad for America. Black days are coming. The political class needs to be disconnected.
Jarrett is nothing.
She is just a Obama voice with no genuine ideas.