Morning, BT.

Good Morning Everyone,

That military, “bracing for cuts,” is going to need to be paid for you know. Expect them to request and get whatever that amount is.

Good Morning, All. Looks like we are a little slow this morning…the debt question and the players have gotten very tiresome, in addition to scary….No way to start the day, seems to me.

Eating your peas, RevBev?

Folks rushing to do Obama’s bidding – Pelosi saying good ideas in Gang of 6 – refusing to be critical of any specific provision, MSNBC saying the Hill is racing to comply with Obama’s wishes, as the NY Times and others report Wall Street is now placing its economic bets, and the fellow that knows the outcome because he has more control than Obama, namely Grover Norquist, tells CNN on Wednesday that a likely deal will mean “the president will get less money than he wanted, the Republicans will get less spending cuts than they wanted, but it won’t raise anybody’s taxes.”

Got to love the dance.

Morning all, Any truth to the WH coming out with a recipe book for catfood.

Go Grover! Go Eric!

Looks like that’s the order of the day, doesn’t it?

I can see it now, we run the debt ceiling question to the last second. The Congress and President are forced to “act decisive” and then they do all the horrible things that they are currently waffling around now. They will say “They had little choice and that they couldn’t allow the country to default on their obligations to their creditors..” So, they were being responsible in being irresponsible with the long-term care and treatment of its people.

They will say, “They had no choice. It had to be done.” or “What was their alternative?”

Why do we even think for one second it isn’t going to play out this way? They get all their drama and get to show how tough they all are, but in the end, the only people who are going to lose, are the people as a whole.

The millionaires will be OK. The corporate interests will be OK. We’ll continue to outsource our economy as quickly as possible and not understand why tax cuts do not equate to a restoration of mainstreet.

It is so sad, but it is obvious.

Mr. “Gotta be an adult” Obama is going to screw the people for the betterment of the rich and say he had “no choice”.

Also, great day everyone.. 30 year old shuttle program killed. All those folks in at the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers will be losing their jobs this week. Congratulations, we’ve now lost the ability for manned space flight and all the flexibility the shuttle program gave us. Thanks Obama! /sarcasm

Serving size is the key. Serving size.

The threat of a catastrophic default that will wreck the economy is pure blackmail, just like the similar threat from the big financial institutions preceding the TARP giveaway in 2008-9. The scale of the blackmail (trillions of dollars) is similar in amount. The devastating effects on the economy from this massive contraction of spending in the midst of a depression will be as great or greater than with TARP. The true enemy of a prosperous, equitable economy turns out once again to be the corporate “centrists” of both parties.

Nice: Bloomberg gives Sierra Club $50 million, if Im hearing correctly. To work against coal power plants….

Mornin’, BT, pups

I’m just waitin’ to see what this bunch of fools comes up with. I was gonna say clown circus but that would have been an insult to clown circuses.

A little truffle oil and a nice Riesling and we’re talking good eats.

Morning all,

Military officials said they are girding for the possibility that they will have to reduce projected spending by as much as $800 billion over the next 12 years

Girding ? Girding, the idiots that run the military who have run this country into financial ruin with their imaginary boogy men enemies and constant threat from their blowback should do with just enough to defend the country inside it’s boarders. On 9-11 we learned for a billion dollars a day we couldn’t protect out command and control center, the pentagon ?

!0 % cut in military projected spending for ten years for our social security.? Doesn’t sound social or sane to fund these military mad men at 90% of current levels, how about a 75% cut back on the mindless military and 100% cut back in the stupid wars.

Weddings only.

Wonder if those military officials could be replaced by some serious peacemakers….they probably work for much less, and we could quit attacking everyone who may be different from us.

Cenk on why he’s not on MSNBC any more.

jane called out obama yesterday, she said “it’s interesting when the republicans handed a debt ceiling without strings he turned it down” or something like that

I think we can get the ball rolling now, or at least try getting people recognizing the wolf in our midst.

(WARNING; shameless plug ensues) as I mention in in my latest diary; we are all firebaggers now

off to work, c all L8tr

Bernie Sanders just said on the Bill Press radio program that the “plan” of the 6 gangsters will institutionalize trickle down And this is the plan Obama supports.

since it’s obama who will have a say, I do believe we are talking about cheney and the mustache

Exactly what I’ve been saying all along. Manufacture a crisis and then use that to screw the people while giving the rich tax cuts.
Same things as with the bailouts.
Been seeing this dance for several years now and it’s gotten very OLD!

I believe I can document that I was the very first person to point out that obama is a trickle down economist.

from his first program I noted that his idea of “stimulous” was to give it to the top in the rediculous “hope” that more would make it’s ways to jobs then if he simply supplied jobs with that same money.

Bernie on the “Gang of Six” plan.

Michelle in SoCarolina; says she accepted Jesus Christ at 15 yrs old; rally closed with a prayer….a bit of coverage about husband’s clinic.
Enthusiastic crowd…..Is she going to be the Pres’ opponent?

Here’s a little push hback on the debt ceiling “debate.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/21/progressive-groups-debt-ceiling_n_905264.html

I do not think Cheney is the peacemaker I had in mind…I think he got us here…

Vote for Obama and continue the present course. Vote for Bachman and continue the present course without brakes. Some choice. I actually think a Republican in the WH might actually get people into the streets.

that was my point though rev

Perhaps with Perry in the mix….looking more likely.

I think I got it….Just such a terrible thought; I wanted to note his role is getting us here. Not to mention we hardly know if he is still alive. what a guy.;)

Phil Griffin? Didn’t he disappear a lot of “outsiders” from appearing on his corporate owned broadcast. In Cenk’s version, Griffin is the total stereotype of corporate censorship. Griffin even admits to be Gatekeeper of the Establishment and the White House.

Cenk wins the Street Cred, and is “cool”.

Speaking on his “Young Turks” show, Uygur said that, though the ratings for his show had been satisfying MSNBC executives, his “tone” had not. According to his version of events, his departure from the network was the culmination of a lnegthy struggle with MSNBC management who wanted him to be more buttoned down.

Uygur said that, in April, MSNBC president Phil Griffin called him in for a talk. Griffin allegedly told him that “people in Washington” were concerned with his tone on the show.
“‘Outsiders are cool, but we’re the establishment,’” Griffin said, according to Uygur, who said he was also told to book more Republicans on the show. He claimed to have been stunned by the conversation, and said he ignored Griffin’s advice.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Afghanistan: 1,676

US KIA Irak: 4,474

Iraki, Afghan and Pakistani casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M

US MBS 2011: 24,924 and counting

Heart Full of Soul

No war but class war

Never. Give. Up.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things

Namaste

Why can’t Obama just cut defense back to Clinton levels to get his $3.79 trillion savings over 10 years?

When one includes all military related spending including veterans benefits we are currently at $1.5 trillion a year – and that excludes the hidden monies for” intel”.

Under Clinton we had 265,000 American troops in 135 countries, as Army divisions dropped from 18 to 10, and our Air Force had 20 fighter wings (active and reserve). The Navy had 324 ships with the Clinton Administrations blueprint calling for a further drop to 305, and today we have 286 ships, but its Battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. It has the world’s largest carrier fleet, with 11 in service, one under construction (two planned), and one in reserve, as it claims to need 11 aircraft carriers (having only 10 until the Gerald R. Ford is ready for service), but Defense Secretary Robert Gates has questioned this 11 carrier need, and there is pressure to cancel the Navy’s next-generation ballistic-missile submarine.

The Air Force is facing renewed doubts about its futuristic long-range bomber. And the Army is worried that it will have to shrink the size of its active-duty force even further; the number of soldiers is already planned to drop from 569,000 to 520,000 over the next five years.

The Obama/Gang of 6 suggested $80 billion annual defense budget cut over 10 years is trivial given GW Bush raising the defense budget by 379 billion dollars per year to fight two tiny countries we plan to be out of soon. Gates proposed more than $800 over 10 years and keeping GW Bush levels rather than Clinton levels means $3.79 trillion dollars more in 10 years. The defense budget will consume $6.9 trillion dollars over the next 10 years if no changes are made.

But Obama can’t take a sharp pencil to the above, and instead must chase the aged and sick in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Democrats that follow Obama must be defeated in 2012.

Good for Cenkk!

I reviewed the military spending above – it is crazy that all they can find is less than $80 billion a year after increasing the military budget by $379 billion a year over Clinton levels.

Amen. Really proud of Cenk. Might actually pay for The Young Turks as result. Was worried about his credibility going to MSNBC.

Glenn Greenwald gets in Obama’s face about his cutting classic Democratic programs like Social Security:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jul/21/barack-obama-social-security-cuts

Thanks for the link. Glenzilla tells it like it is.

Jane commenteded on perris’ diary that the name “progressive” has been co-opted by the neoliberals. Fine, they can have it. Those of us on the left can say, “we are revolutionaries now.”

I’ll be writing in Sanders if those are my choices. The country can go to he!! in a handbasket without my help thank you.

O/T I happened to watch the Ed Sow last night and he hammered the President and Democrats saying they are the ones pushing for the cuts tot he big 3. I wonder how long he will be at MSNBC.

Only took until the 12 o’clock news to see your prediction come true.

Seems the Gang of 6 plan was too left wing for Obama (too much in military cuts, too little screwing of the aged and sick, too much tax, not enough in tax cuts for the rich and corporate – so he and Boehner have come together on a plan the House will love and the Dems must role over for because it is an emergency – Obama has notified the Dem leadership of the coming plan – but will not release details because he does not want the left trying to stop him.

Not saying this was planned days ago, but the NYT (The New York Times) CARL HULSE and JACKIE CALMES had a nice write up ready to go this morning.

But the good news is he did not fold – there are still minor tax increases .