Who's gonna pay? ...

Such a question:

Here's what this all comes down to, dogma or no dogma: who is going to pay for a) the Bush tax cuts b) the bank bailouts and c) the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? If you want to get there by making janitors and pipe-fitters wait until they're 69 to retire, raise your hand. If you want to get there by making Jamie Dimon rent out his 900-foot rooftop terrace in Chicago two nights a year, raise your hand. [via The Left Coaster]

Guess, as if it's not absolutely clear, who Obama wants to carry the load. The 'good' Christian that he is he even calls it a sacrifice. Yours, not his, of course.

Right, after all they only had two years ...

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal Could Become Victim of Senate Calendar

If they had four years do you think they would have done any better? I don't.

I, personally, don't think Obama ever intended to fight for anything that would show actual belief in even a few principles or would require sustained effort, determination and possibly some courage.

Two years seems long enough to 'hope' for something other than Obama's usual ineptitude and/or deceit.

All the authoritarians are piddling in their pants about WikiLeads ...

If any one event epitomizes what an ugly gangster-like bully the US has become it is the concerted and lawless threats to and actions taken against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

Some of the cowardly and shameful behaviour by those acting in the name of and for the US is listed the Glenn Greenwalds post: The lawless Wild West attacks WikiLeaks

Still true ...

Closer to the Fall-of-Rome comparison that we'd like to think ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Exactly ...

Please Mr. President, don't spew any more nonsense about principles and the rule of law, OK? You are enabling torture, and have fallen so far down the chasm from your campaign rhetoric, that you'll soon be bumping into your predecessor as you hit bottom.

When no one will listen, you try to make them hear you any way you can ...

Glenn Greenwald's writing is among the best of those who actually understand how the Democrats managed to shoot themselves in the foot (or was it the head).

from Lawrence O'Donnell vehemently denies his own word

People are suffering economically and Democrats have done little about that. Beyond that, they failed to inspire their own voters to go to the polls. Therefore, they lost. By basing their power in Congress on Blue Dog dependence -- rather than advocating for the views of their own supporters and implementing those policies -- they failed, and failed resoundingly. Building their party around a large number of muddled, GOP-replicating corporatists not only creates a tepid and failed political image, but far worse, it prevents actual policies from being implemented that benefit large number of ordinary Americans. Democrats repeatedly refrained from advocating for such policies in deference to their Blue Dogs, failed to do much to alleviate the economic suffering of ordinary Americans, and thus got crushed. Anyone who thinks that Democrats lost because they were "too liberal" -- rather than because Americans are suffering so much economically -- is wildly out of touch, i.e., is a multi-millionaire cable TV personality who has spent decades wallowing in trite D.C. chatter.

The Republicans have long lived by what they call "The Buckley Rule": always support the furthest Right candidate who can plausibly win. This year, knowing that it would be a wave election, one that would sweep in huge numbers of Republicans in districts where they ordinarily couldn't get elected, they changed that to: support the furthest Right candidate, period. That's because they believe conservatism will work and want to advocate for it. Democrats don't do that. The DCCC constantly works to prop up the most "centrist" or conservative candidates -- i.e., corporatists -- on the ground that it's always better, more politically astute, to move to the Right. Even in the pro-Democratic wave years of 2006 and 2008, the Democratic Party blocked actual progressives and ensured that Blue Dogs were nominated, even though the anti-GOP sentiment was so strong that any Democrat, including progressives, could have won even in red districts (as Alan Grayson proved).

With that strategy, the Democratic Party now reaps what it has sown. Its message and identity are profoundly muddled, incoherent, unclear, uninspiring, and self-negating. Worse, its policies are mishmashes of inept half-measures that, with a handful of exceptions, produce little good for anyone (other than Wall Street, the Pentagon and other corporate interests). They are perceived as -- and are -- beholden to Wall Street, special interests, and the corporations they vowed to confront. They are without any ability to confront the massive unemployment crisis and financial decline the country faces. And as a result of all of that, they lay in shambles. Anyone who can survey all of that and cheer for the strategy which Democrats have been pursuing -- let's build our majorities by relying on GOP-replicating corporatist Blue Dogs -- or who thinks that this election loss happened because "Democrats are too liberal," resides in a world that has very little to do with reality. And that's true no matter how many times they repeat the simplistic snippets of exit polls to which they've obsessively attached themselves.

Medicare Part D ... not that the T-bags will leave even this much for us in the future!

Decided I needed a new prescription plan. AARP's plan not only has continued to increase in price by leaps and bounds but they play games with liquid medications (such as eye drops) so that one pays for a full months prescription for what only lasts 25 days. Little things like that make them so endearing. I'm sure the T-bags just luv them. It's so free market.

... after all we're here for the rich to get richer off our labor ... no one even pretends anymore that society is a construct for mutual support, mutual survival and well being ...

Back to Medicare Part D and looking for a new Prescription Drug Plan. I visited the medicare.gov web site. Cumbersome but full of information.

Picked two plans to ask for information to be sent to me in the mail. First one was Humana Walmart-Preferred Rx Plan. Called a few days ago and asked for info over the phone but didn't give them my name. Today I called and asked them to send me information and they took name and address and said they would sent me info.

Humana was so straight forward (contact wise, not necessarily Drug Plan-wise) that I was lured into complacency.

Second call brought me up short. I called Advantage Star Plan by RxAmerica (1-800-429-6686). A 'sweet & kindly' male voice answers the phone and tells me I've made the right choice to call. I ignore being treated like a demented rabbit and ask that they send me information about their plan. He continues to speak softly to me and assures me that they would gladly send me the information and that he will just ask me a few questions. I say that I don't want any questions, just the information mailed to me. More soft talk about asking a few questions first. I say all you need is my name and address to send me information about your plan in the mail, isn't that right? He's says (sadly, I swear) "No, ma'm." I say I'm not interested in dealing with you people in that case. I assume he cried when I hung up.

Bush supporters and Obama supporters ...

... just two groups of peas in a pod.

... endorsing civil liberties abuses because one's own Party is in power virtually ensures that those abuses will become permanent, available to future leaders from the other Party as well. That was the argument which fell on deaf ears when made to cheering Bush supporters, and it's barely more effective now.

Class warfare? Who says ...

From health care to education to mass transit to Social Security, if a government program helps those in need, Republicans oppose it. They will support tax cuts targeted for the wealthy, while opposing tax cuts targeted for those that aren't wealthy. The Republicans clearly have an overall ideology, and it is reflected throughout their agenda. Which isn't class warfare. But calling them on it is.

[Turkana at The Left Coaster]

Barack Obama, The Unjust ...

... following in George Bush's shoes. The short-lived pied-piper of 'hope' emulating the poster boy of hate, stupidity and ugliness:

Obama era justice

Another MUST READ from ...

Glenn Greenwald: Times Square bomber: Cause and effect in the War on Terror

Instead of 'Do to others what you would have them do to you' the US has turned The Golden Rule inside out. The US does onto them then is surprised when they do back at us.

If we had a few more thinkers in policy making positions, instead of the creeping and creepy militarists that we seem to be overrun with, they would have figured out that the US's behavior is not only the reverse of The Golden Rule it is also begging for a violent response.

Not that we are alone in history in taking this path. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor it was warning us to stay out of the their way. It did the opposite.

So the US is proceeding down one road while claiming to be going down another. Who benefits from this? Not most of the worlds' or even the US's population ...

Well, why would Obama care if Israel goes around killing Americans ...

The fact that a 19-year-old American citizen was one of the dead -- among those whom the report concluded was "summarily executed" by the Israelis -- makes the U.S. Government's silence here all the more appalling. One of the prime duties of a government is to safeguard the welfare of its own citizens. It's inconceivable for most governments in the world to remain silent in the face of formal findings that a foreign nation "summarily executed" one of its own citizens. ...

Why would Obama care if Israel goes around killing Americans ... or anyone else for that matter. Since Obama, himself, believes in killing Americans on his say so alone and definitely believes, as did George Bush, that killing around the world is what the US is entitled to do, then what can be the big deal about these violent, demented and illegal Israeli executions of civilians. Aren't the worst of the Israelis the people we've been emulating for decades now?

In his short time in office, Obama has shown that he cares about nothing except making nice with the rich, the powerful and the nuttiest of those calling themselves Christians.

--- ADDED ---
Oh, the irony!

This USA Today article, proudly touting the increased efforts of the U.S. Government to track down and punish war criminals (provided, of course, that they're not American) ...

I no longer expect anything approaching justice or even sense from Obama ...

... the Obama Administration, by and through the actions of their Department of Justice, have proven that their current rhetoric about being dedicated to ending DADT is as empty as their similar campaign promises were hollow. Yet day after day, the Administration wonders why those on the left are unhappy and chastises them for not clapping loudly enough heading into midterm elections where turnout of the base is critical. Tin ear does not begin to describe this arrogance.

Wonderful ...

Atheists have turned the other cheek. Christians have called this a nasty plagiarism.

To keep you entertained, Obama, the manipulator, keeps the Elizabeth Warren non-appointment going and going and going ...

Warren Appointment: Encouraging, But a Big Incomplete

Will he or won't he? Oh, the suspense ...

Finally, someone asks the $64,000 dollar question ...

Why Should I Care? Leaders Lack Good Reasons to Vote For Democrats – or Against Republicans

And the answer IS ... there is really not much reason to care. 99.9% of the individuals we elect have made it clear that they take their orders from the corporate world and not from the voters.

Obama made the outrages that Bush pushed on the nation permanent.

The US has come along way down this road ... it's questionable whether we have the fortitude to walk this back.

Banana republic here we come ... oh wait ...

How Revolutionary Oligarchs Seize Power

The United States of Inequality

... ouch, seems we have arrived.

A must read ...

Who We Are: Zeitoun and Camp Greyhound Five Years On

Shhhhhh, don't point out the monsters among us ...

Glenn Greenwald responds to the woolly thinkers who counsel we make nice to those who's goal is to take control of this country by any means.

In what universe is it "obscene" to compare the architects of the Iraq War, the torture regime, and endless War with Muslims "to killers and terrorists"? The comparison is true by definition. The people who launched the attack on Iraq are guilty of an aggressive war -- what the Nuremberg prosecutors condemned as the "kingpin crime" that "holds together" all other war crimes -- which killed hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings, turned millions more into refugees, and destroyed an entire nation. The aptly named "Shock and Awe" was designed to terrify an entire civilian population into submission. John Podhoretz criticized the brutal assault on Fallujah for failing to exterminate all "Sunni men between the ages of 15 and 35," while his father has spent years agitating for a devastating military attack on Iran. At least 100 War on Terror detainees in American custody died as a result of their treatment, tens of thousands more (including clearly innocent ones) were put in cages for years with no due process (where many remain), and as recent mosque-related controversies reveal, a substantial portion of the American population craves a religious war with Islam. And that's to say nothing of the acts of other countries which this faction supports: from mauling an imprisoned population in Gaza and attacking a harmless, civilian ship in international waters to propping up some of the most oppressive tyrannies on the planet, including many in the Muslim world.

Sometimes, one's political opponents are "monsters" -- or at least engage in genuinely monstrous acts -- and what's morally offensive is not those who point this out, but rather those who insist that the comparison not be uttered on the jingoistic ground of shared nationality. ...

...

The endless, destructive War on Terror depends -- like most wars do -- on a cartoonish demonization of the Enemy as something utterly foreign, inhuman, and subject to entirely different drives than Us. Moulitsas' book, at its best, destroys that rotted premise by highlighting the many similarities between Them and Us. Because that similarity is a great taboo -- perhaps the greatest taboo -- it has triggered all sorts of outrage: outrage that is actually a testament to the value of the argument he makes.

Social Security ...

Do the Democrats have the courage and staying power to carry out what Jane Hamsher outlines?

Bob Shrum is an establishment party figure willing to speak the hard truth: the Democrats can only save themselves by running against the plans that Obama and the Catfood Commission have for cutting Social Security benefits.

But Democrats will need to convince the base that this effort is not just another half-hearted replay of the health care fight. The embarrassing lack of conviction they have shown for ending the war, fighting for a decent health care bill, standing up to the banks or the pharmaceutical industry or any other issue they fought for fiercely when it didn’t matter is just not going to cut it.

If the Democrats want to win their seats back in November, Social Security could very well be the ticket. But they will need to fight hard and fight smart, and ruffle a whole lot of feathers. Because until their willingness to shake up the party over this issue becomes the story, nobody is going to care.

It would take work, organization and intelligence and the willingness to stop following the weasels in Obama's administration. Now that would be something to care about. But don't expect it to happen ...

Looking back ...

In my twenties (smack-dab in the '60's) I would never, ever have believed that the following quotes (posted today by Oly Mike at The Left Coaster) could be so relevant when applied to my country.

"History is replete with examples of empires
mounting impressive military campaigns on the
cusp of their impending economic collapse."
-- Eric Alterman

"Fascism will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a bible."
-- Sinclair Lewis
(1885-1951)

"Most people prefer to believe that their leaders are just and fair, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which he lives is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one's self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all."
-- Michael Rivero
(1952- ) Composer, production engineer

And the agent of change is merely a history-repeater.

It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man's character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible.
- Mark Twain

Obama ...

... telegraphed all along that he believed in Reaganism more than he believed in liberalism, and that's why he's governing like a jackass.

Barack Obama and the very bizarre Alan Simpson ...

Of course the real question is why on earth did the administration pull this cadaverous joker out of his own cushy, federally funded retirement to head up the ill-conceived deficit commission in the first place? The only generous reason I can think of is that someone thought that he would sabotage it, but there's no evidence they want to do that. And in this era of batshit insane politics, counting on some right wing kook to discredit anything is a very risky thing to do --- even they must know that.

So you have to assume that Simpson's fulfilling his designated role. He will make a deal. All he asks is that the geezer parasites, current and future get it out of their heads once and for all that this society should provide some basic security for everyone.

Why did Obama appoint Simpson? Why does he forgive his stupidities and his prejudices?

Because Simpson is doing what Obama wants? Attempting, once again, to destroy Social Security. If you catch their drift they want to shush those who are already on SS up by convincing them that they will be left unscathed in the bloodletting. ---Just believe us. We aren't after you right now so keep quiet and you might be safe til you die, though we don't guarantee we won't help that along later.--- It's the way dictators divide the peons in order to keep different factions from joining forces.

Now that's a zinger ...

... There is anti-Americanism and radicalism in Yemen; therefore, to solve that problem, we're going to bomb them more with flying killer robots, because nothing helps reduce anti-American sentiments like slaughtering civilians and dropping cluster bombs from the sky. ...

Communism, fascism and democracy ...

Communism and fascism seem to me to have the same ultimate result: making sure workers are completely under the control of management. It seems to make little difference whether management is the government, the party or private industry. Effective slavery is the result.

The US has always had it's proponents for the complete control of workers. But with the T-Bags it's coming to the fore with draconian, or Dicksonian, ferver.

NY Tea Party Platform: Relocate Welfare Recipients to Prison Dorms

____________
ADDED:
The parallels between the T-Bags increasing attacks on all things muslim is too close to Hitler's sadistically incremental attacks on Jews in Germany for comfort.

The "mosque" debate is not a "distraction"

____________
ADDED II:
emptywheel writes:

Treasury’s attitude about HAMP is not just evidence they’ve lost all track of who they work for and where the benefits of the economy are supposed to be delivered, but it also suggests that these Treasury folks have lost the most basic notion of capitalism, that if businessmen never pay for bad decisions, they’ll continue to make bad decisions.

I beg to differ. Treasury, as does Obama himself, believe they work for the banksters and other powerful industries.

Elected officials still have to play the election game but money and the corporate controlled media are able to effect sufficient numbers of election campaigns. And when they fail, there's always the Supreme Court who can choose to appoint an embarrassment like Bush to reside in the WH.

Obama, it appears, gave acceptable assurances to the banksters (and others) before he was elected. To get the votes Obama aimed his promises at the fair minded, the liberals, the progressives, the unions, those interested in a responsive and fair government, those who were against these unending wars.

What did Obama do once he was elected? He appointed people who failed to recognize, or actually contributed to, the financial problems of the country. He continued most of Bush's disastrous war and torture policies. He took care to insult most of those who voted for him. His actions and policies appear taken in response to the desires the Robber Barons and the actions of the Crazies.

Everyone has blind spots ...

... but most of us don't have to defend them on video. Howard Dean seems to me to blindly miss the point while thinking Glenn Greenwald (whose position I mostly agree with) is the one who is missing the point:

Video discussion with Gov. Howard Dean

I think I do see into what terms (local zoning) Dean is attempting to constrain the issue. I just don't think it can be constrained. The pressure is on for one group to give up, or have taken away, their --I believe already approved--- plans because a bunch of mostly non-affected US citizens see it as an issue they can make waves with.

Obamination ...

... The only “change” most Americans might experience is a reduction in their Social Security benefits from a President currently presiding over one of the most regressive wealth transfers in history. ...

Excuse me, but ...

Glenn Greenwald writes:

... Barack Obama sent the bust [of Winston Churchill] back to Britain because "his Kenyan grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was imprisoned without trial for two years and tortured on Churchill's watch, for resisting Churchill's empire."

Well I'm OK with that. Making a point about injustice is a worthwhile endeavor.

But, I have to ask, Obama. Is it only injustices to your father that matter? What about all those individuals that the US captured and/or kidnapped and imprisoned without trial and tortured for resisting US actions. This is still going on. The US is doing some of the same things that Churchill did? Haven't you noticed?

And the cowardly WH bumps along ...

Playing the CFPB Nomination Game

Will they or wont they nominate Elizabeth Warren?
Will they or wont they appoint Elizabeth Warren?
If I enjoyed soap operas this could be such a wonderful Dawn Johnsen re-run.

George Bush and Barack Obama ...

So, there's no similarity between Bush and Obama? Then how to explain that Obama appears to emulate many of Bush's worst actions?

What We Stand For

Yesterday was a stark reminder that instead of closing the book on the Bush-era military commissions, President Obama is adding another sad chapter to that history. Although President Obama promised transparency and sharp limits on the use of tortured and coerced statements against the accused, at Guantánamo today one military judge ordered that a sentence be kept secret from the public and another military judge allowed statements obtained by abuse and coercion of a 15-year-old to be used at trial.

...

It boggles the mind that the military judge could find that Khadr was not coerced and gave these statements to interrogators voluntarily. Khadr, then 15 years old, was taken to Bagram near death, after being shot twice in the back, blinded by shrapnel, and buried in rubble from a bomb blast. He was interrogated within hours, while sedated and handcuffed to a stretcher. He was threatened with gang rape and death if he didn't cooperate with interrogators. He was hooded and chained with his arms suspended in a cage-like cell, and his primary interrogator was later court-martialed for detainee abuse leading to the death of a detainee. During his subsequent eight-year (so far) detention at Guantánamo, Khadr was subjected to the "frequent flyer" sleep deprivation program and he says he was used as a human mop after he was forced to urinate on himself.

...

Any decent person can see that what has been done to Omar Khadr is an injustice. But Obama continued and expanded the bizarro world of Bush where these injustices just keep going on and on.

So much for 'America' ...

And what about the economy’s future? Everything we know about economic growth says that a well-educated population and high-quality infrastructure are crucial. ...

Back to the feudal and serfdom ...

--------------
More:

What collapsing empire looks like by Glenn Greenwald

and

Gauging the Mood of the Country by Carolyn C, firedoglake.com

Carolyn C writes:

"Then Greenwald adds, "The real question is whether the American public is too apathetic and trained into submission for that to ever happen."

"Trained into submission" may be correct, but apathetic is a misconception.

Carolyn C documents cases of expressed anger and some of the, in my opinion mostly irrational, responses they have to such overwhelming anger and frustration.

Trained into submission does certainly appear to apply from Carolyn C's examples. Most of these people seem to be channeling their anger at their fellows, their relatives, and those in more precarious straights but not in any effective way against those who caused their situation.

Truth be told ...

The private, for-profit health insurance companies will always be the enemies of true health care reform. The problem is that they are a pure waste in the system. They are the financial equivalent of a parasite. ...

But then, we don't really want this much truth, do we Obama?

Oh, the pride we claim as a nation of independent, courageous and freedom loving souls ...

How does the image of a nation of shorn sheep strike you?

... The loss of privacy is entirely one-way. Government and corporate authorities have destroyed most vestiges of privacy for you, while ensuring that they have more and more for themselves. The extent to which you're monitored grows in direct proportion to the secrecy with which they operate. Sir Francis Bacon's now platitudinous observation that "knowledge itself is power" is as true as ever. That's why this severe and always-growing imbalance is so dangerous, even to those who are otherwise content to have themselves subjected to constant monitoring.

Before I die ... I wish the U.S. would recall its brain.

With the T-bags and their GOP bosses and the compliant and complicit press, getting reason back into the atmosphere appears highly unlikely.

From Oly Mike at The Left Coaster I read:

The NYT has a story about the new US strategy to switch to targeted killings of Taliban leaders.

And the stupid keeps rolling along ...

mmmm ...

From the mouths of the intelligent ...

I would certainly think that if liberal cheerleading is valuable they would at least refrain from using liberals as a doormat every time they want to appease some conservadem princeling. Depending on supporters' masochism probably isn't a great strategy.

And any adult should know that angrily exhorting someone to love you doesn't actually work.

Obama, are you listening? ...

Even though I was not enthusiastic about Obama as the Democratic nominee for President, I NEVER thought he would take ahold of some of the worst of Bush and Cheney and make it the norm for both political parties.

... How ironic that Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, is persecuting a former child soldier, using him to validate his own version of the executive’s kangaroo court military commissions, while Omar Khadr himself looks for meaning and hope in the example of the great civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.

Does Obama identify with the civil rights struggles of the '50s and '60s? I doubt it. I don't think concepts are more than words to Obama. Justice, rights, independence, humanity, health, welfare, fairness, law. To Obama words have no meaning except in their use to justify actions that please the powerful and the wealthy. Everyone else should believe that he 'understands' and 'sympathises' but that they should pull themselves up by their broken bootstraps and be grateful for the honor of handing over their country to the wealthy few.

Sign of the times? ...

Equity?

"The articles of Equity are three:

"I. The balance of power among the people being very much deranged, by one having too much and another nothing, we hereby resolve ourselves into a congress or court of equity, to restore as far as in us lies the said natural balance of power, by taking from all who have too much as much of the said too much as we can lay our hands on; and giving to those who have nothing such a portion thereof as it may seem to us expedient to part with.

My, once we have all the equity we can take perhaps we will share it a little, perhaps, maybe.

The above quote is from Maid Marion by Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866), Gutenberg.org, EBook #966.

I'm about half way through Peacock's version of the legend. There's so much more there than what Hollywood passed on.

Well, that's a surprise isn't it?
--------------------------------

Oh, mustn't leave out the the 2nd article of Legitimacy.

"II. Our government being legitimate, all our proceedings shall be legitimate: wherefore we declare war against the whole world, and every forester is by this legitimate declaration legitimately invested with a roving commission, to make lawful prize of every thing that comes in his way.

Has a sorta Bush-ian ring to it, doesn't it? I think it appeals to Obama also from what I've seen.

Closer to the Fall-of-Rome comparison that we'd like to think ...

digby writes:

By the way, in case you haven't heard, the congress passed yet another "emergency" war supplemental last night. After listening to a bunch of tripe for weeks about having to offset costs to extend unemployment benefits, and watching teachers all over the country be fired for lack of funds, that vote may be the single most illustrative move we've seen yet to illustrate that the fall of Rome comparisons are not as far fetched as we like to think.

We've been close for some time now and were seemingly offered a chance to 'change' our destructive ways by an apparently intelligent young politician who has turned out to be (surprise?) just another political hack who does what his financial/industrial/military controllers want him to do.

He calls himself a new kind of Democrat as he pursues the same course we've been following for 30+ years. That's the kind of 'new' that only exists in marketing campaigns.

And he worries about his legacy!

My God, we're a nation of fluff.

What happened to substance? Should substance exist still in any hidden cranny of our political world the press will be sure to stamp it out by ridiculing the good, praising the corrupt and channeling innuendo and lies.

What we've got is a new kind of improved marketing campaign kind of president. Welcome to America!

Obama and WikiLeaks ...

Why, oh why, did Obama choose to take on Bush-the-Stupid's war and make it his own?

Now as A-Great-War-President, Obama's takes the usual approach that these types of illustrious leaders reflexively glom on to for a war --or other detrimental policy-- gone bad:

• increase the war effort (more troops, more money, more hype), and
• shut those damn truth-tellers up!

So again, I ask, how is Obama different from Bush?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

As Glenn Greenwald writes:

It's hardly a shock that the war in Afghanistan is going far worse than political officials have been publicly claiming. Aside from the fact that lying about war is what war leaders do almost intrinsically -- that's part of what makes war so degrading to democratic values -- there have been numerous official documents that have recently emerged or leaked out that explicitly state that the war is going worse than ever and is all but unwinnable. ... [emphasis added]

Greenwald also points to this post by Jay Rosen. It's one of Rosen's better posts and a must read:

The Afghanistan War Logs Released by Wikileaks, the World's First Stateless News Organization

Shirley Sherrod ...

Impressive lady ... but notice it appears they did not actually offer her HER JOB back. They offered her a different job.

That has the appearance of taking her back, putting her somewhere out of the way and getting her to stop impressing people at their expense.

Right wing want ... Obama do!

Let’s see, Dawn Johnsen, Van Jones, ACORN, Liz Warren, Shirley Sherrod, . . . unions, women, hispanics, LGBT, the unemployed, . . . It’s almost as though there were a White House insider deliberately trying to drive people away from the Democratic Party and discredit this Administration. . . .”

This really shouldn't be a surprise by now. The Obama administration is so terrified of right-wing lies and liars that they will try to stop the lies by instantly complying to the lastest crazy right wing stated desire. This, of course, causes the right wing crazies to up the ante instead of the reverse.

This 'democratic' WH can never succeed since their obvious goal is to keep the craziest republicans happy.

Another Obama dud ...

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske.

This individual thinks that legalizing marijuana 'would [ ] see a black market that would come into play!'

Right, legalization would create a black market. What does this Obama appointee think we have now?

----
source:Drug Czar Warns of “Black Market” for Marijuana by Michael Whitney, firedoglake.com

The only reason to cut or eliminate SS and Medicare ...

... if cuts are proposed and enacted in Social Security and Medicare, they will hurt millions, weaken the economy, and the deficits will not decline. It’s a lose-lose proposition, with no gainers except a few predatory funds, insurance companies and such who would profit, for some time, from a chaotic private marketplace. [emphasis added]

-- Galbraith Blasts Alan Simpson: He “Lacks the Temperment to Do a Fair and Impartial Job” on Deficit Commission by Jane Hamsher, firedoglake.com

And our day-late and dollar-short 'democratic' President, the O-Bomb, is doing all he can to help the destruction along.

Nothing good ...

... That's what is 'says' about us!

... the thesis of the article is that electric torture devices only become popular in democratic societies where police are constrained in how much cruelty they can inflict. What exactly does that say about us?

-- Shocking Reflections by digby

The Case of Inverted Reasoning ...

Dave concedes that the NAACP has a case, but concludes that they're wrong for making it. But they're only wrong for making it because the broader society, evidently, believes that objecting to a call for literacy tests is, in fact, just as racist as a call for literacy tests. This inversion, this crime against sound logic, is at the heart of American white supremacy, and at the heart of a country that has nurtured white supremacy all these sad glorious years.

It is the Founders claiming all men are created equal while building a democracy on property in human beings. It is Confederates crying tyranny, while erecting a country based on tyranny. It is Sherman discriminating against black soldiers, while claiming that his superiors are discriminating against whites. It's Ben Tillman justifying racial terrorism, by claiming that he's actually fighting against terrorism. It is George Wallace defending a system built on bombing children in churches, and then asserting that the upholders of that system are "the greatest people to ever trod this earth." [emphasis added]

Those who employ racism are not in the habit of confessing their nature--inversion is their cloak. Cutting out the cancer means confronting that inversion, means not wallowing in on-the-other-handism, in post-racialism, means seeing this as more than some kind of political game. Someone has, indeed, failed here. It is not the NAACP.

-- The NAACP Is Right, Cont. by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

Teabagger redux? ...

" ... the rest were slaves in fact, but without the name; they imagined themselves men and freemen, and called themselves so. The truth was, the nation as a body was in the world for one object, and one only: to grovel before king and Church and noble; to slave for them, sweat blood for them, starve that they might be fed, work that they might play, drink misery to the dregs that they might be happy, go naked that they might wear silks and jewels, pay taxes that they might be spared from paying them, be familiar all their lives with the degrading language and postures of adulation that they might walk in pride and think themselves the gods of this world. And for all this, the thanks they got were cuffs and contempt; and so poor-spirited were they that they took even this sort of attention as an honor."

-- A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT by MARK TWAIN (Samuel L. Clemens) Part 2., Chapter 8

To empathize is to civilize. To civilize is to empathize.

Is there still hope for the planet ... and us ...
via Mary at The Left Coaster

A reviewer of Rifkin's book

The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis

at amazon.com writes:

The question Jared Diamond asked, " What did the people on Easter Island think as they cut down the last tree?" resonates throughout this book ...

George Bush is rolling in the aisles ...

... We knew Harry and Nancy had struck a deal; we just didn’t when or how it would be implemented. Turns out that Nancy picked the most chickenshit cowardly self-serving way it could have possibly been done. Since this rule is only in effect for the 111th Congress, it expires on January 5 and applies only to the lame duck Congress.

Pete Peterson’s smiling now. He’s got my retirement money. Maybe he’ll use it to fill one of his swimming pools.

[from Phoenix Woman at firedoglake.com: Thank You, Nancy Pelosi, For Saving Me Money ]

Thank you, you despicable people: Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi! The laughs definitely on us. We put a Dem in the WH and got majorities in both houses of Congress so that you [fill in the blank with the most insultingly descriptive epithets you can think of] #$%@#*# would do what George Bush was incapable of doing.

Today's quote is, uh, "Money is not real." ...

... Money is not real. It is a conscious agreement on measuring abstract value. Unhealthy societies often become mesmerized by money and treat it as if it were something concrete. The effect is to destroy the currency’s practical value.

-- from The Doubter's Companion via digby.

It's been apparent for awhile that our society is not healthy and that money is the only value that is valued by the self-defined valuable-people. All else is 'on the table.'

The US Supreme Court decides in favor of The Torturers ...

..The decision does not bode well for either state secrets cases or for suits trying to hold Bush Administration officials responsible for torture (such as the Yoo appeal being heard in the 9th Circuit today).

Which I guess means we’ve officially become a country that finds protecting those who commit torture more important than justice for those who were tortured.

Whatever happens, they can blame the victims ...

... I'm not convinced that it isn't really a case of the financial elites seeing the opportunity to drastically cut --- excuse me "reform" --- the welfare state and going for it. Unfortunately, as we know, people and economies don't always heal properly when in terrible pain, so while they may cut out the hated safety net they could end up killing the patient.

One never knows but if the turmoil is extreme, perhaps a few Marie Antoinette's may also pay the price. When the 'shared' pain is deliberate, vindictive and disproportionate it just isn't surprising that visions of revenge can override sense. After all the victims will only need to look to the 'elites' for the pattern.

Fascism is what I'm expecting ...

More ominously perhaps, I'm guessing that leadership with fascist inclinations will find a very willing audience.

We seem to be emulating the Germany that allowed a Hitler to take hold. George Bush, with Cheney as his backbone, set us on course. Barack Obama not only fell right in line with the Bush/Cheney corruption but is formalizing the worst and going even further in some instances. I think Obama is furthering unrest by catering to the Media Scolds and the GOP mafia and ignoring the people of this country, specially the ones who elected him. Though I don't expect Obama to be the US's Hitler I think he is setting the stage for such a person.

_____________________
ADDED: The US's own special brand of Court Jesters (who apparently seriously consider themselves journalists) will also, undoubtedly, take their place in the roll call of those who help turn the US into Hitler's Germany's copy cat government. Of course, the US will be 'bigger and better' in that we really do have the power to destroy the world. That is the power to destroy the earth's ability to support us even faster than we already appear determined to do.

... all of this just [...] reveals what our nation's leading "journalists" really are: desperate worshipers of political power who are far more eager to be part of it and to serve it than to act as adversarial checks against it -- and who, in fact, are Royal Court Spokespeople regardless of which monarch is ruling. That's why they're invited into the heart of Versailles to frolic with the King's most trusted aides: it's their reward for loyal service as Court courtiers. Just marvel at the self-abasing joy in which Ed Henry wallows by virtue of getting to play water sports with Emanuel and the Bidens. He sounds like a gushing pre-adolescent who just met his favorite boy band idol and got his water gun signed. ...

How is Barack Obama like George Bush? Let me count the ways ...

Here's one: A disgrace of historic proportions

... despite knowing how many people we are innocently imprisoning, the Obama administration continues to demand the power to imprison people with no judicial review: by indefinitely detaining them without charges, by insisting that Bagram detainees captured outside Afghanistan have no habeas rights, by refusing to release any Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo, including those whom the administration itself knows are being wrongfully detained. ...

And we call ourselves civilized? ...

... Most Americans like torture. They're entertained by it. But at least someone is making a record. Sometimes that's all you can do.

Bush/Cheney (among others) caused this. Obama (and many Dems) choose to continue it.

Those who torture should be prosecuted. Those who support torture should be treated with derision, demonized, ostracized.

But the United States of America led by that great hope, Barack Obama, does the opposite.

THIS is to be Obama's legacy? ...

From a most analytical being, Glenn Greenwald:

... this to what is taking place in the United States under Democratic Party rule. We get -- from the current Government -- presidential assassination programs, detention with no charges, senseless demands for further reductions of core rights when arrested, ongoing secret prisons filled with abuse, military commissions, warrantless surveillance of emails, and presidential secrecy claims to block courts from reviewing claims of government crimes. The Democratic-led Congress takes still new steps to block the closing of Guantanamo. Democratic leaders push for biometric, national ID cards. The most minimal surveillance safeguards are ignored. Even the miniscule limits on eavesdropping powers are transgressed. And from just this week: "Millions of Americans arrested for but not convicted of crimes will likely have their DNA forcibly extracted and added to a national database, according to a bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday" ...

Why we despise them ...

Glenn Greenwald summarizes it so well:

It makes perfect sense that the country loathes the political establishment. Just look at its rancid fruits over the past decade: a devastating war justified by weapons that did not exist; a financial crisis that our Nation's Genuises failed to detect and which its elites caused with lawless and piggish greed; elections that seem increasingly irrelevant in terms of how the Government functions; grotesquely lavish rewards for the worst culprits juxtaposed with miserable unemployment and serious risks of having basic entitlements (Social Security) cut for ordinary Americans; and a Congress that continues to be owned, right out in the open, by the very interests that have caused so much damage. The political establishment is rotten to its core, and the only thing that's surprising is that the citizenry's contempt isn't even more intense than it is. ...

Then he slams the incompetence and utter decrepitude of the media:

... But precisely because that dynamic so clearly transcends Left/Right or Democratic/GOP dichotomies, little effort is expended to understand or explain it.

The media can't/won't attempt to understand the world they inhabit because it may not suit their little preprogrammed minds.

What do the do in all those journalism schools? Teach journalistic creationism?

And so who should that surprise? ...

Obama’s Drug Strategy All Talk, No Walk

"We are a nation of cover-up artists."

You can say that again ...

We are a nation of cover-up artists.

Like Republican, Like Democrat ...

It's a smelly political swamp we've allowed to stink up our country:

To say that "Democrats, including liberals, will accept and push whomever Obama picks," based on the rationale that "Clinton & Obama like and trust her, and most liberals (myself included) like and trust Clinton & Obama" -- even if they know nothing about her, even if she might move the Court to the Right -- seems to me to be an exact replica of what I described four years ago.

Delicate balance?

All the Joe Stack's vs The Powers That Be ...

But in a brilliant exercise in doublethink, people are led to hate and fear the deficit. That way, business’s cohorts in Washington may agree to cut benefits and entitlements like Social Security (but not bailouts).

At the same time, people should not oppose what is largely creating the deficit—the growing military budget and the hopelessly inefficient privatized healthcare system.

It is easy to ridicule how Joe Stack and others like him articulate their concerns, but it’s far more appropriate to understand what lies behind their perceptions and actions at a time when people with real grievances are being mobilized in ways that pose no slight danger to themselves and to others.

Obama, the smiling Bushie ...

Other than for the first few days in office, has Obama done anything worthwhile?

The Dow is swinging wildly–down as much as 980 points within the last hour–largely due to insecurity about the situation in Greece and shaky retail sales. And according to Brad DeLong, who is generally pretty tight with the White House, Obama will come out in opposition to Audit the Fed this afternoon.

At a time when confidence in the markets desperately needs shoring up, the President should be looking to instill confidence in investors by supporting accountability and transparency within the financial system — not acting to shield the banks. [link]

Obama has catered to thieves and liars. Obama has bowed down to moneyed interests. Is there a single principle that Obama has not betrayed?

Not only has he chosen to follow Bush's murdering steps, Obama now makes jokes about killing people, just like Bush. The similarities are adding up ...

I don't find that a Democrat who acts like a ReThug is any improvement over a ReThug.

Really, at least Bush could not destroy Social Security while he was in office. He must be laughing his guts out now that Obama plans to accomplish what Bush couldn't. As far as Social Security and Medicare we would have been better off with McCain as President and the Congress in Democratic hands. As it is Obama has ruined the chances of many Democrats. If one could conceive of the ReThugs having the smarts and/or Obama having the 'audacity' one could almost imagine Obama being a pre-planned Trojan Horse working for the Republican/Corporate Party.

Dems are just as smart at the Repugs ...

... which, in general, means they are amazingly dumb.

Giant Oil Spill Threatens Alternative Energy Legislation. Wait, What?

When Congress doesn't want to do something anything can be used as a reason.

My last shred of respect for Bill Clinton is now gone ...

... Bill Clinton spoke openly about the secret agreement he reached in 1997 with Newt Gingrich to take money out of Social Security and place it in private accounts — something Wall Street has been demanding in order to keep the bubble from bursting. ... [link]

At one time I thought Bill Clinton was a somewhat decent though shortsighted President. It appears, though, that he was as deceitful and deliberately destructive at Barack Obama but just lacked George Bush's he-man stomping shoes to smilingly walk behind [as Obama has chosen to do].

Digby gives up ...

... the authoritarian torturers win.

Risky? ...

Digby writes:

Evidently it is now considered "risky" for Obama to appoint someone to the Supreme Court who is pro-choice:

Risky? Being President is "risky." What is Obama good for if he is so risk adverse that he falls all over himself to do whatever the Thugs and Robber Barons want?

What has Obama done other than place his footsies in Bush's ugly shoes? Certainly he will not take any "risks" that Bush hasn't previously tested.

What a waste.

Well, don't expect courage from Gabrielle Giffords, Repug in Dem clothing ...

Arizona continues to embarrass: Now we have death threats against Raul Grijalva, one of the few Democratic Reps who usually appears to actually be a Democrat.

Pueblo Politics: Grijalva closes office because of death threats

Unlike Gabrielle Giffords who just pretends to be a Dem like most of the critters calling themselves Dems who infest the US House and Senate.

Pueblo Politics: Giffords says no to boycott

So which is it, Gabrielle? Lack of courage or lack of convictions?

It'd be funny if ...

Obama's on a roll. He plans to do to Wall Street what he did to the 'health' insurance Robber Barons.... nothing that will hurt them or help us.

This is pathetic. No wonder the Republicans are willing to negotiate from this ludicrous starting point. By the time the negotiations are over, we can expect a mandate that each of us open three credit card accounts and use them for all purchases, paying 30% interest compounded daily, with no grace period. And if you don’t, the IRS will collect a fee equal to 1% of your income to pay for the salaries of the banksters and their lobbyists.

Straight talk about food, 'organic' or not ...

From tristero at digby's:

... so let me cut to the chase. If you want to understand the basics of the issues surrounding organic, start by reading Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle. However, I don't think even that is too necessary if all you're interested in is eating well - meaning lustily, healthfully, and responsibly. It boils down to this:

If you can afford it, and you can find it, prepare and eat unprocessed fresh organic foods.

Otherwise, prepare and eat unprocessed fresh conventional foods.

If you possibly can, don't buy or eat industrial meat.

The End. The rest is detail. Here's a little of that:

Why are organics preferred? Mainly, it's way easier on the environment and far less cruel to animals. Since there are fewer human-made chemicals used in the growing, cleaning, storing, and distribution it's probably healthier (assuming it's fresh and meets the appropriate standards). There are other reasons, but those are the main ones.

Why are conventionally grown foods acceptable? They're much cheaper. If you can't afford organics, there is no reason under the sun to worry that you are somehow harming your family (assuming it's fresh and meets the appropriate standards). Far worse than eating unprocessed conventional is eating processed organic food, which is usually junk food. The less of that stuff, the better (ditto junk food that isn't organic, duh).

Why avoid industrial meat if you possibly can? The more you understand how the animals are treated, how they are killed, and how the meat is made, the more you understand how environmentally destructive industrial meat practices are, the more you realize how thoroughly disgusting it is, by any standards. Get your meat from a high quality butcher and only eat ground meat prepared by people you trust. Since this is more expensive, chances are you'll eat less meat. That is an extra benefit, for many reasons. Pollan, Nestle, and Bittman - none of whom are vegetarians, btw - will be happy to tell you about them.

Today's quotes ... or Obama in a nutshell ...

So what we have is someone [Barack Obama, constitutional scholar] who likes the trappings of the imperial presidency that Dick Cheney grabbed for him, but who lacks the guts or clarity of principle to actually use them for good and accountability, even in cases of war crimes.

The worst of the worst that Obama is doing is continuing the Bush/Cheney rogue government. Instead of attempting to step the country back from an imperial presidency, Obama has furthered the cause setting us up for even worse down the line.

... the sole reason Dawn Johnsen is not leading the OLC is that Barack Obama and his coterie of advisors did not want Dawn Johnsen leading the OLC. The Obama Administration cravenly hung their own nominee out to dry, and the reason is almost certainly that she was not compatible with the Administration’s determination to maintain, if not expand, the Bush/Cheney positions on unbridled executive power, indefinite detention without due process as well as warrantless wiretapping and other Fourth Amendment invasions.

and

... If past is prologue, we are on the cusp of shifting the ideological balance of the Supreme Court severely to the right – under a Democratic “liberal” President.

Now that's a real surprise ...

Democratic Party Image at All-Time Low; 54% Now Rate Party “Unfavorable”

The biggest thanks should go to Barack Obama. He's taken lying to a Republican high for Dems.

But don't forget co-president Rahm-boy who appears to relish the most dastardly actions.

Next, we should thank Senator Reid.

And of course, Nancy Pelosi did her part.

And finally, the US Congress. Specially mention goes to the Senate. So proud. So arrogant. So corrupt. So incompetent.

The House? Well they almost did something to be proud of. But in the end they showed themselves lacking in guts.

No doubt all these actors got sufficient perks to make them forget about oaths of office, responsibility to country, integrity. Subservience to corporate will is all they need to feed their egos. Enjoy.

Good to see the numbers on Obama's deliberate failure ...

From Greenwald:

A new CNN poll today finds that Americans oppose the current health care plan by a margin of 59-39%, but a sizable portion of those opposed -- 13% -- oppose it because "it is not liberal enough" ...

Thus, a majority of Americans either support the plan or believe it should be more liberal (52%), while only a minority (43%) oppose the plan on the ground that it is too liberal.

I'm one of the 13%. I think Obama did this deliberately. He got a teensy bit of improvement in insurance coverage (maybe) at a tremendous cost to the country's citizens while working to fill the coffers of the greedy, crooked insurance and pharmaceutical industries. And he calls that a victory.

Now that's creepy.

Today's quote ...

So basically Limbaugh and the boys are projecting again when they get themselves all worked over "the end of America." They are the ones who are undemocratic, but they've seamlessly re-looped the left's criticism of themselves back on the Democrats. And then supercharged the outrage. I think it may be a form of therapy for them.

Sometimes John McCain is funny and sometimes he is pathetic ...

From digby, here's an example of the pathetic John McCain:

I guess the Dems have really gone and done it this time:

Democrats shouldn't expect much cooperation from Republicans the rest of this year, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned Monday.

Terrifying prospect.

Well if the reThugs don't 'cooperate' the rest of the year then they will have succeeded in their goal of non-cooperation for the entire year. 100% non-cooperation is such an impressive sign of success for the reThugs. Congrats. Take the rest of the year off. Go home or somewhere out of sight. Maybe try exercising your brain, instead of your mouth, for awhile.

Seem to think? ...

... [Republicans] seem to think Democracy means that that elections are irrelevant, majorities are meaningless and that all legislation is contingent upon the permission of the Republican Party.

This is they way Republicans have operated for decades. Why shouldn't they? Democrats cave repeatedly. That is Dems either cave or they've been lying to their constituents all along. Which is better? Cowards or traitors?

Just like Bush, Obama works oh so hard to ensure failure ...

But not to worry, all Obama needs is a few super speeches to convince us that his failures are successes. And if he can't fool us all the time, or even some of the time, then he will make the reThugs very happy as he, with much help from the House and the Senate, takes down the Democratic party.

Fact Sheet: The Truth About the Health Care Bill

Not that taking down the Dem Party is much more a loss than the destruction of the reThug Party. Neither party intends to govern this country as a representative democracy.

What's the problem? ...

Whatever else is true, the American Right is now openly siding with a foreign government against their own, and bitterly Blaming America for these problems. They're protecting this foreign government's actions even though our top Generals say those actions undermine our war effort and directly endanger American troops. They're advocating policies -- such as the Israeli bombing of Iran -- which America's Joint Chiefs Chairman has gravely warned will seriously impede our wars and lead to the deaths of our soldiers. They're demeaning the top American General with command responsibility for two theaters of war. And, in a Time of War, they're attacking the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief -- and relentlessly depicting him as weak and inept -- all because he's prioritizing American interests over those of a foreign country. All of that seems to severely breach the standards of Patriotism they have long advocated and which have long prevailed, to put that rather mildly.

It's always OK when the reThugs (Republicans, Conservatives, far right, Lieberman) do it ...

Today's quotes ... on disillusionment ...

... it is both disheartening and illuminating to realize that the progressives in Congress have no true commitment to anything but putting on a show.

and

Few organizations resisted the urge to whip for the very bill they asked members of Congress to oppose last August during the fundraising drive for the public option. The entire progressive movement devolved into complete message incoherence as the unions announced their willingness to step outside of the Democratic party in order to enforce corporate deals within it. ...

and

... The thing I have learned above all else in this campaign is that the corporate control of government is much more extensive than I ever imagined, and the tools we have to fight its influence are ineffective.

and

... In the end, what we learned is that we can’t count on members of Congress in either party to do anything but play their part in “villain rotation”

Quote of the day ...

Succinct. And unfortunately, oh so accurate:

... The fact is that after a campaign that appealed so successfully to idealism, Obama hired a bunch of saboteurs of hope and change.

Which is why expecting much, if anything, that Obama promised, or even claimed to support, is hopeless. Obama rivals the reThugs in hypocrisy.

What is pragmatism ...

Obama's pragmatism leads him to follow, perhaps reluctantly, in the footprints left by Bush and Cheney, and to work for Banker and Insurance Industry friendly legislation at the expense of 90% of the US population. Obama's pragmatism is tied up with 10%, or less, of the American people. He behaves as if he thinks his pied piper routine of the campaign is all that is needed for the rest of us. Obama's pragmatism leads him to ignore majorities, ignore popular support, ignore justice, ignore law, ignore constitution, ignore principle and cater to the rich, the loud, the corrupt, the greedy.

At firedoglake.com, Jane Hamsher's pragmatism is a quite the opposite:

As for FDL, we’ll continue to maintain the position we’ve held since June 23 and insist that a health care bill must actually achieve its goal of helping people, rather than the the unregulated monopolies who exploit them. That’s not being a “purist.” It’s just being pragmatic.

I'm with Jane.

Alan Grayson is my hero ...

Alan Grayson’s Four-Page Medicare Buy-In Bill Introduced

What couldn't the United States do if we had more like him ...

Talk about myopic ...

Jonathan Chait thinks that Obama, the Scampering One, is actually trying to pass some form of health care 'reform.' (link via digby: Better Than Goldilocks)

Obama is playing around with health 'insurance' with the apparent aim of handing over to the Insurance Industry and to the forced-birthers a nation enslaved to their every whim.

And after he signs the abomination that a Congress with a Democratic majority passes he plans to decimate Social Security and Medicare.

And Chait thinks we should be oh so gratefull as Obama continues Bush the Lesser's destruction of even the appearance that the United States is a democratically governed nation.

Thanks ... so ... much ... oh, follower of Bush!

Is Obama going to 'scamper' again? ...

For years, Democrats have failed to grasp the fact that they are perceived as "weak" not because of any specific policies, but because they are perceived -- rightly -- to believe in nothing (or at least nothing that they claim to believe). It is hard to imagine any act that could more strongly bolster that perception than to watch Barack Obama -- yet again -- scamper away from his own claimed principles all because the GOP is saying some mean things about him.

Scamper may provide the best imagery so far for what Obama does so well.

Scamper away little mouse, and all your little mousy friends in your administration and in Congress; scamper away into safe little holes but get out of our government and out of our lives. Then maybe we can find some people of courage to help rid us of the reThugs.

For those who cannot see ...

... this says it all:

No public option. No consumer protection agency to stop Wall Street from abusing Main Street. No accountability for Bush administration lawbreaking. Yet the progressives are supposed to get in line behind a supposedly Democratic administration. Good luck with that.

The truth about Rahm boy? ...

Both versions cannot be accurate. What is probably the dismal truth about his stewardship of the Obama vessel can be found toward the end of last August’s Times story, which showed the chief of staff steering without any rudder of principle, and playing captain in policy and political waters too deep for him. He is largely responsible for the fiasco of financial reform, the soured deal with the pharmaceutical and insurance interests on health reform, and the botched retreat from the president’s promise to close Gitmo.

Whether and how to change the White House staff is a problem that Obama will have to face eventually. Even sooner, however, the president must decide whether to accept Emanuel’s insistence that he had nothing to do with the Post articles, which have inflicted real damage by depicting Obama as a weak and hapless foil to his brilliant deputy. If he cannot disprove that portrait, his presidency will continue to drift.

Taking Obama's intelligence for granted is becoming more and more difficult ...

Political Problems Multiply As Obama Embraces Republican Health Care Ideas

Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol ...

Most likely Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol are proud of their McCarthy-hood.

Along with Darth Cheney, these are very dark, deranged and puke-ugly people bent on ensuring as much destruction and pain in the world as possible.

The foul ad produced by the Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol group is here.

Per the usual Republican naming conventions when the Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol group use the term 'keep America safe' they mean quite the opposite (as with Bush's Healthy Forests).

Glenn Greenwald says it best: "As always, those who most flamboyantly and shrilly anoint themselves Arbiters of American Patriotism wage the most vicious wars on its core principles."

Talk about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face ...

Employees at Catholic Charities were told Monday that the social services organization is changing its health coverage to avoid offering benefits to same-sex partners of its workers ...

.. Catholic Charities will not offer benefits to spouses of new employees or to spouses of current employees who are not already enrolled in the plan. ...

... "We looked at all the options and implications," said the charity's president, Edward J. Orzechowski. "This allows us to continue providing services, comply with the city's new requirements and remain faithful to the church's teaching." ...

One wonders what the term 'social services' actually means to the Catholic Church. Something like "Burn, baby, burn"?

Rock Art or Smoke Signals? ...

A new post up at Rillito River Park Photos: Rock Art or Smoke Signals? ...

Another failure by corporate-owned and character-deficient Democrats ...

Working to get Democrats a majority was an absolute waste of time and money.

Democrats have retreated from adding new privacy protections to the primary U.S counterterrorism law ...

Rockefeller, smuckafeller ...

In other words, Rockefeller was willing to be a righteous champion for the public option as long as it had no chance of passing (sadly, we just can't do it, because although it has 50 votes in favor, it doesn't have 60). But now that Democrats are strongly considering the reconciliation process -- which will allow passage with only 50 rather than 60 votes and thus enable them to enact a public option -- Rockefeller is suddenly "inclined to oppose it" because he doesn't "think the timing of it is very good" and it's "too partisan." What strange excuses for someone to make with regard to a provision that he claimed, a mere five months ago (when he knew it couldn't pass), was such a moral and policy imperative that he "would not relent" in ensuring its enactment.

Except for, maybe Grijalva, 99.9% of those who have supported the Public Option appear to have been deliberately deceiving their supporters. I wish I believed these people would get their just desserts like getting soundly trounced in an election; having their entire constituency calling up and telling them to start doing their job instead of being a paid corporate pasty; or some other miraculous intervention to turn these turds into decent people instead of public paid conmen.

The goal of journalists ...

... the prime function of establishment journalism in the U.S.: to uncritically amplify the views of those who wield political power. And it is also perfectly consistent with their first mandate: the U.S. is incapable of acts of evil (and certainly incapable of "Terrorism"), which is reserved only for those foreigners who dislike and "protest" the United States.

I wonder, is this mind set taught in journalism class?

In my opinion, journalists as government, or ruling class, propagandists is not limited to the US. I listen to BBC News podcasts and most follow the same style of putting words into their subjects mouths and unquestioningly or deliberately accepting mostly propaganda from those they interview. The BBC and other foreign news organizations may report on topics that American news deliberately ignores but that does not mean that they are any more open minded, logical, thorough or inquisitive than their American counterparts.

"Did Obama just kill the public option?" ...

Well, why not? It was obvious that he was lying every time he sorta, maybe, perhaps supported the Public Option:

Curious

I have to agree that Marshmallow Man Obama is not as bad as Bush The Lesser, but that is so far from a compliment or recommendation that it is embarrassing.

Today's quote ...

Jon Walker, firedoglake.com: “What a strange ‘Democracy’ we live in that an idea is too popular for any to stand against yet it might bring down the whole party and health care reform because many so deeply hate their supporters.”

Information, and more, about Mesothelioma ...

There are an untold number of people who have been exposed to asbestos in varying degrees.

For information about the disease caused by asbestos inhalation visit

Mesothelioma Cancer

NOTE: Linked changed.

Obama, the Marshmallow Man ...

Clueless

While I wasn't looking ...

Took a day away from computer and news and what does Obama do?

President Obama Flogs Republicans with a Smile

And the Thugs --and FOX noise-- are sorry the camera were running.

Russert: Republicans Say It Was a Mistake Cameras Were Allowed to Roll During President's Appearance at Retreat

Poor babies.

Obama's performance has been described as good theatre. Hopefully there's more to it than that. We'll just have to wait and see what Obama actually does ... or does not. Obama is good at words. It's action on his promises we want. If this theatre helps us get there then good. If it's just an end in itself then, well, that would be more of the same ... so we wait again for Obama action.

The summing up of Obama ...

... Obama not only refuses to point out that progressives have better ideas about health care reform, but he pretends that these progressive ideas don’t even exist at all. ...

Something to be hopeful about? ...

... the President [not Bush the Lesser but Obama the Hopeless] claims the power to order U.S. citizens killed anywhere in the world, while engaged even in the most benign activities carried out far away from any actual battlefield, based solely on his say-so and with no judicial oversight or other checks. ...

Saving us from Conservatism, yea!

So we're in Afghanistan to teach them about democracy, the rule of law, and basic precepts of Western justice. Meanwhile, Afghan officials vehemently object to the lawless, due-process-free assassination "hit list" of their citizens based on the unchecked say-so of the U.S. Government, and have to lecture us on the rule of law and Constitutional constraints. By stark contrast, our own Government, our media and our citizenry appear to find nothing wrong whatsoever with lawless assassinations aimed at our own citizens. And the most glaring question for those who critized Bush/Cheney detention policies but want to defend this: how could anyone possibly object to imprisoning foreign nationals without charges or due process at Guantanamo while approving of the assassination of U.S. citizens without any charges or due process?

Worth thinking about ...

Reagan may have proved that deficits don't matter politically, but Clinton proved that fixing deficits doesn't matter politically either. They impeached the man over unauthorized fellatio and then ran on tax cuts, stole the election and immediately put the country into debt all over again. The idea that Democrats will get some political benefit from a lot of sharp talk about deficits and "freezes" is a pipe dream. Obama will be hurt by the bad economy and benefit from its revival. But unlike Reagan, he's tied his own hands on policy leaving him little room to maneuver if the economy stays bad. And when (if) the economy rebounds he will not seen as someone who was courageous for "staying the course" and validating his own liberal beliefs --- he will be seen as having acquiesced to the conservative agenda, which will get all the credit. And conversely, liberalism will be discredited even though it did all the heavy lifting. Awesome.

... should, that is, the Obama team consider using their collective thinking apparatuses (something they seemed to know how to do during the campaign but put aside once elected).

Live and Learn. John Amato thinks ...

that

"... President Obama's first year has been for the most part to try and save the country from conservatism and then try to pass health care. We might terribly dislike the approach he's taken towards these problems, but that's it in the nutshell."

Saving the country from conservatism is what Obama is trying to do? That is what John Amato thinks Obama is trying to do?

Surprised speechless am I.

Words and games ...

Shades of 1937? Obama to Announce Three-Year Spending Freeze in State of the Union

Wonder what Obama will actually say in his speech ...
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I tend to think that Greenwald is right in who Obama intends to betray:

The clear fact is that, no matter how severe are our budgetary constraints, military spending and all so-called "security-related programs" are off-limits for any freezes, let alone decreases. Moreover, the modest spending freeze to be announced by Obama tomorrow is just the start; the Washington consensus has solidified and is clearly gearing up for major cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, with the dirty work to be done by an independent "deficit commission." It's time for "everyone" to sacrifice and suffer some more -- as long as "everyone" excludes our vast military industry, the permanent power factions inside the Pentagon and intelligence community, our Surveillance and National Security State, and the imperial policies of perpetual war which feed them while further draining the lifeblood out of the country.

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Isn't Obama just so smart? And destructive?

The Obama Chill: In 2012 Obama Will Run Against Democratic Congress

And mind you, I spoke of Obama’s “perceived self-interest” above, because no matter how you look at it this policy simply makes no sense. Voters in 2010 are going to be voting on their pocketbook. Voters in 2012 are going to be voting on their pocketbook. They don’t really care about deficits. Rather, they care about a working economy. And this little PR stunt will only make it harder for Obama to do what he needs to do to get the economy working again.

Love letter to the US Senate. It could be worse? ...

After the knifing abuse of Joe Lieberman, US Senate, no one wants anything to do with you. After the sickening insider dealing of Max Baucus, US Senate, everyone thinks the entire body should sign up for work at the nearest landfill. After the ridiculous, utterly debasing pandering to Olympia Snowe, US Senate, no one still wants to admit how screamingly the Founders fucked up when they created you. After the gross insider deal to Ben Nelson, US Senate, all desperately search for medication or handy recreational drug to blot out the howling fucking nightmare as soon possible, God, get a clue to how loathed and clownish y’all are.

It gets better?

Obtuse, ego-besotted, clownishly bought and politically fat with six year terms, the flabby, groaning body of the Senate nonetheless still has outdated, glacial political instincts that occasionally flicker through the old corpse, the upcoming in-trouble nomination of Ben Bernanke being one of these rare times. Usually the elite-enabling, genial denier Republican would of course been given a pass for any accountability to his job and confirmed automatically, but even Senators are starting to realize they’ve gone too far recently and should do the right thing for once by barfing Bernanke to keep up appearances.

Sadly Krugman, who once seemed to stand solidy for truth or something close to it seems to have been brought low in defending certain parties in our exponentially corrupt system:

I felt bad for Paul Krugman this morning, who basically said yes, Bernanke missed the finance bubble and will do nothing for the unemployed (Lord am I sick of inflation weenies with the unions busted, get a clue) but he’s a nice man who hired me once, please confirm him. Sorry, Paul, understandable loyalty to your boss doesn’t work when confirming the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, not hardly.

Really, as if Obama would even try to find "a good Democratic responsible populist" rather than a failure of a Republican [what are you thinking paradox]:

Reject Bernanke, yes, instantly because he’s a Republican, of course, all they know how to do is obnoxiously screw up. Then reject him precisely because he really screwed up and also has the nuclear gall to ignore the little people. Then hope the Obama Administration finds a good Democratic responsible populist to be Fed Chairman, I find it hard to believe Krugman could be wrong again today, it can’t be that hard, there must be one credible name out there to do the job. Oh that’s right, Paul, there’s you at right near the top.

At one time I thought Obama was an intelligent worth while human being who was able to process information and understand it.

First I was abused of any idea that he might be a worth while human. During his campaign he didn't just make a few promises he couldn't keep, instead he out right lied about everything. Just like a Republican Thug.

Next he undermines his own story line that he listens to all by striking secret deals with the very corrupt 'health care' industries that need fixing and then pretends to listen to 'others' later. So much for his intellectual honesty.

But the worst of all is his fetish with putting failed Republicans in important political positions.

Barack Obama has been as effective as the Supreme Court in negating a significant Democratic victory. Obama appears to think he was elected as President of these United States in order to finalize the turning over of the country to corporate, fat cat, Robber Baron power.

Obama and the Supreme Court. Working in tandem.