Category: Barack Obama

What the Republican Crazy Talk is About

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So I’m on the Stellar Parthenon BBS, and Unmutual notes that Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ) is saying that, “The President Is an enemy of humanity.”

He muses that this kind of Batsh&% insane simply stupid:

Yep, continue this kind of idiotic rhetoric against the most popularly elected president in recent memory, surely that’s going to get you more supporters than reaching across the isle and actually trying to get stuff done.

I think that he is an optimist. This is not stupidity. This is done with a purpose.

The goal here is to get someone with the psychological stability of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the shooting ability of…well…Lee Harvey Oswald (he was a Marine) to whack Obama.

Seriously. There are two group of people speaking for the Republican party: Those who are batsh%$ insane, and want Obama dead, and those who think that his getting killed would be good for them in 2010.

I’m not sure which group scares me more.

Video below:

Deep Thought: L’Shana Tova Edition

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Received the following eCard from my brother Stephen:

[on edit]
When I shared the pic with folks on the Stellar Parthenon BBs, I got some interesting questions:

JR noted that, “conspiracy can expand to encompass anything you throw at it!”

This is correct, so our conspiracy encompasses Jews….

Our conspiracy encompasses Jews and Muslims….

Our conspiracy encompasses Jews and Muslims and space lizards…..

Our conspiracy encompasses Jews and Muslims and space lizards and communists…..

Our conspiracy encompasses Jews and Muslims and space lizards and communists and Nazis…..

Our conspiracy encompasses Jews and Muslims and space lizards and communists and Nazis and communists…..

Our conspiracy encompasses Jews and Muslims and space lizards and communists and Nazis and communists and Black nationalists…..

Our conspiracy encompasses Jews and Muslims and space lizards and communists and Nazis and communists and Black nationalists and racists…..

…… What does this remind me of?

Live Blogging Barack Obama’s Healthcare Speech (With Generous Cynicism)

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8:05 pm Watching MSNBC, talking heads going on and on.

8:12 pm Elvis has entered the building…..He is in the doorway.

Now He is walking in, shaking hands, smiling….Mitch McConnel looks like he has just eaten a lemon.

8:16 He’s started talking.

8:18 Talks about recovery and creating jobs….He’s claiming victory, in “pulling the economy back from the brink” (rolling my eyes)

8:22 States obvious: Only modern nation without coverage, etc.

8:23 Talks about how insurance companies sucked, cutting off coverage, etc. Also mentions how it inhibits entrepreneurial activity and business competitiveness.

8:26 Takes a shot at the left about how “disruptive” single payer is. I guess it’s the audacity of nope.

8:28 Accusing people of politics, without naming who is playing the politics….Wimp.

8:29 Claims that his plan will save cost, expand coverage, etc.:

  • No change of coverage is required.
  • Make pre-existing condition coverage denial illegal (what about jacking up the rates?)
  • Will make rescission illegal.
  • Eliminate annual and lifetime caps.
  • Limit on out of pocket expenses.
  • Coverage of routine diagnostic procedures.
  • Will create an “insurance exchange”, after 4 years….What a damn cop out.
  • Tax credit based on need.
  • Tax people who don’t buy healthcare.
  • Tax businesses who do not supply healthcare.
  • 95% of small differences will not have to pay tax, whicm means something like 30% of employees, feh.

8:39 Calling some lies as lies: No “death panels” no coverage for illegal aliens, and he just sold abortion rights down the river. Go Cheney your self.

8:40 Comes out for public option, mentions that there are monopolies in most states, but is there a veto threat for no public option?

8:40 Says that only 5% of of people would take public option, a convenient lie, and says that there would be no tax dollars spent on the system. He minimizes its impact.

8:44 Calls the public option is only a means to an end. Translation: He is willing to throw public option under the bus. Says that he won’t back down on a “choice,” but mentions alternate plans, like the wimpy co-ops as possibilities.

8:46 Promises not to sign a plan that adds “one dime” to the deficit. Wants a “Paygo” provision in the health plan. Thinks that most of cost can be covered by elimination of waste in the system.

8:48 Time to pander to the AARP. Just eliminate waste, and reduce prescription drug payments at the same time.

8:52 Will tax “Cadillac” insurance plans…..Camel’s nose is under the door, it will work its way down.

8:53 Sells plaintiff’s lawyers down the river. “Malpractice reform” is bullshit, just look at the most plaintiff unfriendly state, Texas, and McKinney (IIRC) which is among the most expensive area in the nation.

8:55 What’s with the sour looking dude holding the paper in the air?

8:56 Says that he will call out liars…..I’ll believe it when I see it.

8:57 Invokes Ted Kennedy.

8:58 Invokes America’s “rugged individualism”….I take the Dilbert view, “rugged induhvidualism”.

9:02 “We did not come to fear the future, we came to shape it.” Very nice turn of phrase.

Final assesment: Well delivered, well written, but he’s clearly willing to sell a public option down the road, but wants to be a deficit hawk.

He gives good speech, but the content is lacking.

Glen Beck Wins Because Barack Obama Has No Balls

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Van Jones, formerly Obama’s “Special Adviser on Green Jobs, was fired resigned, because he founded a group, Color of Change, that has succeeded in getting a significant portion of Glen Beck’s sponsors to pull their ads, and because there is a Youtube of him calling Republicans “assholes”.

Mr. Jones is no longer a member of CoC, but Beck wanted his scalp, and he got it, because Barack Obama has no balls.

LBJ would have had J. Edgar Hoover strip search Beck’s sorry ass.

What’s worst is that this will only encourage the next faux right wing sh$# storm.

Obama’s Liberal Veal Pen

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I think that Jane Hamsher puts her finger on what’s wrong with Barack Obama, most notably through the person of Rahm Emanuel, is doing to liberals, when she describes many liberal institutions that have been captured by the Obama presidency as being in a “veal pen”.

Much like industrial veal, we are being kept in a crate and, “in darkness except to be fed two to three times a day for 20 minutes,” so that the muscles atrophy, in order that our meat is tender.

Go read it.

Liberals Draw Line in the Sand

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Barack Obama has called just about everyone in Washington, DC for a meeting at the White House, insurance companies, doctors, Republicans, Blue Dogs, etc., but he hasn’t called in the progressives.

While members of his staff are making it clear that they intend to Sistah Soulja the liberals, the Liberals, or more accurately the Progressive Caucus in the House, are hitting back:

In a letter delivered to the White House moments ago, the two leaders of the bloc of House progressives bluntly told President Obama that they will not support any health care plan without a public option in it — and demanded a meeting to inform him face to face.

The bullet points of the letter are that in order to have them support the plan, there must be a public option, built on Medicare providers and using Medicare rates.

Note that there three things that can happen:

  1. Obama can stick with, and pass, most likely under reconciliation in the Senate, a bill with a real public option.

    1. Which means that the progressive caucus wins, and the Democratic party wins, particularly in the long run, when people see that government works for them.

  2. The bill gets killed in the house when 40+ Democrats vote against it.

    1. Which means that the progressives win, because they show that they have the power to stop things, and the electoral repercussions hit the Blue Dogs from close districts, not the Progressive, and Barack Obama. It means that they have to be negotiated with in the future, and the Powers That Be of the Democratic Party’s efforts cannot be exclusively dedicated to providing anilingus to the Blue Dogs.

  3. They fold like a bunch of wet broccoli, and vote for a milquetoast bill that allows Barack Obama to claim that he has done something to reform our healthcare system in 2012

    1. This is a lose for the progressives, and they go back to being people that everyone in Washington, DC can ignore with impunity.

The only way that these guys lose is if they blink…..Then again, never underestimate the capability of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Needless to say, the argument that is apparently being fronted by Rahm and His Evil Minions™:

Should Obama jettison the public option, progressives will come under tremendous pressure to back the plan anyway. White House advisers will likely insist that liberals mustn’t deny the president a historic victory and enable a defeat that could cripple the first African-American presidency.

Is one of the most repellent things that I’ve read…well this week….It’s a bull market for repellent these days.

I would also add that the only person crippling Barack Obama, whether its on marriage equality, DADT, banking reform, healthcare, torture, accountability, etc. is Barack Hussein Obama.

Letter from Congressional liberals below:

Dear President Obama:

Thank you for continuing to work with Members of Congress to draft a health reform bill that will provide the real health care reform this country needs.

We look forward to meeting with you regarding retaining a robust public option in any final health reform bill and request that that meeting take place as soon as possible.

Public opinion polls continue to show that a majority of Americans want the choice of a robust public plan and we stand in solidarity with them. We continue to support the robust public option that was reported out of the Committees on Ways and Means and Education and Labor and will not vote for a weakened bill on the House Floor or returning from a Conference with the Senate.

Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, a public option built on the Medicare provider system and with reimbursement based on Medicare rates-not negotiated rates-is unacceptable. A plan with negotiated rates would ensure higher costs for the public plan, and would do nothing to achieve the goal ofproviding choice and competition to keep rates down. The public plan with set rates saves $75 billion, which could be lost if rates are negotiated with providers. Further, this public option must be available immediately and must not be contingent upon any trigger.

Mr. President, the need for reform is urgent. Every day, 14,000 Americans lose their health care coverage. We must have health care reform that will effectively bring down costs and significantly expand access. A health reform bill without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs. We cannot vote for anything less.

We look forward to meeting with you to discuss the importance of your support for a robust public plan, which we encourage you to reiterate in your address to the Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday.

Lynn Woolsey
Raul Grijalva

Why Barack Obama’s Poll Numbers are Dropping

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Outsourced to Digby:

This makes perfect sense because his problem is that he’s been kow-towing to the left so much that he’s lost the country, what with all the war crimes investigations, the tax hikes for the rich, the crackdown on the banks, the repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell” and the thumbing of his nose at the Republicans every chance he gets. Not to mention the plans for full withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan by 2012 and his full blown assault on the health care industry and insistence on a Canadian style health care system. You’d think Obama would have been far, far more cautious so as not to give the Republican freakshow any possible path to demonize them as “far left.” It’s not like they could just make stuff up and a lot of people in America would believe it, right?

(emphasis mine)

At least, that’s what an anonymous “top official” (**cough** Rahm **cough**) says.

Birthers Want Obama to Drop Trou* On National TV

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Shrek: Do you think he’s maybe compensating for something?

Yep, Jesus’ General, who reads Free Republic so I don’t have to, has noted that the latest meme: If Barack Obama is not circumcised, it would mean that he was not born in the US in 1961, because everyone got circumcised then.

There are some problems here.

It is indeed true that circumcision rates were high, well over 90%, in the US in the early 1960s, it was neither absolutely universal nor mandatory. Additionally, circumcision amongst Muslims is considered Sunnah, or a highly recommended tradition, and as a Muslim Obama would have been circumcised.

So if he were a closet Muslim, he would be circumcised anyway.

In any case let me be the first to say, great googly moogly, someone has issues.

The fascination that the denizens of FR with Democratic presidential penises, which says something about them, probably more about penis size insecurity than anything else.

*Meaning pull down his pants, and show us his penis.

Krugman Says, “I Told You So!”

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In early 2008, Krugman says that Obama’s post partisan unity shtick would fail, because the Republicans would crank up every dishonest, and quite honestly clinically insane, argument.

Well, today, Krugman says, “I told you so,” and he is right:

Sure enough, President Obama is now facing the same kind of opposition that President Bill Clinton had to deal with: an enraged right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency, that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.

This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing.

Fundamentally, we have a president who wants people, including his opponents, to really like him, in a pathological kind of way, and he believes that he has the ability to make it so.

He is disastrously wrong.

If he wants any meaningful change, he needs to want his opponents to fear him, like LBJ….And, of course, avoid a military counter-insurgency in Asia, which is what did Johnson in politically.

….Uh oh…..

Yes

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Frank Rich asks, “Is Obama Punking Us?,” with regard to health care.

What he is really asking is whether Obama is more concerned with having something that he can claim as an an accomplishment to sign than he is with actually fixing things.

You see the same thing with Geithner/Summers and the financial crisis.

There is a real and deep aversion to meaningful change here.

This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.

Punk’d

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It now appears that the was a practical joke designed specifically ensnare the birthers.

It’s looking more and more like the forged “Kenyan birth certificate” released by Orly Taitz on Sunday was a prank by a supporter of President Obama. Politijab points to an anonymous blogger at FearlessBlogging, who has uploaded four photos of the original forgery and a mocking declaration:

Fine cotton business paper: $11

Inkjet printer: $35

1940 Royal Model KMM manual typewriter: $10

2 Shilling coin: $1

Pilot Varsity fountain pen: $3

Punkin’ the Birthers: Priceless

Morons.

Obama is Dog Whistle Gay Bashing

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Normally, I’m not a big fan of protest theatrics, to my mind, Code Pink frequently does more harm than good to the cause, but I have to approve of ACT-UP’s chaining themselves to the Capitol Rotunda today.

What’s going on here is that during the campaign, Barack Obama promised to lift the ban on funding needle exchange programs, which:

  • Do not encourage drug use.
  • Reduce AIDS transmission.
  • Reduce the cost to society.
  • Provide an entry point with addicts for counseling.

The problem is that the White House submitted a budget to Congress still contained the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs.

So this wasn’t even a matter of his not fighting for the program, it’s a matter of him submitting language reauthorizing a program that he explicitly campaigned against in his budget.

A president’s budget is purely advisory. Congress can, and does, amend it, or ignore it, as they see fit, but he is unwilling to even leave out a bit of language authorizing a program he claims to oppose.

I’m with John Aravosis’s take on this

  1. The candidate promised to lift the ban.
  2. The White House Web site reaffirmed the president’s commitment to lifting the ban.
  3. The White House Web site no longer reaffirms his commitment to lifting the ban.
  4. The president now refuses to lift the ban.
  5. The president actually affirmatively makes things worse by administratively supporting [and] defending the ban.
  6. The spokesman reiterates the president’s support for lifting the ban, some day, once Congress gets around to it.

There is a pattern to all this, whether it’s his sucking up to homophobic screeds “reformed homosexual” Donnie McClurkin, using legal arguments equating gay marriage with pedophilia and incest, refusing to take administrative actions to even modestly impede the anti-gay witch hunt in the military, and now affirmatively submitting anti-gay legislation to Congress.

Either there is some real homophobia here, or there has been a political calculus made that appealing to homophobia is a political win, because the opposition wants gay people dead.

At best, it’s no different than the prosecutors in and around Baltimore who will routinely demand more severe sentences in plea bargains for black defendants, because they know that they have a better chance to convict a black man, even in front of a black jury.

I believe that this action has been taken because it can be seen as a gay issue, not in spite of it.

This is dog-whistle gay bashing, and it is quite deliberate.

Liberal Advocacy Groups Tell Barack Obam to Go Cheney Himself

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A number of groups, most notably Moveon®, have been targeting pro-insurance industry members of Congress, most notably Mary Landrieu, for her opposition to the public option in the health care plan.

Well, Barack Obama, who I think is more motivated to have a health plan pass Congress than he is about getting a good health plan though Congress, because the risks for the latter is higher, has now told these groups to sit down and shut up:

President Obama, strategizing yesterday with congressional leaders about health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting passage of comprehensive legislation.

Well, it appears that at least some of the groups out here have realized that Barack Obama can be wrong just like the rest of us mere mortals:

A spokesperson for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, one of the groups Obama reportedly complained about, confirms to me that the group is upping its buy with a new round of ads attacking moderate Dem Senators like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu this coming week. “If congressional staffers are complaining to the White House, that shows they are nervous and what we’re doing is working,” PCCC’s Stephanie Taylor says. “So we should just keep doing what we’re doing.”

Meanwhile, a second group, Change Congress, has not dropped plans for a coming campaign of ads attacking the Senators for taking contributions from health care special interests, Change Congress spokesperson Adam Green confirms. He urged the White House to consider a “good cop, bad cop approach,” suggesting Obama could hold positive rallies in the home states of moderate Dem Senators while Change Congress goes ahead with its ads.

This is a refreshing return to sanity.

Barack Obama has been running against the left to prove his “non-partisan” props for a while now, and it’s time to realize that he is at best an incrementalist, and by the standards of industrialized nations, a right of center incrementalist at that.

Read Bob Herbert

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Seriously, excerpts do not do justice to his essay on Mohammed Jawad, where he describes the US government torturing a 12-16 year old boy, and now is attempting to use his tortured confession to keep him confined, but here are the last 2 ‘graphs:

There is no credible evidence against Jawad, and his torture-induced confession has rightly been ruled inadmissible by a military judge. But the Obama administration does not feel that he has suffered enough. Not only have administration lawyers opposed defense efforts to secure Jawad’s freedom, but they are using, as the primary basis for their opposition, the fruits of the confession that was obtained through torture and has already been deemed inadmissible — without merit, of no value.

[Jawad’s former prosecutor] Colonel Vandeveld is no longer on active duty and has joined the effort by military defense lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union to secure Jawad’s freedom. Six years of virtual solitary confinement, he said, is enough for someone who was not much older than a child when he was taken into custody.

(emphasis mine)

Barack Obama, tear down that wall.

But he won’t because it’s inconvenient.

Who Obama Is On “Free Trade”

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Cap and trade barely passes the house, and Barack Obama is wringing his hands about how the tariff against nations with weaker measures, “At a time when the economy world-wide is still deep in recession, and we’ve seen a significant drop in global trade, I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there.”

Barack Obama is a smart guy. He knows that there are similar tariffs in countries that have a VAT, so that you cannot evade the tax by outsourcing production, and he knows that the economic consensus is that the absence of such measures distort free trade by subsidizing foreign manufacture of goods.

He also has to know that the WTO just signed off on these tariffs as legal, so long as they are not, “a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade”.”

He expresses these “concerns” because he believes that any restriction on the flow of goods and services,* is dangerous and bad.

He is a free market mousketeer™ who believes that free trade will, inexorably spread democracy throughout the world, raise everyone’s standard of living, keep ants away from your picnic, and keep your daughter from dating the guy with the tattoos and piercings.

Do not expect meaningful labor or environmental measures as a part of his free trade deals. They won’t happen.

*Except for IP, where excessive US copyright and patent restrictions must be adopted world wide.