US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

A new movement led by communist revolutionary group founder Van Jones

looool

subversive tactics

subversive tic tacs

http://freetheapps.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/tic-tac.jpg?w=320&h=480

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/meet-the-iowans-who-gently-disapprove-of-sarah-palin/241142/

ha, my hometown. i know some of the ppl quoted.

Bernie Sanders is trying (now if only Obama would support his proposal! I'm dreaming I know):

Washington Post-

Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent with socialist leanings, delivered a 90-minute address Monday outlining his plan calling for 50 percent of all savings to come from tax increases. “The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share,” Sanders wrote Monday in a letter to Obama.

Such a proposal has no chance of passing because Republicans and many Democrats believe steep tax increases are both politically unpopular and potentially harmful to the struggling domestic economy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-enters-debt-talks/2011/06/27/AGdCzBoH_story.html?hpid=z3

The Republicans won't even accept the current Dem proposal that is skewed towards cuts:

In the Dems’ latest effort to pay the ransom, they’ve offered to slice $2.4 trillion from the debt over the next decade — $2 trillion in cuts and $400 billion in increased revenue.
from Washington Monthly

potentially harmful to the struggling domestic economy.

It's the Republican all cut plan that would be harmful

http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/the-debt-ceiling-fight-continues/

good summary of where we are, where we could be going, none of it pretty

Sounds right. Is it possible Reid and some of the Senate Dems and Pelosi and some of the House Dems in the House could show some backbone and stand up to Obama (if he tries to accept a horrible offer re the debt deal from the Republicans and re the future of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security)

have a hard time envisioning that w/out hallucinogens

Pelosi maybe, Reid no way

have a hard time envisioning that w/out hallucinogens

otm

a decade ago, i would've rejected out-of-hand j0hn's call to abandon the Democratic Party. FWIW i'm much closer to that view now.

if Obama acquiesces to the destruction of SS, Medicare and Medicaid, then i'm off the reservation for good. whether or not i am a Democrat any more, i damn sure ain't no Republican.

From the NYT "tea party can't agree, big surprise" article today:

“We can’t, as a Tea Party organization, allow anyone to speak for us,” said Lisa Esler, a Tea Party activist who opposes the bill. “That’s the lesson.”

Brilliant strategy in a democracy!

Others were mildly more huffy--in a reserved, Midwestern sort of way.

goole, that article is making me all nostalgic for the homeland of my people. Everyone in it is being quietly, politely otm...that is, if you don't mind.

that article is hilarious, I don't think I realized how much I miss that aspect of upper midwest culture

bernie's letter

http://sanders.senate.gov/petition/?uid=c1fd7f9b-abd8-4e7a-a370-1867881259d8

He's all alone on this, sadly. If only even a handful of Dems could stand beside him.

Meanwhile the House is leaving for a 4th of July weekend but is not adjourning for recess, in an effort to keep Obama from making Elizabeth Warren and others recess appointments.

only a matter of time before they swear there are weapons of mass destruction buried beneath his desk

1.3 million signatures to recall Ohio's anti-union law sb5

http://www.thenation.com/blog/161746/democracy-coming-ohio-13-million-voters-force-referendum-restore-labor-rights

oops not recall exactly but

Ohio does not have a recall provision. But it does allow citizens to force a vote on legislation recently passed by the legislature

seems pretty ridiculous but hey state politics

suck on this, teabaggers

Nice

Obama talked tough at a press conference this morning about wanted a balanced approach on the debt crisis. He did not endorse Sanders idea of balance but he did at least push for ending some tax breaks for millionaires and corporations. It's good to hear this but we'll see if it's just another bark is louder than his bite situation. Plus, does he really think the Republicans will accept this?:

from Washington Monthly :

“If you are a wealthy CEO or hedge fund manager in America right now, your taxes are lower than they’ve ever been. They’re lower than they’ve been since the 1950s. And you can afford it. You’ll still be able to ride on your corporate jet. You’ll just have to pay a little more…. My belief is that the Republican leadership in Congress will hopefully sooner rather than later come to the conclusion that they need to make the right decisions for the country, that everybody else has been willing to move off their maximalist position. They need to do the same. My expectation is that they’ll do the responsible thing.”

The phrase of the morning is “corporate-jet owner.” I started keeping count of how many times the president used the phrase, and I think I noticed four separate instances. The point was to highlight a $3 billion perk available to those who buy these jets — a perk Republicans won’t touch because it would count as a (cue scary music) tax increase.

wanting a balanced approach

The first excerpt is from Obama and the second is from Steve Benen of Washington Monthly

goddamn corporate jet owners

here we go guys

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/how-you-know-the-negotiations-have-truly-failed/2011/05/19/AG13r5qH_blog.html

The best advice I’ve gotten for assessing the debt-ceiling negotiations was to “watch for the day when the White House goes public.” As long as the Obama administration was refusing to attack Republicans publicly, my source said, they believed they could cut a deal. And that held true. They were quiet when the negotiations were going on. They were restrained after Eric Cantor and Jon Kyl walked out last week. Press Secretary Jay Carney simply said, “We are confident that we can continue to seek common ground and that we will achieve a balanced approach to deficit reduction.” But today they went public. The negotiations have failed.

“The primary goal of President Obama’s presser, which just wrapped up, was obvious,” writes Greg Sargent. “He was clearly out to pick a major public fight with Republicans over tax cuts for the rich.” That’s exactly right. But he didn’t want this fight. He wanted a deal. And he wasn’t able to get one that the White House considered even minimally acceptable. After putting more than $2 trillion of spending cuts on the table, they weren’t even able to get $400 billion — about a sixth of the total — in tax increases.

http://www.unconditionalconfidence.com/mt/mt-static/FCKeditor/UserFiles/Image/nervous.gif

That's why I didn't criticize him for staying out of the NYC marriage debate! Endorsing the legislation would have killed any chances of GOP support.

“He was clearly out to pick a major public fight with Republicans over tax cuts for the rich.”

Giv'em hell Barry

The public's on his side if chooses the words carefully.

^^^

yep. Klein's OTM I think. this is gonna get ugly, but I'm glad Obama didn't cave.

some insane political brinksmanship going on here, polling data and economic realities are in Obama's favor tho I think

Picking a fight at a Wednesday morning press conference is not bad, but remember when Presidents use to hold them at night? Can Obama stay strong on this is the question. He will probably settle for a package with less than 17% on the revenue side, when in years past the 50/50 ratio Sanders wants was considered mainstream. But will Republicans agree to anything on the revenue side?

Someone posted something along these lines a long time ago, but the chamber of commerce types are the true GOP daddies and there's no fucking way they'll let the US default on its debts..

they're also the ones whose taxes will tick upward slightly if a deal on obama's terms is accepted...

a default will, if it happens, have many of the same effects of slashing the safety net directly. it'll primarily hurt the lives of those who are more closely dependent on the health of the public sector, which basically includes everyone except your megarich CoC types. ruining the ability of the public sector to borrow on favorable terms is kind of their goal anyway? i'm not so sure i see a way out of this. maybe mike konczal got in my brain.

The Republicans have turned into a petrified ideological shell w/little intellectual honesty and their partisan supporters should be told to put down their flags 'cause despite their protests they can objectively be shown to prize certain things more than the Republic, namely an attachment to classic liberal economic theory (wed to its fearful moralism) that shows they either haven't understood much of the 20th century or that they find greater stability, sustainable growth and nuanced views on the functioning of the economy that take into account costs that Ricardo never saw as morally suspect. They should be repeatedly kicked in the nuts. Every time they call someone a 'socialist' they should be called childish or actually told to stfu and make an argument based on facts and not on paranoid delusions and that pandering to puerile talking points just makes them sound like children. What was Ickes famous line? I always loved it. It was something like, when asked if he was going to listen to Wilkie's speech, he responded that if he wanted to hear a baby cry, he could go home and hear his own kids.

CoC types won't want this but Norquist will love it. When even ppl like the Bachmanns are getting lots of money from the gov and then they don't, a large part of the electorate will either vote against the Republican leadership or abstain.

basically rich fucks are currently analyzing which scenario is worse for them, higher taxes or debt default, and this will dictate how the GOP goes. Hard to say how that will shake out.

xp

They should be repeatedly kicked in the nuts.

can't be said enough really

I know it's lame to announce stuff like this, but Michael White I always enjoy your posts, esp on this thread. Could say that about lots of others on this thread, even (and particularly) those I disagree with

You're welcome!

*chugs*

Sorry, ill-advised post-happy hour "I love you guys" style post!

http://spencerackerman.typepad.com/attackerman/2011/06/the-white-house-counterterrorism-strategy-sort-of-blows.html

never liked john brennan!

people who work in politics are horrible

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/13/lisa-baron-s-salacious-memoir.html

yikes

"When people find out that I worked for Ralph Reed during the 2000 Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, they always ask the same thing: Was it true Ralph told voters that Senator John McCain fathered a black child?" she writes. "And my answer is always the same, 'How would I know? I was in a Greenville hotel room giving Ari Fleischer a blow job.'"

^^^ Henry James would kill for this opening sentence.