- Obama will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, which is a popular idea with absolutely no one besides Barack Obama. [New York Times]
- Full “first state dinner coverage” at the Washington Post! The piece contains no fewer than two (2) Sorkin references and descriptions of at least ten (10) fancy-sounding things. [Washington Post]
- The Ft. Hood military base will have tighter security and better mental health treatment programs. All of this seems logical. [CNN]
- People are actually buying homes again, some of which they may even be able to afford. [AP]
- Airlines will now be fined for stranding passengers. Airlines, you’ll recall, have neither the infrastructure to run smoothly, nor the money to pay the fine. [WSJ]
- New documents reveal that Tony Blair for sure knew that there were no WMDs in Iraq. [Times Online]
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{ 76 comments }
Let’s see… 30,000 more troops for Afghanistan (at $1,0000,0000 per soldier), billions to bail out Wall Street but a severely neutered “health reform” plan for the rest of us that does little to lower costs but forces all Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, Guantanamo is still in full swing, and unemployment is over 10%.
When Dems lose control of the House and Senate in 2010 and the presidency in 2012 I’m going to shit down the throat of the first guy who evinces even a hint of surprise.
It seems that the commenters on British sites are somewhat less deferential to their former leaders than we are. That is, I am heartened to see the mob calling for Tony Blair to be strung up by the testicles, always did think there was something squirrelly about that fella, but mystified as to why we are so far behind.
[re=466238]Serolf Divad[/re]: Please copy that to the WH and Congress. This constant pee pee dance the “left” is doing to cave to the right is infuriating. And all the “journalists” can do is talk about Obama’s plummeting poll numbers. Really?
Yup, wanting to see Blair strung up by the testicles is about all the right and the left can agree on in the UK. That, and the fact that the next government and the one after that’ll be Tory. Ugh. I can’t even rustle up any snark.
State Sponsored Arugula
President Dobbs will fix all this in January 2013.
Here’s a little To Do list for Obama, whom I do still like but he’s getting on my nerves on several subjects:
1. Close GitMo. Try them or release them. Indefinite incarceration was one of the reasons we were pissed off at the Brits in the colonial days. We really shouldn’t do that ourselves, m’kay?
2. Get out of Iraq. We didn’t have a good reason for going in there, except that the oil companies wanted control of the production there. We dropped those people from one kind of hell into another. Now, we’re pouring money into a corrupt infrastructure where it ends up with Halliburton and Blackwater or with local criminals. It’s time to GO, set an end date, make the locals stand up, and leave by that date for sure.
3. Move part of the effort from Iraq to Afghanistan, find bin Laden (look in those mountains in the borderlands), send him to The Hague for trial. Hand the place over to the locals and bring the troops home.
4. Pass healthcare with a public option and private health care. Each American will be guaranteed coverage, gets a certain amount of credit that can go to the public or private options as the person chooses and allowing the person to add to that for higher level coverage if they want. Break the link between health coverage and employment, helping with part of the pension issues that some companies have.
5. Fund environmental enforcement and gain back the ground that the Bushies purposefully lost for us.
6. Sign on to reduction of carbon emissions and actually DO it. Encourage, no, require the planting of millions of trees as a means of sequestering carbon currently in the atmsphere.
7. Taxes. Uh, let’s be honest here. We are deep in a financial hole. Our infrastructure, such as highways and bridges, is literally crumbling. Our water supplies are threatened by old pipes and outdated facilities. Raise taxes back to what they were under Reagan. Fix our national house and pay off our debts.
Damn the NYT. They must have left out a zero on that figure. Why must they try to make BO look stupid? Surely this is their plan.
Do the airline passengers get any of the fine?
After being stranded peanutless overnight in a crowded plane with overflowing bathrooms and no water (maybe that part was ok, because of the head situation) – geez, do you think there was a screaming kid or two on board by 1 or 2 am? – do the passengers share in the cash?
Probably not…
Nothing would please me more than seeing the railroads re-claim their passengers from the airlines, something that could be easily done with 21st-century tracks and trains.
[re=466238]Serolf Divad[/re]:
Sounds like you need some holiday stimuli.
The should forcibly draft stranded airline passengers into the Afghanistan-bound military. Boom! Two problems solved.
The should lock Tony Blair in a cell in Guantanamo with the Ft. Hood shooter guy. Boom! Two more problems solved.
People should be watching the fanciness of the state dinners on their car battery powered teevees down under the highway overpass, and live vicariously and not worry so much about affording homes. Boom! Two more problems solved.
Cynbot for Congress, 2010. Cynbot for Preznit, 2012!
Wouldn’t it be funny if President Palin ran on a US out of AfPakistan with lots of George Will columns backing her up as a foreign policy genius.
On a separate subject, that looks like it was a great party. I like Robin Givhan’s columns in the Post. She’s actually able to combine fashion/style coverage with politics and culture.
[re=466254]Terry[/re]: Can we ban landmines while we’re at it?
Here’s what ya do Barry. You get everybody in a room and have them say stuff and then do that. Duh. (He really is stupid. No wait…he’s an evil genius.)
[re=466238]Serolf Divad[/re]: Serolf, the one thing I would say is that 10% unemployment was not a surprise and the only thing Obama could have done about it is have a larger stimulus. You can criticize him for that, but the seeds of that unemployment rate were sown by the last guy.
If Ft. Hood has better security and mental health programs, how did America’s Dingbat get in to sell books?
[re=466281]ALIVE![/re]: Please don’t go there. The Dems have had the best part of a year to show their hand and it’s just as shit covered as the Wingnuts.
[re=466262]Terry[/re]: I’m waiting for the wingnut “How can they celebrate with such an expensive dinner when so many real murcans are out of work?” articles. Have they been written yet?
[re=466254]Terry[/re]: Ever consider running for Pres? Cause I’d totes vote fer ya.
[re=466284]rocktonsammy[/re]: America’s dingbat shilled books at Ft. Bragg, (fittingly).
[re=466238]Serolf Divad[/re]: So…cure the ills of whatever the last four assholes did (in ten months), or GTFO?
[re=466258]Servo[/re]: Nah, creating a 21st-century (or even late 20th century) rail network makes way too much sense for enough politicians to support it.
[re=466262]Terry[/re]: Can we talk about Michelle Obama’s dress for a minute? She looked amazing. Also, more Blair Underwood (noted India expert?) please.
[re=466275]Hedley Lamar[/re]:
Yep, I forgot that one. Ban the landmines immediately.
[re=466281]ALIVE![/re]:
As was the pussy-footin’ in Afghanistan because there was oil for the taking in Iraq.
Is holding an official banquet for a third-world leader in a tent rather than the White House supposed to be a sign of American superiority (aka arrogance)? We can’t have a repeat of the bowing scandal.
[re=466296]hockeymom[/re]:
OMG, Michelle looked GREAT. She’s smart, highly competent, a good mother, and has confidence and style. Did you see photos from inside the tent? The whole thing was WOW. Loved the chandeliers with the greens on them. If I con some man into marrying me at some point, I’d like to take photos of the decorations inside that tent to use as an example for the reception.
I think Michelle should do a version of her girls mentoring program for grown up women. Damn, I would love to learn a few things from her.
[re=466258]Servo[/re]: “something that could be easily done with 21st-century tracks and trains”
On this continent? Oh, that’s too funny! Around here, “new passenger trains” means throwing state money at CSX so that they’ll generously sign a contract that will shift all liability to the taxpayers if and when one of their freight trains runs over a passenger train.
Realistic passenger railroads will require serious federal spending, of the kind airports enjoyed two or three decades ago. Europe and Japan have trains because they have actual, y’know, tax revenue.
Iraq & Afghanistan are small potatoes. The big question is: When do we start the War On Christmas?
Must we wait until after Thanksgiving? I am anxious to deploy!
[re=466238]Serolf Divad[/re]: The worst part is when this happens, the conventional media wisdom will say it’s because the Democrats moved too far to the left.
Oh, hey, it was about a year ago this week that Harper burned down the Canadian Reichstag!
[re=466303]kapish[/re]:
The War on Christmas started the day after Halloween, mi amigo!
Someone started a Wilson Quarterly subscription for the ‘camaro household. After my initial repulsion, I began reading it and found it to be rather enlightening on topics of interest to my fellow losers, here. There’s no digital issue, just thought I’d pass the notion of “broadening horizons” on.
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.current
[re=466302]Guppy06[/re]:
Passenger rails can be installed along interstate highway corridors. There’s a lot of unemployed auto workers that could be easily trained to build railcars, and a lot of available construction workers that could be employed to build the tracks and terminals. Expensive? Yes. But at least there’s a return on the investment.
By the way, did Juli just go back to bed after producing the roundup? C’mon; most of us (who are employed) will be getting out early today, but still had to come in at the same time as always; or take a vacation day.
[re=466292]magic titty[/re]: That’s right — then we all vote Republican because we deserve more punishment for wanting things to be different.
[re=466303]kapish[/re]: Look at Monday’s posts; Best Buy and the Gap have already launched this year’s War, by being polite to non-Jesus-eating heathens.
[re=466281]ALIVE![/re]:
My criticism is leveled much less at Obama than the Democratic party as a whole… well, the Afghan troop increase is his cross to bear, but everything else is thew Dems own sorry assed fault.
Keep in mind that I fully credit the Obama economic team from preventing 20-40% unemployment and a collapse of the economic system. I also understand that in doing so it was pretty much inevitable that some wholly unworthy scumbags would receive taxpayer money to prop their crooked banks up.
But at the same time, Democrats were handed a golden opportunity to do something good for the country given that they had a fillibuster proof majority in the Senate and a comfortable majority in congress as well as the whitehouse. They also had the American people on their side… at least ‘tii recently. Instead all they did was fix G.W. Bush’s economic mess, a situation what proved extremely unpopular with average Joes who hate to see their tax dollars showered on undeserving Wall Street tycoons, but which, conveniently enough, means showering billions of dollars on powerful, potential campaign contributors.
What’s shittiest about this current crop of Democrats is that they’ve proven that they’re willing to take the heat for doing the unpopular, but necessary evil of bailing out Wall Street, but they’re not willing to take the fully manufactured “heat” for instituting real health reform that would prove to be extremely popular with vast segments of the American public if it were done right.
They can all choke on a bag of festering, pustulent dog dicks for all I care. I despise them almost as much now as I did when 51 Democratic Senators voted for Bush’s Iraq war adventure.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some puking to do.
[re=466305]dum librul[/re]:
Bingo… BINGO! You’ve nailed the insane irony of current politics right on its sorry-assed head.
[re=466305]dum librul[/re]: That’s a given. They say it along with their prayers at night.
[re=466317]Serolf Divad[/re]: You do know most congressional Dems aren’t violently angry libtards, yes? Why on Earth would you think they’d be bending over backwards to reform the healthcare industry?
And, you know, I question whether health care reform would be ‘extremely popular’ with vast segments of the population.
But whatever. “NObama!”, right? It’s easier.
[re=466302]Guppy06[/re]: They also don’t have a screwed up system where there’s a patchwork of ownership of the actual tracks to run the railroad.
[re=466317]Serolf Divad[/re]: Can’t argue with you there. Um, happy Thanksgiving?
[re=466317]Serolf Divad[/re]: Thank you – my sentiments exactly.
[re=466317]Serolf Divad[/re]:
I want to have Serolf Divad’s cyber babies.
[re=466315]SayItWithWookies[/re]: It’s amazing, the illogic.
OH GOD it’s happening there’s a debate on one of the threads jesus juli do something you stupid cow la la la i’m not listening
[re=466325]magic titty[/re]:
You do know most congressional Dems aren’t violently angry libtards, yes?
You’re telling me that it takes a “violently angry libtard” to pass meaningful health care reform? I’d have figured it just took someone who was willing to do what’s best for teh country. I mean, for fuck’s sakes, our idiotic health insurance system is strangling the country’s entrepreneurial spirit for chrissakes… that should be enough to scare a pro-business Republican. The only people who benefit from the current system are the health industry executives who are making money hand over fist and the politicians they shower with contributions. It is fucking the rest of the nation and was a major contributor to the near annihilation of the U.S. auto industry (which may yet fail to survive its health care obligations to retirees).
Oh yeah… snarketty, snark, snark.
Just so I don’t get banned.
[re=466313]Servo[/re]: Yes, we could do that, but CSX made so many campaign contributions…
[re=466336]Serolf Divad[/re]: Here’s an idea: the Dems all sign a resolution that for the remainder of Obama’s term they won’t take any money from lobbyists or corporations. Then they can all vote their consciences with no expectation of any kind of material gain. Which of course they should’ve been doing all along, but whatever.
[re=466253]V572625694[/re]: Cheney/Palin will fix all this in January 2013, you mean.
[re=466336]Serolf Divad[/re]: “The only people who benefit from the current system are the health industry executives who are making money hand over fist and the politicians they shower with contributions.”
I mean, you just wrote down the answer, so why continue with the indignance? That’s all I’m saying. I’m barely even disagreeing with you, aside from you saying most Americans want industry overhaul (cuz if they did, the shit would likely be passed already). My point is, what do you expect from a pig, but a grunt??
Furthermore, Trucknutz.
Here’s something else our government can do: Stop having these idiotic, wasteful and completely insane “state dinner” things. What a complete waste of money, time and resources. What a complete waste–on every level. We don’t need state dinners. And we don’t need to be wasting money on them. And the celebrity journalists–most of whom haven’t been real shoe-leater, in-the-trenches journalists for years–salivate and get all excited–and completely miss the larger picture. Here’s the larger picture: In just the D.C. area alone, there’s anywhere from 3 to 5 million people. Most of us will never, ever get to a “state dinner,” and most of the people who do go are part of the same ridiculous bubble-world of poseurs. So it doesn’t apply or connect to most of us. There are 330 million or so people across the United States–10 percent of which are currently unemployed. So why should any of us care if some high-paid government wonks and poseurs are going to some “dinner” at the White House? Who’s giving the hungry a dinner? Who’s getting people jobs ahd affordable homes? The White House should think about that the next time anyone even dares to suggest having another “state dinner.” During the worst recession in 70 years, the last thing we need are “state dinners.”
Yeah, things are so much different now with Obama in power and Democrats in control of Congress. Like how instead of just having rogue torture memos in the Bush years, we now have Obama’s Justice Department giving legal credence by actually using Yoo’s memos as the benchmark by which to measure CIA interrogators behavior against, while outright refusing to investigate the metric fuckton of blatant treaty/US code violations and war crimes committed by the previous administration. But, hey, what’s a taskforce on “preemptive detention” that includes one of Bush’s premiere executive power fetishists when we have trials with guaranteed outcomes for a select handful of detainees who’ve been festering in Guantanamo for close to a decade? Yay for the return of some slight acknowledgment of the rule of law! Gobama, Go!
Chances are unless one of you is a State Department employee or significant other enjoying the new perks of those domestic partnership benefits, you haven’t seen an ounce of difference in policy save for the fact that the people screwing us over appear on the news chyrons with a (D) instead of an (R). Th-th-aat’s apparently change many people can believe in. Oh, and for more change, we’re about to escalate our Afghanistan presence by thirty thousand troops, give or take. But Obama took time to *think* about it, so it’s all good now. And just to throw in so much change it’ll make your head spin, our noble closure of Guantanamo was asterisked by the Obama team’s insistence on moving indefinite detention to Bagram, instead. See, because the Supreme Court only specified that due process was mandatory for Guantanamo detainees. Change! Hope!
Anywho, I certainly look forward to buying into my mandatory insurance policy which will not cover a single goddamn thing I ever see my doctor for, same as every single policy I’ve had the past few years.
Bring back Bush. At least it didn’t feel like a punch to the ear every time he pulled off some crazy new overreach of executive tryannical power since I expected it with him.
Why do you people hate the troops? Support our president! Yellow ribbons, etc.
This thread is seriously lacking in the butt secks.
[re=466336]Serolf Divad[/re]: The problem with generalizations about the “Democrats” is that their Party, unlike the Republicans’, really is a big tent. A lot of conservative politicians calls themselves Democrats. Getting all of them to vote together is way more difficult then getting all Republicans to vote together.
[re=466348]thefrontpage[/re]: The reason is to keep up good international relations. Shrug? I mean, it keeps the executive branch employees employed.
[re=466349]dum librul[/re]: Yeah every time this president, or the last one, holds a presser, I (secretly?) hope / hoped that he announces / would announce that all this war crap is over and we’re going to be a peaceful nation again for awhile. In the case of Obama he’s going back on a promise, which sucks. Hey, he’s got 3 more years to make it groovy!
Can’t say I blame Obama for the troops increase. If they are used mostly for training local forces to overtake from them when they leave, it’s a good thing. Then at least within a certain number of months, Obama can release control to the local forces, pull out entirely and say that we’ve ‘won’, for an arbitrary definition of winning. It’d be nice to know what further plans he’s made with Pakistan and India, but that’s for him to know, for now.
As for the economic stuff – sure, 90% of the blame is on Clinton and Dubya, but Barry did appoint Timmeh Geithner. Geithner and Summers are a tag team from the land of fail. You’d think Obama would have the savvy to appoint someone who didn’t spend their whole career failing upwards. Why not just go ahead and rename the Treasury “Goldman MoneySachs”? I understand we can’t clone old man Volcker, but shit, at least make an effort to find someone with a similar mindset.
[re=466348]thefrontpage[/re]: While we are at it, we should nationalize and close down all those silly and wasteful museums, art galleries, symphony orchestras, operas, theatres, and posh restaurants that serve food priced over the 3 or 4 dollars needed to procure the requisite amount of calories for the consumer, and spend all that money on extending unemployment and boosting Social Security. It would be very rational. But, to paraphrase a cleverer man than myself, if rationality were the sole criteria by which things could be justified to exist, the world would be a gigantic field of soy beans.
The only change Americans can stomach is the extremely slow and imperceptible. Don’t wanna make any ripples on Tarded Pond.
[re=466349]dum librul[/re]: Snarkety snark funny statement here, but seriously? The mere suggestion, even as a joke, that we should bring back Bush makes me want to hit things. So Obama hasn’t been good ENOUGH? Fine, I can definitely understand that sentiment. But staying home in elections or god forbid, voting for Republicans, is not going to help shit. This sort of behavior causes Democrats to learn the wrong fucking lesson.
As long as these cowardly shits think there’s the remotest chance of losing power, they will lean (and lean HARD) to the right. If they think they have strong, nay, unbeatable support, then they will INCH toward more progressive policies. We are talking GLACIALLY slow. And barring you starting a successful third party (HA!), or the abolition of the filibuster (which the minority party will always, naturally, filibuster) this is literally the best version of progress you will get.
Is that still not good enough? Move out, and I don’t mean that snarkily or in a mean way or anything. There are plenty of countries out there for whom making things even a tiny bit better isn’t a titanic struggle. Socialist paradises await, kids.
[re=466428]Servo[/re]: It wasn’t always that way. But these days, no one can just go through life thinking that smarter men than they have this covered. Nowadays, every tard thinks they are as qualified to run the government as the elected officials. The Soviet slogan “Every housewife cook ought to be able to rule a country” has now been embodied by Sarah Palin. This will be a fine democratic notion when the educational system of the country actually equips everyone for the job. Right now, however, implicit trust in the government has eroded entirely, and both Parties took adavantage of it by completely demonizing each other and polarizing their constituencies, who lack either the ability or the time or the inclination to understand issues beyond propaganda and soundbites. That’s why there’s gridlock, and that’s why Barry can’t just pull a straight-out FDR and play benevolent dictator until he basically ages out of office.
[re=466384]AxmxZ[/re]:
That’s true… but for once I’d like to see a party leadership that’s willing to kick some serious ass to bring the stragglers in line… some “vote for this bill or we’re going to find a primary challenger for you who will, and neither you nor any of your children, nor anyone you know will ever see another penny from the Democratic Campaign Committe coffers.”
[re=466462]Serolf Divad[/re]: Well, okay, but from the conservatives point of view, it’s damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Their conservative constituencies elected them on an implicit promise of relative conservatism. And now it turns out that come next election day, if they *don’t* vote for this bill, then the Democratic apparat will displace them in the primaries, and if they *do*, then Republicans will displace them in the general. And most everyone who gets the job in Congress has more than half an eye to keep the job in Congress.
New documents reveal that Tony Blair for sure knew that there were no WMDs in Iraq. [Times Online]
Is this why he converted to Catholicism, so he could feel at home among the people who suck Bene’sdict for a (very cushy) living?
Excellent article, by the way. Possibly because it was written outside the U.S., where a few newspapers are still allowed to be something more than PR firms for the Vatican/Israeli axis.
[re=466435]Zadig[/re]: The climate has changed. If this were 2000, or even ’04 or ’08, I would agree that supporting a third party would be laughable. But I think the Democratic party is coming close to a point of no return with liberals; about as close as Republicans are with their conservative base. We may be closer to seeing both parties schism than we’ve been since the Progressive Roosevelt era, and that would be a very good thing for the country. Instead of two power brokers serving the same masters, Congress would actually have a healthy mix of progressives who are free of Democratic party shackles to influence things according to their actual numbers, which is something the House Progressive Caucus never does as things stand now.
Plus it would even be safe for Lincoln Chafee style Republicans to come out of their spider holes in New England, and they wouldn’t have to worry about the Southern Conservative party endorsing a Grover Norquist lackey every time primary season comes around. We’d see much more progress in Congress if the factions were forced to cooperate for things as simple as forming Congressional leadership, and douchebags like Lieberman would be stripped of almost all relevance.
I honestly don’t understand your question, though. You asked if this “still” wasn’t good enough for me, but I can make a very honest argument that Obama has been worse for civil liberties than even Bush. Of course I don’t want to bring Bush back, but I’m also not sure it would be all that different were such a thing to happen.
[re=466254]Terry[/re]: F*** Reagan. Put the top tax bracket back into the LBJ/Nixon era at least. If low taxes and limited government are such a spur to growth, shouldn’t Somalia be a world power and China be a place devoid of investment?
“Obama will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan”
I really don’t care anymore
About all the Jim-Jims in this town
And all the politicians making crazy sounds
And everybody putting everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds
–Lou Reed, “Heroin”
[re=466510]Georgia Burning[/re]:
Well, you’ve got to admit: Somalia has a pretty kickass pirate Navy.
Ahoy, mateys!
“Chances are unless one of you is a State Department employee or significant other enjoying the new perks of those domestic partnership benefits, you haven’t seen an ounce of difference in policy save for the fact that the people screwing us over appear on the news chyrons with a (D) instead of an (R).”
[re=466349]dum librul[/re]: This is why dum liberals are dumb.
[re=466349]dum librul[/re]: Obama is another center-right politician, like Bill Clinton. That is the best we are ever going to get in this country, since we are stuck with two parties, one center-right and the other hard right. They will pull the “good cop/bad cop” routine on us forever and ever. Third parties are doomed.
But look at the bright side: JPMorgan Chase posted $3.6 billion quarterly profit in October. That should cheer you up!
[re=466254]Terry[/re]:
the few suggested then,
10. Repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and Defense of Marriage Act. We are all Americans.
11. Crush the Lobbyists! Remove “personhood” from corporations and remove the bogus ‘freedom of speech’ arguments they use to defend spending trillion$ on K Street.
12. Crush the Fed! Kennedy printed money (Johnson recalled it as one of his first acts as President…use the Google kids). The US Government can make it own damn money.
13. Force China, thru whatever political might he has, to let the Yuan be traded freely and NOT be bracketed below the dollar…the only way for us to pay them off (which is easier than to break WalMart shoppers from ShenZhen-made goods)
Terry & Serolf Divad are gods, and Magictittywookies can back the fuck up with their apologisms. I’m not here to look out after the president or his party; we’re literally fighting for simply survival down here in America. I’m as liberal as they come, more even, but this kneejerk “cut the president some slack” is getting old. Don’t worry about the president; he’s got plenty of people looking out for him. We’ve got to look out for ourselves, first.
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