With a greater majority than passed the Bush tax cuts the first time, the United States House of Representatives passed the Obama-Republican tax-cut thing early this morning, 277 to 148. Across this great country the wealthy smiled, went into their children’s bedrooms, watched them sleeping there peacefully in their beds of cocaine, and decided to add a few million to the trust fund in the morning. Across this great country the unemployed briefly looked up, stopped circling job openings with a ball-point pen on their computer screens, and promised to themselves right then and there that they would be appreciative for about five minutes; but still whole-heartedly believe the Republican candidate in 2012 when she tells them Obama has raised, and wants to raise, their taxes. Across this great country young people watching the events unfold went outside into the cold and cried and hugged each other, because change was finally here; finally, the Bush years were back.
The final vote in the House was 277 to 148 after liberal Democrats failed in one last bid to change an estate-tax provision in the bill that they said was too generous to the wealthiest Americans and that the administration agreed to in a concession to Republicans. The amendment failed, 233 to 194.
Nice try. Participation ribbons for everyone!
The White House and Republicans hailed the deal as a rare bipartisan achievement and a prototype for future hard-bargained compromises in the new era of divided government.
So in the future, the White House will get the things about which they agree with Republicans, and the Republicans will get most of the things they want that the White House doesn’t want them to have. Hail! Hail it! HAIL CAESAR!
“The era of deficit denial is over,” said Bruce Reed, the executive director of Mr. Obama’s bipartisan commission on reducing the national debt. “They’re just having a big year-end close-out.”
Cute. So, very soon, the White House and Congress will cut way more money from the budget than the $801 billion this fucking tax-cut thing cost. Right. Someone should make a billboard that keeps track of the amazing amounts of money this country cuts out of its deficits, and we should all hold a party to re-inaugurate Obama when it hits $801 billion.
Which will be never, if you weren’t following along. [NYT]
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Mmmmm…. chocolate President Bush.
Chocolate Bush? You leave Marie Luv out of this!
Now watch this drive.
When did we start speaking the new English wherein "bipartisan" means "we gave the Republicans anything they wanted"?
When did we stop?
bipartisan: noun \sY-Èpä-zY-Ìtor-ee\
a solid but readily meltable cone or cylinder of usually medicated material for insertion into a bodily passage or cavity as the rectum
Meet the New Speak. Same as the Old Speak, except with more gold chocolate coins and larger piles of cash for hedgefund managers.
It's funny because it's true…
Wait. It's not funny at all. Still true, just not funny.
Well, I laughed when I saw the headline, but now I'm sobbing uncontrollably.
So when does President Bush-Obama beg China for more loans so that our beloved millionaires and billionaires can keep buying their expensive toys? And they thought we 'muricans were spoiled before…
Bipartisan? It's starting to feel more like a double-penetration.
An Eiffel Tower? Suspiciously French.
Now, the Republicans will vote against their own interests & undo this tax-cut extension.
I like how you work, kenlayisalive. (By the way, update your site. (Last updates at I Faked My Death are from 2008, or something.))
AnEiffel Tower! That's it. I couldn't think of the name (perv badge revoked).
I don't know I Faked My Death. My site is http://kenlayisalive.org (shameless plug!) I updated it last night!
I have nothing against plugs; we all have to eat.
It's funny how quickly everyone jumped to the conclusion that Lay's "death" in Colorado — he was under indictment for corporate malfeasance, & he was at his Rocky Mountain get-away, hiking, like everything was peachy-keen — was faked. It might well have been. But only to help even the domestic death-count of the Right, in the Bush Years: Wellstone & Vitter's Madam had to die, but since Ken Lay only "died", one of those real deaths comes off the board, for murder prosecution purposes.
Eat? I'm still waiting to cross the AdSense minimum to get a check – and I started 5 years ago. I get all funeral home ads, haha.
But yeah, the death scales do weight far heavier on the left than on the right. Imagine who we have lost – culturally, politically – who would still be here today to guide us: MLK, RFK, JFK, Malcolm, John Lennon, etc, etc…
It is sort of unfathomable the extraordinary personalities we have lost to straight up fucking right-wing murder. Imagine the gravitas of that group of consciences, white haired and old with forty more years of wisdom passed, would have on our miserable world today.
Heh. I once chose a medical examiner from a list simply because his name was Ken Lay. Not so much for the lulz, but because he was the only one I thought could speak English natively, and I needed concision.
Concision? Did you mean circumcision?
Mission. Fucking. Accomplished.
Yay, we's gonna be rich!
If we're already rich!
You missed the fine print in the law. Anyone earning less than 250k will get a tax hike and a personal punch in the genitals by the new republican majority.
Another one???
Stupid rich people… thinking their US America money has actual value.
Good luck with that inheritance kids when all it will be good for is starting fires or wiping your ass.
The real currency will be bullets, beans and booty (male or female.)
You say that to yourself, knowing full well that their wealth is stashed in CHF in Zurich.
More consoling in my view is the thought that there'll be another ice age.
Cold comfort considering most of Europe will be wearing barrels and eating hobo beans, too. Swiss chocolate coins will be more valuable than Swiss Francs.
Everyone knows the smart money is in survival seeds.
Still, even American money's easier on the ass than that horrifying excuse for toilet paper the Europeans use.
Speaking of which, if you're American before you go into the john and you're American when you come out of the john, what are you while you're in the john?
You're-a-peein'
or Europoopan. (if it's a #2)
don't forget glen beck gold and jesus!!!!
Btw, I almost forgot about Rehnquist's gold stripes… Were those like notches on his bedpost?
Yes, for each civil liberty he fucked.
This finally exposes parliamentary politics for the scam it is. The people are sovereign and may quietly abdicate every four years, when they're suckered into campaign donations and voting booth.
Off with their fucking heads, I say, knowing full well that that's not going to work either.
I wonder if Glenn Blech will acknowledge that yes, we are indeed, an Oligarhy.
And by definition only a few of us can be oligarchs.
You're talking about a man who rails against "elitists" – and means college professors by that, not CEOs and other corporate executives. He doesn't exactly know what words mean.
Where do I send my application to be an oligarh? Seems like a good gig, right up until the polonium bisque.
Does this mean ponies for everyone? Yay!!
Obama will always have raised taxes; hell, one guy I know repeatedly criticizes Obama for not including any tax cuts in the stimulus package, no matter how many times I point out that he did.
Facts are useless. You can prove anything even remotely true with facts.
I threw up in my mouth a little when I saw this last nite as nreaking news…. Well it wasn't a little, it was a lot. Also, it was on my cat, not in my mouth, too.
I watched the affair on C-SPAN, and was forced to drink one too many beers. Good thing I'm not too busy today.
Ladies & gentlemen, the Law of Inertia.
It put me in mind of the Laws of Entropy, from the Elric series.
"…future hard-bargained compromises"
Read: unprotected anal sex.
Lube negotiable.
Walnuts will be livid.
Today, we are all Charlie Brown trying to kick a football.
When I logged in to my Yahoo! mail this morning to check for porn spam / messages from family members, I was greeted with the Y! News headline, from the AP, reading "Bill preventing big tax hikes heads to Obama Fri."
What is with all these assgrabber news services and the word "hike"? This is from the goddam Associated Press, too, not FOX News. It's no wonder Obama bent over for the Boehner on this one, considering the way this has played out in the press.
When it comes to politics, the AP these days is only different from FOX in that it used to be respectable.
Exactly.
Wasn't the head of AP's Washington &/or politics bureau in bed with WALNUTS! back in '08, & no one thought anything of it?
That's man-on-man bedding, also.
I believe so; let's try a little research.
Here we go, Ron Fournier; he didn't actually work for WALNUTS but had had lengthy discussions with him to consider doing so, and more damningly has email conversations with Karl Rove, encouraging him to "keep up the good fight". It looks like the "this is good news for John McCain" meme got started with bloggers mocking him specifically, too.
Faux News now IS the 'mainstream' media, unfortunately. Kind of has an 'Animal Farm' vibe to it, no?
It's sad – even our own douchey little North Carolina news outlet WRAL ran a headline about avoiding tax hikes. Which got all the mouth breathers here foaming about having a Kenyan-Indonesian in the WHITE House and talking about "wins for the good guys." etc etc pass me my hemlock before the Alaskan MILF gets elected and so on.
It's particularly sad that Obama's crew has done such a poor job getting ahead of the media. They're not setting the meme table, and consequently, they have to work within the wingnut discourse they're given. Passive, puerile, pussyfooted.
Obama: bring more Chicago from here on out, and less Aloha.
It's clear that Obama's crew doesn't want to get ahead of the media. Now that the President is a rich, it's all about the O.
Oh for Allah's sake…
Clearly, He is not the Most Merciful….
Where's my fucking unicorn!
On the spit with cumin seasoning.
Check your bedroom. You've likely to find a bloodied unicorn head, there.
USA=Ireland, Italy, Greece, Portugal & Spain now. Republicans will be castigating the President once interest rates start spiking for allowing this to happen…and suggesting further tax cuts for the wealthy to "grow" us out of this mess.
So let's review: times are good–tax cuts because it's YOUR money.
Times are bad–tax cuts because small businesses (i.e. rich Republican donors) are the job engines of America!
Q.E.D.
This guy didn't get the memo: the point of getting rich in America is never having to say "Thank you." http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-unemploym...
We can take some comfort that Bernie Sanders was not arrested on rape charges (this time).
Will people shut up about this deficit obsession? It's pretty simple, don't worry about the deficit in a recession when we need government spending to turn the economy; it's in good economic times that you need to balance the budget.
Sadly, our media will still treat the GOP deficit squawking credulously, ignoring how Bush and the Republican congress turned the Clinton surplus into a deficit (and we'd have a lot more money to spend without borrowing now if it wasn't for that, if the economy would have still tanked without him, which I doubt) and how, just now, their holding unemployment benefits hostage to get their tax cuts for the rich proves that they've been lying all along.
You mean the liberal, left-leaning media will basically just parrot right-wing talking points, and characterize this as the GOP saving the public from Obama's plan for a massive tax hike? Crazy talk!
But seriously, how did the media end up this way? It's like the Fox News syndrome is contagious, and everyone but MSNBC got infected.
The right-wingers started spreading the "liberal media" bullshit in the 80s, and the nation's journalists started wetting their pants at being called mean names by the likes of Rush Limbaugh; so, instead of actually doing their fucking jobs, they just started repeating what Conservatives said without bothering and say "this is a lie" when one of them is flat-out lying.
That, and the media consolidation brought about by deregulation has lead to most of our news media owned by a handful of giant corporations. Guess what, most executives at companies like Disney, AOL/TimeWarner and Viacom are not exactly liberal, and they control our news. Hell, thanks to ClearChannel here in Philly, an overwhelmingly liberal city, every single radio talk show available is hosted by a far-right wingnut type now.
The lamestream media is 110% liberal. That's why Repubicans can't get elected. And the ones who somehow get in office are utterly powerless, unable to be heard. It's just sad.
It's why, with three news networks, there are only three conservatives hosting political talk shows, while liberals have an entire network plus many of the of shows on the other, and though people don't talk about them the financial news networks are 100% liberal.
An entire network of liberals? Which one is that? Unless Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan have been replaced on MSNBC that is.
I agree, now is not the time to worry about deficits. However, what does it say about a country that's full of people saying "We have to worry about the deficit!" And then they turn around and add to the deficit by extending tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthiest–tax cuts that were MEANT to be temporary. It says that country is retarded.
It says that country is retarded.
Sadly, that sounds like code for "Palin Cuntry"
Ha, it gets even fucking better- there's recently been rumbling amongst the House GOP to maybe also revoke the "maintain high employment" part of the Fed's mandate, and only let them worry about inflation, you know, barring them from using monetary policy at all while inflation is nil and unemployment is through the roof. YEAH BECAUSE THAT'S NOT A RECIPE FOR A GENERATION OF ECONOMIC PAIN FOR EVERYONE.
But, hey, maybe now that Republicans have rejected every single fucking credible school of economics while the fucking Dems just roll over, we can just wait for fucking Space Gandalf swoop down and fix everything.
It's not a recipe for economic pain for EVERYONE. While a little inflation doesn't hurt anyone, and in fact can help the debt-ridden poor and middle class, inflation is bad for the rich who suddenly find the real value of their stocks declining. It's another part of the GOP's plan since 1980 to return us to the 1890s.
Agree, about inflation- even beyond its effect on private debt, there's the whole thing where some level of inflation is a sign that there's demand for things and thus incentive for producers to expand their capacity- ie, it's a necessary condition for the economy to grow.
HOWEVER: color me skeptical that a generation of 10%+ unemployment, coupled with whatever more disastrous policies President Palin or whomever puts into play (once Republicans get back in office on the strength of having successfully sabotaged the economy and gotten Democrats to shoulder the blame), isn't going to hurt everyone eventually. Rich greedy short-sighted assholes are rich greedy short-sighted assholes, though, and don't really give a fuck if the policies they're pushing lead to a decade of economic stagnation, America's fall from its superpower status, widespread property crime, etc. etc. etc. in a couple of years, as long as they can get an extra million bucks right now.
The budding Marxist in me wants to say it's probably because the gap between the richest and poorest (at record highs!) has left an awful lot of the very richest convinced that they're completely insulated from the suffering that the policies they're demanding visit on the rest of society, and that this view is probably going to lead to a pretty rude wake-up call 20-ish years down the line, not unlike the same people's intransigent opposition to doing anything about global warming.
One thing that today's rich seem to have forgotten is that a big reason we need decent services and income for the poor and middle is to prevent actual, violent class warfare. The threat of an actual Communist revolution the Great Depression was high, and FDR saved their precious capitalism with the New Deal, for which they now call our 2nd greatest president (after Lincoln) a socialist and spit on his grave.
A recipe for a generation of economic pain?
Hello? 1982-2010. We're already through a generation of economic pain. And now we have a generation of people that actually believe that tax cuts and credit card spending is the One True Path to Economic Nirvana.
HAHAHAHA yeah, great, thanks, feeling way better now. Apparently we've been collectively fucked basically since I was born, and my baseline therefore sucks.
To add to your point, the biggest projected growth in the deficit will be from health care costs – and the best way to control them is with a single payer system, not some lumbering patchwork monstrosity of subsidies that will benefit President Romney and Nebraska cornhole handouts for Ben Nelson.
Note to DNC: next time allows ONLY candidates with balls to run in Democratic primary.
This calls for a Friday night Bunga-Bunga orgy. Somewhere. And here's this amazing thing: Last night I dreamed I did a lot of coke. A LOT of coke. Nosebleeds, dust everywhere, naked chicks. So yeah, this tax-death-passing thing at night makes a little sense.
Guess who's gonna take the blame a year from now, when the economy is still in shambles, unemployed is still at 10% and home values drop another 20% (and all this while Corporations' profits are still soaring). Can can you possibly not see this???
Fuck this, I'm moving to Greece. The economy is even more fucked over there, but at least you can riot without getting Gitmo'd.
And Greek food beats the hell out of American food. They get spanakopita and dolmades. We get McRibs and 4Loko.
Now all the little rich boys and girls will get an extra yacht in their stockings. It's a Christmas miracle! Brings a tear to my eye. Actually a bunch of tears. Tears of rage.
W
STILL The President
Hey theres Bitch McConnell standing behind Jr. with that bush eating grin on his waddle.
I kind of doubt that McConnell has ever eaten bush; he doesn't appear to swing that way.
Mitch McConnell is like a painting made of buggers. Really tough to wash away.
Obama can give them everything they want and top it off with a rusty trombone, but to them he'll always be a Kenyan Muslin Soshailist.
Are we doing the time warp again? Feelz like we just got given a giant pelvic thrust here.
"Of evils current upon earth the worst is money. Money 'tis that sacks cities, and drives men forth from hearth and home; warps and seduces native innocence, and breeds a habit of dishonesty. But they who sold themselves shall find their greed out-shot the mark, and rue it soon or late." — sophocat, "foregone's conclusion"
read 'em and weep.
That's it. My overhead and profit margins just jumped from 15 to 20% on all future construction contracts with the filthy
cock jackalsrich.Recession is OVER!
At least Bush stabbed us in the front.
We're going to hail in a handbasket.
Ugh, this feels like a really bad one night stand…I mean really, really bad.
For the first time in years, Conservative anti-government pantload Grover Norquist is chubbing up. Good thing he has Jonah Goldberg's number, hate to see a good chubber go to waste.
"So in the future, the White House will get the things about which they agree with Republicans, and the Republicans will get most of the things they want that the White House doesn’t want them to have."
When a toddler throws a temper-tantrum, you never ever ever give in. Obama should know this – he (presumably) raised two children past that stage. Giving in to their fits only means they will grow up to be whiny, entitled, narcissistic assholes – or Republicans, in other words.
If Sasha and Malia grew up to be Republicans, that would be schadenfreude-alicious!
(I hate that I feel that way)
Considering their awesome mom, I doubt that would happen…
The Great Red-Shift continues. Like a galaxy speeding away at the edge of the universe, our entire political spectrum has shifted to the right, so far now, that the mainstream of the GOP consists of libertarian gun nuts who want to abolish Social Security, outlaw unions, and re-enact slavery, and the mainstream of the democratic party consists of what would have been considered conservative republicans, in 1970. Nixon would be considered a commie.
HOORAY! Two more years of that incredible Bush prosperity.
Thank goodness it's only temporary.
Linus: You know what they say, Charlie Brown: You win some, you lose some.
Charlie Brown: Really? That would be great!
I heard the cringe-inducing Mara Liasson talking about this maybe two days ago when it was delayed in the House, and she actually said the Tax Cut Compromise that is VERY POPULAR with Americans…
When I heard it, I gritted my teeth a little, but then I realized that she said "Americans", which for someone like Mara Liasson, that means Republicans. If NPR is looking for more "fat" to trim, Liasson is the perfect candidate.
You can always count on a "report" from her that is dripping with contempt for Democrats, no matter how banal the subject matter.
This will have more long-term effect than anyone realizes. This will be the beginning of the end of Social Security. Self-fulfilling prophecy is self-fulfilling for realz now.
Google map searches and drone strikes say otherwise…, if you're into that sort of thing and have the stomach for it, I mean.
I'm sure there are a few empty cells at Gitmo which could be filled.
Think they meant "figurative" balls.
Gee fucking wiz, really? I wish I'd known that before making some kind of snark-ass joke.
This is the saddest comment I have ever read. (That still made me laugh, that is. And hey, good luck–we're all pulling for you!)
"we're all pulling for you"
What – without pics?
basically – when something is bi-partisan in the USA – it's bad for all of us!
think: the war was a bi-partisan BS (if you were against it you're were a "traitor"); and even the stupid jacking up of ATM fees to ridiculous heights was a bi-partisan cluster-fukk!
Does the news about Rehnquist mean Roberts is out?
Unfrotunately, if Bush is getting re-elected, for the first time, ever, this is bad news for John McCain.
Speaking on behalf of myself and old white men everywhere, I applaud your new career choice. Oh wait, I've got no money. Never mind.
Go ahead Georgie, bitch slap that justice.
John Lennon would have retired long ago to a castle in the English countryside, & had little if anything to do with his pet cause(s) (I mean, beyond enriching John & Yoko) of the 70s, & I have a feeling a JFK post-presidency would have been less Carter & more Ford/Bush-41, but otherwise, I think you're on to something. A mellowing Malcolm X & Nobel'd King, Jr., would have meant quite a bit to progressive causes. Instead of the histrionics of Jesse Jackson in the 80s & Farrakhan in the 90s, the Get Rich theology of T.D. Jakes & his brothers by other mothers among the white Protestant clergy (Falwell, Robertson, Rick Warren, etc.), we should have had principled leadership from the theists in pursuing the bending arc of history.
Really does make you wonder, how different America would be today, if Bobby had been elected President.
* sigh *
"Actual, violent class warfare?" Puh-leeze. In USA 'Merka? Not as long as the cable bill gets paid.
You know, I used to think of the talk of a violent insurrection in America was a far-fetched idea, but then the Tea Party came along. If these folks get pissed at non-issues, just imagine when they actually find out who and what is really screwing them if things get worse economically.
Really, what the leadership in this country doesn't realize, or are afraid of saying publically, is that if unemployment stays as high as it is for too long all while they are trumpeting a recovery, things have the possibility to turn very, very ugly. I used to think this wa crazy talk, but I think folks take the unemployment situation for granted.
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