Facepalm

“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”




Goldman: We Won't Slash Pay for '10

Perhaps it is possible to be MORE disgusted. I cannot imagine how.


Here's much more important news:

Comic book fans, of course, are big on first appearances, and the wealthier ones may be excited to own a copy of Detective Comics No. 27. That 1939 issue marks the first appearance of Batman and will be up for bid at Heritage Auctions from Feb. 25-27. According to the Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, a near-mint-condition copy of this comic is worth $450,000. The very fine copy up for grabs at Heritage is expected to surpass $300,000.


Most expensive comic ever?
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Nobel Peace Prize

President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO - President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

Attaturk: "I guess Krauthammer was right, the international regard for the United States has so fallen after Obama became President that they just awarded our Chief Executive the Nobel Peace Prize."

Oliver Willis: "Congrats to the President for this honor, another turn of the page from the failed warmongering failure of the last 8 years of U.S. foreign policy."

I may criticize the man (from the left) for his centrist tendencies, but only in the fever dream of deranged righ-winger has he failed to complete represent the dreams and hopes of the American people. A proud accomplishment.
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Haters

President McCain will be on my teevee yet again on Sunday.

It dawned on me this morning - I don't give a shit any more about those people who refuse to admit that they lost the election last year. Seriously, bored with them, annoyed with them - fuck them.

I don't care if they are corporatists, fascists, or racists - they lost the election last year. Period.
It's not rage we should be feeling, it's contempt. 80% of Americans support the President - the 20-percenters can go jump off a cliff. Sooner than later, please.

Monday Morning...

I do believe that I said that Obama wasted three months letting the Thugs get traction on any damn thing, much less health care.

Curiously, Maureen Dowd seems to get it. Yes, dear - that IS why they hate him.

He isnt really losing the "white" vote. He's losing squishy Dems who weren't really thrilled with him to begin with, but thought that he would kick some Republican ass. That they happen to be largely white is just incidental demographics.

Bearding The Lion In His Den

JurassicPork had a detailed post HERE of President Obama's frankly courageous stand against offshore tax havens, especially since they thought they were buying him off.

NY Times : The top corporate tax rate is 35 percent, but the Treasury Department estimated that in 2004, the most recent year for which data is available, American multinationals paid $16 billion in taxes on $700 billion in foreign income — an effective rate of 2.3 percent.


JurassicPork: With the average American paying an average tax rate of 20% or so, why is Joe Sixpack and John Q. Public supposed to feel sorry for corporations who ship jobs overseas and reduce our workforce so they can get around the minimum wage and occupational safety laws when their own average tax rate is 32.7% lower than the maximum?

Exactly so.
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Memories

Do you remember back in 2004, when Obama spoke before the Democratic National Convention, and we all said, "Whoa - this guy is SOMETHING. We need to watch what he does next?" And then he actually RAN for President? And he WON?

Do you remember how that felt?
.


.


.


.


.

Bobby Jindal? Didn't do any of that.

But It's Different, This Time

A short photoessay from Hecate:

It's Always Some Little Girl, Looking All Alone, Surrounded By Grownups, With Her Hair Done Up. But It's Different, This Time.

...Today, two little African American girls traipsed off from one of DC's finest hotels to one of DC's finest schools. We routed traffic all around the city in order to make it happen (because George and Laura Bush are jerks.) And, for just a minute, I am proud of us. I am proud of how far we've come in just one lifetime. Go, America. You go, Girl. That was pretty cool.

I learn so much from Hecate every day and she just taught me again. I hadn't realized the significance of this until she pointed it out. Thanks.

Universal health care NOW

It's time to seriously discuss universal health care.

From Spocko, one of my heroes:

I need to live in a society where my daughter's access to the insulin she needs every day to live is not subject to the whims of my employer. And I think Obama offers me that option.

I hope.
Adam Hominem

"...The economic crisis is actually the RIGHT time to start thinking about implementing universal health insurance.

The Progressive Shock Doctrine states that when there is an economic crisis it is the best time to look at Progressive solutions."

Sorry, Obama - any solution that allows the insurance companies to operate as they currently do is doomed to FAIL. Hillary can tell you that.

Medicaid for all citizens, and let the incos sell supplemental.

Presumptuous

Here's what I think about the media all calling Obama "presumptuous":

"Presumptuous" is LYING about the candidate and thinking that no-one going to notice.

"Presumptuous" is being part of the Keating 5 scandal and then claiming that you're are a maverick straight shooter. (per euphronius. Pace.)

Thinking that a confident Obama is presumptuous for thinking and acting like he may have a leg up on this soulless zombie scumbag is just slanderous; it's a lie and it's a racist lie, too.

Uppity Negro narrative taking hold :

Nothing worse than an uppity Negro.

How dare a black man say he has “good odds” to win the presidency.

How dare a black man say he has good odds, period...

Read the rest here.

One Step Closer...

They come one step closer every fucking day:

Summary: On The McLaughlin Group, John McLaughlin said: "Question: Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama, who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo -- a black on the outside, a white on the inside -- that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for?"

They couldn't use the word "Oreo" any more than they did in that discussion, and pretend they were anything but howler monkeys.
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"Strength through bowing..."

My response to Glenn Greenwald's "Democrats' strategy: Strength through bowing" :

You're absolutely right...

I AM going to vote for Obama in the general election. That's because I will DROP A CONCRETE BLOCK ON MY OWN FOOT before I ever vote for a Republican for anything.

Besides that - I will never give another dime to his campaign or to the Democratic Party. I just contributed to the EFF to continue this fight and I'm forwarding the letter to Obama and the DNC to let them know that this is a contribution that they didn't get.

I will support ActBlue and I will work to put everyone who supported this corrupt and craven bill out of business.

-- Meander61

Mark Twain, On Congress

http://www.twainquotes.com/Congress.html

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." - Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar


"Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can."
- What Is Man?

"...the smallest minds and the selfishest souls and the cowardliest hearts that God makes." - Letter fragment, 1891

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." - Mark Twain, a Biography

Good Morning, all.

Final passage of the FISA bill

Greenwald:

UPDATE VI: Cloture on the bill just passed 72-26. Obama voted in favor of cloture along with all Republicans. Hillary Clinton voted against cloture.

After the cloture vote, the Senate just approved final passage of the FISA bill, by a vote of 69-28. Obama voted with all Republicans for the bill. Hillary Clinton voted against it.

Democrats voting in favor of final passage of the FISA bill: Bayh - Carper - Casey - Conrad - Dorgan - Feinstein - Innuoye - Kohl - Landrieu - Lincoln - McCaskill - Mukulski - Nelson (Neb.) - Nelson (Fla.) - Obama - Pryor - Rockefeller - Salazar - Webb - Whitehouse.

Democrats voting against final passage of the FISA bill: Akaka - Biden - Bingaman - Boxer - Brown - Cantwell - Cardin - Clinton - Dodd - Dorgan - Durbin - Feingold - Harkin - Kerry - Leahy - Levin - Lautenberg - Murray - Reed - Reid - Sanders - Schumer - Stabenow - Tester - Wyden.

To say that I'm bitterly disappointed is an understatement.
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July 4 2008

A Black man, Barack Obama, is the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States.

Jesse Helms is dead. That he burns in hell, eternally, would be too fond a wish.

The Preamble:



Kirk's Version:



The words must apply to EVERYONE or they mean NOTHING.

Obama and FISA

Okay. I think I'm ready to talk about FISA.

Clearly Obama judged that this was not an issue to get in front of, and so far as I can tell, the FISA fight has had NO impact on low-info voters.

So he's just pissed off us political junkies, and we really should have known, or remembered, really, that he was never anything but a centrist in the first place.

(Note to Meander: Do stop falling in love with candidates. Not. Healthy.)

Now short of nuking the Senate, and THAT is NOT gonna happen, Bush and the telecoms get everything they want. I hope that it's like ashes in their mouths, because I suspect that they've now raised up a Great Beast like MoveOn.org to oppose them forever.

Me personally, I'm going to remember to make my contributions through ActBlue from now on.

Keep calling and go to the petition site...

Suddenly, I'm not so worried...

Suddenly, I'm not so worried about the so-called "division of the party" and whether or not Clinton voters will abandon the Democratic Party if Obama is the nominee:

In one ad run against Cazayoux, Republicans said, "A vote for Don Cazayoux is a vote for Barack Obama and [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi." Another also brought up Obama and Pelosi, who had also been discussed in Boehner's strategy presentation. "Is Obama right for Louisiana? Is Pelosi? You decide," that ad said.

But on Saturday, Cazayoux won his race, taking over a seat held by Republicans for years.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Lost at the Start

Interesting article at Salon this morning that indicates that once again, we were right all along: Hillary lost at the beginning.

By using her "inevitability" as her main strength, and by playing to the mainstream Dems' old-school tendency to take the black vote for granted, she lost valuable votes that could have been making the difference for her now.

It's important to note that Obama was never inevitable, not even amongst black voters. Black voters would certainly never vote for an obvious puppet or token (look at the various Thug attempts to put forward a Black candidate), but they (we) only came aboard as became clear that his campaign was a legitimate concern in its own right.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/05/05/clinton_blackvote/

The Future of gutter politics

Attaturk wrote : Now, if one person looks at the above and says, "now this is why we can't nominate Obama" come here and let me stick my metaphorical foot up your emblematic ass.

Nice. I'm saving this for the next troll attack over at Eschaton.

But regarding gutter politics and the anticapted sliming of Obama, for it will happen: I can't wait!

Obama's speech on Tuesday laid down the battlefield for the fight. The Thugs, and their courtiers and enablers will lay down as lowdown a political fight as any of us will have ever seen or may ever see again.

Let them. Let them expose their ugliness and their fear, because this is the end for those strategies. For decades now, divisive politics have been used to give the stupid far more leverage than they deserved - primarily because no-one wanted to go there; it's too ugly, too frightening, too painful.

I want us to rise above that ugliness and expose it to the light. I want us to face the fear. Fear is the mind-killer and it's nearly killed our society and our democracy. We can be better. Every poll out there now says that Americans want to be better.

Let do this thing.