Chris Christie Slammed For Staying In Disney World During Devastating Snow Storm

Chris Christie Slammed For Staying In Disney World During Devastating Snow Storm

This will be interesting to follow. Christie shirks his duty and admits that they don't really need him to deal with the disaster anyway. Good at delegating? Now a truly confirmed blowhard? Pay attention to what I say, not what I do? Just a typical braggart....

Memo to Mr. Christie. No. The teachers must keep their jobs. They can't do a Sarah Palin and quit if the going gets a little tough. Your cowardly taunt at one of your own teachers may have been fine conservative political theater, but it is your bound duty to govern! That means making it easier for teachers to do the job required of them by YOUR government is YOUR primary responsibility.

Dammit!

At Kaplan University, 'Guerilla Registration' Leaves Students Deep In Debt

At Kaplan University, 'Guerilla Registration' Leaves Students Deep In Debt

This is the tragedy of government for profit. The government, it appears. is just to easy to rip off... Private contractors make out like robber barons. This is just one example. That it reveals graft and corruption in the combined fields of education and journalism is doubly troubling.

Thanks for the Tax Cut! - NYTimes.com

Thanks for the Tax Cut! - NYTimes.com

This is the perfect response to those who rejoiced at the two year public theft extension. Pay careful attention to what is said and what is done. The divide between the servants of the wealthy and the servants of the middle class is now crystal clear.

Shine the light.

Virginia Roads Crumble... Want to fix it?

Gov. McDonnell's transportation plans amount to a whimper

No. Mr. McDonnell's answer is loud and clear. He'll kick the can down the road, thank you very much. Actually PAY for something? No, let's borrow and spend. Mr. McDonnell and his GOP friends have starved the beast to the point that things are breaking down fairly rapidly. They are ideologically stuck in the public theft rut. They are happy to steal money from children, from the sick and dying, and from the travelers on the state's highways, but are unwilling to dip into corporate and private wealth to actually keep the state functioning.

What am I talking about?? Public Theft = Tax Cuts. Stealing money from children = bankrupting the public education system. Stealing money from the sick and dying = attempting to deprive Virginians of their health care. Stealing from travelers = this fizzling effort to fix the roads.

It's our state Governor. Fix it!

The Filibuster That Stole Christmas

CONGRESS -- The Filibuster That Stole Christmas

Is this all-out, too-the-death, political warfare an appropriate way to govern the country? When the my-way-or-the-highway crowd says that nothing is more important than what they want and that they get it the WAY they want it, can there be a more morally corrupt bargain possible? Is it even justifiable for a minority party? If the Democrats were the minority party, would I be singing a different tune. No.

The list is long. The items listed in this piece are only the beginning. The GOP is all in. They view the rule of the minority to be more important that the rule of the majority. Think about that for a bit. Rule of law, majority rule, representative democracy.... All of that is out the window with Republican obstructionists. They are fighting to the death for homophobia, xenophobia, death to 9/11 responders, a crippled judiciary, a compromised national defense, a failing education system, a polluted environment and crumbling national infrastructure.

Government for profit? Public Theft? Corporate Cruelty? Political terrorism? Political zealotry? Refusing to compromise? Fighting to the death? Is this an appropriate discourse in the United States of America? Are these "American Values" worth fighting for? Not to me...

Sen. Richard Lugar Gives President Obama Credit For Reaching Out To The GOP (VIDEO)

Sen. Richard Lugar Gives President Obama Credit For Reaching Out To The GOP (VIDEO)

"Our program is to stop Obama, some would say. It's to defeat Obama. That it's a two-stage process. You defeat the Democrats, first of all, in the Congress; then you defeat Obama. Then we'll come out and we'll tell you.

Well, that's not going to work. And at some point there really have to be constructive Republican programs." - Senator Dick Lugar (R-Ind.)

Note to restive Democrats.  The most active Congressional session in 15 years should be some comfort to you.  Giving the debate over to the Republicans on each and every issue was poor form though.  Allowing the common discourse to become set in marketing slogans and talking points created by conservative think tanks only deepened the communication gap between Democrats and the citizens of this fine nation.

It is not enough to morally right, or factually right.  We've found that it matters little that what is said is NOT what is done.  Hypocrisy washes off the backs of Congress critters like water off a duck.  It just doesn't matter that the talking points are meaningless and silly.  It's communication that's important.  In this one area, Democrats must realize that they've let down their leader.  As a group, they've also let down the progressive Democrats who took the tough votes on the legislation that was put forward in this Congress.  They've let down the nation.

Communication.... Reclaiming the debate...  Defending political turf...  Standing tall for progressive principles...  For Democrats who'd rather be wonks, selling themselves is like eating glass.  Welcome to the media world we live in.  We've got to find words, terms, and frames for our principles.  Then we need to repeat them over and over.  We've seen the results of only being right.

Ted Strickland: Democrats Suffering From 'Intellectual Elitism'

Ted Strickland: Democrats Suffering From 'Intellectual Elitism':

"Talking, unprompted, about the debate over the expiring Bush tax cuts, Strickland said he was dumbfounded at the party's inability to sell the idea that the rates for the wealthy should be allowed to expire.

'I mean, if we can't win that argument we might as well just fold up,' he said. 'These people are saying we are going to insist on tax cuts for the richest people in the country and we don't care if they are paid for, and we don't think it is a problem if it contributes to the deficit, but we are not going to vote to extend unemployment benefits to working people if they aren't paid for because they contribute to the deficit. I mean, what is wrong with that? How can it be more clear?'"

Since this statement by Mr. Strickland, we've seen the debate play out.  Mr. Obama made a deal. The GOP is doing a celebration dance, the Democrats are in mourning.  This is the definition of "crying in your beer."  Strickland asked the essential question.  Mr. Obama called out his supporters and nailed them.  Where was the passion?  Sen. Saunders' too-little-too-late filibuster?  Sure it was passionate, but where was the passion when the issue was being decided back in the late summer?

Clunk....  That's the sound of cans being kicked down the road.  That's all you heard from knee-shaking, fearful Democrats who, being so afraid of losing that they never really stood up for the principles Mr. Saunders expounded for 9 hours, lost and lost big.  Clunk... cans down the road.

There went the tax cuts for the rich. Aren't we all looking forward to two more years of GOP prancing and extolling the virtues of wealth?  Hooray..... There went DADT. There went the DREAM.  Being right doesn't mean much does it...

Surprise, Surprise: Senate GOP letter calls for blocking most bills

The Associated Press: Senate GOP letter calls for blocking most bills:

"'Despite what some Democrats in Congress have suggested, voters did not signal they wanted more cooperation on the Democrats' big-government policies that most Americans oppose,' McConnell and incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote in an op-ed article published in the Washington Post."

Damn it! The "Americans" McConnell and Boehner are talking about aren't the middle class Americans, the latino, african-american, working class, poor, and disenfranchised Americans. They are the wealthy, crony, robber-baron, corporate elite Americans. Where is the press? Who is calling them on this plutocratic treason?

Republicans are very clear about what they want.  It is clear what their supporters want.  They are willing to go to the mat for it.  They are willing to bankrupt the country for it.  They are steamrollering the debate and Liberals and Progressives are just waving the white flag.

No one in the progressive movement seems to want to do the heavy lifting here.  The President is pretty much alone.  No congress critters have stood with him, physically or rhetorically.  Everyone is cowering under the threat of the dastardly scrooges in the GOP.  The prog blogosphere is blasting his tax cut deal and accusing HIM of caving to the GOP.

WHERE ARE YOU?  Are you calling your congressman?  Are you SHOUTING at your congressmen?  Are you contributing to the work being done by MoveOn and DFA?  Why not?

The President has said that he'd like to get a better deal, but he's got no one watching his back.  He's not caving, his supermajority in Congress is caving.  Give 'em a call.  NOW!

Obama Lashes Out At 'Hostage-Taking' Republicans, Sanctimonious Democrats

Obama Lashes Out At 'Hostage-Taking' Republicans, Sanctimonious Democrats

This friends, is leadership. Mr. Obama's hand is on the tiller of the ship of state. He is probably the only one in the room that has the interests of the American people, ALL of the American people at heart. Rich and poor, Red and Blue, urban and rural, and all shades of skin color have gotten something from this. What Mr. Obama has done is pretty close to miraculous. He has succeeded in wringing out a compromise that actually has benefits in it to pretty much everyone.

I predicted long ago (was it really only two years?) that if Mr. Obama were to be truly successful, it would really piss off both the left and right. The mark of genius, and the mark of leadership is the ability to get things done. Add this to a list of accomplishments, not a list of failures. Add this to Mr. Obama's profile of courage.

This kind of accomplishment IS what democracy is about. It's a little ugly, kind of a mess, but the only thing worse is anything else. Thank you Mr. Obama.

The Do-Lots 111th Congress An Amazing Record!

Klein: The Do-Lots 111th Congress - Newsweek

Here's a fun exercise. A list of the accomplishments listed in this article: it's a TOP TEN!

1. Health Care Reform

• 32 Million Americans covered
• Savings of billions and billions of dollars against the national debt
• Illegal to turn away pre-existing conditions
• Illegal to jack up premiums for pre-existing conditions
• An independent commission will cut Medicare's costs
• fixes the tax break for employer sponsored health care
• pays doctors for quality rather than quantity
• calorie and nutritional information posted at fast food and chain restaurants

2. Financial Regulation

• Consumer Protection Agency.
• made the dirivatives market more transparent
• a systemic-risk regulator
• the ability to take down banks with out resorting to bailouts

3. The Stimulus

• Economic relief in the form of "expansions of Medicaid, COBRA, food stamps, tax cuts, and unemployment benefits"
• millions of jobs created and/or saved
• more than 75,000 infrastructure projects
• digitization of medical records
• massive investments in renewable energy
• the Race to the Top in education
• funded research at the National Institutes of Health

4. National Service Legislation
5. Expanded SCHIP for another 4 million children.
6. New regulations on tobacco
7. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
8. Expanded veterans benefits, especially for female veterans
9. Expand the nations wilderness protection by 2 million acres.
10. Preserved our American system of capitalism by saving GM from bankruptcy


Wow.  Add it all up and be impressed.  It's what we voted for.  It's what we can support. It's what President Obama won in the face of the fiercest partisan opposition in history.  


There's more to come.

On Jobs, Robert Rubin Points In The Wrong Direction Again

On Jobs, Robert Rubin Points In The Wrong Direction Again

Ok wonks... this one's for you. How many of us have heard of the difference between cyclical and structural unemployment? Sure we've heard about all of this around the edges, but leave it to the dependable Dan Froomkin to point this out and get us started thinking about who might actually be able to help solve our economic crisis.

This one is short but informative, a good read.

An Astonishing Celebration of Ignorance

5 Lessons of Palin's New Book, 'America By Heart' | The Atlantic Wire

Ms. Palin insists on forgetting about Black History or never learning it in the first place. 

It seems that America never had slaves, or Jim Crow, or any racial inequity at all!  Blacks should behave just like her.  Patriotic and happy to be living in the wealthiest country in the world with due deference to Ms. Palin and her adoring white folk.  Richard Cohen's good article is a nice back up read for this point.

No more income tax.

That's right.  Defund the country.  Flush it down the bathtub.  Pay for nothing, just charge it.

Mr. Obama doesn't love America as much as she does.

Mr. Obama doesn't love Ms. Palin as much a she does.  She is really milking the media star routine for the money and status it offers.  Unapologetically too!

She's a "real" feminist.  A strong woman who knows her place.

So why isn't she barefoot and pregnant? oops... been there done that.

She's obsessed with her loss in '08 and now with her pop star status.

 Ditch public service for self service. Nuff said.