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Posted
Dude; you've got to be kidding. The Dems have had a super majority for the past year. They could have done anything they fucking wanted to do--and they didn't. So please spare me the nonsense about 'those evil obstructionist Republicans.' My take? Obama, Pelosi, and, to a lesser degree Reid, have turned out to be a little too far left for the fickle constituents of the few remaining mainstream Democrats. Whether you and your tools want to admit it or not, Obama ran as a centrist. You and I both knew he wasn't, and the rest of America is only now realizing a case of buyer's remorse.

 

You're full of shit. What else is new?

 

Bunning Blocks Jobless Aid in Senate

By CARL HULSE AND ROBERT PEAR

 

12:06 a.m. | Updated The Senate clash over the unemployment benefits ended just before midnight Thursday with Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, refusing to lift his objection, meaning the jobless aid – for however short a time – will run out Sunday night unless a deal is reached Friday.

 

As the fight drew to a close, Mr. Bunning complained he had been ambushed by the Democrats and was forced to miss the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game. He said Democrats caused their own problems by dropping the program extensions from an earlier bipartisan jobs measure.

 

And while he said the Senate spent almost three hours “telling everybody in American that Senator Bunning doesn’t give a damn about people who are on unemployment,” he assured those still watching that he was indeed interested in renewing the programs as long as it can be done to his satisfaction.

 

Senator Richard Jr. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, said he intended to try to break the impasse again Friday morning but Mr. Bunning indicated he would again be on hand.

 

Senator Jim Bunning, the conservative Kentucky Republican, insisted that the jobless pay due to run out Sunday night should be paid for rather than added to the deficit as an emergency. During the debate, Mr. Bunning stood rigidly at his desk in the back row of the Senate and objected to repeated Democrat attempts for agreement to extend unemployment coverage through April 5.

 

“I believe we should pay for it,” declared Mr. Bunning, who said he was determined to remain to thwart the Democrats. “I’ll be here as long as you are here.”

 

Democrats, in unusually personal terms, challenged Mr. Bunning, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, for denying aid to tens of thousands of Americans struggling in a bad economy, even reading letters from Kentucky residents about their own problems.

 

“I just don’t think one senator ought to be able to heap this kind of suffering and misfortune on people who are already struggling in this economy,” Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, said, chastising his Republican colleague. “This is a wild pitch you are throwing tonight because it is pitch that is hitting somebody in the stands.”

 

Senator Claire McCaskill said the decision to block the unemployment pay as well as the opportunity to buy health insurance showed how far removed some lawmakers were from the plight of out-of-work Americans.

 

“It is easy to get out of touch around this place,’’ Mrs. McCaskill said. “People open doors for you and bow and scrape. It’s really easy to forget what people are going through, what families are feeling right now. And really, 30 days of unemployment insurance – have we gotten to the point that that’s going to be a political football?’’

 

With Mr. Bunning refusing to relent, Democrats will have to move to override his objections but a vote probably cannot occur until early next week.

 

“I’m trying to make a point to the people of the United States,” said Mr. Bunning, who is not seeking re-election in November.

 

The extension of jobless benefits was included in a bill that the House passed earlier Thursday by a voice vote. The bill would also extend federal subsidies to help pay health premiums for people who have lost health insurance along with their jobs.

 

In addition, the bill would extend current Medicare payment rates for doctors through March 31, sparing them from a 21 percent cut. The cut is scheduled to take effect on Monday.

 

The bill also extends programs providing flood insurance, small business loans and the copyright license used by satellite television providers – - all through March 28.

--NYT 2/25/10

 

Posted
The problem with the libertarians is that they don't fit into big one mold. So don't even bother too hard to try to organize them.

 

ask j_b to tell you about the middle and moderates.

 

the dude is such an expert on political identification

 

a legend in his own mind

 

Posted
The problem with the libertarians is that they don't fit into big one mold. So don't even bother too hard to try to organize them.

 

IMO it's more the fact that the term libertarian has been co-opted by neo-liberals in the USA, so that you have people running around calling themselves libertarians because they are for the legalization of pot, yet they systematically support economic monopolies and the worst human right abuses, such as slavery like working conditions.

Posted
Dude; you've got to be kidding. The Dems have had a super majority for the past year. They could have done anything they fucking wanted to do--and they didn't.

 

And why is that? As I stated: the Republicans vote in lockstep, including the "moderates" in part because tea baggers and talk radio hosts deluge them with populist threats to "have their job" if they dare to cross party lines to work together with the opposition. Conservative leaning Democrats have fallen victim to the same tactics. As a result, the party is not unified. But you are making it sound as though the Democrats simply chose not to do anything. Why would they do that? Little has been accomplished precisely because they, or Obama at least, chose to try bipartisanship.

On another note, you also make it sound like they should have done anything they wanted to do, because they could- in which case you'd be squealing shrill notes of protest about having a liberal agenda forced down your throat. Oh wait, you do that anyway.

 

 

So please spare me the nonsense about 'those evil obstructionist Republicans.'

 

I'll be happy to spare you that as soon as you give me demonstrable evidence that the Republicans have any interest in mind apart from reascension to power and stonewalling everything until the next election. They have NO PLAN aside from winning elections and any nefarious tactic is game for them.

 

My take? Obama, Pelosi, and, to a lesser degree Reid, have turned out to be a little too far left for the fickle constituents of the few remaining mainstream Democrats. Whether you and your tools want to admit it or not, Obama ran as a centrist. You and I both knew he wasn't, and the rest of America is only now realizing a case of buyer's remorse.

 

I concur that Pelosi is too partisan and too divisive a figure. I disagree that you lump Obama in with her, however. Whatever liberal "far left" values Obama has in him, I do believe, by observation, that it is his sincere intention to govern from the center and that he is willing to compromise on some of his policies. . He is failing to do so effectively because of the strident partisanship from both sides of Congress, who are like children in their inability to work together.

 

As for the general state of the economy, which was the main premise if I recall related to this Obama "failure" discussion- 'you and I both know' that regardless of which party was running things, that things would still be tough right now, and will continue to be for a least another year or two. Unemployment, for the moment, has dropped, interest rates are holding (but for how long can they do that?), and housing starts are supposedly rising. While I think the crisis will pass in time, I also think that the assumption that we'll get back to "the way things were before" is not possible. This country is going to have to use its brains and muscle again- if there's anything left of them, that is.

Posted

willy%20wonka%20jack.jpg

 

This grandpa joe brings you the socialist national anthem

 

Come with me and you'll be

In a world of pure imagination

Take a look and you'll see

Into your imagination

 

We'll begin with a spin

Trav'ling in the world of my creation

What we'll see will defy

Explanation

 

{Refrain}

If you want to view paradise

Simply look around and view it

Anything you want to, do it

Want to change the world, there's nothing to it

 

There is no life I know

To compare with pure imagination

Living there, you'll be free

If you truly wish to be

 

{Refrain}

 

There is no life I know

To compare with pure imagination

Living there, you'll be free

If you truly wish to be

 

 

Posted

McKinney was guilty of pushing back a security guard who grabbed her while she was trying to enter congress without an identifying pin. One more evidence of conservatives like FW being lying POSs. Don't you have any shame?

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