Saturday, November 7, 2009
President Obama twitters his response on the health care reform bill passing out of the House of Representatives
Health Care Reform passed out of the House, now at the steps of the Senate
President Obama twittered, "This is history."
Passed 220-215 in the Democrats favor.
Now this bill is at the steps of the Senate. Harry Reid the ball is in your court and Democratic Senators make sure you put a lot of oil on the steel for your spine because you will need it. America is watching you like a hawk and you are on NOTICE. Reid bring this bill home across the finish line, so we can move on.
And for memory sake, how a bill becomes a LAW. Many need to watch this because too many do not understand the process.
UPDATE: President Obama's statement on this monumental passage from the House of Representatives:
"Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act is a piece of legislation that will provide stability and security for Americans who have insurance; quality affordable options for those who don’t; and bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses, and the government while strengthening the financial health of Medicare. And it is legislation that is fully paid for and will reduce our long-term federal deficit.
Thanks to the hard work of the House, we are just two steps away from achieving health insurance reform in America. Now the United States Senate must follow suit and pass its version of the legislation. I am absolutely confident it will, and I look forward to signing comprehensive health insurance reform into law by the end of the year."
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Rep. George Miller (D-CA) got the GOP together on their "health care plan" (Video)
I watched this live and laughed my ass off, YES I DID...while we wait to vote the bill out of the House of Representatives on C-SPAN....
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President Obama's remarks about the health care insurance reform vote pending in the House of Representatives (Video)
GOP says "Americans do not want this", the health care bill (Video)
GOP, not only does America WANT THIS, but we NEED THIS. Killing jobs, PUHLEAZE. This coming from a party that WAS IN CHARGE, but did NOTHING about reforming health care AT ALL.
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President Obama's Weekly Address, November 7, 2009 (Video and Transcript)
The President condemns the “despicable” attacks at Fort Hood, honoring those who were killed and injured. He also commends those who stood up to help and console those affected: “even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America.” November 7, 2009.
YouTube, Vimeo Video
Transcript
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Friday, November 6, 2009
Markos over @ Daily Kos made Tom Tancredo storm off The Ed Schulz Show!!! Touche!!! (video)
A few minutes ago on The Ed Show, Tom Tancredo tried to make the case against government health care by claiming that the Veterans Administration is unpopular with U.S. military veterans. The only problem for him was that he was up against Markos...who is one of those veterans, unlike Tancredo, a pro-Vietnam War chickenhawk who got a 1-Y deferment.
When Markos pointed out that Tancredo was (a) wrong about the Veterans Administration and (b) not qualified to speak for veterans, Tancredo exploded in anger, demanding an apology. Markos did not oblige, and Tancredo stormed off the set.
LOL - Kos just made Tancredo take his ball and go home on TV
Chickenhawk Tancredo storms off set after Markos confronts him on veterans health care
PRICELESS
The funniest thing about this exchange is Tancredo talking about Veterans, thus not KNOWING that Markos is a VETERAN. Beautiful.
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Classical Music Night at the White House (video)
US President Barack Obama walks with First Lady Michelle Obama to host an event celebrating classical music in the East Room of the White House on November 4, 2009 in Washington, DC
Classical Music Takes Center Stage at the White House
REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY AT CLASSICAL MUSIC SERIES WORKSHOPS
Classical guitarist Sharon Isbin performs Isaac Albeniz’s Asturias and Agustin Barrios Mangoré’s Waltz Op. 8, No. 4 at the White House Evening of Classical Music on November 4, 2009.
Concert pianist Awadagin Pratt performs J.S. Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 at the White House Evening of Classical Music on November 4, 2009.
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein performs Zoltán Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8 and III. Allegro molto vivace at the White House Evening of Classical Music on November 4, 2009.
Cellists Alisa Weilerstein and 8 year-old Sujari Britt perform Luigi Boccherini's Sonata for Two Cellos in C Major, 1st movement: Allegro moderato. November 4, 2009
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and 16 year-old percussionist Jason Yoder perform Camille Saint Saëns’ The Swan at the White House Evening of Classical Music on November 4, 2009.
Joshua Bell and Awadagin Pratt perform Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane at the White House Evening of Classical Music on November 4, 2009.
Joshua Bell and Sharon Isbin perform Niccolò Paganini’s Cantabile at the White House Evening of Classical Music on November 4, 2009.
Joshua Bell, Awadagin Pratt, and Alisa Weilerstein Perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 and the finale, Allegro assai appassionato, at the White House Evening of Classical Music on November 4, 2009.
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It is cold and rough out here, unemployment 10.02% (Video)
Yesterday it was Fort Hood, today it is an office building in Orlando, Florida, one thing is for certain, people are feeling anxiety over the continuation of the wars we are committed to and the fact that jobs are scarse out here.
10.02% is not what the Obama White House expected, so soon, but this is the hand they are dealt. Two words, NOT GOOD.
The unemployment rate has hit double digits for the first time since 1983 — and is likely to go higher.
The 10.2 percent jobless rate for October shows how weak the economy remains even though it is growing. Rising unemployment also could threaten the recovery if it saps consumers' confidence and makes them more cautious about spending as the holiday season approaches.
Nearly 16 million people can't find jobs even though the worst recession since the Great Depression has apparently ended.
(emphasis mine's)
16 million can not find a job? And the recessions is supposedly over? We got to fix this and I mean fast, because many FEEL that this is a DEPRESSION. Oh, but, yeah not Wall Street or the banks!! Why should they not feel any pain??? They have our taxpayer dollars!!!
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Thursday, November 5, 2009
Listening to the cable desk clerks, the Fort Hood shooter is dead, but guess what, he is NOT (Video)
Again, the media gets it WRONG.
From TWD:
The Fort Hood lead suspect and shooter today, Malik Hasan, after reports of his death, is not dead reportedly.....That news has been broken .
And a major question is the fact that where are the other shooters at, because they are still on the loose from what reports are indicated.
In addition, the individual who shot Hasan, she was badly wounded but is alive as well.
More details to come in this stunning development in this shocking and sad day.
Again, brave soldiers at Fort Hood and shout out the lady soldier who stopped Hasan. She is my she-ro, for real.
From Rachel Maddow Show:
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Horrible shooting at Ft. Hood, Waco, Texas, at least 12 dead and 31 injured
We are talking about soldiers and at least one civilian police officer, setting it off, at the Ft. Hood Army Base. The big question...why?
At least one U.S. soldier opened fire Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 12 people and wounding 31 others, military officials said.
One gunman was shot to death, and two other soldiers were in custody, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone told reporters. It was not immediately known whether the victims were all soldiers or civilians, but Cone said at least one of those killed was a civilian police officer and NBC affiliate KCEN-TV of Waco reported that at least four SWAT officers were among those wounded.
Fort Hood, one of the largest military complexes in the world, was on lockdown, as were schools in the area.
Cone gave no further details on the dead gunman. A senior administration official told NBC News analyst Roger Cressey that one of the suspects who was in custody was an Army major.
The official said the shootings could have been a criminal matter rather than a terrorism-related attack and that there was no intelligence to suggest a plot against Fort Hood. read more here....
Live Streaming of Ft. Hood shooting
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Angelina, "Some fathers are just whacked" (Video)
Jon Voight continues his hate mongering rhetoric against President Obama and ramps up the "Kill the Bill" crowd at the capitol today. It is teabagger day!! Destroy the Democrats health care bill day!!
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Long term unemployment is real
‘By February I will be in a tent,’ says one unemployed worker
As unemployment numbers inch down, the main problem in this country is lack of re-hiring and new job creation. Sure, everyone is happy the unemployment numbers are going down, but at your dinner table is Dad who has not found a job in a year, to the left of him is daughter who graduated from college and not able to find a job. Lastly, if there are any job offers the pay wage is so small that you can not even survive.
That is the reality out here and this is what the party in charge, the Democrats, must make inroads to fix this. No, matter how anyone wants to spin it, next year, 2010, we must see some inroads on Main Street or the Democrats can kiss it good-bye this time next year.
I don't like writing this, but this is just real.
Out of work, out of savings and out of things to sell, Carolyn Johansen is running out of options to keep her home even as her unemployment benefits run out.
"By February I will be in a tent," said Johansen, from Fredericksburg, Va. “My big concerns are finding homes for my German shepherd Anna and my cat Tigra and a free place to store a thousand hardback and paperback books.”
For millions of out-of-work job seekers like Johansen, unemployment insurance is providing an increasingly tenuous financial lifeline.
With jobless benefits expiring for a record number of workers, some 7,000 a day, Congress is inching closer to approving an extending federal unemployment insurance after the Senate overwhelmingly pushed the package forward Wednesday, and the House is expected to approve it and send to the White House as early as Thursday. The measure comes as state unemployment insurance funds are running low, and tight budgets are fraying the safety net that jobless workers without benefits rely on.
After losing her job last October, Johansen figures she’s applied for over 300 jobs, but can’t find anything, not even seasonal work for the holidays. A single mom with a master’s degree and a career as a librarian, she applied for work at Blockbuster this week but couldn’t get an interview. read more here....
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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
President Obama and Democrats, "You have been put on NOTICE"
I agree 1000% with Markos over at Daily Kos and how he summed up last night's elections:
There will be much number-crunching tomorrow, but preliminary numbers (at least in Virginia) show that GOP turnout remained the same as last year, but Democratic turnout collapsed. This is a base problem, and this is what Democrats better take from tonight:
1. If you abandon Democratic principles in a bid for unnecessary "bipartisanship", you will lose votes.
2. If you water down reform in favor of Blue Dogs and their corporate benefactors, you will lose votes.
3. If you forget why you were elected -- health care, financial services, energy policy and immigration reform -- you will lose votes.
Tonight proved conclusively that we're not going to turn out just because you have a (D) next to your name, or because Obama tells us to. We'll turn out if we feel it's worth our time and effort to vote, and we'll work hard to make sure others turn out if you inspire us with bold and decisive action.
The choice is yours. Give us a reason to vote for you, or we sit home. And you aren't going to make up the margins with conservative voters. They already know exactly who they're voting for, and it ain't you.
I have a colleague who knew EXACTLY what was happening and not happening on the ground in Virginia, we decided that Deeds was a done deal. In fact, one field worker was not given the adequate resources to perform her job and was just told to "turn out the black vote". All I can type is "WTF" on that one.
People need to be excited, engaged and feel it is worth their time to vote for a candidate, let alone support a party. Virginia and New Jersey, the voters, especially Democratic and new voters were just not that into the Democratic Party.
Lastly, Barack Obama can only do so much. What we saw with the New Jersey and Virginia candidates were problematic, weak, and/or ran badly run campaigns from these Democratic candidates. Though the voters did not blame Barack Obama or as the media tried to frame it a "referendum" against him, the voters were clearly not happy with what was offered, even though Obama campaigned for both candidates. Just because Barack Obama says vote for these people, will not gurantee the base will come out. Voters right now are tepid and watching Washington, DC very closely, especially congress and don't like what they see.
The Democrats and Obama can play around at their peril. If we don't get a strong comprehensive health care bill and this econonmy start turning around, what we saw last night will be what we see a year from now for the mid term elections.
Voters just not into you....
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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Let's talk about the cable desk clerks and why they are WRONG.
Yes, the ones who are on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc., who are continuing to try to dumb down the electorate, a.k.a., you and I, into thinking that what happened in 2 governor races is a referendum on Barack Obama, when every indication is that it is not.
But as Oliver Willis stated, "....FACTS BE DAMNED...."
I wrote a diary on the dismal campaign of Creigh Deeds. You know, the Democrat that ran for Governor of Virginia but was easily swept away? I questioned why he did not follow the Obama roadmap to winning Virginia? Why he did not come across as personable and make the issues about Virginians? If Mr. Deeds had any questions as to how to win, shit, all he had to do was get in his car and knock on the White House door, I am sure they would have been more than willing to answer his questions and help him. Deeds chose not to do that, thus we witnessed tonight, DEFEAT and roundly so. No one is to blame but Deeds himself. He chose not to embrace Obama, was tepid to any advice from the Obama camp and ran a very negative campaign. Thus his obituary has already been written:
In trying to figure out where Deeds went wrong, it’s a mistake not to look at Deeds himself. Even in a state lightly tinted blue and with several photo-ops with a still-popular president, Deeds slipped in recent weeks. For one, Deeds overplayed his hand on a misogynistic-sounding master’s thesis that McDonnell wrote almost 30 years ago, making it one of the central messages of his campaign, and a fairly hollow one at that. He also had several public slips, including a flip-flop on a question about taxes and an embarrassing performance at one of his big debates with McDonnell in Fairfax, Virginia. As election day drew closer, he waffled on how much help he wanted from Obama, wary of associating with a president who he figured undecided voters might be turning off to. When he realized he needed the help, his change of heart looked desperate, and by then the White House wasn’t exactly tripping over itself to help.
Touche.
Next, Governor Jon Corzine. And he lost. Why? One word, "economy". A word that will have the Democrats scared shitless into 2010 Midterm Elections if things out here do not turn around. But, the cable desks clerks who are chatting away will say, referendum on Obama. Again, wrong.
Corzine was in an uphill battle moreso than Deeds. His state, New Jersey pays the highest property taxes in the country, the unemployment rate is up there and people DID NOT LIKE CORZINE. This is a man whose favorability was in the 30s, so did we really expect him to win? For me, the only thing I could see is that New Jersey was a blue state and he would squeak it out, but not to be.
Republican Chris Christie has defeated Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine in New Jersey's gubernatorial race, NBC News projected.
With 71 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Christie had 50 percent of the vote to Corzine's 44 percent.
Christie, a 47-year-old former federal prosecutor, became the first member of his party in a dozen years to win a statewide contest in heavily Democratic New Jersey.
The cable desk clerks are getting it wrong and I don't care if the Republicans THINK this is a referendum on Obama, let them, they have been wrong about the tea leaves for the longest. But the cable desk clerks are wrong in ginning this up to be a referendum. How the hell can it be when Obama is hugely popular, across the board, even if people don't agree with him on everything? Including ME. That was Corzine and Deeds problem. Their electorate did not like them, listen to them nor trust them, thus that independent voter told them ADIOS. While the polling from Virginia and New Jersey states that the electorate has sent a clear message, this is not a referendum on Barack Obama.
It is cable desk clerks, like the ones we are listening to tonight, or have turned the television off from, that makes many of us just not trust shit that comes out of their mouths. And they call themselves journalists? Please, drama queens are more appropriate for this lot.
OK, my rant is over.
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Creigh Deeds slaughtered, NEXT....
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, left, hugs Black Entertainment Television co-founder Sheila Johnson in his hotel suite as he waits for election returns in Richmond, Va. , Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009.
No surprise, I wrote about it all here.
Republicans wrested political control of Virginia from the Democrats on Tuesday and New Jersey's unpopular Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine was fighting for his political life as independent voters swung behind the GOP in both states. It was a troubling sign for President Barack Obama and his party heading into an important midterm election year.
Republican Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell's victory in Virginia over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds was a triumph for a GOP looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008. It also was a setback for the White House in a swing state that was a crucial part of Obama's electoral landslide just a year ago. read more here...
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Polls show no referendum on Obama
The Republicans would LOVE it to be a referendum on Obama, but the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey are all about state, local issues, not Barack Obama. Ah, but the spin will continue to crank....
Per CNN, voters in Virginia did not see their state's gubernatorial race as an opportunity to voice opposition to Barack Obama. A 55 percent majority of voters said that the President was not a factor in their vote, and an additional 18 percent indicated their vote in Virginia was one of support in the President. Just 24 percent of voters indicated that their vote was one of opposition to President Obama. The numbers out of New Jersey are not terribly different, with 60 percent saying that Barack Obama played no role in their gubernatorial vote, 19 percent saying that their vote was one in support of the President, and 20 percent saying that their vote was in opposition to President Obama.
h/t Daily Kos
Oliver Willis
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From John Conyers: Obama sucking up to the wrong people
Wow.
This is all about frustration.
No matter what happens with health care and Afghanistan, the number one priority is JOBS in this country and the LACK of job creation in this country. That is an issue the public gets, understands, is going through and will penalize the Democrats if there is no turn around next year. Take that one to the bank and deposit it.
President Barack Obama is “getting bad advice from… clowns” on Afghanistan and “sucking up to the wrong people” on health care, U.S. Rep. John Conyers told a Detroit radio audience this morning, according to show host Rev. Horace Sheffield.
Conyers, a Detroit Democrat, made the comments during a discussion about the effects of the economic recession on the urban poor, Sheffield said. The liberal congressman expressed frustration that health care legislation pending in Washington, D.C., was too solicitous of insurance companies and special interests, Sheffield said.
“He wasn’t angry. He was just deeply concerned that some of the issues being focused on don’t address the human reality,” said Sheffield, who hosts the program “On The Line” on WGPR-FM radio.
According to a news release from Sheffield, Conyers said: “President Obama is sucking up to the wrong people and insurance companies as Obama pushed a weak health care package.”
On Iraq and Afghanistan, Conyers said “President Obama is getting bad advice from those clowns in the White House. We should be ending those wars now. America should be providing food instead of bombs from drones that kill innocent civilians,” the release said.
Conyers, an early supporter of Obama’s presidential bid in 2007, could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon.
Expect some backpeddling and clarification from Conyers, soon.
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GOP senators holding up unemployment benefits
With the economy as it is, why are they doing something so stupid?
In the world outside the Senate, time is money; inside it, time is everything. Senate Republicans are taking full advantage of that reality, using every parliamentary device at their disposal to slow down an extension of unemployment insurance benefits -- even after Democrats added billions for big business to sweeten the pot.
The saga is both a case study in the difficulty of passing even popular legislation in the Senate and the lengths to which the GOP is going to slow down the process.
The extension overwhelmingly passed the House 331-83 in late September. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made a motion to pass it by unanimous consent in early October; it was blocked by GOP objections.
After negotiations, Reid filed for cloture on Oct. 21 to break a GOP filibuster. On October 27, the Senate voted 87-13 on a motion to proceed to consider the bill, breaking the filibuster.
But under Senate rules, the GOP is still allowed 30 hours of "debate." There actually isn't much debate, but the clock is ticking while senators take to the floor to make speeches about whatever they like.
To get things moving, Democrats sweetened the pot, adding in billions in tax breaks for business -- a net operating loss carry-back provision that the GOP has long favored -- and an extension of the home-buyers tax credit. Reid introduced the goodies in a substitute amendment along with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a champion of the business tax break.
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Monday, November 2, 2009
The real Republican health care plan is all about you dying, seriously
For those who get sick, major sick and we all know friends and family members who have walked down that road, don't depend on ANYTHING from the Republican health care plan to help you, at all.
Republicans are preparing to unveil their own health bill in the next few days. Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Monday that the plan wouldn't seek to prevent health-insurance companies from denying sick people insurance -- a key plank of the Democrats' legislation.
Folks, that is all you need to know, no matter what side of the aisle you are on, just keep moving PAST this Republican plan.
Too many people have DIED due to being recission to their deaths. Too many people in this country have gone bankrupt thinking they had health insurance that would take care of them, only to find out the insurance they had never intended, too.
Just laugh this crap off and keep walking on by. The public option needs to be opened for every single citizen in this country, period. The Republicans plan is a slap in the face of every American and welfare insurance to the very insurance industry that is fighting any change. Get sick if you want to on this plan, it is truly at your own risk.
Source
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John Edwards, two words, "A trip...."
From the forthcoming David Plouffe book:
Sometime after the South Carolina debate Plouffe got a call from a senior Edwards Advisor who said Edwards was willing to announce the end of his campaign and join forces with Obama to defeat Clinton. When Plouffe asked if he could raise this with Obama the Edwards advisor said, “Yes.…Just to be clear we’re going to talk to the Clinton people too. That’s not where John’s heart is, but he is at the point of maximum leverage now.”
“Obama’s answer,” Plouffe writes, “was quick and firm: he would cut no deals.”
Interesting stuff, I definitely have Plouffe's book in my amazon.com queue.
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The banks continue to make record profits on the taxpayer's back (Video)
Tim Geithner, a fan of I AM NOT, again continues to protect his Wall Street friends, but why shouldn't he? In this aspect, the Obama Administration is no different than any other administration that has sat in the Oval Office, for that is not change anyone can believe in. And progress? What progress? What happened to the transparency? That word is starting to be a joke. And the disparity of Wall Street to Main Street continues to erode. Folks, as the rich gets richer, the average joe/joesetta continues to be on the unemployment dole and unable to find a job. That is what 2010 forward will be all about. Many Americans don't follow the nitty gritty of politics, but they know EXACTLY what they had 5 years ago versus today, for that they understand they have gotten the bad end of the stick.
In Geithner, we trust...
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Lawrence O'Donnell on the NY-23 congressional race and he is pretty much right about it (Video)
from morning joe....why is o'donnell right? because the democrats will use how Dede Scozzafava, a moderate Republican was pushed out of the race by the right winged part of the Republican Party and if you don't pass the purity test or you are not conservative enough to pass the smell test, no room in the Republican Party for you. btw, the spin has already started on this and as usual take joe scarborough's take on anything at your will....
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Sunday, November 1, 2009
Meet the Press, November 1, 2009 (Video and Transcript)
Will the economy be fully restored, and when will American workers see jobs return? We'll ask a man at the center of it all, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. President Obama's 2008 presidential campaign manager, David Plouffe, joins us for his first interview since writing his new book, "The Audacity to Win." Plus a political roundtable: Jon Krakauer, Jim Miklaszewski and Andrea Mitchell.
Transcript
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Bill Moyers calls for draft if President Obama escalates the troops in Afghanistan (Video)
The reality is that we are not going to win in Afghanistan without MORE PEOPLE. As long as Obama continues to do what George W. Bush did, rinse and repeating the reserves in this country, he is no better than George W. Bush.
We have been over there for 8 years, and please don't tell me that we did not have a plan, I know that, but the fact and reality is that 8 years is 8 years. Does anyone think 40,000 troops are going to help over there? I don't. We need about half million to make any type of dent, but don't have the numbers.
What will Barack Obama do? Work for peace? Or continue the beating drums of a war we will NEVER WIN.
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Benedict Arnold, Joe Lieberman "Public Option is wrong" (Video)
This coming from a man who the Democrats should have relegated to NOTHING, but Barack Obama saved him (all documented here). Lieberman is also bought and paid for by the health insurance industry, his family has benefited from big lobbyist money. Now since he has been in the pasture of irrelevance, he is coming back AGAIN with threats. It is time for the Democrats to cut Joe Lieberman and I mean, for good. From CBS, Face the Nation:
CBS
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The Republican Party, just sit back and grab your popcorn (UPDATE)
Much is being said about Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate dropping out of the special election race for NY-23 against the conservative or independent candidate, Bill Hoffman and the conservative Democrat, Bill Owens.
This district which sits on Niagra Falls has been Republican for over 100 years, dating back to the 1860s, so for anyone to expect the Democrat to win, well he won't. But, what has been fascinating is the insurgency of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck destroying Scozzafava by denouncing she is not conservative enough, defying the Republican Party to get someone more pure to ideological ideals of these nitwits. The second part of this drama is the lack, weakness of the Republican Party, the RNC, GOP to stop this nonsense. The leadership from congress to state level act like they are afraid to stop the alienation of moderates from the Republican Party. In fact, they are more stale, pale and male than ever. Scozzafava got no help, cover, anything from the National Republican Party, thus she ran in defeat.
Again, the Republicans will jump for joy on winning NY-23, but this is their district anyway. Who is in charge of a long term strategy to allow the Republican Party to become more inclusive? Right now, this party is a bunch of old white men, who continue to ponder about a party and country of the 1950s, instead of looking at this country the way it is, 2009. That is their real problem and that is why this purity strategy will not work going forward.
Clip from David Plouffe, Campaign Manager of Obama for America 2008:
And a must read from Frank Rich, The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York
BARACK OBAMA’S most devilish political move since the 2008 campaign was to appoint a Republican congressman from upstate New York as secretary of the Army. This week’s election to fill that vacant seat has set off nothing less than a riotous and bloody national G.O.P. civil war. No matter what the results in that race on Tuesday, the Republicans are the sure losers. This could be a gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats through 2010, and perhaps beyond.
The governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia were once billed as the marquee events of Election Day 2009 — a referendum on the Obama presidency and a possible Republican “comeback.” But preposterous as it sounds, the real action migrated to New York’s 23rd, a rural Congressional district abutting Canada. That this pastoral setting could become a G.O.P. killing field, attracting an all-star cast of combatants led by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, William Kristol and Newt Gingrich, is a premise out of a Depression-era screwball comedy. But such farces have become the norm for the conservative movement — whether the participants are dressing up in full “tea party” drag or not.
The battle for upstate New York confirms just how swiftly the right has devolved into a wacky, paranoid cult that is as eager to eat its own as it is to destroy Obama. The movement’s undisputed leaders, Palin and Beck, neither of whom has what Palin once called the “actual responsibilities” of public office, would gladly see the Republican Party die on the cross of right-wing ideological purity. Over the short term, at least, their wish could come true.
[snip]
The wrecking crew of Kristol, Fred Thompson, Dick Armey, Michele Bachmann, The Wall Street Journal editorial page and the government-bashing Club for Growth all joined the Hoffman putsch. Then came the big enchilada: a Hoffman endorsement from Palin on her Facebook page. Such is Palin’s clout that Steve Forbes, Rick Santorum and Tim Pawlenty, the Minnesota governor (and presidential aspirant), promptly fell over one another in their Pavlovian rush to second her motion. They were joined by far-flung Republican congressmen from Kansas, Georgia, Oklahoma and California, not to mention a gaggle of state legislators from Colorado. On Fox News, Beck took up the charge, insinuating that Hoffman’s Republican opponent might be a fan of Karl Marx. Some $3 million has now been dumped into this race by outside groups.
You know the Republican Party has issues when Newt Gingrich, who supported the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, is now not conservative enough. Yes, this party has major issues.
UPDATE
Dede Scozzafava, endorsed the Democratic Candidate, Bill Owens for the NY-23 seat. Totally, a bat shit crazy race.
State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R), who dropped from the special election in Upstate New York yesterday, has now thrown her support to Democrat Bill Owens.
"It's not in the cards for me to be your representative, but I strongly believe Bill is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh's lasting legacy in the U.S. Congress," said Scozzafava in a statement released moments ago.
It's not clear how much Scozzafava's backing of Owens will change the race. Democratic strategists, who just 48 hours ago saw the race moving back in their direction, have grown pessimistic about their chances in the aftermath of the Scozzafava decision.
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