I honestly do not know why the President would even bother to waste his precious, non-existent time (considering what he has been saddled with by the reckless, incompetent and irresponsible, if not criminal, W. Administration and its rubber stamping Congress) with the Republican Party whose only goal is to destroy him. Indeed, the Republican far right, led by Rush Limbaugh, has even far more sinister plans for our President.
The President Obama ran on a platform of change and bi-partisanship. He won the 2008 election hands down. He speaks to Democratic conservatives, moderates, centrists, progressives and Independents. I guess he is also attempting to reach out to a bunch of corrupted, lying crooks and political thugs, too.
On Friday, two days after the State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama, an invited guest, spoke to the House Republicans at their annual retreat meeting in Baltimore.
The President's address, followed by an extensive question and answer period, sharply focused on the difference between the hard work of legislating policy and the easy, self-serving and lazy paths of over the top scorched earth rhetoric and beyond the pale cheap shots.
The President reminded Republicans that they have boxed themselves into a very narrow place by failing to communicate honestly and openly with their constituents. The Party's over the top rhetoric has its dire consequences that are far from helpful as far as finding solutions to the problems that challenge us.
The President also honed in on the difference between real math that would grow our economy while bringing down the deficit vs. the politically expedient rhetoric of voodoo math, i.e. sticking two wars, deep tax cuts for the rich and a huge federal entitlement program on the federal credit card.
Weaving between pleas for bipartisanship and direct criticism of GOP politicking, the president took Republicans to task for voting against last year's stimulus package and then attending "ribbon cuttings" for projects funded by it.
"A lot of you have gone to ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against," Obama said. "I say all this not to re-litigate the past, but it's simply to state, the component parts of the recovery act are consistent with what many of you say are important things to do."
Obama touched repeatedly on the theme that, in opposing his policies, Republicans at times oppose things that are in line with their ideology. Among those things, Obama argued, are his proposed fee on banks and a freeze on discretionary spending.
Part I
Part I: Q&A.
No one can say the President has not extended a huge olive branch to the Republicans, especially those on the far right. Let's see how the Republicans respond. Will they slap it away, yet again? Or will some Republicans have the integrity to stand up and start doing the work of the people?
Irresponsible leadership by George W. Bush and Congressional enablers left Americans on the brink of complete economic meltdown and we are far from out of the woods on that score. Why adopt the failures of the minority party, or pretend to for political cover? There is a very small window of opportunity before voters decide whether to let Democrats keep their majorities. Time to turn on the gas, not put on the freeze.
That's my contribution to this just released statement:
Texas Progressive Bloggers Withdraw Support from Proposed Spending Freeze
TEXAS - January 27, 2010: Top progressive bloggers from across Texas issued a statement today in advance of President Obama's State of the Union address cautioning the President to avoid calling for a spending freeze. While these bloggers maintain their support of their President and their Democratic candidates, they reject the notion that a spending freeze is a valid solution for working Americans in this time of economic crisis.
Last night the President said he wanted to work together and bring out the best in both parties.
I applaud the President's noble efforts but, with all due respect, I cannot see how this is possible given that we do not know if there is a best side of the Republican Party. What is meant by "best" I wonder?
Not to mention YES to affordable health care benefits for members of Congress.
So, it was OK to vote to burn billions if not trillions on a ginned up war. It was OK to vote for trillions in bailouts for a bunch of thieving financial crooks and sharks. Now these very same sharks are earning billions and giving themselves fat bonuses again. Hopefully someone bothered to ask them to pay back the bail out bucks.
Our tax dollars are paying for all of the above including BMW level health care insurance for members of Congress. If John McCain had to find his own health care insurance company, like so many other Americans, he would be turned down because of pre-existing conditions. If he would be lucky enough to find a willing provider, McCain would be out of pocket thousands of dollars for or bankrupted by treatments desperately needed but not covered or flat out denied by his plan.
Why are we paying for top notch care for our esteemed lawmakers when many of them are against the same for us? If they say no to us, we should say no to them and demand that the federal government rescind all taxpayer funded health care coverage for members of Congress. Let our revered leaders buy their own freaking insurance like a vast number of Americans have to do. Some may learn they cannot afford to pay for it and college tuition for their kids.
Though it's too hot to grill burgers and dogs outside in Houston's relentless and unbearable heat, except on sidewalks and driveways, this has been a really good holiday weekend for progressives and liberals.
On the state front, I am excited to learn that Ronnie Earle, former Texas Attorney General, filed the paperwork to run for office in 2010. Many of us hope that Mr. Earle will throw his hat into the Governor's race. Folks may recall that Ronnie Earle, during his tenure as Attorney General, indicted the former House Speaker and Republican Majority Leader, Tom (The Hammer) DeLay with felony conspiracy charges involving illegal campaign contributions.
The indictment alleges that DeLay conspired with two of his political associates, John Colyandro of Austin and Jim Ellis of Virginia, to convert $190,000 in corporate money into individual campaign contributions through a transfer of funds using the Republican National Committee.
Texas is long overdue for a tough governor with a spine who is not afraid of ethically challenged fat cats and powerful crooks.
According to Media Matters, despite the attempts by some in mainstream media to pin our economic woes and recession on President Obama, recent polls show that 80% of Americans blame our current financial misery on the banks, Wall Street and the Bush Administration.
That would be eight in ten Americans.
We the eight in ten people are obviously light years ahead of the media's water carriers for a failed Republican agenda. Our opinion of the spewers of Republican lies and misinformation?
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
Surprise, surprise! The fat cat lobbyists are totally bent out of shape over President Obama's reform agenda that is intended to give a desperately needed boost to struggling and distressed Americans. The people voted for the stimulus bill. It passed in the U.S. House and the Senate, and despite the fuzzy math chattering among right wing whacko pundits, 69% of Americans approve the job President Obama is doing. 82% gave his talk on Tuesday night an A+. Over 60% believe we need a stimulus package.
Are we going to let a bunch of self-serving, greedy fat cats prevent what most of us need and want as hard working Americans? This is a long diary but we must arm ourselves with information in order to fight against the powerful and big moneyed groups who are determined to work against the majority of our core interests and our very financial survival. Knowledge and information are, after all, very powerful tools.
Industries from health care to agribusiness to mining that stand to lose under President Barack Obama's policy agenda are ramping up lobbying campaigns to derail or modify his plans.
The lobbyists want to change the subject in order to promote their own agendas for the continuing disenfranchisement of the American people, especially where universal health care is concerned. This will be a redux of the 1990's when the Clinton Administration attempted health care reform legislation. The usual suspects will appear with their lackeys in the mainstream media. There will be a lot of screaming and railing against big government, big brother, socialism, wasteful spending, punishing the successful, class warfare, bashing billionaires and faux outrage over fabricated pork projects and ear marks. We've seen this old movie before.
Read the real facts about President Obama's health care agenda here, and here. The lobbyists are in a snit b/c the tax rate for 1-2% of Americans will go up from 36 to 39%. So sad too bad for those who got a free ride for the last eight years while 95% of us shouldered more than our fair share of the burden.
Just when we think we've heard it all on ethically impoverished fat cats and over-the-top political and financial corruption, crime and slime, yet another scandal smacks us in the face. Senator McCaskill should read the riot act to the irresponsible and greedy punks again. Apparently they did not hear her the first time.
$400K salaries? I can just hear the hysterical wailing "But that isn't even chump change!" "It won't cover one much less three of my mortgages!"
While home foreclosures increased by 112%, thousands continue to lose their jobs and very few if any retirement plans remain unscathed, the fat cats somehow manage to throw lavish extravaganzas for themselves. And they are doing it on our dime.
OK, America, so I pulled a tiny prank last night-and it was so classic that I have to tell you all about it.
It involves freedom of speech, a friendly message to one of those crazy Republicans we all know-and it forced that crazy Republican to get up at three in the morning because he could not handle the threat to his world view.
Wanna hear all about it?
Then come along and follow the story...because it's worth it.
Yes we could. And yes, we will. To stay involved and informed during this grand new era of hope, change, empowerment and honesty, go to Obama's recently launched Presidential web site.
REMARKS OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
Inaugural Address
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Washington, D.C.
My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
Fifty years ago today I was halfway through my sophomore year at WE Stebbins High, an almost completely segregated school in the almost completely segregated city of Dayton, Ohio, a town said at the time to be a southern city that happened to be north of the Mason Dixon line.
The school was "almost completely" segregated because it was located within a good Hail Mary pass of Wright Patterson AFB. I don't remember exactly the reasons but we were told that because the school received federal funds for students who were military dependents that it had to be integrated.
"Integration" was accomplished by the admission of two young Black kids, The boy was named Sam. I remember because we became friends for awhile until the transparent racist displeasure of my little Quaker Grandmother became thick enough to keep him from dropping by. She wasn't ready for a black president.
The girl's name is beyond my atrophied powers of recall. I can see their faces though; both were exceptionally attractive, beautiful in fact, bright, "A" students (National Honor Society), and the son and daughter of Air Force Officers. They weren't related, although they might have passed for brother and sister (to my eyes) and they knew each other from the Air Base (the Air Force at the time wasn't a lot more integrated than my high school).
Their presence among the lower and middle class adolescent white children of factory workers, shopkeepers and lower level bean counting managerial types caused no great stir. There were no serious problems (to my eyes) other than an occasional racist taunt, or snub. Civility towards them was rigorously enforced. The powers that be paddled freely and often back then and the sting of that paddle and its humiliation was seldom sought.
What had been a truce between Israel and the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip seems to have abruptly come to a halt; with the Israelis blaming Hamas and Hamas blaming Israeli oppression of the displaced Palestinians for the simmering hostilities that are now boiling over into military-scale violence.
Before the recent holidays and an immoderate amount of snow buried me in things that could not be done on the computer we had been having a conversation about the strategic importance of our relationship with Egypt. Within that series of discussions we explored the influence of the political opposition, and we considered the fragility of President Mubarak's hold on power.
We also noted the immediate proximity of Egypt to the Gaza Strip.
Today we're going to tie all of that together-and the end result of all that tying is that we better keep a close eye on Egypt, because trouble in Gaza has spilled over into trouble in Cairo....and that's one more Middle Eastern problem we don't need.
President Elect Barack Obama has begun to choose is White House staff, and his first selection was Rahm Emanuel for White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel is a Congressman from Illinois's 5th congressional district, and was the Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2006 midterm elections. According to Politico.com the selection "was a powerful signal of Obama's determination to be effective under the existing rules of the Washington game." While John Nichols of the Nation described the selection of Emanuel as "best understood as a disappointing choice rather than a definitional selection." Jacob Weisberg of Slate described Emanuel in 1996 as "the [Clinton] administration's most diabolically effective tactician." While Noam Scheiber of the New Republic made a case for Emanuel because no one else had the "combination of policy chops, Hill knowledge, and the understanding of how to mobilize voters that he'll need to pass major initiatives like healthcare reform."
What Rahm Emanuel symbolizes is that while we can expect an Obama Administration to be bi-partisan, we can also expect to see the administration aggressively perusing Obama's agenda. The role of the Chief of Staff is to execute the President's agenda, and no one has argued that Emanuel will not be able to execute with proficiency. There have been those that have characterized Emanuel as a partisan, and there have been those that have characterized him as moderate. However, it does not matter, what matters is whether or not he will be able to execute what it is a President Obama will ask him to do. Barack Obama ran one of the most discipline campaigns that have been seen in politics, and the appointment of Emanuel symbolizes that an Obama White House will be just as disciplined.
The Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) Texas A&M University Chapter garnered some unfortunate publicity yesterday, and it was the politics of the lowest common denominator that can be expected from the YCT.
The Anti-Obama "carnival" took place on the Texas A&M campus in Rudder Plaza, and according to the KBTX report the YCT "encouraged students to throw eggs at a large picture of Barack Obama during a campus demonstration. It was part of what the group called an "anti-Obama carnival. Conservatives said the egg toss was symbolic of Obama's economic policies."
In an interview with KBTX Jay Cunningham, the Executive Director of the YCT, characterized the event as a "great success." Cunningham also said that YCT wanted to bring up issues that they believe Obama supports such as "redistribution of wealth."
Texas A&M University released the following statement:
A university campus is a marketplace of ideas. While we found today's activity offensive and not representative of Texas A&M's core values, we certainly respect the free speech of students on our campus. We are of the opinion that there are more appropriate and constructive ways to engage in a dialogue in advance of the upcoming elections.
"The McCain campaign has made impressive strides over the last week of tracking." I am not exactly sure what Republican pollster Bill McInturff means by impressive strides. According to the Gallup Daily tracking poll since October 20th Senator Obama has not dropped below 50% in the poll and Senator McCain has not risen above 43%.
This morning on MSNBC McInturff pushed the idea that the majority of undecided voters, which is between four and eight percent, will break for McCain.
(Good news to go along with Rick's selection in the Hell To Pay Fundraiser! Go lend a few bucks to the cause. - promoted by boadicea)
Today's Houston Chronicle reports that Rick Noriega and Barack Obama are up by seven percent in Harris County. For the first time in forty-four years, Harris County voters are on the verge of favoring a Democratic Presidential candidate.
WOW.
Hats off to the Noriega campaign and the Harris County Democrats for their exhaustive efforts.
They gave Barack Obama the edge over Republican John McCain by 7 percentage points this week, with very few undecided or backing another contender.
Voters also favored Democrat Rick Noriega of Houston against Republican Sen. John Cornyn by the same amount - with 13 percent undecided or committed to another candidate.
The survey results were compiled by Zogby International as early voting got under way for the Nov. 4 election.
Fifty years ago today I was halfway through my sophomore year at WE Stebbins High, an almost completely segregated school in the almost completely segregated city of Dayton, Ohio, a town said at the time to be a southern city that happened to be north of the Mason Dixon line.
