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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zeta1961 who wrote (68553)	1/20/2010 9:26:48 PM
From: Mac Con Ulaidh	Respond to of 149317

I like beer plenty well, it is true. :) might take you a few more. but... I partly cut my beer drinking teeth in the financial district of SF. I worked at lawyer insurance place, and I had my dyke buzzed hair and my 3-piece suit and I'd go out at lunch to the financial district bars where the 'men' hung out. I always had me my super ball. pink. I never went anywhere without it. nothing like bouncing that ball to set things right. and I'd sit there with those fancy men in their fancy suits... they were all 'old' to me... I was a 23 year old pup at the time. and they'd buy me beer, and then tell me I'd had enough and I really should get home. they worried over me something amazing. but doing the same with those lobbyists? I might have to chuck far more than 1 to stand it, also. I might have to replace my super ball with a sword or something. I am not sure I could stand them. there it is. to go into that guy whose rhymes we heard as childs... "I do not like you, mr lobbyist, I do not like my beer with slime" bring it on, Michelle. these are not you kinda folks. I can not imagine they are.

To: zeta1961 who wrote (68553)	1/20/2010 9:35:27 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

I would like to see Michelle tell Barack Obama to WAKE UP and shake up his staff -- bring in new advisors like Bill Moyers and Nobel Prize winning Joseph Stiglitz...and don't be shy about quickly motivating Rahm to move on to make way for a new Chief of Staff...Obama's legacy is on the line and he MUST surround himself with better advisors or he will never reach his dream of becoming a truly transformational president.

To: zeta1961 who wrote (68553)	1/21/2010 12:02:37 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

The Massachusetts Election ______________________________________________________________ Lead Editorial The New York Times January 21, 2010 If anyone should have seen it coming in Massachusetts, it is President Obama — the long-shot candidate who rode to electoral victory on a wave of popular impatience and an ability to identify and address voters’ core anxieties. There are many theories about the import of Scott Brown’s upset victory in the race for Edward Kennedy’s former Senate seat. To our minds, it is not remotely a verdict on Mr. Obama’s presidency, nor does it amount to a national referendum on health care reform — even though it has upended the effort to pass a reform bill, which Mr. Obama made the centerpiece of his first year. Mr. Obama has done many important things on the environment, and in foreign affairs, and in preventing the nation’s banking system from collapsing in the face of a financial crisis he inherited. But he seems to have lost touch with two core issues for Americans: their jobs and their homes. Mr. Obama’s challenge is that most Americans are not seeing a recovery. They are seeing 10 percent unemployment and a continuing crisis in the housing market. They have watched as the federal government rescued banks, financial firms and auto companies, but they themselves feel adrift, still awaiting the kind of decisive leadership on jobs and housing — in terms of both style and substance — that Mr. Obama promised in 2008. Mr. Obama was right to press for health care reform. But he spent too much time talking to reluctant Democrats and Republicans who never had the slightest intention of supporting him. He sat on the sidelines while the Republicans bombarded Americans with false but effective talk of death panels and a government takeover of their doctors’ offices. And he did not make the case strongly enough that the health care system and the economy are deeply interconnected or explain why Americans should care about this huge issue in the midst of a recession: If they lose their jobs, they lose their health insurance. Mr. Obama has not said or done the right thing often enough when it comes to job creation and housing. He appointed an economics team that was entwined with the people and policies that nearly destroyed the economy. He made compromises that resulted in a stimulus bill that wasn’t big enough or properly targeted. Even now, despite a new, rather awkward populist tone, serious relief for homeowners is lacking and financial regulatory reform is in danger of being hijacked by banking lobbyists and partisan politics. The victory by Mr. Brown, a Republican, should be setting off alarms in the White House. Most immediately, it jeopardizes passage of the reform that the nation desperately needs. The Democrats could try to get the House to pass the Senate’s bill, although their chances seem dim, or as Mr. Obama seemed to suggest on Wednesday, they could seek a stripped-down measure that could win bipartisan support. They certainly should not try to ram a combined House-Senate bill through the Senate before Mr. Brown is sworn in. The Democrats had an exceptionally weak candidate in Massachusetts, but the results call into question their tactical political competence. The party now has less than 10 months to get it right before the midterm elections, when they are in danger of losing more seats in the House and the Senate. It is indisputable that the Republicans have settled on a tactic of obstruction, disinformation and fear-mongering, but it is equally indisputable that the Democrats have not countered it well. Mr. Obama has three years to show the kind of vision and leadership on the economy that got him elected — not just because his chances of a second term are at stake, but because the nation needs to get a handle on joblessness and mortgages or the nascent economic recovery could turn into a lost decade or a double-dip recession, or both. The president is fighting hard for a consumer financial protection agency, in part because he sees it as one element of financial reform that people will understand. What Mr. Obama has to understand is that the agency is unlikely to be as effective as he intends unless other parts of financial reform — regulating derivatives and limiting “too big too fail” banks — also are robust. And homeowners need mortgage relief — not just lower interest rates, but the ability to renegotiate and restructure their loan balances. We admire Mr. Obama’s intelligence and the careful way he makes decisions. It is reported that he seeks out dissenting views doggedly. He tells Americans the truth. We don’t want Mr. Obama to turn into a hot populist, but he can be too cool and often waits too long to react at big moments. If White House reporters are still making jokes two years from now about checking the president’s pulse, the nation will be in big trouble. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

To: zeta1961 who wrote (68553)	1/21/2010 12:21:40 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Democrats and progressives are crying doom over the party's defeat in Massachusetts. The loss, we're told, is a blow to Barack Obama's political agenda, and so it is. They say it's a shame that yet another rightwing zealot who advocates torture is now in the Senate, and so it is. But it is precisely that agenda that led to the loss, and the shame. It is that agenda which has resurrected a rightwing party that was dead in the water, and empowered its most extreme elements. And what is Barack Obama's agenda? What is his political program? It breaks down into three main elements: unwinnable wars, unconscionable bailouts, and unworkable, unwanted health care "reform" that forces people to further enrich some of the most despised conglomerates in the land. It is, in every way, a recipe for moral, economic and political disaster. It is a gigantic anchor tied around the neck of the Democratic Party, and it will drag the whole lumbering wreck back to the bottom in short order. It also provides a fertile breeding ground for the willful, belligerent ignorance of the Right to thrive. With such an egregiously stupid and destructive agenda at work in the White House, opponents need only say that they are against it, and they are guaranteed a wide following. Who would not be against unwinnable war, unconscionable bailouts and unworkable boondoggles serving rapacious elites? The actual positions held by these opponents – the actual policies they will pursue once in power – are given little scrutiny in such circumstances. The opponent represents change from a hated status quo – and that's enough. Later, when their odious positions come to light, it is too late. Where have we seen this dynamic at work before? Oh yes, it was way back in November 2008. Barack Obama represented change from the hated status quo, from the agenda of the ruling Republican party. And what was that agenda? Why, unwinnable wars, unconscionable bailouts and the assiduous service of rapacious elites. The actual positions held by Obama – the actual policies that he would pursue once in power – were given little scrutiny. Except by a precious few – such as Arthur Silber, who long ago warned that Obama's election would be ruinous for genuine progressive change, that he would merely put a new gloss on the old corruption while disarming dissent from 'progressives,' who would feel bound to support the president against his rightwing enemies – even if it meant "holding their noses" and supporting bad policies like the health care reform bill or the Afghan surge. chris-floyd.com

To: zeta1961 who wrote (68553)	1/21/2010 12:39:59 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

My letter to President Obama dailykos.com

To: zeta1961 who wrote (68553)	1/21/2010 3:54:04 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Obama at One: Little Surprising in Absence of Progressive Social Movement by Howard Zinn Published on Thursday, January 21, 2010 by The Nation Looking back at President Obama's first year in office, The Nation asked members of its community to give their assesment of his performance. You can share your take on Obama's highest and lowest moments in the form provided here. Here is historian Howard Zinn's response: I've been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that comes close is some of Obama's rhetoric; I don't see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies. As far as disappointments, I wasn't terribly disappointed because I didn't expect that much. I expected him to be a traditional Democratic president. On foreign policy, that's hardly any different from a Republican--as nationalist, expansionist, imperial and warlike. So in that sense, there's no expectation and no disappointment. On domestic policy, traditionally Democratic presidents are more reformist, closer to the labor movement, more willing to pass legislation on behalf of ordinary people--and that's been true of Obama. But Democratic reforms have also been limited, cautious. Obama's no exception. On healthcare, for example, he starts out with a compromise, and when you start out with a compromise, you end with a compromise of a compromise, which is where we are now. I thought that in the area of constitutional rights he would be better than he has been. That's the greatest disappointment, because Obama went to Harvard Law School and is presumably dedicated to constitutional rights. But he becomes president, and he's not making any significant step away from Bush policies. Sure, he keeps talking about closing Guantánamo, but he still treats the prisoners there as "suspected terrorists." They have not been tried and have not been found guilty. So when Obama proposes taking people out of Guantánamo and putting them into other prisons, he's not advancing the cause of constitutional rights very far. And then he's gone into court arguing for preventive detention, and he's continued the policy of sending suspects to countries where they very well may be tortured. I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction. ______ *Howard Zinn is the author of “A People’s History of the United States,” “Voices of a People’s History” (with Anthony Arnove), and “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress.” © 2010 The Nation

To: zeta1961 who wrote (68553)	1/22/2010 8:01:13 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews and Stevie Wonder Confirmed for Haiti Benefit Telethon Tonight jambands.com Many of the world’s biggest musicians will participate in a global telethon to raise much needed funds for the nation of Haiti. The two-hour telethon, billed as the most widely distributed telethon in history, will air on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, MTV, CNN, PBS, Bravo, HBO, G4, Comedy Central, BET and many other channels at 8 PM ET this evening, January 22. The event will also stream live via YouTube, Hulu, MySpace, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Fancast, MTV.com, CNN.com, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Alltel and Sirius XM. The event is organized by George Clooney. Artists scheduled to perform include: Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Wyclef Jean, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Bono and Jay-Z, among others. The performers will be recorded in several cities throughout the country.