Just do it.
The Republicans got what they wanted, from tax cuts to reduced infrastructure investment to the removal of the American One Child Act of 2009 to - and this is especially important - uncounted hours on TV and endless inches in newspapers and magazines decrying the Democrats' hedonistic, tax-and-spend ways - and NOT ONE OF THEM VOTED FOR IT.
The following Blue Dog Democrats voted against it too:
Allen Boyd - FL, Bobby Bright - AL, Jim Cooper - TN, Brad Ellsworth - IN, Parker Griffith - AL, Paul Kanjorski - PA, Frank Kratovil - MD, Walt Minnick -ID, Collin Peterson - MN, Heath Shuler - NC, Gene Taylor - MS
I hope Obama had fun at the cocktail party last night.
The president should go on TV and explain to the American people that this stimulus package will get passed either with or without Republican help, and remind everyone that he extended his hand to the GOP only to have them bite his finger. And then he should go back to the bill and take out every single concession that was made to House leadership. Scratch that - add everything that was taken out to appease the Republicans, take out everything that was added to appease the Republicans, and then add more stuff that Republicans didn't want to show them just how little juice they've actually got. Boehner and his thugs need a reality check.
If we get zero votes, they get zero input. Simple as that.
Krugman: "Aren't you glad that Obama watered it down and added ineffective tax cuts, so as to win bipartisan support?"
That said, the bill is overladen with pork: http://needlenose.com/wp/2009/01/28/squandering-a-mandate/
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h/t Leanne:
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Declared Florida candidate for 2010 Doug Tudor, who spent most of his adult life serving the country in the military, seems pretty offended by Limbaugh:
"I think the newly elected junior senator from Minnesota said it best: Rush Limbaugh is a big, fat idiot. It speaks volumes that Rush continues as the mouthpiece of the Republican Party, even as the party implodes into electoral insignificance in most parts of the country. It also reveals the true values of the GOP in that this convicted drug addict, serial racist, gay-bashing closet case, and insulter of our troops, continues to have such a messianic hold on the party rank-and-file. Screw Rush Limbaugh and the dittoheads he continues to ride in on."
But these are the results of a population kept in ignorance. The media, with their stupid "two sides to every story" reporting, felt the need to pretend that no one really knows what torture actually is. Congress, spineless throughout the Bush's two terms -- even when his approvals were in the tank -- got the vapors and fell into a faint every time someone mentioned holding any Bushie accountable for anything.
Pastor Brady Boyd
New Life Church
Dear Pastor Boyd,
It looks like you're in a bit of a spot. People are now learning that at the very moment your church leaders were declaring that Pastor Ted Haggard's act of supposed sin was an isolated incident involving a single manwhore, they were buying the silence of another of his conquests. http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2009/01/it-was-just-little-male-bonding.html
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Bernie Madoff stole $50 billion and he's still in his penthouse
Roy Brown, 54, is a homeless man who said that he was hungry and needed a place to live when he walked the Capitol One bank in Shreveport, Louisiana in December 2007 and stole a single $100 bill. The next day, he turned himself into police, apologized, and said that he was not raised to do such things. After he pleaded guilty, the Shreveport judge then sentenced him to 15 years in prison. In the meantime, former AIG executive Christian Milton defrauded customers of more than $500 million and was just sentenced to 4 years.
Story here.
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The United States is facing a worsening recession, an expanding war in Afghanistan, and global warming. Yet, New York Republican Rep. Peter King believes that one of the more pressing matters for Congress should be to require that all cell phones make a click or sound when taking a picture. It is the basis for his "Camera Phone Predator Alert Act" to protect the unwary from the unscrupulous.
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Pedophiles and holocaust deniers are welcome, but ....
Father Geoffrey Farrow, the Fresno priest who came out against Prop 8 during Mass and was suspended for following his conscience by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is still being hounded by the church: http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/catholic_church_strongarms_org_from_hiring_anti_prop_8_priest/
Link: Authorities are applying a legal theory in an apparently novel way. One federal law enforcement source said prosecutors are seeking to use a federal statute that makes it illegal to "scheme . . . to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services."
In this case, the victims would be parishioners who relied on Mahony and other church leaders to keep their children safe from predatory priests, the source said.
After the thousands of child rapes, after the decades of "priest rape" headlines, after the billions of dollars paid to buy the victim's silence,
who in their right mind would trust a priest with their male children?
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Stingray migration - thanks, Rachel
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Through rain or snow or sleet or hail, but not through a recession
Postal Service may cut one day of mail delivery: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/28/post-office-may-cut-weekl_n_161951.html
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Government officials seeking to revamp the U.S. financial bailout have discussed spending another $1- $2 trillion to help restore banks to health: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123319689681827391.html
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By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived: $18.4 for the year. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/business/29bonus.html?_r=1&hp
And the remodeling that's going on: You can't even make this crap up. Spongers
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Salmonella in peanut butter leads to one of the biggest product recalls ever: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/28/salmonella-outbreak-in-pe_n_162057.html
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Mullen: using force against Iran is still an option! http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233050189990&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer
4,236 soldiers killed in Iraq; 644 in Afghanistan.
Israel continues to attack Gaza, but insists it isn't violating the ceasefire: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/01/28/israel-continues-gaza-attacks-insists-it-isnt-violating-ceasefire/
NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters today that the international forces were responsible for killing 97 Afghan civilians in 2008 based on what he referred to as their "new tracking system."
One needs only to recall two incidents: The August US air strike in Herat which killed 90 civilians and the November killings of 37 civilians when the United States attacked a wedding party in Kandahar, before it becomes readily apparent that NATO is missing a few people. http://news.antiwar.com/2009/01/28/nato-dramatically-underreports-how-many-civilians-it-has-killed/
Loophole in Executive Order to close "black sites" doesn't really close them: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/28/obama-order-allows-short-term-cia-sites/
Obama lawyers set to defend John Yoo, the author of the torture memos: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=1AB143EF-18FE-70B2-A8CCAFDB21E620DA
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How George Bush protected me from lightning: http://www.teambio.org/2009/01/28/how-george-bush-protected-me-from-lightning/
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Although the chorus of ignoramus global warming doubters continues unabated, the news from the fact-based community is very bleak: scientists have confirmed that the Antarctic is warming significantly, its ice sheets melting far more rapidly than expected, a trend that will most likely kill off the Emperor penguins much as the established trend in the Arctic is doing in the polar bears.
The warming-driven acidification of the oceans is now demonstrably adversely affecting coral growth, a horrible development as coral reefs are critical to nurturing grounds for numerous oceanic species (including many already depleted commercial fish).
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Amazing blog post about a typical shopping day in Alaska.
If this is true, Leanne, I'm sending you some stuff you can resell. And speaking of Alaska...
Sarah Palin said she will attend an exclusive club dinner in Washington this weekend because it will offer her an audience with President Obama.
Doesn't she have like 5 kids and a new grandchild to take care of?
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A report that says NSF [National Science Foundation] employees have been spending significant amounts of company time on smut sites and in other explicit pursuits. Who says science isn't fun? Republican Chuck Grassley is on the case.
Who can blame them? It isn't as if they were actually allowed to do "scientific" things for the last 8 years.
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Nicholas Kristof wants an investigation into torture, secret detention and wiretapping, by the Bush administration, saying:
President Obama is resisting calls for an investigation into torture and other abuses during the Bush years, so the chance to learn from our mistakes is slipping away.
Mr. Obama understandably wants to focus on economic recovery rather than a dissection of the past. Why fritter political capital on an inquest that would antagonize Republicans and imperil our economy and his agenda?
But as George Santayana, the eminent Harvard philosopher wrote: "Those who forget history are destined to repeat it."
Obama needs to appoint a special prosecutor and he needs to do it now. That way he and Congress can pretend to care about the Rule of Law while continuing to clean up the mess they were left because of the crimes.
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Number of unemployed hits 4.8 million - and remember, this doesn't count the ones that got moved to part time or whose benefits have run out: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Jobless_numbers_reach_record_high_4.8_0129.html
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Oh this is just awesome! Congress just gave itself a $5,000 pay raise! http://www.americablog.com/2009/01/congress-gives-itself-4700-pay-raise.html
And this is awesomer: AIG to pay $450 million in bonuses to the people who lost $34 billion! http://www.americablog.com/2009/01/aig-to-pay-450m-in-bonuses-to-retain.html
When will the rioting begin?
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AT&T is celebrating Data Privacy Day, after handing every single one of us over to the NSA http://www.americablog.com/2009/01/at-is-celebrating-data-privacy-day.html
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Here's a story sure to bring a smile to your face: Iraq Won't Grant Blackwater a License.
I hope Erik Prince has plans to travel to countries that actually prosecute mercenaries and their corporate employers for war crimes. Now that would be a truly happy ending to the ugly, mendacious and murderous Blackwater saga.
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If the stimulus plan passes the Senate, the first effects would come in the form of $275 in tax cuts, reducing money withheld from workers' paychecks, and in unemployment benefits and food stamps, which would immediately be increased. Read it at The New York Times
I guess self employed people that aren't unemployed and/or on welfare will get screwed again.
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Israel is shooting at everything that moves
Along with today's air strikes on Gaza which AFP report "wounded 18 Palestinians including 11 schoolchildren and a pregnant woman," there are also reports that yesterday Israeli troops fired "warning shots" at a group of diplomats, including the French consul-general.
The diplomats did finally get to leave Gaza and were not hit.
Gazans were not so lucky during the recent attacks – and as more is learned about the orders given to Israeli soldiers, more questions are raised about war crimes:
"Fire on anything that moves in Zeitoun" – that was the order handed down to Israeli troops in the Givati Shaked battalion, who reduced the eastern Gaza City suburb to little more than rubble in a matter of days.
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Impeached:
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Saddlebacking: sad•dle•back•ing \ˈsa-dəl-ˈba-kiŋ\ vb [fr. Saddleback Church] (2009): the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities
After attending the Purity Ball, Heather and Bill saddlebacked all night because she's saving herself for marriage.
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Last night on Fox News, host Bill O'Reilly and former comedian Dennis Miller announced a new "business partnership." "We're opening a theme park: Waterboard World," O'Reilly said. Funnyman Miller explained how the park would help in efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions:
MILLER: You know, I had a caller on my show, Bill today, the radio show, a guy named A.J. from Milwaukee. He had the best take on this. He said change the public relations of waterboarding, say that people are emitting too much CO2 and when you pour water down their nose, it cuts into their CO2 exhalation.
O'REILLY: So it's better for the planet.
MILLER: You can call it greenboarding. And we could sell it. Greenboarding! There you go!
Miller concluded the segment by singing to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA," — "If everybody had a cheesecloth across the USA."
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Oh look. Condi's upset with those accusing Bush of racism in the wake of Katrina. Maybe if she hadn't been busy buying up all those shoes at Ferragamo or taking in Spamalot she would have noticed.
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