Bush Still Blamed For Crappy Economy

Coming from NYTimes poll:

"While the president is showing signs of vulnerability on his handling of the economy — a majority of respondents say he has yet to offer a clear plan for creating jobs — Americans blame former President George Bush, Wall Street and Congress much more than they do Mr. Obama for the nation’s economic problems and the budget deficit, the poll found."

Thank god for that. Too much has been said criticizing the mop Obama has had to use to clean up the Bush/repub mess. While the economy is Obama's he's not being blamed for the problem. Obama needs to get people back to work. That, more than anything else, would be the deciding factor for his reelection in 2012.

Obama Needs To Take A Page From Bush's Book

I hate to say it but Bush did have some efficient tactics. The problem was he abused the powers. The two powers that I think Obama needs to start reenacting are recess appointments and signing statements.

Recess appointments are appointments to posts done during a senate recess. Some positions in the government need to be vetted and voted on by the senate. If the senate is taking too long, and in order to keep government running, the president can appoint a person to a position if the senate is in recess. Like next weekend during presidents day weekend. Bush did this all the time circumventing the senate. Obama has not been doing this trying to respect the senate. The problem is that many government positions have yet to be filled. He needs to do this because the repubs are so vile in their obstructionism that one senator Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) has put a blanket hold (preventing an appointee from being voted on) on ALL of Obama's appointees. Nothing is getting filled putting the U.S. more at risk

The other power needing to be reinstated is signing statements. Signing statements are done when a President signs a bill into law. They are statements that say that a president will ignore the law he's signing or they will enforce part of the law but ignore another part. The controversy during the Bush years was that he was hell bent on making a grotesquely powerful executive branch and anything that might have been construed as limiting Bush's power, Bush ignored it with a signing statement. Now, Obama appears to reversed course, limiting the power of the executive branch. Now, with our economy, job losses, and banking problems, we need some signing statements giving him more power to get the job done.

Obama needs to start bullying some people to get things done. While a lot has been done over the past year, the public doesn't see it. All the public sees is jobs being lost and houses be foreclosed on.

Obama's Losing Allies

It seems it is not just me who is becoming disillusioned by the president. It seems Jon Stewart is getting in on the action.

"Last week, though, the president was the punch line. After showing video of Obama speaking to schoolkids, the "Daily Show" host said in amazement: "You set up a presidential podium and a teleprompter in a sixth-grade classroom? . . . I'm not a political adviser, campaign strategist, et cetera, but that's not a great photo op in a middle school classroom."

As you read, it seems that Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, and Keith Olbermann also might be getting buyers remorse.

I really do think all this comes down to this. For 8 years we, dems/liberals, had a president who thumbed his nose at us. He went out of his way to give us the middle finger. The way he legislated, gave speeches, and in his appointees, Bush did not give a rats ass about the other side of the table. Now that dems are back in control, we want someone who is not afraid/timid to show his liberal side. I don't want a president doing what Bush did. What I do want is someone who is unabashed about being liberal. I wanted Obama to be a leader who will work with the other side but if they don't want to work then screw them. This timid/overly cautious road that he is taking is pissing us off. Stop cowtowing to such a bunch of obstructionists and get the countries shit done.

And here's the vid:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Obama Speaks to a Sixth-Grade Classroom
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

How Obama Agonized Over Afghanistan

There is a really good article in the Times today about the months leading up to Obama's decision on Afghanistan. What I take from it is one thing. I am so happy that we have a commander an chief who actually takes his job seriously.

You must read it to understand but Obama didn't go with his "guts" or shoot from the hip about the Afghanistan decision. His decision came from a person who takes his job very seriously. It is such a relief to have a pensive person in control of our military.

Unemployment Hits 10.2%

More than anything else this number is Obama's challenge. If he can't get it down, no matter how bad Bush was, he will never get re-elected or get dems re-elected in the midterms or the general election in 3 years.

This is the barometer that will let us know if Obama is going to get re-elected.

Grab A God Damn Mop

Only rarely do you catch a glimpse of Obama serving partisan inspiration to the dem base. Well, in San Francisco, (the heart of very left people) he hit upon a theme that needs to be sung from the mountain top. Check it out.

Yes, GOP. We are cleaning your damn mess. Stop bitching and grab an f-ing mop.

Politico Is Really Reaching With This Story

Pointed to by Dailykos, a politco story tries to make hay about people who supported Roman Polanski also gave money to Obama and the DNC. How in the hell is that a story.

"Movie industry types calling for the release of director Roman Polanski last year gave $34,000 to Obama's presidential campaign and the Democratic Party, FEC records show."

What are they doing over at Politico? Do they have any clue what a story is? This ain't a story. This is so bad I am not going to link to it.

Crazy Right Wing Nuts Make Me Sick

Chicago (let me repeat that CHICAGO) lost it's bid to host the olympics after the first couple flew to Copenhagen to advocate for the windy city.

What really, I mean really, makes me sick is that the wingers are foaming at the mouths with glee over the loss. I read in Dailykos. It went from "America, fuck yeah!" to "Fuck America, yeah!"

I have been reading several different sites and one has a great compilation of the different quotes.

From TPM:

"As a citizen of the world who believes that No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation, I'm glad that the Obama White House's jingoist rhetoric and attempt to pay back Chicago cronies at the expense of undermining our relationships with our allies failed,"

"Chicago and Tokyo eliminated. No Obamalypics"

"Hahahahaha. So Obama's pimped us to every two bit thug and dictator in the world, made promises to half the Olympic committee, and they did not even kiss him. So much for improving America's standing in the world."

"The worst day of Obama's presidency, folks. The ego has landed. The world has rejected Obama,"

I cannot tell you how disgusted I feel by this hate towards one individual. So much so that these freak shows prefer to see America suffer for their grievances with our president. It is starting to become perfectly clear that nothing Obama does will get not just their support but the common decency any human being deserves.

Right Wing Going Crazy

We all have been seeing it and I think people are starting to realize the beast that the right is creating.

From Thomas Friedman: (picked up at Political Wire)

"I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left. But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination... Even if you are not worried that someone might draw from these vitriolic attacks a license to try to hurt the president, you have to be worried about what is happening to American politics more broadly."

The right is in a tizzy and I don't see any elected republican leaders try to squash their hate. The blow hards are fanning the flames and no leader is trying to harness the hate.

Iran Not Being Honest

Who can actually be surprised by this. From Political Wire:

"President Barack Obama on Friday accused Iran of building a secret underground facility to enrich nuclear fuel"

Turns out, the US, Great Britain and France have known for some time. It wasn't until Iran found out we knew that the US decided to call them on it.

I am glad they found it but lets be honest. This regime has an agenda (get nuclear weapons) and countries around the world who cozy up the Iran so they can get their oil and who are willing to ignore things like this astound me. They are a threat to the region with their pursuit of enriched weapons grade uranium.

This needs to be shut down and by having a dialogue with them versus not talking to them is the best way to shut it down.

Obama's Secret Terrorist Agenda

Can you believe that Obama's secret terrorist agenda has been discovered. The intrepid reporters on Fox have found out that by sitting so close to Moammar Qadaffi, Obama has the sinister intentions.

Jesus Christ what a bunch of crap.

I have to give it to the people at Fox. They get so creative in the crap that they show.

Obama Was Black Before The Election

Obama stops by the Letterman show last night in his ongoing media blitz. One of the memorable moments.

Right In A Tither Over Obama's Address of School Kids

Jesus christ the right can get worked up over nothing. To the point of insulting the intelligences of normal Americans. The right has been going ape nuts over president Obama's speech to incoming grade school students.

They say Obama's is trying to indoctrinate our kids into his left wing socialist agenda. What crap.

From Robert Gibbs:

"I think it's a sad, sad day that the political back and forth has intruded on anyone speaking to schoolchildren and teachers and parents about the responsibilities that they have as we enter a new school year."

Its true. A very sad day when our elected president has this crap distracts from his attempts to keep kids in school.

Bipartisan Health Care Bill Shouldn't Be An Option

It amazes me how Obama, faced with soooooo many no votes by the GOP, still is trying to make a bipartisan health care bill. Even if the GOP had a couple of representatives open to the idea, the GOP leadership is never going to let repubs vote for this bill.

Does it matter? No. Dems have the votes and sometimes leadership is hard. It needs to be done. From George Stephanopoulos:

"As a fall back plan, Democrats on Capitol Hill are planning to go this alone. That will increase the chance that we'll see Obama's public option in the bill."

And so it should be. While there has been major push for a bill without the public option. Many dems are pushing back saying they won't vote for a bill without the public option. I don't think I have ever seen such a long drawn-out tug of war. The feel I get though is that the public option is getting into the bill and will likely get passed. That's if the senate doesn't screw it up.

Finally, Dems Sticking Up For Public Option

More of this please.

"Leaders of four Democratic caucuses representing more than 120 members of Congress said Wednesday that they would vote against any health overhaul legislation that excludes a “robust” government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers." (emphasis mine)

Why? Because the "public option" has been getting a beating as of late with repubs controlling the message. With crap like this:

"Republicans are out in force against a public option, seeing it as a precursor to full government takeover of health insurance. Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, takes to the Senate floor routinely to warn against government-supplied insurance."

72% of the population wants a public option. But it seems that even the dems don't hear the will of the people. How do we know? Because of crap like this from the dems:

"White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met last night at the U.S. Capitol with Senate Democrats and told them Obama is 'open to alternatives' to a new government insurance program in order to get legislation overhauling the health-care system to his desk, said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.'"

Come hell or high water should the dems let the repubs push them around. Bipartisanship is assinine. However, it depends on your definition of bipartisan. From Dailykos

"Congressional Republicans are uniformly against a public option, but as Kilgore points out, about half of Republicans who don't live or work in DC support a public option...

1. They [dems] can pursue Congressional bipartisanship, which will put them at odds with their own base and likely create political cover for Republicans who might otherwise have issues in their base, or

2. They can pursue grassroots bipartisanship, which will put them on the side of an overwhelming majority of Americans and create a schism within the Republican-leaning electorate."

What does that mean? It means don't deal with the elected repubs. They're useless. Deal with the grassroots repubs. They want it. Give it to them.

At the end of the day, I can't stand that Obama wants to deal with repubs when the congressional repubs will do anything to sabotage the public health plan.

Obama's Clusterf*#k

Obama has been REALLY screwing things up as of late. It started with not doing anything about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Which studies show the policy actually hurts the military. He then filed a brief similar to the briefs file by the Bush administration defending the Defense of Marriage act. This was probably the biggest fuck up. (Why? Because its was BUSH'S brief. That hate monger did everything he could to screw with gay people.)

Obama effort to try and not start culture wars with the right has inadvertently alienated a core constituancy of the dem base. So, today Obama has signed a memo granting same sex benefits to federal employees.

This is good but it is reactionary. It is not leadership. It is "Oh shit, I screwed up. What can I do to make up for it." This is not enough. In order to make up for it, he needs to do more. Obama needs to lead on this not piss people off and then decide to act.

Right Wingers Really Don't Like the United States

The wingers have taken crazy to the next level. An article The Detroit Bureau just made me think that right wingers really are out to destroy America.

What is it this time? It seems that they want to boycott GM cars and parts. They want to boycott a struggling AMERICAN company. GM,on the brink of shutting its doors and firing the last 50,000 or so employees, is about to be boycotted by the crazies on the right because Obama has bought a majority stake so the government can save the company.

The right is willing to put more people on the unemployment line for their political agenda. This is insane. While I know no current elected politicians will support this, if this picks up the GOP will have a large black eye for letting this to possibly pick up steam.

Obama v Cheney

Obama's speech on national security was not accidentally scheduled on the same day as Cheney. In politics who you choose to fight with is as important as what you say. Why not choose another republican. Why not RNC chair Michael Steele? Or Palin or any of the others?

Its because by choosing the opponent you also choose how you shape your message. Obama chose an old time GOP guy who everyone knows and only 25% of the population likes. By making war with Cheney, Obama goes after the image of the old white guy who would drown anyone who gets in his way. Obama's message is juxtaposed against Cheney's. On one hand you have a constituational scholar saying that torture actually hurts U.S. interests, helps recruit terrorists, and reduces our stature in the world. On the other hand you have a cranky old figure head saying waterboarding actually helped the U.S.

The same happened back in 2004. During the dem primary fight between Dean, Kerry, and Edwards, Bush had started attacking Kerry which elevated Kerry position in the dem party and eventually giving Kerry the dem nomination. At the end of the day, why did Bush go after Kerry? Look at the opponent Bush chose: New England, rich, private school, entitled senator. The person they were worried about was Edwards. Southern, came from nothing, good looking. (But who really knew what a douche Edwards ended up being.)

Sean Hannity Really is a Sad Case

Hannity has gone a little loco since his partner, Alan Colmes, retired. He's still in the repub mindset of taking anything a dem does and saying how it is bad for the United States.

Now, after Obama having a highly publicized burger, the right is going crazy over the fact that Obama ordered a cheeseburger with "spicy mustard."

Really? Is this all the right has left are these type of attacks. Not only have they scraped the bottom of the barrel for these type of attacks, they're wearing a hole out the bottom. 

Check it out from Media Matters.

Obama's Going After Tax Loopholes

Obama is targeting big business in his attempt to get big companies to pay their fair share. His aim is to close loopholes that allow business to reduce their tax payments:

"One key proposed change would restrict companies from deferring the payment of taxes on profit earned overseas. Administration officials said the plan would keep businesses from taking deductions against their taxes by inflating the amount of foreign taxes they paid."

What is the corporate response? 

"it could lead not to the administration’s hoped-for repatriation of taxes but rather to job losses or higher prices as companies try to compensate for a greater tax burden."

Status quo for corporations. But what is the benefit of closing the loopholes. 210 BILLION.