Cry Me A River

So now the Republicans, led by Sen. John "I Lost" McCain and his bud, Sen. Lindsey "Aren't I Sweet" Graham, are crying that the stimulus bill isn't the bipartisan bill the president promised.

It was a bad beginning because it wasn't what we promised the American people, what President Obama promised the American people, that we would sit down together,

McCain said.

"We"? What "we" promised the American people? John, honey, you promised the American people more of the same. And your whining act on the floor of the Senate last week proved that you're still after more of the same. What, do you think you're gonna run for president again at 78?

No, John, let me remind you again. You lost. You do not get to demand that Obama do things the way they have been done for 30 years -- the way you would have continued to do them had you NOT LOST. But you did lose, John. You did lose.

This is not 'change we can believe in',

Graham said.

Maybe it's not change you can believe in, sweetheart, but Obama promised real change, and that means -- are you ready for this? -- your "tax cuts will solve all our problems" approach -- the same approach Republicans have taken for the past 30 years and look where it's gotten us -- isn't change. Not only that, but it's also not going to get us out of the hole you dug. I don't know about South Carolina, but where I come from "change" doesn't mean "doing the same thing we've always done."

President Obama held unprecedented meetings with Republicans during the run-up to the stimulus bill. And what did it get him? A big fat "fuck you."

Look, I appreciate the fact that the president came over and talked to Republicans. That's not how you negotiate a result. You sit down together in a room with competing proposals. Almost all of our proposals went down on a party-line vote.

Loser McCain said.


Well, duh. What did you expect when your side takes its marching orders from Rush "I hope Obama fails" Limbaugh? Every single Republican congressman and woman stamped their little feet and crossed their arms over their chests and said "NO," just like a toddler that's only now learned the word. Where were you, John, when GW was running up all those bills and crashing the economy like he did? You wanna hear John's answer to that? Here it is:

Republicans were guilty of this kind of behavior. I'm not saying that we did things different. But Americans want us to do things differently, and they want us to work together.

So it was OK when you and your ilk never met with Democrats, held up votes while you twisted arms to get what you want, held secret meetings to decide how best to screw the American people. But you got the first part right, John. Americans do want you to do things differently. And that means not doing what you want. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

This president has always worked in a bipartisan fashion. He will continue to reach out to Republicans. We hope that Republicans will decide they want to reach back.

And, Gibbs noted, not only did Obama invite the obstructionists to the White House, he went "to Capitol Hill to meet with Republicans where they work."

But still they don't heed the message, the one that the American people started in 2006 and continued in 2008. The one that they'll still be delivering in 2010 if the obstructionists don't get with the program.

So, if you want to know who did the bipartisan fail, look no further than the Republican side of the aisle. It was you, John, and you, Lindsey, and John Boehner and Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl and John Cornyn and everybody else with an "R" after their name with three exceptions.

Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter. Now, I don't like what they and Ben Nelson, who has a "D" after his name, did to the bill. And I sincerely doubt the bill's gonna make enough change happen to prevent the Republicans from getting a big tizzy on screaming "I told you so" as they try to make the case that Obama was wrong and they were right.

Don't be fooled. John McCain is wrong. Lindsey Graham is wrong. All the rest of them are wrong too, all the way back to Ronald Reagan, who set the wheels that have now come off the wagon in motion in the 1980s.

"Bipartisan" doesn't mean you write a bill that has a little bit of what one side wants and little bit of what the other side wants. And it sure doesn't mean bringing to the table the same failed policies that the American people so soundly rejected in November.

And, Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor, "bipartisan" doesn't mean you stand in front of the television cameras and lie. The New Deal failed, my ass. As if the New Deal was some big conglomerate program instead of multiple smaller programs -- some of which worked, and were continued, and some of which didn't, and were scuttled. Where do you get your history, guys? Does Supreme Leader Limbaugh give you that too? Or do you use the same writers who do the science textbooks that pretend evolution is an untested theory?

This economic crisis is far deeper than the Republicans want you to think it is. A couple of tax cuts that will primarily benefit rich people isn't going to help. Neither is Tim Geithner's bailing out the banks, but that's another post.

Republicans, conservatives -- they failed. Miserably. They do not now get to step up to the plate and take another swing at it.

It may well be true that some of the Democratic plans don't work. But we already know about the GOP's tried and false ideas. "Change" doesn't mean doing the same old thing.

This Republican party isn't the loyal opposition. This Republican party isn't trying to help the country and its citizens succeed. This Republican party only cares about making sure Obama and the Democratic Congress fail so they can make a comeback in 2010.

At least that's what they're thinking. As if the American people don't remember what they voted against, Sen. McCain, on November 4.

Maybe now would be a good time for the Republicans to remember that too, because I can guarantee you we're gonna remember what you did in the early days of 2009. And if you continue with this same obstructionist attitude right on through until the next election, well, then, boys, whatever happens to you is on you.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Peace Y'all

Perspective

This is why I really have a hard time having compassion for politicians.

Where for art thou, Barack? We hired you to kick some ass not to be kissing it.

I snagged this from Thurman over at Random Abstractions...which he snagged from the Rude Pundit...

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A fine piece of perspective today, courtesy of The Rude Pundit. Hope he doesn't mind.

By the Numbers: Creeping Class Warfare, Republican Style:
How about just a minute or two of perspective?
Amount to bailout AIG - at least $85 billion
Amount to bailout Citibank - at least $45 billion
Amount to bailout Bank of America - at least $45 billion, with guarantees on $118 billion in loans
Amount the Bush administration overpaid for bailed-out bank assets - $78 billion

Proposed cuts to President Obama's economic stimulus bill (currently being debated by 20 "centrist" senators):
$1.1 billion to Head Start
$24.8 billion to states for budget shortfalls in education programs
$15 billion to states for additional education funding
$2 billion to Child Care Development Block Grants
$150 million to funding for programs in the Violence Against Women Act

Oh, and, hell, let's just throw this in:
Amount of just two years of George W. Bush's tax cuts: roughly $500 billion (adjusting for interest). Two-thirds of that came from tax cuts on the top 20% of wage earners.
(Note: this leaves out the cost of operations in Iraq because, well, does it need to be said?)

Education funding is seed money for better paying jobs and a larger tax base. Assistance for families to help with child care has a direct impact on the ability of people to work. And, really, even talking about cutting $150 million in a bill like this is like saying, "If I stop putting nickels in the gumball machine, I'll be able to buy that car."

The unemployment rate is 7.6%. And "centrists" (which is another word for "attention-seeking assholes begging to appear relevant") are quibbling over whether or not it'd be better to cut programs for health and education?

When you walk into an old house that's been neglected for years and is about to collapse into itself, yeah, you need to make sure the frame is stable, but you better get rid of the asbestos insulation before it infects everyone living there.

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Peace Y'all

Keeping The Bush Era Viable

Greetings All,

I came across this interesting piece at Op-Ed News on activities of late from the "Sullen and Defeated" neo-con contingent and am sharing it here with y'all.

Keeping The Bush Era Viable
by Bob Koehler

Rest assured, there are powerful interests that will not put up with an Obama presidency if it’s about even half the changes it threatens — I mean, promises — to make.

Watch them circle, yipping at his integrity. “Obama’s moralizing tone may not wear well,” a Wall Street Journal headline archly surmised a few days ago. “How often do Americans want to hear how misguided they were before his arrival?”

Huh? The new president didn’t simply, inscrutably “arrive” at the White House, as though appointed by, oh, Rod Blagojevich. He was elected by a serious, screaming-for-change majority of Americans to do precisely what he is doing, and so much more — that is to say, to upset to the point of apoplexy the status quo of war and greed as represented so faithfully by, among many other media hypocrites, the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

The op-ed piece that followed, by Dorothy Rabinowitz, sarcastically dismissed Obama’s plans to close Guantanamo and halt the secret military tribunals as part of some unfathomable “moral cleansing” kick he appears to be on — subliminally rallying as many of the sullen and defeated as possible to the great cause of mocking peace and common sense as principles on which to run a nation. My gawd, we’re at war. How can you fight evil if you can’t do torture? Read More

Peace Y'all