I’m kind of otherwise occupied with stuff, so an open thread seems appropriate.
I know it is only 9 am, but I think it is late enough in the day to reflect on the many ways Barack Obama has let you down today. As an additional thought, why does Rahm Emmanuel hate you?
Ian
Rahm hates me cause I stole his bike
andy
Barack Obama did not stop this snowstorm from socking it to Denver this morning. Clearly, his Presidency is an abject failure.
This would not have happened on Dubya’s watch. It would be sunny and 70 and bunnies and puppies.
Brick Oven Bill
Rahm Emmanuel hates everybody. This is because he is short and his mom made him do ballerina dances.
It is best to give men like this a wide berth.
Obama feels comfortable around him though.
AKA Sarah
SGEW
Barack Obama let me down today by not shooting magic laser beams out of his eyes, thereby solving both the Af/Pak situation and the myopic partisanship in the legislature. Additionally, he seems unable to to craft immediate, workable solutions to massive substantive problems that I, myself, haven’t the faintest clue as to how to solve. And I have yet to see any magical ponies, let alone unity.
Rahm Emmanuel hates me because I am immune to his charms. Sorry, Rahm.
paradox
I am very glad the Christian Fillipina bride ads are gone, it was creepy and beneath the dignity of men.
SGEW
I think that I should point out that B.O.B. appears to be posting links to women he’s electronically stalking.
Ever creepier, Bill. Gross.
Punchy
I wonder how many Senators defriended Lieberman on their facebook page after yesterday’s Benedict Arnold episode. That’ll teach him!
geg6
Obama has let me down today because Shrub and Evil Dick are not in Supermax yet.
And Rahm hates me because Lieberman still lives and walks the earth. I was counting on Rahm to go all Israeli commando on him.
I am sorely disappointed. In both of them.
(Though, apropos the thread last night re: Obama administration crushes, I’d do either or both. Together, even.)
valdivia
Quick question for any one who can answer it. Right now we have the nightmare scenario with Lieberman (voting for cloture at the beginning letting the bill be debated but then not voting for it at the end) which is exactly what the WH was concerned about with Reid’s plan. Is there any way that
a) the bill can be altered after the CBO score, *before* they vote for cloture on the debate in a way that would put us back to where we were before Reid messed it all up?
b) if they know that they wont have the votes to close debate can one of the dem senators be brave enough to prevent *this bill* to getting a debate so that we can have a bill that will get a vote and come out of the Senate and be fixed in conference committee the way they were planning all along (putting the onus on actually filibustering the FINAL bill on these aholes)?
The reason I am asking all of this is that Booman is all gloom and doom today in this post and he has been one of the only people who understood what the strategy was all along and had confidence in it.
Brick Oven Bill
I don’t stalk SGEW, I am simply defending AKA Sarah’s honor after the Daily Kos smears of Tea Bagger imagery.
Trailing people with Coexist imagery is not stalking either, so don’t go there. This action is simply taking advantage of teachable moments. This is important in a democracy.
Aristotle believed that happiness was to be found in the use of the intellect. In other words, ignorance is not bliss; it is oblivion. The inspired prayer does not ask for health, wealth, prosperity, or anything material, but says, “God, illumine my intellect.”
valdivia
On a lighter cheerier note–Orzag, the uber sexy nerd. And Rahm. Those are my crushes. (though Obama is Teh Hotness too)
Comrade Jake
It would be cool if Obama could wave some kind of magic wand and transform Lieberdude into something other than a whiny little bitch.
ellaesther
As a 25-year veteran (or so) of the struggle for a just peace in Israel/Palestine, Obama has legitimately disappointed me, so I don’t think that I can play.
Deborah
There were no muffins with breakfast; I blame the president.
And like geg, I expected Rahm to take care of the Lieberman issue. At least lock Holy Joe in a closet deep in the bowels of the Senate.
Face
@valdivia: Lieberman says he’ll filibuster anything that has a public option, in theory “triggered” or not. To me, this means he’s against any meaningful healthcare reform at all. I’m assuming he’ll pull this act on every piece of important legislature, just to be a dick.
Really hard to govern in these hyperpartisan times. Neigh impossible.
SGEW
@Brick Oven Bill:
Oh! Oh! The irony. It burns!
Napoleon
@valdivia:
If the bill fails to get closure it does not kill the bill but it keeps floating around in limbo where it could be amended, etc. Kos or Klein or TPM had a great rundown the other day what would happen.
The thing is that Harry will have to get something like 20 Dems who want the public option to flip (IMO he will easily get that if he initially had the balls to introduce a strong bill and give the public option advocates a clean chance at an up or down vote, which he is doing). What the WH fears is that he doesn’t get those votes or the Republicans flip to voting for the public option suddenly.
So for God sake chill out about Lieberman. Even without him at this point the best thing Reid could do was bring the strongest bill possible to the floor and force people like Leiberman into a position where they will have to vote no. And if he does vote no it will be a huge banner that everyone can fly in opposition to Joe in 2012, and in the mean time Reid can back the public option out of the bill.
JenJen
It had been a good couple of weeks before I’d tortured myself with “Morning Joe,” so thought, well, why not today?
Couple of things:
– Why is “Call me, Harold!” Ford a political analyst? He couldn’t for the life of him understand why Harry Reid would support a public option given how totally unpopular and hated it is by the American people. Does this assknob have the first clue what he’s talking about? Has he ever?
– Chuck Todd, don’t play dumb. The two major parties have owned the White House for the history of the Republic and that’s not changing anytime soon. Maybe if the current President was as low in the polls as the GOP, we could entertain your fantasy of a viable, third-party candidate for President. But Chuck? Na Gon Happen. And you of all people know this, so cut the crap, would you?
I guess that’s it, surprisingly. Rest of the show was too banal to comment on. Oh, wait… Dan Senor brought cupcakes from the Cheney Family to Mika. Seriously.
Hann1bal
I blame the President for not letting me get into all the classes I wanted. With his enormous psychic lawyer brain, he made older students want to take all the slots in my preferred classes. It’s all his fault. Yep.
And Rahm Emmanuel hates me because I ate Heath bars and Cheez-its for breakfast. Yay for that healthy lifestyle!
Napoleon
@Napoleon:
A PS, actually Reid would only need to get 20 Dems to vote against the public option, they would not need to be flippers and presumably Lieberman would be one of the 20 (and you could guess Nelson, Byah, etc as well).
If every single Republican would flip and start voting for the public option at that point it would mean the entire Dem caucus would have to flip to strip the public option out of the bill (and IMO that is exactly what everyone will do).
So calm down about Lieberman.
General Winfield Stuck
@Napoleon:
Yes, it will be Harry’s bill, and plus being Majority Leader, he can pull any bill off the floor or pull the PO and make it so Snowe can vote yea, then pass whatever and send it to conference. This is not some Reid plot to diabolically kill HCR.
Morbo
Obama has disappointed me today by not kicking Lieberman in the testicles. I will be disappointed every day going forward that he fails to kick Lieberman in the testicles. If Rahm would kick Lieberman in the testicles all would be well in the world.
kwAwk
I love Obama *beep* Obama never lets me down *beep* Those who question Obama *beep* just don’t understand the mystic beauty of the Obama magic plan *beep* this is a recording *beep*
geg6
@General Winfield Stuck:
You are absolutely right about that. Reid may be a weak sister, but he’s not a bad man.
I do wish, however, that he had some plot to diabolically kill Lieberman.
valdivia
the point I am trying to make or I am most worried about it that by dealing a NO vote to the PO so early in the process Reid just robbed it of all momentum. If they had passed a bill in the senate with a trigger and one with a PO in the house, it would have been ten times easier to get it in in the conference committee but now that Reid front loaded it you are having to muscle with ZERO leverage at the worse point in the process and weakening the chances for it. My point is not about having or not having a PO it is about strategy in the legislative process. This is why when everyone was cheering about Reid the other day I was scratching my head because he blew up a very carefully constructed battle plan *without* a plan of his own. So my question are not about Lieberman per se but about how to deal with the spoilers now and get back to the better strategy.
bemused
I pretty much blame our wretched media for actively participating in the dumbing down of americans for profit & political gamemanship.
JenJen
The Penis Reduction Pills ad would be funnier if the doctor in the ad was Bill Frist.
Just a suggestion.
valdivia
General Stuck–so Reid can pull back this bill after the CBO score?
jnfr
@andy: What andy said. Plus I’m supposed to have a cord of firewood delivered today, which means I have to be prompt about clearing all the snow out of the driveway. Cranky day ahead.
Chad N Freude
How’s this for a public option? Surgeon General’s Warning: May cause head to explode.
Napoleon
@valdivia:
You have it exactly backwards, IMO. Harry’s stratagy is the right strategy.
Napoleon
@valdivia:
He hasn’t submitted it yet so there is nothing to pull back at this point. My understanding is he has said he would be submitting it after the CBO score and once they tell the caucus what is actually in the bill.
Chad N Freude
@Chad N Freude: Oh, wait, I forgot. The Republicans don’t want us to have a Surgeon General.
geg6
I was surfing around the Intertrons and saw this on GOS. It seemed the sort of thing that BJers might enjoy. Discuss if you like.
Strandedvandal
Where is my Pony? I was promised a pony! Dammit. Obama sucks!
robertdsc
After the hurdles of the committees, I’m not going to sweat what’s going on. Just taking it day by day, let the process play out. If the President can do it, so can I.
At least that’s what this former chicken little says. Today. /Palinized wink
On a personal note, my mother had surgery last night to clear/clean the MRSA-infected portions of her body out. I was told by my dad that the surgery was a success. I swapped my days off to go be with her today.
valdivia
@Napoleon:
well you and I have disagreed about this already I think in other threads where you thought Obama’s strategy was wrong.
I have no confidence in Reid (the fact that yesterday all the attention divas came out the way they did is to me proof that he his promises of great vote counting were pure bs) and I was much more confident with the other strategy. I am not one who thinks we have infinite times to try this thing over and over on the floor and back again and this is where I think we will end because of his strategy.
My question though remains–if the bill looks like it will fail it can be pulled. is this correct or incorrect?
valdivia
@Napoleon:
ok thanks Napoleon. that is exactly what I wanted to know. I can wait to freak out, really, after that. ;-)
Why oh why
Obama and Emanuel hate us:
1. Barack Obama Inc.:
The birth of a Washington machine
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/11/0081275
2. Sick and Wrong
How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29988909/sick_and_wrong
rachel
@geg6:
Something lingering and amusing involving Superglue and a dyspeptic skunk, perhaps?
Brien Jackson
@ellaesther:
That’s actually kind of the point though. I mean, everyone has legitimate disagreements/disappointments, which is why we mock the people who blame him for every vote every member of Congress casts on every bill and procedural motion.
General Winfield Stuck
@valdivia:
Reid is leader of the Senate. He controls ultimately what gets to the floor, and I don’t think a CBO score has any bearing on that. It’s just an educated guess of the cost of any particular bill.
geg6
@rachel:
That would be awesome. And I’d like it nationally televised. In prime time.
valdivia
@General Winfield Stuck:
yeah I get that Stuck. My concern–again–is that he does not have the votes. So all I meant was that after he gets the score he could send another bill to get scored and go with the latter one–not because of the CBO score, because the first one does not have the votes. I used that moment in the process only as a marker not because I think the CBO determines anything.
Comrade Darkness
I would consider it an honor to be individually hated by Rahm Emmanuel.
SGEW
More seriously, here’s a list of disappointments that’s been brewing in my head for awhile:
Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law: Indefinite and/or preventative detention, “ordinary” rendition, executive privilege, retroactive immunity; Refusal to disclose, stonewalling suits, and, above all, failing to investigate. This stuff is a deep, deep disappointment. I can only keep hoping for change for so long, you know.
Af/Pak/Iraq: The drones. The prisons. The corruption. The contractors. I know that there are deep institutional roadblocks (viz. the CIA, the DOD, State, etc.) in the way of fixing some of these things (tho’ the drone strikes could be a straight up executive order stroke of the pen reform), but I haven’t seen any god damned movement on any of them.
Corporate America: Why do corrupt financial institutions determine our national financial policy? Why do the profit margins at the big firms seem to be a higher priority than the employment rate or the widening gap between rich and poor? Why does Matt Taibbi strike me as increasingly, frighteningly prophetic?
National Legislation: I guess I’m kind of disappointed that Obama, Biden, and Emanuel couldn’t magically whip the Democratic party into some kind of consensus, but that was an unreasonable expectation anyway. Joementum!
Other than that (!), I have no real problems with our chief executive employee or his staff. His job sucks and the last guy to hold the position set the place on fire and took a shit in the file cabinets; I’m counting my blessings.
Max
Obama has let me down because he didn’t single-handedly check all of the cables on the new part of the Bay Bridge and a cable snapped and the bridge is closed and traffic is going to be a nightmare this morning.
And if Rahm really cared, he would send me a jetsons-style, flying car so I could get to work without hassle.
P.S. I’m starting to groove on Dylan Ratigan and sort of dig his morning show. Send help.
BlizzardOfOz
Not Obama’s fault the Senate made Obama turn the treasury over to Goldman lobbyists. Cut the man some slack!
The Grand Panjandrum
Rahm is my bitch and I drank is fucking milk shake.
valdivia
kind of OT but TPM is now using The Washington Times as a source? WTF? The Times has an ‘expose’ of the WH about people who have been to the WH who donated to the DNC. All very nefarious, I am sure soon we will have hearings about it. The Fox people will call it the next whitewater. and TPM is touting this?
Hawes
Every Wednesday I go to a nice little diner and have a sausage, egg and cheese and read.
That diner is closed today.
DAMN YOU BARACK OBAMA!!!!!!
Irrelevant,YetPoignant
Barack Obama hasn’t brought back Arrested Development!
General Winfield Stuck
@valdivia:
Yes.
valdivia
@General Winfield Stuck:
great thanks.
General Winfield Stuck
It snowed some here last night, and my letter of complaint is in the mail B Husseini. Winter fiend.
Svensker
@robertdsc:
Glad to hear things are going well. Continued best wishes.
Morbo
Seriously though, there are enough Republicans blaming Obama for anything and everything that we don’t need to keep throwing gas on their flame war. For example, somehow it’s Obama’s fault that the local schools closed due to H1N1. Yes, that is the actual logic of my Republican boss. What impressive control the man has, micromanaging all the way down to the school districts in a county with 80,000-some people.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
@valdivia: The Moonie paper occasionally gets it right, and I’d suspect TPM has collaborating sources.
One of the reasons I like TPM is that they’re biased like Fox News, but up front about it, and also willing to go after stories that make “us” look bad. I’d rather have that, even when they get it wrong, than, well, the aforementioned alternative.
Napoleon
@General Winfield Stuck:
I thought he was sending multiple bills (but none containing the trigger) to be scored up front. Of course Reid didn’t say this but my gut feeling was he wanted to have all the scores so he could waive them around in front of the cacaus when they meet to discuss the bill with the opt out gov. option on the theory that the opt out would be the best score and so it would put so called fiscal conservatives like Byah and Lieberman in a bind if they have been whining about breaking the bank. They would then need to either 1) reveal themselves to be liars and say they are in favor of another plan, or 2) go with the opt out.
ellaesther
@Brien Jackson: No, I just mean that I’m too angsty to be in a playful mood!
General Winfield Stuck
@Napoleon:
No doubt Reid will have alternatives in his quiver to make sure something gets passed to go to conference.
Da Bomb
It will here tomorrow, and there are already flash flood warnings in effect and I have to catch a flight.
I blame Obama for the rain and Rahm for the future flight delays this bad weather will caused.
valdivia
@Woodrow “asim” Jarvis Hill:
Oh I am glad to have them go at Obama and the admin all they want if there is real malfeasance. The thing is that the story they published is nothing but the Times piece with zero of their own reporting. I love TPM but I have seen more and more less reporting and more regurgitation. And I have seen many commenters there express the same feeling. I think their new crew of reporters is just getting their sea legs so I am willing to give them a chance but in the meantime it is sort of annoying. When TPM was a smaller outfit it had better quality reporting than they do now.
slag
@Irrelevant,YetPoignant: Or The Tick. Plus, when Obama was busy bombing the moon, it seems he couldn’t even be bothered to write “CHA” in it. What use is he?
Da Bomb
@Da Bomb: “rain”…
I hate having no edit function!
That’s Obama’s fault too!
John Cole
@robertdsc: I hope your mom gets better.
John Cole
@SGEW: I think that is a fair list.
slag
@SGEW: Your order of priorities is perfect.
kay
@Woodrow “asim” Jarvis Hill:
The actual Washington Times piece is fair. They do the “compare and contrast” thing.
“President George W. Bush rewarded his 246 “Pioneers,” who raised at least $100,000, with perks that included overnight stays at the White House and Camp David, parties at the White House and Mr. Bush’s Texas ranch, state dinners with world leaders and overseas travel with U.S. delegations to the Olympics and other events, according to a 2004 review by the Associated Press.”
Señor Senior Sr.
I watched the movie “Zodiac” last night, and I just want to say that Robert Graysmith had more investigative stones than all the Fainting Goats of the Village put together.
__
And that includes Nooners.
Gary Farber
The god-fearin’ church that’s burning bibles. For Halloween, no less.
Screen shots of the deleted website.
trollhattan
Dogs.
I’ve not been able to case a Bitsy vote the last couple of days. The retarded Web site seems designed specifically to prevent one from finding the semi-finalist list and voting, and when I get anywhere close I get a message telling me to come back in 52 minutes.
Wisconsin Tourism Federation?
asiangrrlMN
@robertdsc: More positive vibes and white light sent to you and your mother. Please keep us updated.
I, personally, am bitterly disappointed that I HAVE NO SNOW!
And, I would do both the Obamas, Rahm, and Biden all at once.
Wile E. Quixote
So I picked up James Ellroy’s Blood’s a Rover the other day. It’s the final volume of his Underworld USA Trilogy and it’s pretty good. It’s not as good as American Tabloid, the first novel in the trilogy, but that’s a hard act to follow.
One of the characters in the trilogy is Howard Hughes. Ellroy chronicles Hughes’ descent into insanity caused by tertiary syphilis, multiple head injuries caused by crashing airplanes into the ground and heavy narcotics use. Anyways I was reading one of Hughes rants in Blood’s a Rover and I realized he sounded just like Brick Oven Bill.
Don’t let that put you off the book though, it’s damned good. I think that Ellroy could use an editor who had the balls to make him cut some scenes and change a few things, but if you’ve ever met Ellroy you’d know that that’s a tall order. If you buy it get a copy through a link from Balloon Juice so Cole gets some money so he can buy toys for Lily, food for Tunch and continue to pay the exorbitant, Goldman Sachs style salaries and bonuses of the BJ staff.