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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Morning Thread

Morning Thread

by Tim F|  April 12, 20117:48 am| 50 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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The meetup was great and thanks to the folks who came. When I got back to my relatives’ place I managed to (1) set off my rental car’s panic button, (2) phone my relative because I thought that the front door was bolted rather than sticky, (3) reach a wrong number at 1 am, (4) figure out the door just as he came downstairs in his boxers, (5) stub my foot loudly on everything in the hall because I thought it was polite to leave the light off, and (6) fail to notice that they use open windows for air conditioning, so the wind slammed the bedroom door behind me while I was hopping around in the dark on one foot. Also, too, the allergies are having one hell of a season opener.

Bleh. Off to conferencing.

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Reader Interactions

50Comments

  1. 1.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 12, 2011 at 7:50 am

    I noticed this morning the pollen was coating everything outside. Makes me sleepy as hell.

  2. 2.

    Joseph Nobles

    April 12, 2011 at 7:53 am

    Obama’s going to back using Simpson-Bowles as the start for deficit-reduction legislation.

  3. 3.

    Maude

    April 12, 2011 at 8:12 am

    Tim F.
    Having any contact with John Cole is unhealthy. He is contagious. This is what usually happens to him.
    Thanks for the laugh.
    You were on a roll.

  4. 4.

    TheMightyTrowel

    April 12, 2011 at 8:12 am

    Tree pollen is my downfall. I always spend this chunk of the year hiding in cool dark places. Also, I eat a lot of local honey (a teaspoon a day with breakfast and dinner!) because it’s supposed to help.

  5. 5.

    Dave C

    April 12, 2011 at 8:27 am

    According to Ezra Klein, Obama is backing Simpson-Bowles. Ugh.

    ETA: Sorry, didn’t notice that Joseph Nobles had already mentioned this.

  6. 6.

    dr. bloor

    April 12, 2011 at 8:31 am

    Relax, Tim, you’re still a distant second to this guy.

  7. 7.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 12, 2011 at 8:40 am

    Why wouldn’t Obama back the commission he created? Are you folks really believing yer own 11 dimensional chess bullshit?

    Now the center is somewhere between Simpson-Bowles and Ryan’s plan, prolly closer to the Ryan side if history can be any guide.

  8. 8.

    Keith G

    April 12, 2011 at 8:41 am

    @Dave C: Why should that suprise anyone?

    “The fierce urgency of now” has turned into the fierce urgency of the path of least resistance.

    Am I being too harsh? Just ask the real citizens of Washington DC.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13352117

  9. 9.

    Violet

    April 12, 2011 at 8:42 am

    I once had to use a crowbar to get into a house where I was supposed to be staying, and to which I had a key. Talk about sticky doors.

  10. 10.

    Rhoda

    April 12, 2011 at 8:45 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: That’s bull IMO. Obama came out and said he supports some things in Simpson-Bowles but not all; meanwhile how does this square with the LA Times getting this preview of the speech.

    Obama to draw sharp contrast with GOP over deficit
    In a speech Wednesday, the president is expected to call for higher taxes on wealthier Americans, as opposed to Republican plans to slash Medicare and Medicaid.

  11. 11.

    Carnacki

    April 12, 2011 at 8:46 am

    @Maude: John Cole would have a broken foot, a broken arm, fractured skull and a lacerated hand after an experience like that.

  12. 12.

    BoredNow

    April 12, 2011 at 8:47 am

    Well your very minor ‘guest from hell’ routine gave me a chuckle this morning!

  13. 13.

    stuckinred

    April 12, 2011 at 8:51 am

    @Rhoda: Come on, don’t ruin the panic in the streets party!

  14. 14.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 12, 2011 at 8:51 am

    @Rhoda: We’ll see. Here’s the bipartisan Senate Gang of Six discussing what those tax increases will look like:

    What we are looking at proposing is actually a reduction in corporate rates and personal individual income tax rates, which will put more money in people’s pockets and we’re going to do that with the reduction in tax expenditures. Every time we’ve done that in years past whether it was under President Reagan or President Bush we have seen revenues increase.

  15. 15.

    kdaug

    April 12, 2011 at 8:51 am

    How many in attendance?

  16. 16.

    liberal

    April 12, 2011 at 8:53 am

    @Rhoda:
    But the central point remains: non-Obots were upset over the creation of the Catfood Commission. Obots said it was just a political tactic, that it wouldn’t cause any actual harm in terms of implemented policy.

    Too early to tell, of course, but right now I think the Obot position is getting less and less plausible.

  17. 17.

    Keith G

    April 12, 2011 at 8:54 am

    @Rhoda: Simple:

    It’s not what Obama says, it is what he finally is willing to don the hat of “President as Leader of a Political Party” and fight for.

  18. 18.

    Rhoda

    April 12, 2011 at 8:56 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Just to be clear:

    Here’s the fight that is happening:

    The 2012 campaign is barely underway, but the tax hikes vs. spending cuts debate is emerging as a major theme. Briefing reporters Monday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said there were class issues underlying the Ryan budget plan. “We strongly disagree with the lack of balance in Congressman Ryan’s approach,” Carney said. “It simply is not appropriate and it would not be supported by the American people to have a fiscal plan that relies on dramatic restructuring, reform of the kind of programs that provide security and health security to seniors and to poor people and to disabled people, and at the same time gives enormous tax relief, tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.” Republicans hope to gain traction against Obama by painting him as a classic liberal intent on raising taxes. “We all agree that we need to address our fiscal crisis, but taxing families and business people is not the answer,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). “We need to cut spending, address our insolvent entitlements programs, and tighten our belt by doing more with less.”

    It would be nice if Democrats could have his back rather than freak out over shit he’s not contemplating. I recognize a lot of folks distrust Team Obama; but the motherfuckers want to get re-elected and they know what they have to do to make it happen. And it ain’t making a “Grand Bargain.”

  19. 19.

    stuckinred

    April 12, 2011 at 9:00 am

    @Rhoda: Welcome to balloondoglake.

  20. 20.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 12, 2011 at 9:00 am

    @Rhoda:

    It’s be nice if Democrats could have his back rather than freak out over shit he’s not contemplating. I recognize a lot of folks distrust Team Obama; but the motherfuckers want to get re-elected and they know what they have to do to make it happen. And it ain’t making a “Grand Bargain.”

    We’re talking about the same guy that just extended enormous tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, right?

  21. 21.

    Rhoda

    April 12, 2011 at 9:02 am

    @liberal: How is it getting less plausible? Where has the cat food commission shit gone? Really, I’m pretty sure tomorrow Obama will give a speech that will be inoffensive and will make a national headline of the fact that Republicans want to cut Medicare and Medicaid while giving tax breaks to the rich.

    This comes after they refused middle class tax cuts unless the rich got theirs and after they nearly shut down the government.

    It also feeds the narrative in battle ground states with Republican rule that are over reaching.

    Simpson-Bowles will still be worthless and everyone will chill until Obama announces he’s making another speech about the deficit and everyone freaks out again.

  22. 22.

    Keith G

    April 12, 2011 at 9:02 am

    @Rhoda:

    It would be nice if Democrats could have his back

    There are Democrats who wonder if Obama really has their back, as in the citizens of DC.

  23. 23.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 12, 2011 at 9:02 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: This is absolutely true. I also hear that Obama will balance the budget by rendering down the elderly for soap. It’s a twofer; there are savings on SS and Medicare and revenue from soap sales.

  24. 24.

    fasteddie9318

    April 12, 2011 at 9:03 am

    But, heck, in his second term, after he’s torn up the New Deal and Great Society and then bonfired whatever is left, Obama just might maybe possibly be more liberal!

    If this is true, Ryan can pat himself on the back for setting the terms of the debate at somewhere between “catfood” and “soylent green.” Good on him.

  25. 25.

    Rhoda

    April 12, 2011 at 9:04 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Yeah. That guy that did that because his fucking party he apparently is the titular head of refused to take a fucking vote on his budget or on the tax issue before the mid-terms because, I quote, we’re winning the debate why rock the boat?

    Those motherfuckers right there who, after he goes and does his bully pulpit routine and polls show a slight uptick for DEMS and Republicans were on offense REFUSE to put it to a vote.

    So he dealt with the fact that it would go no where in the senate without this tax deal, and the unemployment deal, and a host of other stuff.

    Elections have consequences, vote in 2012 if you don’t like these.

  26. 26.

    Rhoda

    April 12, 2011 at 9:06 am

    @Keith G: Listen, it’s DC alone verse the entire country. The Republicans control the purse strings and Boehner needed a fig leaf. It sucks but for the next two years; we’re playing defense in Congress.

  27. 27.

    Dave C

    April 12, 2011 at 9:09 am

    @Keith G:

    I didn’t say it was surprising. I simply find it to be disappointing.

  28. 28.

    Rhoda

    April 12, 2011 at 9:16 am

    @Keith G: I don’t even bother with the “what will he fight for” comments. People dismiss the stimulus which was a fucking fight, they dismiss the health reform which was a fucking fight, they dismiss financial reform which was a fucking fight.

    The path of least resistance hasn’t been the path this administration has taken whether it’s dealing with TARP and restructuring it, bailing out the autoworkers, or trying to close GITMO and failing.

    I have problems with Obama; but he’s doing the best he can IMO with corporate democrats and insane Republicans and the inevitable backlash to being the first black president (the midterms actually helped with that for 2012 IMO, getting put in his place comforted and took a lot of the poison out of the tea party types IMO).

    So, yeah. I think he’s got principles and were he’s failed them IMO is Afghanistan and everything dealing with terror. But then, I look at how GITMO played out and think something is irrevocably fucked in this country and given all the issues we have I’m not going to single him out for that.

    ETA: And he straight up said he was going to double down in Afghanistan. It’s a mistake IMO; but he did run on that.

  29. 29.

    liberal

    April 12, 2011 at 9:17 am

    @Rhoda:

    Where has the cat food commission shit gone?

    It’s gone into the rhetoric. In case you haven’t noticed, politics is all about what goes on in people’s heads.

  30. 30.

    liberal

    April 12, 2011 at 9:20 am

    @Rhoda:

    People dismiss the stimulus which was a fucking fight…

    No, people dismiss the stimulus in the sense that an easy back of the envelope calculation showed that Obama’s opening offer was too small by at least a factor of two.

    …whether it’s dealing with TARP and restructuring it…

    LOL. What, really, has the Administration even attempted to do to deal with the issue of moral hazard in the FIRE sector?

    …but he’s doing the best he can IMO with corporate democrats …

    LOL. Obama is a corporate Democrat. If you want to argue (quite plausibly) that he’s the leftmost this country is going to tolerate in a president, that’s fine. But to pretend he’s not a corporatist/centrist Dem is laughable.

  31. 31.

    RSA

    April 12, 2011 at 9:23 am

    set off my rental car’s panic button

    I was once stuck for a week with a rental car that had a panic button mounted on the key, exactly where you’d press against it when you turn the key to, say, open the trunk. Fuckin’ key design–how does it work?

  32. 32.

    Jay C

    April 12, 2011 at 9:30 am

    @Maude:

    Exception: John Cole would have added “Stepped on the cat”/”Got clawed by the cat after I stepped on him”; and the word “swelling” would have appeared somewhere in the post eventually…

  33. 33.

    Keith G

    April 12, 2011 at 9:30 am

    @Rhoda:

    we’re playing defense in Congress.

    And they are playing defense at the other end of Pennsylvania Ave as well.

    Look, I hope your and stuckinred’s vision of Obama’s future do come true. I guess that on Wednesday, I will get some indication.

    I want Obama to come and say, “I am no longer going to negociate with people who threaten to close the government or threatened to blow up our ability to extend our debt limit. That is not the way our government was designed to work”

    Secondly I want to know where are his red lines in the reductions of medicare and medicade, since I figure that he has decided that some cuts are necessary.

    As I said a few days ago, Obama wins battles by giving up ground. It is our ground he is giving up and we are running out of it.

  34. 34.

    General Stuck

    April 12, 2011 at 9:30 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    You stupid ass. Obama is going to lay out his official budget tomorrow, a gang of lowly senators means nothing. Now watch him drink your motherfucking milkshake fuckhead, just like he did with the recent budget deal. You firebaggers got nothing, except empty heads and butthurt and a coalition with the right wing tea baggers.

  35. 35.

    General Stuck

    April 12, 2011 at 9:37 am

    @General Stuck:

    manic progessives just put us through a week of goddamn vapors for nothing, didn’t even know what they were poutraged about, now it’s on to the next Obama gonna sell us out fainting parade, again, except once again, NOT. I plan to ignore them, and laugh. Fucking republican light vichy dems.

  36. 36.

    mr. whipple

    April 12, 2011 at 9:41 am

    @stuckinred:

    Welcome to balloondoglake.

    Getting worser and worser here.

  37. 37.

    Poopyman

    April 12, 2011 at 9:42 am

    Couple of things heard on the morning drive here in DC:

    — The mayor and council members who got arrested yesterday to protest being thrown to the Republicans by their president apparently plan more protests, starting Friday, which happens to be Emancipation Day. Something big, they say. I gotta tell ya, folks in town are pissed, and it’s not political posturing. Just for the record, I don’t think they’ve got the weight to make a difference, but we’ll see where this goes.

    — There was a “paid announcement” from the Susan B Anthony Foundation(?) featuring a woman who claimed to have worked at Planned Parenthood who claimed that:
    ..– 98% of PP’s procedures were abortions
    ..– The staff is on a quota system. Gotta perform a certain number of abortions
    ..– PP does NOT perform mamograms. No way.

    Of course the spot closed with “Tell Congress to stop funding Planned Parenthood”, etc.

    Nice.

    ETA — That radio spot was on WTOP, the all–news station. Has one of the highest morning drive ratings, if not the highest.

  38. 38.

    Keith G

    April 12, 2011 at 9:44 am

    @General Stuck:

    Obama is going to lay out his official budget tomorrow, a gang of lowly senators means nothing. Now watch him drink your motherfucking milkshake fuckhead, just like he did with the recent budget deal.

    Will that be before or after Obama and the Easter Bunny carpet bomb your place with golden eggs?

    But the good news is that is a mere 36 hours we will know his starting point. Unfortunately, will will take another year to find out what his comcessions are going to be.

  39. 39.

    General Stuck

    April 12, 2011 at 9:50 am

    @Keith G:

    will will take another year to find out what his comcessions are going to be.

    Shove the left wing orwellian bullshit. “concessions” are otherwise known as compromises in a democracy, or haven’t you heard. Don’t like it, eat a peach.

  40. 40.

    PurpleGirl

    April 12, 2011 at 9:57 am

    @Rhoda:

    DC alone verse the entire country.

    Ah, no. Verse is poetry.

    You meant VERSUS, abbreviated as vs, meaning against, in opposition to;

    (Sometimes I’m a language cop.)

  41. 41.

    vtr

    April 12, 2011 at 9:58 am

    Just looking again at Romney’sannounement of his exploratory committee. He’s Wearing aplaod sportshirt and a sweatshirt greenscreened against a high school football field and track. Who’s he positioning himself for? Young people?

  42. 42.

    vtr

    April 12, 2011 at 9:58 am

    Just looking again at Romney’sannounement of his exploratory committee. He’s Wearing aplaod sportshirt and a sweatshirt greenscreened against a high school football field and track. Who’s he positioning himself for? Young people?

  43. 43.

    Rhoda

    April 12, 2011 at 10:10 am

    @PurpleGirl: Thank you. I can’t spell and the spell check didn’t go off since it’s a word. I’m probably going to annoy you because of that; apologies in advance.

  44. 44.

    General Stuck

    April 12, 2011 at 10:10 am

    Oh, and almost forgot. Reds won again last night and are now 7 and 3. And of course. Have A Nice Day :-)

  45. 45.

    Keith G

    April 12, 2011 at 10:15 am

    @General Stuck:

    “concessions” are otherwise known as compromises in a democracy

    Not always. True compromises are built by the simultaneous concession of important, core issues. I am not sure that descibes what has been going on lately.

    Don’t like it, eat a peach

    .
    Mmmmmm peaches. Not quite peach season in Texas yet.

  46. 46.

    General Stuck

    April 12, 2011 at 10:20 am

    @Keith G:

    That’s why I said, eat a peach. They are tops :-)

  47. 47.

    eemom

    April 12, 2011 at 10:24 am

    On the topic of compromise, I’m afraid that Eugene Robinson really nails it today when he says that republicans have moved on from politics as “the art of the possible:

    [republicans’] inspired tactic — which has worked so well that they would be crazy to abandon it — has been to take a wildly extreme position and stick to it with the obstinacy of a mule. When Democrats offer to negotiate, Republicans increase their demands. The result is that they shift the battlefield and end up fighting on terrain so friendly that they literally can’t lose.* * *
    Democrats, including President Obama, continue to play by the old art-of-the-possible rules. Bless their hearts. They caucus, they cogitate, they ruminate, they make reasonable concessions and ultimately come up with a result that everyone, surely, should be able to live with. Then they get hit with the next sucker punch.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-budget-wars-the-gop-demands-the-impossible/2011/04/11/AF31kPMD_story.html

    As we say, This.

    Wake the fuck up, Mr. President.

  48. 48.

    eemom

    April 12, 2011 at 10:27 am

    also too, it is indeed shameful how poor women in the nation’s capital were thrown to the wolves as part of last week’s “art of the possible.”

  49. 49.

    Keith G

    April 12, 2011 at 10:43 am

    @eemom:
    And that is parallel to what I have been feeling. Team Obama has been (on occasion)slow to 1) recognise the tactics used by the GOP, 2) change their game to match the new conditions.

    By all means do not take my word. Just locate an interview on the Diane Rehm show with former White House communications director Anita Dunn. She admits to such problems during the health care debate as the White House let the GOP frame the debate at nearly each juncture (“They were lying,so we didn’t think anybody would believe them”).

    Seems more like a White House lead by Peter Pan.

  50. 50.

    Elizabelle

    April 12, 2011 at 10:58 am

    Tim and others: let’s do a Los Angeles area meetup one of these days.

    I would have toddled down to Meskerem to see you. If not for being on the other coast.

    Chow.

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