“the son of a barkeep is Speaker of the House”.
Best critique of last night’s SotU address that I’ve seen so far comes from Mr. Charles P. Pierce:
… Once again, he was the only obvious president in the room, much good may that do him. He did not rile up the base. He was not combative. He did not dwell on issues that his base wanted to hear. (If you had “Keystone XL,” or “NSA,” or “TPP” in your State of the Union drinking game, you probably wound up as the designated driver.) But he was firm on one thing. He is not going to be a lame duck as long as he can still walk. There were a lot of sentences that began with some variation of, “If Congress won’t act…”
This promise to use the powers of his office is what likely is going to raise all those hackles that were going to be raised in any case unless he got up there and abdicated in favor of Mitt Romney but, really, he couched these assertions in the mildest fashion, making of himself just a guy who was just trying to do the job to which he had been elected. He would like to have done it a different way but, darned it the regular way just didn’t work, and now it’s time to take out the tire iron and give the old machine a good bash. There wasn’t a scintilla of anger in his voice all night. There was just a rueful tone to it, as though he had finally gotten the joke that history had played on him with the election in 2010 of the opera boufee that is our current House of Representatives…
He was extraordinarily strong in spots, particularly on voting rights, where he plainly had a lot to say, and said it all, and on the process of getting the country off what he rather daringly described as the “permanent war footing” it had been on since 2001. Some of the economic ideas, particularly the expansion and strengthening of the Earned Income Tax Credit, were sound and worthy of immediate action, which they won’t get. I’m still a little vague on the MyRA thing, which smacked a little bit of the gimmick, and which, in any case, is just another stop-gap by which the country can forget that, once, everybody had a guaranteed pension, before the unions broke down and the sharpers on Wall Street looted what was left.
But, if this speech burned no barns, it didn’t sound anything like a last chance, either. The president seemed to have a pen in one hand, and that well-worn olive branch still in the other. He is what he always has been, the coolest head in the room. You can never say he isn’t that.
***********
What’s on the agenda for the start of another day?
mai naem
Whenever he gives one of these major speeches, PBO reminds me why I really like the guy. And it reminds me why I am so glad I don’t have to listen to Dubya’s speeches anymore.
WTF was up with the GOP picking Cathy McMorris Rogers? And I don’t mean to sound sexist but why was she dressed in a black garbage bag? Surely some of the LogCabin Republicans could have given her some stylin’ tips.
Also too, http://www.northjersey.com/news/Governors_brother_invested_in_houses_near_new_PATH_station_in_Harrison.html
I remember after 9/11 our local rag’s political cartoonist ran a cartoon with Gary Condit saying “Allah Akbar” Gotta wonder if Chris Christie is hoping for something similar.
tybee
it was a great speech. he definitely is the coolest head in the room.
now i’m waiting on the promised snow. just rain so far…
Baud
I don’t like the name. He should have called it the People’s Hedge Fund. Much more modern.
Amir Khalid
For the record, “Allahu akbar”, God is great, is not a sentiment a devout Christian should dispute.
Yet again I notice liberal media commentators, or at least those not ostensibly right-wing partisans, declaring themselves disappointed with an Obama speech, not so much for what he had to say as for dramatic impact. Speeches help, sometimes a great deal, but they can’t be the most significant part of the President’s job. These people seem to be reviewing his speeches as oratorical performances, the way Ebert reviewed movies. I’m surprised they don’t give them ratings out of four stars.
kdaug
@Amir Khalid: You’re catching on, Amir. The sausage-making goes on behind the scenes. This is the stage play.
Baud
@mai naem:
I saw a tweet yesterday reminding us that W. urged Congress one year to ban the making of human-animal hybrids.
JPL
Good news, three school buses filled with students just returned to school in Atlanta. My trip home was awful but at least I made it home. When I put on the news this morning, it was confusing because I thought it was a replay from last night.
JPL
The local Home Depots in Atlanta stayed open all night so that anyone who could make it to the stores, could come in and stay warm.
amk
@Amir Khalid:
satsq
Baud
@amk:
Yeah, that was really obnoxious.
amk
@Baud:
yeah, throwing someone, anyone, under the bus / punching the hippie / caving to gop.
Their whole series of wet dreams came true last night.
Schlemizel
Ah but they do because its the “wrong God”. Remember these are partisans that merrily killed each other for 300 years (much longer in some places, in fact it is still happening to some degree today) for just not saying “God is great” in the way they approved even thought it was the same God.
Despite my trying to explain to a few of them that Allah is in fact the same God as Abraham’s nobody I know that considered themselves devote that heard my explanation was moved to change because of it.
Randy P
That is what I voted for, that is what I’ve always loved in the guy, and that is what I look for every single time he speaks. He never disappoints.
Sometimes I’ll also use the description “The sanest guy in the room”, and given the level of crazy he has to deal with, it’s amazing he can do so and remain sane.
Schlemizel
@Baud:
If he named anything “people’s” anything imagine the howls from the nutters! It would almost be fun to do it just to hear them scream. OTOH, I believe our President may be a bit tired of being called a socialist and not see the humor in trying to bait the bozos
Randy P
More from Pierce:
Which of course is in shades of orange. I love that guy. I keep forgetting to check in with him more frequently. Thank FSM for all the times BJ people quote him so I remember he’s out there.
BillinGlendaleCA
Just remember don’t ask too many questions or you might be broken in half and thrown off the balcony.
OzarkHillbilly
The unions didn’t “break down”, like a car you see on the side of the road. Ronnie Hood and his band of merry robber barons said, “You unions are too strong. So to even things up, we want your rear wheels.” and took them. And people cheered. Then they came back and said, “You’re still able to steer in directions we don’t like. We’re taking your front wheels too.” And People cheered. Then they came back and said, “You’re still able to make some headway and that is obviously unfair, so we want all the plug wires. No, the engine won’t run anymore, and yes the frame is sitting on the ground, but you can still get out and push.” And people still cheered.
Now they whine.
Any news on how Betty’s doing?
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemizel: I gave up banging my head against that wall a long time ago. They prefer ignorance. Things are much simpler that way.
NonyNony
@Schlemizel:
That’s because Christians who don’t already believe that “Allah” and “God” and “Yahweh” and whatever are all names for the same God believe that “Allah” is at best a delusion created by a charlatan, at worst Satan in disguise.
The fact that there are Christians who believe that they’re the two different names for the same god is actually a step up from a little more than a half century ago. CS Lewis in his Narnia books basically calls people who say that Allah and God are the same being dupes and liars and makes it clear that even though he thinks Muslims will be “saved” in the end, it’s because God is merciful, and will forgive them for being stupid and deluded. And people don’t think of him as a firebreather.
aimai
@Baud: “Ob-Gyns are not able to share their love with women…”
raven
There is no concerted effort to thwart Obama by republicans.
Baud
@raven:
MJ?
Mustang Bobby
I loved the speech not for the content but for the vastly entertaining reaction from the Batsh*t Crazy crowd. Watching Tim Huelskamp of Kansas unload on Rachel Maddow — and her gob-smacked/laughing response — was like something out of Mel Brooks. It reminds me of fake-throwing the ball for the dog and seeing him chase it. Endless fun.
Baud
@aimai:
Oh yeah. What was the context for that flub?
raven
@Baud: and Ari fucking Fleisher
Botsplainer
Good Gods, the Human-Animal Hybrids thing was in the 2006 SOTU address. I blocked that one out.
Ben Cisco
@Amir Khalid:
It’s a cottage industry, particularly when trying to be seen as unenthusiastic about this particular Democratic President. Even in the face of an opposition that is deluded, deranged, and within a gnat’s hair of outright sedition, the FerengiMedia still cannot speak truth.
On a properly functioning planet, history would be quite unkind to the tatters of our Fourth Estate.
2liberal
re: extended quote from Charles pierce. Really this is unfair usage. You should have used a shorter blockquote and provided a link to send him some traffic.
Baud
@Botsplainer:
Can you imagine if Obama had proposed that? Following Cleek’s Law, the GOP would be all over the TV talking about Obama’s War on Manimals.
El Caganer
@Botsplainer: Yet nothing was said about Human-Machine Hybrids. Hence, Mitt Romney.
agrippa
PBO is one of the most sensible people in Washington. he is far too sensible and far too logical for a village the likes of DC.
He could, probably, run just about any organization or company that he had the educational qualifications to run.
he would do so well that people working for him would have to make him an honorary white man.
debbie
Listening to that Republican response felt like staring into the maw of Sarah Palin. Horrifying.
MomSense
@Baud:
Did Bush really propose a ban on human animal hybrids?
Was there some reason to be concerned about that happening?
That’s crazy.
NonyNony
@Baud:
He was talking about Tort Reform. Yes Tort Reform. And about evil trial lawyers that sue doctors for malpractice.
Link to the speech.
Quote in context:
It was clearly a slam on Kerry via Edwards. Delete that sentence and the whole thing makes perfect sense as a bit of Republican campaign propaganda. With that sentence … it really sounds like he’s upset that trial lawyers are sometimes able to get civil settlements for rape cases against doctors when the courts won’t/can’t do anything. I don’t think that’s what he was going for there, but if the reference to OB/GYNs was in the speech as written it kind of makes me wonder if the speech writer had a specific incident in mind that he was trying to get across. (I suspect that “practice their love” should have been “practice their profession” and Bush mangled it – it still would have been a weird thing to have in a speech though. That entire sentence is just odd.)
agrippa
@Ben Cisco:
Ben Cisco, I think that you are correct.
It is a cottage industry and the quality of Journalists in that self absorbed Village called DC, reflects that.
Baud
@MomSense:
Matt McIrvin
I still haven’t figured out why I’m supposed to think Obama is doing worse now than in 2012. I was genuinely disappointed with the direction he was going back in 2011, basically caving to the crazy emanating from Congress, talking about cutting the deficit while the economy was in the toilet, and not gaining anything from it. But he hasn’t been doing that for the past year; his reaction to Debt Ceiling Hostage Drama II was just fine.
I have the usual objections to the drone war and NSA policies, but that stuff’s been going on for his whole time in office. Long-term unemployment is still terrible, but, see previous sentence. As long as the Republicans in Congress still want to cut everything, nobody’s going to let him do anything that could actually make a dent in that, and he’s clearly on the right side when it comes to helping people who are affected.
I guess the main thing is that the Obamacare website failures were supposed to be his Watergate and Iran hostage crisis all in one. But it’s clear that that was a temporary thing. Yet I’m still supposed to be feeling the malaise.
What does worry me is that for many voters, “Obamacare” as a symbol has become separated from any real law or program, and they’ll happily vote for representatives and Presidents who will repeal it even if means their own insurance goes away, because they don’t make the logical connection.
Patricia Kayden
@BillinGlendaleCA: Mr. Grimm was just standing his ground a little. Let’s see if he apologizes for making an obvious threat.
agrippa
The GOP replies to the speech were too funny.
agrippa
@Matt McIrvin:
Matt Mcirvin, you are reading and hearing remarks made by people who have to fill air time and column inches. They have just so many thoughts and ideas in the small minds. They just do not have the wit and the wisdom to fill all that space with useful material.
One should have a certain quality of mercy.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
He’s already issued a statement saying essentially “everybody does what I did.”
Poopyman
Is there a better example of Fifty Shades of Gray than chickadees, juncos, and titmice in a snowy tree? I think not. And then come the cardinals for points of color.
Was banning human-animal hybrids the same year we declared a manned mission to Mars? That one went far.
Baud
@Poopyman:
I’m still waiting for the plane that can fly to Tokyo in three hours that Reagan promised us.
Hillary Rettig
On another note, we have a situation here in Kalamazoo with a guy who won’t bring his two German Shepherd dogs inside despite sub-0 weather.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/01/kalamazoo_dogs_petitioned_for.html
Any advice? As noted in the article, city officials won’t do anything.
raven
@Poopyman: Our chinese tallow tree was full of birds all day yesterday. The were eating the remaining popcorn seeds and raising hell.
raven
@Hillary Rettig: Maybe someone from the Vietnam Dog Handlers Association in Michigan?
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: A good reminder to feed our feathered friends in the unusual cold you guys are getting.
Litlebritdiftrnt
Just looked outside, it would appear that we got a lot more than the six inches of snow that we were promised. Thanks to the ice storm that preceded the snow it is so solid that the dogs feet are not going through it onto the ground but they are walking on top of the packed snow. I have never seen that around here before. Courthouse is closed so luckily I don’t have to go to work and can hunker down at home.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: They ate all my fucking rye seed!
Eric U.
@Baud: they spent real money on the 2 hour to tokyo plane, in fact I did a little work for someone on the project in the early stages. It was a project for 10 years, I’m going to guess it sucked up some dollars better spent on schools or just about anything else.
Hillary Rettig
@raven: I will check it out – thanks!
Poopyman
@raven: I’ve been going through sunflower seed like crazy. It’s a riot out there.
And don’t get me started on the fattened squirrels….
Ash Can
@2liberal: The block quote begins with a link.
cmorenc
@NonyNony:
…some Christians also get seriously wound up about the theological tangle of the trinity: God the father, the son, and the holy ghost. One evening on a road trip, I ate supper by myself in a restaurant in the booth next to two guys who were carrying on an earnest debate about how these three trinity elements of God were actually the same entity and how they were distinctly different…and by the time I finished my meal, my head was spinning from the incomprehensibly entangled thicket of hair-splitting theological distinctions and minutely exact parsing of Biblical passages these guys were totally absorbed with. I must not have paid enough attention in sunday school or church growing up as a nominal Methodist, since I’ve never once really grasped just what the heck this “holy ghost” thing is supposed to be, just that it was part of the mysterious phrase “God the father, the son, and the holy ghost” we congregants mumbled through during some ritual prayer that was part of every service.
Ash Can
@Eric U.: A hallmark of the Reagan administration was taking money away from people unlikely to vote for him and/or who couldn’t fight back, and giving it to his already-wealthy cronies.
MomSense
@Baud:
So it was just a way to lump stem cell research in with something super scary sounding.
This morning when Axelrod reminded the morning ho round table that the Democratic Congress worked with W on legislation ho said that for every comment about Obama he could find an equally vile comment from “the left” about W.
So I guess we can’t have nice things because bloggers said mean things about the Republican president. The Republicans in Congress have no choice but to punish the entire country for the sins of bloggers.
Republicans apparently have the most sensitive feelings in the world. This might explain the need for moar gunz and permanent war.
C.V. Danes
I voted for the guy twice, but it is hard to get excited by anything he says anymore. Just words. If he wants to excite me, then stop talking and start doing.
We saw some fire in how he dealt with Congress over the government shutdown. Hopefully that was the beginning and not the end.
And, yes, I understand he is dealing with a “perfect storm” of the most obstructionist Republican party in history, and the most feckless Democratic party in history. However, there’s a reason they call it the “bully pulpit.” He needs to get up there and be merciless if he wants to get anything done. No more nice guy. To paraphrase FDR, he knew he was on the right track because the rich hated him so much, and he reveled in it.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Two things: That “akbar” is the (masculine singular) elative form of “kabir,” and so, strictly speaking, it translates to “greater” or even “greatest.” Partly as a result, the phrase “Allahu akbar,” while it can be used in a benign fashion, has also been used as a battle cry for well more than a thousand years.
As for devout Christians … they can answer for their own sins historical and current.
Hillary Rettig
@C.V. Danes: Really? ACA just words? Lily Ledbetter just words? Sonia Sotomeyer appointment just words?
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Too bad you didn’t get any snow to hide it!
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Two things: (1) some of that drama criticism is not in good faith: it’s a way of knocking him when nothing else comes to mind, just to maintain one’s own “street cred”; and (2) while a speech is a political act per se, tangible deeds are even more so, thus we wait and see. Congressional coöperation is not coming, so let’s see what executive orders are justified and implemented.
OzarkHillbilly
@cmorenc: I paid just enough attention to learn that it was all bullsh!t.
raven
Everyone on our block is using spatula’s to clean the snow and ice off their windows!
Cervantes
@Hillary Rettig:
No, those are actions. But what C. V. Danes said is this: I voted for the guy twice, but it is hard to get excited by anything he says anymore. Just words.
See the difference?
Poopyman
@raven: Credit cards are far superior, assuming you don’t have the real thing.
Cervantes
@cmorenc:
Reminds me of the time when, as an exercise in anthropology, friends and I infiltrated a Jehovah’s Witness “Bible Study” group.
Charles Dodgson’s imagination had nothing on these people.
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid:
For the record, “Allahu akbar”, God is great, is not a sentiment a devout Christian should dispute.
I agree with the sentiment you express… BUT that’s in a foreign language and not the English of the King James Bible which you ahould realize the language that Jeebus spoke.
Cervantes
@amk: What’s your point? I’m missing it.
debit
@C.V. Danes: I’m choosing to believe this is a parody troll. It would just be too sad otherwise.
OzarkHillbilly
@Poopyman: Starting the car, letting it warm up and turning on the defroster works too. No no no, it is one of the settings on your cars blower dial. Yes it is too there, right along with the AC setting. See that slide/dial? Blue at one end, red on the other? Turn it to red… That’s it, now go to the other dial and turn it to the setting with a box and wavy lines through it. Yes, I know, the box isn’t square, just pretend UPS delivered it. Now turn the fan up high and go back inside for 5 minutes or so.
What? Oh. You live in one of those neighborhoods. Well then just deal with the cold.
OzarkHillbilly
@PurpleGirl: Heh. One Sunday morning I opened the door and found my best B-day present ever: Two Jehovah’s Witnesses to argue with. I’ll give them this much, what they lacked in logic they more than made up for with stamina.
rikyrah
Wendy Davis’ Daughters Strike Back At Ugly Republican Smears With Open Letters
By: Sarah Jones
Tuesday, January, 28th, 2014, 2:39 pm
Republicans have been relentlessly attacking Democratic Texas State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis for a week now over her “background”. The misogynistic attacks have been so ugly and repulsive it’s been hard to even write about them. Even Republican women like Greta van Susteren (Fox News) have said it’s unacceptable.
Ms. Davis already submitted a detailed background that explained that she was indeed living alone as a single parent in a trailer at 19, even if her divorce was not final. But this is not good enough for Republicans. They are calling her a liar, “Abortion Barbie”, and worse, they even accused her of abandoning her children because she worked and went to university. Apparently, good mothers don’t work or go to school or something.
So today, Wendy Davis’ two daughters have written open letters to refute the ugly smears. Dru & Amber Open Letter:
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/28/wendy-davis-daughters-write-open-letters-refute-ugly-republican-smears.html
amk
@Cervantes: Of course, you would.
rikyrah
Fox News Focus Group Baffled By Retirement Plan For Poor People
Catherine Thompson – January 28, 2014, 11:45 PM EST
One of the policy objectives President Barack Obama unveiled Tuesday in his State of the Union address had members of a Fox News focus group scratching their heads.
Obama vowed to instruct the Treasury to offer starter savings account options, called “MyRAs,” for employers who don’t provide 401Ks or IRAs for workers to save for retirement.
But by a show of hands, all but one member of a focus group on “The Kelly File” said they had a negative reaction to that proposal — and they had no idea what a “MyRA” could possibly be.
Here is a sampling of the thoroughly confused reactions to the difficult-to-pronounce retirement plan:
“It was cute.”
“I don’t think he pronounced it right from the beginning, he sounded like he stumbled over it. Then it was, what is it? We didn’t know what it was. Savings — you know, our own personal savings like a 401K — it just didn’t make sense.”
“It seemed like one of those programs that presidents reveal just for the applause but there are no details. We have to wait ’til tomorrow and I’m left scratching my head all night, ‘What is this?'”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/retirement_plan_baffles_fox_news_focus_group
Cervantes
@amk: Not particularly helpful. Care to elaborate (the original point)?
rikyrah
Democrat Uses House GOP Hearing on ObamaCare to Eviscerate Republican ACA Lies
By: Sarah Jones
Tuesday, January, 28th, 2014, 12:28 pm
Representative Sandy Levin (D-MI) is not impressed with House Republicans investigating the impact of the employer mandate and the so-called 30-hour rule of ObamaCare today (they seem to be incapable as a body of even discussing any issue other than ObamaCare), whilst ignoring the 1.6 million unemployed. The last time the Ways and Means Committee met on something other than ObamaCare was on July 18, according to the high ranking Democrat.
Levin was so annoyed that he decided to throw a truth bomb into their pile of myths, leaving them pretty well shattered.
Levin started off his prepared remarks with a BIG SIGH, “Today this Committee is holding a hearing on an issue that has been rehashed many times. Yet it has failed to have a hearing on an issue also in our jurisdiction that already has directly affected the lives of 1.6 million people — their total loss of unemployment insurance.”
We should just put that statement on repeat for the next year.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/28/sandy-levin-house-gop-hearing-obamacare-bust-aca-myths.html
amk
@Cervantes: Nope. Deliberate obtuseness bores me. Go, play with some one else.
rikyrah
Christie used Sandy funds for senior complex in town where mayor endorsed him
By Matt Friedman/The Star-Ledger on January 28, 2014 at 4:43 PM, updated January 28, 2014 at 6:55 PM
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie helped channel $6 million in federal Hurricane Sandy recovery dollars to a project conceived years before the storm struck, in an Essex County town that was not particularly hard hit, records show.
The funding, pushed for personally by the Republican governor, was
announced less than two weeks before the town’s Democratic mayor
formally endorsed him for reelection.
The development is an $18 million senior center and housing complex in Belleville called Franklin Manor. One third of the cost — $6 million — is being paid for by a $1.8 billion pot of federally funded Community Development Block Grants to help the state recover from Sandy.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/questions_raised_about_christies_use_of_sandy_funds_to_build_complex_in_town_where_mayor_endorsed_hi.html
rikyrah
Governor Christie’s brother invested in houses near new PATH station in Harrison
Tuesday, January 28, 2014 Last updated: Wednesday January 29, 2014, 7:18 AM
BY SHAWN BOBURG AND JEAN RIMBACH
STAFF WRITERS The Record
Governor Christie’s brother, Todd Christie, and two business partners
have bought and sold a handful of properties within walking distance of
the PATH station in Harrison, slated for a $256 million renovation funded by the Port Authority and championed by the governor, records show.
Todd Christie and his partners — one the owner of Ferreira Construction, a large firm that has done tens of millions of dollars of
work for state agencies since Christie took office — created a company and began buying small residential lots in early 2011, about a year before the train station renovation was approved by the Port Authority.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/Governors_brother_invested_in_houses_near_new_PATH_station_in_Harrison.html
rikyrah
Republicans Go Silent At SOTU As Obama Announces Plan To Beat Their Obstruction
By: Jason Easley
Tuesday, January, 28th, 2014, 9:37 pm
There was loud applause on one side of the chamber as President Obama called out Republican obstruction, ‘Wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.’
The president said called out GOP obstruction and said no more,
……………
Consider yourself put on notice, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner. If you won’t work with President Obama, he is going to work around you. Some of the left will breathe a sigh and say it’s about time, but it looks like President Obama is embracing his executive power and running with it.
Republicans will howl that Obama is a dictator, and the truth is that there are limits to what any president can do on their own, but this SOTU marks a serious change in approach. President Obama moved in this direction last year, but it sounds like POTUS is going full throttle.
Obama isn’t going to take it anymore, and neither should the American people.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/28/republicans-silent-sotu-obama-announces-plan-beat-obstruction.html
rikyrah
Obama Hits Grand Slam With A SOTU That Reflects America’s Move Left
By: Jason Easley
Tuesday, January, 28th, 2014, 10:20 pm
President Obama delivered his best State Of The Union address yet by shifting left and championing equal pay for women, healthcare reform, and raising the minimum wage.
The president demanded that women get equal pay for equal work,”Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work. She deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship – and you know what, a father does, too. It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode. This year, let’s all come together – Congress, the White House, and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street – to give every woman the opportunity she deserves. Because I firmly believe when women succeed, America succeeds.”
Obama called on Congress to raise the minimum wage, Of course, to reach millions more, “Congress needs to get on board. Today, the federal minimum wage is worth about twenty percent less than it was when Ronald Reagan first stood here. Tom Harkin and George Miller have a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to $10.10. This will help families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend. It doesn’t involve any new bureaucratic program. So join the rest of the country. Say yes. Give America a raise.”
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/28/obamas-hits-grand-slam-sotu-reflects-americas-move-left.html
Patrick
@Cervantes:
He also talked about the “bully pulpit” whatever that is. Really, back to the bully pulpit?
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: was supposed to be a reply to @Cervantes:
Sherparick
Regarding Congressman Huelskamp, etc. it is sad to remember that in his own district, and in context of the Republican Party of Kansas and the Republican Parties from Arizona to Virginia, the majority of his constituents eat this up. His mysogyny toward toward Rachel Maddow and his dog whistling racism about the President will be applauded in the right-wing noise machine as “courage” and “telling like it is.”
I think the most popular part speech will be the President’s statements about 1) leaving Afghanistan, 2) pursuing negotiations with Iraq, and 3) generally avoiding any more wars unless the U.S. is directly affected. As far as getting his popularity over 50%, that depends on the economy. The housing market might be starting to recover, but the pattern since 2010 is that “the green shoots” of fall and winter usually turn pretty brown by Spring, the demand for goods, services, and labor starved by austerity, with the Fed then going all out to prevent recession. The poor December labor report, poor January durable goods, and markets getting nervous it looks like the pattern could be repeating itself. Some mistakes are very hard to recover from, and not going for a big second stimulus in late 2009 with a Government jobs program for those unemployed more than six months because of “THE DEFICIT” and all that deficit dumbassery in the Village was Obama’s biggest economic and political mistake.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Yet most White women in Texas will probably vote against Wendy Davis and for her Republican opponent. It’s interesting how the GOP is openly misogynist in their campaign against Senator Davis with apparently no consequences. Amazing.
But of course, there is no GOP war on women.
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly: Yes, stamina.
And gullibility. As we were leaving after having spent hours attempting to mess with their alleged minds, one of them came up to me with a bright smile and said, “Thanks! That was exhilarating!”
I confess to feeling a little guilty to this day. (And it was decades ago.)
Cervantes
@amk: How do you know it’s deliberate?
rikyrah
Grimm to reporter: ‘I’ll break you in half’
01/29/14 09:07 AM
By Steve Benen
Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has been embroiled in an ongoing campaign-finance scandal, which has badly tarnished his reputation. Last night, however, the Republican congressman made matters much worse.
A Republican representative from Staten Island “physically threatened” a local reporter after Tuesday’s State of the Union address, according to the news station.
The reporter, from New York City’s local NY-1, attempted to ask Rep. Michael Grimm about allegations of campaign finance misconduct.
“Since we have you here, we haven’t had a chance to talk about–” the reporter, Michael Scotto, began. “I’m not talking about anything that’s off topic. This is only about the President’s speech,” Grimm said before walking away.
And if that were the end of it, Grimm would have been fine. But the congressman, apparently a little on edge, decided to then confront the journalist.
“Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I’ll throw you off this f—— balcony,” Grimm said, apparently oblivious to the giant camera directly in front of him. When the reporter said it was a valid question, the congressman’s breakdown intensified. “No, no, you’re not man enough, you’re not man enough,” Grimm said. “I’ll break you in half. Like a boy.”
As footage of the altercation spread, the congressman issued a statement, which somehow managed to exacerbate the problem.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/grimm-reporter-ill-break-you-half
rikyrah
this is frigging HUGE
…………………………..
A Northwestern University graduating quarterback is organizing…
Kain Colter starts union movement
January 28, 2014
TOM FARREY via ESPN
For the first time in the history of college sports, athletes are asking to be represented by a labor union, taking formal steps on Tuesday to begin the process of being recognized as employees.
Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, filed a petition in Chicago on behalf of football players at Northwestern University, submitting the form at the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board.
Backed by the United Steelworkers union, Huma also filed union cards signed by an undisclosed number of Northwestern players with the NLRB — the federal statutory body that recognizes groups that seek collective bargaining rightsESPN’s “Outside The Lines” first broke the story.
“This is about finally giving college athletes a seat at the table,” said Huma, a former UCLA linebacker who created the NCPA as an advocacy group in 2001. “Athletes deserve an equal voice when it comes to their physical, academic and financial protections.”
Huma told “Outside The Lines” that the move to unionize players at Northwestern started with quarterback Kain Colter , who reached out to him last spring and asked for help in giving athletes representation in their effort to improve the conditions under which they play NCAA sports. Colter became a leading voice in regular NCPA-organized conference calls among players from around the country.
“The action we’re taking isn’t because of any mistreatment by Northwestern,” Colter said. “We love Northwestern. The school is just playing by the rules of their governing body, the NCAA. We’re interested in trying to help all players — at USC, Stanford, Oklahoma State, everywhere. It’s about protecting them and future generations to come.
“Right now the NCAA is like a dictatorship. No one represents us in negotiations. The only way things are going to change is if players have a union.”
The NCAA responded with a statement from Chief Legal Officer Donald Remy, who said “student-athletes are not employees within any definition of the National Labor Relations Act” and that there is no existing employment relationships between the “NCAA, its affiliated institutions or student-athletes.”
“This union-backed attempt to turn student-athletes into employees undermines the purpose of college: an education,” Remy said in the statement. “Student-athletes are not employees, and their participation in college sports is voluntary. We stand for all student-athletes, not just those the unions want to professionalize.”
In a statement, Northwestern said it supports dialogue around the issues that are important to the CAPA, and the right of Colter and his teammates to have a voice in that dialogue. However, it also said it does not support the players organizing through a labor union.
“Northwestern believes that our student-athletes are not employees and collective bargaining is therefore not the appropriate method to address these concerns,” said Jim Phillips, Northwestern vice president of athletics and recreation. “However, we agree that the health and academic issues being raised by our student-athletes and others are important ones that deserve further consideration.
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/kain-colter-starts-union-movement/story?id=22264339
Amir Khalid
@Cervantes:
I agree that “God is supremely great”, or something like that, would be a better translation of “Allahu akbar”. But I don’t think the difference is important to my argument.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid: Well, you indicated that “‘Allahu akbar’ is not a sentiment a devout Christian should dispute.” While that’s true in a sense, I just wanted to interject that the phrase has also been used as a battle cry —anti-pagan, anti-other-Muslim, anti-Christian, and anti-West — for a long time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@C.V. Danes: However, there’s a reason they call it the “bully pulpit.” He needs to get up there and be merciless if he wants to get anything done. No more nice guy.
Dear god. Read a Golden Book bio of TR before you talk about the “reason they call it the ‘bully pulpit'”
schrodinger's cat
I saw the speech, I liked it. No mention of austerity and plenty of income inequality. I did not see any of the Pundit blather after. Both Katty Kay of BBC News and Gwen Ifill of the Newshour seemed to be writing Obama off, even before the speech. They are so invested in the second term is awful for two term Presidents’, narrative. Also too, Boehner looked really drunk. I was afraid he was going to keel over.
Bobby Thomson
@C.V. Danes: Pull the other one. “Just words! If he wants to impress me he needs to . . . make speeches!”
You’re a parody troll, right?
SRW1
@Amir Khalid:
By Zeus! Are you saying political commentating is not for entertainment purposes?
jayjaybear
@OzarkHillbilly: That last sentence could be taken a number of ways…
And what’s the context for the gif in the lead up there? I can’t imagine Boehner actually half-smiling and giving Obama a thumbs-up for anything but an announcement of his resignation.
schrodinger's cat
Speaking of drunks, did any one see Sherlock this Sunday? Drunk Sherlock and John were hilarious! My review of episode 1 of season3
OzarkHillbilly
@Cervantes: Oh yeah, they enjoyed it immensely. I don’t think gullibility had anything to do with it tho, I think they were immensely grateful for having the opportunity to reaffirm their faith with one that was not of it. (God loves a challenge I guess)
OzarkHillbilly
@jayjaybear: Hmmmm…. I think I’ll shut up while I’m behind. ;-)
gelfling545
Well, “son of a barkeep” is now a top entry on my list of perjoratives.
C.V. Danes
To all that have accused me of being a “parody troll”,:
I’m sorry and you are right. Obama is the greatest president in history, he has accomplished so much that anyone who thinks otherwise must be a complete idiot, and I will keep the hero worship alive over the next two years no matter what.
Whatever.
debit
@C.V. Danes:
I’m imaging you saying that as you squirt away back to FDL in a squid cloud of butthurt.
Mnemosyne
@C.V. Danes:
You mean like by single-handedly raising the minimum wage for federal contractors? Or by creating a new federal retirement savings plan for people who don’t have access to 401(k)s?
This is why people are mocking you: you complain about the speech being “just words” and ignore the actions that were announced in it. Are you claiming that the actions aren’t going to happen, or were you not paying attention?
Patrick
@C.V. Danes:
Only a blind person would think Obama has been a failure. The US economy was about to fall off a fricking cliff when Obama took over. Since then Bin Laden is dead, GM is alive, ACA passed, etc etc. Compare that to Clinton or Carter…
chopper
@C.V. Danes:
no, you’re right – what he needs is to use the bully pulpit, even though words don’t matter.
you’re a case study in cognitive dissonance.
JR in WV
The unions didn’t break down… They were broken by King Ronnie and his henchmen, and it has gotten worse ever since!
The whole purpose of the NLRB was to protect the rights of the workers to organize, not to protect the bosses from the power of workers’ solidarity!
That has gone by the wayside, and the end of the ability of unions to force the bosses to share the fruits of increased productivity is one of the primary reasons for the increase in income disparity in our country.
“Nice little democracy you got here, be a shame if something was to happen to it!”
And sure enough, it has, at the hands of the Republican party, operating under the orders of the managerial class. We’ll be lucky if talking about union organizing remains legal if the Republicans take the Senate and the White House.
And Mr. Pierce doesn’t appear to remember when the downfall of organized labor started! A shame.
Patrick
@JR in WV:
A fair amount of the union members themselves want unions to fail. As I recall, at least a third of them voted Republican.
NobodySpecial
@Mnemosyne: Weren’t we told for years and years and years the Executive Order wasn’t worth much and couldn’t do anything anyways about a whole host of issues, from civil rights to military deportment?
After five years of downplaying it’s abilities, NOW you trumpet it?
I’ll stipulate to everything that’s passed Congress since Obama was elected, but that’s not what I’m arguing about here. What I personally am saying is that you and others on this blog have spent most of the last five years painting the EO as all but worthless and now we’re supposed to be excited that he’s going to use it?
Omnes Omnibus
@NobodySpecial: Doing things by EO has two major drawbacks. First, it can be instantly reversed or negated by the next president. Second, it tends to stop legislative action on the issue. As a result, getting things done through legislation (you know, the way the system was designed) is preferable.
Patrick
@NobodySpecial:
Obama’s point was that if he had used the EO for gay rights (DADT) for example, it could have created a backlash. Instead, if it was approved by Congress, there would be less likelihood of a backlash.
However, there is a huge majority in support of hiking the minimum wage. Thus, an EO makes sense in this case since Congress is so dysfunctional..
Mnemosyne
@NobodySpecial:
No, you were told for years and years that using an EO for civil rights wasn’t worth much, because the next president could step in and take those civil rights away again with just his signature. Did you really want the rights of gay servicemembers to be dependent on the whim of each president, or did you want their rights to be permanently enshrined in the law?
Using the EO for small, practical steps — like increasing the minimum wage for federal contractors — is a temporary stopgap until we get a Congress that’s willing to raise the minimum wage overall. But civil rights should not be dependent on how a specific president feels about them.
NobodySpecial
@Mnemosyne: No one ever did it or threatened it with Truman’s EO’s, and he was in a much worse electoral position than Obama ever was, a fact conveniently glossed over or handwaved away.
There’s nothing stopping the next GOP President from stripping away anything he does….therefore by your logic, there’s no reason for him to do anything with an EO.
Omnes Omnibus
@NobodySpecial: Legislation > EO > Nothing. When there is a chance of doing something via legislation, legislation is generally the better option. When the choices are EO or nothing, EOs are preferable. We are currently in an EO or nothing situation. It isn’t complicated.
Keith G
@Patrick: In all fairness, if you are interested in fairness, Danes did not say that President Obama’s administration was a failure. While I can see some fault a thing or two Danes typed, I do note that some who are attacking him are misrepresenting his meaning.
Cervantes
@Keith G:
Or her / her.
But yes, I agree.
Mnemosyne
@NobodySpecial:
Well, except when the subject of one of his EO’s took him to the Supreme Court, which slapped his EO’s down:
But, hey, if you ignore history and the law, a president can do anything he wants!
Patrick
@Keith G:
Of course I am interested in fairness. I wish the same people that demand fairness, would be gracious enough be equally fair to the President.
Donald
@NonyNony:
What an uncharitable way to read “The Last Battle”. Tash isn’t Allah–he’s more like Baal. There’s no reason to think Lewis meant a one-to-one correspondence between the religion of the Calormenes and Islam in all its different forms. He wasn’t a blog comment writer.
Cervantes
@NobodySpecial:
No one ever did what or threatened what, and with which EOs?
NobodySpecial
@Mnemosyne: From your own link:
Obama had more free rein than Truman, especially during his first two years in office.
@Cervantes: STFU. No one cares to listen to you proclaim your ignorance.
@Omnes Omnibus: He refused to issue EO’s even when legislation wasn’t forthcoming, even in areas where (as C in C) he provides direction to the armed forces. So, again, tell us why we should be excited now that he’s finally deciding to use something he claims he can only rarely use and for very small aims, especially when the next person in line can just overturn them? This is the crux of the Juicer argument the last 3 years.
Anniecat45
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes, all too true, and a lot of the people who helped wreck unions were union members who didn’t like paying dues.
Omnes Omnibus
@NobodySpecial: Executive orders to do what? What ones that you want did he refuse to issue? He’s been issuing executive orders throughout his presidency.
Look, the SOTU was a big, public calling out of the GOP in Congress and their failure to do anything positive. Obama was say that, despite their efforts, he was still going to act where he had the power to do so. I think it is a good political message and it is a good idea. YMMV.
Cervantes
@Patrick:
Sorry, was away, did not see your response earlier.
“Bully pulpit” was TR’s way of saying that the Presidency is a good perch, because people tend to listen to a President (more so than to others). As someone else pointed out, C. V. Danes thinks the phrase means something else.
Cervantes
@NobodySpecial: That’s OK. And you’re right, I’m still ignorant about what you meant. So be it.