Eyes of All

Yup.

The Bad Deal | Common Dreams:

"The President is not a progressive – he is not what Americans still call a “liberal.” He is a willful player in an epic drama of faux-politics, an operative for the money power, whose job is to neutralize the left with fear and distraction and then to pivot rightward and deliver a conservative result.

What Barack Obama got from the debt deal was exactly what his sponsors have wanted: a long-term lock-in of domestic spending cuts, and a path toward severe cuts in the core New Deal and Great Society insurance programs – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And, of course, no tax increases at all."

----

"And the President too is a young man. Unlike say Lyndon B. Johnson or Jimmy Carter, when his term ends he won't be able simply to go home. He'll need a big house in a gated suburb, with high walls and rich friends. And a good income, too, from book deals and lecture fees. He may be thinking about that now.

The good news is: it won't save him. For if and when he ventures out, for the rest of his life, the eyes of all those, whose hopes he once raised will follow him. The old, the poor, the jobless, the homeless: their eyes will follow him wherever he goes."

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Eschaton: Baffling:

"The continued systematic pursuit of obviously bad public policy is baffling. It's not like it's good politics. Does the Obama campaign staff really think they are gonna hold PA or OH with trade concessions to Korea? Do they think they will turn out voters in New Mexico on a deportation platform?

This isn't hard. Hire people to build things with the free money the world is offering us."

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Seriously, all the OA supporters and their hand-wringing over real liberals who aren't clapping loud enough is fucking annoying. No better than Bush supporters and just as blind.

Daily Kos: -- To the neoliberals on this site --:

"Why all the subterfuge? You won. Do progressives really need 'roping in'? Obama 2012, your campaign, has already put out its strategy. Obama is better than the Republicans, and you should prefer a list of Boy Scout achievements to Republican tea party garbage. And, hey, even if the Republicans win next year, you can run against them while enjoying the fruits of their neoliberal policies. And if you are a Democrat, you can blame the progressives for your defeat, which was the whole point of the game in the first place. So where's the victory celebration?"

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Cool.

Astronaut Photographs Perseid Meteor... From Space : Discovery News

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HiStory

Let's do this, Wisconsin. Make it happen.

Wisconsin recall votes may impact 2012 election | Reuters

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Daily Kos: The debt ceiling, the White House and the damage of 'compromise':

"The more we hear reaction from both parties, the more convinced I am that my original take on the debt ceiling deal was correct, and that this 'compromise' is in fact an unambiguous and abominable failure by the administration. There's simply not enough lipstick for this pig: it is a failure, pure and simple, and one which is going to have serious long-term negative repercussions for the economy, the markets, and the political environment in general."

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What Happened to Obama’s Passion? - NYTimes.com

But the arc of history does not bend toward justice through capitulation cast as compromise. It does not bend when 400 people control more of the wealth than 150 million of their fellow Americans. It does not bend when the average middle-class family has seen its income stagnate over the last 30 years while the richest 1 percent has seen its income rise astronomically. It does not bend when we cut the fixed incomes of our parents and grandparents so hedge fund managers can keep their 15 percent tax rates. It does not bend when only one side in negotiations between workers and their bosses is allowed representation. And it does not bend when, as political scientists have shown, it is not public opinion but the opinions of the wealthy that predict the votes of the Senate. The arc of history can bend only so far before it breaks.

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Jeff Madrick: Obama: The President Who Wouldn't Make the Louisiana Purchase:

"He might even have pulled the Constitution card and said Congress had no right to set a debt ceiling in the first place, according to the 14th amendment. He said his lawyers told him that was a weak argument. But Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territories in 1803 knowing full well that it was probably unconstitutional for him to do so. There were also concerns back then about whether America could afford it. But that's what great presidents do in the big moments. They do what's right rather than abiding by minor niceties. Jefferson's is but one example.

Consider Obama the president who would not have made the Louisiana Purchase."

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The history lesson Obama has ignored - History - Salon.com

Just under three quarters of a century ago, a group of conservative economic advisers close to Franklin Roosevelt informed the President that they were worried about the rapid rate of growth in the US economy. Since 1933, when FDR took over at the height of the Great Depression, the economy had been expanding steadily, at an average rate of 14 percent per year. Schooled as most of these advisors were in the tenets of economic orthodoxy (which called for cuts in spending during an economic downturn), and unsure of the effects of the Keynesian-style deficit spending that the administration had been engaged in under the terms of the early New Deal, the President was advised to cut the budget, reduce deficit spending and tighten the money supply as a means to stave off inflation. Heeding their word (and no economist himself), FDR did just that.

The results were an unmitigated disaster.

Thanks to the Administration’s decision to move away from the increasingly Keynesian policies it had been following — policies that saw the unemployment rate fall from a high of 25 percent in 1933 to 14 percent by 1937 -- FDR launched one of the sharpest economic downturns in American history-the so-called "Roosevelt Recession" of 1937-38. In just a few short months, the GDP declined by 13 percent; industrial production by 33 percent; wages by 35 percent and an estimated four million people lost their jobs. No fool, FDR quickly reversed himself and went back to Congress to seek a massive stimulus bill to put people back to work and repair the damage to the Depression-era economy. Within three months growth had returned and the economy was back on track.

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Kinda feels like this.

Mar 11, 2011: Japanese tsunami from the point of view of a car. [VIDEO]

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Mission Accomplished

No reason that I should stay....

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Robert Reich: Ransom Paid:

"Anyone who characterizes the deal between the president, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics."

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Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy:

"We probably need to start wondering why this keeps happening. Also, this: if the Democrats suck so bad at political combat, then how come they continue to be rewarded with such massive quantities of campaign contributions? When the final tally comes in for the 2012 presidential race, who among us wouldn't bet that Barack Obama is going to beat his Republican opponent in the fundraising column very handily? At the very least, he won't be out-funded, I can almost guarantee that.

And what does that mean? Who spends hundreds of millions of dollars for what looks, on the outside, like rank incompetence?

It strains the imagination to think that the country's smartest businessmen keep paying top dollar for such lousy performance. Is it possible that by 'surrendering' at the 11th hour and signing off on a deal that presages deep cuts in spending for the middle class, but avoids tax increases for the rich, Obama is doing exactly what was expected of him?"

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Daily Kos: White House: Republicans will 'recoil' from any future attempts at�gamesmanship:

"I want to know what planet this White House Official has been on where the Republicans would 'recoil at gamesmanship' or be 'unlikely' to stack a committee with ideologues.

I don't even have a decent response to this—it's just too silly. Once again, administration negotiators have given far-right Republicans nearly everything they demanded under the absolutely bizarre impression that next time around, they'll be more reasonable, or that next time around, the Republicans won't be able to take hostages that the Democrats find unpalatable.

It's a game of chess in which one player cannot look forward to more than one move at a time, steadfastly refusing to even contemplate what moves the other player might make in response."

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AMERICAblog News: Just stop already

The President is a lousy negotiator and doesn't have the stomach for any fight, to be sure, but he's also getting what he wants. It's the President who kept trying to one up the Republicans by adding more cuts to the deal (remember, he's the one who put Social Security and Medicare on the table), so spare us the "I would have preferred something better." No he wouldn't. The President is interested in one thing: not making waves. And whatever he can do to ensure that he makes now waves, he'll do it.

And now there's a second thing motivating the President. No, not the national interest. His own political self-interest. Somehow he's got it in his head that the only way he can win re-election is to massive cut spending in the middle of an anemic quasi-recovery on life support. He's not doing it because he thinks it's the right thing. He's doing it because he thinks it will get him re-elected. And even there, he's wrong.

Joe and I predicted this day. We saw it coming on how the President handled gay issues, how he handled the stimulus, and how he handled health care reform. Joe and I begged all the apologists to wake up and realize that the way the President handled HCR - not fighting for anything - was exactly what he'd done before, and would do in the future. But we were told by the smarty pants lobby that this was incremental politics at its best, and we were just silly idealists. Yeah, not so silly now.

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Daily Kos: Trojan Horse: The Obama Deception:

"If Obama were merely incompetent we could say that he's a disappointment. But he's not incompetent and he's not merely a disappointment – he's a willing traitor to the American people. He has betrayed the movement that brought him into office. It's as simple and awful as that.

Hope? Change? We were fools to ever believe it.

So don't call Obama a moderate. Don't call him a centrist. Don't call him a blue dog. Call him what he is...a Republican."

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Quoteth Dick Cheney

In the immortal words of Dick Cheney, Obama and the Democrats can go fuck themselves. At this point, President Romney would be an improvement.

Eschaton: SUPERCONGRESS:

"Some details aren't clear to me yet, but seems like they've hit on the perfect combination of stupid and evil for the debt ceiling 'deal.'"

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AMERICAblog News:

"Suffice it to say, the GOPers won. Big. Expect to hear some crowing from Dems. about minor little victories. We'll hear lots of spin and boasting. Overall, we're seeing a GOP package. Have to hand it to them, they know how to use their power. Too bad Democrats only control the White House and the Senate."

Krugman: Proposed debt deal will cost jobs and revenue�|�Raw Replay

The Halt and the Lame - NYTimes.com

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Whole lotta this:

Responses to debt deal range from angry to angrier - Yahoo! News:

"But Kiran Mahto of Portland, Ore., who volunteered for the Obama campaign in 2008, would have preferred no deal at all to the concessions he felt the president made to congressional Republicans.

Mahto, a 35-year-old managing editor who works in health care information technology, said the agreement is the latest in a long string of times Obama has disappointed him, and vowed it would be the last.

'I'm actively opposed to this president now. That also goes for his party since they've been silent through the whole ordeal,' said Mahto, who thinks the debt deal will lead to an Obama defeat in 2012. 'Cutting the deficit will do nothing to get people jobs. Without jobs and without a liberal base, he will lose.'"

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Daily Kos: You Can’t Demoralize Me with Your Highly Accurate “Obama Is a Colossal Failure” Narrative:

"Obama is my guy to the end.

(Do you remember the rallies of 2008? They were awesome.)

Sure you can point out that Middleman Obama has failed to address the country’s priorities - jobs and economic recovery - while firmly embracing the creeping Orwellism of the Bush national security state.

So maybe he has pre-emptively surrendered on all the most important elements of his professed agenda.

What was he supposed to do?

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Evil or Stupid

Krugman:

The Obama-Keynes Mystery - NYTimes.com:

"I’m not alone in marveling at the extent to which Obama has thrown his rhetorical weight behind anti-Keynesian economics; Ryan Avent is equally amazed, as are many others. And now he’s endorsing the structural unemployment story too.

To those defending Obama on the grounds that he’s saying what he has to politically, I have two answers. First, words matter — as people who rallied around Obama in the first place because of his eloquence should know. Yes, he has to make compromises on policy grounds — but that doesn’t mean he has to adopt the right’s rhetoric and arguments. The effect of his intellectual capitulation is that we now have only one side in the national argument.

Second, since Obama keeps talking nonsense about economics, at what point do we stop giving him credit for actually knowing better? Maybe at some point we have to accept that he believes what he’s saying."

No, We Can’t? Or Won’t? - NYTimes.com

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Digby

Hullabaloo:

"Everyone's always trying to figure out what Barack Obama really wants. But it's not a mystery. He's been clear about it from the very beginning. What people have to face is the fact that he is a rigid leader who refuses to change course in the face of changing circumstances. Perhaps that's a strength at times. But in this one, it's a tragic weakness. We have over 9% official unemployment and probably double that in reality. The housing sector is still dead. Growth is anemic and very possibly about to go south. His grand bargain vision from 2009 was always anathema to the liberal project. Today it is destructive on an entirely different level."

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Richard (RJ) Eskow: A President On the Verge of a Political Breakdown:

"Yet instead of pushing for the spending that's needed, the President keeps reinforcing Republican arguments instead. According to the AP he told reporters in the Rose Garden that 'uncertainty over whether lawmakers will raise the nation's debt limit is keeping businesses from hiring.' (What was keeping them from hiring before that?) Economic advisor Austan Goolsbee evaded the issue of badly-needed stimulus funding as well as anyone could - that is, not very well at all - while repeating that ill-advised 'business confidence' mantra."

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Daily Kos: President Obama and the New Deal:

"In the past week, we witnessed the truly astonishing spectacle of a wide array of Democratic Congressional leaders feeling it necessary to stand up to a Democratic President in order to defend the programs and values that have defined the Democratic Party since the Great Depression. Just think about that. And now some consider it a victory that there probably won't be any immediate cuts to Social Security, even though there will be a trillion or more in overall budget cuts, without any major increases in revenue. And cutting Social Security is now safe to discuss on both sides of the aisle. To use digby's own comparison, only Nixon could go to China; and while Reagan and the Bushes did not even seriously try, a Democratic president may be opening the door to the dismantling of the New Deal."

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With Entitlements on the Table, Obama Plans to Go Big on a Budget Deal | The Nation:

"Even still, it’s extremely disheartening; it demonstrates that, as always, Obama is willing to cater to the center-right in a huge way (entitlement cuts) for the sake of a small political advantage.

Moreover, this proposal is further evidence that the debt ceiling negotiations were an intentional decision on Obama’s part. The president genuinely believes in deficit reduction, and chose to use the debt ceiling as an opportunity to cut spending with significant bipartisan cover. Obama hasn’t been fooled into these negotiations, nor is he playing rope-a-dope or a complex game of 11-dimensional chess. This is what he wants."

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Obama's Political, Economic Advisers Say Jobless Rate Won't Matter in 2012 | MyFDL:

"Now the people who helped Obama defraud voters by channeling everyone’s hope for change have convinced themselves he won the election because they’re political geniuses.

The lastest example of this delusion is Obama’s senior campaign adviser, David Plouffe, who confidently told Bloomberg that going into the 2012 elections with over 8 percent unemployment and no meaningful jobs programs will not hurt Obama’s chances for reelection:"

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If the drinking game is 'How many Bush/Rove talking points can the Obama administration parrot and enact' then our country is headed towards alcohol poisoning.

Panetta makes 9/11 gaffe in Iraq | The Raw Story

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Shivved

Jesus fucking Christ, for the sake of liberalism and this country, Ronald Wilson Obama must not be elected to another term.

Unbelievable.

Obama puts Social Security, Medicare cuts on the table | The Raw Story

Miles Mogulescu: Republicans and Obama are Like Thelma and Louise Racing Toward the Cliff:

"I wish I could see an exit from this theater before the movie ends in disaster."

And nobody gives a damn....

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Forever Scammed

Gonna be a 'What Atrios Says' kinda day.

Eschaton: No We Can't:

"No We Can't
Not a new observation, but I do continue to be amazed that in the greatest fucking country in the history of the universe our elite classes have basically decided that things suck and there's nothing to be done.

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Eschaton: Elite Fail:

"Elite Fail
Unemployment is at 9.1% and everybody in Washington is desperately trying to figure out how to increase taxes and cut spending. Maybe it's opposite year and somebody forgot to tell me.

And, yes, in normal times there are tax increases I'd get behind and I'm sure reasonable spending cuts exist (though whether they're being considered is another question), but the point is that the fact that we're having this conversation at all is insane. Jobs bill jobs bill jobs bill jobs bill jobs bill...."

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This is what we dirty fucking hippies have been pointing out for 30 years...

Daily Kos: GOP Has Been Openly Scamming Dems for 30 Years Now:

"The neo-conservative is willing to leave those problems to be coped with by liberal interregnums. He wants to shape the future, and will leave it up to his opponents to tidy up afterwards. (emphasis added)

And the GOP has been pulling this scam ever since. As Bloomberg News reported even before Obama had won the election, the bond markets were poised to start insisting on cuts to social spending in order to protect the bond traders themselves. This, of course, was just a repeat of the scam that was pulled on Bill Clinton when he took office:"

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This is what we dirty fucking hippies have been pointing...

The Annotated Frank Rich - The President’s Failure to Demand a Reckoning From the Moneyed Interests Who Brought the Economy Down -- New York Magazine:

"The president’s failure to demand a reckoning from the moneyed interests who brought the economy down has cursed his first term, and could prevent a second."

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It isn't pragmatic to parrot and propagate the Republican bullshit puke machine. Obama is pushing every Republican policy and talking point out there.

Think about it. We'll go an entire term without a single Democratic/Liberal/Progressive piece of legislation being passed.

Barack Herbert Hoover Obama - NYTimes.com:

"Yep, the false government-family equivalence, the myth of expansionary austerity, and the confidence fairy, all in just two sentences.

Read this and this to see why he’s wrong. This is truly a tragedy: the great progressive hope (well, I did warn people) is falling all over himself to endorse right-wing economic fallacies."

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Jeff Sessions. Major League Asshole.

Jeff Sessions: Saying Millionaires Should Share Pain Is 'Rather Pathetic'

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Don't drink and purchase puppies.

NYC pet stores ban drunk people from purchasing puppies | The Raw Story:

"'We have to tell them to come back the next day and most of the time they never come back,' Jacoby said. 'Most of the time it happens around holidays — St. Patrick's Day or Gay Pride.'"

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The Grand Screw

And yet another cave.

Federal Reserve Raises Swipe Fee Cap In Victory For Wall Street

The epic deficit (lie) cave is coming very soon.

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Digby is easily one of the smartest people on the internet:

Hullabaloo:

"From his press conference today, it would appear that the president's negotiating strategy really is to give Republicans huge cuts in spending (and 'make his base give him a hard time') and then shame them into 'meeting him halfway' by agreeing to mildly raise taxes on some luxury items like corporate jet travel. (Luckily, he reassured the nervous CEOs by saying 'you'll still be able to ride on your corporate jet, you'll just have to pay a little more' so hopefully they won't have a fit.)That's what constitutes shared sacrifice and fiscal responsibility. Good to know."

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When all is said and done, the Democrats will be responsible.

Ethan Rome: Don't Default on the American Dream: Democrats Should Hold the Line in Debt Limit Talks:

"Democrats have to resist the Republican plan to destroy Medicaid as fiercely as they are fighting the Republican proposal to end Medicare as we know it. They shouldn't cave in on this issue. That would be devastating for people and for the political fortunes of Democrats."

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Proposed Budget Cuts To Medicaid Could Kill Jobs And Short-Change Seniors

Despite Pleas From Advocacy Organizations, White House Cuts Likely To Affect Spending That Helps The Poor | Crooks and Liars:

"So the leaders of a bunch of civic, policy and religious organizations -- you know, the ones no one in the White House pays attention to because they're a bunch of do-gooder whiners and they'll have to vote for Democrats, anyway -- are asking the administration and Congressional leaders to please stop hurting poor people with their budget cuts:"

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At least there some sweetness in the hit News Corp took on this one.

News Corp sells Myspace, ending six-year saga - Yahoo! News

Daily Kos: HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa! (UPDATED x2 with Flashbacks and Justin Timberlake!)

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Snakes

Here's how our ruling elites behave when they think no-one is watching.

Clinton and Paul Ryan kissing each other's ass and discussing the need to end Medicare.

We are ruled by truly awful people.

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What Krugman says...

Debt Limit Stakes - NYTimes.com:

"Think about it. There’s a significant chance that failing to raise the debt limit could provoke a renewed financial crisis — and Republicans would rather take that chance than allow a reduction in tax breaks on corporate jets.

What this says to me is that Obama cannot, must not, concede here. If he does, he’s signaling that the GOP can extract even the most outrageous demands; he’s setting himself up for endless blackmail. A line has to be drawn somewhere; it should have been drawn last fall; but to concede now would effectively mean the end of the presidency."

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AMERICAblog News: Honey I shrunk my negotiating position in the deficit talks:

"So basically, the Republicans keep saying 'no' and the White House keeps offering them more and more cuts to programs, and fewer and fewer tax increases, while the Republicans simply keep saying 'no.'

Heck of a negotiation. The White House is simply negotiating with itself at this point. Lowering its bid, lower and lower, while the GOP does nothing. Guaranteeing that any final deal that is reached starts at a point so low that we're screwed no matter what the details.

Now, I'm sure the White House thinks it's going to win the battle by showing the American people how earnest the President has been in these talks, while the Republicans have been intransigent. Yeah, fat chance. That is all a matter of spin. And the White House folks, and Dems generally, don't spin very well. They need to hire someone who does, and empower them to win, rather than tying their hands in a never-ending desire to be nice to people who want to destroy you."

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No one could have predicted....

Financial Reform Destined To Fail, Top Federal Reserve Official Says:

"For Hoenig though, the choice is clear when it comes to what to do with the financial institutions that caused the most punishing downturn since the Great Depression: break them up into pieces that regulators can understand and provide a backstop to entities engaged in the so-called real economy -- but allow those dabbling in more risk-laden activities to fail.

The Obama administration and Congress chose the alternate route in passing the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law. To Hoenig, they made a mistake.

'Following this financial crisis, Congress and the administration turned to the work of repair and reform,' he said during a Monday speech in Washington. 'Once again, the American public got the standard remedies -- more and increasingly complex regulation and supervision.'

'The Dodd-Frank reforms have all been introduced before, but financial markets skirted them,' he continued. 'Supervisory authority existed, but it was used lightly because of political pressure and the misperceptions that free markets, with generous public support, could self-regulate.'"

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Shocking.

After Taking A $10 Billion Bailout, Goldman Sachs Announces It Will Outsource 1,000 Jobs To Singapore | ThinkProgress

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Nice work, NYC'ers.

Glenn Beck and family encounter hostility in NYC - Yahoo! News

Hateful bastard deserves every bit of it. You reap what you sow. Fuck. Him.

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Hostages

Are the following articles the media ginning up faux resentment for the sake of a story to publish? Or, are these proper critiques of a President who is not doing the job he was elected to do.

I report, you de.... oh, whatever.

Maddow On Gay Marriage Passage In New York: 'President Obama Is Against What Just Happened' (VIDEO)

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Maher: Obama ‘sucking up to the people he should be fighting’�|�Raw Replay:

"“It would be kind of a tragedy if we got to the end of four years of Democratic rule without having tried any Democratic policies,” Maher said. “I know Washington is tough, and Republicans are assholes, but someone needs to tell me why Obama won’t be more liberal even when the public is on his side.”"

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I'll need a bath after posting an article from Dowd, but when she's right...

Why Is He Bi? (Sigh) - NYTimes.com:

"The man who was able to beat the Clintons in 2008 because the country wanted a break from Clintonian euphemism and casuistry is now breaking creative new ground in euphemism and casuistry."

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Gore's never blasted anyone, but he does take issue.

Al Gore Blasts Obama On Climate Change For Failing To Take 'Bold Action'

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And Obama's Secretary of State channeling the fuck out of George Bush. With us or against us. Pitiful.

Daily Kos: New McCarthyism: It's Not Ok If You Are A Dem:

"Via Atrios, Glenn Greenwald catches Secretary of State Hillary Clinton doing her George Bush imitation:

But the bottom line is, whose side are you on? Are you on Qadhafi’s side or are you on the side of the aspirations of the Libyan people and the international coalition that has been created to support them? For the Obama Administration, the answer to that question is very easy.

Shameful"

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At least he had the decency to shoot himself in the end.

Man Holds Woman Hostage for 16 Hours, Updates Facebook Throughout - Failbook - Funny Facebook Status Messages ( Failbooking )

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One Term

So inspiring.

Obama: ‘There are days where I say one term is enough’�|�Raw Replay

So Progressive it hurts.

Obama bid to cut pediatrician training draws fire - The Washington Post

So wrong, so damn wrong.

AMERICAblog News: Obama slams government hiring, says private industry should lead

Finally! Someone tackling those out of control $10 URL costs. Nevermind those $500 military toilet seats.

Kabuki.

The Campaign to Cut Government Waste: Efficiency Theater:

"Ah, waste, fraud, and abuse. Nobody likes those, do they? Of course not! That’s why the Obama administration is going to eliminate it. A lot of it. Just don’t ask exactly what. Or how."

I'm fine with one term, too. Very fine.

And Let the Bad Guys Win? | Ted Rall's Rallblog

If you aren't willing to lose now to win big later, you aren't in the game.

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Jet Pack

It is all just so stupid.

The joys of repressed voyeuristic titillation - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

There are few things more sickening -- or revealing -- to behold than a D.C. sex scandal. Huge numbers of people prance around flamboyantly condemning behavior in which they themselves routinely engage. Media stars contrive all sorts of high-minded justifications for luxuriating in every last dirty detail, when nothing is more obvious than that their only real interest is vicarious titillation. Reporters who would never dare challenge powerful political figures who torture, illegally eavesdrop, wage illegal wars or feed at the trough of sleazy legalized bribery suddenly walk upright -- like proud peacocks with their feathers extended -- pretending to be hard-core adversarial journalists as they collectively kick a sexually humiliated figure stripped of all importance. The ritual is as nauseating as it is predictable.

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Yes, Pelosi, Obama, et. al, STFU. Bunch of damn wussy Democrats.

Progressives Call On Democrats To Show Some Spine After Weiner Scandal | TPMDC:

"A growing chorus of progressives is calling on Democrats to keep their mouths shut when it comes to Rep. Anthony Weiner's (D-NY) future -- and are dismissing the Democratic calls for Weiner to step down as another sign of the timidity of the party.

It's not so much that Weiner didn't screw up royally, they say. It's that they say it's just not that big a deal, and making it into one falls into a Republican trap. And, besides, they say, as long as Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is still walking the halls of the Capitol, why should the left be forced to lose one of its most ardent supporters?"

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Daily Kos: Weiner Should Resist Leadership Calls and Not Resign:

"Yes, I know DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi both called for Anthony Weiner's resignation today. Democratic leaders have once again caved to the poutrage on the right by calling for his resignation. Did Anthony Weiner do something inappropriate and distasteful? Sure. Did he do anything illegal? It appears not. Are there plenty of other politicians who have done the same thing and remain in office? You bet your life there are. Should he resign from Congress? Hell No!"

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Amber Hilberling Accused Of Pushing Husband Out 25th-Floor Window

Wait.... Oklahoma has a building with 25 floors?! Well la-ti-da, urban liberal socialistas with your fancy skyscrapers.

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Jet pack, bitches.

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We Are Being Lied To

My governor rocks. The cell phone savings is but a drop, but it makes a lot of sense. Read the entire blog and check out the numbers.

Gov. Brown says nearly half of state cell phones eliminated : Politics Blog:

"Brown got rid of his own state-issued cell phone when he issued the executive order."

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Again. Rocks because he has huge stones.

Daily Kos: The Jerry Brown Method: Defeating GOP Memes in Four Months Or Less:

"Second, Brown talked directly to the people of California, not just the obstreperous and incoherent Republican commandants. Again, unlike a certain President. Over and over again, he took his message to YouTube (you got to love that), as well as highschool gyms and union halls. For a septuagenarian he made a certain young president look like a geezer. Again the GOP squealed, and most people here saw the Republicans for what they are: ideological bullies who act like South Park’s Cartman when somebody stands up to them."

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It's about the jobs, stupid. This deficit 'argument' is pure-d bullshit.

We are being lied to.

AMERICAblog News: White House disses Senate Dems’ jobs bill because it’s not small enough:

"You are quite possibly witnessing the beginning of the end of the Obama presidency."

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Mmmm. Chile. Pictures are pretty amazing.

Chile volcano causes ash cloud and lightning tears the sky apart | Mail Online

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Bounding Steaks

Sum total of our current news media. I imagine this is what their morning meetings are like.

YouTube - Reservoir Dogs - Like a Virgin scene

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Democrats and bold. Like snakes and Indiana Jones. I'm giving too much credit to Democrats or snakes in this analogy.

Daily Kos: Now is the time for boldness.:

"America is rotting.

Not through neglect, but through design and timidity. The 1Percenters designed the rot, and the Party that historically represented us 99Percenters encourage it through timidity. This rot has been slow and steady for Forty years, and now, in the last decade, the rot has moved into high octane overdrive."

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Maybe this will help..... Not the Dems. Me.

The Caperon, a Betabrand Think Tank Product - Betabrand

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The Feast of the Hostage Taker

What Krugman says... again. Expect another epic cave. But, hey, what do the dirty fucking hippies know anyway, right?

Held Hostage Over the Debt Ceiling - NYTimes.com:

"But the president can’t call the extortionists’ bluff unless he’s willing to confront them, and accept the associated risks.

According to Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, Mr. Obama has told Democrats not to draw any “line in the sand” in debt negotiations. Well, count me among those who find this strategy completely baffling. At some point — and sooner rather than later — the president has to draw a line. Otherwise, he might as well move out of the White House, and hand the keys over to the Tea Party."

Daily Kos: Krugman gets this right:

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Ch-ch-ch-changes.

Charges Against the N.S.A.’s Thomas Drake : The New Yorker:

"When President Barack Obama took office, in 2009, he championed the cause of government transparency, and spoke admiringly of whistle-blowers, whom he described as “often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government.” But the Obama Administration has pursued leak prosecutions with a surprising relentlessness. Including the Drake case, it has been using the Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national-security leaks—more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous Administrations combined. The Drake case is one of two that Obama’s Justice Department has carried over from the Bush years.

Gabriel Schoenfeld, a conservative political scientist at the Hudson Institute, who, in his book “Necessary Secrets” (2010), argues for more stringent protection of classified information, says, “Ironically, Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history—even more so than Nixon.”"

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Looky! Someone is feeling all mavericky again. Good effort, St. McCain, but your legacy from hence forth will be known as Palinized. And please tell your daughter to stop calling people 'honey'. She's a 20-something from Arizona, not a 50-something waitress from Tupelo.

McCain: Torture did not lead to bin Laden | The Raw Story

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Don't tell me what to never do.

Dr. Mardy Grothe: 'Neverisms': 11 Things You Should Never Do, Never Say, Never Forget (PHOTOS)

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Washington works just fine

I wonder which Republican policies our 'Democratic (haha)' President will champion today. Do your back exercises and stretches, because we will most certainly be hauling the load on our backs.

No look at all these non-pragmatic, non-serious, pie-in-the-sky-ers. Change is not perceptible, Hippies!

Newly Released Spending Deal Targets Health, Environment, Energy | TPMDC

Six-month spending bill unveiled: What's cut and what's not - TheHill.com

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Ouch, ouch and ouch.

Rep. DeFazio: Obama should ‘act like a Democrat’�|�Raw Replay

Cornel West: Obama is ‘another black mascot’ of ‘Wall Street oligarchs:

"Princeton professor and famed black intellectual Cornel West has long been a supporter of President Barack Obama, but he’s recently changed his tune."

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Obama’s constitutional law professor joins group calling Manning’s treatment illegal:

"The Harvard professor who taught President Barack Obama about America's founding document has added his name to a letter damning the treatment of U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, the lone soldier accused of leaking a vast number of government secrets to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

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Obama Is Missing - NYTimes.com:

"What have they done with President Obama? What happened to the inspirational figure his supporters thought they elected? Who is this bland, timid guy who doesn’t seem to stand for anything in particular?"

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Daily Kos: From change agent to dealmaker:

"Instead of being the public leader, the transformational leader, that many of us expected, the leader he campaigned to be, he's shrunk. He's just become another Washington insider playing the insider game. The insider game has him making choices between shutting down the government and stepping on the poor. The insider game has him choosing between tax cuts for the wealthy or declaring war on the unemployed middle class. The insider game has convinced him there is almost nothing he can do about the housing crisis. The insider game has him appointing a corporate CEO who ships jobs overseas as the head of his domestic jobs council. The insider game has him appointing the very same people who ran the economy into the ground as his principal economic advisers. He told us of a Washington that was broken, but he was quite mistaken. Washington works just fine. Just not for regular people."

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DC For Obama Furious Over Budget Deal:

"Barr said his grassroots group, which is not affiliated with Obama's official campaign, knocked on more than 100,000 doors for Obama in Virginia ahead of the 2008 election. Barr said more than 250 people had already signed up for an April 28 campaign launch party.

Barr's enthusiasm has faded. 'We may end up postponing indefinitely,' Barr said. 'We may also just hold it and use that time as strategy to fight back against the White House and Congress.'"

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Surprise, surprise: rich get richer - The Boston Globe:

"THIS IS the biggest stickup in American history."

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The Real Housewives of Wall Street | Rolling Stone Politics

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I couldn't agree with this post more and this is why I will not vote for any Democrats in 2012. Give. It. Too. Them. instead of this bullshit slow-burn of the same policies that Obama and Congressional Dems (haha) are applying.

AMERICAblog News: Maybe it is time to let the GOP destroy the economy

My income is less than half what it was before the recession. And I know people that have been looking for a job for a year. It's tough out there. But at some point, maybe we have to consider whether we're going about this all the wrong way.

If the Republicans want to make a political/electoral issue out of the debt ceiling, then let's not raise it. Hand the keys to the legislation, to to speak, to Boehner and McConnell, and tell them it's their choice whether the legislation passes. And when it doesn't pass, and the world economy melts down, no one will elect a Republican for decades to come.

I'm simply tired of dealing with Democrats who don't have half a brain or half a backbone, and Republicans who would rather demagogue, and lie, than fix the country.

Why keep paying ransom to the hostage takers?

Maybe it's time to simply let Atlas shrug.

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I was at the beach 3 years ago when this artist was creating a beach mural. Same time this couple went. Very cool.

Sand-Written Wedding Proposal Mystery Solved! - Yahoo! News

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Apologists are a threat to all of us

So, yeah. Another Friday, another complete capitulation. A horrible 'deal' that screws much of the U.S..

2011 is not 1995 - Ezra Klein - The Washington Post:

"The substance of this deal is bad. But the way Democrats are selling it makes it much, much worse."

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Daily Kos: Ignore this Mr. President. You already ignore me.:

"Here I am doing my civic duty, working on my taxes. I am paying my fair share.

My wife and I gave you money when you ran for President. We supported you.

But now? Blow, after blow, after blow.

The 'deal' about which you bragged is perhaps the final straw for this camel, whose back is breaking at the same time as his heart is shattered."

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Progressives Must Stand up to the President:

"You can ignore this, blame me and go hug the president one more time, but you won't be doing your side any favors. If you actually care about policy and progressive priorities, you must get tough with the president right now. There is no next time."

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The apologists are a threat to all of us.:

"That pragmatism, by the way, is a joke. It's a loser attitude, the idea that you should push for what's reasonable instead of what you want. Give up on your ideals, they tell us, they're not realistic with Congress being Republican controlled. Obama is just a man, so overlook the repeated insults and dismissals of who we are and what we stand for. So what's our reasonable demand? What have WE gotten in the budget compromises? That list of things Obama has done for progressives is disingenuous, neatly sidestepping all of the things that were taken away from us and touting minor concessions as major accomplishments."

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AMERICAblog News: Lessons in how NOT to negotiate, courtesy of your President. Lesson 1: Don't accept the other guy's opening offer.:

"So, the White House strategy of negotiating with Republicans really is to give them what they want. In case we missed the point, Obama repeated it:

And I just want to set the context for this now. Again, I’m going to repeat. Speaker Boehner, Chairman Rogers, the Republican appropriations chairman -- their original budget proposed $73 billion in cuts. We have now agreed to $73 billion worth of cuts.

Got that?

What law school did Obama attend? Was he absent when they studied negotiations? That has to be the worst negotiating tactic around."

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Snuffed Out, Going Nowhere

Read this accurate and bloody sad essay.

H/T BB:

When Pigs Rule | Common Dreams:

"Silence is far too generous a label of contempt to apply to the Democratic Party. We are well past the point of acknowledging their complete complicity in the crime. Hardly anyone noticed in the 1990s, when New Democrats (a euphemism for old Republicans) stopped talking about the plight of the poor, even before Bill Clinton finished the job by killing welfare, reaching into the mouths of America’s impoverished and removing the food that was once there, all for purposes of guaranteeing his second term as president (and, boy wasn’t it worth it, too – look at all he achieved!). If you weren’t alive in the 1960s and 70s, you might never have realized that there was once a party in America that was rather seriously devoted to fighting a war against poverty. By the 1990s the poor became an embarrassment, and among slick New Democrats in Washington only gauche political retreads continued to remind us of their existence and plight, becoming every bit as welcome among the elites as Grandpa’s incessant flatulence at a formal dinner party."

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From the Professor (Nobel Earner)

The Threat Within - NYTimes.com:

"But Barack Obama is now the party’s leader. And let’s be frank: Obama still, after all that has happened, seems devoted to the dream of transcending partisanship, a dream he tries to serve by being nice to Republican ideas no matter how terrible those ideas are. (I did warn about this during the primaries — just saying.)

The great danger now is that Obama — with the help of a fair number of Senate Democrats — will kill Medicare in the name of civility and outreach.

This doesn’t have to happen. Republicans have, in fact, offered Democrats a huge political opportunity — much as Bush did in 2005. But I’m sorry, I have no confidence in the current leadership’s willingness to do the right thing, even when it’s also politically smart."

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Obama is doing exactly what he wants done. These aren't failures. He is acting with purpose. He represents his corporate lords.

He's fighting. Just not for me or you.

AMERICAblog News: Are you feeling fired up?:

"And now? This time, I find myself having to make intellectual contortions to make the case. I think: What could the slogan be this time?

'Change you can believe in: As long as you don't expect ME to get out front and make a forceful argument for it.'

'Change you can believe in: As long as the GOP and the Chamber of Commerce approve.'

'Change you can believe in: As long as it doesn't really challenge the power of Wall Street or inconvenience the wealthy.'

Yeah, I know just writing this is going to earn me the flames of all you Democratic pragmatists out there. You'll argue that Mr. Obama did what he could given the difficult circumstances. Silly me for thinking there is real value and power in idealism, or that failing to consistently and forcefully challenge the ideological framing set by one's opponents is what making real change requires."

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In a fantasy world...

Daily Kos: The Answer to Rachel Maddow's Question

You may label us any way you like, but we will fight for Social Security, we will defend Medicare and Medicaid, and we will not cease until the middle classes have jobs, people are safe in their homes, and our schools are educating our children.

We will not stop until the hungry are fed, and the sick are healed. We will defend the nurses, the teachers, law enforcement and fire-fighters and we will do it because we believe that THEY are the real Americans.

Call us Socialists, call us whatever you want, because we are calling Americans and we are telling them not what they can do for their country, they already know that. We are telling them what their country is doing for them, and we are telling them that you, the Republicans, are calling that Socialism and trying to take it away from you.

Get yourselves a philosophy, a big idea, a New Deal for America, if you wish, but make it something you believe in, something America believes in ... Then fight for it.

If you continue to be invertebrates, and simply try to be better Republicans than the GOP, and continue to follow the agenda, instead of setting it, then you will lose.

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Luckiest Guy

Being better than Republicans is not enough

It's not. And until Democrats/Progressives learn how to fight dirtier/fight-to-win than those other bastards, we'll continue to have our asses handed to us even when we have super-majorities. As it stands now, we don't have anyone fighting for us in D.C.

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Another D.C. hack elevated.

Rhee and the Corporate Takeover of Public Education

The rise, and looming fall, of 'education reformer' Michelle Rhee

In the social sciences, there is an oft-repeated maxim called Campbell’s Law, named after Donald Campbell, a psychologist who studied human creativity. Campbell’s Law states that incentives corrupt. In other words, the more punishments and rewards—such as merit pay—are associated with the results of any given test, the more likely it is that the test’s results will be rendered meaningless, either through outright cheating or through teaching to the test in a way that narrows the curriculum and renders real learning obsolete.

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BobDoleCare sucketh.

Weiner Says SCOTUS Will Rule Against Health Care Law, Paving Way For Public Option | TPMDC

California isn't too far behind. Keep in mind that VT and CA are going this entirely alone. Zilch help or encouragement from D.C. (just a reminder for when they try to take credit). Fuck insurance companies. All of them. Blood sucking SOBs.

Vermont’s Single-Payer Salvation -- In These Times:

"On February 8, newly inaugurated Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin unveiled his plan for a publicly funded single-payer healthcare system, which was introduced into the state’s legislature. If enacted, which appears likely, it will be the first system of its kind in the United States and Vermont would become the first state to abolish most forms of private health insurance.

“In five years, I predict the United States will go through another major debate of how to reform the healthcare system,” Harvard School of Public Health Professor William Hsiao told the state’s legislators in January, noting his belief that the federal reform legislation passed in March 2010 will not solve the nation’s healthcare crisis. “The question for Vermont is, do you want to walk ahead of the United States? Do you want to be a model for the United States?”"

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How to be THE LUCKIEST GUY ON THE PLANET in 4 Easy Steps Altucher Confidential

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G-EffingU.S.-E

This is how it should work in the U.S.:

Campaign via social media networks blocks Dutch bankers' bonuses | Business | The Observer

This is how is actually works in the U.S.:

Senate Dems cede more ground, offer Republicans $30 billion in budget cuts

Fucking Democrats selling us up the river... again.

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We hoped we elected Kennedy. Would have settled for Clinton. We got Bush-lite.

ThinkProgress � After Paying Zero Income Taxes, GE Plans To Ask Its Union Workers To Make Wage And Benefits Concessions

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Feingold calls for GE CEO Immelt to step down as Obama jobs chief | The Raw Story:

"'But what really adds insult to injury is the prestigious and influential position Jeffrey Immelt holds as chair of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness,' the former Democratic senator wrote. 'That's wrong.'

'Someone like Immelt, who has helped his company evade taxes on its huge profits -- and is now looking to workers to take major pay cuts after his compensation was doubled -- should not lead the administration’s effort to create jobs,' he added.

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Daily Kos: America is Giving Up: Why Geithner and GE CEO MUST GO!:

"The hypocrisy and political ineptitude here is appalling. We're talking about an administration that axed Shirley Sherrod just days after trumped up reports by right-wing media smeared her as a racist. Sure, Tom Vilsack later apologized. But the incident showed that the White House is not above getting rid of someone solely based on fears that such a person would be a political liability.

Jeffrey Immelt is a HUGE liability. He is like a disillusionment and despair machine. He is a bright big bonus golden parachute package to the right wrapped up with a shiny bow. Ordinary people already know this story. It's just cementing in their minds that both parties are puppets of the super-rich."

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