Dicks

Once the dysfunction that passes as a news media in this country finds their magical elixir (penis + politician) then becomes dumb-ass drunk on said elixir stomping around their fire performing the 24/7 insanity ritual of non-stop reporting on the importance of a political cock, it becomes exponentially more difficult to maintain postings on this blog when the overbearing weight of everything-that-should-be-important is so obviously corrupted. What's the point, really.

Yes, yes. It has all happened before and it will all happen again. Predetermination and if true, then my time would be better spent staring out the window for an hour a day rather then attempting to raise some sort of awareness and a little hell about... something or the other.

We elect corporatists whose actions are opposite of their words; they who worship the cock of Wall Street while main street disintegrates. We are informed by a retarded media that only asks hard questions when they are presented with a hard dick. Or I should state, when a Democrat's hard dick is presented. Clenises. Republicans have no such worries (see Tom Coburn, David Vitter, etc, etc).

Sorry. Really not feeling it much anymore. AAW has definitely entered count-down stage.

Alas, a small bit of agitation still lingers. Only residual. Evaporating quickly. There will be no refueling.

Been needing to get these articles off my blogging chest, though. Purge, baby. Purge.

One day its gonna be I told you so....

These people just need to be more pragmatic.

Daily Kos: I don't intend to apologize for not liking the president:

Barack Obama is a politician, first and foremost. He is not my BFF. He was never in the running to be my BFF. He is not my boyfriend. He was never in the running to be my boyfriend, and there seems to be considerable evidence in favor of the hypothesis that he was never looking for a boyfriend to begin with.

As president, Barack Obama works for me. If I don't like the job he's doing, he's going to hear from me about it--and in no uncertain terms. My tax dollars pay his salary, and it's my civil and constitutional right to give this president a piece of my mind whenever the hell I feel like it, for whatever the hell I feel like reading him the riot act about that particular day. I've done it for each and every one of his predecessors going back to Tricky Dicky. I will keep on doing it for each and every one of his successors (or, possibly, until the world ends on October 21--save the date!) until they roll me into my grave.

.....

"I don't think Barack Obama is the best person we've got for the job he holds--and that goes double when you factor in the situation in which he's got that job. I don't honestly know who's available and who might do a better job than he's been doing the last two and a half years--but I categorically refuse to accept without demur or even a token protest that we shouldn't be looking around to find such a person, simply because 'you don't change horses in mid-stream' or because mounting a solid primary challenge to a sitting president never works, or any of the other umpty-bajillion excuses that are routinely tossed around whenever anyone so much as mentions the possibility around this place."

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SYNDICATED COLUMN: Rise of the Obamabots | Ted Rall's Rallblog:

"It feels a little weird to write this, like I’m telling tales out of school and ratting out the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. But it’s true: there’s less room for a leftie during the Age of Obama than there was under Bush.

I didn’t realize how besotted progressives were by Mr. Hopey Changey.

Obama lost me before Inauguration Day, when he announced cabinet appointments that didn’t include a single liberal.

It got worse after that: Obama extended and expanded Bush’s TARP giveaway to the banks; continued Bush’s spying on our phone calls; ignored the foreclosure crisis; refused to investigate, much less prosecute, Bush’s torturers; his healthcare plan was a sellout to Big Pharma; he kept Gitmo open; expanded the war against Afghanistan; dispatched more drone bombers; used weasel words to redefine the troops in Iraq as “non-combat”; extended the Bush tax cuts for the rich; claiming the right to assassinate U.S. citizens; most recently, there was the forced nudity torture of PFC Bradley Manning and expanding oil drilling offshore and on national lands."

.....

"So I don’t care about Obama. Or the Democrats. I care about America and the world and the people who live in them.

Hey, Obamabots: when the man you support betrays your principles, he has to go—not your principles."

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Sanders to Obama: Stop selling out :

"'The Republican House budget is the most radical right-wing extremist budget ever passed in the modern history of our country, and the more the American people learn about it the more they are rejecting it,' the independent from Vermont wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed. 'The question is, however: Where are the Democrats? Where is President Obama?'"

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Ouch.

Peter Fonda calls Obama ‘f*cking traitor’ over Gulf spill | The Raw Story:

"Fonda -- a keen environmentalist and co-producer of the film which centres on the explosion of the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon, the ensuing spill and its consequences -- accused Washington of trying to gag reporting on the issue.

'I sent an email to President Obama saying, 'You are a f(expletive) traitor,' using those words... 'You're a traitor, you allowed foreign boots on our soil telling our military -- in this case the coastguard -- what they can and could not do, and telling us, the citizens of the United States, what we could or could not do'.'"

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Irked at Democrats, Firefighters Suspend Federal Contributions - NYTimes.com:

"The nation’s main firefighters’ union, long a strong supporter of Democratic candidates, announced on Tuesday that it would indefinitely suspend all contributions to federal candidates out of frustration with Congressional Democrats who, union officials say, have not fought harder against budget cuts and antiunion legislation."

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Assange: Obama looks to ‘put a chill across all investigative journalism’:

"If the Obama administration's prosecutions of Pfc. Bradley Manning and a high tide of other journalists and whistleblowers are successful, the result will be 'a chill across all investigative journalism,' WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told reporters Wednesday."

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Was going to typically end the post with a humorous link.

Not feeling the ha-ha today, obviously.

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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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No, We Can't

I'm pretty sure if you put me in a room with the Prez, without me saying a word, five minutes later I'd come out with his lunch money, his bicycle, all his comic books and a sandwich made by the First Lady... possibly his shoes.... OK, definitely his shoes.

AMERICAblog News: Government shutdown, here we come!:

"For some reason we still can't fathom, the President simply joined the Hoover Economics bandwagon (as Krugman calls it), risking our economic recovery, in addition to a lot of good government services. Anyone who complained about the President's poor negotiating skills during health care reform, or during the recent cave on the Bush tax cuts, will recognize the pattern. This is why Joe, Chris and I said early on in this administration that the President's weakness on any one issue shouldn't be ignored or written off as a one-time thing. It's the way he operates, and it will affect every single deal he ever makes on every single issue you care about.

I do love how the Republicans keep saying $60bn in cuts, and the Dems keep inching towards the Republicans, while the GOP holds firm. Same old same old. It's not a negotiation, it's a conquest. Business as usual. What I fear even more than a shutdown is the President's refusal to ever not-blink during a negotiation. He'll never let it to come that - he doesn't let hostage takers kill the hostages, and will do almost anything to make it stop - and the Republicans know it."

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From one Nobel prize winner to another.

The President Is A Lousy Negotiator - NYTimes.com:

"So, can we now count on Obama, at least, not to preemptively surrender to the right by proposing Social Security cuts — cuts that we know will be a starting point, not an end to the discussion?

No, we can’t."

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Jon Stewart ‘gives up’ on GE tax shenanigans�|�Raw Replay

Nightly News stays mum on GE’s $0 tax bill - Yahoo! News:

"In spite of robust profits of $14.2 billion worldwide, GE has calculated a corporate tax bill for 2010 that adds up to zero, via a creative series of tax referrals and revenue shifts. (This was, indeed, the second year running that the company—which has an enormous, and famously nimble, 975-employee tax division, led by former Treasury official John Samuels"

Heckuva job, Obama.

G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether - NYTimes.com:

A PRESIDENT’S BUSINESS LIAISON
In January, President Obama named Jeffrey R. Immelt, General Electric’s chief executive, to head the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. “He understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy,” Mr. Obama said."

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Asides from the lunacy that one would be poor making 174k a year, how about NOT HAVING 6 FUCKING KIDS.

And the mound of debt is your own damn fault.

GOP Rep: I'm 'Struggling' On My $174K Salary (VIDEO) | TPMDC:

"I can guarantee you, or most of you, I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you. With 6 kids, I still pay off my student loans."

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Just sayin...

Chinese Traffic Cameras In Heze City, Shandong Capture Gruesome Accidents (VIDEO)

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Taxes: Admission to a Civilized Society

Not all Progressives. Some realize he's home where he is.

John R. Talbott: Progressives Cry Out: "Obama, Come Home":

"Last month, Obama named Jeffrey Immelt to the President's Economic Recovery Board and then we find out it was GE that designed and built the Japanese reactors. Yesterday we hear that GE is not paying any taxes on $14 billion of profits but is instead receiving a $3.2 billion rebate. And Immelt is the man that is supposed to be investigating how to close corporate tax loopholes?"

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Japanese corporations agree to forgo tax cuts, for good of their country | The Raw Story

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States broke? Maybe they cut taxes too much | McClatchy

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Maybe somebody should do something. Little help here. Dems?

Telecoms want ‘to put Netflix out of business entirely,’ Sen. Franken tells SXSW:

"'I came here to warn you the party may be over,' Franken said. 'They're coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important [medium] for independent artists and entrepreneurs: its openness and freedom.'

He warned that pay-walls may soon be erected to enhance the content of wealthy interests, ensuring some voices are heard over others and removing the level playing field of today's Internet. Franken called this a new business model that telecoms like Comcast were keen on implementing, purely in the interests of making money."

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What Teachers Make

Herbert's last column at the NYT:

Losing Our Way - NYTimes.com:

"The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely."
.....

"G.E. is the nation’s largest corporation. Its chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. You can understand how ordinary workers might look at this cozy corporate-government arrangement and conclude that it is not fully committed to the best interests of working people.

Overwhelming imbalances in wealth and income inevitably result in enormous imbalances of political power. So the corporations and the very wealthy continue to do well. The employment crisis never gets addressed. The wars never end. And nation-building never gets a foothold here at home.

New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed."

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ThinkProgress � London: Half A Million In The Streets To Protest Massive Government Cuts

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Daily Kos: Why Do We Put Up With It?:

"Looking at all this from across the Atlantic, a German acquaintance of mine recently noted “if this happened in Germany, cars would be burning in the streets.” Why, he wondered, were working and middle class Americans so docile in the face of this aggression by Wall Street and its paid-for politicians in both major parties? Why were the protests in Wisconsin an anomaly, rather than part of a nation-wide outcry against the persistent assaults on the vast majority of the population by the plutocratic few?"

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The West coast through progressive eyes

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Getting Rolled

If only we had a President and Democratic party willing to fight. Leadership, I think it is called.

We are getting our asses kicked daily.

AMERICAblog News: Warren Buffet: Wealthiest winning class war in US:

"The real and only class warfare in America is the ultra-rich versus everyone else. And yes, they're winning in a big way and the Democrats can't figure out how to even slow it down. Heck, we even have a Democratic president that talks about Reagan as though he was one of the great presidents of the US"

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New Civil War erupts, led by super rich, GOP Paul B. Farrell - MarketWatch:

"Wake up America. You are under attack. Stop kidding yourself. We are at war. In fact, we have been fighting this Civil War for a generation, since Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981. Recently Buffett renewed the battle cry: The “rich class” is winning this war. Except most Americans still don’t realize they’re losing, don’t see the prize at stake.

All this was predicted back in September 2008 by Naomi Klein, author of “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” Yes, we were warned that the GOP’s Reaganomics ideology would stage a rapid comeback … warned before the market collapsed … before Wall Street was virtually bankrupt. … before Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson conned Congress into $787 billion in bailouts … warned before Obama’s 2008 election"

....

“But rest assured,” continued Klein in September 2008, Reaganomics “ideology will come roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis that will be the rationalization for deep cuts to social programs, and for a renewed push to privatize.”"

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Infographic: How unions succeeded in making your workplace safer in the 100 years since the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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He was against illegal wars before he was for them.

Joe Biden Warned In 2007 That He'd Impeach Bush For Waging War Without Congressional Approval

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Change and all.

Obama takes ‘unprecedented’ aim at leakers | The Raw Story:

"WASHINGTON (AFP) – Elected on a promise of a more transparent government, President Barack Obama has taken 'unprecedented' aim at leakers who divulge classified information to journalists, critics say.

'We've seen the current president bringing five prosecutions so far... against people for whistleblowing, for leaks of classified information,' said Daniel Ellsberg, famous for his 1971 leak of the 'Pentagon Papers,' which helped turn the tide of public opinion against the Vietnam War.

'All previous presidents put together brought three prosecutions... We see a campaign here against whistleblowing that is highly unprecedented in legal terms.'"

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Expect More Losing

Love Uptown Almanac:

A Cross to Bear | Uptown Almanac

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This slogan is not Sheen approved (and just as vapid as anything Bush came up with).

Daily Kos: Winning the future is a great slogan:

"One day, we will all be super-educated and therefore able to outwit everyone else in some sort of global game. One day, we will build stuff again, like bridges and tunnels. One day, we will become a great manufacturing power again. But all of the things that allowed us to do these things in the past, like strong unions, industrial policy, inexpensive education, heavy regulation, and taxation that redistributed wealth downward will not be found in this budget because those things aren't on the table in any branch of government. What is on the table is a future, a future where everything will work out. We will win! Hooray for optimism!

As for today and tomorrow, expect more losing."

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And Geitner is about to blow holes in the few things this bill does do. It'll be just like it never happened (Until it happens again they bail out these bastards with our money again)

Wall Street Won! Nothing to Prevent Another Crisis, Says Former FDIC Chairman Bill Isaac: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance:

"Crisis may create opportunity, but Congress completely flubbed its opportunity to enact meaningful financial reform in the aftermath of the worst crisis since the Great Depression, says the former chairman of the FDIC, Bill Isaac.

The Dodd-Frank reform bill--the one major piece of legislation to emerge since the financial crisis--is mostly meaningless, says Isaac, who is also the chairman of regional bank Fifth Third. Dodd-Frank does nothing to address the root causes of the financial crisis, Isaac says, and it won't prevent the next one."

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Brutal out there.

Hawaiian man killed while surfing at Mavericks

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No Broke

Is one broke if one has been robbed blind?

Michael Moore: America Is Not Broke:

"America is not broke.

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.

Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.

Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer 'bailout' of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'�tat, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true."

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Not a corporation in the U.S. that pays 35% in taxes. Imagine if they did. Why, we could support 4-5 more endless occupations of other countries.

ThinkProgress � If Banks Paid Their Full Taxes, We Could Rehire All 132,000 Teachers Laid Off During The Recession — Twice

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Yes.

Is it single-payer time yet? California rate hikes!

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Get a job, hippies.

Daily Kos: True Confessions of a Good-for-Nothing Freeloader

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Candidate for most obvious headline of the year.

Police: Drinking preceded Russian roulette death

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Go To Jail

Bill Gates' opinion on education is equal to my opinion on rocket science. Both are fatally ill informed.

Another corporatist who made billions from a shitty product attempting to insert himself into a dialogue in which he is clueless all for the sake of promoting his pseudo-altruistic ego.

Daily Kos: A partial response to Bill Gates' op ed about teachers:

"Today's Washington Post features an op ed by Bill Gates titled How teacher development could revolutionize our schools. Teachers are the latest focus of Gates and his foundation. Before I respond to anything in this particular piece, let me remind readers that the last time Bill Gates got enthused about something in education, it was small schools. His foundations sank a huge amount of money into getting districts to create small schools while ignoring the research that had been done by those who had focused on the issue for years. The result was that the endeavor was not all that successful, the foundation has now pulled out of the effort, in some cases pulling the plug on ongoing efforts it had encouraged, and unfortunately tarnishing the concept and making it more difficult for those attempting to do it right."

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Didn't watch the Oscars, but this has to be the best acceptance speech. Nothing will change until people are put in prison for a very long time.

YouTube - Inside Job - Oscar winner acceptance speech

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Change nobody can believe in.

Justice Cranks Up Its Covert War on Whistleblowers—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine):

"As noted previously, candidate Barack Obama promised to protect whistleblowers who come forward with information disclosing government waste, abuse, and inefficiency. Unfortunately, President Obama has done exactly the opposite. Obama’s real policies are exposed in documents filed in the prosecution of former CIA agent James Stirling."

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This 6 mile trek was my Saturday or Sunday morning bike ride for many a year.

The Golden Gate Bridge: 10 Different Perspectives (PHOTOS):

"There's no finer urban walkabout than San Francisco's 6-mile trek along the dramatic cliffs, coastal forests, posh neighborhoods and beaches that ring the northwestern quadrant of the city. Starting at the historic Cliff House restaurant by Ocean Beach, hike past the Sutro Baths, through the coastal woods of Land's End, where Golden Gate Bridge views are dramatic and plentiful. Continue through tony Sea Cliff (past Robin Williams' house), down to sandy Baker Beach, and up to the Golden Gate Bridge. Jaunt downhill past surfers at Fort Point, then across windswept, beachy Crissy Field. Stroll across the marina and up into grassy Fort Mason for a much deserved picnic and nap in the sun."

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Well, duh. Via Jayne C.

Stare at boobs for longer life: Study | TheMedGuru

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I'll Walk the Picket Line With You

There are some mighty fine fighters in WI.

Daily Kos: Wisconsin - Awestruck, a photo diary

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Where are you, Mr. President?

Flashback from candidate Obama: ‘I’ll walk the picket line with you’�|�Raw Replay:

"During a 2007 campaign speech in Spartanburg, South Carolina, then-Senator Obama told supports he would fight for collective bargaining rights if he was elected president.

“And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself. I’ll walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States.”"

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Shock Doctrine, U.S.A. - NYTimes.com:

"Here’s a thought: maybe Madison, Wis., isn’t Cairo after all. Maybe it’s Baghdad — specifically, Baghdad in 2003, when the Bush administration put Iraq under the rule of officials chosen for loyalty and political reliability rather than experience and competence."

But, also, Egypt and not in the recent good way.

Legal Schnauzer: Is the United States Becoming More and More Like Egypt?

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There are no budget problems. The problem is lack of revenue. Now where would some revenue be... hmm.....

Exclusive: Non-partisan ‘US Uncut’ group demands corporations pay taxes | The Raw Story:

"WASHINGTON – Corporate tax evasion has evolved into a virtual art form. Two-thirds of US corporations didn't pay so much as a dime in taxes between 1998 and 2005, exploiting a multitude of loopholes, according to a Congressional report."

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Good ol' Ben. Keepin' it real.

Letters of Note: Older mistresses are so grateful!!:

"From the pen of Benjamin Franklin in 1745 comes a once-scandalous letter to an unnamed recipient (very possibly fictitious but rumoured to be Cadwallader Colden) in which he begins by suggesting marriage as the best remedy for the young man's sexual urges. In the event of marriage being out of the question for his friend however, Franklin then goes on to write an eight-strong list detailing the advantages of an older mistress which, due to its 'obscene' nature, resulted in its being omitted from published collections of his writings during the 19th Century."

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It's the Inequality

Keep in mind these things never end well for the rich.

It's the Inequality, Stupid | Mother Jones

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Their remedy for everything is 2nd Amendment.

‘Use live ammunition’ against Wisconsin protesters, Indiana official says | The Raw Story

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Yep.

E.J. Dionne Jr. - The Tea Party is winning:

"Take five steps back and consider the nature of the political conversation in our nation's capital. You would never know that it's taking place at a moment when unemployment is still at 9 percent, when wages for so many people are stagnating at best and when the United States faces unprecedented challenges to its economic dominance.

No, Washington is acting as if the only real problem the United States confronts is the budget deficit; the only test of leadership is whether the president is willing to make big cuts in programs that protect the elderly; and the largest threat to our prosperity comes from public employees.

Take five more steps back and you realize how successful the Tea Party has been. No matter how much liberals may poke fun at them, Tea Party partisans can claim victory in fundamentally altering the country's dialogue."

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A fucking shame on the White House.

Infant dolphin deaths spiking in Gulf after oil spill | McClatchy

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Perfect Union

Indeed. What would it be like to have a Democratic Party that fought... That played to win... by any means necessary.

I think the world would be a much, much better place.

Alas, I can only wonder.

AMERICAblog News: GOP billionaire activists Koch Brothers allegedly own nearly every Republican in or from Wisconsin (or, How to play to win):

"In this post I asked, 'What if we played to win?' Now I'd like to ask, What would playing to win look like?

The meta answer is, it would look like it looks on a championship college football team (college teams, like political movements, are staffed with volunteers). Or, as new coach Brian Kelly of the up-and-seriously-coming Fighting Irish calls it, 'the physical and mental toughness' to play the whole game hard.

What would that mean for Progressives? For starters, it would mean not apologizing when someone says we're not 'nice'. That's like apologizing for winning.

But let's get specific. What would it mean to play the whole game hard?"

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The Dems are in the game in the 1st quarter as are WI Dems. It is sad that I don't expect them to be playing in the 2nd quarter. Hope to be proved wrong, but...

Indiana Democrats leave state, deny quorum to block anti-union bill

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"To form a more perfect UNION". Union people died for rights we are loosing today. You don't have to go to war to be a true Patriot.

Daily Kos: Union is the measure:

"There's a word in the very first line of the Constitution of the United States that describes the instrument through which freedom is held. It's a term for people acting in concert to secure their liberty and hold those rights against any opponent. That word is union.

From its founding, the story of this nation has been the story of union. It is the story of two centuries spent in building up the ability of ordinary citizens to treat with wealthy, powerful, politically connected entities. That story contains instances of tragedy. Thousands died in the struggle, many thousands more suffered poverty or were outcast from communities. But the story of union also contains far-reaching triumphs. Every paid vacation, every weekend, every overtime dollar, every protection from arbitrary dismissal and unfair treatment, everything that makes your working life tolerable, came because people stood together in union at risk to their own livelihoods and often their own lives. Some of those laws exist only because workers stood in union when not only corporations but their own government attacked them not just with guns, but with bombers. They paid the price. You reap the benefits."

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CHHHHAAAAANGE! Yeearg.

Daley, Chief Of Staff, Earned $8.7 Million From JPMorgan Last Year:

"Last year, the new White House chief of staff earned more than 180 times the pay of a typical American worker.

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Jesus. Reign the damn military-industrial complex in.

Exclusive: Military’s ‘persona’ software cost millions, used for ‘classified social media activities’ | The Raw Story:

"A fake virtual army of people could be used to help create the impression of consensus opinion in online comment threads, or manipulate social media to the point where valuable stories are suppressed."

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The dude who messed with Peanut will have to move out of the Shoals.

Don't frack with Peanut.

Community expresses love, anger after attack | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL:

"Stiff said Michael’s attacker might be safer in jail than on the streets.

“I wish I could find him and have me a ball bat,” she said.

“I don’t like to hurt anybody, but I would sure take a swing at him."

Indeed. Safer in jail.

Suspect arrested in assault on Colbert man | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL

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Remains the Same

A word on this horrible act of vandalism by an insane person...

Harvey Updyke arrested in Toomer's Corner tree poisoning, say reports | al.com

When things like this happen in Alabama it makes me infinitely happy that I no longer live in the state.

Never underestimate how deep stupid runs in AL.

First, we have the jackass tree-murderer who wiped out over a century of tradition because he prefers one football team over another. Look, I'm a HUGE Alabama Crimson Tide fan, but to 'hate' another team and its supporters is fucking booger-eating dumb. Alabamians clinging to their football, god and guns. Enough already. Evolve you knuckle-draggers.

Next, you'll have some Bama fans that smirk and approve of this asshole's actions. Grow up, already.

Then, you'll have Auburn fans and non-fans paste the blame on all Alabama fans. With this logic, these same people can be held responsible for the racists sins of past and present which infect the state like a cancer.

Speaking of which....

Finally, all of these folks could give a rats ass that big corporations, agri-farms and individual residents have been poisoning Alabama's dirt and water for decades.

Alabama: "Come for the golf, stay for the cancer".

Sheesh. Priorities, people. Priorities.

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One might punch the back of your head while the other might stroke your hair. Either way, what's happening to your back-side remains the same.

The New Obama Budget - NYTimes.com:

"There was an old Washingtoon, probably from the mid-1980s, in which Democrats meet to plan their new centrist strategy — which consists of tax cuts for the rich, reduced spending on the needy, and big defense budgets. “But how is this different from the Republicans?” asks one member of the group. “Compassion,” replies the leader. “We care about the victims of our policies.”

That’s pretty much my initial reaction to what we know so far about the Obama budget. It’s much less awful than the Republican proposal, but it moves in the same direction: listening to the administration, you’d think that discretionary spending, not health care, is at the heart of our long-run deficit problems — and you’d also think that the job of rescuing the economy was done, with unemployment still at 9 percent."

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CCCCCCHHHHHAAAAAANGE! Shared sacrifice and all.

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics:

"Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.

'Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail,' he said. 'That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that.'

I put down my notebook. 'Just that?'"

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Huzzah for Anon and Wikileaks. Two of very few entities fighting the good fight.

AMERICAblog News: How Anonymous stole 75,000 emails from a corporate 'security' firm and exposed a plot to destroy WikiLeaks allies

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I never thought I'd post anything Bieberish and I never thought I'd write "I agree" when posting something Bieberish.

ThinkProgress � Justin Bieber Won’t Become A U.S. Citizen: ‘You’re Broke Because Of Medical Bills’

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Go Packers

Why the Packers are now my favorite pro team:

Present, former Packers say they back AFL-CIO - JSOnline:

"Present and former members of the Green Bay Packers, all members of the National Football League Players Association, have signed a letter in support of the AFL-CIO's efforts to derail Gov. Scott Walker's plan to cut some union bargaining rights."

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Meee toooo.

Daily Kos: I want a Goddamned DEMOCRATIC Party:

"A party that TAXES the richest among us who can most easily afford it.

A party that OPPOSES wars we can NOT win.

A party that PROTECTS consumers and workers over corporate profit.

A party with BALLS, that stands for social and economic justice.

FUCK the bullshit. Let's not mince words, either the Democratic party stands FOR workers and consumers and their interests as citizens or they do not, and then they are just as bought and owned as the Republican Evil Empire is. At that point, Democracy ends, and corporate feudalism is complete. If both parties are pro war, pro tax cuts for the rich, pro austerity level Hoovernomics, pro torture, pro corporate and mostly or wholly owned by the banks, then there is not much choice, let alone an opportunity for true 'change'. If both parties are trying to trash FDR's 'New Deal' then there is no point."

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Uhh, how about we do this in the U.S. before we try to export something that we don't currently do in our own country (See Patriot Act).

State Department to Announce Internet Freedom Policy - NYTimes.com:

"The State Department plans to finance programs like circumvention services, which enable users to evade Internet firewalls, and training for human rights workers on how to secure their e-mail from surveillance or wipe incriminating data from cellphones if they are detained by the police."

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Difference between a Democratic President and a Republican President?

A Democrat feigns compassion for the people they willingly screw over.

Obama Budget Proposal: Cuts To Target Working Poor, Middle Class & Students (LIVE UPDATES)

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Robert Reich: The Obama Budget: And Why the Coming Debate Over Spending Cuts Has Nothing to Do With Reviving the Economy:

"President Obama has chosen to fight fire with gasoline.

Republicans want America to believe the economy is still lousy because government is too big, and the way to revive the economy is to cut federal spending. Today (Sunday) Republican Speaker John Boehner even refused to rule out a government shut-down if Republicans don't get the spending cuts they want.

Today (Monday) Obama pours gas on the Republican flame by proposing a 2012 federal budget that cuts the federal deficit by $1.1 trillion over 10 years."

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The 'shared- sacrifice' bullshit emanating from the White House... How do they keep a straight face after giving away billions of dollars in tax cuts to the Oligarchy running this country.

'We' my ass.

Hullabaloo:

"Uhm, what do you mean 'we' dude? The government is not like a family figuring out how to cut back on expenses. (If it is Dad is a real deadbeat because he decided to give up half his income last December to some rich frat boys.) And this isn't really about programs President Obama 'cares about' or about how 'tough' it is for him. President Obama will not have to personally worry about these things and neither will his children, so the idea that he 'cares' is just a tiny bit abstract in this context. This is about actual human beings and their ability to survive now and build a decent future.

The main problem with all this, of course, is that he willingly signed a tax cut extension for the wealthiest people on the planet just two months ago even as they are making money hand over fist as it is, so any talk about 'shared sacrifice' rings just a little bit hollow now. If he wants to be honest about this and admit that he's catering to spoiled plutocrats and Wall Street Demi-Gods because he truly believes that he needs to sacrifice ordinary Americans on the alter of their egos, that's one thing. But blowing smoke about how this hurts him just as much as the college kid who has to drop out in a terrible labor market --- but he's willing to make the sacrifice and so should we --- well, it is too cynically cheap for words."

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Love, Love, Love

Don't mess with hackers.

How one man tracked down Anonymous-and paid a heavy price

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In the news of no-shite....

Daily Kos: A Foxer Finally Admits: They Just Make #*It Up!

Report: Wal-Mart actually kills jobs, creates taxpayer burdens | Raw Story

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Neat.

Experts determine age of book 'nobody can read'

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Liberties Taken

Imagine, indeed.

How to Build a Progressive Tea Party | The Nation:

"Imagine a parallel universe where the Great Crash of 2008 was followed by a Tea Party of a very different kind. Enraged citizens gather in every city, week after week—to demand the government finally regulate the behavior of corporations and the superrich, and force them to start paying taxes. The protesters shut down the shops and offices of the companies that have most aggressively ripped off the country. The swelling movement is made up of everyone from teenagers to pensioners. They surround branches of the banks that caused this crash and force them to close, with banners saying, You Caused This Crisis. Now YOU Pay."

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Asking nicely always works.

Robert L. Borosage: Obama at the Chamber: Strategic Retreat:

"America is still a big market, and a good place to do business, in a world of increasing insecurity. Send a clear signal that we are going to balance our trade -- and that companies better plan for that -- and show the muscle to prove you mean it. Then lead a campaign to crack down on executive compensation schemes, and use every mechanism of government to defend the right of workers to organize. The howls from the business community and from lobby fronts like the Chamber would be deafening. But it is hard to image a more popular mix of policies -- and ones that might make a difference.

Instead, the president is in strategic retreat. He's embraced the old trade policies, backed away from confronting China, brought in JP Morgan Chase's chief lobbyist into the White House as chief of staff, and GE's CEO as leading economic adviser. The old economy is reasserting itself, with little but pleas to corporate patriotism to change it."

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Nice.

Obama To Cut Energy Assistance For Poor; Kerry Urges Him To Reconsider

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Oh the humanity. The liberties taken, I tells ya. The liberties.

The Most Impotant Letter of Them All | Uptown Almanac

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Keepin' it real in TN.

House of Pancakes, maybe....

Tenn. GOP lawmaker credits Hooters for success - Yahoo! News

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Too Much Money In It

Uh.....

‘I get it,’ Obama tells business, vows cooperation | Raw Story

Actually, he doesn't get it... at all. Not even close.

Appealing to business leaders' 'better nature' is like taking a wee whilst standing on one's head. Laws of nature support neither venture.

Daily Kos: Obama's Misunderstanding of Corporate America:

"It would be nice to think that business leaders have all just had a moral lapse for the last 30 odd years. But that's not the truth. The truth is that any CEO who behaved morally in the ways Obama is asking would be in violation of the corporate charter, which demands maximum profit to the shareholder. Corporations, by definition, exist to maximize shareholder return. End of story."

So, yeah. Change and all.

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Clueless Clinton, too.

Why can’t the US legalize drugs? There’s ‘too much money in it,’ Clinton says | Raw Story

Your modern Democratic Party, ladies and gentlemen. When in doubt, mumble then cower.

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Huzzah! Take the 3rd-Railers (Wayers) with you.

Democratic Leadership Council will fold - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com

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"But it is so expensive to live there"!

Warm temps ‘shatter, obliterate’ records across the Bay Area - Yahoo! News

Actually, it is way too cheap to live where-ever you are living. Seriously.

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Pragmatism = Surrender

Read it all:

The End of New Deal Liberalism | The Nation

We have reached a pivotal moment in government and politics, and it feels like the last, groaning spasms of New Deal liberalism. When the party of activist government, faced with an epic crisis, will not use government's extensive powers to reverse the economic disorders and heal deepening social deterioration, then it must be the end of the line for the governing ideology inherited from Roosevelt, Truman and Johnson.

Political events of the past two years have delivered a more profound and devastating message: American democracy has been conclusively conquered by American capitalism. Government has been disabled or captured by the formidable powers of private enterprise and concentrated wealth. Self-governing rights that representative democracy conferred on citizens are now usurped by the overbearing demands of corporate and financial interests. Collectively, the corporate sector has its arms around both political parties, the financing of political careers, the production of the policy agendas and propaganda of influential think tanks, and control of most major media.

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"In these terms, the administration of Barack Obama has been a crushing disappointment for those of us who hoped he would be different. It turns out Obama is a more conventional and limited politician than advertised, more right-of-center than his soaring rhetoric suggested. Most Congressional Democrats, likewise, proved weak and incoherent, unreliable defenders of their supposed values or most loyal constituencies. They call it pragmatism. I call it surrender."

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Democrats fail and quit? Wha?!? I'm shocked, I tells ya. Shocked.

More 'o the Same.

Senate Democrats Forfeit 50-Vote Option For Rules Changes

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What, Satan not available?

Obama picks RIAA lawyer to replace Kagan as solicitor general

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Change we can believe in.

Justice Department seeks to have all web surfing tracked | Raw Story

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