Good Morning VC. I wasn’t concerned about first. Just haven’t posted for a bit and thought I would say hi to everyone. I have read most of the posts and comments. Sounds like most everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I hope the New Year will be just as great. Still hveing trouble with my computer. I’n not sure if it’s me (a little off kilter) or the keyboard is going. words jumping all over the place. 🙂
Well, hello to you, Roberta and best wishes for you, particularly health-wise! Yes, it does sound like many in TODville had a lovely Christmas. Thanks be! 😛 I confess, this morning I WAS waiting for Chips, much as I used to in the good old days. I noticed last night she had said things would be back to normal and I suppose my mind unconsciously ignored the late in the afternoon part. 😆 😆 😆
Roberta, I know the feeling. Starting Christmas day, my computer was acting as if it were overloaded on spiked eggnog. Nothing was working right. Now, it’s in computer hospital, i.e. repair shop, and I’m getting by on an old laptop that is way passed its prime. Hopefully my computer and I can start the new year on a better foot.
Morning Ms Chips and TODville! I won’t add a day of the week because truth be told, I’m not sure WHICH day it is. 😆 😆
Will be running around town again today, stimulating the economy, hopefully it won’t be for too long.
Good Morning All. Safe travels Chips.
Wish that I could be a fly on the wall when the President meets with Congressional leaders this afternoon!
Boehner and McConnell should have to pay a toll just to walk into the White House….underserving trolls……..
Thank you VC. Actually my Megan & I laid down and I finished up a steaming novel. Hot flashes and naughty mat for me. Guess I will make some soup and hope for the best. 🙂
I just put Firefox on my computer and am hoping this will solve some of the problems I have been having. So far so good.
I switched to Firefox a long while back when I was having problems watching shared videos, and it did help. However, I later opened Explorer too so that I could use both when I wanted to watch the Pres live while reading comments in TODville. The best of both worlds. 😉 😉
Morning Anne.
I’m optimistic that on or off the cliff, we’ll all wake up on January 1st and get through the day.
I’m optimistic that the President will bang some heads together this afternoon.
I’m optimistic that the country is watching this unfold, and is seeing the GOP for what they are.
I’m optimistic that the President won’t disappoint us. He never has before.
Great, Grace, and ‘Good Morning’ to you! In addition to all you have said, I’m also optimistic that the PRESIDENT IS THERE for this meeting because I trust him to cut through the fluff and get to the point he came back early to make.
Did you notice she didn’t tell us ahead of time so we couldn’t stow away on the little plane with her to check out the seating arrangement? I’ve got to give her credit for learning from her last trip not to give us too much ammunition to tease.
What? I have been out of touch for the last few days. Apparently, I’ve missed quite a lot.
Did you say that slobbering slob Tweety called My President a schmuck? WTH?
Let’s hope they don’t use the spitter’s photo on the back of the bookjacket! Dudette will get 10% of the profit after Matthews buys copies to give his family members, which could be the only sales – although he’s also a self-promoter, dontcha know. I see a dead e-book in his future, too. )
I haven’t watched his bloviating butt in so long, but shame on Chris Matthews…
At some point he’s got to get some serious therapy to sort out this problem he continues to struggle with…
The reality of a dignified, evolved, brilliant black President who’s beloved, infinitely smarter and infinitely superior to Matthews’ shallow, flippant, gossipy, brown nosing, desperate to be relevant butt…
And worse still, who’s never given Matthews’ pathetic self the time of the day or sought out his validation denying Matthews the bragging rights earned by association which they in the D.C pig sty tend to thrive on…
Good morning TOD and safe travels Ms. Chips. Congrats to all the “firsts”.
Boehner’s #1 concern is his Speakership. Everybody knows that he could bring the Senate Bill to floor, get all the Democrats and enough semi-sane Republicans to vote for it and it would pass. Boehner also knows if he does this he is putting his Speakership at risk when that election is held in about 3 weeks – especially with Cantor & his knife ready. A word about Cantor. I believe (based solely on my opinion) had his Democratic opponent Powell and his campaign manager, Mudcat Saunders, NOT run away from President Obama, Cantor may have lost his seat. Stephanie Miller began having Mudcat on her show via the phone once a week. I never heard him mention President Obama except one time and that’s when he was bashing him. I blasted Stephanie for allowing the idiot to talk about the President in that fashion and why didn’t she respond. Anyway, as far as Boehner is concerned, I don’t see him doing anything until after the new Congress is seated.
Oh yeah, and if I’m wrong, I’ll come clean Ms. CHIPS house for a month 😀
Computer troubles/Wordpress troubles? Anyway JoJo, I tried to thanks you, but also, I believe I followed a white cat on twitter today, thinling maybe it was you….
Could that be the baby face? No he was taking Andrea Mitchell’s place again. Guess who is behind the mischief on the fiscal cliff debate and putting it up as a debt crisis, non other than Andrea’s spouse. He is so icky and so is she. I have to turn her off when I get to her time.
A geek-tech note: I have been using my Kindle Fire (the fist one) this morning. The quality of the videos is outstanding and the auto-correct is not like the annoying feature on the Ipad. I may start using this toy more often.
Is There Anything Worse Than a Senator Whining About Working During the Holidays?
By Dan Amira
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Hey, guess what? Nothing requires Congress to wait until the very last second (or even after the very last second) to hammer out a compromise. Nobody is forcing Congress to reach a lofty annual gridlock quota. Congress knew the cliff was coming. In fact, Congress made the cliff. If you wanted to spend some time with your kids over Christmas break, maybe that sense of urgency you’re feeling now should have surfaced a few weeks ago. Legislating is your job, and the only reason you’re in Washington instead of seeing Les Misérables with your family is because you’re terrible at it.
Was it Sen. Barrasso, from WY? He is very whiny, sounds like a five year old. He holds town meetings on telephone conference calls. It is so hard to listen, but I believe in understanding your enemy so I listen. In fact I made notes during the last call, so I could warn Dems on what was coming. Need to refresh my memory. All that sticks with me is the whiny noise.
Indeed – they made this cliff, refused to solve it, and now want to whine about it. It really is quite disgusting. McConnell has been doing the same – as though he wasn’t party to creating this new disaster that could harm the country. It’s so irresponsible.
And the irony is, Theo, that absolutely none of this would have happened if the damned Congress had just quietly approved the debt ceiling increase last year, as they’ve always done in the past. But no, they had to make a political show of it and ended up disgracing themselves and undermining the economy. PBO’s brilliant political maneuvering got the idiots to pass the Sequestration bill and now they’re facing the consequences of that. Had they just raised the debt ceiling last year there would be no “crisis” manufactured or otherwise today and the president would still be in Hawaii.
Stopped shopping there months ago, because of their stance on gay marriage. Now there’s yet another reason not to contribute to enriching these people.
————
From the article:
“The store plans to ignore the (Affordable Care Act/Obamacare) provision anyway, opting to pay a fine instead of provide birth control, including the morning after pill commonly known as Plan B, which the owner feels goes against his personal religious values:
With Wednesday’s rejection of an emergency stay of that federal health care law by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Hobby Lobby and sister company Mardel could be subject to fines of up to $1.3 million a day beginning Tuesday.
“They’re not going to comply with the mandate,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the company. “They’re not going to offer coverage for abortion-inducing drugs in the insurance plan.”
As for the potential fines, Duncan said, “We’re just going to have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”
This ignores two obvious points — first, that Plan B is not an ‘abortion-inducing’ drug, as Hobby Lobby claims, and second, that the company may well end up paying more to avoid covering contraception than they would simply providing access. It also takes a twisted view on the ‘Freedom of Religion’ argument; the company is actually forcing its owner’s religious beliefs on all employees, no matter their personal religious views.”
They are shameless hypocrites! By the way, I think we should stop buying into the lie that Republicans hate government. They love government when it imposes fundamentalist morality on all Americans, but especially on women.
My son gave me an interesting book on the Cuban Missile Crisis for Christmas and I’m just getting into it. Odd how two sworn, deadly, enemies managed to find a way to pull back from the brink of war, by each one giving up something, but the Republicans cannot do the same with their compatriots (Dems) for the good of the country.
Today and all weekend are digital Days of Action in support of fiscal sanity and President Obama’s economic plan. If you have not already signed up, head over to http://www.theaction.org/ and see what you can do in your area. If you have a Republican Congress critter or Senator, email via their official website, or better yet, call their office and demand they listen to We The People who voted against keeping tax cuts for the top 2%. President Obama came back from his family vacation, so they can damn well solve this and not shred the social safety net.
We are having a phone bank at my house this Saturday. I encourage everyone to visit this site and sign up for an event. If you can’t find an near you start up a group. I can help if you have any questions. whatisworking@gmail.com
Apparently. The biggest hurdle mow is the Estate tax. The Republucans are really worried about Farners who have 5 million dollar Estates, so they want to protect them at all costs.
I don’t know any Farmers who have 5 million dollar Estates…
But, our Milk gets doubled come the New Year! Right?
Strange that up is down and down is up, and we’ll all be buying refrigerated combination safes to store our milk in 2013. (Somebody on Twitter wrote that we can all start drinking gas by the gallon, since it’ll be cheaper.)
Oh, wait, must be that Republicans gave up stopping the President from being re-elected, and have moved on to saving their own jobs in 2014 and beyond, by not passing any meaningful legislation that isn’t to re-name a federal building after themselves. Now I get it.
Six new hybrid vehicle models and eight more plug-ins will be offered in auto showrooms in 2013 compared to this year, according to automotive forecaster Alan Baum.
In a recent report released with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Baum noted that the selection of alternative-fuel and hybrid vehicles is continuing to expand, even as traditional gasoline-powered cars become more efficient. Even large cars and trucks are getting more miles per gallon of fuel, he said.
“We may not think of the pickup segment in regard to fuel economy, but that’s just what’s occurring,” Baum said, noting that Chrysler introduced a more fuel efficient version of its Ram this year.
“The automakers are literally in an all-of-the-above strategy,” he said. “If you want a pickup truck, fine. If you want a little car, fine. If you want a hybrid or electric, that’s OK, too.”
From 2009 to 2013, the number of hybrid vehicle models offered will have doubled to 50 and the number of plug-ins will have jumped from one to 28, said Luke Tonachel of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Especially since I had a little incident with mine on Christmas night. I was leaving my parents house to go visit my sister, driving down a long dark, poorly lit, tree-lined road, in a driving rain. A deer darted out across the road (this happens a lot on this particular road, but that night I hadn’t turned on my high beams as I usually do). I swerved to avoid the deer and dropped into a a ditch. Amazing, the car bounced up and out of the ditch! I was so grateful that she still continued to drive and I made it to my sister’s house safely, that I didn’t bother to check for damage right away. It was raining cats and dogs, bone-chilling cold and nephew came out to help me bring in Christmas gifts. Got carried away with the excitement of playing with the dog, family exchanging gifts and food, movies, etc., that the car totally slipped my mind. A few hours later (long after midnight), on the cold, rainy drive home, I noticed a big chunk of rubber in the road a half mile or so from my sister’s house. I drove past it wondering what might’ve happened to someone’s car, then remembered “oh yeh” that could’ve come off MY CAR! So I pulled over at a gas station and walked around the car looking for damage. Sure enough, I had NO BACK BUMPER! I turned around to go back to the scene – middle of the street in front a little church, approximately 5 miles and 3 streets away from where I swerved into the ditch. The bumper was still in the center of the road, but from this angle, I could see the blue Obama-Biden sticker as I approached. That left me no doubt that it was definitely mine. 🙂
Naturually, it was too big to get inside the car – although I made several attempts. I had to drag my sister out into the cold, rainy night at 1AM to put the thing in the back of her pickup truck. So I’m lucky that she lives so closeby, has a nice big truck, that my Prius was light enough to fly out of that ditch and, of course, that I wasn’t injured. My Prius still makes me smile. It might’ve help me realize my own little Christmas miracle.
Thanks ncw! The stick’s intact, but the bumper’s pretty chewed up. Not sure whether it’s from the ditch, from falling off the car or (heaven forbid) someone else hit it while it was sitting in the road. Gotta replace it. But I’m fine with that. Ironically, I just got an “I heart Obamacare” sticker in the mail from the DNC. Guess that one will go on the new bumper! 🙂
The Volt being American-made has some serious appeal for me, but I haven’t driven or been inside one, so I can’t help you with the comparison. However, if you happen to pick a Prius, I can say with certainty, you will be very happy with the car!
For quite a while I have been reading that this fiscal cliff is more like a fiscal curb, that the cuts won’t be serious right away, and we should all sit back and relax, waving our hats and yelling ‘yahoo!’ like the cowboy riding the bomb in Dr. Strangelove, but I am already operating on a shoestring: my salary has been cut back to what I was making in 2002 and my check will go down further in February when they will take another 3.1% for the state retirement fund. If payroll taxes go up and I’m hit with a big tax bill, I don’t know how I will cope right now. That seems like a pretty steep curb to me, and I’m middle-class. I can’t imagine what this must feel like to people even closer to the brink. I believe that God is my provider and I look to him but I’m wondering about all these people saying this fiscal cliff is not such a big deal.
Mary, that statement is always made by people with comfortable incomes. As difficult as your situation is, I really fear for those whose unemployment insurance will end on January 1. Having NO income at all is very frightening. I know that PBO has you and thost on unemployment in his heart during these discussions.
You are absolutely right, JackieG! By the way, I think the unemployment benefit extension expired to day. This is so disgusting. As you so ably stated “Having NO income at all is very frightening.”
Thank you. This should add nicely to our happiness quotient for the day, so we don’t forget we will have President Obama and Vice President Biden in office for four more years! (I’m sure both of them will be fine; it’s the rest of us who can’t let RWNJs stop us from celebrating all victories.)
Their goes Tom GRINCH Coburn on the Senate Floor, pushing his amendment of no levees to be built around NY for future Hurricanes.
If These Conservatives don’t like the Federal government, then tell the Private Companies to do it for free?
Not interested in what Snowe has to say, enough to read that ~ but from the headline, I’d say (1) too little, too late; (2) you got an extreme grasp of the obvious, Olympia.
Ha. The Dr. Ruth tweets about the connection between the fiscal cliff and sex are the topic of the next segment on Thomas Roberts’ show on MSNBC. She gets it. 🙂
Amen. Her reason for leaving her job made me so very sad. She has been an amazing public servant and I am so grateful for all the hard work and seriousness she put into her job.
Just called my congressman after sending numerous e-mails and my husband actually talked to someone in his office . Told him to do the right thing for once and vote for what the majority of the people want. Also called Boehner’s office. He is experiencing a lot of phone volume so left a message. Politicians usually care what the voters say but this crew could care less.
Setting aside the superfluous and inaccurate both-sides-do-it-equally coda of that statement, the truth of his argument has never been more clear. The Republicans have painted themselves into a box. We are at the point, now, that the Speaker of the House does not have the ability to bring his caucus along to make any compromises on the budget. And the simplest explanation for this is that bullshit is responsible. The Republicans have fed their base so much bullshit that they’ve crippled themselves. They are now literally buried in their own bullshit. Bullshit about taxes and revenues, bullshit about climate change and the environment, bullshit about guns and ammunition, bullshit about socialism, bullshit about the character of the president, bullshit about immigration and terrorism.
They did it to themselves. I’d like to lend them a hand and help them shovel their way out, but I don’t think they’ll let me help. One of the reasons that I think a deal is in the best interests of the country (depending on details, obviously) is that it is the best opportunity, and maybe the only opportunity, we have to dismantle this dungheap.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. – Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970)
Gregg Jarret is a right wing propagandist! The fact that he and others on his network are considered to be journalists is a major reason why the country is in this mess.
This is what is so baffling to me. Do these idiot gop in congress realize that folks in their districts TAXES ARE GOING TO GO UP? Do they understand that teabaggers use MEDICAID and medicare and are saying to KEEP THEIR HAND OFF THEIR MEDICARE and SS? Are they looking at the polls? Do they understand not only democrats use the government and that includes mostly GOP folks who are about lose their jobs in DEFENSE? Do they realize that they are going to get blamed if wallstreet start hemorrhaging money in the trillions because these idiots won’t compromise? If I were any business man on wall street I would vow to boerner and all of those in the congress, that they will be dealt with in 2014 when their money will be going to the opponent to make sure they get unseated for costing them not only money but jobs. Their is no fear with them but the confusing thing is that the end results will be worse because those folks will be feeling this fiscal cliff so the outcome will be worse coming from them.
Yes, they refuse to even close loopholes because that would be a tax increase, but somehow the failure of this deal which will cause tax increases for EVERYONE is okay.
When Pres. Obama says he champions women and always fights for them to have a seat at the table, he’s not just talking the talk. He’s walking the walk too. His 2012 campaign was full of women front and center and they delivered a big victory for him.
I am wondering what happened to the #My2K campaign to bombard our congress critters? It seems that once again the election victory lulled DEmocrats into complacency, thinking that our win was enough to change GOP intransigence. We left POTUS to do it all by himself AGAIN. We did not repeat the ferocious energy of the #40dollars campaign of 2011. So it’s not surprising that Boehner et al feel no compunction whatsoever to act in the voters’ interests. It galls me to no end
All we had were Emoprogs snipping at POTUS’ feet for rumored betrayals. And now the corporate media has cynically massaged the narrative of GOP economic terrorism into a “both-sides-do-it” fake equivalence just to muddy the waters and absolve Boehner of his spectacular FAILED stunt last week. The stenographer media corps is hellbent on protecting their own bloated salaries from tax increases, while yelling this bum rush to force POTUS to balance the books on the backs of the Middle Class & vulnerable.
This is so sick watching MSNBC, including even liberal voices like Rev Al singing from the same false equivalence hymnal this morning. Turned the TV off in disgust. Money, greed, money, greed. That’s all that drives his country.
And now, Emoprogs on Dkos pushing venal narrative that Pres Obama let EPA Direcor Lisa Jackson go cuz he’s about to “cave” on Keystone XL and she wouldn’t go along as a matter of conscience. And their source? Unnamed WH official. WTF????
Zizi – I think you and I are sharing a brain. I’ve been torturing myself this morning watching MSNBC, and I’m almost ready to throw the TV and myself out the window with all this “both sides do it” crap. They keep trotting all the cynical pundits on TV to tout that there is no end-game, and that the meeting this afternoon is a photo-op. They pepper that nonsense with talk of Hillary 2016. And then they layer a dose of “Bush Snr is US nobility” on top of all of that. I think I know what my 2013 resolution will be…
And yes, Democrats have already forgotten that hard work won the Presidency, and hard work will be needed to win anything else – President Obama is not endowed with magical powers that can just snap anything into existence.
If they think things will be different under Hillary they have another think coming. I believe this all began and is rooted in the racism that can’t accept a black man in the White House, but I think it has grown far beyond that – and by the way, they won’t be any happier with a woman, even if she’s white. This is obstruction for the goals of people like the Koch brothers, and the Republican idea that they are the only ones with legitimacy to govern. The fact that PBO is black made it easier for them to carry all the racists in their party along to self-destruction (and those folks who are not out-and-out racists, but who harbor some subconscious unease about this). His blackness is their excuse for what they want to do anyway.
Mary – I think you’re right, sadly. Racism was a convenient tool for the right wing to rile up their rabid base, and for many on the left to disrespect the Democratic leader, President Obama. Under Hillary, the right wing would just resort to their misogynistic ways. And if Hillary runs, get ready to see all the old scandals come roaring back to the fore. The only trick for Democrats to succeed, is for Dems to start supporting their candidates more forcefully, and not fall for the GOP setting the agenda and talking points time and again. Dems need to start by supporting this President.
Next to the black guy, there are two people that the RWNJ’s hate more than anyone else: Bill and Hillary Clinton. the notion that Hillary would do any better has always been a fantasy.
yessss!! preach. honestly, i’m not sure i can hang here much longer either. there was about 24 hours after the election where people were talking about “theaction.org” and comments about what to do for 2014, but sadly a day or two later, the usual people are dominating the comments sections with “can you believe joe scarborough said this…” or “chis matthews doesn’t seem so bad…” only to be inevitably followed by the next day, “chris matthews is such a jerk, can you believe he said that?!?” i rarely ever see comments about how to get the House in 2014, let alone any sustained conversations about it. it’s been allowed to continue here all day, everyday, and as you point out, president obama has been doing all kinds of things to try to keep it going such as “#My2K” and so on, but his supporters are letting him down already. there’s still time to activate of course, but not really liking the direction things are going in some circles. it’s a big internet anyway, and it would be best for more people to get down to the local democratic office instead of being online so much, so hopefully it’ll work out for the better. i know i’ve still got his back, and back that up with my actions. you in still?
And now, Emoprogs on Dkos pushing venal narrative that Pres Obama let EPA Direcor Lisa Jackson go cuz he’s about to “cave” on Keystone XL and she wouldn’t go along as a matter of conscience. And their source? Unnamed WH official.
I know, I saw that and rolled my eyes. These people will believe any hearsay – yet actually call themselves “reality based”.
Zizi2 I believe that there have been calls to congress, but the media, as usual, aren’t reporting it. I have been to two phone banks sponsored by the action for a neighboring district’s republican congressman. On Saturday, December 27 there were 10 volunteers. we made about 400 calls, and 67 people said they would call their congressman. There was also a letter to the editor that they published. We even got on a local, Burlington County Times, new video. My Team leader was interviewed along with some other volunteers. He sent us the email with the link to the video. You could actually see my hand holding my cell phone in the clip. I don’t know how to post it here on TOD. They also were supposed to have gone to the congressman’s office yesterday, but I couldn’t go.
Zizi, I am with you 100%! This is the time we should be bombarding Congress and the MSM in support of the President’s agenda. The President put out an appeal for us to do this shortly after he won the election. Sadly, I think we’ve failed him with our tepid response.
The Media Ignores Facts in Order to Push Republican Lies on Fiscal Cliff
By: Sarah Jones
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We wouldn’t be facing a fiscal cliff at all if Republicans were willing to compromise/govern. But here we are, with Republicans refusing to tax the rich and threatening to raise taxes on all Americans unless they get cuts to “entitlements” in order to play pretend fiscal conservative. They never want to address real spending issues like defense spending. A serious fiscal conservative would take aim at where the bloat and waste linger, not only at their ideological foes.
And of course our media are here to help them sell this utterly false image by ending with a quote from a Republican blaming Democrats for the fiscal cliff.
The truth is that we are here, at the edge of the cliff drama that Republicans created, because Republicans refused to raise taxes on the rich. That is why we are here. Republicans are math impaired. They want the American people to believe they can balance the budget – that they never cared about until they lost power- with spending cuts alone.
.
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Hey, media, it’s a shell game, wherein Republicans shift conspicuous things and huff about spending cuts in order to hide their refusal to raise taxes on the rich. Do the math: It’s called revenue.
It’s kinda good watching MSNBC this week at certain points, because some of the regular hosts are out celebrating the holidays with their Republican friends. It was almost pleasant to notice that Andrea Mitchell’s out, until I realized the rest of us would have to listen again to the sound of Luke Russert’s voice changing. Love how he calls congresspeople “you guys.” Wonder if he’s old enough to toast in the New Year? Ahh, nepotism. Would Tim have hired him, with zero experience, in anything other than an intern role? Maybe.
Jacq – yesterday, I heard Luke Russert mention some school field trip he took a few years ago. He really isn’t old enough to be guest-hosting anything. This is nepotism at its worst.
Luke Russert was a college graduate in 2008. He late father had taken him and Luke’s Mom to Italy for his graduation. Tim returned early and died on June 13th, 2008. NBC didn’t announce Tim’s death until Luke and his mother were notified. Though other outlets did report the news. So my guess is that Luke Russert is 26 or 27 yrs old.
Let’s wait to see what happens. The last 48 hours have seen reports of a bunch of lies from the right – as far as I’m concerned, the GOP are to blame whatever happens (or doesn’t happen).
But there’s more to the cliff than just taxes, and the middle class is literally living on the edge already. We’ve seen that a $40 difference in payroll taxes has an actual negative impact on a lot of people. Those are happening anyway – the payroll tax cut is being left to expire. Add the increase in milk prices, the increased taxes of the fiscal cliff, the cuts expected in the sequester, the increased taxes that were approved in California and other states to help with those state deficits – the many cuts that states will enact because of Republican governors who’ve cut programs that help the middle class – all of that adds up.
If I am not mistaken, today was the end of the unemployment composition, which is paid weekly. The week beginning on New Year’s eve is deemed to be part of January, 2013 Payments and not December, 2012 payments. It’s really sad what these overpaid members of Congress are doing to people who are unemployed. These are people already facing the indignity of having no jobs, but now they have to face the trauma of having no income to pay for food and shelter.
Well, these taxes were during the Clinton administration, ad far as the cuts, no deal is good. The conservatives have won the argument we ate 16 trillion in debt and that scares people!
It just does, it’s al about the debt and how we cut and add to revenue, so we can do other things!
The debt argument is a Republican-made meme. Most of that debt was incurred during Republican administrations and is sitting in foreign bank accounts of millionaires and billionaires. When Dick Cheney said “deficits don’t matter” there were no people marching in the streets protesting that statement – so I don’t buy it.
The truth that every person knows that deficits can’t be a primary concern when recovering from a recession. Everyone also understands that investments in the country are very different from tax cuts to millionaires who don’t do anything with their tax cuts but put them in their accounts or spend them on frivolities – and different still from unemployment benefits and food stamps that go directly back into the economy.
Cutting spending will not add to revenue or grow the economy. All it will do is shift the burden onto those who can least afford it – to many people who have actually paid into programs that they will now be deprived just as they desperately need them.
What’s happening to the Republican party is harming the country and it’s competitiveness, and at some point, people will need to wake up.
The president thinks the debt problem is real enough and we cannot keep running deficits.
They set this up for tue last 30 years and democrats went along with it.
And now we have to deal with it and the tea baggers.
The Republicans and Independents who lean Republican like and re-elected officials…….they hate the Democratic elected officials although it is THEIR elected officials who are disfunctional. Democrats will sit at home, won’t vote or vote for Republicans when they hate their elected officials then wonder why everything is all fucked up.
SPEAKER BOEHNER MUST ALLOW AN “UP OR DOWN” VOTE ON SENATE PASSED BILL
Speaker Boehner Won’t Hold a Simple Vote on Middle Class Tax Relief Bill
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Published on Dec 28, 2012
Rep. Van Hollen discusses on the December 28th, 2012 broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Speaker John Boehner’s refusal to let the House of Representatives work its will and hold a vote on the Democratic fiscal cliff proposal. Instead, the Speaker is following his “Majority of the Majority” rule where no bill is brought to the floor unless a majority of Republicans will vote for it. In other words, just a handful of Tea Party Republicans are all it takes to prevent a bill from being considered– even Speaker Boehner’s own “Plan B,” to name just one.
Time to let Congress know: Get rid of the Bush Tax Cuts for the very rich
By Eclectablog
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So, this notion that everyone in Congress needs to “come together” is a lot of hogwash. What needs to happen is for Republicans to actually and finally make some solid moves toward the White House. It’s their move.
As Klein says:
I don’t think you can look at the last three years and say that the White House hasn’t tried to “come together” with Republicans. I also don’t think you can look at the last three years and say that the Republicans have tried to ‘come together’ with the White House. {…}
At the elite level…they find it safer to blame both sides for not coming together than to blame one side for not allowing any coming together.
Now is the time to make the call. President Obama meets with Congressional leaders today at 3:00 p.m.
Make the call. Tell your member of Congress that it’s time the upper 2% pay their fair share.
““Don’t accept somebody else’s construction of the way things ought to be,” the president says. “It’s up to you to right wrongs. It’s up to you to point out injustices. It’s up to you to hold the system accountable, and sometimes, upend it entirely.”” – President Barack Obama
Tax question: People are freaking out about the prospect of their taxes going up temporarily while we wait for a new deal to be struck AFTER the Bush tax cuts expire. Can’t people just submit adjusted W-4s on Jan 1 that will result in less taxes taken out temporarily, then once a new tax deal is struck to make taxes go back down, submit another revision?
Dudette, this tax fixation has always irritated me, because it’s usually a freakout by people who can well afford a little extra and are just selfish about putting their own wants above other people’s needs. I wouldn’t mind one bit if we got a slight increase in taxes, if we could make sure UI was continued, the lowest income were protected and there were no hits on Medicaid, Medicare or SS. I would also gladly pay a little extra for an investment in infrastructure, climate research and disaster relief. Yeah, a hit of $2000 on a middle class family would be a sacrifice, but it’s nothing compared to what the unemployed will lose or those on the margins. We need to grow up as a nation and accept some responsibility.
The right always comes out of these things unscathed. Because, when a deal is reached, the right and left blames the President.
I have never seen anything like it!
But at the elite level — which encompasses everyone from CEOs to media professionals — there’s a desire to keep up good relations on both sides of the aisle. And so it’s safer, when things are going wrong, to offer an anodyne criticism that offends nobody — “both sides should come together!” — then to actually blame one side or the other. It’s a way to be angry about Washington’s failure without alienating anyone powerful. That goes doubly for commercial actors, like Starbucks, that need to sell coffee to both Republicans and Democrats.
That breaks the system. It hurts the basic mechanism of accountability, which is the public’s ability to apportion blame. If one side’s intransigence will lead to both sides getting blamed, then it makes perfect sense to be intransigent: You’ll get all the benefits and only half the blame.
The two parties are not equivalent right now. The two sides are not the same. If you want Washington to come together, you need to make it painful for those who are breaking it apart. Telling both sides to come together when it’s predominantly one side breaking the negotiations apart actually makes it easier on those who’re refusing to compromise.
good hawaii morning chips and tods!
hope everyone has been getting some rest, eating reeeeallly well, and enjoying time with family and friends. also, i know a lot of folks are working, and i salute you! i’ve been there, and i only hope there are many plates of cookies to help you through!
okay, here’s a post from the hill, listing and detailing all the new members of congress–new names to learn, and backgrounds to understand. cheers!
This company is based in OKC where I live. These people are truly disgusting, trying to make everyone abide by their peculiar religious ideas, then defying the court. They call themselves Christians, and this is how they behave. This whole thing has become a cause with them, and they are playing the martyr.
They are possibly the wealthiest people in the state now, and their employees are terribly paid. They are religious fanatics.
I haven’t shopped at their store for at least 20 years, since I realized that all their products were the result of child labor in China, and learned how shabbily they treated their employees.
I’m sure they will play this with the rwnjs all they can. They do a lot of private philanthropic work, but are very controlling of their money’s use.
I read that article in our paper this morning about defying the court order. They will be heroes here.
Am sending a fax right now; may do a follow-up fax and send it also. In fact, I could just keep sending faxes!! I indicated a friend had been holding for over 12 minutes to speak to someone in Boehner’ Office, that the people are speaking; that we are tired of the obstruction led in great part by Boehner himself and WE WILL NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE! The fax went thru … yea! Now let me think of a follow-up.
Thank YOU for prompting us to do something this afternoon; I am antsy waiting to see how this plays out. It does sound like our President may be playing hard ball and also leaving the ball squarely where it belongs now … in Boehner’s yard – Congress. It felt good to send the faxes, especially my last one.
“Under our proposal, any organization engaging in federal political activity of any kind, from candidacy to advocacy, would be required to disclose their donors in real time. The law would apply to every candidate running for office and every billionaire hoping to influence an election. The same rules would apply equally to corporations, nonprofits and every type of organization in between, so long as they are using money to try to influence elections.”
Murkowski crosses aisle to rein in Super PACs influence: U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is teaming with Sen…. http://t.co/CXhS60GO
Our Oregon Senator Ron Wyden teaming with Lisa Murkowski Independent from Alaska. This is a good thing which the Rs have filibustered. Lisa Murkowski is actually an Independent who was beaten in the primary by a tea party nut job. She won in a write-in in the general election. So she hates the tea party.
I think more moderate Republicans should become independents and vote to get rid of the Super Pacs and money in politics so that they can kill the “big money” that will try to defeat them in the primaries.
so glad! i don’t drink milk unless it’s in hot chocolate form. but we do eat lots of yogurt and cheese, and presumably these would be equally affected. good work jovie 🙂
‘ But the most striking symptom of the GOP’s horrible moment is the party’s inability to get done what virtually everyone here knows is in its political best interest: A hasty surrender.
~
Provoking a crisis is bad politics: Republicans are resigned to taking the blame. And it’s bad for their policy agenda: They will likely be cornered into a broader tax hike than the best deal they could get from President Barack Obama today, and with none of the spending cuts that might now be on the table.
~
“It’s a shit show,” one prominent Republican told BuzzFeed of the GOP’s messaging position. “Tax rates are going to go up on everyone, and we’re going to get the blame.” ‘
‘ Last night on Faux News, Charles Krauthammer had this to say about President Obama’s strategy in the negotiations about the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
He’s been using this, and I must say with great skill–-and ruthless skill and success–to fracture and basically shatter the Republican opposition… His objective from the very beginning was to break the will of the Republicans in the House, and to create an internal civil war. And he’s done that. ‘
‘ Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) endorsed Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Friday to replace him in the Senate. The endorsement came one day after Markey had announced his candidacy, making him the prohibitive frontrunner in a Democratic primary race to succeed Kerry following his likely Senate confirmation as secretary of state. ‘
This President will do whatever is in the best interest of the middle class. He has ALWAYS had our backs and I refuse to get on the hair on fire bandwagon. I am not worried. The entire country knows who got us into this mess…but for a few deniers. That’s all I’m sayin’ about that.
MSNBC is reporting that the President’s meeting with House & Senate leaders is over. Silence so far, but Congresswoman says “silence is sometimes golden.” We’ll have to wait a bit to see what happens.
A cowboy, who just moved to Wyoming from Texas , walks into a bar and orders three mugs of Bud. He sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.
The bartender approaches and tells the cowboy, “You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time.”
The cowboy replies, “Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Arizona , the other is in Colorado . When we all left our home in Texas , we promised that we’d drink this way to remember the days when we drank together. So I’m drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself.”
The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there.
The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn.
One day, he comes in and only orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, “I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.”
The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns in his eyes and he laughs.
“Oh, no, everybody’s just fine,” he explains, “It’s just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church and I had to quit drinking.
Again I ask with extreme frustration: Why are folks inclined to believe trashy rumors about PBO’s fiscal cliff negotiations from agenda-driven media? Haven’t we seen this movie before? My friends if you are reading this comment, would you care to mount an honest response as to why you are inclined to believe certain media personalities (who represent the 1%) and not trust the President? Why does he ALWAYS have to prove you (and the media) wrong? Why not the other way around? Shouldn’t it be the media report guilty until proven innocent and PBO innocent until proven guilty – based on what we’ve known about the two parties? Please advise.
President Obama chooses not to name the republicans and still speaks in general terms: “Americans want Washington to do their job”, etc…. We of course are reading between the lines. But it gives an excuse for the media to continue their meme that “both sides do it”.
I admit being a bit frustrated that President Obama, with the bully pulpit he has, doesn’t say it bluntly: republicans are refusing to compromise. It’s probably a tactical choice; he thinks that if he puts the blame publicly on them, they will react like the immature bunch they are and ANY chance of compromise will go out the window. But, gosh, this is so frustrating.
I just had to add, the “media” is the problem. And we will see how the Chess Master educates the public of their role in helping to spew the right- wings lies which they are paid to do. The big picture is to educate, We the People who have finally awaken after a long deep propaganda sleep. Some will. Some won’t.
To those who dare to hope and put our frustrations aside and allow this man just BE…… Be who he is. Be the man he has always will be. He is not a bully even if he is in the bullpit.
He is The President of the United States.
Please proceed, repug assholes. Your good thing is about to come to an end.
(drop the mic while I sashay to the next post)……..follow me at your own risk. Our President has a country to run and he needs warriors, not frustrated followers who is hoping for Samuel L. Jackson responses.
All “F” ing year the 113th GOP lead congress did was pass over 200 insignificant bills like name post offices and re-name everything after Reagan. If the 114th lead GOP congress do the same thing with these insignificant bills, PBO needs to VETO these stupid bills that do not create jobs. Maybe this will get the American media and public’s attention when NO bills are passed.
Obama White House.gov
The Obama Diary 
Goof ZMorning Chips. And all the TOD Family.,
Man my spelling has gotten way off line. Good Morning Chips, and all the TOD Family. (better)
I kind of like it. It’s a good day for goofing off a bit and I slept in today and had lots of zzzzzz’s. Seems perfect. Good morning and congrats.
Suweet – a 3-way infusion! 😆 GM, Roberta & Mariele!
Good Morning VC. I wasn’t concerned about first. Just haven’t posted for a bit and thought I would say hi to everyone. I have read most of the posts and comments. Sounds like most everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I hope the New Year will be just as great. Still hveing trouble with my computer. I’n not sure if it’s me (a little off kilter) or the keyboard is going. words jumping all over the place. 🙂
Well, hello to you, Roberta and best wishes for you, particularly health-wise! Yes, it does sound like many in TODville had a lovely Christmas. Thanks be! 😛 I confess, this morning I WAS waiting for Chips, much as I used to in the good old days. I noticed last night she had said things would be back to normal and I suppose my mind unconsciously ignored the late in the afternoon part. 😆 😆 😆
Roberta, I know the feeling. Starting Christmas day, my computer was acting as if it were overloaded on spiked eggnog. Nothing was working right. Now, it’s in computer hospital, i.e. repair shop, and I’m getting by on an old laptop that is way passed its prime. Hopefully my computer and I can start the new year on a better foot.
Good morning, what’s in your orange juice? Congratulations on #1. 😉
And Goof ZMorning to you too, Roberta! This may be my new, favorite greeting!
I like it too. 😉
So many of my mornings seem to be Goof ZMornings
I’ll buy into that! 🙂
All royalties to be paid to Roberta in MN
Makin’ out my check!
good morning TOD
Morning Ms Chips and TODville! I won’t add a day of the week because truth be told, I’m not sure WHICH day it is. 😆 😆
Will be running around town again today, stimulating the economy, hopefully it won’t be for too long.
I love West Wing Week.
Oops! A 4-way entrance! I guess we all lost some weight over the hols, or Chips widened the door! Way to go, you all! 😉
Good Morning TOD lovies!
Good Morning All. Safe travels Chips.
Wish that I could be a fly on the wall when the President meets with Congressional leaders this afternoon!
Boehner and McConnell should have to pay a toll just to walk into the White House….underserving trolls……..
Obama/Biden 4 more years
Greg Sargent @ThePlumLineGS
Shorter Boehner: We already passed bill giving Ds nothing, & we can’t pass anything else, so it’s on Senate to find compromise
Boehner is a disgrace.
I’d like to see that meeting live on C-Span! Love seeing the masterful and legendary President Obama at work.
Good morning First Roberta, Chips & everyone! Nice video Chips.
Morming! Who’s optimistic today?
After I take my nap I will be. 🙂
Disgusting I need to lay down for a bit.
Not disgusting, R in Mn, just the body advocating for itself. If it didn’t some of us would run it ragged. Have a good rest.
Thank you VC. Actually my Megan & I laid down and I finished up a steaming novel. Hot flashes and naughty mat for me. Guess I will make some soup and hope for the best. 🙂
I just put Firefox on my computer and am hoping this will solve some of the problems I have been having. So far so good.
I switched to Firefox a long while back when I was having problems watching shared videos, and it did help. However, I later opened Explorer too so that I could use both when I wanted to watch the Pres live while reading comments in TODville. The best of both worlds. 😉 😉
Morning Anne.
I’m optimistic that on or off the cliff, we’ll all wake up on January 1st and get through the day.
I’m optimistic that the President will bang some heads together this afternoon.
I’m optimistic that the country is watching this unfold, and is seeing the GOP for what they are.
I’m optimistic that the President won’t disappoint us. He never has before.
awesome. I’m right there with you. xoxo on every single point of optimism.
I am with you. No feelings of dread and dismay for Mr.
Should be “for me.”
Great, Grace, and ‘Good Morning’ to you! In addition to all you have said, I’m also optimistic that the PRESIDENT IS THERE for this meeting because I trust him to cut through the fluff and get to the point he came back early to make.
True dat Grace! So good to hear it. Thanks!
Sorry, not me. Hope my view is wrong. Good Morning to you. How are you feeling?
I left a note for you on the previous thread. Hang in there.
Thanks. I can’t find the note, how do I go back? Sorry, I am still new at this. Trying though.
Found it. Thanks, yes, action, that’s what we need. I need to familiarize myself with media shortcuts so I am not always learning on the job!
Good morning TOD, good morning Chips! Congrats Roberta
Thanks to everyone who congrats me on first. I think I shared with 3 others tho. 🙂
Heading home today? From north pole?
😆
Did you notice she didn’t tell us ahead of time so we couldn’t stow away on the little plane with her to check out the seating arrangement? I’ve got to give her credit for learning from her last trip not to give us too much ammunition to tease.
I was thinking the same thing. Hope she has a better flight than the last, that if she is going by wings.
Tweety is a “statesman”???
Griffin is a perfect example of The Peter Principle.
Exactly. And if Matthews is a statesman, I’m Queen Elizabeth II.
So, calling the President of the United States a “schmuck ” on live TV just two days ago makes him a Statesman ?
( Chris was discussed the WSJ article about what went on at his last meeting with Boehner )
What? I have been out of touch for the last few days. Apparently, I’ve missed quite a lot.
Did you say that slobbering slob Tweety called My President a schmuck? WTH?
Sounds like none of us missed much out of his spitter mouth, eh, D?
Some spit spray, saliva trails and more bullshit, J.
Sounds like a good title for his next book. He’s an author, dontcha know. He’s a statesman and he writes books.
Spit Spray, Saliva Trails and More Bullshit
By Chris Matthews
Spit Spray, Saliva Trails and More Bullshit
By Chris Matthews
Haha! Love it, Jacquelineboomer and original creator Dudette. 😀 Sounds like a new bestseller to me.
Let’s hope they don’t use the spitter’s photo on the back of the bookjacket! Dudette will get 10% of the profit after Matthews buys copies to give his family members, which could be the only sales – although he’s also a self-promoter, dontcha know. I see a dead e-book in his future, too. )
LOL! 😀
I haven’t watched his bloviating butt in so long, but shame on Chris Matthews…
At some point he’s got to get some serious therapy to sort out this problem he continues to struggle with…
The reality of a dignified, evolved, brilliant black President who’s beloved, infinitely smarter and infinitely superior to Matthews’ shallow, flippant, gossipy, brown nosing, desperate to be relevant butt…
And worse still, who’s never given Matthews’ pathetic self the time of the day or sought out his validation denying Matthews the bragging rights earned by association which they in the D.C pig sty tend to thrive on…
Spot on, Chi!
Please, don’t hold back, I’m enjoying it. 🙂
I guess Griffin’s dictionary has a warped definition of “statesman.”
I think he means they’re both from the same state…lol.
Well, Dotster, Phil Griffin just told us everything we needed to know about his judgment–it stinks.
Good morning everyone. Safe travels Chips.
Good morning TOD and safe travels Ms. Chips. Congrats to all the “firsts”.
Boehner’s #1 concern is his Speakership. Everybody knows that he could bring the Senate Bill to floor, get all the Democrats and enough semi-sane Republicans to vote for it and it would pass. Boehner also knows if he does this he is putting his Speakership at risk when that election is held in about 3 weeks – especially with Cantor & his knife ready. A word about Cantor. I believe (based solely on my opinion) had his Democratic opponent Powell and his campaign manager, Mudcat Saunders, NOT run away from President Obama, Cantor may have lost his seat. Stephanie Miller began having Mudcat on her show via the phone once a week. I never heard him mention President Obama except one time and that’s when he was bashing him. I blasted Stephanie for allowing the idiot to talk about the President in that fashion and why didn’t she respond. Anyway, as far as Boehner is concerned, I don’t see him doing anything until after the new Congress is seated.
Oh yeah, and if I’m wrong, I’ll come clean Ms. CHIPS house for a month 😀
I agree entirely…
And that Mudcat Sanders is another one of those racists with a D after his name…
Incredibly disrespectful of the President and no different from the tea baggers really…
So in the end for all their distancing, President Obama won Virginia and Powell and Saunders lost…
Some of these so-called Demcrats will never learn…
Yep, I agree with you. I like Powell and Mudcat but they wanted the “bubba” vote and did not try to ride the coat tails of Obama.
Computer troubles/Wordpress troubles? Anyway JoJo, I tried to thanks you, but also, I believe I followed a white cat on twitter today, thinling maybe it was you….
The MSNBC Anchor on right now, is dumb.
He knows nothing, easily gets overpowered and is not politically educated. Or at least it seems that way. LOL!
Could that be the baby face? No he was taking Andrea Mitchell’s place again. Guess who is behind the mischief on the fiscal cliff debate and putting it up as a debt crisis, non other than Andrea’s spouse. He is so icky and so is she. I have to turn her off when I get to her time.
A geek-tech note: I have been using my Kindle Fire (the fist one) this morning. The quality of the videos is outstanding and the auto-correct is not like the annoying feature on the Ipad. I may start using this toy more often.
Ceb are you also using the Kindle Fire for posting here? Just curious. I am considering buying one, but only one with wi-fi.
Is There Anything Worse Than a Senator Whining About Working During the Holidays?
By Dan Amira
——————————–
Hey, guess what? Nothing requires Congress to wait until the very last second (or even after the very last second) to hammer out a compromise. Nobody is forcing Congress to reach a lofty annual gridlock quota. Congress knew the cliff was coming. In fact, Congress made the cliff. If you wanted to spend some time with your kids over Christmas break, maybe that sense of urgency you’re feeling now should have surfaced a few weeks ago. Legislating is your job, and the only reason you’re in Washington instead of seeing Les Misérables with your family is because you’re terrible at it.
———————————–
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/senators-are-sad-they-have-to-work.html
Was it Sen. Barrasso, from WY? He is very whiny, sounds like a five year old. He holds town meetings on telephone conference calls. It is so hard to listen, but I believe in understanding your enemy so I listen. In fact I made notes during the last call, so I could warn Dems on what was coming. Need to refresh my memory. All that sticks with me is the whiny noise.
Indeed – they made this cliff, refused to solve it, and now want to whine about it. It really is quite disgusting. McConnell has been doing the same – as though he wasn’t party to creating this new disaster that could harm the country. It’s so irresponsible.
And the very complicit media continues to actively aid them…
Thanks Chi for continuing to highlight the complicity of the media in all this mess!
And the irony is, Theo, that absolutely none of this would have happened if the damned Congress had just quietly approved the debt ceiling increase last year, as they’ve always done in the past. But no, they had to make a political show of it and ended up disgracing themselves and undermining the economy. PBO’s brilliant political maneuvering got the idiots to pass the Sequestration bill and now they’re facing the consequences of that. Had they just raised the debt ceiling last year there would be no “crisis” manufactured or otherwise today and the president would still be in Hawaii.
Good morning Chips and TOD family. I hope for everyone to have a great day today. Congrats Roberta-MN on being first this lovely Friday morning. TGIF
Good Morning Everyone! I hope you all have a beautiful day!
Wow, a 4-way for first! Is THAT a TOD first? 🙂
Congrats Roberta, vc, Mariele, and Betsy!
I will NOT be going to Hobby Lobby….http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/12/28/1378741/hobby-lobby-ignoring-court/
Stopped shopping there months ago, because of their stance on gay marriage. Now there’s yet another reason not to contribute to enriching these people.
————
From the article:
“The store plans to ignore the (Affordable Care Act/Obamacare) provision anyway, opting to pay a fine instead of provide birth control, including the morning after pill commonly known as Plan B, which the owner feels goes against his personal religious values:
With Wednesday’s rejection of an emergency stay of that federal health care law by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Hobby Lobby and sister company Mardel could be subject to fines of up to $1.3 million a day beginning Tuesday.
“They’re not going to comply with the mandate,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the company. “They’re not going to offer coverage for abortion-inducing drugs in the insurance plan.”
As for the potential fines, Duncan said, “We’re just going to have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”
This ignores two obvious points — first, that Plan B is not an ‘abortion-inducing’ drug, as Hobby Lobby claims, and second, that the company may well end up paying more to avoid covering contraception than they would simply providing access. It also takes a twisted view on the ‘Freedom of Religion’ argument; the company is actually forcing its owner’s religious beliefs on all employees, no matter their personal religious views.”
No more Hobby Lobby for me either, don’t want to participate in their type of religion…..
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/12/28/1356701/what-could-have-been-the-most-important-bills-blocked-by-republicans-in-2012/
Add this to the link I posted in the last thread….you see where the RWNJ’s allegiances lie.
LOLGOP @LOLGOP
—————————————
Who would have thought electing GOPs whose only qualification is hating government would give us the least productive Congress in 60 years?
——————————————–
Me
Why do they work for the government then? That’s what I don’t understand.
They are shameless hypocrites! By the way, I think we should stop buying into the lie that Republicans hate government. They love government when it imposes fundamentalist morality on all Americans, but especially on women.
My son gave me an interesting book on the Cuban Missile Crisis for Christmas and I’m just getting into it. Odd how two sworn, deadly, enemies managed to find a way to pull back from the brink of war, by each one giving up something, but the Republicans cannot do the same with their compatriots (Dems) for the good of the country.
great point.
Excellent observation, maryl1. You should turn that into a tweet.
Think I will! Thanks!
Well done!
Thanks 🙂
Great tweet, Mary!
Thank you!
Liar.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-mcconnell-reid-fiscal-cliff-20121227,0,914131.story
Today and all weekend are digital Days of Action in support of fiscal sanity and President Obama’s economic plan. If you have not already signed up, head over to http://www.theaction.org/ and see what you can do in your area. If you have a Republican Congress critter or Senator, email via their official website, or better yet, call their office and demand they listen to We The People who voted against keeping tax cuts for the top 2%. President Obama came back from his family vacation, so they can damn well solve this and not shred the social safety net.
We are having a phone bank at my house this Saturday. I encourage everyone to visit this site and sign up for an event. If you can’t find an near you start up a group. I can help if you have any questions. whatisworking@gmail.com
Apparently. The biggest hurdle mow is the Estate tax. The Republucans are really worried about Farners who have 5 million dollar Estates, so they want to protect them at all costs.
I don’t know any Farmers who have 5 million dollar Estates…
But, our Milk gets doubled come the New Year! Right?
Strange that up is down and down is up, and we’ll all be buying refrigerated combination safes to store our milk in 2013. (Somebody on Twitter wrote that we can all start drinking gas by the gallon, since it’ll be cheaper.)
Oh, wait, must be that Republicans gave up stopping the President from being re-elected, and have moved on to saving their own jobs in 2014 and beyond, by not passing any meaningful legislation that isn’t to re-name a federal building after themselves. Now I get it.
Grew up on farm in Iowa, parents deceased, three farms, not even 1 million dollar Estate, but then again we were Farmers, not a large agri-business.
Six new hybrid vehicle models and eight more plug-ins will be offered in auto showrooms in 2013 compared to this year, according to automotive forecaster Alan Baum.
In a recent report released with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Baum noted that the selection of alternative-fuel and hybrid vehicles is continuing to expand, even as traditional gasoline-powered cars become more efficient. Even large cars and trucks are getting more miles per gallon of fuel, he said.
“We may not think of the pickup segment in regard to fuel economy, but that’s just what’s occurring,” Baum said, noting that Chrysler introduced a more fuel efficient version of its Ram this year.
“The automakers are literally in an all-of-the-above strategy,” he said. “If you want a pickup truck, fine. If you want a little car, fine. If you want a hybrid or electric, that’s OK, too.”
From 2009 to 2013, the number of hybrid vehicle models offered will have doubled to 50 and the number of plug-ins will have jumped from one to 28, said Luke Tonachel of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2012/12/28/forecast-shows-more-hybrids-electric-vehicles-in-2013/
I am getting one!
Lovin’ my PriusC. You go Jovie!
I love my Prius too!
Especially since I had a little incident with mine on Christmas night. I was leaving my parents house to go visit my sister, driving down a long dark, poorly lit, tree-lined road, in a driving rain. A deer darted out across the road (this happens a lot on this particular road, but that night I hadn’t turned on my high beams as I usually do). I swerved to avoid the deer and dropped into a a ditch. Amazing, the car bounced up and out of the ditch! I was so grateful that she still continued to drive and I made it to my sister’s house safely, that I didn’t bother to check for damage right away. It was raining cats and dogs, bone-chilling cold and nephew came out to help me bring in Christmas gifts. Got carried away with the excitement of playing with the dog, family exchanging gifts and food, movies, etc., that the car totally slipped my mind. A few hours later (long after midnight), on the cold, rainy drive home, I noticed a big chunk of rubber in the road a half mile or so from my sister’s house. I drove past it wondering what might’ve happened to someone’s car, then remembered “oh yeh” that could’ve come off MY CAR! So I pulled over at a gas station and walked around the car looking for damage. Sure enough, I had NO BACK BUMPER! I turned around to go back to the scene – middle of the street in front a little church, approximately 5 miles and 3 streets away from where I swerved into the ditch. The bumper was still in the center of the road, but from this angle, I could see the blue Obama-Biden sticker as I approached. That left me no doubt that it was definitely mine. 🙂
Naturually, it was too big to get inside the car – although I made several attempts. I had to drag my sister out into the cold, rainy night at 1AM to put the thing in the back of her pickup truck. So I’m lucky that she lives so closeby, has a nice big truck, that my Prius was light enough to fly out of that ditch and, of course, that I wasn’t injured. My Prius still makes me smile. It might’ve help me realize my own little Christmas miracle.
Nice story, Dudette. Glad you’re safe and your Obama-Biden sticker still intact. It was a Christmas miracle indeed.
Thanks ncw! The stick’s intact, but the bumper’s pretty chewed up. Not sure whether it’s from the ditch, from falling off the car or (heaven forbid) someone else hit it while it was sitting in the road. Gotta replace it. But I’m fine with that. Ironically, I just got an “I heart Obamacare” sticker in the mail from the DNC. Guess that one will go on the new bumper! 🙂
Interesting story Dudette. I’m torn between getting a Prius and the Chevy volt next year. Got only a few more days to decide.
The Volt being American-made has some serious appeal for me, but I haven’t driven or been inside one, so I can’t help you with the comparison. However, if you happen to pick a Prius, I can say with certainty, you will be very happy with the car!
For quite a while I have been reading that this fiscal cliff is more like a fiscal curb, that the cuts won’t be serious right away, and we should all sit back and relax, waving our hats and yelling ‘yahoo!’ like the cowboy riding the bomb in Dr. Strangelove, but I am already operating on a shoestring: my salary has been cut back to what I was making in 2002 and my check will go down further in February when they will take another 3.1% for the state retirement fund. If payroll taxes go up and I’m hit with a big tax bill, I don’t know how I will cope right now. That seems like a pretty steep curb to me, and I’m middle-class. I can’t imagine what this must feel like to people even closer to the brink. I believe that God is my provider and I look to him but I’m wondering about all these people saying this fiscal cliff is not such a big deal.
Mary, that statement is always made by people with comfortable incomes. As difficult as your situation is, I really fear for those whose unemployment insurance will end on January 1. Having NO income at all is very frightening. I know that PBO has you and thost on unemployment in his heart during these discussions.
Mary, that statement is always made by people with comfortable incomes.
you tell the truth
I agree. I can’t even imagine what it would be like. I realize that I am not the worst case at all! How can they do this to people? I have no answer.
You are absolutely right, JackieG! By the way, I think the unemployment benefit extension expired to day. This is so disgusting. As you so ably stated “Having NO income at all is very frightening.”
This is quite a wonderful collage of 2012 put together by the Washington Post. The Obama-Biden 2012 photo and video moments are especially wonderful.
Thank you. This should add nicely to our happiness quotient for the day, so we don’t forget we will have President Obama and Vice President Biden in office for four more years! (I’m sure both of them will be fine; it’s the rest of us who can’t let RWNJs stop us from celebrating all victories.)
Their goes Tom GRINCH Coburn on the Senate Floor, pushing his amendment of no levees to be built around NY for future Hurricanes.
If These Conservatives don’t like the Federal government, then tell the Private Companies to do it for free?
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/12/28/1378671/olympia-snowe-norquist-pledge-could-send-nation-over-the-fiscal-cliff/
Not interested in what Snowe has to say, enough to read that ~ but from the headline, I’d say (1) too little, too late; (2) you got an extreme grasp of the obvious, Olympia.
We’re talking to THESE people??
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2012/12/28/the-done-nothing-congress/
We’ve gotta stop allowing people get into government who have no intention of governing.
Thanks, buddy:)
‘Twernt nuthin’ friend! 🙂
🙂 Hugs to you!!
Backatcha! {{{desertflower}}}
Info on Deaniac’s debut on the radio talking about SS and chained CPI
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2012/12/programming-note-i-will-be-on-radio.html
Ha. The Dr. Ruth tweets about the connection between the fiscal cliff and sex are the topic of the next segment on Thomas Roberts’ show on MSNBC. She gets it. 🙂
Amen. Her reason for leaving her job made me so very sad. She has been an amazing public servant and I am so grateful for all the hard work and seriousness she put into her job.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/12/thank-you-lisa-jackson.html
Coburn is doing every amendment to take from the Sandy relief bill.
If you listen to him, he really hates Government.
Just called my congressman after sending numerous e-mails and my husband actually talked to someone in his office . Told him to do the right thing for once and vote for what the majority of the people want. Also called Boehner’s office. He is experiencing a lot of phone volume so left a message. Politicians usually care what the voters say but this crew could care less.
THIS! http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/12/28/101852/18?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boomantribune%2FSvpw+%28Booman+Tribune%29
Setting aside the superfluous and inaccurate both-sides-do-it-equally coda of that statement, the truth of his argument has never been more clear. The Republicans have painted themselves into a box. We are at the point, now, that the Speaker of the House does not have the ability to bring his caucus along to make any compromises on the budget. And the simplest explanation for this is that bullshit is responsible. The Republicans have fed their base so much bullshit that they’ve crippled themselves. They are now literally buried in their own bullshit. Bullshit about taxes and revenues, bullshit about climate change and the environment, bullshit about guns and ammunition, bullshit about socialism, bullshit about the character of the president, bullshit about immigration and terrorism.
They did it to themselves. I’d like to lend them a hand and help them shovel their way out, but I don’t think they’ll let me help. One of the reasons that I think a deal is in the best interests of the country (depending on details, obviously) is that it is the best opportunity, and maybe the only opportunity, we have to dismantle this dungheap.
Gerrymandering puts them more at risk in their primaries that in general elections so they have no motivation for compromising.
Thanks DF. Good read. The very last word in BooMan’s post says it all – “dungheap”.
If its too big to clean-up or shovel, plant some strawberries in it then feed it to the elephant!
Fox “reporter” gets OWNED.
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! A bit of light into the darkness that is Faux.
G’day all. Late for muster I am, but faux sucks!
they DO suck…that’s why their viewers are so damn uninformed and brain dead….
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. – Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970)
Totally.
Great quote, yardarm!
Thanks. It enlightening researching ’em.
Congressman Van Hollen is always great! Love him.
I really really like Chris Van Hollen, I wished he could take Hoyer’s place.
Gregg Jarret is a right wing propagandist! The fact that he and others on his network are considered to be journalists is a major reason why the country is in this mess.
It’s because a “worker bee” crafted it!
A Democratic ‘worker bee’
This is what is so baffling to me. Do these idiot gop in congress realize that folks in their districts TAXES ARE GOING TO GO UP? Do they understand that teabaggers use MEDICAID and medicare and are saying to KEEP THEIR HAND OFF THEIR MEDICARE and SS? Are they looking at the polls? Do they understand not only democrats use the government and that includes mostly GOP folks who are about lose their jobs in DEFENSE? Do they realize that they are going to get blamed if wallstreet start hemorrhaging money in the trillions because these idiots won’t compromise? If I were any business man on wall street I would vow to boerner and all of those in the congress, that they will be dealt with in 2014 when their money will be going to the opponent to make sure they get unseated for costing them not only money but jobs. Their is no fear with them but the confusing thing is that the end results will be worse because those folks will be feeling this fiscal cliff so the outcome will be worse coming from them.
Yes, they refuse to even close loopholes because that would be a tax increase, but somehow the failure of this deal which will cause tax increases for EVERYONE is okay.
They don’t care about constituents, kinona. They care about DONORS!
When Pres. Obama says he champions women and always fights for them to have a seat at the table, he’s not just talking the talk. He’s walking the walk too. His 2012 campaign was full of women front and center and they delivered a big victory for him.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nisha-chittal/2012-election_b_2337227.html#s1907816&title=The_Women_of
Love that! Thanks for sharing this UT!
For moms and the people that love them:)
http://www.momsrising.org/
I am wondering what happened to the #My2K campaign to bombard our congress critters? It seems that once again the election victory lulled DEmocrats into complacency, thinking that our win was enough to change GOP intransigence. We left POTUS to do it all by himself AGAIN. We did not repeat the ferocious energy of the #40dollars campaign of 2011. So it’s not surprising that Boehner et al feel no compunction whatsoever to act in the voters’ interests. It galls me to no end
All we had were Emoprogs snipping at POTUS’ feet for rumored betrayals. And now the corporate media has cynically massaged the narrative of GOP economic terrorism into a “both-sides-do-it” fake equivalence just to muddy the waters and absolve Boehner of his spectacular FAILED stunt last week. The stenographer media corps is hellbent on protecting their own bloated salaries from tax increases, while yelling this bum rush to force POTUS to balance the books on the backs of the Middle Class & vulnerable.
This is so sick watching MSNBC, including even liberal voices like Rev Al singing from the same false equivalence hymnal this morning. Turned the TV off in disgust. Money, greed, money, greed. That’s all that drives his country.
And now, Emoprogs on Dkos pushing venal narrative that Pres Obama let EPA Direcor Lisa Jackson go cuz he’s about to “cave” on Keystone XL and she wouldn’t go along as a matter of conscience. And their source? Unnamed WH official. WTF????
I’ve had it!
Zizi – I think you and I are sharing a brain. I’ve been torturing myself this morning watching MSNBC, and I’m almost ready to throw the TV and myself out the window with all this “both sides do it” crap. They keep trotting all the cynical pundits on TV to tout that there is no end-game, and that the meeting this afternoon is a photo-op. They pepper that nonsense with talk of Hillary 2016. And then they layer a dose of “Bush Snr is US nobility” on top of all of that. I think I know what my 2013 resolution will be…
And yes, Democrats have already forgotten that hard work won the Presidency, and hard work will be needed to win anything else – President Obama is not endowed with magical powers that can just snap anything into existence.
I am more than livid. This country deserves whatever doom is coming. I only pray for POTUS’ and his family’s safety & sanity.
If they think things will be different under Hillary they have another think coming. I believe this all began and is rooted in the racism that can’t accept a black man in the White House, but I think it has grown far beyond that – and by the way, they won’t be any happier with a woman, even if she’s white. This is obstruction for the goals of people like the Koch brothers, and the Republican idea that they are the only ones with legitimacy to govern. The fact that PBO is black made it easier for them to carry all the racists in their party along to self-destruction (and those folks who are not out-and-out racists, but who harbor some subconscious unease about this). His blackness is their excuse for what they want to do anyway.
Mary – I think you’re right, sadly. Racism was a convenient tool for the right wing to rile up their rabid base, and for many on the left to disrespect the Democratic leader, President Obama. Under Hillary, the right wing would just resort to their misogynistic ways. And if Hillary runs, get ready to see all the old scandals come roaring back to the fore. The only trick for Democrats to succeed, is for Dems to start supporting their candidates more forcefully, and not fall for the GOP setting the agenda and talking points time and again. Dems need to start by supporting this President.
Next to the black guy, there are two people that the RWNJ’s hate more than anyone else: Bill and Hillary Clinton. the notion that Hillary would do any better has always been a fantasy.
yessss!! preach. honestly, i’m not sure i can hang here much longer either. there was about 24 hours after the election where people were talking about “theaction.org” and comments about what to do for 2014, but sadly a day or two later, the usual people are dominating the comments sections with “can you believe joe scarborough said this…” or “chis matthews doesn’t seem so bad…” only to be inevitably followed by the next day, “chris matthews is such a jerk, can you believe he said that?!?” i rarely ever see comments about how to get the House in 2014, let alone any sustained conversations about it. it’s been allowed to continue here all day, everyday, and as you point out, president obama has been doing all kinds of things to try to keep it going such as “#My2K” and so on, but his supporters are letting him down already. there’s still time to activate of course, but not really liking the direction things are going in some circles. it’s a big internet anyway, and it would be best for more people to get down to the local democratic office instead of being online so much, so hopefully it’ll work out for the better. i know i’ve still got his back, and back that up with my actions. you in still?
I know, I saw that and rolled my eyes. These people will believe any hearsay – yet actually call themselves “reality based”.
They’re just as bad as many on the kook right. 🙄
Zizi2 I believe that there have been calls to congress, but the media, as usual, aren’t reporting it. I have been to two phone banks sponsored by the action for a neighboring district’s republican congressman. On Saturday, December 27 there were 10 volunteers. we made about 400 calls, and 67 people said they would call their congressman. There was also a letter to the editor that they published. We even got on a local, Burlington County Times, new video. My Team leader was interviewed along with some other volunteers. He sent us the email with the link to the video. You could actually see my hand holding my cell phone in the clip. I don’t know how to post it here on TOD. They also were supposed to have gone to the congressman’s office yesterday, but I couldn’t go.
The sentence above should be news video, not new video, sorry!
Zizi, I am with you 100%! This is the time we should be bombarding Congress and the MSM in support of the President’s agenda. The President put out an appeal for us to do this shortly after he won the election. Sadly, I think we’ve failed him with our tepid response.
The Media Ignores Facts in Order to Push Republican Lies on Fiscal Cliff
By: Sarah Jones
———————————
We wouldn’t be facing a fiscal cliff at all if Republicans were willing to compromise/govern. But here we are, with Republicans refusing to tax the rich and threatening to raise taxes on all Americans unless they get cuts to “entitlements” in order to play pretend fiscal conservative. They never want to address real spending issues like defense spending. A serious fiscal conservative would take aim at where the bloat and waste linger, not only at their ideological foes.
And of course our media are here to help them sell this utterly false image by ending with a quote from a Republican blaming Democrats for the fiscal cliff.
The truth is that we are here, at the edge of the cliff drama that Republicans created, because Republicans refused to raise taxes on the rich. That is why we are here. Republicans are math impaired. They want the American people to believe they can balance the budget – that they never cared about until they lost power- with spending cuts alone.
.
.
Hey, media, it’s a shell game, wherein Republicans shift conspicuous things and huff about spending cuts in order to hide their refusal to raise taxes on the rich. Do the math: It’s called revenue.
The grifting never ends.
—————————————
http://www.politicususa.com/media-plays-republican-shell-game-fiscal-cliff-ignoring-math.html
It’s kinda good watching MSNBC this week at certain points, because some of the regular hosts are out celebrating the holidays with their Republican friends. It was almost pleasant to notice that Andrea Mitchell’s out, until I realized the rest of us would have to listen again to the sound of Luke Russert’s voice changing. Love how he calls congresspeople “you guys.” Wonder if he’s old enough to toast in the New Year? Ahh, nepotism. Would Tim have hired him, with zero experience, in anything other than an intern role? Maybe.
Jacq – yesterday, I heard Luke Russert mention some school field trip he took a few years ago. He really isn’t old enough to be guest-hosting anything. This is nepotism at its worst.
I heard that, as well, yesterday. Think he was at the National Zoo. OMG.
Luke Russert was a college graduate in 2008. He late father had taken him and Luke’s Mom to Italy for his graduation. Tim returned early and died on June 13th, 2008. NBC didn’t announce Tim’s death until Luke and his mother were notified. Though other outlets did report the news. So my guess is that Luke Russert is 26 or 27 yrs old.
Now what?
Let’s wait to see what happens. The last 48 hours have seen reports of a bunch of lies from the right – as far as I’m concerned, the GOP are to blame whatever happens (or doesn’t happen).
Going off the cliff is looking better and better, of course the media is all freaking out because their taxes might go up. Yup!
But there’s more to the cliff than just taxes, and the middle class is literally living on the edge already. We’ve seen that a $40 difference in payroll taxes has an actual negative impact on a lot of people. Those are happening anyway – the payroll tax cut is being left to expire. Add the increase in milk prices, the increased taxes of the fiscal cliff, the cuts expected in the sequester, the increased taxes that were approved in California and other states to help with those state deficits – the many cuts that states will enact because of Republican governors who’ve cut programs that help the middle class – all of that adds up.
And people on unemployment compensation will see it ended immediately.
If I am not mistaken, today was the end of the unemployment composition, which is paid weekly. The week beginning on New Year’s eve is deemed to be part of January, 2013 Payments and not December, 2012 payments. It’s really sad what these overpaid members of Congress are doing to people who are unemployed. These are people already facing the indignity of having no jobs, but now they have to face the trauma of having no income to pay for food and shelter.
Well, these taxes were during the Clinton administration, ad far as the cuts, no deal is good. The conservatives have won the argument we ate 16 trillion in debt and that scares people!
It just does, it’s al about the debt and how we cut and add to revenue, so we can do other things!
The debt argument is a Republican-made meme. Most of that debt was incurred during Republican administrations and is sitting in foreign bank accounts of millionaires and billionaires. When Dick Cheney said “deficits don’t matter” there were no people marching in the streets protesting that statement – so I don’t buy it.
The truth that every person knows that deficits can’t be a primary concern when recovering from a recession. Everyone also understands that investments in the country are very different from tax cuts to millionaires who don’t do anything with their tax cuts but put them in their accounts or spend them on frivolities – and different still from unemployment benefits and food stamps that go directly back into the economy.
Cutting spending will not add to revenue or grow the economy. All it will do is shift the burden onto those who can least afford it – to many people who have actually paid into programs that they will now be deprived just as they desperately need them.
What’s happening to the Republican party is harming the country and it’s competitiveness, and at some point, people will need to wake up.
The president thinks the debt problem is real enough and we cannot keep running deficits.
They set this up for tue last 30 years and democrats went along with it.
And now we have to deal with it and the tea baggers.
https://twitter.com/NJedwina/status/284735244068872192
Go Edwina!!
What did Matt Damon say or do now?
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/28/matt-damon-laments-u-s-politics-were-genuinely-fcked-on-long-term-issues/
The Republicans and Independents who lean Republican like and re-elected officials…….they hate the Democratic elected officials although it is THEIR elected officials who are disfunctional. Democrats will sit at home, won’t vote or vote for Republicans when they hate their elected officials then wonder why everything is all fucked up.
Public tickets to the inaugural ball-
http://action.2013pic.org/page/s/inaugural-ball-public-tickets-signup
Signup now!
Contradicts the Republican “source”. There is so much disinformation campaign going on from the Rs.
Unfortunately, I am already seeing the reflexive knee jerk reactions of some on the left that PBO is giving away the farm.
It’s not even reflexive anymore – for some, it’s their constant state of being.
SPEAKER BOEHNER MUST ALLOW AN “UP OR DOWN” VOTE ON SENATE PASSED BILL
Speaker Boehner Won’t Hold a Simple Vote on Middle Class Tax Relief Bill
——————————
Published on Dec 28, 2012
Rep. Van Hollen discusses on the December 28th, 2012 broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Speaker John Boehner’s refusal to let the House of Representatives work its will and hold a vote on the Democratic fiscal cliff proposal. Instead, the Speaker is following his “Majority of the Majority” rule where no bill is brought to the floor unless a majority of Republicans will vote for it. In other words, just a handful of Tea Party Republicans are all it takes to prevent a bill from being considered– even Speaker Boehner’s own “Plan B,” to name just one.
—————————————-
This is a pretty amazing and thought provoking photo-journal
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/12/al-qaeda-disbands-says-job-of-destroying-us-economy-now-in-congress-hands.html?mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(62)
That was very funny and scarily accurate.
Time to let Congress know: Get rid of the Bush Tax Cuts for the very rich
By Eclectablog
——————————
So, this notion that everyone in Congress needs to “come together” is a lot of hogwash. What needs to happen is for Republicans to actually and finally make some solid moves toward the White House. It’s their move.
As Klein says:
I don’t think you can look at the last three years and say that the White House hasn’t tried to “come together” with Republicans. I also don’t think you can look at the last three years and say that the Republicans have tried to ‘come together’ with the White House. {…}
At the elite level…they find it safer to blame both sides for not coming together than to blame one side for not allowing any coming together.
Now is the time to make the call. President Obama meets with Congressional leaders today at 3:00 p.m.
Make the call. Tell your member of Congress that it’s time the upper 2% pay their fair share.
888-344-0683
————————————-
http://www.eclectablog.com/2012/12/time-to-let-congress-know-get-rid-of-the-bush-tax-cuts-for-the-very-rich.html
http://www.barackobama.com/our-journey
Lovely.
Fantastic!!! What an amazing journey it’s been! I like the What Comes Next comments at the bottom too!
““Don’t accept somebody else’s construction of the way things ought to be,” the president says. “It’s up to you to right wrongs. It’s up to you to point out injustices. It’s up to you to hold the system accountable, and sometimes, upend it entirely.”” – President Barack Obama
Tax question: People are freaking out about the prospect of their taxes going up temporarily while we wait for a new deal to be struck AFTER the Bush tax cuts expire. Can’t people just submit adjusted W-4s on Jan 1 that will result in less taxes taken out temporarily, then once a new tax deal is struck to make taxes go back down, submit another revision?
Plus whatever doesn’t happen they decide in 2013 can be retroactive to 1/31/12…….I work in government so i know how they do things.
Dudette, this tax fixation has always irritated me, because it’s usually a freakout by people who can well afford a little extra and are just selfish about putting their own wants above other people’s needs. I wouldn’t mind one bit if we got a slight increase in taxes, if we could make sure UI was continued, the lowest income were protected and there were no hits on Medicaid, Medicare or SS. I would also gladly pay a little extra for an investment in infrastructure, climate research and disaster relief. Yeah, a hit of $2000 on a middle class family would be a sacrifice, but it’s nothing compared to what the unemployed will lose or those on the margins. We need to grow up as a nation and accept some responsibility.
THIS!
Let me add….
the highest income earners should pay more……
hey hey
The right always comes out of these things unscathed. Because, when a deal is reached, the right and left blames the President.
I have never seen anything like it!
‘Come together’ breaks Washington apart
Posted by Ezra Klein
—————–
But at the elite level — which encompasses everyone from CEOs to media professionals — there’s a desire to keep up good relations on both sides of the aisle. And so it’s safer, when things are going wrong, to offer an anodyne criticism that offends nobody — “both sides should come together!” — then to actually blame one side or the other. It’s a way to be angry about Washington’s failure without alienating anyone powerful. That goes doubly for commercial actors, like Starbucks, that need to sell coffee to both Republicans and Democrats.
That breaks the system. It hurts the basic mechanism of accountability, which is the public’s ability to apportion blame. If one side’s intransigence will lead to both sides getting blamed, then it makes perfect sense to be intransigent: You’ll get all the benefits and only half the blame.
The two parties are not equivalent right now. The two sides are not the same. If you want Washington to come together, you need to make it painful for those who are breaking it apart. Telling both sides to come together when it’s predominantly one side breaking the negotiations apart actually makes it easier on those who’re refusing to compromise.
———————————————-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/28/come-together-breaks-washington-apart/
This is actually a good smack down of the phony baloney from Starbucks.
I wish Ezra Klein was consistent in doing exactly what he is now preaching.
good hawaii morning chips and tods!
hope everyone has been getting some rest, eating reeeeallly well, and enjoying time with family and friends. also, i know a lot of folks are working, and i salute you! i’ve been there, and i only hope there are many plates of cookies to help you through!
okay, here’s a post from the hill, listing and detailing all the new members of congress–new names to learn, and backgrounds to understand. cheers!
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/267759-2012-new-members-guide
Hey Susanne – good morning to you!
morning theo! how’s your day?
I have to be really pissed off about something to link to dkos, but this infuriates me:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/28/1174404/-Hobby-Lobby-to-defy-courts-over-contraceptive-ruling-and-impose-religious-views-on-workers
This company is based in OKC where I live. These people are truly disgusting, trying to make everyone abide by their peculiar religious ideas, then defying the court. They call themselves Christians, and this is how they behave. This whole thing has become a cause with them, and they are playing the martyr.
They are possibly the wealthiest people in the state now, and their employees are terribly paid. They are religious fanatics.
I haven’t shopped at their store for at least 20 years, since I realized that all their products were the result of child labor in China, and learned how shabbily they treated their employees.
I’m sure they will play this with the rwnjs all they can. They do a lot of private philanthropic work, but are very controlling of their money’s use.
I read that article in our paper this morning about defying the court order. They will be heroes here.
Smells like a hefty lawsuit to me…….
Let’s hope!
I’ve been on hold for Speaker Boehner’s office for the last 12 minutes.
Please join me in calling the Speaker’s office and demanding a vote on the Middle Class Relief Tax Bill.
Phone
202-225-0600 Office
202-225-5117 Fax
Twitter
@SpeakerBoehner
Email
http://www.Speaker.gov/contact
Remember TOD…Put your concerns in action. We are the change that we seek.
Am sending a fax right now; may do a follow-up fax and send it also. In fact, I could just keep sending faxes!! I indicated a friend had been holding for over 12 minutes to speak to someone in Boehner’ Office, that the people are speaking; that we are tired of the obstruction led in great part by Boehner himself and WE WILL NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE! The fax went thru … yea! Now let me think of a follow-up.
2ND FAX GOING THRU! Just telling them to vote now!
3rd FAX sent … the winds of change are blowing across the world!
Thank you daisydem!!
De nada.
Thank YOU for prompting us to do something this afternoon; I am antsy waiting to see how this plays out. It does sound like our President may be playing hard ball and also leaving the ball squarely where it belongs now … in Boehner’s yard – Congress. It felt good to send the faxes, especially my last one.
It took me 43 minutes to get a live person at Boehner’s office. He is being bombarded with calls.
Good!
Thank you, Donna. Just called and left a detailed message. Sent an e-mail.
Fantastic LDS – Thank You!!
Great Job Donna! I will certainly join you. This is exactly what we all should be doing. It’s what the President urged us to do.
I will believe it when I see it!
I don’t trust anything John “bitter old man” McCain says.
My thoughts exactly, anniebella!
I don’t trust anything Kelly O’Donnell sources or telegraphs…
She’s too awful for words…
Excellent analytical piece by Deaniac.
“Under our proposal, any organization engaging in federal political activity of any kind, from candidacy to advocacy, would be required to disclose their donors in real time. The law would apply to every candidate running for office and every billionaire hoping to influence an election. The same rules would apply equally to corporations, nonprofits and every type of organization in between, so long as they are using money to try to influence elections.”
Our Oregon Senator Ron Wyden teaming with Lisa Murkowski Independent from Alaska. This is a good thing which the Rs have filibustered. Lisa Murkowski is actually an Independent who was beaten in the primary by a tea party nut job. She won in a write-in in the general election. So she hates the tea party.
I think more moderate Republicans should become independents and vote to get rid of the Super Pacs and money in politics so that they can kill the “big money” that will try to defeat them in the primaries.
S&P will not down grade if we go over the cliff.
How nice!
Fun reminder—-because— more fun needed
I agree…
Couldn’t have been much of a governor or anything else decent for that matter if even after so many years he is disliked that much…
The wounds are still raw with the Massachusetts electorate…very telling…
this one is fun: the wonky awards from wapo
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/28/presenting-the-second-annual-wonky-awards/
(in which our hero sam wang gets a prize)
See? My milk is being taken care of-
I told Congressman Bill young to include Milk and I guess that he listened? Lol!
Hubby will be happy with that too jovie. He drinks A LOT of milk.
so glad! i don’t drink milk unless it’s in hot chocolate form. but we do eat lots of yogurt and cheese, and presumably these would be equally affected. good work jovie 🙂
Yes they would.
MSNBC kiddies on “The Cycle” are really giddy.
It’s sad how the destruction of our country and democracy by the GOP is simply fodder and more show ratings material for the crap we call our media…
Shameful…
buzzfeed takes down the rethugs:
‘ But the most striking symptom of the GOP’s horrible moment is the party’s inability to get done what virtually everyone here knows is in its political best interest: A hasty surrender.
~
Provoking a crisis is bad politics: Republicans are resigned to taking the blame. And it’s bad for their policy agenda: They will likely be cornered into a broader tax hike than the best deal they could get from President Barack Obama today, and with none of the spending cuts that might now be on the table.
~
“It’s a shit show,” one prominent Republican told BuzzFeed of the GOP’s messaging position. “Tax rates are going to go up on everyone, and we’re going to get the blame.” ‘
http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/are-these-guys-really-in-charge-of-the-republican
Yes, they will get the blame and rightfully so.
Hey 9t9 lil sumpin from da bsmt! 😀
http://www.jazzonthetube.com/videos/charlie-parker/i-didnt-know-what-time-it-was.html
Niiiiice! I just saved that channel to my favorites! Thanks Yardarm!!
Happy New Year!
Thanks Dear! Happy New Year to you as well!
Yardarm and Dudette, I really love you guys! You share the best music by some of the giants!
Wish I could get an accurate time line on you so I could share more of my “basement” tunes. 😀
Go suck on eggs, fire baggers!
this just makes me giggle and smile!
‘ Last night on Faux News, Charles Krauthammer had this to say about President Obama’s strategy in the negotiations about the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
He’s been using this, and I must say with great skill–-and ruthless skill and success–to fracture and basically shatter the Republican opposition… His objective from the very beginning was to break the will of the Republicans in the House, and to create an internal civil war. And he’s done that. ‘
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/12/krauthammer-feeling-ruthless-part-of.html
Best comment by a Repub pundtwit ever!
Ha! Brings to mind the “I will crush them” video. Smartypants has it…
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2011/12/then-i-will-crush-them.html
yes! he’s given them every opportunity to do the right thing. and now, the ‘crush’!
‘ Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) endorsed Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Friday to replace him in the Senate. The endorsement came one day after Markey had announced his candidacy, making him the prohibitive frontrunner in a Democratic primary race to succeed Kerry following his likely Senate confirmation as secretary of state. ‘
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/john-kerry-ed-markey_n_2377196.html
I hope he wins…
See no reason why he shouldn’t. I look to Pierce for a good view of MA politics, and he is quite pleased with Markey.
I totally agree with you, Japa!
This President will do whatever is in the best interest of the middle class. He has ALWAYS had our backs and I refuse to get on the hair on fire bandwagon. I am not worried. The entire country knows who got us into this mess…but for a few deniers. That’s all I’m sayin’ about that.
And it Behooves people to stay away from Huff Puff and Daily Kos, they are run by the Young Turks.
Can’t say it enough…I despise Cenk Ugyur and his fellow young Turks…
May they all permanently disappear in 2013…
Boehner going off to sulk and drink in a hole somewhere. Thinking about how he can keep his job.
https://twitter.com/NJedwina/status/284775676341547008
MSNBC is reporting that the President’s meeting with House & Senate leaders is over. Silence so far, but Congresswoman says “silence is sometimes golden.” We’ll have to wait a bit to see what happens.
That was Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
A cowboy, who just moved to Wyoming from Texas , walks into a bar and orders three mugs of Bud. He sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.
The bartender approaches and tells the cowboy, “You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time.”
The cowboy replies, “Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Arizona , the other is in Colorado . When we all left our home in Texas , we promised that we’d drink this way to remember the days when we drank together. So I’m drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself.”
The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there.
The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn.
One day, he comes in and only orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, “I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.”
The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns in his eyes and he laughs.
“Oh, no, everybody’s just fine,” he explains, “It’s just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church and I had to quit drinking.
“Hasn’t affected my brothers though.”
🙂
Hahahahahahahahahaha!! 😀
Ditto. Had to share that one with my son!
That’s funny.
Hahahaha
Alright!—-Richard Wolfe in for Tweety.
Have they gotten rid of Tweety for good? Just dreaming.
MSNBC just reported that PBO will make a statement at 5:45PM (Eastern) in the WH briefing room.
Yes I heard POTUS will speak at 5:45pm too.
I’ll wait for PBO’s statement. Anything coming from Boehner’s office is shit.
Oh my goodness!!!! Wolfeeeee is guest hosting Hard Ball today.
Again I ask with extreme frustration: Why are folks inclined to believe trashy rumors about PBO’s fiscal cliff negotiations from agenda-driven media? Haven’t we seen this movie before? My friends if you are reading this comment, would you care to mount an honest response as to why you are inclined to believe certain media personalities (who represent the 1%) and not trust the President? Why does he ALWAYS have to prove you (and the media) wrong? Why not the other way around? Shouldn’t it be the media report guilty until proven innocent and PBO innocent until proven guilty – based on what we’ve known about the two parties? Please advise.
http://www.c-span.org/Events/White-House-Top-Lawmakers-Hold-Fiscal-Cliff-Talks-Pres-Obama-to-Deliver-Remarks/10737436902-4/
President’s statement here:
News Conference: PBO puts the pressure on GOP. Up or down vote, no obstruction!!
And “I don’t care about your Effing questions, Jake Tapper!” No questions from media taken by PBO.
President Obama chooses not to name the republicans and still speaks in general terms: “Americans want Washington to do their job”, etc…. We of course are reading between the lines. But it gives an excuse for the media to continue their meme that “both sides do it”.
I admit being a bit frustrated that President Obama, with the bully pulpit he has, doesn’t say it bluntly: republicans are refusing to compromise. It’s probably a tactical choice; he thinks that if he puts the blame publicly on them, they will react like the immature bunch they are and ANY chance of compromise will go out the window. But, gosh, this is so frustrating.
I just had to add, the “media” is the problem. And we will see how the Chess Master educates the public of their role in helping to spew the right- wings lies which they are paid to do. The big picture is to educate, We the People who have finally awaken after a long deep propaganda sleep. Some will. Some won’t.
To those who dare to hope and put our frustrations aside and allow this man just BE…… Be who he is. Be the man he has always will be. He is not a bully even if he is in the bullpit.
He is The President of the United States.
Please proceed, repug assholes. Your good thing is about to come to an end.
(drop the mic while I sashay to the next post)……..follow me at your own risk. Our President has a country to run and he needs warriors, not frustrated followers who is hoping for Samuel L. Jackson responses.
All “F” ing year the 113th GOP lead congress did was pass over 200 insignificant bills like name post offices and re-name everything after Reagan. If the 114th lead GOP congress do the same thing with these insignificant bills, PBO needs to VETO these stupid bills that do not create jobs. Maybe this will get the American media and public’s attention when NO bills are passed.