@davidplouffe Ted falls flat on his face. Carting him out of this place. Leaves the Senate floor in disgrace. Tea Party dies by God’s grace.
— JOBoomr (@JOBoomr) September 25, 2013
****
Chat away, back in a bit!
25
Sep
13
73 Responses to “The Bard of TOD”
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Obama White House.gov
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The People’s View
- Follow me at my new venture: Reclaim the Fight
- Ignore the bait: Why it’s the right strategy for Democrats to focus SCOTUS fight on health care
- BIG: Judge halts Trump administration attempt to shortcut the census
- Trump doesn't want peaceful transition of power. Legally, it doesn’t matter.
- Fauci goes off on Rand Paul
- Rule 44: Why Obamacare is not lost even in a deadlocked Supreme Court, but only if Biden wins
- Time to suit up. This is war.
- BREAKING: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed
- Bothsidesism comes to fact-checking: CNN's “fact-check” calling Biden ad 'misleading' proves the opposite
- Pardon me: How Donald Trump's stooges conspired with Julian Assange to exonerate Russia and undermine US Intlligence
Smartypants
- Did Zelenskyy play a role in Speaker Johnson's about-face on aid for Ukraine?
- Why did Speaker Johnson change his mind about aid to Ukraine?
- Israel owes Obama a huge debt of gratitude
- Trump doesn't care about abortions
- Right wingers use racism to deny systemic racism
- Why Christian nationalists fear freedom
- "I'd much rather be us than them"
- Right wing disinformation is fodder for fascism
- Sure, Trump is unfit for office. But his agenda would also be a monumental disaster!
- The latest right wing conspiracy theory: Trump/Russia was a CIA hoax and Putin actually favored Clinton
Steve Benen
- What you missed on Day 5 of Trump's hush money trial
- Mitt Romney: You don't pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you
- Billionaire donors rethinking Columbia University support
- How Amazon rose to the top of the tech world
- John Heilemann joins Puck as chief political columnist
- Young people have every reason to be enraged, says 'Algebra of Wealth' author
- Senate will approve foreign aid package passed by House, says senator
- Women using Ozempic report unexpected pregnancies
- Crown Prince of Iran says regime has turned country into the North Korea of the Middle East
- Trump calls on his supporters to protest in NYC, but he's not getting the circus he wants
The Obama Diary 
Great tweets!
SOSDD! CONGRATS Allison.
Shipmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate! Are you home yet?
Yes Admiral. I’ve been in me home port for about a fortnight.
😳 I thought you were still on your travels – I seriously need to keep up. A belated welcome home, Shipmate!
Aye. Just in time to watch all the b.s. rockets go off, eh?
Thanks Yardarm!
Hellooooooooo Allison!
Afternoon Chips, Thanks for all that you do! Much appreciated!
Hey Chiparoo, I have a new post ready, but I know UT is working on an Obamacare post. What’s the schedule like for today?
My beloooooooooved LL, post away – and thank you VERY much! UT’s post isn’t quite ready, so if you could post now that would be GREAT!
Done!
Yea, I’ve taken to thinking of her as our poet laureate, but bard works too. 😀
Move over, Tally!
Hey you, we already have a Tally. (We already have a few Talkys too, but they haven’t been so labelled yet.) 😉
Did you check your email? I think I sent you a note yesterday.
I know that! I wasn’t calling you Tally, VC, I was just saying our TallyBard may want to move over to make room for the newly designated bard! (confess I’m not at all sure why I decided to post it as a reply to you, but there you go!) (just answered your note, btw) 😆
Confession is good for the soul – say those who like to confess. How is your soul today? 😀
Ah, now, my Soul! How long do you have, and is there a word limit to posting a reply? 😆 My Soul is seldom affected by all the littlest that goes on in this world!
:grin; 😀
Let’s keep Cruz on display, widely, often, and front/center. He’s our best spokesman for OCare! Remember, it’s the independents, the undecided, the uninformed who we need to reach. Those folks aren’t crazy and they won’t side with someone like Cruz.
The people who would trust Cruz have already made up their minds and those numbers have not grown. They still think Bush was a great president, think they were WMDs in Iraq, believe PBO was born in Kenya, and are willing to throw any ‘pub who don’t think like Cruz under the bus.
They are willing to primary their most conservative members now. They have Senate minority leader McTurtle on the ropes and running for his life. I say keep it up, let them primary to the right of their most conservative ‘pubs.
Durbin is now on the Senate floor and he is speaking truth. Like he said, ‘Cruz wants to ride in 1st class and deny millions from even getting on the plane!’
Good West Coast morning Chipsticks & TOD family.
That is a GREAT R&S!
Jovie, thanks so much for staying in touch with us. We hear your grief and as many have stated, you are going through the stages of grief, therefore the feelings and “what if’s” that you are going through are natural. I’ve gone through them too.
But know this, we are here to help you get through the stages…and you will get through them.
JO’B – you’re pretty good with this rhyming thingy 🙂
Moooooooooooorning GGail!!!
Morning Chips. That R&S is full of gooooooood stuff! I enjoyed reading it once I got to work 🙂
So Sessions is now praising Cruz after Cruz called him and other Repub senior senate statesmen squishes, cowards and every other name in the book. They are letting a 9 month rookie run the show. When they finally stand up to him and his merry men of teadom, it will be too late to herd them back into the asylum.
I never thought I’d look forward to hear McJeebusWhatToDo speak. Especially after his esteemed former running mate all but called him a traitor yesterday.
Chips – You’re a rascal! And one of me role models. Ha.
J called me a rascal,
I am very, very shocked,
from this forth,
our bard shall be blocked.
😎
Block me, ban me: all in a day’s work!
🙂
It’s farewell to our Bard J,
who was very naughty today,
will she be sad,
or maybe a little mad,
I just couldn’t possibly say.
She goads me into replyin’
Even though I think she’s lyin’
Her viciousness hits
Like a ton of bricks
If I hit back, she’ll be the one cryin’.
I kid ya, Chips. xoxoxoxo Don’t Block Me, Baby!
😆 😆 I CANNOT compete with that, it’s waaaaaaaaay tooooooooo brilliant!!!! More! More!!!
Oh, yeah, ms. modest! You had me floored for a bit, but I crawled back up. Let’s call it a tie, shake hands, and go have some wine!
J’OB! You’re freaking awesome! Your tweet is A+++++++
I appreciate that comin’ from the princess of freaking awesome!
McDoodle is up now and he starts by talking to his ‘colleagues who weren’t even there in 2009’.
pass the popcorn
btw, McYallAreGonnaPay gets 15 minutes of the Dems time to speak cause his own party won’t yield time for him. Schumer gave him his time and he’ll just use 5 minutes after McToldYouSo finishes. He’s trying the professor/student approach, but too bad his students are throwing spitballs at him.
His party wouldn’t yield time for him? That should rough up McCain’s day nicely.
Actually, McGottaLeaveALegacy did a good job, too bad it was for his own self interest.
I agree. Credit where credit is due. Wouldn’t it have been nice if he added something rational about respecting Pres. Obama and the American people who are looking forward to Obamacare? Oh, well, I’ll keep hoping.
If any of these Republican Senators think that now would be the time to obstruct today’s procedural vote, they are more incredibly stupid than I thought.
When are they going to vote on the revised amended CR bill?
1pm est
Cruz is getting the @#@$ slapped out of him by the Dems and his own party people. Broadcast for arguments and vote is live on CSPAN2.
I heard a detailed explanation of this. They are not voting on the actual CR today, but a series of cloture, etc. I don’t pretend to understand any of it, except to say that there won’t be a final vote until Saturday. At least that’s what the congressional reporter said on cspan this morning.
Or maybe there is a vote on the house bill before they strip out the defunding? I’m completely confused.
yeah, my understanding is the final vote occurs once the Senate does its thang.
Reid needs consent from the other party to start the vote. Not getting it, he gets to waive quorum call and with no objection the vote proceeds. Gosh, I can get me a degree in Senatestuffnessism from watching this stuff.
The actual vote is to ‘advance a temporary spending bill defunding healthlaw’.
color me impressed, cookemom.
https://twitter.com/rollingingraves/status/382911653378945025
He hates $arah too. But no sympathy from me. He’s responsible for our having to suffer both of them.
Two tourists were traveling through Louisiana. As they approached Natchitoches, they started arguing about the pronunciation of the town’s name.
They argued back and forth until they stopped for lunch. As they stood at the counter, one tourist asked the blonde employee, “Before we order could you settle an argument for us? Would you please pronounce where we are very slowly.”
The blonde leaned over and said “Burrrrrrr Gurrrrrr Kingggg.”
LOL!!!! Sounds like the tourists were the blondes.
no offense meant to blondes, I don’t like the stereotype is all.
I ain’t gonna go there. It could be hazardous to my health. 🙂
LOLGOP @LOLGOP 18m
—————————–
John McCain’s complaints about the Tea Party wing of his party should always be accompanied by the chyron “The Man Who Picked Sarah Palin.”
———————————————-
the tea party is polluting all halls of Congress at all levels precisely because John McCain told the country that Sarah Palin was qualified to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
Too little, too late.
Letter from Sec Lew to Boehner on the debt limit (Hint: President Obama will not negotiate the issue):
September 25, 2013
The Honorable John A. Boehner Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Speaker:
I am writing to follow up on my previous letter regarding the debt limit and the Department of the Treasury’s ability to continue to finance the government.
As I have written previously, Treasury’s estimates are subject to inherent variability due to a variety of factors, such as the impact of sequestration and the challenges of forecasting the timing and amount of daily government transactions. On August 26, I wrote to inform you that the extraordinary measures we are employing to preserve borrowing capacity would be exhausted in the middle of October. We estimated that, at that point, we would have
approximately $50 billion to fund the government-an amount insufficient to cover net expenses for a meaningful period of time.
Since August, we have received quarterly corporate and individual tax receipts and additional information regarding the activities of certain large trust funds, including military retirement trust funds. Treasury now estimates that extraordinary measures will be exhausted no later than
October 17. We estimate that, at that point, Treasury would have only approximately $30 billion to meet our country’s commitments. This amount would be far short of net expenditures on certain days, which can be as high as $60 billion. If we have insufficient cash on hand, it would be impossible for the United States of America to meet all of its obligations for the first time in our history.
The House of Representatives recently passed legislation that includes an ill-advised provision to prioritize payments, which would not protect the full faith and credit of the United States. Any plan to prioritize some payments over others is simply default by another name. The United States should never have to choose, for example, whether to pay Social Security to seniors, pay benefits to our veterans, or make payments to state and local jurisdictions and health care providers under Medicare and Medicaid. There is no way of knowing the damage any prioritization plan would have on our economy and financial markets. It would represent an irresponsible retreat from a core American value: We are a nation that honors all of its commitments.
The debt limit impasse that took place in 2011 caused significant harm to the economy and a downgrade to the credit rating of the United States. The drawn-out dispute caused business uncertainty to increase, consumer confidence to drop, and financial markets to fall. If Congress were to repeat that brinksmanship in 2013, it could inflict even greater harm on the economy.
And if the government should ultimately become unable to pay all of its bills, the results could be catastrophic.
The President remains willing to negotiate over the future direction of fiscal policy, but he will not negotiate over whether the United States will pay its bills for past commitments. Extending borrowing authority does not increase government spending; it simply allows the Treasury to pay for expenditures Congress has already approved. As such, I respectfully urge Congress to act immediately to meet its responsibility by extending the nation’s borrowing authority.
Sincerely,
Jacob J. Lew
#TrustBarack
I don’t understand what they are voting on right now..
They are voting to pass the CR that the House sent to them exactly as it stands, defunding OCare. Once passed, the Senate (Reid) gets to take it and put their Senate spin on it (removing the defund ACA part). Then, the Senate and the House versions are ‘reconciled’ by members of both the House and Senate, or sent back to the House (‘ping-pong’) for them to put up or shut up. Boehner can agree to bring it to a vote as it stands from the Senate, or choose to leave it on his desk. In this case, he’s between the rock and hard place that Cruz put him in, by forcing him to pass a CR to defund, then saying in the Senate for 20+ hours that he’s against that very same CR. Now Boehner has to convince his folks to vote again for the umpteenth time to repeal OCare. The difference is this time they want to bring the government down if they don’t get the votes to do so.
I know this can’t be avoided, but the knuckledraggers are not going to understand that this bill has to be passed by the Senate before it can be amended (if I’m following you correctly, cookemom). I can see the ads now “Dem Sen. so-and-so voted to defund Obamacare”. It’s confusing to me, and I care about this stuff.
I don’t see it that way. I see it as:
– ‘pub House voted to defund OCare.
– Dem Senate gets it and votes on it to go through the established constitutional procedure.
– Senate gets to modify it with their version which keeps OCare and sends it back to the House
– the House once again will try to repeal, but this time it will impact the ability of the government to function
The only way it becomes a Dem issue is if there are enough Senate Dems (I think 13 needed and all Senate ‘pubs stick together) vote with the expected House’s suicide vote. Some of those Dems are in vulnerable states and most likely, depending on the count, may get a pass to vote against or abstain from the vote.
From reading other blogs and the Twit machine, their plan is backfiring, and that’s without very much help from the MSM.
You make altogether too much sense. Thanks!
Thank you…
So far, not one ‘pub has voted to stop the bill from moving forward as their golden boy wants. Now he gets to call the House pubs names when they don’t agree to the CR and send separate ones for everything but ACA.
This will get him big bucks in his campaign coffers, so no lost to him.
This is a big deal …. and it likely would never have happened in my life time if Barack Obama hadn’t been elected President – Twice.
#TrustBarack
WOW! Forget a symbolic handshake, that IS a BFD!!!
Now, if Netanyahu hadn’t told the Israeli delegation to make themselves scarce (or close their ears) when Pres. Rouhani is speaking they might have heard this with their own ears?
Nutinyahoo just rejected this in a statement saying the US should not be fooled by Iran’s remarks. I hope the Israeli people get rid of him like the Iranians got rid of Akmadinnerjacket and get someone who wants peace.
Press Secretary Jay Carney is at the podium.
Jay opens the briefing talking about the new report on the low cost of the Affordable Care Act premiums across the country. He also touches on the very informative discussion between President Obama and President Clinton on the ACA yesterday.
My guess is that Jay’s comments on the ACA will be ignored and the focus will be on the optics of no handshake with Iran.
How about this for a change of pace?
http://marcbrecy.perso.neuf.fr/history.html
New post: http://theobamadiary.com/2013/09/25/how-the-gop-became-bad-pantomime/
Great posts as always!! What a day!!! So many great articles about Cruz and that the GOP is trying to get him to shut up alongside many, many articles about ObamaCare premiums cheaper than expected. A couple of days ago my Indiana GOPer Rep tweeted proudly how he had sponsored legislation to protect America and defund ObamaCare. All but 1 reply to him were supportive of ACA. NBC had an article specifically mentioning that a family of 4 in Indianapolis could get a bare-bones plan for $11! So glad to tweet that to my rep and say the protection we needed is from him. I have been wanting some GOP lie big enough to get the attention of low-info voters and this is it. Even Texas has a lower costs than national average. The news will get out. When the Fox watchers question one lie then they will begin to question others. And the GOP are the ones who called it ObamaCare. Health insurance touches every religion, political party, you name it. It is bringing relief and saving lives.
$11 a month? Obamacare super-cheap for some, feds find
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/11-month-obamacare-super-cheap-some-feds-find-8C11250211
Bare-bones health insurance could cost just $11 a month for a family of four in Indianapolis on the federal government’s new exchanges, which start serving customers next week.
A similar family in New Orleans might pay as little as $23 a month, although they’d have to shell out $282 for a more generous “silver” plan, the Health and Human Services Department estimates…..
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Here’s some other good news. After lower than expected sales in July
New home sales climb in August
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-new-home-sales-20130925,0,2577780.story
…Sales of newly built homes climbed 7.9% from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 421,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That rate is a 12.6% increase from August 2012….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am going to tweet the NBC article to some GOPers. I’ve been trying to call my rep but the Congressional Switchboard has been busy so I’ll try that again. Wishing all TODers a day filled with unexpected joy!