ooops

NJ.com: Gov. Chris Christie used his address at Seton Hall University’s commencement ceremony yesterday to urge the graduates to follow his lead and become “disrupters” who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo.

But before he could begin the speech, part of the 2,281-member graduating class did a little disrupting of their own and loudly booed the governor as he walked to the podium.

The chorus of jeers echoing through the Izod Center in East Rutherford mostly came from arts and science graduates and students in Seton Hall’s education college, whose dean had questioned whether Christie was an appropriate graduation speaker. Other graduates countered the boos by giving the governor a standing ovation.

…Near the end of his speech, someone in the arena yelled “Shut up!”…..

Full article here

a stunning blow to rusty’s leadership

TPM: With the help of 81 Democrats, the House passed legislation Thursday to fund the government through September and avoid a government shutdown. Fifty-nine Republicans defected from GOP leadership, leaving Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) woefully short of the necessary majority to pass the bill without Democratic help. The final vote was 260-167.

The fact that Boehner needed nearly 40 Democratic votes to pass the resolution and avoid a government shutdown was a stunning blow to his leadership, especially after he shut House Democrats out of budget negotiations and just a few days ago dismissed the need to secure any Democratic votes.

More here

Thank you Maji 😉

167? But as Maji said, Rusty promised this would be a ‘no-go’ if he couldn’t get 218 Republicans to vote for it. Oh dear.

open for business (video added)

YouTube link here

President Obama meets students from Altona Middle School in Longmont, Colorado at the White House, April 11. The President received a letter from Shalini Schane, second from left, who was worried worried that her son Adam, right, would have his trip canceled if there were to be a government shutdown last Friday.

President Barack Obama walks back to the Oval Office

opinions….

TPM: Nearly six in ten Americans approve of the eleventh hour budget deal struck between Congress and the White House to avert a government shutdown, according to a CNN poll  released on Monday. And what’s more, a plurality give Democrats the most credit for making it happen.

….While majorities of both Democrats and independents support the compromise, a plurality of Republicans dislike it, with fully half of them saying that their party gave up too much ground on the deal.

Democrats supported the compromise by a 66%-28% split, while independents backed it 56%-39%. But among Republicans, 47% saw the deal as a good thing, while 49% gave it a thumbs down because they felt the party had gotten the short end of the stick. Exactly 50% of Republicans said the party’s leaders had given up too much in the final deal.

More here

About the next figures ….. most of the Professional Left must have had their phones switched off when Gallup called – I mean, they are the base, aren’t they?

CNN Poll

guess who visited the lincoln memorial today? (videos added)

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

After signing a measure to keep the government open, President Obama visited the Lincoln Memorial and stated:

“Because Congress was able to settle its differences, that’s why this place is open today and everybody’s able to enjoy their visit. And that’s the kind of future cooperation I hope we have going forward. Because this is what America is all about: Everybody from different places enjoying those things that bind us together. It is wonderful to spend time with you guys, I hope you have a great time.”

(YouTube links to the same videos here and here)

President Barack Obama visits the Lincoln Memorial at the National Mall in Washington, Saturday, April 9

boehner, april 7: “there’s no daylight between the tea party & me”…..

…..err.

Yes, I heroically ventured in to Teabagger land again:

Just go away, Boehner. Thanks for handing zero and Reid a victory so they can parade about on TV. Grow a pair, you weakling.

Is anyone up for helping to Primary Boehner?

Boehner is history!!! They agreed to kill babies. VOTE NO!!!!

What’s that rumbling in the distance??? RUN!! It’s a Boehner CAVE IN!!

now that the dems know all they have to do is threaten a government shutdown and Boehner will tear-up, and cave in.

If Bachmann will cave to harry Reid, how can anyone expect her to stand up to Al Qaeda?

John Boohoo is done. He’s public enemy number 2 next to any democrat. Well, maybe he’s just “number 2”. Either way…done.

I’m becoming more convinced we need Trump.

When Obama told John Boehner, your eyes are so deep and John started crying and agreed for deal.

Its OVER. These crap heads cant even win a little battle. We must purge them from our party. We must defeat Boehner in his next election. This is the crap that lead to this revolution and they did not get the message. They will get the message now. This is a horrible cave in!!!

The Democrats are laughing at Boehner.

Boner is a spineless, gutless eunuch. I called his office a week or so ago and got one of his young, arrogant snots who made it clear that he didn’t care to hear comments.

Yet once again the Republicans have caved, just like the Gingrich Republicans caved in ‘94. Meet the new scumbags, same as the old scumbags.

Boner can go cry himself to sleep! What a pussy! I am ashamed of these LOOZAH’S

Boehner is political toaste. I will pay money to his republican challenger in a primary.

Boehner cried, and babies died.

The reports I have read said there are about $38.5 billion in cuts. Whoopee.

I’m not sure I want to go to battle if the Republicans have my back.

Did the Republicans win ANYTHING?

The Tea Party won’t be wiping his tears. He can cry when he realizes We The People want him to resign and let a real man take over.

Barack has now came one step closer to be our king. Shame on us.

I just tried calling Boners office and the message box is full, naturally. I did send a scathing email.

How long will God have mercy on a corrupt nation?

Bachman said she was going after the 105 billion hidden obamacare money. What happened there? NADA. nothing Zilch.

Obama’s approval rating just went up ten points. Take a bow, Boner. Way to make the man not have to break a sweat

****

This Teabagger had no words, only a picture:

Crikey Rusty, that’s a whole lot of daylight….

“nope. zero.”

As spotted by The Only Adult In The Room:

MSNBC: As the debate raged in Washington over a budget to keep the government from shutting down, the issue of abortion funding was consistently in the spotlight.

….when Boehner asked for the elimination of funds for Title X – spending for women’s health and family planning organizations that also provide abortion services – the aide said the president flatly refused.

The President replied, “Nope. Zero.”

Boehner continued to push to discuss the funds, the aide recalled.

The President repeated: “Nope. Zero.”

“‘John, this is it,'” the aide described the president as saying. “‘This is it, John.”

There was a long pause as no one spoke in the Oval Office.

The Planned Parenthood issue was resolved that Thursday night.

holding the high ground

JM Ashby (Bobcesca.com): ….Politically I believe this is a major victory for President Obama and, to a lesser extent, senate Democrats. Throughout this entire process, the president has been calm, accommodating, reasonable, and very calculated in his framing of the situation. The more defiantly-left among us may not appreciate the president’s hijacking of certain talking-points, but that political-investment strategy has just paid dividends.

…In contrast, Republicans … displayed to the entire nation, with much fanfare, that they were willing to push the government to the brink of shutdown in an effort to achieve their ideological agenda of defunding reproductive healthcare for women…

…President Obama never dispensed so much as a hint that he desired a government shutdown, and that matters, because an even larger battle is ahead of us. President Obama has effectively held the high-ground, and the more political capital he can accumulate before facing the coming Republican ideological crusade, the better chance the rest of us have of not being consumed by it.

Ironically, the reaction to the actions of the leadership of both parties from the far-left and far-right respectively were nearly identical. From the fringes of the spectrum, both parties were accused of “caving” or “selling-out,” but in the world in which most Americans reside, a world in which next week’s paycheck is next week’s meal ticket, such accusations are effectively meaningless. And those Americans are the ones who decide elections.

Claiming that compromise should be out of the question may sound good when hurled from the safety of your armchair, but it’s not an effective way to achieve our long-term goals. You can’t implement your goals if you don’t have the legislative power to do so, and the only way to obtain the legislative power to do so is by winning elections. And you don’t win elections by playing the role of an ideologue when it comes time to deal with your political adversaries.

… if your strategy for regaining that power is to focus on your inadequacies rather than your strengths, then you’re basically just pissing into the wind while your enemies laugh at you and prepare for war.

Full post here

Thank you AnitaW

behind the scenes

CNN: … The White House was feeling optimistic that it was on the verge of a deal Thursday night. John Boehner and Harry Reid left the Oval Office meeting, “there was kind of an agreement on a range and agreement on the kind of composition,” said one of five officials who briefed reporters.

But by three or four o’clock in the morning Friday, the officials described a breakdown … “There was a higher number,” said one official, “north of $80 billion dollars. There was also renewed talk about family planning.

As sharp verbal punches were thrown throughout the day on Capitol Hill, the White House kept silent. The president never made any public statements and spokesman Jay Carney never held his daily briefing. That was not by accident…

It was a “directive from him [president],” one official said. The idea was to stay out of sight, avoid finger pointing, and allow negotiators to work out a compromise.

…”Every time the process seemed to get bogged down the president picked up the phone and made clear that we had a responsibility to the American people…that we shouldn’t play politics. He did not want this to become a family planning bill he wanted it to be a spending bill”…

…on Friday the president spoke by phone with House Speaker Boehner four times. He also spoke with Senate majority leader Reid “multiple times”…

During one of the Oval Office meeting this week, one of the officials described how the president went through every controversial rider that Republicans wanted …In describing the tone of these meetings one official said “at no point did the discussions in the room get personal”. The president never scolded Boehner for public comments that appeared to contradict what was being discussed in private negotiations….

Neither side wanted a government shutdown, but the president wasn’t willing to give ground on allowing the controversial family planning rider to be part of the deal. “…we just were not going to move on this”…

….So what forced the deal? “The clock probably played the most important factor,” said one of the officials. With the clock winding down Rob Nabors, the President’s Legislative Affairs Director, was on the Hill, kept the White House informed throughout the negotiation process and signaled that a deal had been reached. It was White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley who informed the president around 10:30pm.

Full article here

a good deal for the right? in what respect, charlie?

Oliver Willis: President Obama has brokered a deal between the Democratic-run Senate and the Republican-run House that avoids a shutdown of the federal government, while also stripping the bill of issues such as Planned Parenthood funding and decisions about the EPA’s authority.

Yet somehow, I’m seeing from some – particularly Ezra Klein, who should honestly know better – that this was a bad deal for the President.

On policy, of course these budget cuts targeted at programs that assist the poor and middle class suck. But they were always going to suck. The minute the House of Representatives flipped from Democratic to Republican, anyone without giant stores of money had a target at their back. The Republicans negotiated their way to a $39 billion cut.

But let us remember that these are the same Republicans who campaigned on cutting $100 billion from the budget. Just a couple months ago, conservative blogs were despairing that the cuts had been sliced down to $78 billion.

And John Boehner, wily trickster that he is, has made an agreement – which probably does not have the support of his caucus, possibly needing Democratic help – that cuts that ransom demand in half…

What did the polls show that Democrats and Independents wanted out of these negotiations? A compromise that kept the doors open on our government. And that’s what we got. Faced with a fundamentally flawed budget process thanks to the outcome of the November elections, President Obama presided over a bipartisan result that avoided the attempt to scuttle women’s health issues and environmental concerns…

It was enough to prompt Tea Party Nation to claim they will primary Boehner, while base conservatives on the depraved Free Republic gnashed their teeth and made the following statements: “GOP sells out all GOP sucker voters!,” “Cowards, more interested in keeping their jobs then doing what’s right for the country.,” and “The GOP are the modern day Whigs.” This sentiment goes on for quite a few pages.

…Obama and Reid were operating in an environment infected by the Tea Party House, and secured a deal that averted shutdown and showed the President to be the adult here. Yet a few people seem to think this is the kind of thing that is good news for the right. As a failed vice-presidential candidate once asked: In what respect, Charlie?

Full post here