TUTORIAL IN A PACKAGE

    Democrats and Progressives may have the best platform in a generation.

    I accept the President's jobs compromise deal. The main reason is that it is, with old GOP support, an end run on the Tea Party whose aim is a continuation of the poor economy which spawned it. The package on the other hand gives assurances the economy will grow and gives Democrats a good shot in 2012. Bob Greenstein of CBPP estimated the package would take a full percentage point off unemployment--and without the package the uncertainty of getting any stimulus or unemployment benefits out of the new Congress could tip the economy back into a "double dip". By my calculations, 1% off unemployment is about 1.5 million people.I think of them as particularly vulnerable hostages.

    The big question in my mind is what's next. Much depends on Obama's committment to regulate the financial industry and fend off Republican budget attacks which will be designed to undo every piece of progressive legislation since the New Deal. But leave Obama out of the picture and look at the package as a tutorial. Not in the sense of what Obama might have done right or wrong but in the sense of how the package demonstrates the essential guts of how the system works.

    Decader's picture

    The Rich Already Had Tax Cuts: Who Knew?

    In all the debates over keeping the top run of Bush tax cuts, one pertinent fact kept getting dropped:

    The rich received the same tax cuts up to $250K or $1 million.

    The proposal was simply to rescind the tax breaks for income over that amount.

    But that wasn't enough, apparently - we can freeze federal employee pay because as fearless leader says:

    A look at the anon "hacking" tool ('n stuff).

    Out of the gate, let me just say it pains me to call this hacking. Might as well go out like a total /tard with it ... "Do you want to know how the 3771 haxors took down Visa?" ... barf. However. Damn script kiddies and MSM screwing up the brand aside, this is what they're calling hackers these days so ... you might be wondering what exactly the guys "hacking" Visa/MC/Sarah Palin/Various Swiss/Swedish institutions/etc. are actually doing...

    Richard Day's picture

    A NEW STIMULUS PLAN

    File:New100front.jpg
                                                    UNCLE BEN'S

    Evidently there were some problems with the last 1.1 billion one hundred dollar bills printed a short while ago.  Some unknown percentage of these bills is fucked up.

    THE SHORT GAME AND THE LONG GAME

    Obama took office in the midst of an economic crisis. I leave it to others to explain how in two years he might have impacted the high unemployment numbers and poor economy enough to stave off reversal in the midterm election. The fact is he is now facing a recalcitrant HR which will be levered by the Tea Party who want to see the economy fail. Chaos and high unemployment are fertile fields for the Tea Party. It is the purpose of the Tea Party to prevent stimulus and to enact contractionary policies where possible.

    Educate Me

    Ha. Don't crush yourselves trying to be first in line, Dag Bloggers. I don't want an education on politics, thank you very much.

    What I'd like to talk about is education. As in public schools.

    See, what started all of this was my Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I don't have kids, but I have a lot of sisters and nieces and a nephew and two grand-nephews. And my eldest niece is a high school teacher. And my two older sisters have seen a lot of strange stuff going on in the education realm lately, so it became a hot topic.

    CVille Dem's picture

    I M Sanctimonious

    Who'd have thunk it?  I just don't know what to think anymore.  

    More than a week ago, news anchors were predicting this very capitulation ,er... outcome.  I mean, to a tee!  Why not at least be a little mavericky and do something that might surprise even a news chuckler.  If your "strategy is predicted by every 'Who Flung Dung' in front of a camera, I would like to suggest that it isn't a strategy at all.

    I won't repeat myself about letting everything expire and then...blah, blah, blah.

    we are stardust's picture

    Wikileaks: The Death Knell of the Internet?

                                    

    Julian Assange is being held without bail.  He has pissed off some Serious People, and there have been a lot of attempts to prevent Wikileaks from posting what he says is killer information on Bank of America (it’s assumed), Guantanamo Bay (Prison, it’s assumed), and more.

    MrSmith1's picture

    Follow the Drinking Gourd

    "This country was founded on compromise. I couldn't go through the front door of this country's founding. And you know if we were really thinking about ideal positions, we wouldn't have a Union.

    Michael Maiello's picture

    Obama's Stimulus Wins

    Ultimately, I'm not as mad about the tax compromise as I thought I'd be because I think Obama won some pretty effective stimulus even though it preserves a tax structure that will continue to encourage wealth to accumulate at the top of the economy.

    CVille Dem's picture

    He Caved

    But did you catch this?

    When the President described the tax cuts that the middle class could count on, he said, "Not only the Bush tax cuts, but" also the ones from last year.  (that last phrase is not a direct quote, but it paraphrases his statement)

    Is there any reason in anyone's thinking that he could not utter the words, "The Obama tax cuts?"

    Anyone?

    Seriously, I hope enough Democrats walk away from this to doom it.

     

    we are stardust's picture

    South Korean Trade Agreement: Obama v. Obama

    We’ve been discussing the President a lot lately, making attempts to define him as to style, political ideology, and his place along a liberal-conservative continuum.  We’ve taken various positions partially based on issues we care about and have watched closely since the campaign; we argue about what he supported, what we ‘imagined he supported’.  This is Obama on NATFA  and his opposition to the South Korean Free Trade Agreement on 11/13/07:

     

    oleeb's picture

    Just Say NO To All The Tax Cuts And Say It NOW!

    Sometimes I wonder how gullible most Democrats really are and since we elected President Obama I've wondered that a whole helluva lot more than usual.  Time after time in recent years the Democrats manage, no matter what, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, to come back with half a loaf of rotten bread when they had set out with plenty of money to get a whole loaf and each time they do most of the media, average citizens, typical active Democrats, and even bloggers are left scratching their heads as to how it could be that when the task seemed so clear

    Michael Maiello's picture

    Also Speaking Of China...

    Robert Reich wrote this in 1991 (edited to get to the point):

    "America may choose another nemesis to replace the Soviet empire....Japan comes immediately to mind....The precise nature of this threat – surely not nuclear annihilation – is never fully explained, but the implication is clear: unless we stop them, the Japanese will eventually control us."

    we are stardust's picture

    Rupert Murdoch Bets on Education

    There are several things Murdoch is good at: making boatloads of money, influencing politics beneficial to his financial empire, and influencing thought and beliefs and artificial facts and directing them into less-than-diligent thinkers’ minds through various media.  In other words, Murdoch has an agenda, and he’s highly successful at fulfilling it.

    stillidealistic's picture

    Hi, It's Me, Stilli - Ranting Again!

    Earlier to day I spent about an hour and a half constructing my first blog in nearly 2 months. I carefully chose my words, editing and re-editing to use non-explosive terminology, and laying out my premise as thoughtfully as I could.

    cmaukonen's picture

    When Empires fall....

    Empires nearly always fall from within. Sometimes they are brought down by force, the government overthrown. But quite often they are left to crumble by those within. When people begin to feel that they no longer matter. When their needs are not being met. When they feel oppressed and neglected and their voices are no longer being payed attention to, they stop caring about the institutions of which they are apart.  They loose hope for anything better. This is true regardless of the type of government or institution. The political philosophy or economic model.

    OTHER WORLDS IN MONO LAKE

    When my knees were younger and the VW camper hadn't yet blown its engine for the 3rd time I made an annual trip up Rt. 395 from the bowels of L.A. to the Mammoth Mtn. area of California. The purpose was to back pack and hike in the Eastern Sierras, but the first stop was at Mono Lake. The lake is, well, other worldly. Alien features like the spikey "tufas" give it a lunar quality. T

    CVille Dem's picture

    If The Democrats Cave on the Tax Cuts

    Well, if they do, I just can't see any reason to support them any more.  2 years?  Who do they think they're kidding?  

    The Bush cuts were designed to expire this year because they were unsupportable beyond this year (actually they were always unsupportable).

    Two years?  Three years?  If that goes down we are "governed" by Democratic cowards and Republican thieves.  

    Let them all expire, and let the Republicans take the responsibility!  If Democrats don't let that happen then they are passively accepting the Republicans' goals.

    NO!  NO!  NO!

    cmaukonen's picture

    Revolution ?...don't think so.

    Not going to happen. And here is why. Unlike the very spontaneous, active and sometimes violent protests of the Union and Socialist movements of the late 19th and early 20th century where people were more self reliant and had to live with risks every day and no social safety nets at all, most people are almost totally reliant on the current economic, social and political system for their lively hoods. Their ability to cope with out the services provided by the public and private sector is limited at best.

    LarryH's picture

    WikiLeaks - A Calibration

    Most measuring devices require some form of calibration, especially meters or gauges.  Usually the meter or gauge has a way to adjust its display of values so that when a known value is applied then the needle or other pointer can be adjusted to read out that value.

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