dagblog - Comments for "The Great MERS Whitewash: Kaptur on Dylan Ratigan"

Sorry, they're not yet

Oxy Mora — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 02:45:27 +0000

In reply to Is no one reading those?

Sorry, they're not yet released. I think the intention is for January.

Is no one reading those?

we are stardust — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:03:17 +0000

In reply to Along the line of those bank

Is no one reading those?

Along the line of those bank

Oxy Mora — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:37:03 +0000

In reply to Watch this video first, then

Along the line of those bank monsters, I just read that Assange was interviewed by Forbes in London and he claims that about half of his cache of documents is related to the private sector--including the goods on some of the major banks! How about those apples? Forget about Iran, maybe the wikileak documents will take down the management of a U,S. bank or two.

There were other such leaders

SleepinJeezus — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:19:47 +0000

In reply to Please excuse my delusion.I

There were other such leaders in our time, and I don't think they'd be pissing all over themselves trying to accommodate those who would use our present crisis to scare us all into allowing them to consolidate their powers and their oppression of others.

Of course, that's just a guess...

Please excuse my delusion.I

SleepinJeezus — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 22:20:46 +0000

In reply to When I read comments like

Please excuse my delusion.

I guess I've always assumed that tough times called for an inspred - and inspiring! - leadership.

Just give me a few moments, and I'll take my place inn the bucket once again with the rest of you.

My apologies.

Then again, maybe I'll keep reaching forward and upwards, inspired by previous leaders who knew a thing or two against fighting back against oppression, whilst granting my adieu:

“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
- Sam Adams

Watch this video first, then

we are stardust — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 22:18:06 +0000

In reply to The Great MERS Whitewash: Kaptur on Dylan Ratigan

Watch this video first, then read, please.

This thread has veered away from MERS into the new and next moves from Obama and the Congressional Dems. As I mentioned above, I had thought to write about it, but this needs to be addressed now.

I am flabbergasted that Dems could be squishy on tax cuts for the wealthy, and wonder once again if they're ignorant of the economics of this, or just so callous that they believe that voting to extend them would dampen down their chances to win election next cycle. Frankly, neither reason is attractive.

The GAO figures extending cuts for the wealthy will cost at least $700 billion over the next ten years. How is that deficit cutting? Do Dems and Obama really believe in trickle-down economics? From all recent moves, I'd have to think the President really does. That the health of the stock market is and minute rise in GDP are enough indicators of recovery that it's time to stop government spending?

For my money, any Dem who knuckles to the idea that it's in any way a good idea to start cutting debt is insane. Or Machiavellian, or both. Even Helicopter Ben Bernanke is recommending a job stimulus plan; he knows that there's nothing else he can do with monetary policy to aid Americans getting back to work, paying taxes, buying houses, affording college tuition, saving money, behaving like we have any sort of financial future at all.

The Dow is up; corporations showed the largest gains ever last quarter, the purchase of luxury goods has skyrocketed. Real unemployment is 20% or higher, and many economists say that without relief it may stay that way into the next decade, or permanently.

We spend trillions on war and related items like nukes, and can find so much extra money that when a billion or so goes missing in any of the countries we're occupying, the government barely even blushes. But Jesus, Mary and Joseph: when supposed Dems want to start cutting the deficit as per the Catfood Commission recommendations, which be catastrophic for actual human lives longterm, we yawn? Because it polls well to freeze gummint salaries, and 53% asked in a push poll agree that federal workers are paid too much???? Of course people are pissed at the government, but the government should show people why that idea isn't true, not just accede to its premise.

Maybe some of you love oligarchy, and believe we should continue to be slaves to it. I don't. And I'm grateful to Nancy Pelosi and Lynn Woolsey and other Dems who are trying to fight back for the tiny crumbs like tax cuts for us, not the wealthy, and a pitiful 3-month extension for unemployment compensation, though maybe you figure folks with no jobs just aren't looking hard enough, or like Alan Simpson, that seniors are the greediest generation, or that Vets should have a co-pay for their care, and that the tax exemption for home mortgage interest should be abolished. Fine; but it ain't fair, and it ain't what Dems used to be suckered into.

If you've watched the video, please think about Obama's announcement that his administration 'solved the financial crisis for less than the S & L crisis cost. Utter crap; he knows better. And if you believe that Americans should be screwed even further to help Obama''s re-election chances, then I can point you to another few revenue sources that are still available to hand to the uber-wealthy.

When I read comments like

brewmn — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:05:45 +0000

In reply to Just review the reader

When I read comments like this one, I really wonder what country some of you have been living in for the last thirty years. The average working American hates unions, and union-busting has been a political winner for both parties (see my hometown, Chicago, and it's mayor, Mr. Privatization himself, for a prominent Dem example).

Hell, you don't even have to go to the MSM or rightwing sites to find union envy among the nonunion working classes. On TPM, a lot of your fellow leftists were decrying the auto industry bailout, even though by most estimates it saved a MILLION good, union jobs, because they themselves (i.e., the commenters) didn't also get a bailout. Or something.

As policy goes, the pay freeze is not an optimal one. But the damage it will do the the federal workforce is pretty minimal, and it's probably good politics. There is a growing movement afoot to cut the federal payroll by up to 40%, and I think it would be an easy political sell. Obama's doing these people a favor by trying to pre-empt that horrorshow.

But I am left wondering where you think the political support for the federal bureaucracy is out there in the "Real America." Because I don't see it. You continue advocating that Obama fight the good fight when next to nobody will fight with him. He got repaid for spending nearly all of his political capital the last two years with a collective yawn and a resurgent Republican Party. Until people start voting their interests, and not Wall Street's, then your pointing your finger in the wrong direction.

Not sure I understand your

SleepinJeezus — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:12:02 +0000

In reply to A baby step toward the

Not sure I understand your comment here, Oxy. Are you actually applauding Obama's announcement?

It certainly seems to me that the Repubs could hardly have more effectively promoted their talking points in a way more effectively than Obama manages here.

Keynesian Stimulus? "No, more deficit reduction instead!" sayeth Obama/Repub

increased spending by consumers? "No, more tax cuts instead!" sayeth Obama/Repub

Economic Justice? "Yeah, right!" sayeth Obama/Repub.

Were you just being snarky here?

Just review the reader

SleepinJeezus — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:03:45 +0000

In reply to How many 'sighs' would be

Just review the reader comments attached to this article about Obama's "announcement." And this is in the mainstream media fer chrissakes!. (NBC)

It's a common - albeit highly unfortunate - response to such a move as this by the President:

Crabby Behavior

We usually reserve the term "crab" for someone with a crusty, negative outlook. Actually, we've all been programmed to act like crabs, no matter how positive our outlook. Consider the behavior of crabs in a bucket. Crab fishermen have long known that there is no need to bother putting a lid on the bucket you are using to catch crabs. Once you've tossed in a few crabs, they'll police themselves. Any ambitious crab that decides to make a run for freedom will find it all but impossible to scale the wall of the bucket and scramble over the top. It's not that the bucket is too deep or slippery. It's the seemingly odd behavior of the other crabs. As soon as one starts making a move to scramble over the others and out, its fellow crabs will reach out those long, sharp pincers and pull the errant crab back into the fray. Nobody escapes the crab bucket. That's because no crab will allow another crab to move up and out...even if they have once entertained the same notion themselves.

The labor movement has fought against the crab bucket for all of its existence. And in one fell swoop, Obama (A DEMOCRAT, fer chrissakes! The Party of the New Deal!) would have us all just mimic the "crabby behavior" in a hope that we won't notice just who the fuck put us into the bucket in the first place.

Well played, Mr. President! The titans of industry and on Wall Street salute you!

This is unbelievably infuriating, especially with Simpson waiting in the wings to expand upon Obama's initiative on behalf of bucket-owners everywhere.

A baby step toward the

Oxy Mora — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 19:34:37 +0000

In reply to ...And I just awoke to read a

A baby step toward the concept of controlling the news cycle. Let's hope they have something new tomorrow, and the next, and the next.....