Snap Judgements

F*** you.

Yeah, right.

Right on.

Fighting Back

So nothing has changed. Anyone who thinks last week's election is some sort of cry to slash government spending is misreading the divided electorate. On the Left there's dissatisfaction that there hasn't been more audacious action, per Paul Krugman. In the Middle, everyone is frightened that the economy is not recovering fast enough. On the Right, there's the lies. Obama didn't raise taxes -- he lowered them. And he's not spending $200 million/day in India -- another GOP lie, he's opening up markets to bring more jobs to America.

Rachel breaks it down:



They lie about the growth of the public sector vs. private under Democrats -- when the evidence of the past year is that we've been shedding government jobs while (no thanks to the George W. Bush GOP tax cuts) we're growing the private sector -- under Obama. Their biggest lie is that now they've learned their lesson and will cut the government spending that ballooned under W. and his GOP Congress. Even Tea Leader Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) can't name specifics of what he'd cut, other than "entitlements." If this means privatizing Social Security or, as likely Presidential aspirant Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) would like to do, getting his state to opt out (stranding their needy seniors), good luck, boys.

Here's the truth: Obama has helped people in ways Bush never did. Read this post where a regular American enumerates the money his family has saved under Obama. Read this piece by William Saletan in Slate about how huge the wins of this past Democratic Congress has been. Who cares what the hell Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) thinks about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) staying on as House Minority Leader? And, per Rep. James Clyburn (D-NC), just let them try to kill healthcare reform now that it is already going into effect:

Clyburn said, "Let them try to prevent a family who has a child with diabetes from getting insurance. Let them tell a man that has paid his premiums on time for 30 years that his policy is canceled because he just got prostate cancer. Let them tell a woman who has breast cancer, sorry you're policy is cancelled."

So booyah, Rep. Clyburn, and keep on fighting, Speaker Pelosi. The lesson of this election for President Obama shouldn't be for Dems to go back to being Republican Lite and losing elections. The lesson should be, yes, bigger, better, clear and simple message, tout your accomplishments loudly and, most of all, fight. No boxer can expect to have the crowd on his side if he shrinks from a fight. Let your principles be known, stand your ground, offer the handshake and when it is refused, put up your dukes.

That's the guy we voted for, the candidate who fought tooth and nail through the primaries and then the general election, with skill, intelligence and determination. Who could take a punch (New Hampshire, anyone?), learn from it and come back stronger.

If this week's Presidential address is any indication, he's already moving in the right direction:


Now just stick to is, BaRocky, and we'll stick with you.

Wellington

So when Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) declared that the GOP would beat President Barack Obama on healthcare reform and hence his whole Administration, he was partially right. Tonight's successful -- for Democrats -- vote passing healthcare reform in the House of Representatives was, indeed, Waterloo. Only DeMint's the Napoleon Bonaparte and Pres. Obama = Duke of Wellington, who beat Nappy's sorry ass back on Sunday, June 18, 1815.



Clearly there's reconciliation fixes and other future improvements to be had, but for now we will be able to get health insurance without worrying about preexisting conditions, without worry that it can be yanked away once we become sick, with the ability to change jobs or start businesses -- The American Way -- without fear of losing coverage for our families.

Republican David Frum is particularly savvy on how the GOP lost b-i-g on this process by stonewalling -- and any GOoPer who says they didn't have a chance is simply lying. Just ask Jim "Waterloo" DeMint. Per Frum:

I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.

And what of the opposition? They seem transfixed by the teabaggers, who have shown their true colors this weekend with racist and homophobic epithets hurled at members of Congress. The GOP caucus cheers them on when they disrupt the Chambers. It seems to have been a GOP Congressman, probably from Texas, who yelled, "Baby killer!" at Rep. Bart Stupek (D-MI), an ardent anti-choice Dem who even got the President to sign an executive order reaffirming that no Federal money could be used for insurance plans which cover a woman's right to choose.

And, most horrifically of all, a Conservative blogger posted this tweet today:



Followed by this:



That's currently being investigated by the Secret Service and is punishable either by fine or five (5) years in prison. I'd vote for the latter.

The fact is that we now have on our hands, after he's been called dead-in-the-water so many times, a Class-A President, one who will go down in history as having a successful First Term, ideally a couple, barring (of course) scandal or great disaster. Even if they do what Solly will, ideally, serve time for advocating. Check out his accomplishments in a year and a quarter, from blackwaterdog:

1. He saved the economy.

2. In a few months he'll end the war in Iraq.

3. He actually has a plan and strategy in Afghanistan.

4. America is finally joining the world fighting climate change and aspiring for energy independence.

5. He single-handedly restored America's place and reputation in the world.

And now there's this little thing called health care reform.

This is an historic victory and, as Andrew Sullivan points out:

This is what we’ve learnt this year: Obama does not mind defeats if they are procedural or about others saving face. He’s happy to admit error; to give his opponents a chance to lunge at his jugular; to let opponents enjoy a day in the sun; to shave off any small stuff as long as the big stuff remains. He seems oddly impervious to personal insult: he doesn’t mind being affronted by the Chinese or humiliated by Netanyahu as long as it’s a matter of symbolism. On substance, he wants what he wants; and, on the big stuff, he has given up on nothing yet.

He shares this victory with many others, foremost being House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has also confounded the naysayers who have often written her off, and delivered one of the most productive House sessions in decades.

Yep, it took the first black President and the first woman Speaker to get done what seven Presidents tried and failed, what President Theodore Roosevelt (BTW, a Republican back when I guess it meant something very different) first dreamed of 100 years ago.

The heck with the haters and naysayers. The American people, who voted for these Reps and this President, just got a reasonable version of what they wanted. And even those who didn't vote for them won tonight -- they just don't know it yet.

Pelosi Vindicated

The rightwing smeared with glee, but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was correct:

CIA Director Leon Panetta told lawmakers in a recent briefing that the intelligence agency he heads misled Congress on "significant actions" for a "number of years," a group of Democrats revealed on Wednesday.

In a letter written to Panetta on June 26 by seven Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee, the CIA chief is urged to "publicly correct" an earlier statement he made in which he insisted that it was not agency policy to mislead Congress.

As the letter details, Panetta apparently acknowledged in an earlier briefing that this statement was not, in fact, true.

Trust...but verify.

The Dirty, Dirty Truth

It's closer and closer to being revealed, hence the panicky Cheney gambit of playing the memo game, as if some Cheney-ordered memos to post-justify the criminal torture he ordered will grant him exoneration for the emerging story, per Josh Marshall:

At last, the torture debate looks to be heading toward what's been the big question lurking in the background all along: was the Bush administration using torture in large part to make a political case for the invasion of Iraq?

Writing on The Daily Beast, former NBC producer Robert Windrem reports that in April 2003, Dick Cheney's office suggested that interrogators waterboard an Iraqi detainee who was suspected of having knowledge of a link between Saddam and al Qaeda.

All the Cheney-Bush gang was concerned with at the time was pushing through the attack on Iraq they had planned before taking office, before 9/11, going all the way back to the father's decision not to press Desert Storm into Baghdad. Imagine Dick Cheney fuming ever since then, a decade of building resentment, his moment having arrived.

From this base sin, if it is proven to be true, all other evil grew including everything covered by Laura Rozen here. It's why they're going after Jane Harman who wanted evidence preserved. It's why they're trying to foist the hot potato on Nancy Pelosi, who never instituted a policy of torture and claims she was lied to by the CIA. It's why Porter Goss, hack GOP Representative turned hack CIA Director, is looking ripe for questioning. And possibly indictment with his co-conspirators, led by Richard Bruce Cheney himself.

And now it's reaching the mainstream media.

Hail

The prodigal son returns, and ma is very, very happy:



Meanwhile Obama makes the brilliant choice of Leon Panetta, not a career intelligence guy, to head the CIA, is adding an almost Jacksonian, affordable Neighborhood Ball to the Inaugural festivities, makes cool unannounced appearances...and he's sending Joe Biden on a mission to Southwest Asia.

It's already a relief.

Bad and Good

Out with the bad:

While Bush has been briefed on the situation by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, he has opted not to interrupt his final vacation as president to make a public statement on the crisis. For someone who has enjoyed the most vacation days as sitting president — including days spent relaxing in comfort during Hurricane Katrina and in the lead-up to 9/11 — it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Bush prioritizes vacationing over crisis management. ABC News reports:

Even an emerging crisis in the Middle East, one he pledged to resolve just 13 months ago, has not drawn President George W. Bush from his final vacation before leaving office. Despite his personal pledge at Annapolis last year to broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinians before 2009, this weekend Bush sent his spokesmen to comment in his stead. […]

Since departing Washington for Crawford on Friday, President Bush has made no attempt to be seen in public. In fact, he has yet to leave his ranch.

And in with the good:

In Congress, Democrats from the Golden State are in key positions to write laws to mitigate global warming, promote "green" industries and alternative energy, and crack down on toxic chemicals. Down Pennsylvania Avenue, Californians in the new White House will shape environmental, energy and workplace safety policies...

...The current speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is the most prominent member of the California delegation and she was quietly supportive when a California colleague, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, pushed out Rep. John D. Dingell of Michigan to become chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In a November caucus election, Waxman narrowly beat Dingell, who held the chair for 16 years and was seen by critics as too protective of the auto industry. Waxman, who has crafted an image as a champion of consumers, taxpayers and the environment, takes over next month. Energy and Commerce handles more than half of the legislation that flows through Congress. Its sprawling portfolio includes climate change, air quality and health matters -- issues that have consumed policymakers in California.

Waxman's counterpart in the Senate is Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee.

I just wrote my Representative Waxman a letter of appreciation for slogging it out the first six dark years of this decade, and kicking ass since 2006.

2008: The curse of living in interesting times.

And an interesting 2009 ahead.

Bailout Battlelines

So the $700,000,000,000 tab being sent to Congress by Treasury Secretary Paulson and George W. Bush calls for, surprise surprise, no oversight:

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Um...bullshit?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejects the lack of oversight:

"We will not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome. Democrats will act responsibly to insulate Main Street from Wall Street."

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) joins Pelosi (yep, he must hate that headline).

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), once again, actually lays down lines in the sand:

First, there must be no blank check when American taxpayers are on the hook for this much money.

Second, taxpayers shouldn't be spending a dime to reward CEOs on Wall Street.

Third, taxpayers should be protected and should be able to recoup this investment.

Fourth, this plan has to help homeowners stay in their homes.

Fifth, this is a global crisis, and the United States must insist that other nations join us in helping secure the financial markets.

Sixth, we need to start putting in place the rules of the road I've been calling for for years to prevent this from ever happening again.

And finally, this plan can't just be a plan for Wall Street, it has to be a plan for Main Street.

More details on the principles on his website, from Sunday in Charlotte, NC:



If you're a fan of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) better, here you go.

This is what's called an inflection point, and it's crucial that our representative leaders don't blow it. This is the moment of leverage and it won't come back if Paulson's plan is passed as is. Let history be the teacher: Bush and Cheney gave away half of our U.S. Treasury to private bigwigs with the Iraq War.

Don't let them use this crisis to finish the job.

Three Women

Three women, each powerful in a different way:

Hillary Clinton: On the verge?

Nancy Pelosi: Too polite?

Debbie Harry: Still punky after all these years.

Death

This has to be the weirdest, most disconcerting week in America in years. And that's saying a lot.

- Shithead crazy Virginia Tech killer has time between massacres to videotape himself and send the evil images to NBC. And guess what, there were ample early warning signs.

- On a day when our nation grieves for the 32 students, 171 Iraqi citizens are massacred by suicide bombs.

- The George W. Bush Supreme Court delivers their first great gift to the Religious Right constituency and reverses lower courts' well-written opinions to ban, 5-4, a form of abortion previously between a woman and her doctor. Props to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) for immediately explaining in very clear terms why this decision is a dangerous disgrace.

- Back to the big issue, the most human beings being slaughtered on a daily basis that we actually have the ability to affect, has anyone seen a recent photo of Nancy Pelosi as distraught as this, albeit with an admirable resolve, the resolve of someone who knows how hard this unfortunate man who is our President will make the road ahead.

And Harry, such resolve.