Whaaa? Morris is in the tank for the GOP?

[faints]

RE: John Cole, maybe if someone could provide a simple list of all the companies who have recently made or are making massive layoffs, noting the company name and the number of persons laid or to be laid off, and then right next to that number identify the provision or provisions in the stimulus bill that would provide funds for projects that would require the services of each of these companies, maybe that can be a simple tool to show how the stimulus bill spending will help stop the bleeding and create jobs.

When are democrats going to start blaming democrats for not being able to get their agendas into legislation. I bet half the articles posted today had this or that reason about republican obstructionism. Can I get one article as the the absolute failure of democrats. Seriously, I donated my hard earned cash to these clowns ?

They jammed the financial bailout through is no time flat. Obama can't even get on board with his own fucken party or vise versa. Worthless cowards, it's like watching a battered wife take orders from her jailed abuser. FUCK.

"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is canceling oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of federal land in Utah"

Thank goodness. Now I hope that charges will be dropped for the college student that bid on the leases (with no intention of paying) as a protest (see article if you're wondering about this). Utah has some of the best geological treasures in the country. If you haven't visited, you should.

Re: Hilda Solis. Why isn't Obama going to bat for her?

Re S-CHIP: signed by the president just a bit ago. He gave a nice speech, not only on childrens' health insurance, but also health care for all, and a lecture re passing the stimulus package. The signing ceremony was attended by a room full of people, legislators, and Michelle Obama also worked the room.

The digital TV deadline will be delayed until June, but stations can drop their analog signals on Feb 17 if they want to, right? So it's a crap shoot, whether I can get by w/o converter for awhile longer? And what about releasing more coupons? Finally, it was outrageous to have the expiration date on them, who was behind that?

Steve Benen quoted John Cole: "Our media is simply failing us. Why have they not asked the Republicans how tax cuts are going to provide jobs? Why are they not laughing openly when the Republicans bring up capital gains tax cuts as part of a stimulus package? Why are they not asking the Republicans to explain how infrastructure spending is not stimulus?"

When it comes to understanding the media, John Cole exemplifies the cluelessness of "sensible liberal" bloggers.

First of all, Mr. Cole, it's not "our media". It's the corporate oligarchy's media. They own it. A handful of giant corporations own and control virtually all of the so-called "mainstream" mass media from which most Americans get most of their information. They also own the openly partisan Republican right-wing extremist media from which the lunatic fringe dittohead base gets all of its information.

And they don't use THEIR media to impartially inform and educate the American people as a public service out of the goodness of their hearts. They use it to propagandize the American people in furtherance of the ruthless, rapacious class warfare of America's Ultra-Rich Ruling Class, Inc. against everyone else.

So what you are asking is this: when the Republican Party -- which is the political arm of the corporate ruling class -- proposes policies that enrich and empower its rich and powerful owners at the expense of everyone else, why doesn't "the media" -- which is the propaganda arm of the corporate ruling class -- challenge the Republicans with tough questions?

The question answers itself.

If you expect anything from the corporate-owned media other than corporate propaganda, you are a fool.

"Mitt Romney won't be HHS Secretary. Neither will Tom Harkin."

Howard Dean for HHS Secretary! Yes, we can.

A lot of people, including John Cole, haven't gotten the memo.

Obama's press operation controls who gets access to the president, the vice president, the senior white house staff, and the cabinet. Moreover, Obama can get maximum exposure for anything he wants to say at any time. Anything the president says is news, and to a lesser extent, anything any of the other officials named above is news.

Pelosi and Reid control access to the best sources in Congress.

In the coming months, I think you will see--in the immortal words of Ari Fleischer--people watching what they say.

John Cole: "Our media is simply failing us.

This is fucking nonsense. This whole fiasco has one cause: the arrogance of Barack Obama in thinking he could change human behavior.

He has pissed away the mandate he had when elected, he has been disloyal to those who put him in office, he has allowed republicans to undermine support for the stimulus, and he has put in jeopardy every fucking one of his (and our) other objectives down the road.

I'm sick of listening to this fucking bullshit that he is playing chess and his opponents are playing checkers. He is just playing, period.

He simply does not know what the fuck he is doing.

There is no grand master plan here. He and we have lost control of the debate -- over stimulus, infrastructure, taxes, everything. He has created a fucking circus.

If Republican tax cuts are good for the economy, we should be riding the gravy train rather than swimming in the gravy boat.

Regarding pay scales: after a month, literally a month, of trying to get dsl in my new rental from At&T, I think the CEOs of all major corporations should receive $7/hour for their labors. Anything more robs shareholders and employees.

The digital TV deadline will be delayed until June, but stations can drop their analog signals on Feb 17 if they want to, right? -Neil B

Technically, they could drop them any time now. February 17th was just the final day they could have before this extension. Because of the high cost of maintaining the analog signals, I imagine most will still shut them off sooner than later.

I think I read something earlier that more funding for coupons was on the way. I think they underestimated the number of people who got them who didn't really need them.

On Solis: How soon can the Senate go into recess? I don't think the "minority party" can hold a pro forma session.

open thread????

PBS show on Jack Benny reminded me of Bob Hope. Bob went out with the USO from WWII to the first Persian Gulf war. Who's doing that now?

I like Kathy Griffin, but she's no Jack Benny ;)
("Some like it Hot"--that was Tony Curtis")
(and of course, Marilyn)

.....

Good governance (or grief ????)

I just saw Janjorski (go NePSA) quizzing the SEC officials....

So when Reagan said "Gov't. was the problem"--was that the decline of good governance?

Here and/or Kevin Drum (now at MoJo) commented on the loss of competent officials in government--is that the legacy of the Reagan Revolution?

yeah, lots of heavy lifting to do....

The media is failing us. Repeat. The media is failing us. When Dana Milbank, as just one example in a hundred, wastes print making fun of Al Gore in a piece of tiresome drivel, the media is failing us.

When every member of the Grand Ostrich Party can buttonhole any reporter in Washington with the failed mantras of the last 30 years and get their names in print, the media is failing us.

When guys making six, seven and eight figure salaries in the media have absolutely no clue what life is like for most Americans, the media is failing us.

When even Joe the Plumber is still a news event, the media is failing us. The list goes on as the Bush meltdown continues.

From the WTF department...

The Senate easily passed an $11.5 billion amendment to the stimulus package to "provide tax breaks to spur new auto purchases."

NYTimes front page story: Rider Paradox: Surge in Mass, Drop in Transit:

William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association, an industry group, wrote to the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, last month urging her to include money for operating costs in the stimulus bill. “Public transportation ridership is surging across the country,� he wrote, “increasing 6.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008 — the largest quarterly increase in the past 25 years, but transit systems are cutting service, increasing fares and laying off employees as a result of increased transit fuel costs in the past year and declining state and local revenue sources that support transit.�

So even as the federal government plans to buy new train cars and buses for some transit systems, places like St. Louis find themselves without enough money to pay the bus drivers and light-rail train operators that they have now.

“I have 165 buses that I’m going to have to put in mothballs,� said Ray Friem, the chief operating officer at Metro, the St. Louis system. “There’s a ton of federal money tied up in those assets.�

But they can easily pass a bill to put more inefficient cars on the road?
WTF is Washington DC smokin'?

The car-buying stimulus is the dumbest middle-class pander since the mortgage interest-rate deduction.

Given that the auto industry trailed right behind housing in being “bubblish� this decade, it too needs to be defluated more.

re Solis: Time to make them ACTUALLY filibuster. Talk on the floor. Read the phone book.

Go Hilda.

Thank you, Juan Cole.

Please, PLEASE make ReThuglicans explain why it is NOT stimulative to put more people to work, people who will SPEND money rather than saving it, or worse, investing it in phoney speculative derivative crapola like credit default swaps.

Tax breaks for small business will mean NOTHING if people, working people, average people continue to lose their jobs and have nothing to spend.

A tax break on zero revenue is zero.

Unfortunately, ReThugs don't respond to facts. They are still faith-based, and the only thing they have faith in is tax cuts.

I wonder if the Sen. Gregg assistant slated to take his place in the Senate if he does become Commerce Secretary had anything to do with Abramoff, too?

"Seriously, I donated my hard earned cash to these clowns?"

I SO agree with this. Is there NO ONE in the Senate caucus who has a stiff spine? Who can keep Mary Landrieu in line? Who can make ReThugs actually FILIBUSTER until the moderates hear from their constituents and cave in?

MAKE THEM SUFFER!!

They made Dems suffer since 1994. Play hard ball. An eye for an eye!

Sheesh.

"Finally, it was outrageous to have the expiration date on them, who was behind that?"

Just a guess here -- a "Bushie"?

Right on, Craig. You are so right. But I expect as the economy tanks, media types will drift downward into the upper middle class and will "come to Jesus."

Who would not be a news commentator for $100k per year (and who would not play baseball for $100k per year) rather than being unemployed?

When the wealthy lose their wealth, they realize that trickle "down" never made it down, and the only solution is bubble up.

* John Cole: "Our media is simply failing us. Why have they not asked the Republicans how tax cuts are going to provide jobs? Why are they not laughing openly when the Republicans bring up capital gains tax cuts as part of a stimulus package? Why are they not asking the Republicans to explain how infrastructure spending is not stimulus?"

all true, but then again why should they when the Obama administration and Congressional democrats, i.e., the so-called "opposition" isn't asking those questions either.

On Solis: How soon can the Senate go into recess? I don't think the "minority party" can hold a pro forma session. -- Steve W., @ 20:34

It was in a twisted, despicable way that Bush used the appointment loophole (which is, supposedly, reserved for emergencies). It would be no less despicable if Obama did it. I want Solis, but I want her in a clean way.

Obama in the unenviable position of having to tell America the 25-year party is over while simultaneously pursuing the drunks & rowdies who trashed the house and telling the rest of the neighborhood to have hope, things are going to improve. Tough job, takes time.

I love the way that SEC chair Chris Cox blames the economic crises on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac while completely absolving himself of any responsibility on the Madoff problem.

nonheroicvet: If Republican tax cuts are good for the economy, we should be riding the gravy train rather than swimming in the gravy boat.

exactly....

the talking point is simple to convey..

IF...republican-advocated tax cuts and de-regulation worked..

how come we are in this mess?

There is no grand master plan here. He and we have lost control of the debate -- over stimulus, infrastructure, taxes, everything. He has created a fucking circus.

Posted by: Econobuzz on February 4, 2009

There is a grand plan. Dems have not lost control of the debate. Yes, it is a circus.

What have you got against circuses?
:-)