Home » all category posts » Miscellany

Speaking Truth To Power(less)


Points to President Obama for engaging the Republican Senate caucus.

Megapoints from the GOPudwhustles for missing the point.

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s luncheon Tuesday with Senate Republicans was not televised like a similar session earlier this year with the House opposition, but evidently it would have made for captivating theater.

By nearly all accounts, pent-up frustrations boiled over as the president and the very lawmakers who have consistently opposed much of his agenda engaged in spirited and at times confrontational exchanges over immigration, spending, White House tactics and other issues during a private 75-minute session.

In particular, note this bit of idiocy from Bob "Put A" Corker.
...And Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee suggested that the administration had been less than sincere in trying to seek a bipartisan deal on the financial regulatory overhaul, which was passed last week with just four Republican votes.

“To come in on the Tuesday after it all occurred and to now talk about seven or eight items he wants to do in a bipartisan way, I just asked him how he could reconcile that duplicity,” Mr. Corker said. “I was very aware that we were props today as we move into an election cycle.”

I may be wrong, but it's incumbent upon the minority party, the loyal opposition as it were, to force compromise that can be accepted. Clearly, the Democrats have postured a little, but at the end of the day, if the Republicans want their voices heard, it's up to them to speak intelligibly.

The Democrats, Obama in particular, have signaled time and time again a willingness to roll up sleeves and work with the Party of No. For the Nyetskis to whine now that they aren't being heard, dammit! is not only silly, but a measure of payback for the ridiculous attitude they and their leadership took in the six years they held both the Congress and White House hostage while screwing the nation over and over again.

The hubris necessary now to complain about being shackled...and there's an ugly image...is monumental.

Look, you want to sit on the sidelines and hope you can gain a few seats in Congress is a fine election strategy that will allow you to gain momentum and force a gradual evolution of control. I have no problem with that. The problem I have is, this nation is in a crisis, and as bad as most of the idiotic proposals you've put forth-- greed masquerading as policy, and solutions that offer no relief-- are not helping. If there was ever a time for forceful, vigorous debate in Congress over realistic and comprehensive solutions that not only correct past abuses and problems but address prevention, that time is now.

So shut up, man up, nut up, and play ball.


Actor 212 May 26, 2010 - 9:12am
Actor 212's diary | printer friendly version | digg
( categories: Miscellany | USA | USA: Campaign 2010 | USA: Congress | USA: Presidency )

Frankly

I find this sentiment to be faintly ridiculous. Speaking from the corporatist establishment position, Obama's sitting down with a bunch of government arsonists to discuss how to build houses. Instead of hoisting their heads on pikes and banishing them to governmental exile for thirty years like FDR did, he's legitimating them by sitting down and negotiating them.

I mean how many Grover Norquist-inspired, George Bush-sanctified, Heckuvajob Brownie-delivered recipes for burning down the government do you want to sit down and negotiate? Should there be a little more salt? Could it use some Thyme? And you know why they're really pissed off at him is that he wants the same things as they do, only with Democratic-labeled sugarcoating. That's irritating to them. Because when he does that, they aren't getting lobbyist contributions; the Democrats are.

Know what he said about new oil leases approximately two weeks into the oil spill? He pulled a Saint Ronnie Reagan out of his ass: "We're going to trust . . . " (pivot for effect) ". . . but verify."

I mean, Really?

Really?

That's what his f&cking answer to all this was? And hiding behind Mr. Respectability, "Doctor Chu?"

At what point does everyone realize that negotiating with clowns and taking them seriously, rubs off ?

Jonathryn May 26, 2010 - 1:28pm
login to post comments
Answer

Q: "At what point does everyone realize that negotiating with clowns and taking them seriously, rubs off?"

A: "At no point. They're all clowns."

Michael Collins May 27, 2010 - 12:05am
login to post comments
"bipartisan" means grab your wallet

and hold on. Anything that the Republicans support has to be so deluded it's worthless. In point of fact, all Democratic legislation is "biipartisan" since it incorporates the essence of the corporatist Republican positions. The American Power Act (http://agonist.org/amerpoweract) is a nuclear promoting, big oil sustaining give away that does nothing to develop alternative energy sources. It's a Kerry/Lieberman special with a shill piece supporting it from the very Republican, hard core stingy faction, group, the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics. So there's your thesis (a real energy bill) - antithesis (the Peterson version of the world) with the thesis being a watered down, do nothing fraud on the public; perpetrated at a time when there is nothing more important than recognizing we're in an energy crisis. Obama is part of this charade. His programs are less reprehensible than the Republican (Tea) Party but they don't offer much more than corporate dictates for problems created by a system that's functioned on corporate dictates for decades and decades.

Other than that, "it's all good";)

Michael Collins May 26, 2010 - 5:58pm
login to post comments
And yet...

Legislation has to be passed, issues have to be raised, and things have to get done.

Your position hints of gridlock. You endorse the Teabaggers, then?

Just kidding, of course, but it is food for thought.

Actor 212 May 27, 2010 - 9:24am
login to post comments
Embedded in every joke is a grievance

You're where I was circa 2004 and part of 2005. I was very much involved in examining the 2004 election results. When I came up for air I noticed the Democrats cooperating on a whole range of critical issues: the Patriot Act and it's offspring; FISA; support of the housing bubble; standing by while mortgage fraud supported that bubble through derivatives; the bailouts; failure to bring the bankers who made bailouts necessary to justice; continued votes to fund Iraq well after it was demonstrated without any doubt that the war was based on lies; continued votes to fund Iraq well after it was known that over one million Iraqi civilians had died as a result of the illegal Bush-Cheney.

Here's my take on why it works out this way.

It's all one party, The Money Party. They all work for the same people, those with the greatest concentrations of capital. The dominance of this group is the closet thing to perpetual motion you'll ever see .

Would I prefer Obama over McCain. Yes. But it doesn't make a substantive difference. The same crew wins over and over with 'bipartisan' support, The Money Party.

I don't apologize for any of these views. They're evidence based. And I don't see one single reason to accept Obama or any other functionary as serious when they display such indifference to national needs and the vast majority of the people.

Much has to be done but the Democrats, many of them, stand with the Republicans, the Executive, and the Judiciary as steadfast opponents of real reform, real solutions, and help for the vast majority of citizens.

Michael Collins May 28, 2010 - 2:33am
login to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.