Limbaugh to Republicans on Jindal

President Obama gave his state of the union last night and I came away from it with a sense of hope for our nation. Solid, well thought out plans are coming to the table for discussion in our government to turn the ship that is our economy away from falling off the edge of the world. It will be a discussion that both political parties need to debate and come to a conclusion as to what is best for our people and our children’s future. That is a discussion and political battle that I’m confident our President is capable of surviving with more popularity afterwards than his opponents could ever dream of.

Governor Jindal of Louisiana gave a reply to Presiden’t Obama’s speech and according to most reports, it was a political disaster for the Republican Party across the board. Bobby thinks that the only way to save the economy is through tax cuts much like the ones Bush had endorsed. Bobby thinks that the only way out of this mess is through deregulation of business and giving businesses more credit with the hope that they might hire more workers. Hmm, has this worked the last eight years? Umm, no. Some reports even claim that his speech is being broadly attacked by conservatives and true blue Republicans. You can watch his reply here.

Rush Limbaugh was up in arms and almost spitting mad over the convergence of the press on Governor Jindal. Rush honestly believes that Bobby Jindal is the next Ronald Reagan and I have to disagree. President Reagan came along at a time in this nations history where our patriotism was in question, our national pride was delinquent and lacking, and our people were in dire financial circumstances. As much as I love Reagan, voted for him twice, he was in fact the opposite on what he ran on as a conservative candidate. President Reagan spent money like it was going out of style and in some aspects that did in fact lead to the fall of the Soviet Union after he was out of office. He still spent the money he promised to actually cut out of a wasteful government. President Reagan’s greatest gift was his ability to communicate to the people. You voted for a Chevy but he convinced you after the fact that you deserved a Cadillac and that is what he gave you. America’s sense of pride was back, our military was strong, and our nation was on a path that was bright.

Anywho, here is Rush Limbaugh spitting mad at his own party and calling our President an out right liar…

Video Link




Rush is an ass and he plays the part very well. When he says in the video that Obama prays to himself because he thinks he is God is simply sacrilegious. (Happy Ash Wednesday) When Rush claims to know President Obama, he does not speak the truth because the truth is that Obama and Rush just don‘t agree on many issues and it is far easier to label our President as an Antichrist. That would be the part where he attacks all them pesky atheists in America too. When he claims Bobby Jindal is the next Ronald Reagan, he is mistaken. Reagan came when America needed its pride back and he succeeded in that mission. Obama is not declaring himself FDR or Lincoln, he is simply managing the crisis with the tools he has available in his Chevy.

Reagan had his crisis, FDR had his, and Lincoln had the mother of all crisis. Give President Obama some time and if he screws it up then I will be the first one to vote his butt out of office in four years. It has only been a month since he took office, give me a break! Can we actually take a breath and see if the actions he institutes actually have an effect in one years time?

Papamoka

Today's Ugly, Lazy Politics

Hello Papamoka Readers! It's Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and a good time to give up something. Let's purify the soul. If you start with the seven deadly sins as a guide, perhaps we Democrats should let go of some pride. President Obama is causing an overload lately. Let's give it a shot.

Let's see, how about Republicans? I have a suggestion for our Republican friends. How about giving up sloth? Sloth is one of the sins articulated so well by medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas.

Think about it, it's the perfect sin to describe today's modern American Republican. Yes, SLOTH!

According to the Catholic Church, sloth is the "sluggishness of the mind which neglects ... sloth is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses." Wow, I don't know about you, but for me that is the nail that hits the proverbial Republican head. It's PERFECT!

The Church was referring to the idea that life requires work, and that work leads to salvation. You can interpret "work" any way you wish, but before I'm inundated with Republicans accusing Democrats of lacking a work ethic due to their desire for government leadership, allow me to say the work I find lacking involves Republican laziness related to FACT FINDING! Besides, I totally disagree with you Republicans that Democrats are lazy. American workers are the most productive on earth.

As many of you know I audit many of their news sources, and let me tell you their leaders, radio talk shows and various psychotic FOX "News" programs have been swamped lately with even more propaganda than usual. I call them the propaganda "elitists," to borrow a word the Republicans like to use on us. Well, the elitists are out-of-control and off the scale!

I've referred to Recovery.gov as a fact checker numerous times, and I am shocked by the amount of Republican BS that's being repeated ad nausea in some kind of retarded GOP-to-media-to-constituent daisy chain, or merry-go-round when they talk to each other. They are out of control and they don't even realize it most of the time. To be blunt, it seems like some kind of sick sociological experiment, to discover just how wrong politics, parties and their constituents can get when guided by unprincipled, desperate people.

The last few weeks have been the worst ever tainted by their lies, which has spurred them to be the least cooperative opposition during a crisis in American history. Their unwillingness to acknowledge the will of the American people after the last election is striking. They seem determined to stick to their broken ideas and stunted schemes. Their leaders have been despicable, doing whatever they can to stop a true economic recovery for their own political purposes. Their only concern is the next election and power, not the American people.

You see, there is only one set of facts. We Americans can debate them all we want - as to whether we feel they will help or hurt - but the fact remains there's still only one set of them.

I have a few questions for those Republicans who love to think they're politically smart these days, but in reality parrot the hyperbole of a few fanatic media dogs. Do you ever listen to yourselves? Do you ever think how absurd you sound when you try to debate politics using today's corrupt and discredited Republican resources? Do you ever get tired of ignoring factual responses, while resting on a crutch of media ignorance? Do you ever LISTEN?

Why don't you look up just a few key facts, which just might encourage you to cut President Obama and the Democrats a little slack? Try these first:

Why don't more Republicans make an effort to learn about how Republican presidents and congressional leaders ran up WELL OVER 90% of today's post World War II government debt, which now tops off near $11 trillion? George W. Bush himself ran up over a TRILLION in the past fiscal year alone. If it's true, which it is, doesn't it stand to reason that Democrats should be allowed an opportunity to spend government money based on their own needs and policies? It's only fair.

Why don't more Republicans make an effort to learn about what generates actual wealth in a nation? Republican leaders, the media, and my Republican friends keep talking about how World War II spending was the real reason why America pulled itself out of the depression. They like to say that Roosevelt's policies helped the poor, but in reality they prolonged the depression. That is a LIE!

Economists know that war spending does very little to create the economic conditions for domestic growth, since most of the money is wasted on products and services that are ultimately destroyed. Economies grow based on investments that are both renewable and long-lasting. Infrastructure investment, education investment, and good government policies are what most economists and academics credit with pulling America out of the depression. The fact is Roosevelt is responsible for those conditions. The Republican talking points to the contrary are deceitful, disingenuous and ignorant.

Why don't more Republicans make an effort to learn about why tax cuts are not enough to spur an economy, especially one mired deep in a recession or a depression? Most economists believe tax cuts spur an economy, which is why President Obama included $288 billion in tax cuts in the stimulus, HOWEVER, most economists ALSO believe that government spending and smart policies can play a vital role in stimulating an economy in crisis. The Republican talking points that criticize government efforts have no basis in reality. They are LIES! It is a fact: government has helped in the past and it can help again. The Republicans are playing politics!

Why don't more Republicans make an effort to learn about how they themselves used the same tools of government intervention in the past to help the economy? There are many examples throughout history when Republican administrations and congressional delegations used government to help fix the economy. I'm not going to name them all, but suffice to say that Ronald Reagan (Savings & Loan Crisis - $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer) and George W. Bush (federal bailouts and guarantees totalling over $5 TRILLION) were the two most recent examples. Feel free to list your own. They used LOTS of government money to tweak the economy. If Republicans wish to be fair, they'll allow us the same tool box. Unfortunately, I suspect fairness means little to them.

Why didn't more Republicans worry about creating debt when they were in power? Don't they see their own hypocrisy and double-standard today? I guess not.

Why didn't more Republicans care about smart regulations and enforcement when they were in power? Why are they fighting it now? Don't they acknowledge the role their leaders played at creating this crisis? Why doesn't it matter to them? Why don't they question their leaders' competence more?

Why do Republicans keep saying the Democrats were responsible for our problems because they controlled congress during the last two Bush years? Are they stupid? Think about the time scale! Are they even aware how their party filibustered every significant piece of reform legislation over those two years?

Why do Republicans always believe - without question - that Democrats spend while Republicans save? The exact OPPOSITE IS TRUE! The Republicans have consistently outspent the Democrats while in power, and by their love of tax cuts are guilty of lowering their own taxes at the expense of future generations. IT'S A FACT!

Do Republicans understand how BIG the deficit could get if we don't stimulate the economy, and HOW LONG the recession/depression could last? There are plenty of historic examples where governments did nothing, and nothing happened. Republicans love to use the Japanese stimulus packages of the nineties and their subsequent slow growth as arguments for nonintervention, but they always fail to mention that Japan's economy is driven by exports, and how stimulating that market is difficult. I say get all the facts, or don't bother.

The Republicans like to call us Democrats socialists. The facts suggest otherwise. Republicans lie to their constituents, create myths about who they are, and lie about what they did moments after doing it. They are the CON ARTIST party. A good example is their passion for the "FREE MARKET." Sure they love it, when it benefits them. Republicans are famous for PRIVATIZING THE PROFITS and SOCIALIZING THE RISK. Democrats simply acknowledge that government has a role to play. We tell the truth. We do not try to con the American people.

The list of questions goes on an on. I might even add a few over the next few days. Feel free to suggest your own. The bottom line is that most Republicans are ignoring the facts these days, while believing lies from multiple, illegitimate sources. It's time for Republicans to step up, smell the coffee, unhook the old ball and chain, and free themselves of whatever is causing them to be so brain dead these days.

I have had numerous debates with Republican friends and family recently, and they all seem to be parroting the same lies. It's getting very tiring and annoying. As I said on this blog, modern American political discourse is being steered by political and media elites, who are often LYING! I'm begging average Americans, especially Republicans, to do their research, read more, and discover what really happened in the past, and what is really happening today.

PLEASE DON'T TRUST TODAY'S POLITICAL AND MEDIA ELITE! Get up, get active, and get better informed!

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

Obama isn’t Wrong

Is it just me or do we all recall the non stop non action when it came to our nations economy of George the greeter at a Walmart wannabe in Texas? All over the media there are reports of President Obama screwed up on this, he screwed up on that, his plan is flawed in this way and the drum beating continues from overpaid mouthpieces without any single clue. Stuffed shirts with nothing to say than critical thoughts on what they would have done in his place. Hello! You are not the President for a reason and you are in fact just over paid blow holes!

Can we put things in perspective rather than on the damn front boiler on high heat? Can you or I not see that the President is dealing with a crappy situation that his predecessor and the Congress before him dealt him. President Obama was handed a deck of cards to play the game of the American economy as our new leader but Bush and company loaded all fifty two cards with nothing but deuces! You can’t get twenty one at a black jack table with nothing but deuces.

It simply boggles my mind with the talking heads pointing out how wrong the President is when they are sitting in the cheap seats while taking down mega salaries for just spouting off opinion simply because they can. Who the hell is a talk magazine to preach about what the President should and should not do? I beg to plead and offer you this thought, the main stream media is selling poorly crafted aluminum siding that you don’t want to buy today, or tomorrow, or even the week or months to come. They are sipping at the cooler of irrational and economic dissent opinion and like how the water tastes today. You don’t want their product on the side of your house because the guys selling it won’t even buy it. All the talking heads are selling it but in the next broadcast they will be offering coupons in opinion on the next issue to come up that will spin 180 degrees from where they were yesterday.

FDR couldn’t turn around the Hoover mess on a dime, Reagan couldn’t turn the Carter years around on a tax cut, and Clinton could not turn the Reaganomics collapse around in one term. Obama has been President for a freaking month and the press is calling his administration a failure already simply because their own “Experts” say so. BULL!

The tax cuts and the stimulus package have not even reached the people and states in America. Give me a break when you criticize President Obama’s leadership before it even hit’s the people all across America.

Papamoka

Schwarzenegger To GOP: STUFF IT!

Finally, there is some common sense coming out of the Republican Party and it is coming from their favorite Austrian born son, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California! Arnie says that they should pretty much shut their pie holes when it comes to the money that President Obama is sending to the states. Apparently, some of the Republican Governors are determined to tell President Obama, “thanks but no thanks” for the money based on political principal alone. I wonder if Governor Sara Palin is returning that item to her speaking tour?

Schwarzenegger to GOP: Put Aside Ideology
February 22, 2009 10:30 AM

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger repeated today on "This Week" that he'd take any state aid money GOP governors like Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C. turn down -- a position that has raised the ire of many of his Republican colleagues in Washington, D.C. this weekend.

"Governor Sanford says that he does not want to take the money, the federal stimulus package money. And I want to say to him: 'I'll take it.' I'm more than happy to take his money or any other governor in this country that doesn't want to take this money, I take it, because we in California need it," Schwarzenegger said.

He also suggested his party's ideological opposition to tax cuts isn't always tenable.

"I think that the Republican Party or any party has to always think, when you make a decision, 'Do I want to make a decision that's based -- that's best for the party? Or am I a public servant and have to serve the people, what is best for the people?'" he said.
Schwarzenegger defended his California budget plan which will raise taxes in his state, despite his campaign pledge against a tax hike. - George’s Bottom Line

Good for Governor Arnold and standing up to his own political party! Although I honestly believe his thought process is based on the fact that his state is looking at a $41 Billion deficit. Better to swallow a little pride than have to raise taxes to keep basic services going for the state. Republican and raising taxes is a no-no. Especially, and most importantly is if you live your political life on no new taxes.

I find it ironic that a Republican Governor in any state is willing to sacrifice thousands of state jobs based on his or her own political philosophy. I can literally hear the cheers from those laid off state workers for their state Governor for sticking to their gut feeling. I don’t see the Governors gut going hungry any time soon but damn it, we are talking political principal here and sometimes people need to feel the pain of hunger in order to get it. How much macaroni and cheese do you think these budget busted state Governors will eat when they can’t pay their states bills? I’m guessing but this is a long shot, NONE! And yet we all know the state workers once laid off will have it on the menu frequently. Is that good state leadership?

What I don’t understand is why any state Governors would turn down the money from President Obama? Unlike GM, Chrysler and many banks that took a helping hand loan, the states do not have to pay the money back to the federal government or give up ownership of entire counties so where is the principal to refuse the money?

Good for you Governor Terminator for taking the money to save state workers jobs! My condolences to the citizens of states like South Carolina for having an economics idiot like Mark Sanford running your state. Voting GOP is almost equal to a pink slip nowadays simply because the millionaire Governor knows what is best for you, the lowly state worker. Your state paid job is not worth saving if your state needs to take money from President Obama. Eat your Mac & Cheese and deal with it!

Laid off state workers can click HERE for a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese coupon for a $1.00 off.

Papamoka

Cats Doing What Cats Do

This is a weekend post and I happen to love being a cat owner. Then again I think he honestly believes that he owns us. We have a little black cat that is a mongrel with what looks like thumbs for front paws. He's a gem in the rough that jumps into the shower with our baby girls on a regular basis and if he is locked out while they are showering he claws at the door to be let in. He looks like a little wet rat afterward but he isn't about to miss the next child to go into the shower and back he goes. I swear he was a plumber in another life! Anything to do with running water has him mesmerized. Makes it tough to wash the dishes but he helps out by knocking the dish soap bottle into the sink over and over again. Then he goes after the sponge when we are not doing dishes. He is just a cat doing what they do.

This video goes out to my friends BJ and DB who love cats to no end. Sorry BJ, I know your dilemma with video but I was thinking of ya my friend when I found it. This video comes from somewhere in Asia so I don't have a clue what the music that goes with it is...

Video Link



What I love most about my little Binks is that he loves to snuggle with the Mom of the house when she is sleeping. He can't get close enough to her and practically sleeps on her head every single night. He just loves to be part of the family and the kids love to have him around even if he is a boy and jumps in the shower with them.

Papamoka

24 Hour Air Traffic for the World

This little video blew me away about air traffic across the world in just one 24 hour period. The video follows the sun and all I could think of after watching it is how the hell we don't have thousands of airline crashes a day? Blew me away!

Video Link



You don't want to see the radar for lost luggage...

Papamoka

Winter in the Bay State

It's winter in Massachusetts and the gentle breezes blow,
Thirty freaking miles an hour at twenty-five below.
Oh, how I love Massachusetts when the snow's up to your butt,
You take a breath of winter and your nose gets frozen shut!!
Yes, the weather here is wonderful so I guess I'll hang around,
I could never leave Massachusetts because I'm frozen to the ground!
Author Unknown

Then we have this little thought…

COLD IS A RELATIVE THING. . . . . . .

65 above zero:
Floridians turn on the heat.
People in Massachusetts plant gardens.

60 above zero:
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Massachusetts sunbathe.

50 above zero:
Italian & English cars won't start.
People in Massachusetts drive with the windows down.

40 above zero:
Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, and wool hats.
People in Massachusetts throw on a flannel shirt.

35 above zero:
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
People in Massachusetts have the last cookout before it gets cold.

20 above zero:
People in Miami all die.
People in Massachusetts close the windows.

Zero:
Californians fly away to Mexico.
People in Massachusetts get out their winter coats.

10 below zero:
Hollywood disintegrates.
The Girl Scouts in Massachusetts are selling cookies door to door.

20 below zero:
Washington DC runs out of hot air.
People in Massachusetts let the dogs sleep indoors.

30 below zero:
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Bostonians get upset because they can't start the snowmobile.

40 below zero:
ALL atomic motion stops.
People in Massachusetts start saying..."Cold enough foh ya?"

50 below zero:
Hell freezes over.
Massachusetts public schools will open 2 hours late
Author Unknown

Papamoka

Hey GOP, Stop Yelling and Debate Us for Real

Hello Papamoka Readers! I would like to discuss something close to my heart and this blog: the poor state of political communication or debate today. I'm mostly referring to what I see coming out of the Republicans, or the right, but I'll be fair and say that we all seem to be talking past each other these days. In my opinion, the traditional QUALITY of American political debate is in jeopardy. We all need to go back to school for a refresher.

The more society becomes interconnected by electronic networks the less we seem to understand each other, or at least LISTEN. I'm sure we've all noticed it. We all - both the right and the left - seem to be drifting apart. Where's the common ground we used to share? It's getting more and more difficult to be civil. What's the cause? Could it be the Internet? It may contribute to the quantity of today's debate, but is it possible that it detracts from the quality? That's a good question we should ask ourselves.

Take this blog for example. If you go back and read many of my posts you'll see that I go to great lengths to find facts and figures. I do a lot of homework before I write about an issue. Unfortunately most of the responses are what you might call incomplete. They're always personal, sometimes cruel, and most of the time illiterate. Instead of debating the issue they always seem to go after me. To this day, I have yet to enjoy a traditional point-by-point debate with the right. It's true. Go and look if you disagree. I dare you to find a decent debate. They usually just call me names.

It's as if we come from two different worlds, and speak two different languages. To be blunt, I've grown frustrated and lost faith in small blogs like mine as a place for actual debates. To be clear, I'm only speaking about getting responses, since I still like writing for people who just enjoy reading about political issues. I've gone back to real life, person-to person debates, usually at dinner parties, where I can really dig in. Those are fun too. Like so many of us here, I've begun to ignore the intellectual rot that has infected today's political dialog on the Internet. You know its many forms.

This blog is now simply an outlet, where I get to vent about politics to a few hundred people who stop by every now and then to read my rants and raves. I still love it when you debate, but you don't have to. I encourage healthy debate, and discourage unhealthy, stupid debate. Please, do your homework. READ! I'm speaking mostly to those on the right who seem to resist facts, while using their keyboards to vomit forth garbage that adds nothing to the debate. Their usual word fare is hardly worth the read, much less a response.

Anyway, back to the debate about political communication. Here's a great example of the way the right looks at the left today. It's a recent transcript from Rush Limbaugh:

RL: This is... it's about power, it's about control. These people genuinely look out over this country from their lofty perches. They don't like what they see. Otherwise...

Caller: So they can go somewhere else! Like, I don't understand, why do they have to stay here? Like, leave us alone!

RL: At this point, at this point Gretchen, I don't care about the why. They're not going to leave. They're trying to control it. At this point, the only thing is they must be stopped!

Caller: I agree...

RL: Within the confines of our Constitution, and the political arena of ideas, they must be stopped. I don't care why they see this country the way they see it. I don't care why a murderer does it. I don't care why a rapist does it. I don't care why this Muslim guy offed his wife's head. The NOW gang is out there saying 'oh, that's not domestic violence, that's just, uh, that's just...' what do they call it? 'Culturally honor killing. Or this woman was going to divorce him, that's against the law. That's his diversity.' I don't care, I don't care why anymore. If I figure it out, I'll be glad to tell you because it's interesting to know, but it doesn't matter in terms of defeating them.

It's so tiring. They're so tiring. I realize that Limbaugh is just trying to get ratings, and he's not a politician, but many Republicans admire him and consider him to be a solid representative of the right wing. It's still horrible! Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and Beck are all out there calling us "socialists" and "communists" these days, and they won't allow for a real debate to counter their BS. The really dumb ones - on the radio - are even worse, calling us "fascists" and "baby killers." Unlike left wing radio, they never take OUR CALLS! They screen us out. They never welcome our best people on their TV shows! The system doesn't work!

I understand we all - on both sides of the aisle - get colorful at times, but things are getting out of hand. We deserve the right to counter their crap! I often get heated and passionate on this blog, but I'm always willing to debate my points - as long as you do it properly, POINT-BY-POINT! That's the only way to determine what side is right, and what side is LYING!

Our national conversation seems to be getting worse. The right is spending its air time calling us names. They oppose our positions without debate, and they do it while the country is FALLING APART from problems THEY CREATED! The Republicans and those on the right are being INCREDIBLY IRRESPONSIBLE in my opinion. Something needs to change, and FAST!

I have an idea! Our Democratic leaders need to challenge the Republicans to REAL POLITICAL DEBATES, like the ones held during the election, but BETTER! More PASSIONATE! The American people are worried about their future, and they would respond. If they're really feisty, the networks could sell advertising. The ratings would probably be good. Just like in school, let's put our best debaters up against their best debaters. Let's see who wins the day. We could even offer a prize. How about real power and the future of the nation.

That's today's great political challenge. Let's turn that FAT ELEPHANT around to face us, and have a series of real, honest American political debates. It may be the only way.

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

Steele Turning GOP Black

For the record, I am a Democrat but a moderate voter that sometimes sees both sides of every issue. I do not pretend to be a Republican or an Independent because I am not a Republican or an Independent voter. I find it extremely offensive as a voter and an American that the new Chairman of the GOP aka Republican Party is trying to move his starch white collar, blue blood, better than everyone else, especially the lower class, political party to what I think is liberal and strictly Democrat territory. Michael Steele wants to now transform the GOP into HIP HOP proactive. Attract the vote so to speak as one brother to another.

Stop laughing! Michael Steele wants to turn the GOP into a friendly in appearance only political party to attract African American voters to the Republican Party as its own African American spokesman? Okay, I’m laughing with you now. This is the same guy that congratulated his fellow Republicans for voting in mass against the stimulus plan that Democrats passed and had signed by President Obama this week. That same stimulus package will create millions of jobs across America for people not living off of a trust fund. Workers that know that hard work is nothing to be afraid of doing to feed your family. Do you wonder if maybe some of those jobs President Obama signed into law this week could also be for African Americans, Latinos or just the rest of us idiots that don‘t mind working hard to earn a decent paycheck?

Steele: GOP needs 'hip-hop' makeover
Ralph Z. Hallow
Thursday, February 19, 2009

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:

Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

The RNC's first black chairman will “surprise everyone” when updating the party's image using the Internet and advertisements on radio, on television and in print, he told The Washington Times.

HIP HOP SNIP…

But, he elaborated with a laugh, “we need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets.” - Washington Times

Who the hell is this Michael Steele guy fooling other than himself? Even his own political party does not have even one African American Senator, Congressional Member, or even a Governor in any state in the entire country! Leave it to the GOP to pretend they like black people so they can mock their culture and hope to steal a few votes in two years time. I’m sorry but in my opinion, you can not vote or assimilate with the GOP culture unless you think that people in the lower classes deserve their lot in life because you have yours and they can go screw themselves simply because your political base says so.

In this two party political system that we have I am truly grateful that one of them has the common sense to be honest, follow its own convictions, and elect many members of the African American community to high offices like Governor, Congressional Member, Senator, and even President. Democrats know what the rainbow looks like and in no part of it is their a “Whites Only” stripe.

Michael Steele is an ass and he is the poster boy of the GOP of “us too” before they actually understood that black people have a brain and can lead too. He gets my scumbag of the week award!

*****

My brother from anotha motha at the Gun Toting Liberal has his own thoughts on this very same topic. Brotha's, we think alike!

*****

Then we have this video from Rachel Maddow on Michael Steele

Video Link

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Papamoka

Foreign policy: reasons to be cheerful?

Alex says: Well, that’s probably pushing it. Obama’s announcement that he is sending nearly fifty percent more troops to Afghanistan could easily go either way. We might, in a few years, have pictures of US troop withdrawals that mirror these memorable images of the Red Army retreating from the same hills. Critics, especially on the left, are worrying that this might turn into a gruelling counterinsurgency and make Iraq seem lightweight. More than a couple of times in the past week, news reports have made reference to the dreaded ‘J word’: implying that Obama’s domestic reform agenda might get bogged down by a divisive and costly war on the other side of the planet, just as Johnson’s Great Society was destroyed by Vietnam. This is particularly worrying as the centrality of a surge in Afghanistan to Obama’s foreign policy credentials means that a lot of presidential credibility is on the line.

But whilst the region is undoubtedly still hanging in the balance, I think this kind of prediction is too precipitous. Indeed, in the Mid East and Central/South Asia region there are actually a few reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the future, reasons which should be set alongside any reasonable concerns about the region:

1. No, I don’t think a surge will work in Afghanistan. But it didn’t work in Iraq, either. At least not alone. The success of the Iraq surge was contingent upon a political shift amongst the US generals towards negotiating with militant groups who were strongly religious, nationalist and anti-American, but not necessarily supportive of al-Qaeda. There’s no reason to suppose that similar strategic realignments are impossible in Afghanistan, either. Probably the best we can hope for is pinning back the recidivist insurgency to Helmand province and bumping up spending on the rest of the country – not so much to ‘reconstruct’ Afghanistan as to construct a nation that wasn’t there in the first place. If this produces jobs and material benefits for Afghanis, and especially if it is channelled through institutions which empower local elites and reduce the foreign presence in safer regions, there’s no reason to suppose it won’t have a degree of success. It’s not perfect, it certainly doesn’t meet the absurd expectations raised in the Bush era, but perhaps constructing a functioning Afghani central state and limiting the insurgency to a single region may turn out to be enough to reduce the feasibility of international terrorist attacks.

2. Raising the troop numbers must give a better chance of disrupting uncontrolled Pakistan-Afghan movements. This may help to undermine the insurgency in Afghanistan. But, more importantly, it may provide a breathing space for the Pakistani government to try and get out of the terrible fix it’s in at the moment. History suggests that taming borderlands is a notoriously fruitless enterprise. If the goal is of a genuinely secure border, think again (if the border from the United States to Mexico can’t be managed, what hope would one have for this one?) 100 percent success is an unrealistic expectation, then, but some progress is better than nothing.

3. News today that Egypt has released long-time dissident Ayman Nour. The subtext of this story is clear: real US pressure towards democratic opening can have an impact, as long as the president has real power. So this can be chalked up as another thing that the Obama administration has achieved in a month that the Bush administration failed to achieve in eight years. Liberalisation in Egypt is likely to produce some brown trousers times in the near term, as there is clearly a great deal of frustration from below that has been boiling for decades, and it will be important to manage any process of opening very carefully. (Witness Iran in 1979.) But in the long term, it has to be welcomed as a positive development in the region. More than that, it's unavoidable - and later rather than sooner just means more dangerous for everyone.

4. The fact that Netanyahu is winning in Israel doesn’t necessarily seem to be great news (at least to me). But the truth is that he will have a stronger mandate for meaningful negotiations than Olmert, whose politics was entirely driven by aggressive attempts (in Lebanon and Gaza) to assert his nationalist credentials to a suspicious public against just this kind of challenge from the right. If the US can ever get the Israelis and Palestinians to the table, they will only be able to secure a deal that their leaders can get accepted at home. That was the unbridgeable gap with Ehud Barak. So things here lie in the balance: a wider war arguably as likely as a meaningful breakthrough. But in a certain sense, at least a hard-line victory will let the US be able to talk to people who really matter.

5. Meanwhile, President Assad is making extremely unsubtle noises about a positive response from Syria to any potential overtures from the Obama administration. The path to Hamas and Hizbollah lies through Damascus and Tehran, and the great chance for a major strategic realignment in the region will come with an overture there that parallels Nixon’s visit to China. Who knows, perhaps even Ahmadinejad might lose the forthcoming elections in Iran? With stronger ties on the Arab / Persian side, then, Obama would have a greater ability to offer security reassurances to the Israelis. This in turn would allow him to make more demands from them in terms of territorial concessions. It’s very hard to see any possibility for progress given the horror of Gaza earlier this year. But perhaps in time we might see Gaza not as the beginning of a terrible era in the region's history, but the end of a failed phase in US and Israeli military strategy.

Don’t get me wrong: the Middle East remains arguably the most dangerous part of the world. There are a hundred ways things could go wrong. Iraq remains a concern of the first order (especially if, as is a possibility, the process of strengthening the military against the insurgents raises the possibility of a coup from that direction). Saudi Arabia is in an intractable bind, since a liberal path here will likely produce a collapse in a regime that has virtually no legitimacy beyond the sword. The Persian Gulf region is likely to be hit badly by the collapsing world economy. But all that said, there are opportunities here for constructive action if the Obama administration acts judiciously.

Alex Goodall
Papamoka’s European Contributor
From A Swift Blow to the Head

Super ‘Bama

You have to give President Obama credit for tackling the immediate problems of our nations economy head on and one by one. It’s almost like he has a play book and the toughest issues are at the top of the list of plays. The stimulus plan for the people and getting the jobs back is now in place to start rebuilding our infrastructure with some states receiving from $6 Billion or more over the next two years to rebuild roads, bridges and more.

President Obama is now tackling the home foreclosure problem and according to this report in the New York Times he doesn’t need the Congress to get this mega issue in the “Done” column of his to do list. As a moderate voter, I’m loving his style and desire to fix this nation pronto!

Obama Unveils $75 Billion Plan to Fight Home Foreclosures

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: February 18, 2009

MESA, Ariz. — President Obama pledged on Wednesday to help as many as nine million American homeowners refinance their mortgages or avert foreclosure, an initiative he said would shore up distressed housing prices, stabilize neighborhoods and slow a downward spiral that he said was “unraveling homeownership, the middle class, and the American Dream itself.”

Mortgage Rate Snippet

“It will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell,” he said, adding, “And it will not reward folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford.”

The plan will take effect March 4, when the administration publishes detailed rules explaining it. Most of the plan can be enacted by Mr. Obama though his executive powers, although part of it — including changing the bankruptcy laws to allow homeowners to seek changes to their mortgages through bankruptcy proceedings — will require legislation. Mr. Geithner said the administration was already in discussions with lawmakers on how to proceed. - New York Times

Not since the days of Ronald Reagan and FDR have we seen a President so intent on tackling the problems of our nation with such vigor and vigilance. Mark your calendars and note that I will proudly predict that President Obama will turn this economy around in two years by being proactive and over zealous in his mission. And if he can rescue six million home owners from loosing their homes, he will have a built in re-election vote built into the process. MSNBC has this to say in this news video...

Video Link

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

If there are 120 million home owners and 6 million of them benefit from his mortgage crisis plan then that is five percent of all homeowners that can thank President Barack Obama for saving their family homestead. Add that total to the number of small business owners that just benefited from the tax cuts in the stimulus package and you have a growing base of voters that will no longer look at the President as the Anti Christ Democrat in the White House.

No matter what angle you look at it, Super ‘Bama is playing the political game of chess like a true leader and his actions are not pissing off his base in any form or sense of the word. Republicans on the other hand have a President that is and will make them look like fools for voting “NO” on every proposal he offers to get America back on track. Republicans will have to explain the actions they took against the President that worked to save jobs, homes and all the rest of the Super 'Bama initiatives at the polls in the next election cycle.

Papamoka

*****Yahoo News has linked in on Business Blogged

Edsel, Yugo, and GM seek more Bailout Cash

It comes as no surprise that GM is coming to the taxpayer trough again but I would have to say that the executives at GM need to learn how to fish. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge union worker supporter and as liberal as the day is long but this company along with Chrysler have already come to the taxpayers for a bailout and the billions of dollars went through their pockets like water in a spaghetti strainer. It’s only been three freaking months!

Did they slash executive pays across the board by ten, twenty or even thirty percent to save the company some money? Did they do a damn thing to save the company any money as the billions of taxpayer dollars came into the “General” funds account? Besides taking down clocks and changing light bulbs, lowering the thermostat from 72 to 68 degrees, did they do anything? I think you already know that answer.

Over at the Wall Street Journal they have this to say on the second tapping of the well by Detroit’s automakers…

GM Seeks $16.6 Billion More in U.S. Aid

By JOHN D. STOLL, SHARON TERLEP and ALEX P. KELLOGG

General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC told the federal government they need at least $21.6 billion more combined in bailout loans to put them on the road to recovery, and outlined possible scenarios if either auto maker should have to file for bankruptcy protection.

Both GM and Chrysler, in the recovery plans submitted Tuesday to the U.S. Treasury, argue that bankruptcy would be more costly and drawn out than government-funded restructurings.

General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner speaks at a press conference at the company's world headquarters Feb. 17, 2009, in Detroit, Mich.

GM said it might need as much as $100 billion in financing from the government if it were to go through the traditional bankruptcy process. Rick Wagoner, GM's chairman and chief executive, said the bankruptcy scenarios are "risky" and "costly" and would only be pursued as a last resort.

Chrysler's plan said the company would likely have to file for Chapter 11 protection if it doesn't get additional loans from the government and concessions from unions, creditors and dealers. It said it would need $24 billion in financing if the company were to file for bankruptcy. But company officials said in a conference call that they believe a Chapter 11 filing is "not necessary" for Chrysler's survival.

The submission of the recovery plans was required under terms of the U.S. loans the auto makers received in early January. The plans, however, described only a relatively few major new restructuring steps they plan to take to cut costs and downsize their operations. - Wall Street Journal

With this latest grab for taxpayer cash in three months time comes GM with an announcement to layoff 47,000 people and talks about bankruptcy. Did anyone go over the fine print of the original loans from the government to GM if they filed bankruptcy? Does Uncle Sam and all his siblings (you and I) get screwed legally in a money for nothing deal? If the government demanded shares and the company is found insolvent, does that or does that not make the value of those government held shares at zero, null, nada, kaput?

I don’t know what the answer to this whole mess is other than absolute frustration and disgust. If GM and Chrysler were competing mom and pop stores on the corner of Main and Elm Street and they couldn’t sell the products then simple economics dictate what happens next. If both mom and pop stores were given a loan just three months ago to get through difficult times but both stores wasted the time and money then the doors need to be shuttered. I’m liberal, I’m a moderate, but I am not a fool.

The government should demand the CEO’s and Board of Directors of each companies resignation if any more cash is to follow. Insert Mitt Romney at GM at the helm and Jack Welch at Chrysler. People may not like what Mitt Romney or Jack Welch can do but you have to give them credit for knowing business and knowing how to turn situations around under pressure. The alternative choice is that GM and Chrysler go the way of the Edsel or the Yugo.

I think both sides of the political aisle can agree that management at both of these companies is clueless. Can our economy afford to let them just die off? I don’t think so and thus we have a major political dilemma building and boiling.

Tip to self: Buy stock in junkyards that specialize in GM and Chrysler parts.

Papamoka

The Republican "Patriots" Who Stole Billions from America

Good Morning Papamoka Readers! It's conspicuous by its absence in the media, but the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the Army's criminal Investigation Command and the Justice Department NOW BELIEVE people in the US military and those in the BUSH Administration stole billions in cash that was sent to Iraq on pallets for reconstruction shortly after the fall of Saddam.

They're reporting that US military personnel and Bush appointees may have intentionally misspent or pocketed over $50 billion in American taxpayer dollars. $50 BILLION! That far exceeds the scope of the Wall Street bailout theft, making it potentially the "greatest fraud in US history."

They report the money is simply unaccounted for because many of the contractors and sub-contractors simply disappeared. They haven't been able to track it down! It's an INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF MONEY - enough money to bailout every broken state and local government in the US, and it's GONE!

What can we - the law abiding citizens of this nation - say except thank you once again to our Republican friends who SUPPORTED and STILL SUPPORT some of the greatest thieves in US history. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the whole CORRUPT bunch of lying, scheming, scummy "patriotic" Republicans who raided the treasury over the past eight years!

What really bugs me is how ordinary Republicans continue to deny that Bush and his people were involved in any war profiteering or theft. They act like the whole Bush Administration was just a victim of bad luck and unfortunate circumstances, or they blame the Iraqis. When are they going to WAKE UP and SMELL THE SCUM for who they are? When are they going to start to use the brain God gave them? It's denial on a national scale.

More and more evidence hits the news every day about how the American people were screwed, and they still deny it. Instead, they spend all their energy whining and complaining about petty issues like how our elected officials are fulfilling their campaign promises by spending our money on us - hardworking Americans. Unless something changes soon, then the majority of Americans will begin to see them as nothing but loyal Republican WHACK JOBS!

When you add this possible theft to the long list of waste and war profiteering already proven during the BUSH YEARS, the Bushies and the Republicans will undoubtedly go down as the greatest thieves in the history of the republic. Republicans like to call themselves the "party of small government" or "low taxes." What a joke! If justice prevails, they will always be the "party of crooks," as law enforcement and historians begin to prove how they stole billions, if not trillions, from the American people.

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

Bella and Tara

When you wonder if two different kinds of people can really ever get along you don't have to look further than the natural world. My wife sent me this tip in an email on a CBS news broadcast and I thought it was the greatest video ever. It got me to thinking, if these two can find a way to get along and become best friends for life, then what the hell is wrong with Democrats and Republicans unable to agree on or come to some middle ground? Afterall is said and done, we are all still Americans...

Video Link



This video blew me away! If a full grown elephant and a dog can become best of friends then we need to look a little closer politically at how we treat one another. I expect the right to call me a jerk as much as those of us on the left look forward to calling them jerks as well. In the end, we need to work together to get out of this mess and that means finding common ground to agree on. Bella and Tara don't have that problem. Unless of course you look at the fact that the dog could never scratch the elephants belly in reciprocation.

Papamoka

California State Bankruptcy Looms

UPDATED POST 1/23/11: Congress to Consider State Bankruptcy

The nations largest economy state is about to go bust. California is facing a $41 Billion dollar deficit and the cuts already made are not enough to balance the states budget. Credit markets are chucking the state the bird and are rating their bonds as pretty much junk which adds to the dilemma. This leads me to ask or point out the obvious question if California will be the first state to file bankruptcy during this mega recession?

Over at the New York Times they have this to say on the future of California and its state governments survival…

Since the fall, when lawmakers began trying to attack the gaps in the $143 billion budget that their earlier plan had not addressed, the state has fallen into deeper financial straits, with more bad news coming daily from Sacramento. The state, nearly out of cash, has laid off scores of workers and put hundreds more on unpaid furloughs. It has stopped paying counties and issuing income tax refunds and halted thousands of infrastructure projects.

After negotiating nonstop from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday night on a series of budget bills that would have closed a projected $41 billion deficit, state lawmakers failed to get enough votes to close the deal and adjourned. They returned to the capital late Monday morning only to adjourn until the afternoon, though it was far from clear whether they would be able to reach a deal.

California has also lost access to much of the credit markets, nearly unheard of among state municipal bond issuers. Recently, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the state’s bond rating to the lowest in the nation.

**SNIPPET**

And yet dirty Republican politics moves from Washington DC to Sacramento to push the envelop just beyond the breaking point to put the fix in when it comes to elections. The piece continues…

Democrats, who had already given into Republicans’ long-held dreams of large tax cuts for small businesses and for some of the entertainment industry and a proposed $10,000 tax break for first-time home buyers, balked at Mr. Maldonado’s request that the legislature tuck a bill into the package that would allow voters to cross party lines in primary elections.

Mr. Maldonado, who is also seeking a constitutional amendment to prevent lawmakers from getting paid if budgets are late, defended his request that the open primary bill be included in the budget package. - New York Times

Is it just me or does it seem like Republicans are forcing our state and federal governments into losing situations financially simply so they can point the finger of blame in the next election? And do they think that all Americans have a ten day, three month or one year memory recollection? Will the Republican Party lead the nation to bankruptcy state by state simply because they can sabotage common sense legislative action by voting no or stuffing unacceptable poison pills into the same bills that would have saved their own state or federal government? I’d have to answer yes they will and yes they are.

Governor Schwarzenegger is going to be forced to shut down all but emergency services when the money runs out from the Sacramento treasury simply because he will not have a choice. All state services will be closed from one end of the budget process to the other. Local communities will be forced to step in where the state can no longer pay to operate services. Thank you Mr. Maldonado for shutting your state and all of its services down you selfish monster.

Now that is good Republican government, stuff it down somebody else throat aka bank account to pay for. Then again, isn’t that what the federal government has been doing to the states for the last eight years under George Bush?

I’m hoping that wiser minds prevail and sort out the details to stop California from going into bankruptcy but we shall see. Republican’s are on the war path of destruction simply because they think they can blame the political party in charge when the proverbial excrement hit’s the fan come the next election.

Papamoka

Lance Corporal Kevin T. Preach

One of our own from my home state in service to our nation in our armed services is being laid to rest next week, Lance Corporal Kevin T. Preach. A young man all of 21 years old serving in Afghanistan in the United States Marine Corps from a small town in Massachusetts called Bridgewater. He passed away from wounds from an IED in Afghanistan. Too young and yet honorably serving his country willingly. God bless his soul. God rest his soul.

A funeral service with full military honors will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 11 a.m. at the Central Square Congregational Church, 71 Central Square, Bridgewater.

I’m raising this subject because I will be there for him and his family even though I never met them or him personally. It’s called respect and I honestly believe that we need to show respect to all that have served and those that paid the ultimate price for America. I may talk politics from my extreme liberal perspective but Kevin Preach served to defend my right to rant and I owe him my personal thanks. Thank you Kevin and everyone else out their in uniform in our nations military.

Men and woman like Kevin Preach deserve our respect and honor and in that thought I am thankful to be a proud member of the Patriot Guard Riders. I can take some time out of my busy life to say thank you to not just his family but to Kevin Preach when he needs me most. Kevin may or may not see it, he may or may not hear my heart felt gesture but those that knew him need to know that he wasn’t alone in his desire to serve America. Kevin and his family need to know that we supported him and we will be there for them. He will not make this last trip to his final resting place alone. My gratitude and prayers are with him. God bless you Kevin Preach, I can‘t shake your hand but I sure as hell can make sure you get the respect you deserve.

May he rest in peace.

Papamoka

Smooth Landing

Sometimes in politics it isn't about how you get to the end but that the end result is that you get what needs gotten. This whole business with the Republican Party voting all but three martyrs against President Obama reminds me of the dangers of flying to close to the electric fence of politics.

I need a break, I'm thinking tropical and maybe a warm beach, a packed cooler with some drinks for the girls and maybe a few Mommy and Daddy drinks. Road trip! Packing the SPF 50 and I'm hitting the beach...

Just not this beach!!!



Papamoka

The Illusion of Politics

Sometimes what you see in the news reports about politics isn't really what is truly going on in the halls of our government. While some folks bitched and moaned about the latest stimulus package, others among them quietly spoke and wished they could have voted for it and across party politics. Is a house divided really a house? Can it stand?

What you see isn't always what you really think it is...



Papamoka

Fernando Was Right

When it comes to these dire economic times I'm reminded of ABBA and Fernando. You have to love ABBA and the songs from long gone by times. Is it just me or was 1976 that long ago?

US Law Enforcement Needs to Rethink the Taser

Good Morning! I would like to remind people that potentially deadly tasers are killing thousands of unarmed Americans each year, and very few people are talking about it. It's a serious issue in American law enforcement. Tasers are not harmless tools of deterrence the way they're being marketed.

My last taser post was reprinted in the Chicago Sun-Times and circulated across multiple blogs. It is a serious issue that more Americans need to be aware of, despite our national support of law enforcement. To reiterate, TASERS CONTINUE TO KILL UNARMED PEOPLE and must be categorized as a weapon of last resort. It's clear that police should not be allowed to use them to control UNARMED American citizens.

A young man in San Jose, California died yesterday after being jolted with a taser. Local police report that he represents the sixth taser death since the department began using the stun guns in 2004. That represents a very high "accident" number for a small urban police force.

In his 20s, he was supposedly in a "struggle with two officers" when they tried to arrest him in the backyard of a home late Wednesday. "The struggle was very, very violent to get him into custody," said police spokesman Mike Sullivan. "Some time during the struggle, the officers did deploy a taser."

Officers don't know whether an individual has a heart condition, or taken drugs thus weakening their condition. A taser is always potentially deadly unless you know the medical condition of the subject. They may as well use defibrillators to stop a heart, since the idea is almost the same. Suspects are still innocent until proven guilty in America; they should not be exposed to such a risky device.

How about lassos, laughing gas, or anything else that doesn't risk death? There must be alternatives. Let's get creative people!

Law enforcement is being sued, but still taser abuse is increasing. Taser MURDERS increase annually too. Law enforcement must be subject to community oversight. It's tools and weapons must be debated. I hope people reading this blog will take some time to examine the issue, and consider writing to your local newspaper, police, politician or oversight groups before more people die.

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

*****The Herald News has picked up this post... Thank you!

The tightrope

Alex says: So the stimulus bill has got through, smaller than what was needed but still the largest spending measure since World War II. Geithner’s bank bill is on its way, bringing to well over $2 trillion the total spending and investment by the US government since the crisis began a few short months ago. And we should see more spending on the public sector – education, health care, insurance – and environment in the next months, both to fulfil Obama’s ambitious agenda and as a method of further job creation by the back door.

The first casualty of this conflict was bipartisanship: a mythical phenomenon that has never really existed in Washington except as a political tactic (See my post from last September). Given the majority power that the Democrats now have across two of the three branches of government, it would have been inconceivable that they concede the substance of their political goals to make an unnecessary alliance with people who advocate policies they don’t believe in. To Democrat leaders it would have been a betrayal both of their principles and their supporters ... so it didn’t happen.

That said, this is a debate that’s doomed to an early death. No-one will be giving two hoots about bipartisanship within a few months. As the social consequences of unemployment continue to multiply, social polarisation based on public fury will take over, and bipartisanship will seem like a quaint concept from a bygone era. Prime Minister Brown gained early credit in his response to the banking crisis, and his bold and decisive action helped him reconstruct support that had almost completely evaporated in the preceding year, but a few months have passed and that is a thing of the past now. Now a significant majority of Britons believe that the government has spent too much time worrying about banks and not enough time worrying about jobs. The anger is palpable, building, and threatens in the medium term to split the Labour party: my only amazement is that no leaders have yet emerged to articulate and organise it. But with a million more people likely to lose their jobs this year, it won’t be long before that happens.

Obama’s battle with polarisation will be much more dangerous than the debates over bipartisanship precisely because it is based in social reality not the idealistic hopes we might have for a more civilized world of political debate. One phenomenon is about compromise in D.C. to get bills passed; the other is about a fragmenting society. If the jobless numbers grow at the rate most of us expect them to this year, if the ranks of long-term unemployed rise as dramatically as it appears they will, and if people continue to lose their houses, the anger at the ruling elites – which has so far only produced some fairly pointless public flagellation of bankers at congressional hearings – will boil into something much more than that, and Obama will be sitting right on top of it. I don’t think many of the politicians in Washington yet have any idea what this tiger of public anger will do when it gets its claws into them.

On the one hand, Obama believes that the path to recovery lies through ambitious yet fundamentally conservative policies: renewing faith in the banking sector, raising consumer confidence, and creating jobs for Americans (which, given the modern economic system, will entail big aid to big corporations, not just money to the little man). But in the context of a rising tide of populist anger, this runs the risk of seeing him associated too closely with these forces of privilege himself. That’s what’s happened in the UK, where the Labour party is now seen as little more than a stooge of the banking industry: an unfair accusation, arguably.

This was the tightrope FDR delicately had to walk in the 1930s: first wooing the big industrialists and allowing them to consolidate to keep prices up; then, in the mid-1930s moving dramatically leftwards to respond to the challenge from populist leaders like Charles Coughlin, Huey Long, and Frances Townsend; then, moving back to the fiscal centre (disastrously) with the spending cuts early in his second term; and finally reconstructing his political support by pronouncing the death of 'Dr. New Deal' and birth of ‘Dr. Win-the-war’.

That’s how you win four elections: and that will be the real test of Obama’s political skill.

Alex Goodall
Papamoka’s European Contributor
From A Swift Blow to the Head

Obama, Geithner, and Olbermann Tag Team GOP

When it comes to going to the wall for something you believe in then President Obama has his stimulus planning covered. Treasury is in line with Geithner towing the line on what will work and what will not work. MSNBC has Olbermann all over the stimulus plan approved today by the Senate but needs reconciliation by the House.

President Obama flew to the hardest hit area of Indiana today to talk up the stimulus bill in a city with over 15% unemployment. That wasn’t good enough, he then flew to Florida to an area with the highest mortgage foreclosure rate in the nation to talk up his stimulus plan. Both cities by the way voted against him in the election for President in 2008 by large margins. Obama’s staff didn’t screen the visitors to his visit, there was no bank of military members forced to sit and listen to the President speak. The house was full of regular folks in each city just wanting help. And they loved him for it!

Keith Olbermann has this to say on it over at MSNBC…

Video Link

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

One has to give President Obama credit for knowing how to play the game of politics when the representatives elected to serve you refuse to serve you the voter in your government. I’m sure that in the days to come we will see the backlash of Republican refusal in the Congress to help the ordinary working class people get through this tough economic time paid off by a vote in opposition to their re-election and their political party. You don’t have to be of any political party to be unemployed and that is the message that President Obama can and will sell right in the GOP back yard.

Hypothetical conversation between President Obama to the GOP… “Check Mate”. AKA If you are not going to work with us in Washington, then I will work directly with the people in your home state. Deal with the consequences and let the political chess pieces fall where they may. How strong are your morals when 15% of the people in your political district are unemployed and the President offers relief, help, a hand up? How strong are your political convictions when it comes to helping distressed homeowners when your constituents are the leader in home foreclosure?

While the GOP wants to strong arm the stimulus to our economy they are not even looking out the window of their local political office. Not Hiring and House for sale signs mean nothing to them as they jet out to Washington and place blinders on simply because they are told to do so by the leaders of the party. Who elected you to your seat in our nations government? It sure as hell was not anyone in Washington, D.C.!

Papamoka

Panic and the Economy

I'll just let this CSPAN video speak for itself but back in September of 2008 their was in fact a run on the banks here in the States and the Treasury shut down the electronic transfer of funds after pumping in $105 Billion to the banks when they found it happening. $550 Billion was drained out of money market accounts in one hours time and if the draw continued it would have collapsed the world economy. If they did nothing it could have amounted to $5.5 Trillion being drained out of our banking system that would have caused panic all around the world. Check out the video and what Rep. Paul Kanjorski has to say...

Video Link



I'm wondering if the Treasury investigated why there was a run on the banks electronically in such a short time span? That was the first question in my mind! Is the Congress investigating this. If they are not, then why not? If they are, then what did they find out? Or is this Congressional member full of crap? Or could the world as we know it really have ended on September 18, 2008? Two plus weeks before the election of President Obama and on George W. Bush watch, makes you wonder doesn't it?

As always, we follow the money and not the messenger... Thank you Memeorandum for the news tip!

Papamoka

The Devil's in the Details

Hello Papamoka Readers! I've been spending a lot of time lately pointing out Republican lies. I would love to drop this subject, but I can't. The Republicans keep saying things that get me angry, and their most recent talking point gets me angrier than all the rest put together.

Their recent use of the expression "GENERATIONAL THEFT" related to the stimulus bill MAKES ME VERY ANGRY! That Republican right-wing TOOL and propaganda expert Michelle Malkin supposedly used it first. It was so loved by the Republican DECEIT MACHINE that it was later used by John McCain, John Boehner and Rush Limbaugh. More are using it every day.

It's now beginning to enter the Republican vernacular nationwide, as right-wing talk show hosts spew it out to their ignorant listeners who are unfortunately believing it. Yes, their lemmings believe their lies. They're very powerful that way. I don't care what our Democratic leaders say, this is VERY SERIOUS!

Democrats NEED TO REACT! We cannot allow the Republicans to permanently insert this phrase into their national portfolio. We need to CORRECT IT BEFORE IT GETS OUT OF HAND! Any publicity expert would say the same. This needs to be fixed before it becomes part of the national conversation, and considered rote.

We can tolerate some of their Rovian tactics, but this LIE is beyond the pale in my opinion. It TWISTS HISTORY so much it practically kills it. I thought they were good when they successfully labelled John Kerry a Vietnam War traitor, despite the fact that George Bush skipped the war and Kerry won medals. This is even worse! We need to stop them!

IT'S A LIE BEYOND ALL LIES! There's not even a word to describe the deceit and evil behind this LIE, except to maybe label them the "party of lies and deceit." That might come close. No matter what, Democrats need to grow a pair! They must stop underestimating the effect of the Republican Rovians.

Democratic leaders must act NOW! THEY MUST RESPOND WITH FACTS TO HURT THE GOP! CALL THEM LIARS! CALL THEM LIARS!

The Republicans ARE THE GREATEST GENERATIONAL THIEVES IN THE HISTORY OF THE US! They need to be BRANDED with it! They need to be SCALDED with it! They need to have it STITCHED INTO THEIR FOREHEADS if that's what it takes to make our point.

They have transferred more than $10 TRILLION in wealth from future generations. They are guilty as sin, and everybody needs to know it. If any Democratic leader is reading this, PLEASE make an effort to REVERSE this talking point. It's a CRIME! It's a LIE! It's REPUBLICAN, ROVIAN, SOVIET STYLE DECEIT beyond what we should tolerate as a nation!

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

Senator Morning Joe

Is MSNBC a gene pool for potential future leaders of the Congress? Just a few months back there were reports off the cuff that Chris Matthews of Hardball was going to take a run for office and now we have reports coming in that Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe is going to run for the Senate. I found this little nugget of information over at Memeorandum and I do thank them for the tip!

By Jeremy Wallace

Published: Monday, February 9, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, February 9, 2009 at 1:14 p.m.

Television host Joe Scarborough has a new radio show and is feeling good about the influence he's having on politics.

But the former congressman from Pensacola said he may run for office again, maybe even the U.S. Senate in 2010.

"I haven't closed it off," said Scarborough, a Republican who is scheduled to address the Manatee County Republican Party at its annual Lincoln Day Dinner on Feb. 20. "I've been getting some calls from some fundraisers in Florida."

Scarborough said he is also hearing from other U.S. senators who want him to run for the seat that Sen. Mel Martinez announced he is leaving next year.

He just needs to decide whether he could have as much influence on public policy as one of 100 senators as he does now on his MSNBC program "Morning Joe," he said. - Herald Tribune

Don’t get me wrong, in their own television news magazines both of these gentleman ask or state some provocative opinions that I sometimes agree with and other times throw a shoe at the television. Chris and Joe are both pretty head strong individuals and sometimes when people don’t agree with them they throw little tantrums right on the air. Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann are a good example during the Democrat Convention with Chris pretty much having a hissy fit on Keith over reporting emotions rather than facts. Joe Scarborough and former Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski where the Z’ster had to tell Joe he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about concerning world diplomacy.

In the end, these two are a bunch of hot heads and that may sell on viewers but it will not sell in the halls of Congress.

Papamoka

Republican Secrets and Lies

Hello Papamoka Readers! Senate Republicans and "centrists" appear to have been successful at ripping the heart out of the stimulus bill, which will probably render it mostly ineffective. It's been both incredible and depressing to watch!

The Republican rank and file have fallen for their party's ruse about reduced government spending, while the GOP leadership looks out for their shadow interests few understand. The pathetic Senator Reid needs to fix it, or the outcome could be very bad news for America.

After watching recent events unfold it's now clear that I was wrong. I thought the Republicans were just stubbornly clinging to discredited ideas about how to spur economic growth, to create jobs their way, but I've changed my mind. I now believe they don't give a damn about creating good jobs.

After watching the debate on the Senate floor, with Democrats giving amazing speeches supported by leading economists on both sides of the aisle, it's clear nothing will convince GOP leaders. The opposition's floor comments were often outrageous, mostly unhelpful, and without alternatives. They obviously have another agenda. It's still unclear what it is, but I think they're up to no good.

They're deaf about the "change" the American people voted for. They are willing to destroy the ONE PLAN we have to create a solution for their own mysterious, selfish, power-hungry reasons. They seem unconcerned about the American economy, suggesting we wait for better solutions. They are spewing lies, muddying the waters, and playing the WORST POLITICS imaginable with people's lives and livelihoods.

The GOP today is surreal. Their leadership lies to control the message. Their constituents believe them. We know they're lying about the spending, but their true economic and political goals remain unclear. If I had to guess, it probably has something to do with keeping CONTROL of economic power. Government intervention is probably a threat to their interests. That's my best guess. What's yours?

Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist all you want, but the evidence seems clear. I'll bet the GOP shadow government, or oligarchy, cares about the American economy IF it serves their interests. IF it threatens that wealth and power, it must be sacrificed and renewed.

So, the Republicans have succeeded once again at herding their sheep and attracting a few moronic centrists into their fold. The damage this time will be significant. The stimulus bill Reid has negotiated will not be enough. Forget Reid, unless President Obama and Nancy Pelosi can convince the centrists in the Senate - like Olympia Snowe (R-ME) - to accept more stimulus than all is lost.

The watered-down version will not do the job - it will NOT CREATE ENOUGH JOBS to restart the economy. Unless we can stop the Republicans and their centrist allies, than America is doomed. The economy will begin to spiral down further, and as more jobs are lost the housing market will crumble more. The government will lose its ability to borrow from the credit markets, and then the worst will happen.

The final Republican bubble will burst. The treasury will lose its ability to raise money and the American economy will CRASH! The Chinese and the rest of the world holding over $10 trillion in American government paper will have only one course of action: buy America piece by piece.

Unless President Obama and the Democrats can reverse the ship of state on its collision course with disaster, then we - AVERAGE AMERICANS - are doomed to CRASH! Most Americans will suffer, and the middle-class will be destroyed for good. We will be powerless. It will make the first Great Depression look like a trial run. President Obama needs the support FDR fought so well to attract, or we're all in trouble.

The Republicans will be fine. Remember, the rich always get richer. They'll make their money anyway possible - as they always do - while America slowly heals over decades from its deep Republican wound. Once crashed, the Republicans will probably return to power, and do what they've always wanted to do - enact the "Anti-New Deal!"

The Anti-New Deal will be sold to "get us out of debt." It's ironic how the "party of debt" will be the ones selling to get us out of debt. They will do it by destroying everything good about the nation. In the best libertarian traditions they'll destroy everything FDR created. The REPUBLICAN FINAL SOLUTION will finally be enacted.

It's not concentration camps, but it will kill people. Social security, medicare, medicaid, unemployment, and the rest of the 20th century entitlement programs will be eliminated. Government will suffer its final Republican castration, and few government programs will be left to serve average Americans.

The result will be a dog eat dog nation again. Charity will be left to the poverty stricken private sector, and millions of people will die. Only the strongest will survive. They are trying to return us to that very dark and ugly world, and they may succeed if we can't stop them. They got us to this point by spending us into oblivion, and now they're trying to say we can't be allowed to fix it.

I'm sorry to be so negative, but despite our "glass half full" national personality, everything described here is possible. Our only hope is that ordinary Americans who happen to be Republicans figure it out before it's too late, and force their leaders to act in the best interest of the nation and its people.

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog