June 25, 2012

What is with the wait on the HCR ruling from SCOTUS?

Does it mean anything (or does it mean nothing)? There doesn't seem to be any good reason IMHO for dragging this out. If they're just going to declare it unconstitutional, why don't they just hurry up and do it, so we can get busy to try to fix it.

Edit to add: to the extent that we can with this dysfunctional of a legislative branch, of course.

June 25, 2012

Taxes are the price for civilization

All we hear from right-wingers is how we need to get rid of as many taxes as possible yet there is never any definitive explanation as to where the money for things like protection services, infrastructure, etc is going to come from if not through taxes. A lot of people must believe that these kind of things just magically appear or something.

June 22, 2012

Why throw him under the bus? And so soon?

The Republicans and Fox News will crow endlessly about "getting" somebody major in the Obama Administration and probably embolden them to go after other Administration figures, if not President Obama himself, it will make President Obama look weak for giving up and giving in, particularly since he has now entered the fray by claiming EP on some of the documents Issa wants, there won't be anybody "acceptable" enough for the Republicans in the Senate to confirm as Holder's replacement and, frankly, if they are "acceptable", progressives will hate him/her just as much if not more than Holder, and, perhaps most importantly, while we're sitting around waiting for the Republicans in the Senate to get off their butts and do their job to confirm a replacement, nobody will be aggressively be pursuing voter disenfranchisement in Florida and elsewhere.

Does all THAT sound good to you?

If he's got to go because he's really messed up and/or done something illegal and/or unethical, then yeah, he's got to go but there is no evidence AFAIK that he did anything wrong and/or scandalous, certainly nothing worthy of his immediate removal from office via firing/resignation. So far, his only "crime" is not playing along with Issa's partisan witch hunt. Democrats almost always play along with these witch hunts and end up getting burned time and time again. Did you live through the Clinton years? Do you remember how many investigations Congressional Republicans ran and how many actually yielded any actual wrongdoing? You don't like the policies he's carrying out? Fine. But don't do the Republicans' dirty work to help advocate his removal from office when you know that we won't be getting a replacement for some time and that whomever President Obama nominates to replace him may be equally (or more) unacceptable. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

There's not even any evidence that this is hurting President Obama, at least so far. How many people (in real life) do you know whom even know what F & F is let alone who actually is the AG of the United States? How many people whom do know care about all this at this point? If President Obama is being harmed by anything so far, it's the weak economy, which is what most people are worried about at this point. Republicans are going to do anything and everything to throw him off his focus on jobs and the economy. Unless some Dems in Congress join in on the gangbang, I don't see F & F getting blown up into anything more than a partisan witch hunt being led by Issa and other Republicans.

So, considering all this, WHY should President Obama run and dump Holder all of the sudden?

June 22, 2012

I think that they are busy making a last-ditch effort to "bake" their ideology into the cake

They want to fundamentally undermine Medicare (and Social Security and other social safety net programs) so that once people notice they're gone and they're starting to hurt, it won't be as easy to revive, particularly since they'll make sure that the money gets pumped into other venues- tax cuts for the wealthy that will be untouchable and defense spending so that they can suck us into more military conflicts that are difficult to extricate ourselves from. I mean, it took us 8 years to get in and out of Iraq and we've been in Afghanistan for almost 11 years now and will have been there for 13 years by the time we finally pull out of there. If the RW has their way, we will probably get involved with Iran for several years as well. The right-wing vision of this country is very dark indeed.

June 21, 2012

"Baking into the cake"?

I think that's what the right-wing teabagger Republicans want to do with this country if/when they get total control of it again- they know that, demographically, their days are numbered but they can still set things in motion to make their ideology prevail despite of their absence. Think what they did to the USPS but with the entire country. I think that this is ultimately what their restructuring of things like Medicare is about.

June 21, 2012

This is becoming obnoxious

Somebody needs to hammer them for this, as well as the fact that Democrats DID, in fact *pass* the Dream Act in both the House and Senate in that it got MAJORITY votes in BOTH chambers. Problem is that it failed to equal or exceed the "REPUBLICAN-IMPOSED 60-vote threshold", so it technically "passed" yet was ultimately defeated b/c their "huge majorities" couldn't exceed that artificially imposed threshold.


In retrospect, maybe they should have passed it within that 14-week window but nobody knew if or how long that window would last and, besides, it would've still taken extreme party discipline to get it through and even though a majority of people clearly wanted it, it didn't get to 60 votes to break the impasse. Had the Republicans allowed a straight-up vote, however, it would be law by now. People, especially hispanics, NEED to be educated about this STAT!

June 21, 2012

Is "Anybody But Obama" going to be enough for Romney to win in November?

My gut feeling is that it won't unless Romney starts to whip up some genuine enthusiasm (ha!) or something goes horribly, horribly wrong with the economy. John Kerry came *close* to unseating George W. Bush in 2004 as an "anti-Bush" but still wasn't able to generate enough enthusiasm to convince enough people to "switch horses" and vote for him over George W. Bush. What does everybody else think?

June 21, 2012

Too bad it's never presented THAT way in the news reports

Also, it's unpopular among some people for different reasons. Not everybody believes it's some kind of "socialistic" job-killing machine. There are undoubtedly quite a few people (like many here at DU) that feel that the law was too conservative and not expansive enough and want to see it go even further. As big of a supporter of the law as I am, I think that it's a great start but it needs to go further eventually. The amount of people who want to either keep or expand the law is (and has always been) significantly higher than people who simply hate President Obama and want to actually go back to the former status quo (i.e. repeal, don't replace) but all you normally hear about is how hated the law is and how much people (supposedly) just want to get rid of the law altogether and go back to the former status quo (which wasn't very popular before and I'm sure nowadays will poll even lower).

June 18, 2012

No!

That would be SOCIALISM, which is, according to everything we've heard from the Republicans over the past 3-4 years, EEEEEEVVILLLLLL!!!!!

June 18, 2012

Get this guy the teeniest, tiniest violin in the world (Marco Rubio)!

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/rubio-the-white-house-never-asked-me-to-approve-its-new-immigration-plan.php?ref=fpa

Poor widdle Marco Rubio is whining that President Obama had the NERVE to change immigration policies without talking to him!!!! Sorry, Marco, I don't think that you're ready to play with the big boys (and girls) quite yet!