Morning Must Reads: Oval

Scott firmly placed a screw in the GOP establishment yet the “kingmakers” still love him. Sounds like battered spouse syndrome to me.

But at least McCollum, the man he defeated, is still sore.
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http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/401026/ron-littlepage/2010-08-30/rick-scott-new-supporters-hitting-hypocrisy-tour

“Andrew Ross Sorkin takes a crack at explaining the icy relationship between Obama and Wall Street and points to the politics of vilification. Yves Smith argues it’s actually about Obama tax policy hitting hedge fund managers’ wallets.”

But everyone tells me that Obama is a stooge for the bankers, a corporate whore, got rolled by Wall Street, or is simply doing everything he can to assuage his bankster overlords?

How many articles are out there now saying Obama could have led a progressive populist revolt against the banks and stemmed the decline in his popularity? Turns out that he did do that but the only ones that noticed are the banks. Note in that article how they don’t mind the taxation or the regulation just that they don’t like being cast as villains!

Principle VI

The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:

(a) Crimes against peace:
(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/forgive-and-forgetforget/

“Andrew Ross Sorkin ..and points to the politics of vilification.”

That’s the only type of politics Obama knows, you can’t blame the guy for doing what he is supposed to do.

When you have big labor practically running the Labor dept, what else to expect?

““As every student of American history knows, this country’s core founding principles included nonpunitive taxation, constitutionally guaranteed protections against persecution of the minority and an inexorable right of self-determination,” he wrote. “Washington has taken actions over the past months, like the Goldman suit that seem designed to fracture the populace by pulling capital and power from the hands of some and putting it in the hands of others.”
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The interesting part is that conservatives were saying this would happen with Obama. The cheerleading by the press overcame any real review of Obama’s record and how it might predict this exact action. What seems to be rational intelligent folks got caught up in the feel good nonsense and are having serious “buyers regret”

“Dick Armey’s goats found a home after ‘Kate Plus 8′ on TLC.”
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Fixed!

Yeh, Freep, let the banks and oil companies run free. It’s the American way!

I really find it hard to understand why the SEC settling with Goldman Sachs has got anything to do with nonpunitive taxation, the rights of minorities or self-determination?

Apparently, Obama does have a plan for the ailing job market and fcuked up conomy

Oval Office Extreme Makeover

Yeh, Freep, let the banks and oil companies run free
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Let’s see the banks have the Federal Reserve, Comptroller of the Currency, SEC, FDIC among others regulating them BEFORE the latest round. Yes they are running hog wild.

Oil Companies: EPA. Dept of Interior, MMS, DOE etc

And let’s not forget that countless Congressional Ctms for each

Just doesn’t get any less regulated than that does it (in a liberals delusional world)

Picture of the day was the side by side photos of Putin hunting gray whales with a cross bow and Obama riding a bike.

Best comments was the Bad Guys have Dr. Evil (Putin) and we have Pee Wee Herman.—Priceless

Freeinpa, is he ‘pee wee herman’ or a communist marxist dictator? is he a joke or the most serious threat to america that has ever existed?

Global Warming oops!
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“We found in the summary for policymakers that there were two kinds of errors that came up — one is the kind where they place high confidence in something where there is very little evidence. The other is the kind where you make a statement … with no substantive value, in our judgment.”
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http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/196642/Climate-change-lies-are-exposed

No wonder the left voted to go with “the debate is over” approach

That “centrists only need apply” plan the Obama administration has been running doesn’t seem to be paying too many dividends for the Democratic Party. Maybe they should take another shot at the Professional Left to improve their numbers?

Overlooked in how small was the crowd at Beck’s Rally and how white the crowd was and how hateful and divisive they were, the left seemed to omit this one key point:

$5+-million in donations for the “group, which has never before raised more than $1-million from an event.

http://philanthropy.com/blogPost/Military-Charity-Raises-Record/26509

Who says he can’t be all 3?

The “centrist government” that the Dems and Obama has been running is a joke. It’s true only of the spectrum is: Anything right of center is extremist and anything to the left of center is moderate.

That is how the centrists viewed the campaign and now they have discovered the “moderate” sham. See above on Obama’s problems with Wall Street

That “centrists only need apply” plan the Obama administration has been running ..

really? I thought everybody in Obama administration had two left hands!

It is really infuriating that the Left is blamed for him.

And here we have the perfect encapsulation of why Obama can’t win. He is neither left, nor right, nor centrist. He said all along that progress is about identifying those areas where there was a consensus and building from there. So there are things that he has done that may p**s you off Derek (the list seems to boil down to the public option, FISA vote, civil liberties, not achieving repeal of DADT yet and coddling the banks) and there are things he has done that piss you, Freeinpa, off (at a guess I’d say everything but really the rwinger’s complaint seems to be that that he has spent too much (except where tax cuts are concerned), that he is weak on national security (except where killing terrorists, expanding the Afghanistan war etc are concerned), that he is too harsh on the bankers (except that bailouts were terrible and an affront to society) etc…..

But of course like any good whingers you both focus on the things that you don’t agree with rather than the immensely positive things he has achieved.

You have an incompetent leftist. What’s infuriating he was incompetent or he was caught being a leftist? Conservative from the start of his campaign warned about his leftist ideas, the leftists he surrounded himself with and the ideas he embraced that occasionally squeaked iut (Wealth re-distribution). After the election buyers remorse started quickly and you had a collision of leftists ideology with Obama’s narcissism.

I have no use for his economic policy and war mongering as well.
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freeinpa why don’t you name one thing about him or his administration that would be called socialist, by anyone who understands what that term means.

What did I miss?

Nobody could have….blah, blah, blah.

“The truth is that some of us were practically screaming back in January 2009 that the administration was proposing too small a program. Start with this post and work forward. And no, the point isn’t that I’m so smart — it is that given the forecasts we had at the time, and given historical experience of recessions after financial crises, it wasn’t at all hard to see that the plan was too small. Things have been worse than expected — but not that much worse.

And why does this matter? Because the best chance Obama et al have to change things now is to make the case that we need to do more, and that Republicans stand in the way. Yet here they are, apparently trying to run on the claim that they had it right all along, or something. Is this just boneheaded political strategy? Is it about the egos of the advisers who called it wrong? I don’t know — but it fills me with despair.”

For one I didn’t call him a socialist. But you use a typical liberal defense of “definition of”, Newsweeks and NYT have called his policies socialist. I prefer the term corporatist

Socialism is a system where the government directly owns and manages businesses. Corporatism is a system where businesses are nominally in private hands, but are in fact controlled by the government GM, Chrysler and health care comes immediately to mind. Policies about a Pay Master approving earnings of corporate executive comes to mind. Obama’s crasp and trade policy (if he could get it passed) is another.

The “by the definition of Socialism” allows Obama and his band of knuckleheads an easy out. It is not free-market since government controls the private sector through taxes, regulations, and subsidies and that’s exactly what Obama has done

You might have wondered how could this affect you.

“Many areas are still under water, and it’s not clear how much of the land will be ready to plant this fall, the U.N. report said. In southern Sindh, it could be six to eight weeks before the soil is fit for planting, probably past the best time for sowing.[...]

If farmers are unable to plant, a massive loss of food production in 2011 and possibly long-term food shortages could result, Abdul Wajid Rana, the economic minister at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, wrote in an Aug. 20 report.

A recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said that environmental factors — such as water and food scarcity, natural disasters and the future effects of climate change — could weaken an already weak Pakistani government and help radical Islamist groups recruit more members.”

Lest we forget: Senate hopeful Rand Paul’s father Ron is still a nut.

“I see that my old boss Ron Paul wants an audit of the nation’s gold holdings to make sure the gold is really there and isn’t lead bars covered with gold paint or something.[...]

I recall one occasion when I was working at the Treasury Department and he was out of Congress, publishing an investment newsletter. He called to say that he had heard that the Treasury was building a new facility to print money with different designs and colors. The idea was to call in all the old money in order to catch drug dealers, tax cheats and so on. Ron told me that he had heard that a new high-speed currency printing plant was secretly being built in Texas.

As a courtesy to him, I actually looked into this. I was told that there were no such plans and that such a scheme would be impossible to implement without congressional authorization. I told this to Ron, but he published a piece in his newsletter saying that it was true. Of course, in the 20 years since the Treasury still hasn’t implemented its secret plan. Maybe it’s just waiting until it has enough black helicopters to confiscate all the guns at the same time. “

Corporatism is a term often associated with the way Hitler ran his economy. But just to be sure there is absolutely nothing about his policies that is socialist, correct, even if he invented taxes and regulations?

A follow-up from Col. Lawrence Sellin, who was removed from service in Afghanistan for his recent “Outside View: PowerPoints ‘R’ Us” comment.

“Seriously though, I think it is time for the American people to hold the senior military leaderships’ (colonels and up) feet to the fire. When they make their reports to Congress, one can be sure that it is the best possible scenario that they can justify without lying. The phrase “progress is being made” should not be accepted as an answer. It is like saying “the check is in the mail.”

Everyone should remember that these are military careerists. War provides the opportunity for testing their skills, getting medals and promotions. A compromise peace without their definition of “victory” might be considered a failure. They all want to march down Pennsylvania Avenue like General Norman Schwarzkopf. Likewise, the contractors want to continue making their huge profits. It is the common soldiers, however, who are providing the sweat and shedding the blood.

We must stop treating the Afghans like children. They are not. It is their country and for better or worse, they should start taking responsibility for it. There is little reason not to begin turning over responsibility now. Regional Command West is possible because it is the most peaceful part of the country. That could be followed by Regional Command North. Between now and next July, the coalition can concentrate on Regional Commands East, South and Southwest.

After that no more blank checks. In my opinion, time’s up.”

“— it is that given the forecasts we had at the time, and given historical experience of recessions after financial crises, it wasn’t at all hard to see that the plan was too small.”

This seems to be the typical revisionism by the left. They campaigned (and still comment ) that we were on the edge of a depression. Its hard to see much worse that. So one can conclude they didn’t have a clue and if the forecasts and models that were used coming out of the depression was what they used, it only proves that the policy now as then was wrong.

In 1980-82 recession the US was in an oil shock unemployment hit 10.8% and stayed over 10% for 10 months. GDP contracted similarly -7.9 in Q2 1980 and even -64 in Q1 1982. The contraction fro peak level in GDP and Gross Domestic Income was quite similar. What helped Volcker raised rates- yes it was painful and tax were cut (painful for liberals). Wild spending did not and will not solve the problem not matter how many times Krugman repeats it.

And your point is what? That you get an agreement that he is technically not a “socialist? Or by your Hitler comment looking to smear me and anyone else who does speak the truth about his policies? As was done with anyone disagreeing with HC, or favoring AZ’s immigration law or just disagreeing with Dems in general. The policies are indefensible so smear is your only refuge.

In either event Americans are quickly deciding “no sale” to this leadership no matter how much lipstick you put on it.

Just in time for the general elections…

“Stepping up a concerted, election-year effort to highlight aspects of the big health care law enacted earlier this year, the Obama administration on Monday announced that more than one million Medicare beneficiaries had received $250 rebate checks as part of the provision to close the gap in prescription drug coverage known as the doughnut hole.

The announcement, in a news release distributed by the White House, came on the same day that House Republicans opened a weeklong focus on their effort to repeal the law. Republicans have relentlessly criticized the health care law as a government takeover and are aiming to make it a political liability for Democrats in the mid-term campaigns.”

freeinpa I thought you just finished saying there was nothing socialist about Obama? You can look corporatist up in the dictionary yourself, if you want to know the meaning of the term. It has been applied to more than just fascistic forms of government, but fascism is included.

“Freeinpa, off (at a guess I’d say everything but really the rwinger’s complaint seems to be that that he has spent too much (except where tax cuts are concerned), that he is weak on national security (except where killing terrorists, expanding the Afghanistan war etc are concerned), that he is too harsh on the bankers (except that bailouts were terrible and an affront to society) etc…..”
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SO much wrong so little time..

First tax cuts is not spending. It is the people’s money not the government. payoffs to unions is spending.
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Expand the Afghan war? That was Bush’s plan that after great delay Obama implemented. Now let’s see if he stands tonight and praises Bush or takes the bow himself. I vote for the latter rather than the former.
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Let’s wait and see the results of his “national security” since the NYC trials are still on hold and he has made a farce of our border security taking sides of foreign governments while ignoring our state governments.
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As far as bailouts banks and autos- They should have been left to fail. And it was Bush that bailed the banks out (and he should not). Nor should have Obama bailed out the autos.

Fine you can use a dictionary. But you still have not answered: Is there a point. I mean other than excuses for a failed philosophy of the left.

If you think Congress is having trouble getting things now...

Likely Senate candidate Joe Miller [R] in Alaska told Fox News last week that GOP lawmakers must have the “courage to shut down the government” in order to eliminate government programs he doesn’t like. Right-wing CNN personality Erick Erickson said with child-like excitement yesterday, “I’m almost giddy thinking about a government shutdown next year. I cannot wait!”

And sleazy GOP consultant Dick Morris told activists late last week that Republicans should do exactly as Gingrich/Dole did 15 years ago, but this time it’ll work out better.

“There’s going to be a government shutdown, just like in ’95 and ’96 but we’re going to win it this time and I’ll be fightin’ on your side,” Morris said at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation Conference on Friday in Washington. [...]

Morris sounded a similar note in April, suggesting in a speech the Republicans should force a shutdown over health care funding.”

Let’s start again, since you insist on blaming the Left for Obama. Name one thing he has done that can be considered socialist?

Global Warming oops!
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Try [global warming about-face]
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“The world’s most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is ‘undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today’ and ‘a challenge humanity must confront’, in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby.
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Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled ‘sceptical environmentalist’ once compared to Adolf Hitler by the UN’s climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.
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But in a new book to be published next month, Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change. ‘Investing $100bn annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century…’”

edit…link text should read “getting things done now…”

Ten reasons not to raise the Social Security retirement age. (.pdf)

“5. The biggest financial problem facing Social Security is rising income inequality, which cannot be addressed
by raising the retirement age.

7. Working longer is not a choice for millions of Americans, many of whom hold physically demanding jobs.”

“Let’s start again, since you insist on blaming the Left for Obama. Name one thing he has done that can be considered socialist?”

Name one thing that he has done that cannot be considered socialist.

“Name one thing that he has done that cannot be considered socialist.”
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The health plan.
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Bailing out the banks, rather than nationalizing the banks.
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Bailing out the auto industry, rather than nationalizing it.

“There’s a picture of the World Trade Center hanging up by my bed and I keep one in my Kevlar [flak jacket]. Every time I feel sorry for these people I look at that. I think, ‘They hit us at home and, now, it’s our turn.’ I don’t want to say payback but, you know, it’s pretty much payback.”

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/payback/

Are you purposely stupid or is it genetic with you. I never said Obama was a socialist and you continue this idiotic dance about what he did was not socialism. I said he was a corporatist.

Which is worse and is a failure of policy in this country and is embraced only by extremists on the left

“But in a new book to be published next month,”

Sounds like a great way to make a ton of money off the gullible idiotic left.

It is pretty clear who the idiot is here. Why would the extremists on the Left embrace a non-socialist policy previously associated with fascists, among others?

“The health plan.
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Bailing out the banks, rather than nationalizing the banks.
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Bailing out the auto industry, rather than nationalizing it.”

I didn’t think people here were so naive, little did I know!

darkskinned why don’t you solve the mystery and explain how the Obama health plan is “socialist.”

why don’t you explain how it’s not socialist?

“why don’t you explain how it’s not socialist?”
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Because it is a private, not a public system. It isn’t even single-payer.

While you are busy giving text definition of labels, the ultimate goal is essential the same:control of behavior, economics and wealth of the the country.

Ultimately you can’t sell either to the public when they know what the actual plan is no matter how many happy faces you put on it.

But I appreciate you admitting you are a bat-crap crazy leftist.

Just to try to stop the new reactionary talking point courtesy of Fox, that the manly Putin is off hunting grey whales while Obama wussies around the WH.
Putin was not hunting grey whales in his photo op. He was using darts to assist in getting skin from whales for an environmental study. How sissy of him.
We can be grateful that he didn’t shoot anyone in the face with the darts, in a manly way.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129425436

They truly do miss the good old days of their failed efforts to benefit from the shutting down of the government and the non-stop investigations of Clinton.
If they want to ensure Obama’s reelection they will do just that.

This is one of the best exchanges I’ve seen in a long time here, I hope it isn’t cut short!

freeinpa, you say the goal of Obama’s policy is “:control of behavior, economics and wealth of the the country.”

I’d like you to clarify that a little and back it up where appropriate with some evidence.

First off, who’s behavior do you think Obama is trying to control? In the bank bailouts do you think he’s trying to control the behavior of ordinary family investors and would-be homeowners, or the investment bankers and insurance companies that paid themselves tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to rip the first group off and ruin the economy? If you agree that he’s more concerned with controlling (I’d prefer the term regulating) the banking and investment ‘industry’ than with the ordinary people who are the victims of their shenanigans, do you think that’s such a bad thing?

Secondly, with the auto-industry bailout, is he trying to control auto-customers, or the auto executives and auto-workers union that ruined the American auto industry? If you agree that he’s more concerned with getting the American auto industry back on a respectable international footing, is that really such a bad thing? Do you have any evidence that Obama or any government official is micro-managing the auto industry? I thought there were some basic common-sense guidelines they had to agree to in order to receive the bailout money, and that when they paid the money back they would have no further obligation to the government, so it seems like the ‘control’ is rather limited and of a fixed term in any case. Is that really such a bad thing?

Is there anything else that makes you think Obama has some insidious plan to exercise undue control over the behavior, economy, and wealth of the country?

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