President Obama's sweeping victory
By John Amato Monday Feb 16, 2009 9:00amFDR did have a bunch of naysayers in the media and in Congress, but with cable TV blaring Republican talking points day in and day out the passage of the stimulus bill is getting lost in the shuffle because Republicans didn't join in the bipartisan dog and pony show.
The Political Animal:
But the Washington Post has a good piece today that adds some perspective to what's transpired in recent weeks. It's a reminder that while the trees have been frustrating at times, the forest looks pretty impressive.
Twenty-four days into his presidency, Barack Obama recorded last night a legislative achievement of the sort that few of his predecessors achieved at any point in their tenure.
In size and scope, there is almost nothing in history to rival the economic stimulus legislation that Obama shepherded through Congress in just over three weeks. And the result -- produced largely without Republican participation -- was remarkably similar to the terms Obama's team outlined even before he was inaugurated: a package of tax cuts and spending totaling about $775 billion. [...]
[E]ven before the plan passed the Senate last night, the president's top advisers were crowing. "We've been in office, what, 2 1/2 , three weeks? We've passed the most major sweeping comprehensive legislation as relates to economic activity ever in a three-week period of time," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Thursday evening in the West Wing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) credited Obama's leadership on the legislation yesterday, saying, "The American people know, and historians are judging, that this is one remarkable president."
For historical parallels, the Post piece noted that we haven't seen a legislative win for a president on this magnitude since FDR's banking system overhaul in 1933, "which cleared Congress within days of his inauguration."
We heard a lot of talk after the election from the president and his team about hitting the ground running. I guess they meant it.
As Steve notes, the White House did let messaging get away from them. I agree and one reason is because they were a bit blind to the fact that the media isn't interested in a real debate on economics. That would be no fun at all. They'd rather have crying Boehner throwing papers around on that endless loop. But what President Obama achieved very quickly is a historic moment indeed.
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Thanks for mentioning this positive note. He's pushed an incredible path already, with no thanks to those treasonous ba$tards aka republicans. What a bunch of effin losers they are! And they didn't even vote for the changes they insisted upon in the stimulus bill on top of all their whoring. Efftards each and every single one of the No voters!
did Obama achieve? He pushed for a bailout that was supported by his party. Where is that an achievement? He never needed even one Republican backer to pass this thing.
Yes he did.
Shutting out the Repubs is icing on the cake. It destroys the
meme, which you seem to hold to, that bipartisan ship is a virtue.
Bipartisanship stripped the real goods from the Bill and the
Repubs still stood back. Bipartisanship brought us NAFTA, two
wars, torture, criminal waste, and a myriad of other evils. Our
system, and all democratic systems, are based on building a
majority. Why throw away your main goal by reaching across the
aisle to a pack of ravenous dogs who will only bite you.
Memo to Leadership(?) You lost! STFU! Someone lied to these cocksuckers(and you) that they won. Obama offered his hand to these fucking losers and they told him to go to hell...so he bitch slapped them.
Lay off Hannity, he's bending your mind.
FUCK YOU!!!!!!
I am no Repub as much as you say it!!! I have never put anyone on IGNORE USER, you're the first.
Anyone who disagrees with you is a Repub. Well I never have to read your harte again!!!
Obama may have reached, but they bit back. I say fuck em and you!!
Now I'm going to get edited over your psycho bullshit!!
Being ignored by scum like you is a supreme complliment.
you should change your monikor to Chicken Little. The sky is falling! Thee sky is falling!
I read the comment you're responding to here, and he seems to be arguing what many are arguing. That Obama has a mandate and shouldn't overly concern himself with what the other party thinks.
this is in line with one of greenwald's recent posts...
During the 2008 election, Obama co-opted huge portions of the Left and its infrastructure so that their allegiance became devoted to him and not to any ideas. Many online political and "news" outlets -- including some liberal political blogs -- discovered that the most reliable way to massively increase traffic was to capitalize on the pro-Obama fervor by turning themselves into pro-Obama cheerleading squads. Grass-roots activist groups watched their dues-paying membership rolls explode the more they tapped into that same sentiment and turned themselves into Obama-supporting appendages. Even labor unions and long-standing Beltway advocacy groups reaped substantial benefits by identifying themselves as loyal foot soldiers in the Obama movement.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/13-3
Breaking the Plutocratic Oligarchy is gonna take time. This
is a first step.
I think this is part of the "religious impulse" that apparently exists in most human beings. At its most extreme, it is a "will" to find a pleasing "object", often a person, on whom human beings project all their longing for a connection to "perfection" and the thrill of the mysterious, a god, in other words.
It requires a colossal degree of cynicism to tap into this impulse knowing what one is doing. Otherwise, it is almost unbearably ignorant.
Because I choose to give the man a chance to do his job, and don't feel the same as you, doesn't make your diatribe true. Maybe no one's early accessment of Obama is correct.
No need to get your panties in a wad.
I didn't post a diatribe, nor was my post directed to you, whom I don't know from Adam. I've seen those people Glen Greewald describes all over the internet, people personally fixated on Obama as being greater than life and not his ideas or principles. It smacks of deification of Obama.
Now, if you feel that it applies to you, then I suggest you wear the shoes proudly but be ready for criticism from those who consider his ideas and principles and not the glorified man.
"People personally fixated on Obama as being greater than life" is a generalization that has been somewhat misinterpreted because of the wave of emotion displayed by people for their own reasons to be excited as well as the overwhelming desire by others for wanting the President to succeed. To criticize those who've never experienced this feeling of political involvement ignores it's historical significance and to judge some folks in their period of happiness will fall on deaf ears because you(and the great man Greenwald) simply don't get.
this tendency is dangerous to both the individual who is the object of the projections, the individuals that project and the cause/ideology the projectee represents...
also, i would argue, that the more strife in people's lives the greater the chance of this occurring...
I suspect the "religious impulse" is found in the limbic system and the hippocampus wherein lies the "reptilian brain," which seeks fight/flight and survival instincts of eating and sex. It's also the area that drives one to find alpha figures, and what can be more alpha than a god?
However, that seems to have been surplanted by the "celebrity impulse." There were books and articles written after Bill Clinton was inaugrated, that said people were having wet dreams of him and/or Hillary.
One can liken this to the traditional "honeymoon" stage that a newly elected president enjoys until Obama.
Interesting enough, those with reduced or repressed parietal lobe activity lose a sense of self/spatial-awareness and adopt a tendency toward theocratic authoritarianism. In essence, they become religious zombies who will think what they are told by GOD/GOP.
...I’m just say’n.
The pre-frontal cortex is the emotional center, and when left undeveloped, or damaged, can lead to schizophrenia that often takes religious connatations, but can now (due to cultural changes), could lead to the belief you're under control of space aliens, the CIA, the Jonas Brothers and other scary monsters.
...of the President, I won't deny that. It's just that the unprecedent early criticisms of this guy does have racial overtones(definetly on the right and a tad on the left).
I also find it incredibly insulting that SOME of the commentors here suggest those of us who stand behind Obama at this early stage can't think for ourselves(eg. kool-aid drinkers)...another backhanded put down...BTW I hear this same bullshit on the right wing stations. Coincidence I guess.
And they are conspicuously silent when proven wrong.
...of lies and reneging. I understand your confusion and denial. Obama won this, and he won even more support from the public. Get use to losing, Canuck.
BTW, Dubya's first public appearance will be in America Jr. Tell your "leader" Harper to chap his lips...for ole times. Lol.
Everyone who disagrees with you, in anyway is a Jim Crow Republican.
Canuck is a good guy. Now take your meds.
Double your dosage troll...you haven't been right yet.
Obama's making the noble effort but he's going to need a lot more help to punch holes in the corporate web of deceit that constrains him. The dems won't be much help.
Can the citizenry be mobilized? I doubt it because I don't see the mechanism.
The mechanism is his organization.
The mechanism is indeed his organization and to mobilize them we need effective and forward looking leadership that will give us a clear vision to a more prosperous future. Obama is well positioned to do just that and while any broad based political change or paradigm shift will take time, we must keep pressing onward nonetheless despite efforts by those embedded in he status quo to hold us back. This forward thinking will ultimately be our gift to future generations.
Mon, 02/16/2009 - 09:37 — Blue Lensman
Can the citizenry be mobilized? I doubt it because I don't see the mechanism.
_________________________________________________________________
You want to flip my lever?
I just can't see your mechanism.
Mon, 02/16/2009 - 11:07 — Blue Lensman
I just can't see your mechanism.
LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLy67SYqzuA&fe...
Just doesn't please your suckup media. They don't know how to cover that, when they're expecting histrionics.
see http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/2009/02/repla...
I hope when boner's running for reelection, his opponent runs commercials on an endless loop boner's throwing the pages of the stimulus bill around, that so many worked so hard on...
Do stimulus bill's come with centerfolds?
It's a picture of a taxpayer bent over taking it up the *ss. It's stimulating to the politicians and the only thing both parties actually looked at before passing. Kind of like Hillary voting for Bushies little escapades and then saying later she never "really read them". Typical politicians. "Look what I passed." "What's in it?" "I don't know, never read it."
he he concerned you can see the man behind the curtain!!!!!!!!its doubtful 2 senators read this bill, the lazy bastards dont work but maby three days a week for thier -graft er sorry pay, and when the money runs out due to porky pigs they will disclaim any responsibility !why because , we never read the bill, !unfricking believable!
Herding Democrats is like herding cats
And watch it when you try to brand them.
We must all hope it works. I'm a bit uneasy with any Democratic reliance on the success of FDR's plan since the situations are entirely different and today have much broader global ramifications.
A LOT of knowledgeable people don't think it's going to work, and I'm not qualified to judge between the yea and nay sayers. So I'm hoping for the best and planning for the worst, as well as I can.
Everything is riding on whether this works or not, regardless of its boldness and scope. It could be a colossal success or an abysmal failure.
Doing nothing is worse. At least Obama and the Deems are proactive.If you remember, before the election both parties were saying that something like this was needed. Now that Obama won the Repukes are just being contrary. They have put doubt into a lot of minds but don't forget; They have not offered any alternative. To do nothing would be catastrophic.
The naysayers are certainly not recommending that the administration "do nothing". They're predicting that what the Democrats have decided to do is wrong, and I'm not talking about the stupid Republicans who'd rather bring the country down than be part of making a plan work.
This business of prediction is something we all do at various times in life, but I'm just saying I think this is such a huge and complex problem that nobody has any convincing answers for me when measured against the answers of those who disagree with the first bunch!
President Obama functions on a much higher intellectual and spiritual plane than anyone in Congress, the media, or the political spectrum that no one can come close to touching him. Therefore, no one will ever bring him down or reduce him to their unscrupulous level.
It's such fun to observe how they believe they have him in their trap and he totally outhinks & outwits them.
What they'll soon realize is that this man is THE REAL DEAL. Obama IS superior intelligence; Obama IS the peace; Obama IS the honesty; Obama IS not an average man.
Obama simply "IS".
Obama is a human being just like all the rest of us, not some divinity.
Maybe that is a little over the top but I firmly believe that Obama is doing absolutely what he thinks is best for the country as opposed to only thinking about Party which the Repukes have so clearly done. Look at what they did in the Senate and the House. They forced amendments to the legislation and then did not even vote for their amended bill.
as was the great wizzard of oz!
Maybe Obama IS OZ??!!
Mon, 02/16/2009 - 09:22 — rimhotep
Depending on what the definition of is is.
you write: "Obama IS superior intelligence; Obama IS the peace; Obama IS the honesty; Obama IS not an average man."
wow, laying it on a little thick, don't you think?
president messiah? this is borderline cultish.
The Washington insiders have built this microcosm of corruption, payoffs, lies, and total deceit which includes Congress, lobbyists, and both parties.
Obama is not playing typical Washington games. He cannot be lured into their sandbox of feces. Instead, he appeals directly to his people and trumps them every time.
Obama knows whom he represents and it's not the twisted minds in Congress who have destroyed this country....it's the rank and file....it's the people of middle class america.
He is our president and has given Washington the royal finger....smiling all the way to incredible popularity.
Ya, OK, hold that thought.
then you can expect "drugs" to be legalized and the "Drug War" to end immediately.
In just a few short weeks, and under very trying circumstances Obama has already begin to eradicate that bad smell that permeated the WH for 8 years.
The stink is gone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Vtj73dYi4
Here's the thing, Obama will be making very big brush strokes with his pen, because he has to solve a HUGE PROBLEM every time he takes a step. The beauty of that is that he will be making stunning victories if he pulls them off. He's had no settling in period, no honeymoon phase. And more seriously, no room to make mistakes.
Obama was too conciliatory to the media and Repubs---there is nothing wrong with extending the gesture as the right thing to do but I believe they underestimated how hidebound, partisan, and manipulative they are.
They simply give too much credit to these schmucks to do what was right instead of recognizing that the MSM are willing propagandists for Neocons---arrogant, self centered bullies with a grossly inflated sense of their value to our political process.
I hope that they learned their lesson and take a more proactive and affirmative stand going forward.
to the New York Times, on Valentine's day?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15r...
One cannot but feel that, perhaps, we, too, were caught up in the endless cycle of negativity?
I'm surprised they didn't release this over the weekend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoLHGZKzkoY
King of the crazy yet cool vid links!!
My favorite of all time!!!
to your expert linking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV9Y0Qy0U20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmTmvBzNFY4
I am a nay-sayer when it comes to thinking that this is an economic stimulus bill. I don’t think it will ultimately alleviate the fiscal problem we are in because it does little to address the root causes of the problem – which is primarily our Debt. (Yes, I realize that a robust economy is the perfect remedy for debt – only this ain’t that.)
That being said – I’m all for the bill. Great job!
Funny thing is, what I see in this bill are Government investments in the future of this country that should have been taking place for decades. What I see in this bill are funds for infrastructure development, education, energy, and a myriad of projects that BushCo for the last 8 years and the GOP for decades have been against because they don’t line the pockets of big-business.
Well – government spending isn’t supposed to line the pockets of big-business. Government isn’t a for-profit enterprise and shouldn’t be run like one. Government is supposed to be for the benefit of its people. This spending helps people.
Those who voted no on this spending are the same ones who so quickly voted for a nearly identical bail-out of a SINGLE INDUSTRY. Those who voted no on this spending were the same ones jumping up and down on their soap-boxes waving loud sticks at the brown-skinned terrorists – opting to send a TRILLION dollars over to IRAQ over the last six years. Where the hell did THAT lead us (the answer of course is contained in the question)?
We can’t take back Iraq, and we’ve yet to see any positive results from the Wall-Street fiasco, but at least with this bill, spending is being targeted IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
John Maynard Keynes
---
Franklin D. Roosevelt
---
Karl Marx
The ghosts of Keynes, FDR and even Marx have been sighted and they are in reasonably good health.
Japan in the 90s had what they called the 'lost decade'. It wasn't a depression, it wasn't even a great recession. It was a slump from previous meteoric rise.
Here Krugman today says we have had a lost decade of our own, the last one.
Here is clip:
Here the (I am told) conservative Robert J. Samuelson hits a similar theme.
Here is clip:
Here from Bloomberg is analysis and discussion with Bloomberg Editor-at-Large Tom Keene. He discusses in passing the new book by Yale Professor of Economics Robert Shiller.
Books by Robert Shiller here
with George Akerlof
.
Compare. Bush got a stimulus bill passed worth billions, with many Dems onboard. Obama did the same with no Repubs onboard. Bush brought along taxcuts totally billions. Obama's "bill" is bringing taxcuts worth almost as much. Bush bailed out banks with billions. Obama is going to bail out banks with billions. Bush and his regime, used drones to bomb Pakistan. Obama is using drones to bomb Pakistan. Bush instead of using diplomacy, opinionated that the real threat to the globe was North Korea getting nukes. Hillary lands in Japan and says that it is a threat that North Korea gets nukes........um...what is the difference in any of these scenarios again?
show me the money shot! wheres the beef? that this bill may give you a pay checks fine, but what can you buy with this wpa money that will not end up in chinas pocket or how will it rebuild the manufacturing base we once had ?
Food
..accurate. We have to keep people reasonably well fed and healthy until the "new reality" sets in and more substantial steps towards the reinvention of this country can be taken.
guess you havent been paying attention, our food supplys are being used by the corporations against us , they raise the prices and reduce the amount of the product , keep it on the shelfs long after its expiration date take the meat and pour red dye on it long after its expiration date, they cut the product down like a cocain dealer and give you less for the buck! yes food will be our way to salvation!
You said:
I said:
That is correct. The horrendous trade deals that we have negotiated vis a vis our manufacturing base have been very favorable for our agricorpotocracy.
However as you point out, but very narrowly, that is not all good news.
You said I haven't been paying attention. That is a non sequitur.
We must eat and I have been paying plenty of attention. It is far worse than even you say.
Here is a clip on Jane Akre who was an investigative reporter for Fox News before they fired her because she would not falsify her report on Monsanto and the human growth hormone they use in dairy cattle.
Besides the outrage on the adulteration of the food supply, when Akre sued Fox in a whistleblower suit the appeals court ruled that FALSIFYING THE NEWS IS NOT ILLEGAL. They then dismissed the suit.
I am a vegetarian and I don't eat any animal products. That is no reason to be complacent.
Here is the video 'Future of food - Genetically Modified Food'.
Monsanto has been allowed to patent genetic modification of food. Our predator state government does not require the listing of GMF on food. This prevents oversight and liability.
as long as it is available to buy. I'm not actually sure of the percentage of food the US currently imports, but I've heard around 40-50%. The problem with food imports (as well as energy imports)
is that the lack of credit available for the actual transport of said commodities is causing an ongoing problem.
I do not remember where I read about this, but until the global banking problems are fixed and the credit is flowing as it should, businesses will have difficulties providing what we're used to buying - regardless of where it comes from.
Plus, I forgot to mention, that Monsanto's patent on GM seeds also gives this one, humungous global corporation a strangle-hold on the actual production of food....period. That needs to be amended - soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SwXSiGpCxc
Obama is THE ONE.
That one.
Maybe someday he will be two of them...
Mon, 02/16/2009 - 10:01 — Wesley E. Ledjennes
Obama is THE ONE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgPGc8AP3TE&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oksv4y3rOmE
Every major political party in power is passing similar legislation. Globally. Even if this was a Rethuglican in power, similar legislation would have been passed. Rethugs never voted for it out of political BS politics as usual, and would have voted for it had a Bush been in power. Likewise the odd Dem wouldn't have voted for it had a Rethug been prez. Last 8 years. How many Dems voted for Bushie legislation?
Had there not been an election, you still would have had something like this passed.
They want to start WWIII. Why do you think they keep claiming that the New Deal didn't end the Great Depression; it was WWII that ended the Great Depression. They are making a pitch for Fascism as the answer. They used the same argument during the 1930s.
well i have nothing for the repigs but it was in fact ww2 that ended the great depresion!
There are 2 completely different economic meltdowns during 1930s. The 1st was the Great Depression. The 2nd was the recession of 1937; which was caused by the Sino-Japanese War, also known as the beginning of WWII. The Great Depression was ended by the New Deal. The Recession of 1937 was ended by America's entry into WWII.
levels until almost 1960...
9/4/29 379.61
surpassed
11/17/54 379.69
Here
I don’t think fighting WWII did much for us. Winning did. Germany fought in WWII as well, and it didn’t help them much.
he he thats because we destroyed thier factorys and infrastructures while ours remaind untouched!
and more generous, than ours (the victors) is or ever will be...
Fighting WWII didn't nothing for those killed.
For the US as a nation, the apparent defeat of fascism was a great reason to fight. Employment went to zero and savings skyrocketed which is what propelled the our growth afterwards.
On a positive note afterwards, in a gesture of apparently great magnanimity we initiated the Marshall plan to help the shattered economies of Europe.
On a negative note, we imported the fascism we claimed to have defeated and with it, Truman, the Republican Congress of 1947 invented the Cold War and the National Security State. We created the Military Industrial Complex, the NSA and the CIA. The rest is as they say, history.
Germany rebuilt but did not rearm, we stationed troops as a stated offset to the perceived and much propagandized threat of the Soviets and Germany prospered becoming a great industrial engine.
The offset to the stated Soviet threat in Germany was much overstated, since nuclear weapons came to be the greater deterrent.
Unfortunately, there is another history that is secret to most Americans. It involves the CIA and MIC running roughshod over the rest of the world.
That deserves a complete volume by itself.
and the Republicans still think they're in charge. Arrogance? Ignorance? Both?
The Party of No Sense
hot times on the old thread tonight. I for one applaud Obama's achievement in maintaining party solidarity and my only regret is the stimulus package was not bigger. And also Hi Ron. How's it going?
Reslug criminals and liars absolutely know what crime they're committing, that's for sure.
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