Please remember that so many people love you, so many people support you, so many people understand that you’re the only man defending us from a real evil. We know how difficult next year is going to be, but please be sure – We will be there for you and with you. Here’s my humble birthday present for you, you good-good-good man. Volume up!
What do you know, some journalists actually do their job:
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Yet the speaker, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all voted for major drivers of the nation’s debt during the past decade: Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts and Medicare prescription drug benefits. They also voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, that rescued financial institutions and the auto industry.
Together, a Bloomberg News analysis shows, these initiatives added $3.4 trillion to the nation’s accumulated debt and to its current annual budget deficit of $1.5 trillion.// snip
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost almost $1.3 trillion since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, according to a March 29 analysis by the Congressional Research Service. Operations in Iraq have cost $806 billion, and in Afghanistan $444 billion. The analysis shows the government has spent an additional $29 billion for enhanced security on militia bases and $6 billion remains unallocated.
Medicare Drug Benefit
The 2003 Medicare prescription program approved by President George W. Bush and a Republican-dominated Congress has cost $369 billion over a 10-year time frame, less than initially projected by Medicare actuaries.
Nine Senate Republicans, including Nebraska’s Chuck Hagel, along with 25 Republicans in the House, voted against the bill. Hagel argued that it failed to control costs and would add trillions in debt for future generations.
“Republicans used to believe in fiscal responsibility,” Hagel wrote in a 2003 editorial in the Omaha World Herald. “We have lost our way.”
TARP, the $700-billion bailout of banks, insurance and auto companies, has cost less than expected. McConnell, Boehner, Cantor and Ryan all voted in October 2008 for the program, which stoked the rise of the Tea Party movement.
Many institutions have repaid the government. The latest estimated lifetime cost of the program is $49.33 billion, according to a June 2011 report by the Treasury Department. That figure includes the $45.61 billion cost of a housing program which the administration never expected to recoup.
Rank-and-file Republicans are eager to pin the blame on Democrats, frequently pointing to the economic stimulus signed by Obama in 2009. The total cost of the stimulus will be $830 billion by 2019, according to a May 2011 Congressional Budget Office report.
That’s half the cost of the Bush tax cuts and less than two-thirds of what has been spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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PBO and VPB visited the Norwegian embassy on Tuesday to pay respects in wake of deadly terror attacks in Oslo.
You heard the president, let’s go.
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House Representatives on Twitter
Online Congressional Directory
Weeper of the House on Twitter: @SpeakerBoehner
Weeper of the House on Facebook
Senate Republicans on Twitter: @Senate_GOPs
More member of Congress on Twitter
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Yea, no way to touch this man’s swagger. You just can’t. This is hilarious:
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President Obama Addresses Council of La Raza:
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* DON’T FORGET PBO’S ADDRESS AT 9 ET.
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Like all of you, I’ve seen probably every speech and every interview and every press conference Barack Obama ever gave. Multiple times. And still, his press conference yesterday – especially the last 4 minutes – blew my mind to pieces. It was riveting. Astonishing. Beautiful beyond words. Off the cuff, from the stomach, with so much passion and anger and heart. Damn, what heart he’s got. Those final 4 minutes will go with me all the way to November 2012, and I hope that with you too.
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Morning guys,
Welcome to another day of drama…
Weekly Address (Which I suspect was taped BEFORE last night…)
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And the *real* Weekly Address 🙂
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The Republican refusal to countenance any way to raise revenues to tackle the massive debt incurred largely on their watch and from a recession which started under Obama’s predecessor makes one thing clear. They are not a political party in government; they are a radical faction that refuses to participate meaningfully in the give and take the Founders firmly believed should be at the center of American government. They are not conservatives in this sense. They are anarchists.
// snip
Coming from abroad, this country seems as if it is beyond dysfunctional. It looks like a banana republic on the verge of economic collapse. Now that Nixon’s dream has come true and the GOP is fundamentally the party of the Confederacy, it was perhaps naive to think they could ever accept the legitimacy of this president, or treat him with respect or act as adults in the governing process.
But this is who they are. I longed for Obama to bridge this gulf in ideology. But he cannot bridge it alone, especially when the GOP is determined to burn the bridge entirely, even when presented with a deal so tilted to the right only true fanatics could possibly walk away from it. And so the very republic is being plunged into crisis and possible depression by a single, implacable, fanatical faction. Until they are defeated, the country remains in more peril than we know.
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Great thing happened yesterday, and was basically ignored, but here’s PBO signing the certification stating the statutory requirements for repeal of DADT.
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Finally, there was a really awesome Twitter party last night, under #beforeblackpresidents. Some of the best tweets:
The debt ceiling was raised SEVENTY-FOUR times without incident. SEVENTY-FOUR TIMES.
Silly women from the secretarial pool wearing cheap clothes weren’t considered presidential.
It was ok to be casual in the Oval Office
No-nothing representatives didn’t make videos calling the President a liar.
A POTUS could tax the rich at 91% and be called a Republican–not a socialist!”
middle names were irrelevant.
DADT was law & pre-existing condition exclusions were here to stay.
Deliberately sabotaging economic recovery was not considered a legitimate option 4 the opposition party.
The President would get the credit he deserved for killing Bin Laden and rescuing the economy.
The Democratic party actually had the president’s back.
A President wasn’t attacked by GOP, Professional Far Left and Teahadists.
NO ONE screamed ‘you lie’ at the president during a state of the union address.
Congress would throw a parade to honor Pres. who took down Osama bin Laden. Now they scorn him!
people with 3rd grade educations didn’t constitute a political movement.
Losing 1 point in a poll wasn’t considered a sharp decline in approval ratings and losing your base.
Being a pirate was a safe, lucrative occupation.
Being a community organizer was noble and honorable.
Osama bin Laden could sit around & watch videos of himself.
if you tried to bring the US to it’s knees you were a terrorist. Now you’re just republican.
A President Could Make A Courageous Deal With The GOP & Not Be Called A Sell Out.
filibusters were the exception. not the rule.
Children didn’t run to hug POTUS and FLOTUS.
GOP wanted to change the Constitution to allow foreign-born citizens to run for POTUS.
The President’s Performance Approval Polls wouldn’t be conducted everyday by the media.
A POTUS Could Have His Phone calls Returned By An Alcoholic House Speaker.
Liberal blogs spent more time attacking Republicans than Democrats
exercise was good and we got medals for it but now exercise is an evil, socialist plot.
We never had to ask parents permission to hear a message from the President.
We Would Cheer A President Who Created 2.2 Million New Jobs After the Worst 30 Years of GOP Economic Terrorism.
we didn’t have every news organization itching to bring the President down.
Presidents did not have to show the their birth certificate to Donald Trump.
nobody needed to “take their country back””.
A President Could Enjoy His NCAA Bracket Pool Without A right Wing Frenzy.
We didn’t consider “defunding” the Pres. teleprompter.
And the best:
#beforeblackpresidents Presidents were ugly!!!!
Hi guys,
I don’t know if you remember, but last month, when PBO had that big LGBT fundraiser in NYC, he said that “in a matter of weeks” the Pentagon will certify that the military is ready to end ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ once and for all. Well, “in a matter of weeks” means “in a matter of weeks”, and today, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will make the official recommendation , and in 60 days this awful, awful law will be dead and buried, never to be seen again (Unless characters like Dan Choi and the rest of the fake-progressives will convince people, yet again, not to vote next year, and then they’ll just deserve whatever comes).
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Today’s schedule:
| 9:30 AM |
The President and The Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
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| 11:00 AM |
The President participates in a Town Hall on the on-going efforts to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction
College Park—Ritchie Coliseum, University of Maryland
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| 1:35 PM |
The President meets with Prime Minister Key of New Zealand
Oval Office
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| 2:20 PM |
The President and Prime Minister Key deliver statements to the press
Oval Office
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| 2:45 PM |
The President meets with Secretary of Defense Panetta and Admiral Mullen
Oval Office
Closed Press
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| 3:30 PM |
The President meets with Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and Mrs. Eikenberry
Oval Office
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I have to say that with all due respect to the proven political skills and the enormous experience of a guy like Lawrence O’Donnell – I don’t think he gets this president the way he think. IMO, anyone who really know this man, understand that he’s not engaging in the usual Kabuki in this deficit circus – He is dead serious about doing a big deal, as he shows again in this column he wrote for USA Today:
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….That’s why people in both parties have suggested that the best way to take on our deficit is with a more balanced approach. Yes, we should make serious spending cuts. But we should also ask the wealthiest individuals and biggest corporations to pay their fair share through fundamental tax reform. Before we stop funding clean energy research, we should ask oil companies and corporate jet owners to give up the tax breaks that other companies don’t get. Before we ask college students to pay more, we should ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries. Before we ask seniors to pay more for Medicare, we should ask people like me to give up tax breaks they don’t need and never asked for.
The middle class hasn’t just borne the brunt of this recession; they’ve been dealing with higher costs and stagnant wages for more than a decade now. It’s just not right to ask them to pay the whole tab — especially when they’re not the ones who caused this mess in the first place.
Raising revenues: a bipartisan position
A balanced deficit deal that includes some new revenues isn’t just a Democratic position. It’s a position that has been taken by everyone from Warren Buffett to Bill O’Reilly. It’s a position that was taken this week by Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, who worked together on a promising plan of their own. And it’s been the position of every Democratic and Republican leader who has worked to reduce the deficit in their time, from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton.
There will be plenty of haggling over the details of all these plans in the days ahead. But right now, we have the opportunity to do something big and meaningful. This debate shouldn’t just be about avoiding the catastrophe of not paying our bills and defaulting on our debt. That’s the least we should do. This debate offers the chance to put our economy on stronger footing, restore a sense of fairness in our country, and secure a better future for our children. I want to seize that opportunity, and ask Americans of both parties and no party to join me in that effort.
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West Wing Week:
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Wall Street Reform first anniversary:
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This must be one of my fave Michelle Obama photos. It moved me to tears. Just look at the variety of faces and colors. Sometimes a picture is worth even more than 1000 words. Well done, Samantha Appleton.
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And, thank youChristine for this hilarious shopping bag:
This awesome piece was written by Stephen Marche in last week’s Esquire. It is such a beautiful, loving letter to PBO (even if Marche is not shy of criticizing him), that some RW blogs – which I won’t link to to save my life – mocked it while waiting for their heads to explode. And their heads exploded alright.
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Before the fall brings us down, before the election season begins in earnest with all its nastiness and vulgarity, before the next batch of stupid scandals and gaffes, before Sarah Palin tries to convert her movie into reality and Joe Biden resumes his imitation of an embarrassing uncle and Newt and Callista Gingrich [FIG.1] creep us all out, can we just enjoy Obama for a moment? Before the policy choices have to be weighed and the hard decisions have to be made, can we just take a month or two to contemplate him the way we might contemplate a painting by Vermeer or a guitar lick by the early-seventies Rolling Stones or a Peyton Manning pass or any other astounding, ecstatic human achievement? Because twenty years from now, we’re going to look back on this time as a glorious idyll in American politics, with a confident, intelligent, fascinating president riding the surge of his prodigious talents from triumph to triumph. Whatever happens this fall or next, the summer of 2011 is the summer of Obama.
Due to the specific nature of his political calculus, possibly not a single person in the United States — not even Obama himself — agrees with all of his policies. But even if you disagree with him, even if you hate him, even if you are his enemy, at this point you must admire him. The turning point came that glorious week in the spring when, in the space of a few days, he released his long-form birth certificate, humiliated Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and assassinated Osama bin Laden. The effortlessness of that political triptych — three linked masterpieces demonstrating his total command over intellectual argument, low comedy, and the spectacle of political violence — was so overwhelmingly impressive that it made political geniuses of the recent past like Reagan and Clinton [FIG.2] seem ham-fisted. Formed in the fire of other people’s wars, other people’s financial crises, Obama stepped out of Bush’s shadow that week, almost three years after taking over the presidency.
But even that string of successes cannot fully explain the immensity of his appeal right now. Reagan was able to call upon the classic American mythology of frontiersmen and astronauts and movie stars; Obama has accessed a much wider narrative matrix: He’s mixed and matched Jay-Z with geek with Hawaiian with Kansan with product of Middle America with product of a broken home with local Chicago churchgoer with internationally renowned memoirist with assassin. “I am large, I contain multitudes,” Walt Whitman [FIG.3] wrote, and Obama lives that lyrical prophecy. Christopher Booker’s 2004 book The Seven Basic Plots, a wide-ranging study from the Epic of Gilgamesh on and a surprisingly convincing explanation for why we crave narrative, reduced all stories to a few plots, each with its own kind of hero. Amazingly, Barack Obama fulfills the role of hero in each of these ancient story forms.
While Obama’s story is ancient, it is also utterly contemporary, perfectly of the moment. His gift — and it is a gift that makes him emblematic — is that he inhabits all these roles without being limited by them. He has managed, miraculously, to remain something of an outsider while being the president of the United States of America, the most inside man in the world. He’s African-American, but he’s not African-American. He’s from Chicago, but he’s from Hawaii. One month he’s bailing out the banks, the next he’s keeping Gitmo open. He pushes health-care reform through with an unimpeachable heave of will then extends the tax cuts. He walks smiling through the newly opened White House garden on his way to announce renewed efforts at oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, his “balanced” approach to the economy has led to a slower recovery than other industrialized nations and the war in Libya has been half-assed at best, which is exactly what war cannot be. For two years, he seemed disingenuous and defensive, pushed into roles that his predecessors had scripted, alternately playing savior then monster. But no more. We can finally see who he is, we can finally understand the reality: In 2011, it is possible to be a levelheaded, warmhearted, cold-blooded killer who can crack a joke and write a book for his daughters. It is possible to be many things at once. And even more miraculous, it is possible for that man to be the president of the United States. Barack Obama is developing into what Hegel called a “world-historical soul,” an embodiment of the spirit of the times. He is what we hope we can be.
We love Obama — even those who claim to despise him — because deep in our hearts and all over our lives, we’re the same way — both inside and outside our jobs, our races, our cities, our countries, ourselves. With great artists, often the most irritating feature of their work is the source of their talent. Obama’s gift is the same as his curse: He’s somehow managed to be like the rest of us, only infinitely more so.
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USA Today: In 6 of 9 swing states, Obama has fundraising edge
WASHINGTON — President Obama has outraised his Republican rivals in six of nine key battleground states that he won in 2008, a USA TODAY analysis of new campaign-finance reports shows.
In North Carolina, one of nine states won by President Bush in 2004 that Obama captured in 2008, supporters donated more than $300,000 to Obama during the April-to-June fundraising period, about twice the amount of individual contributions that flowed to the top GOP fundraiser, Mitt Romney. In Indiana, which Obama won by 1%, the president outraised Romney 3-to-1.
// more and interesting
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The American Prospect: Why Obama Will Win in 2012
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FINALLY: Letting you know that over the past week I banned two people until further notice. It’s the first time I ever had to do such thing, and frankly, it broke my heart. But honestly, as I said just yesterday, I had enough. If you want to whine and bitch and set your hair on fire and attack other posters – FIND SOMEPLACE ELSE. I have very few rules here and I ask you to follow them.
Thank you.
I’m just not really sure who got stabbed this time, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
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President Obama support the Respect For Marriage Act – the bill to repeal DOMA
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The president has “long called for a legislative appeal for the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which continues to have a real impact on families,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at Tuesday’s briefing. He said the president “is proud” to support the Respect For Marriage Act, “which would take the Defense of Marriage Act off the books for once and for all.”
The bill was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
In February, the Obama administration announced that the Department of Justice will no longer defend DOMA in court.
On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the new bill, which would repeal all three sections of DOMA — which federally defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman — including section 1, which is the name; section 2, which instructs states not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states; and section 3, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing legally performed same-sex marriages.
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Couple of good economic news:
Housing starts rise 14.6% to five-month high
Retailers’ weekly sales rise 4.5%
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Here’s the president’s statement about the budget negotiations from earlier today.
The so-very-predictable hair-on-fire party following the nomination of Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – really has nothing to do with Elizabeth Warren (who didn’t want the job) or with Rich Cordray (who is a terrific choice) or with the strength of the CFPB (which is great).
Oh no, this is all about their ego. And their racism. They are no different from Eric Cantor. They want what they want and they want it now. They want the big pie fights that will bring clicks and traffic and money they can spend on themselves. Oh, and they want the black president to do as he’s told.
I remember once – in what now feels like different life – I commit the huge crime of suggesting that there’s racism on the Left. They killed me. Liberal racism? Surely it can’t be. Well, it can. Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out last week that Bill Clinton cut both Medicare and Social Security, and the Left did not beep. But now, even before PBO did anything – They already making money of lying about his “intentions”.
They are liars and racists and childish and they have no idea how politics work and what disaster is coming if they’ll achieve their goal of getting rid of this man. We really can’t let them win.
The only adult in the room 