Wednesday Reads
Posted: December 1, 2010 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: Barack Obama, Bush tax cuts, Comcast, electrostimulation, FCC, FDA, food safety bill, unemployment benefits 96 Comments
Good Morning!! We had a big news day yesterday; I wonder what today holds in store?
Right now I’d say the top story is that millions of Americans are going to lose their unemployment benefits, because Congress failed to extend them.
Without a new program, by the end of the year about two million long-term unemployed will lose weekly benefits that are 100% federally funded. About 4.7 million people currently receive these special federal payments, and without an extension, all of these beneficiaries will eventually lose payments in coming months.
While Democrats have been pushing to provide additional benefits through emergency spending, Republicans have criticized widening the deficit.
Lawmakers may consider a new proposal from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, of Montana, to extend eligibility for federal benefits for one year. However, Republicans are expected to vote against that proposal.
You’d think the President would have been on every network and cable channel today excoriating Republicans about this outrage, but instead President Obama met first with Republican and then with Democratic Congressional leaders, and then he set up another committee. Their job will be to work out a “compromise” on extending the Bush tax cuts–and as a side note, he said maybe they could do something about the unemployment issue too.
President Obama suggested Tuesday that a group of congressional leaders he has asked to work out a compromise on expiring tax cuts will also try to work out a compromise on expiring unemployment benefits.
“We discussed working together to keep the government running this year — and running in a fiscally responsible way,” Obama said. “And we discussed unemployment insurance, which expires today. I’ve asked that Congress act to extend this emergency relief without delay to folks who are facing tough times by no fault of their own.”
Obama first asked lawmakers to reauthorize extended unemployment benefits at the beginning of October, but Congress has failed to prevent the benefits from lapsing at least temporarily. Now it looks as though a deal crafted by the four members of Congress tasked with compromising on tax cuts may be the only way to save the jobless aid.
Well, whoop-de-doo. A little leadership would help, but we don’t have a leader–just this spineless wimp the progs stuck us with.
I love this article from the Boston Globe on Senator Scott Brown’s (R-MA) “feisty speech” on the Senate floor.
imploring his colleagues to put greater emphasis on the economy and chiding Democrats for what he considers to be unwarranted diversions.
“We spent seven days on food safety!” the Massachusetts Republican said, referring to a bill approved earlier in the day. “Listen, I love to eat like the next guy, but give me a break! We should have spent seven days working on the one thing that the people in November sent a very powerful message — and that is getting our economy moving again. Focusing on jobs, jobs, jobs.”
So far so good. Brown continued,
“I have complete and total sympathy and understanding, and I want to help,” Brown said of those whose unemployment benefits could expire. “More than anybody here, I want to help. But to just keep throwing money that’s not paid for at a problem…makes no sense to me.”
“Are we going to do it from the bank account, or are we going to put it on the credit card?” he added. “I know what I want to do. I’ll use the bank account. Let’s use money that’s already in the system and put it to good use immediately, by 12 o’clock tonight. Let’s do it!”
But Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) punctured Brown’s balloon with a bit of reality:
“My colleague from Massachusetts has made a rather vigorous and passionate statement,” Reed said. “What I sense, though, is that he’s quite willing to put $700 billion of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans on the credit card, but not extend unemployment benefits — as we have done decade after decade — without offsets.”
Brown supports extending tax cuts for everyone – and without including a method of payment for them – while Democrats want the tax cuts to continue only for those who make less than $250,000.
And so Congress continues to bicker while real people struggle to survive.
What about that food safety bill? I hope Sima will weigh in on this one. The Senate passed the bill today, and the Washington Post has a brief summary of the major parts of the bill. It:
l Would require farmers and food manufacturers to put in place controls to prevent bacteria and other pathogens from contaminating food.
l Would require the Food and Drug Administration to regularly inspect all food facilities, with more frequent inspections in higher risk facilities.
l Would allow the FDA to order a mandatory recall of any product it suspects may harm public health.
l Would improve disease surveillance, so that outbreaks of food poisoning can be discovered more quickly.
l Would require farmers and food-makers to maintain distribution records so that the FDA can more quickly trace an outbreak to its source.
l Would require foreign food suppliers to meet the same safety standards as domestic food-makers.
l Would exempt small farmers and food processors.
l Would add 17,800 new FDA inspectors by 2014.
But Les Blumenthal of McClatchy says the bill doesn’t deal with issues related to meat and egg safety.
…the measure does nothing to sort out the overlapping jurisdictions among the FDA and other federal agencies that regulate food safety. The new bill doesn’t cover meat, poultry and eggs because the Department of Agriculture regulates them.
The Senate bill would give the FDA new powers to recall tainted food, increase inspections of food processors and impose tougher food-safety standards on producers. The action came after contaminated eggs, peanuts and produce sickened hundreds of people this year, and more than 550 million eggs suspected of salmonella contamination were recalled.
But the measure requires the FDA to inspect what it defines as “high risk” producers only once every three years. The bill also exempts small farms from the new requirements.
That doesn’t sound so good.
At CNN, Elizabeth Landau says food safety advocates argue that the bill has “no teeth.”
This bill “clearly gives the FDA authority to prevent foodborne illnesses and not just react to them,” [ Sandra] Eskin (director of food safety campaign at the Pew Charitable Trusts) said.
But the FDA cannot file criminal charges against producers who knowingly put contaminated food into the market. That’s something Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety in Washington, sees as a failing of this bill: that the FDA doesn’t get the “teeth” to regulate strongly enough.
A food producer who deliberately allows food to make people sick and even die is “as criminal as it gets,” he said.
It’s also hard to know exactly what kind of funding will end up going to toward these efforts. Greater appropriations are needed to accomplish the food safety goals outlined in the bill, but it’s unclear what dollar amount would support it, Kimbrell said.
An unfunded mandate without sufficient punishments to deter wrongdoing? That doesn’t sound so good either. Again, I hope Sima and others weigh in, because I know nothing about this bill.
The FCC is investigating Comcast based on a charge from
Level 3 Communications that Comcast had unfairly erected a toll booth that “threatens the open Internet.”
Level 3’s claims raise the specter of network neutrality, which the F.C.C. is preparing to take action on.
[….]
Level 3, which provides connectivity for Web sites like Netflix, made the charges in a statement on Monday, days after Comcast allegedly demanded a recurring fee to “transmit Internet online movies and other content to Comcast’s customers who request such content.” Comcast denied that the fee threatened the open Internet, chalking it up to a “simple commercial dispute.”
The dispute comes at a sensitive time. Mr. Genachowski [FCC Chairman] is gearing up for a debate about net neutrality, which posits that Internet traffic should be free of any interference from network operators like Comcast. The issue is thought to be on the December agenda of the F.C.C., which has a meeting scheduled for Dec. 21.
At the Daily Beast, Casey Schwartz has a post about an electostimulation device called the Fisher Wallace Stimulator that is supposed to relieve depression, insomnia, and other problems right in your own home.
The device, which is about the size of a Game Boy, is available with a prescription, which anyone with a license in electrotherapies, whether a doctor or a masseuse, can provide. Its fans include the singer Carly Simon, who has said it helps her stave off depression and mania.
[….]
An enthusiastic convert to the device, Dr. Richard Brown, a psychiatrist at Columbia University, characterizes the effect on brain waves as being similar to that of meditation.
Brown claims to be seeing an 80 percent success rate among the patients to whom he prescribes it, many of whom suffer from major depression that has not responded to any other form of treatment. If Brown’s experience is representative, the Fisher Wallace device has a big future. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs, or SSRIs, today’s go-to for treating depression, show a success rate of roughly 50 percent.
Research suggests that the electrical current from the Fisher Wallace device targets the limbic system, which contains brain structures linked to the experiencing of emotions, and that it stimulates the release of the feel-good neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.
No word in the article on how much the device costs.
I guess that’s about it for me. What are you reading this morning?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
“I love to eat like the next guy”??? Lolsob Inevitable Future President should save these pearls for the Inaugural Address. .
You don’t really think he’s future Presidential material-do you ??????
The way things are going, absolutely. He’s a photogenic moron with the faux “populist” thing. He has a penis. Tons of people who hate Obama are enthralled by him, despite the fact that they’re the same person. He’s got every “qualification” for POTUS there is. No matter how bad things currently are, the reassuring thing is, we can always do worse, and probably will.
Oh God, I hope not. Do you really think he’ll win the next election? I think he has to run again in 2012.
Plus he’s got … a TRUCK!
Ack, presidential material. Runs away screaming.
I had the same sort of reaction to that line.
Anyway what was big news this lunchtime over here was Hillary Clinton declaring that the US has no better friend than Berlusconi. (following wikileaks blow up)
This was accompanied on Berlusconi’s tv channel news with videos of Bush and Berlusca hugging and smiling and getting off helicopters around about 2007.
http://www.tgcom.mediaset.it/mondo/articoli/articolo497181.shtml
Do you think Hillary was successful in smoothing things over?
No, the left wing is laughing, and the right don’t bother listening to women anyway.
However Berlusca is a gaffe a minute, so it’s all part of the daily show and business as usual.
actually Hillary was looking very tired…
She has looked exhausted for a long time. Maybe Obama will fire her, and she can take a little break before running for President.
I agree, she is looking as if she hasn’t been playing basketball or golfing…
She’s fielding those 3:00 AM phones calls she spoke about all by herself and they are coming in 24/7
paperdoll @ 1:38: good catch
I’ve got a post about S 510 coming up shortly, but it’s more about what’s next in the fight. I need to discuss some of the things BB has brought up in this summary, I think. Actually, I’m going to discuss those as an addendum to my post. That’ll make this comment MUCH shorter :).
Oh good. I’ve been hoping you would explain everything to us.
Julian Assange’s mom is worried about him.
That cartoon under the story is actually funny.
Heh. I didn’t get the band-aids though.
I liked the one with Hills as a plumber, the expression they gave her is priceless.
Scott Brown, I believe is a REPUBLICAN. He’s the guy who won Teddy Kennedy’s seat if my memory serves me.
Yes, it says so in my post. I’m from MA, and so is Seriously. Any remarks about “presidential material” related to Brown were snark-loaded.
You’ve listed him as D-MA. Go look.
It’s really hard to tell the difference these days, sadly.
votermom @ 9:25: Lolsob
Ooops! Fixed, thanks.
Certainly not defending Sarah Palin but misogyny in politics has been too damn prevalent — and potent — the past few years, and furthering that subtext with terms like “It’s time for the GOP to man up” in confronting a strong woman is just wrong.
Good points!! Sarah is a lightning rod for sure among Dems and Repubs! Uh, Joe, that’s not the way to win the women’s vote….”It’s time for the GOP to man up.” “What man or mouse…” It is so hard to have it both ways. Use Sarah to attract women – demean Sarah to take back control.
Dynamism and Republicans just don’t go together – usually. Maybe there is hope for a plurality of parties. The population just can’t get excited about the Republican mice or men lately – except for those that like “tea.”
Joe Scarborough is a dope.
I could care less about Sarah Palin or Joe Scarborough. Let em’ tussle it out.
Can we take bets? Because mano-a-mano, I’m pretty sure Joe S is toast.
Thing is should uber megalomaniac Mayor Blloomberg get into the 2012 frey as a third party candidate, Palin has a good chance of becoming POTUS. I don’t think we can flick her off as someone we could care less about although I feel exactly as you. I think we all need to remain as vigilant as a cat to steal cream about this woman because if we’re not she will sneak up and before we all know what hit us she’s being sworn in. After the good citizens of this country (one given a huge push by SCOTUS) voted in GWB and Mr. O (given a huge push by the crony Dem machine), the bar has been lowered so severely, someone like Palin now has a chance.
As for Scarborough, I’ve disliked him since I remember him from 1994 and his obsession going after the Clintons like a rabid dog. I’m not buying his reformed act towards them. Or, that he’s a different person than he was 16 years ago. He’s the same old obnoxious noxious political slug he was then. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind Palin clubbing him like she did to those poor fish (who were minding their own business). Figuratively, of course. Frankly, maybe they can both figuratively club each other since Scarborough may run with Bloomberg. Shudder just thinking about these people and how they could rise to the highest political offices.
I don’t count any of them out and we all need to do whatever we can to make sure it never happens.
I’m not convinced Sarah Palin would be worse than Obama.
Joe Scarborough’s ‘Someone should take her into a backroom’…very Keith Olbermann like and no one is telling him NO! MAN UP!?! Isn’t he a MAN???
Joe Scarborough has started the fire and no he should man up to it, MISOGYNY!
I never said Palin would be worse than Obama. I am convinced that she would be as bad as him, however.
Again, we’ve lowered the bar to gutter level, so people like these two got in and could still get in to the Oval.
Thanks for the round-up, BB.
Fisher Wallace Stimulator – “No word in the article on how much the device costs.”
Until it’s affordable for my income bracket, I’ll stick to meditation tapes and white noise:
Actually, the machine sounds similar to one I had years ago that was supposed to synchronize your brain waves and help you go into a meditative state. It worked OK, but I can do that unaided now.
$695 per the company’s website.
I searched PubMed for that mentioned psychiatrist’s name and/or the device name, and found no published research articles.
The company’s “Research Publication” links are to generalized articles on electric stim (which concluded results are conflicting), or on transcranial magnetic stim, and to an unpublished report using the device in a small drug-rehab program. They do have listings for some small studies in progress, with 25 or 30 subjects — not enough to get good statistical reliability. The FDA mention probably merely means it’s mechanically nonharmful, and doesn’t relate to any efficacy for the device’s claimed action.
I’m suspicious. But would like to see continued research.
Unfortunately, if it affects neurotransmitters, as do medications, it may produce similar side effects.
Thanks NW Luna, you saved me the trouble of searching. I’d like to see something peer-reviewed on this, too. Color me skeptical so far.
The Comcast brouhaha is alarming. I don’t see why people don’t think of the Internet like they do TV. We’d be freaking if a TV manufacturer, or the local CBS station for example, told us what movies we could watch on which channels and when.
Comcast is a cable monopoly in my area. I refuse to participate. I Googled “Comcast” and “monopoly” and got about 379,000 results. This is the first listed:
“COMCAST MONOPOLY, They don’t give a shit about you, why should they? Lets put an end to it!”
http://tinyurl.com/35vj56e
I shortened your link, purplefinn, since it was breaking the margins.
Thanks!
grayslady, can you help me get out of moderation?
I don’t think most people are really aware of it and what is involved. The msm doesn’t cover it much.
also with the internet, I think there’s a perception of having more control over the content consumed than there is with a tv. Which is true in a lot of ways, it’s not as passive as tv-watching. But, I think we need to peel back the perception of user control before we’re going to get people to care more.
As for unemployment, the Un-Democrat President doesn’t surprise me. Barack Hoover strikes again.
Our nation is run by Scrooges with the efficiency of the Grinch.
He’s been dead silent on this, he makes me sick. So now we are in the same sinking boat we were in for two months last summer, with the same fools as captain and crew. If B Hoover can’t stand up (or just open his mouth for cripes sake) for this no-brainer he’s more pitiful than I ever imagined. Merry freakin Xmas kids!
Why they can’t just have this as a stand alone issue without tying it to the tax cuts shows me that they couldn’t care less how much suffering they cause.
It’s nothing but some twisted game both sides are playing. Just try and watch the debate without beating your head against the nearest wall.
“B Hoover” — I like that a lot.
I got some stuff that I found interesting to read today, well some of it is from yesterday…
There are a few links, so I hope it does not go to spammy.
Iran executes woman accused of murdering lover’s wife
Shahla Jahed, convicted of murdering the wife of an Iranian footballer, was hanged before morning call to prayer, reports say
This is heartbreaking:
It is very disturbing that this “victim of misogynous society” was indeed hanged, I wonder what this means for another woman in prison over in Iran…Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.
Then there is this bit about Angelina Jolie:
I think that WVW have a point…
Again from Guardian,
I guess being a paralegal for so many years, it makes me appreciate the work that Brockovich did on these cases. I am glad to see she is still fighting and working for the people.
And one more from The New Agenda:
There is a list of women’s magazines, and there is a lot of them, that are run by men. I find it interesting….like when a male gynecologist tells me that my severe PMS is all in my head. I want to scream: Well what gives you the right to know and understand something that only women experience. Anyway, it is interesting to see just how many magazines that target women, and stand as a commentary about women’s issues are run by men. Hey, I know the difference between “Shit and Shinola” and this sure ain’t shoe polish.
I know it is a long post, but these links seemed to me important…and with all the wikileak stuff going on…these articles may get missed.
Yup, I thought so…I should have broken that post up. Sorry guys…
It was great, but it should have been on the front page!
;o Thanks BB…
Can someone let me out of the Spammy jail, I am sorry it was such a long post…
I got you out of spammy. My first time ever. I’m such a newb.
Thanks, Sima! I wandered off and missed the call…
Thanks, I won’t do it again…
NO, do, do. It just took me a while to figure out what needed doing to get you out of spammy.
Now I know. Your comment is important. I have been worried about Sakineh for a while. I didn’t know about Shahla until I read the BBC news article about her execution.
As for the Jolie thing, I’m sort of gobsmacked. Who comes up with a romance in a concentration camp anyway? I think it’s a way of diluting the experiences of the women kept in those camps and making them ‘safe’ for the rest of us so we don’t have to face them at all.
I disagree.
Writers, directors, should be free to tell the stories they want to tell, the way they want to tell them. If, after the movie comes out, WVW or anybody else wants to criticize Jolie’s movie, fine. But if the WVW wants their story told their way then they should make their own movie.
Yes, but those same writers and directors should do at least minimal research before putting out stories that claim to be based in part on real life.
I am so tired of so much stuff out there that has no psychological reality whatsoever.
But they’re minimizing the issues these women faced. Apparently in the Angelina Jolie version of the camps things were so good, people could fall in love there. If people believe that, it lessens the outrage.
It’s a travesty. But I’m sure Angelina thinks she’d doing for good.
Point taken, but I do think that the UN should reconsider their ‘Good Will Ambassador’.
Totally agree.
Can’t stand Angelina Jolie and her UN Ambassador thing strikes me as nothing more than public relations for her career and ego.
Zaladonis, I agree with you that the movie writers, directors, and by that extension all artist, have the right to tell stories as they want to. However, I feel that the point and concerns that WVW have are legitimate and warranted. To say that the WVW should not criticize Jolie and her movie, they should make a movie of their own…is a “bold” statement. These women have been through a hell that no one can fully imagine. They do not have cash at their disposal to produce a film in response to a big budget Hollywood establishment. They probably were initially pleased that someone was coming to tell their story, but to have a “Love Story” in a camp where women were systematically raped, is disgusting. It seems to romanticized the plight that these women faced. I for one think it is appalling.
I read that they were (understandably) angry that the story line had Jolie falling in love with her torturer/rapist. If that’s the movie’s plot, it’s sick.
This isn’t a documentary, it’s a movie.
A creative person is producing a piece of art.
Would you argue that survivors of the bombing of Guernica tell Picasso how to paint his interpretation of the event, or Civil War survivors or children of slaves dictate how Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With The Wind? Do you think every movie that takes place during the Holocaust needs to have survivors consulting?
IMO there’s way too little bold creative vision driving the movie industry and way too much Work By Committee, resulting in “appropriate” but flat product.
If those survivors want their ordeal documented exactly their way in a movie, they should initiate such a project — in the age of computers and Internet it’s not all that hard to put together a documentary on a shoe string budget or find the names of film producers and contact them. Angelina Jolie apparently envisioned a story she wants to tell, there’s nothing wrong with that, and she’s doing the work to make it happen; I think that deserves respect. She’s responded to the WVW’s concerns, she didn’t ignore them, and apparently she invited them to meet with her in Hungary but they refused because they wanted her to come to them. While I don’t doubt the WVW’s concerns are heartfelt, the survivors of an event are not entitled to control every time that event is the setting of a story an artist conceives.
FDL has managed to obtain a copy of the Catfood Commission’s report (actually, I don’t think the Commission had any input–I think it was all Simpson and Bowles’ wet dreams) and it’s a doozy. The few good points are totally obscured by the ridiculous. A couple of highlights:
1) Permanently reduce all taxes. The idiots claim we’re paying more in taxes than other industrialized nations. (shakes head in disbelief)
2) Impose a 15 cent per gallon gas tax to make up for Congress robbing the transportation “trust fund”. In other words, we now are supposed to bail out our idiot Congress, in addition to the corrupt banks.
3) Greater deductibles for Medicare (because old people are using too many medical services–they actually say that!), and a long-term freeze on payments to doctors who take Medicare patients.
Go take a read. There’s actually a proposal for a “war budget”, since, you know, we’re going to be constantly at war.
Can we get the audio/video tapes under the FOIA or do we have to wait for someone to leak the tapes out? Nixonian Cat Food Commission comes to mind…’The TAPES’!
#3 will result in postponed care and higher morbidity and mortality rates. And no providers taking Medicare patients.
Which is what those ghouls intended. Simpson and Bowles should be condemned to live with their own “solutions” without their fat bank accounts and concierge physicians.
So, I’m wondering about the unemployed people who have “fallen on hard times through no fault of their own.” Is it really no fault for those who voted for Bush, then/or Obama? If ignorance is no defense in criminal law, is ignorance of who you helped put in charge of the country a good defense when the country falls into the hands of thieves and frauds?
Well, I didn’t vote for either of those idiots, but somehow I am not protected from the depression.
Same here.
Same here, times two in my house.
Neither did I. But, when it comes to public flogging, who has gotten it worse than the “PUMA” – meaning, those aware and concerned people who knew better than to help GWB or BO take the highest seat in the land? I was simply pointing out that the vote counts contributed greatly to this mess, and now the Rs are back in the majority – again, because the voters are driven by emotion instead of knowledge. Why in the world should Bill Clinton’s sexual escapades have cost Al Gore the oval office? Is it the media that creates this pattern of leading voters to vote against their best interest?
Same here two times in my house as well.
Yup, so true. And the other thing is, you can’t necessarily tie the atrocities ONLY to the presidents. We should also be blaming the idiots in Congress.
Or should we blame Clinton? If he’d kept his pluming in his pants, maybe Gore would have won bigger and the 2000 election wouldn’t have been stolen by the Republicans.
And besides that, where the h*ll do we have to go? We have Democrats and Republicans. Each are equally nasty and lord-serving to their masters.
The voters aren’t to blame.
I”m kinda really fed up with people who continue to cite Clinton for Gore not being POTUS over Bush especially since so many years have passed and there is so much information out in the ether to bash that falsehood to smithereens.
(btw, just for the record, I’m not one of those who thinks Clinton’s behavior as a husband towards Hillary is laudable in this regard. He behaved like a cad. But, it’s a private matter that should never have been brought out into the open let alone something he should have been impeached over. Their private life was/is between them. And, no one knows for real what goes on between couples in the privacy of their lives no matter what outward appearances and representations declare even if they are true. The whole picture is never known.)
Please put this on your reading list: “How He (Bush) Got There (Oval Office)” by Bob Somerby (the Daily Howler)
http://tinyurl.com/yc9jn7v
Clinton had nothing to do with Gore’s not being POTUS. It has been shown even this many years later that Clinton campaigning for Gore would have benefited him not harmed him as Gore wrongly thought.
I like Gore myself and was gobssmacked when he lost in the Supreme Court knowing full well what we were getting as I followed GWB when he ousted one of my s-hero’s Anne Richards. Although, knowing what I knew about GW, I still underestimated in 2000 the total horrific impact his Presidency would wring in worldwide.
First, Gore won. It’s our FUBAR’ED up political system via that antique Electoral Colllege which has overstayed it’s utility and is not Democratic that was one of the culprit’s.
In addition, Bush became POTUS because of his being selected by the horrific decision of conservative activist SCOTUS disgraceful decision in Bush v Gore which more than one legal scholar has declared a “bordering on treasonous” decision.
http://tinyurl.com/j4eam
Also, this past Monday, November marked the 10th anniversary of Bush v Gore. (It’s hard to believe it was that long ago.) Here is an interesting and informative article to mark the anniversary in the New Yorker by Jeffrey Toobin (although he’s not a fav of mine, it’s a really good article)
http://tinyurl.com/2almx93
Also, Gore was hounded brutally by our “sweet as sun-kissed raisins” “liberal” press corps (as documented by Bob Somerby) just as they did their dirty work on the Clinton’s before Gore. They lied about almost everything he said or did viciously making fun of him along the way non-stop. Given this, it’s a miracle that he won the popular vote by over a half million votes!
And, he was stuck with advisors such as Donna Brazile, his campaign manager (along with Bob Schrum, two of the worst campaign managers/Dem advisers on the planet and both are still gainfully employed and are doing very well, thank you very muich) who was one of those fools who told Gore not to fight on.
Gore didn’t become POTUS because the race came down to Florida and the corruption (with African American votes in particular) was rampant.
Remember those horrid voting machines which became a laughing stock of mixed up chads and bleery eyed recounters?
Remember those voting butterfly ballots which were so poorly designed that Jewish Senior Citizens in Palm Beach County (an overwhelmingly liberal place) had inadvertently voted for Pat Buchanan (and complained about it to no avail), which even Buchanan said was preposterous.
From Wikipedia:
In the 2000 presidential election, Buchanan finished fourth with 449,895 votes, 0.4% of the popular vote. (Hagelin garnered 0.1 percent as the Natural Law candidate.)
In Palm Beach County, Florida, Buchanan received 3,407 votes — which some saw as inconsistent with Palm Beach County’s liberal leanings, its large Jewish population and his showing in the rest of the state. As a result of the county’s now-infamous “butterfly ballot”, he is suspected to have gained thousands of inadvertent votes. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer stated, “Palm Beach county is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that’s why Pat Buchanan received 3,407 votes there.” However, Reform Party officials strongly disagreed, estimating the number of supporters in the county at between 400 and 500.
Appearing on The Today Show, Buchanan said:
“When I took one look at that ballot on Election Night. . . it’s very easy for me to see how someone could have voted for me in the belief they voted for Al Gore.
And, then there were those moronic, stubborn people like Bill Mahar, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, etc. who foolishly declared there was no difference between Gore and Bush so voted for Nader as did people in Florida.
So, the next time you get a hankering to place blame on Clinton’s pluming weaknesses for Gore’s not being POTUS over George Nimrod you need to take a deep breath and please take a good look at what really happened that “blessed” us with 10 years of the Bush/Cheney Crime Family which we are still paying for and will pay for for years to come.
T/U for these links. I wasn’t aware Somerby’s book was available on line. Definitely want to read it.
votermom @ 10:38: EVERYbody has to suffer for the endless election/governance cycles of ” ‘nobody’ could have predicted…”
Exactly. And we have to continue to suffer their insufferable arrogance and stupidity. They didn’t just take us down with them when they voted for Bush and for Obama, they’re still taking us all down with them.
My vote didn’t count in either election, so no, I don’t feel responsible. The Rs (and others) want unemployment benefits to run out so people who are highly qualified will seek minimum wage jobs. It’s not about the budget. It’s about corporate profits.
And even the brainiacs who fell for hopenchange didn’t think we’d be bailing out Wall Street so they could make their biggest profits/bonuses ever while every one I personally know is getting laid off. They were lied to on the campaign trail and unfortunately they bought it.
That’s the same argument people used about the Gulf oil spill: well those rednecks voted for McCain so the administration doesn’t need to help them. Not a very cogent argument.
I don’t know if their unemployment is their fault if they voted for Bush and/or Obama. I do know this is perilously close to blame the victim and then being morally superior in closing the doors to those victims. The sentiment also ignores the reality on the ground. People had two choices for President in 2008. Both sucked. I’d go way back and blame people for Gore’s loss, but he didn’t lose. The Supreme Court annointed instead.
Unless one followed the economic news (and not what most people were writing about it back then, btw), the housing news (and not what most people were writing about it back then) and more, I don’t see how anyone would have been able to think, ‘The economy might go bad, and if I vote for this guy, I’ll potentially lose unemployment when I’m unemployed after I lose my job, which I’m not ever expecting to do’. And even if they did think that, which candidate could they have supported then?
Preach it, sister. Word!
Right now I’d say the top story is that millions of Americans are going to lose their unemployment benefits, because Congress failed to extend them
I don’t think the timing is an accident…Merry Yuletide Peons!! Instead of a Yule log many will be gathered around a roaring ash can with old boards giving off a merrily glow. I’m waiting for the 2nd half of A Christmas Carol to be banned…you know when Scrooge realizes prisons and work houses aren’t the answer
God help us…everyone
Haven’t some pundits, maybe even ‘leaders’, been calling for new debtors prisons? Maybe that was a nightmare I had. It’s hard to tell some days.
Scrooge is in ascendancy. Not only will the R’s continue to shut off funds for the unemployed, they are now threatening (and their threats come to fruition no matter what) to block all bills as they will keep stamping their feet and screaming like infants until they get their way and the tax cuts are extended so that Richy Rich and his kind can continue to live like gilded pigs while the rest of us can suck it up. And, the joke in the White House will go along because he wants to be loved by those who hate him. And, could care less about the rest of us and for those who truly need those unemployment benefits which were earned to get by and it’s the Holiday’s. Merry, merry.
From the AP: http://tinyurl.com/39s3qrj
WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans threatened Wednesday to block virtually all legislation until expiring tax cuts are extended and a bill is passed to fund the federal government, vastly complicating Democratic attempts to leave their own stamp on the final days of the post-election Congress.
Forget about DADT. Doesn’t matter that the American people want this repealed. Forget about the Dream Act.
The only mark the Dems will leave in this lame duck session will be this:
http://tinyurl.com/37xhc93
And, to think this was once the party of bold giants like FDR, Truman and Johnson. And, you have to ask yourself Why? Imo, it’s the money and how it’s poisoned our politics and the Courts decision in Citizens United opened the floodgates for special interests to poison the well even further. Until the bucks remain the be all and end all of running for office and staying in office, there is less chance that courage will trump greed and the need to get re-elected.
We have to find a way to amend the Citizens United decision or nothing will ever change. And, there will be no chance for another person to emerge like an FDR, Truman or Johnson. HRC came the closest imo but even she was dependent upon the money jackals even if she didn’t vote their way.
“Scrooge is in ascendancy.” Ayup.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2013560967.html
Didn’t even read his own leaked documents? The ones from Dubya through Condi Rice to spy on the UN? At least Gibbs is backing up the SOS.
Thank you Taylor Marsh:
Because Dick Morris is a Jackass
http://www.taylormarsh.com/2010/12/01/because-dick-morris-is-a-jackass/
I have to share. I just got an email from Bold Progressives entitled ‘Obama Promised’. The email says they are going to launch commercials with tapes of Obama’s promises on taxes in the hopes they’ll force Obama into having a backbone (my interpretation, not theirs).
Just under is a spam email entitled ‘Enjoy an Instant Popularity Boost.’ The juxtaposition of the two email subjects tickled me.
lolsob!
I got that too, gosh they are really, really going to get tought…where were they when Obama blocked the Public Option and the Medicare Buy In? For me the proof is in the past actions, giving Obama a pass on The Presidential Stupak Executive Order.
In a reversal, the Obama administration said Wednesday it will not pursue offshore drilling off the East Coast of the U.S. and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
A senior administration official told The Associated Press that because of the BP oil spill, the Interior Department will not propose any new oil drilling in waters off the East Coast for at least the next seven years.
President Barack Obama’s earlier plan – announced in March, three weeks before the April BP spill – would have authorized officials to explore potential for drilling from Delaware to central Florida, plus the northern waters of Alaska. The new plan allows potential drilling in Alaska, but officials said they will move cautiously before approving any leases.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2013564713.html
Such a relief to only worry about oil floods on the West coast now.
Living on the East Coast, I’m relieved to read this. Thanks for posting this and the link. Although given how many times Mr. O’s mind has been changed about this, I don’t trust that I won’t be reading about another reversal in a month or two. He would be great working at House of Pancakes. Too bad he missed his calling. So, I’m still worried about both Coasts.
WikiLeaks website pulled by Amazon after US homeland security pressure
Site hosting leaked US embassy cables is ousted from American servers as senator calls for boycott of WikiLeaks by companies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-website-cables-servers-amazon
Oh an in related news…did y’all see that the BoA Bastards stock lost 3% of its value, because of the rumors about the Wikileak dump on Bank of America?
This is a bit from BNET The CBS Interactive Business Network: