Cheers Jane!!
Posted: December 2, 2010 Filed under: Surreality, Team Obama, U.S. Economy, Voter Ignorance | Tags: Extension of Bush Tax Cuts. 48 CommentsA nearly teary-eyed plea from FDL’s Jane Hamsher on MSNBC tops a post called The game IS rigged. We’ve had Allan 
Simpson chortle with glee at the idea that the government will be shut down. John Boehner is strutting around Capitol Hill like some kind of preening banty rooster.
And all for what? Tax cuts for Millionaires? All this for TAX CUTS for MILLIONAIRES? The bill to extend tax cuts to less than $250k passed the House. Now, it hangs out there in the Senate like a pinata while what we are talking about are people’s lives. Where’s the extension for the unemployed among us?
“Republicans are worried about this proposal because it would expose that they are fighting for millionaires instead of the middle class,” said Schumer’s spokesman Brian Fallon in a statement to me.
Back to Jane.
Okay. So Obama won’t come out in public and say that he only wants a bill extending tax cuts for people making under $250,000 a year, he won’t threaten to veto any bill other than that, we know the House has scheduled a vote that can’t possibly pass, and the Senate doesn’t even have the support from the Democrats — let alone enough Republicans to pass it.
Uh-huh. Right. So this is what Obama REALLY cares about.
Bulllshit. We’re headed for extending ALL the tax cuts for 2-3 years, because that’s what Obama really wants. The rest is just political theater designed to appease the chumps base.
Meanwhile, as entertaining as all of this is to political junkies, 2 million people are set to lose their unemployment benefits by the end of the year. Which nobody, in the midst of their partisan game playing, seems to give a shit about.
It’s Christmas time, you bastards. People can’t feed their kids. You continue to shovel trillions of dollars at the banks. And all of you — Pelosi, Reid, Obama — you fail the test not only of leadership, but of basic human compassion. Of having any kind of a moral compass.
The game is rigged. And nobody will be fooled into thinking that little treat you’re going to drop in their Christmas stocking is anything other than a lump of coal.
Yup. Merry, Merry, all those of you making over $250k a year. If you’re one of the long-term unemployed, well you just get that old lump of coal when the pinata falls because what happens in the beltway these days isn’t about us. It’s about THEM. Oh, and meanwhile, the Cat Food Commission Report is picking up steam. Guess that’s what’s cracking on New Year’s eve! That’s not a popper. it’s the backs of the middle class and seniors
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The Republicans couldn’t get their social security privatization passed with George Bush. So, now they’ve got their man that can really do their stuff: Barack Obama. Yee-haw!
No kidding. This is so much worse than I imagined.
Jane’s opinion is, IMHO, worthless. She was/is one of the biggest shills/suckers for the Obama/One Party Kabuki. Especially on health care, she was attracted like a moth to the flame, to every distraction that was advanced by the Obama team. “Bad Blue Dogs, Bad Nelson, Bad Lincoln, Bad Rethugs” sign this petition..blah…blah.
Well, better late than never. At this point, if any one wakes up and wants to pressure things to change, I’m encouraged. It’s better than pushing the hopey changey thing still or being in total denial.
Jane did mess up re: 2008 and re: HCR, but it was on strategy.
It will always be too late for Obama’s enablers on the left to undo all of the consequences of their shortsightedness, but calling out Obama on doing exactly what he wants may be a sign of improvement if she keeps it up and doesn’t fall down on strategy again. This issue has been the hugest blindspot and hindrance on holding Obama accountable–people mistakenly believing he’s being cornered into boxes he doesn’t want to be cornered into.
Yes, he’s more probably being cornered into exactly the boxes he wants to seem to be in. Maybe that’s the vaunted chess or poker player smarts. (But I doubt it. I think he just gets pushed all over the place because he has no core of real belief. But, yes, he’s more amenable to right-wing than left-wing. He’s very frustrating to consider.)
O. is an enigma chasing after RR’s Morning in America when what we needed was someone who could be a beacon of light and leadership in a dark, night sky.
True. He had practically stated that Reagan was his hero.
And nearly everybody heard what they wanted to imagine he was saying.
and he just loves the enigma he is (I’m a blank slate)
People were fascinated by the enigma. Fascination is turning to vexation, anger, and worse.
I’ll just wait on the fundraiser or the ads on FDL will pay better with more eyeballs on this side of the fence now.
There’s not doubt that Jane is for Jane but at least she has a bully pulpit right now and she’s using it for the right things.
I’ll take that but can’t quite cheer yet 🙂
I agree SHV but, someone had to say it – I don’t care who – just name that elephant in the room
She probably just got her renewal rates for her own health insurance 🙂
There are many Jane’s out on the blogs, SHV. I just hope this stand of Jane’s starts a new movement toward people demanding leadership from the people they elected. The video didn’t include the moderator’s response to her, though. Did she get put down for her comments on MSNBC, or was there some agreement that would encourage the viewers to find some spine?
Indeed, Cheers for Jane. Why did it take so long for someone to say it publicly??? 😡
Yup, Got LEADERSHIP???
Yep, when you’re right you’re right.
What in the world are people supposed to do this holiday? I look at my kids and want to cry, it’s never been this bad. Husband’s on the verge of UI cutoff in a few weeks, no one cares and there are so many millions worse off than us. It almost feels surreal, you have to get numb cause it’s hard to function otherwise.
So – when Obama starts doing all this stuff, I wonder what Hillary and the rest of his cabinate are going to do.
Dak, today the Sac Bee, said California was the 8 richest economy in the world.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/12/californias-economy-still-8th.html
It reads like good information, but yet we have a 12.4 unemployment rate. With Nevada, and Michigan in the top. I guess I should have started that Christmas account
last year, cause this year is lean.
It used to be six a few years ago.
Rachel Maddown just said that Reid just announced that Senate will hold Sat votes on tax cuts. Hopefully the press will carry this
I’m sure it will be on CSPAN at least and the Republicans are acting like it’s Custer’s last stand.
They do the for real stuff they give a shit about on the weekends… bail outs and tax breaks…( bail out by another name. ) Amazing how he can still call a vote for a tax break…jobless Americans can go scratch
depressing isn’t it?
It’s a travesty. On NPR tonight the Dems were whining that they can’t do anything because they don’t have a majority any more. So WTF were they doing when they had a bloody majority? And how’s that Hope for a Miracle Prez working out?
It really hurts to say We Told You So this many times.
Yea, tell them, Jane!
Cheers. Hmmm, where did you get that from?
Bottoms up!
We are indeed living in two Americas. John Edwards at least had that one right.
My heart aches for thos cut off from unemployment benefits, those whose homes are in foreclosure, the many who sweat out each day wondering if this is their last at their jobs, the hopeless, helpless, members of our society who deserve so much more than what these bastards are selling.
How they sleep at night is a mystery. Perhaps like Boehner they lull themselves into a stupor from the bottom of the bottle. Something has to get you through the night especially if you still reserve one vestige of conscience.
My senator, Scott Brown, voted against extending the unemployment benefits then headed off to a merry Christmas Party. I hope the citizens of MA will remember that in 2012. I know I will.
Too bad John Edwards was such a Diva. His message was at least good. He’s got to live with himself now.
Yeah, except I think it was Elizabeth Edwards’ message moreso than his… if what came out of Game Change was true, she used the Rielle fallout to force him to move populist left.
He’s such a phony, he probably would have gone blue dog if it wasn’t for her.
I was so disappointed in Richardson and Edwards. I really thought they were better than they turned out to be.
In some ways, I wonder if it would have been better if he never had Elizabeth’s influence. He wouldn’t have tainted the poverty message with his, er, “narcissism” as he put it.
Game Over for Catfood Commission?
I’ll believe it when I see it. Ryan may very easily capitulate since he has his eye on the WH and those Repub leaders are needed when and if that time comes. To go against them is going to take an act of courage.
I’ll wait until the final vote comes in before I stand up and applaud. We have seen far too many of those we placed our trust in during the healthcare debacle say one thing today, another tomorrow when it came to passage.
It’s a shame that our cynicism far outweighs our optimism when it comes to the present day congress and the leadership we look toward for relief. Hardly there.
Paul Ryan will not vote yes. If you want to find a vote switcher, look at Baucus.
Well Andy Stern is finally standing up for working-class Americans again. ‘Bout time.
That would be delightful news, but I’m with Pat in that I’ll believe it when it really happens.
I just wish the entire thing would go away.
I agree, flush the committee, its report, and its two leaders down the toilet where they belong.
What Mr. Obama is made of?
“Follow the money,
See where it leads…
Leads to shrunken men
Stuffed up with greed.”
–Bruce Cockburn, All Our Dark Tomorrows.
Obama picked the wrong week to quit smoking.
Snort! I’m glad I didn’t refill my coffee cup before reading your comment, Pat!
I wonder, are average Americans getting as fed up as we are? Do they even pay attention? I think they do, but sometimes I just wonder.
I get the feeling that when unemployment is discussed people just turn away and pretend that if they don’t pay attention to it, it can’t happen to them. Was it that way in the Great Depression? I don’t know, and my relatives that lived through it are now dead. Maybe that’s why we are repeating this crap, anyone who could remember is now dead.
I think the 2010 elections showed a discontented voter. The Democratic voters stayed home, and the Republican voters showed up at the polls in big numbers. Each side expressed the discontent differently, that’s all.
I feel this way too Sima, it makes me wonder what the man or woman ahead of me in the line at Walmart thinks about all this that is going on. A few weeks ago, it might have been longer, there was some sort of poll done on people in the street. Showing pictures of Boehner, Pelosi, The Situation, and Snookie…the average person was asked to name the people in the picture, you can guess who they knew and who they didn’t. So it makes me wonder too, are they fed up?
I would recognize Boehner and Pelosi, but not the Situation and Snookie, as I have never watched Jersey Shore. And I only live a few miles from where it supposedly takes place.
He sure keeps his priorities straight. Obama via Politico:
President Obama ran into reporters in a hallway at the White House on Thursday, though he wouldn’t answer their questions on the START deal with Russia or compromising with Republicans on extending tax cuts for the rich.
Instead, Obama smiled and walked away – but not before saying that FIFA made the “wrong decision” in giving the 2022 World Cup to Qatar instead of the United States.