A purist is but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Stein/Macbeth 2016!

And Obama made some of the Republicans break their sacred oath not to raise taxes as long as they live. Now they are going to Hell and I’m going to clap and watch them burn.

On New Years Eve, I could have sworn I was teetering on the fiscal cliff, that uneasy feeling that I was about to go over the edge, that soon I would be literally falling, falling into empty space.

But then I woke up this morning, made myself some coffee, got the kids off to school, took the Metro to work and realized nothing had changed.

NOTHING HAD CHANGED.

the Wall Street Journal’s head is exploding – as evidenced by their spittle filled editorial:

“The better way to see it is that the tax bill on private productive part of the economy is now coming due for President Obama’s first term spending and re-election” (my emphasis)

The War on Iraq and Afghanistan never happened and if they did, they were paid for with magical fairy dollars that never becomes debt. Only extending unemployment benefits turn into debt.

The whole editorial is a thing of joy to behold, with their acknowledgement that “the private economy is growing” which, of course was NEVER going to happen as long as the taxes were not cut all the way back to zero.

But hats off to Obama for staying firm on the key pieces. Of course we could have had more, but then, we always could have had more no matter what we got.

It is all good.

Anhedonia

noun ˌan-(ˌ)hē-ˈdō-nē-ə, -nyə
: a psychological condition characterized by inability to experience pleasure in normally pleasurable acts

I come for the snark, the reality based take on what up and down, bassets, the occasional Shakira but I stay for the Scrabble help.

I would light a candle except the government’s interference in my right to kill myself by smoking means that I cannot locate a lousy book of matches any where! It’s Obama’s fault! Anti-christ!

Anti-anhedonia, which feels like schadenfreude with a different spelling.

Oh you mean because both of them engage in…false equivalences???

You also might want to consider that one of those groups has considerable power and leverage within their party and the other has virtually none.

It’s fascinating. They only way to conclude that Obama made a crappy deal is to agree with the premise that the deficit represents an immediate, short-term crisis and MUST be reduced NOW NOW NOW.

Now, most of us on the reality-driven side of ideology recognize that unemployment and weak economic demand are the immediate short-term problems, and with low inflation and negative interest rates the deficit is something that can be addressed over the longer term.

Both things cannot be true, so sacrificing revenue for UI funding and tax credits was the right fiscal decision – for Obama to have betrayed progressive principles those principles would have to be exactly the same as Paul Ryan’s….

There is not a teabags worth of difference between the far right and the far left.

Channeling your inner Dave Broder, TBogg?
~

Is Anhedonia the Capital city of Freedonia?

ducks… and runs…

wha…? what are you talking about?

taxes went up AUTOMATICALLY on january 1. with this “85% deal,” obama gave tax CUTS to very wealthy people. such a deal.

luv ya, tBogg, but this is the rare instance when you’re “misinformed.” (see under: the waters of Casablanca.)

The Great Emancipator: Abraham Lincoln
The Great Communicator: Ronald Reagan
The Great Capitulator: Barack Obama.

Oh sure, since they’d gone up for all of 20 minutes, you’re definitely, literally correct. You’re also a yutz.

Ah, yes, it only took 12 comments…is that a record?

There is not a teabags worth of difference between the far right and the far left.

Just 24/7 angst and hysteria.

damn right, Mr Bogg.

the perpetual-outrage gene is represented equally-well across all political factions.

Yutz or putz? Let’s compromise on schlemiel!

Yes, there’s not a teabag’s worth of difference between the far right and the commies like Pierce and Krugman… perhaps before yelling “scoreboard!” we should see what happens about the debt ceiling.

This one?
? Yutz?
? Putz?
? Schmuck?

Your choice!

So you’ll want to include people like Paul Krugman and Digby in your “manic progressives” right?
FWIW, Krugman’s criticism is not with this deal, but the fact that once again with Obama a line in the sand is just a line in the sand. The question remains, when will he stop negotiating with terrorists? Onward to the next “crisis”.

Eh, the scrabble help could be useful, assuming that I could remember those words (more than 4 letters = double-plus ungood), but I really only come here for the Shakira fix. And, of course the acerbicitousness (that’s a word, right?). Although I admit the heroically noble Basset-cake photos are a distinct plus. And I suppose I could do with a bit less of the heroically pious ‘pragmatic centrisosity’ as well, but then you get what you pay for (and it’s cheap at half the price!). And did I mention Shakira? Mmmmmmm, Shakira…

when will he stop negotiating with terrorists?

you do realize that Obama can not make taxing and spending policy by himself, right? and that the GOP controls the House? and that that means they get a say in how things go, right?

call them whatever names you like, but the GOP still holds enormous power here.

acerbicitousness (that’s a word, right?).

don’t care — I am SO using that from here on out!

We’re sobbing about 200 Billion dollars in revenue here – about 0.3% of GDP. In exchange Obama got numerous tax credits for the lower brackets and another year of emergency UI funding. When you’re essentially extending the Bush tax cuts for 98% of the population, both the 250K and 450K thresholds are political and arbitrary. So he essentially gave away NOTHING to protect real people in the real world (like, well, ME f’rinstance) right now.

I see nothing but win…

you do realize that Obama can not make taxing and spending policy by himself, right?

spending under the “debt ceiling” has already been approved by Congress. The only purpose for them to refuse to raise it is to create chaos and wreck havoc in financial markets (ie terrorism). Obama stomps his foot and says he won’t negotiate over it. Krugman (and the GOP) are saying past behavior suggests otherwise.

Damn, I envy those whose entire lives can be lived in teh subjunctive.

once again with Obama a line in the sand is just a line in the sand

… which we all wished had been etched in stone.

Ah, but how is His High Lord of America Grover Norquist taking all this?

Overall I think this is a good win for Obama. He finally got some Republicans to go along with something for the good of the nation. I don’t particularly like that my net paycheck will go down due to the sunsetting of the 2% FICA drop. Maybe people should ask their employers to pay them more.

In 2011, Obama agreed to a 2 year increase in the Medicare eligibility age. Last month, he agreed to re-indexing Social Security such that benefits would be cut by 3% per decade. In both cases, these ‘reforms’ were torpedoed only because the Republicans are too crazy to accept victory.

When you’re living the life in San Diego, politics is about manners and mores. When you’re a 50 year old guy paying $10K/semester for (supposedly) state colleges for your 2 kids, thereby short changing your retirement savings, it’s about money.

Wow. Boy, you are surely the one who knows. All packed up in one neat parcel – ignorance, parochialism, envy – good to see you here. You all take care, wontcha?

HHLAGN is smiling but not laughing.

Tax rates are higher for the tippy top of the distribution, but the measure passed only after the old rates expired. So he got to give the chain a good hard jerk, and in 2014 gets to hear the sweet music of obeisant Republican incumbents saying “I didn’t vote for a tax increase.”

The political significance is not, ah, insignificant either. Obama broke the Tea party’s hold on the GOP. Boehner’s caucus is in complete disarray. Further, they’re just digging themselves deeper. Did you see Christie unload on the House Republicans about Sandy aid? The Violence Against Women Act is languishing in the House. Cantor and his band of idealogues are gradually making themselves irrelevant.

So in the coming fights over entitlements, gun control and, yes, taxes again, the administration’s position will be that much stronger. Also, too, 2014 just became next year. Another do nothing Congress and the tea partiers become history. Forever…maybe.

Remember, it’s not the battle, it’s the war you need to win.

Just remember: You stay in the middle of the road, you get run over like an armadillo.

31 posts and nobody mentioned DRONZ?

That must be some kind of record in these here parts.

And major props (as the kids say) for coming up with the perfect word to describe EmoProgs and Wingnuts. Anhedonia… I’m teaching it to the kids next week when my break is over (sobs uncontrollably).

thanks, brantl. if being “definitely, literally correct” makes me a yutz, well, you need not fear being called one.

(oy, who knew how many alte kacher trolls came to this meshuga site?)

Congratulations! You’re not a yutz!
Ur a schmuck!

Yeah, that would be nice (pardon the subjunctive)

Problem is we still don’t know if Obama’s Grand Bargaineering is just a blunderbuss for bagging Teabaggers, or if he’s really looking for some “skin in the game” from us soon to be retiring boomers. After 10 years of disaster capitalism all I’ve got to offer is some fairly used foreskin.

There is an awful lot of hand wringing going on about the expiration of the FICA tax holiday which was only intended to be a 1 year holiday to put a little stimulus in the system. Instead of being happy that it was extended for an extra year last year we hear pissing and moaning that Obummer sold out the middle class again AND RAISED TAXES!! Please, folks. All holidays come to an end.

And again it’s all with what The Great Betrayer will do NEXT time. Because he hasn’t exactly done it yet.

I think psychologically this was a big deal in terms of scattering and demoralizing Rethuglicans. They voted for a tax increase regardless of how they want to language it back home. They voted for an extension of unemployment benefits and got nothing in return. And etc. And it’s pretty unclear if the new House and Senate will be capable of actually holding the debt ceiling hostage in this new demoralized state. It didn’t hurt that the president insisted on a deal and made them do it in confusion and haste.

The Betrayalists are never unbetrayed, for their betrayal is always just around the corner.

I’d just like tp point out TBogg is dead on about the far sides frequently being a lot closer than they realize…..using a completely different example:

Here in PDX we have these two extremes united in mouth foaming opposition on two issues, water fluoridation is one (apparently both sides agree I’ll no longer be free if it happens). The ohter is building a large (for us, about 600 rooms) hotel across from our convention center (where the nearest hotels are small, dumpy and about 6 blocks away).

Both sides absolutely HATE the idea of a public/private project that would create short and long term direct and indirect jobs, bring in $$$ we currently lose to cities like Omaha and Boise, etc…

The right hates it because tax $$$ for hotels is eeeeevvvvilllll. Even when it’s helping corporate interests, etc. Still it’s eeeevvvvilll. Because these aren’t “real” jobs, anyway. And Portland’s economy isn’t at tourism based. And it’s only a matter of time before we become a fishing/lumber economy, anyway.Oh yes, and all conventions are drunk Shriners and who wants any of that, amirite???

The left hates it because eeeeeeewwwy, McEww, it will be a CHAIN hotel (which about 80% of our hotels already are) and it will squash all the beautiful indies(which are all owned by rich corporations, but never mind)and bring the other chains (which are, sadly, already here)and OMG it really IS the apocalypse to build a nice hotel on urban property that’s currently a couple of falling down budget no-tell motels and parking lots!!! Oh yeah, and cause conventions are all tacky, drunk Shriners.

Angst and hysteria justify my existence.

When you’re a 50 year old guy paying $10K/semester for (supposedly) state colleges for your 2 kids, thereby short changing your retirement savings, it’s about money.

Wow, you can pay $10k/semester AND save something for retirement??? Well, lucky you!

Personally, thanks to the greed of the 2%ers, I am on KRP—the Kevorkian Retirement Plan. When the money’s gone, so am I.

“not a teabags worth of difference between the far right and the far left”

And that, folks, is what is wrong with liberals. They are not class warriors, they do not understand the value of knowing which side you’re on, and they will stab you in the back when it’s convenient.

I’m pretty much in the same situation as you. Except my kid will need $25k per semester and I have been unemployed for 3 out of the last 4 years.

The one main difference between you and me is that I am adult enough not to blame Obama for crap that has been developing for the last 30 years.

From where I’m sitting $10K per year for college sounds pretty reasonable. People with younger kids pay that (and more) for daycare nowadays. You still have time to earn, pay off your house, etc—-I’m 47 and I really don’t freak out all over the place about retirement.

Also, here’s a thought–why aren’t you having your kids pay at least part of their tuition or living expenses if you’re THAT concerned? NOt to mention, as pointed out downthread, “paying for college” has been a huge concern for middle income parents since state schools started charing tuition (so not even a 30 year problem—more like 40).

Now, now sbruin, put on your lucky #18 t-shirt and all your fears will go away…

Also, drones, too…

My grandmother lived to be 102, and I’ve been accused of being just like her. When the money runs out, I’m planning on robbing a bank. Best case scenario: I’ll be blogging you all from one of those little round houses called trulli in Puglia. Worse case: I get 3 hots and a cot in prison–plus CABLE! WOOT!

If you want to have some fun, go play the “Redstate or DailyKos?” game in one of the DailyKos diaries and see how good you are at telling the comments apart.

Maybe people should ask their employers to pay them more.

Gawd, but you’re cute! I retired at the end of November, with the other 2 senior non-physician members of the practice I worked for. Why? Well, to become a full-time drain on the economy, but primarily the 3 of us decided to quit when we had to sit through a practice meeting where one of the senior physicians (his taxes will rise…) told us we couldn’t have a raise because it would have to come out of his pocket. Really. You can’t make shit like that up. My blood pressure still hits 185 in the shade every time I think about it.

Well as my mom would say, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

Damn… Bliss is expensive? That sux, but it does explain an AWFUL lot of what goes on in Congress. Those folks can afford a LOT of bliss.

Don’t let the pragmatic compradors get to ya.

Don’t tell me–let me guess: He did his taxes himself using TurboTax because he got higher grades in calculus than the accounting majors, and tax lawyers don’t know sh*t.

To get anything at all accomplished which involved the votes of those 150 yutzes known as House Republicans (insane branch) is a win for Obama, and for the country. Those people have no interest whatsoever in accomplishing anything, legislatively speaking, more substantive than renaming a bridge for Ronald Reagan. Anything more substantive than that might somehow show That (Black) Man In The (Their) White House in a positive light. They were elected to say no, over and over again, and they are not going to be punished by voters in their gerrymandered districts doing just that.

The purists out there bemoaning (another!) betrayal by Obama might want to sit down and contemplate, for a few hours or days, what the political, legislative and judicial landscape would look like right now under the benevolent hand and eye of the Marquis du Mittens. With the aid and cooperation of House Republicans, in about three months we’d be looking at the smoking debris of the New Deal for starters, followed by legislation grinding the faces of everyone with a net worth of less than seven figures into the shit forever. Ralph Nader would not ride to the rescue on a white stallion, either.

So, you’ve met him have you??!!!

What I personally hate are:

1) The folks who think that any criticism of Obama means that you MUST hate and oppose everything he does and stands for

2) The folks who think that any approval of anything Obama does means that MUST support and uphold everything he does and stands for.

Talk about your Manichaeism!

What, exactly, is this “far left” of which Mr. Bogg speaks? Is it some group of rabble rousers like the governor who, according to Wikipedia, doubled his state’s taxes in order to:

develop one of the nation’s most comprehensive systems of higher education. There was a significant increase in funding support for local governments and there were generous benefits for the poor and unemployed.

By today’s standards, yes, but of course there is no Democrat today who would advocate anything of the sort. The above is from George Romney’s page.

Today’s Democrats are considerably to the right of yesterday’s Republicans.

They only way to conclude that Obama made a crappy deal is to agree with the premise that the deficit represents an immediate, short-term crisis and MUST be reduced NOW NOW NOW.

No, it’s to realize (as did that dirty hippie Paul Krugman) that he threw away his best pieces of leverage when he decided (after meeting with Robert Rubin) that he didn’t want to go over the fiscal cliff even for a little while, and now he has no leverage to use against the GOP to keep them from demanding (and getting) whatever they want when it comes to the debt limit fight.

But of course just to point out that Obama really made a boneheaded move here makes me evil and un-American in the eyes of some, while others — the ideological mirrors but the emotional twins of the members of the first groups — will say that I’m a deluded fool for thinking that Obama didn’t have this planned from the get-go so he could have the horrifically huge economy-killing budget cuts he allegedly always wanted.

Sigh… Another idiotic false equivalency post. You’re good most of the time, but when people with standards a bit higher than yours aren’t interested in sucking Obama’s cock 24/7 you sure get all pissy.

He ain’t that great. He capitualtes way too much. But worse, is how he reinforces the double-standard in law.

When the S&L crisis hit, bankers went to fucking jail under Bush & Clinton. When this bank crisis hit, Obama gave them a free pass instead of sending those fuckers up. Even worse, they went after Joe Sixpacks who tarted up their loan paperwork with the full force of the Federal Government.

And we have Manning, Gitmo, drone strikes, lobbying for FISA, etc…

So, yeah, he ain’t my favorite guy.

Well, I certainly hope you don’t personally hate me, since I don’t think those things at all, at all, although I really do get tired of this particular discussion. I think Obama is a politician who trims his sails all too close to the wind, and is as much a captive of corporate interests as any Republican. His record is horrible – there’s no other word – in many areas where, based upon his words prior to 2008, I (and you and many others) expected better of him. And, for that matter, were entitled to expect better. Including but not limited to the following, to wit:

- Civil liberties – 4th, 5th and 8th Amendments might as well be dead letters at this point, and Obama and the Department of Justice seem to be just fine with that. We now live in a judicially-approved surveillance society of which the East German Stasi could only dream.
- Claims of executive privilege – yes, he is in fact as bad or worse than W in this area. Condemning anybody, American or not, to death or indefinite imprisonment on the President’s say-so and nothing else? That is, according to everything I’ve ever read or been taught, totalitarian government, nothing more or less.
- Foreign policy – Obama doesn’t display the yee-haw triumphalism and out and out contempt for foreign and domestic public opinion so obvious in that guy unknown to Republicans who was president for eight years, but his foreign policy is that guy’s on steroids. Not that horrible stupidities, misdeeds and cruelties are anything new in American foreign policy by any means…He’s not quite as eager to bomb brown people and doesn’t have his lips as firmly affixed to Bibi Netanyahu’s ass, but how much of a stretch is that? See executive privilege, above, as well.
- Defense spending – Christ Jesus, we can maintain twelve carrier battle groups and we absolutely must spend hundreds of billions on the F-35 “air superiority” fighter on top of the flawed and almost as expensive F-22, but old, poor and/or sick people “must make sacrifices”. Because freedom.
- Rule of law – is now officially a myth in this country, and ‘equal justice under the law’ is a joke. Get caught smoking a joint, go to jail and have a permanent mark on your record. Get caught laundering money for drug cartels and terrorists, get fined the equivalent of five weeks profits.
Prosecution of people who got rich by knowingly pushing shitty mortgages and associated financial products? Honkies, please. Everything’s fucked up, and nobody goes to jail.

That last item – more or less complete and public collapse of the rule of law for the very rich and very well connected – may be the most dangerous and corrosive of the lot, in my not very humble opinion. And the one to which Obama, of all politicians, should have been most sensitive.

All that being said – Obama is still a better alternative than Mitt Romney, particularly Mitt Romney in company with a Republican House of Representatives and a nonfunctioning Senate. Granted, that doesn’t require a lot of heavy lifting – but if I allowed myself to dwell on how far every single American president in my adult lifetime (all eight of the sonsofbitches) has fallen short of my ideals, there wouldn’t be enough drugs in the western hemisphere to raise my spirits above the level of a small pile of horseshit. I’ll take whatever I can view as small victories when they come my way, in lieu of the second coming of Bobby Kennedy or something – which, no, Barack Obama most certainly is not.

Obama: Gitmo. Maybe you could use drones twice instead…

There’s a vast spread between the parties. No Democratic governor is busting unions or letting ALEC write legislation. That sinister shit is strictly Republican. Jerry Brown managed to loosen the Republican death grip on the budget and shake progressives out of their whiny lethargy and into action in California. BTW, I don’t begrudge you having the retirement savings that you’re carving into to get your kids through school. I don’t feel a a speck of guilt about doing the same thing.

You had me at sucking Obama’s cock 24/7. When you sum up the dichotomy between evil and good that perfectly there’s no reason to read further.

Love you, love the bassetts. Still you are wrong on this one. This is an instance where Democrats had all the cards and still came up with a lousy deal giving up things permanently to get nothing permanent they couldn’t always have had in return AND it set up TWO battles in less then two months where they have little or no leverage on key issues. Hell, they even gave up home health care for the elderly from the ACA, that’s negotiation! And The President himself put earned benefits back on the chopping block in his last press conference during the end of the whole thing. (BTW the Republicans have been let off the hook because taxes went up before the final vote and everyone saw that happening, so no you don’t even get the win on that one.)

The only thing that is going to save Social Security and Medicare from the major machete hacking Obama KEEPS trying for over and over and over again is if the rank and file politicians fear having their fingerprints on the crime. My optimistic side is hoping that if we get through the back track on sequestration and the next debt ceiling negotiations without his getting his way that Obama will finally take NO for an answer (this is number four by my count and that would be five and six), but I’m afraid he and his partners will just set up another “negotiation” to put them on the block again and this will be a big fight for the next four years.

But I’ll tell you what – if those next two events aren’t the bloody disaster I’m expecting regarding austerity and the needs of the country (not even counting SS, Medicaid and Medicare), I’ll come here and apologize for underestimating the political and negotiating skill and motives of Obama and the Democrats. If it is a mess, how about you admit that the DFH side of the Democrats weren’t the blithering fanatics you seem to think we are and you fell for the propaganda about this.

Exactly. He’s literally right in the details, that aren’t meaningful in any practical way. What a douche.

The upcoming debt ceiling fight needs to be turned into a fight between 233 crazy jackass hostage takers versus the world, or a close as we can get to that. The idea that Obama gave away his only bargaining chip belies the fact that it isn’t solely Obama vs Republicans. It’s a vast majority of the planet and Obama versus those crazy fuckers.

The screaming should start as soon as possible. Day one on.

“Dear ignorant Republican Congressperson, get over yourself. Jesus ain’t coming to save your ass and whisk you off to heaven so why don’t you re-join the Human Race and stop fucking with everybodies’ lives just because you’re mad and are too passive-aggressive to fucking say so! Extend the debt ceiling and stop with the histrionics!”

Or something like that from everybody who is isn’t a Republican Congressperson, starting today.

Here is a list to help everybody get started.

http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Personally, thanks to the greed of the 2%ers, I am on KRP—the Kevorkian Retirement Plan. When the money’s gone, so am I.

That’s why they’ll have to pry my gun from my cold, dead, fingers– literally. People cite the handgun suicide stats as though they were a bad thing. Until then, of course, unloaded, cable lock, ammo far away.

One of the biggest differences between the parties is that Republican politicians live in fear of their base and Democratic politicians hold theirs in contempt.

Hell, I get why everyone’s so upset. I mean, all we got was an estate tax increase, a permanent capital gains tax, a fix on the Alternative Minimum Tax to stop hikes on the middle class, unemployment insurance extension, extension on every business tax including those for alternative energy development, and a temporary freeze on Medicare cuts. See? Nothing.

You don’t understand the True Progressive technique for negotiations. If you only get 90% of what you want, you don’t take it. You flip over the bargaining table, stamp your little feet and yell at the top of your lungs until people take you seriously!

Talk about your Manichaeism!

Manichaeism is racism!

Anhedonia! Anhedonia!
What makes your big head so hard?

Manichaeism iz SEXISM!

Eh.

I found the whole spectacle and compromise solution less than thrilling, but then again, I was never a fan of the “raise rates the same amount for everyone making over x amount” proposal anyway, since a large part of what’s really wrong with our tax code is the ridiculous lumping of the moderately well-off with the truly filthy rich in the top bracket. The small number of brackets we have is a relic of the Reagan era and is probably the single biggest contributing factor to our debt. Once upon a time, pre-Reagan, there were dozens of brackets, and billionaires paid higher marginal rates than hundred-thousandaires. I would have preferred a compromise that raised rates 1% for people making 200 – 300K, another percent for 300 – 400K and so forth, which would have re-introduced the idea that it makes sense to have more brackets because people making millions shouldn’t be paying at the same rate as those making a tenth of that amount.

But really, that needs to be part of a complete overhaul of the tax code, and it wasn’t going to happen in all the uproar over the stupid fiscal cliff, a term which should henceforth be stricken from the language.

As for the debt ceiling, I really don’t see the president as having lost any leverage, since the position needs to be “no negotiation” anyway. None of us get to refuse to pay our bills unless we get our way. Congress was the one writing the IOUs, and if certain members of the current Congress aren’t responsible enough to pay the bills, well then, maybe they shouldn’t be there. Sure, our credit rating will take another hit, but that might happen anyway if they pull the same kind of shit this time around, which I fully expect, and they’ll have to own it. I have this Hello Kitty-tinged dream in which Obama simply announces that “these are bills Congress promised to pay and it’s up to Congress to pay them regardless of whatever else is going on in the world. When Congress authorizes spending, they promise to pay for it, and either their word is good or it isn’t. It can’t perpetually be up to a third party to agree to ransom demands to get them to keep their word – at some point, it’s got to boil down to whether or not they are sincerely interested in dealing with the responsibilities of the job they’ve sought out and being honorable and good for their word. So…we’re not going to negotiate on this. Congress needs to work to figure out how they’re going to pay for the things they authorized and promised to pay for, and if they aren’t able to do the job the people elected them to do, I will take whatever steps I can take under my executive powers to resolve the problem and clean up the debts Congress authorized but refuses to pay.”

Yeah, I know. Obama’s no Django, but if I heard him say something even close to the above, it would be the best sex I’ve had in years.

I just get a kick out of people who are locked into dualistic mindsets.

Just because I’m quite willing to note Obama’s faults doesn’t mean I think we’d be better off with Romney at the helm. And just because I don’t think we’d be better off with Romney at the helm doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to note Obama’s faults.

Ayup.

JennOfArk #73: “…it would be the best sex I’ve had in years.”

Ironic. I just had a lunch with a fellow Obot and we briefly discussed the Online Progressive Party’s constant complaining about President Obama, yet 100% ignoring of the tremendous progress he has made. We jokingly suggested that they are probably jealous of the obviously successful sex lives of our First Couple, and that explains a lot about their insane attacks against the Obamas. In thinking about the most prominent Obama-haters in the “left media,” and comparing them to this photo and many similar ones, there may be a lot to that idea:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/8340806449/in/photostream

It’s certainly true when comparing to the Republican Obama-haters.

The only things on that list that would not have happened (and in some cases at a greater rate then we ended up with) were the permanent AMT fix (a temporary one was a given) and the extended unemployment. Remember as January 1st, it was all tax cuts not increases…And some of those business credits had no business being there. A tax credit for the railroad companies for maintaining their tracks, really !?!?!?!
But you keep telling yourself that those were wins.

As for people who are saying that the President has leverage in the debt ceiling debate. Of course he does, but remember he had ALL the leverage in this one as well. It is all dependent upon what line he draws he won’t actually erase. He has already taken the 14th Amendment off the tool list. I’m pretty positive he will ignore the platinum coin tool. Besides some lukewarm bully pulpit moments I’m fully prepared for him to negotiate with himself and offer the Pubbies a deal he is sure they can’t refuse. One that includes more domestic cuts then defense cuts, not to mention his staples – an increased eligibility age for medicare and chained CPI for SS. With less crazies in Congress he may get his way. (Although once again it may all be dependent on who will get the blame for those last two and the old hands saying no way). That it is all for something that shouldn’t include any negotiation much less a ‘solution’ that is bad news for the country, but hey there is a gun he loaded held to his head.