Fuck Obama

[Simulist]

The Democrats, predictably, will make a lot of noise about how the Republicans are "holding the middle class hostage" — and they'll continue to do that, right up until they announce a "bipartisan plan" to help them.

[Jeff]

[Jeff]

From NPR interview, Dec 10. America, prepare to be conversed at.

INSKEEP: You mentioned having to borrow money to do this. Let me ask you about something that both Democrats and Republicans have raised. If you're going to allow these tax cuts to continue, if you're going to approve the other tax cuts, why not make corresponding spending cuts to finance it so they do not add so massively to the deficit?

OBAMA: Well, we're going to have a long discussion next year about spending. I put together a fiscal commission — over the resistance, I should note, of a number of Republicans who originally had supported it.

I think that Bowles-Simpson did a good job of sparking a conversation about how we need to move forward to deal with our medium- and long-term deficits. There have been other commissions that have been put forward over the last several weeks.

And I'm going to have to put a budget up that shows how I think we make some — a serious dent in our debt and our deficit. I think every economist — and by the way, the commissions who looked at this as well, realize that because we've got a recovery that is still not as strong as we'd like it to be. [Interview interrupted by coughing.]

...


INSKEEP: What do you plan to do to the tax code in the next couple of years?

OBAMA: Well, I think we're going to have to have a conversation over the next year. And if you think about the last time we reformed our tax system back in 1986 — it didn't happen right away, by the way. It required a lot of conversations among a lot of different parties. But people of good will came together and realized that if we eliminate what happens to the tax code every decade or so — loopholes get built in, special interest provisions get built in — the nominal rates end up high, but the actual tax rates that well-connected folks or people who have good accountants pay end up being a lot lower. Ordinary people end up getting squeezed.

So typically, the idea is simplifying the system, hopefully lowering rates, broadening the base — that's something that I think most economists think would help us propel economic growth. But it's a very complicated conversation.

So what I believe is, is that we've got to start that conversation next year. I think we can get some broad bipartisan agreement that it needs to be done. But it's going to require a lot of hard work to actually make it happen.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/10/131949362 ... -and-start

[justdrew]

I'm pissed, but he really has no winning move available at this point, assuming he wanted to win.

[Simulist]

According to Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, "The president's making phone calls saying that's the end of his presidency if he doesn't get this bad deal."

Hmm. The end of the Obama presidency...

Now wouldn't that be a shame.

[Nordic]

That's fucking bullshit. His presidency was over almost from day one. He's a one-termer unless the PTB decide to keep him there another four years for some unfathomable reason. And they might, because, well, why not? He's giving them everything they want.

Fucker.

[Plutonia]

Ouch.

.

[Simulist]

Obama reaches out to liberal groups to shore up Democratic base after tax deal

By Peter Wallsten
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 19, 2010; 9:59 PM

In the wake of President Obama's tax-cut deal with Republicans, the White House is moving quickly to mend its strained relationship with the Democratic base, reassuring liberal groups, black leaders and labor union officials who opposed the tax compromise that Obama has not abandoned them.

[...]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03537.html

It's like watching the inner workings of a bad marriage:

"It don't really matter that I keep cheatin' on ya — 'cause I still love you best, baby!"

[Cedars of Overburden]

Speaking of the Democratic base, I'd like to say "fuck Obama" on behalf of the people who really cannot:

My father, yellow dog Democrat, ancient liberal Southern integrationist, so proud to vote for a black man for president. Daddy deserves better.

My husband, white working class survivor, defended and campaigned for Obama in the heavy equipment dealership where he used to work before the economy totally tanked. In '08, he cheerfully shrugged off the old time insults old time racists throw at white folks like us. Now he hasn't worked in damn near 2 years and if he feels like kicking racist ass, he does it on a fucking computer in between looking for jobs that are not there. My man deserves better than Obama.

My hero, Dr. Ralph Stanley, dearly beloved patriarch of bluegrass music, endorsed Obama back in '08. He caught some 21st century hell for that. Dr. Stanley deserves way better than this.

And most bitterly, my girlfriend, a black woman, who wept and I saw something old and awful healed in her the day Obama was elected. She cried again and was healed a little more of that something I didn't even know was there even more on the day he was inaugurated and I prayed and prayed she was right about him and I was wrong. Now the realities of Obama's foreign policy are sinking her joy. For the enormity of her ancient pain, my friend deserves FAR better than Obama.

So say it again, say it for the civil rights movement, say it for the labor movement, say it for the old who don't know what hit them, say it for every single African real by God American, say it for all the people who deserved better but they got conned: FUCK YOU, OBAMA!

(By real by God American, I do not mean to say I'm a birther, but I do mean to say that Miz McKinney was and is a real by God American actual Georgia girl and Obama very obviously is not.)

[NeonLX]

What Yarnell Perkins said, X 1,000,000.

[Cedars of Overburden]

Thank you, Neon.

And one more thing: McKinney/Bageant 2012!

[NeonLX]

Thank you, Neon.

And one more thing: McKinney/Bageant 2012!

Heh! That's one bumper sticker I'd LOVE to paste on the back of the ol' Neon!

[Simulist]

In a way, Obama has (unintentionally, I'm quite sure) done a great service: because of the betrayal Obama represents, more people have become disillusioned about a political system that they should have had no illusions about in the first place.

In a nation that stole its real estate from the land's indigenous inhabitants, and then set about to displace entire populations of these same people — while slaughtering the rest — the depth of evil that has become clearly visible to many of us during the Bush and Obama presidencies is really nothing new, just unavoidably obvious.

(Except to those who, somehow, still manage to avoid the unpleasant truth.)

[vanlose kid]

Obama Prepares Executive Order For Indefinite Detention
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/21/2010 19:15 -0500


First president Obama becomes Bush in all but name with respect to his predecessor's economic policies, and now he follows by espousing Bush's interpretation of "civil rights" as well. According to Pro Publica, the White House is preparing an Executive Order for indefinite detention. And while the premise behind a comparable draft has been circulating around for 18 months, the uptake was seen as problematic. The "humanitarian" premise behind the order is that it will "provide for the periodic reviews of evidence against dozens of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay... and allow for the possibility that detainees from countries like Yemen might be released if circumstances change." That's the theory. The "practice" is that the Order will, as the name implies, afford the administration the option of "indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a review process for those it chooses to hold without charge or trial." In other words all those, and we assume that the Order is not merely targeting those involved in September 11, and is wider in its scope, who are perceived by the administration as "high value detainees" will be denied due process, and will be held in captivity essentially indefinitely with no legal recourse, for as long as the "review process" so deems fit. As for the "theory" aspect, Politico summarizes just how much of a bold lie Obama's promise two years ago to close Guantanamo has become: "Nearly two years after Obama's pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo, more inmates there are formally facing the prospect of lifelong detention and fewer are facing charges than the day Obama was elected." In other words, Obama has one upped Dubya not only when it comes to Republican economic policy, but has in fact surpassed his abrogation of basic human rights. And seeing how in the aftermath of the Assange arrest (speaking of which, Julian better run following this announcement), it is only a matter of time before that whole 'Internet free speech' premise is perceived to be a form of treason, by the likes of Biden, Palin and Lieberman, potentially punishable if not by death, then certainly indefinite, lifelong detention.

More from Pro Publica:

After taking office, the Obama administration reviewed the detainee population at Guantanamo Bay and chose 48 prisoners for indefinite detention. Officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that number will likely increase in coming months as some detainees are moved from a transfer category to a continued detention category.

If signed by President Obama, the new order will provide added review for detainees designated for long-term detention. The order, which is being drafted jointly by White House staff in the National Security council and the White House counsel, will offer detainees in this category a minimal review every six months and then a more lengthy annual review. Detainees will have access to an attorney, to some evidence against them and the ability to challenge their continued detention.

Prisoners who have been deemed "high-value detainees," including the alleged conspirators of the 2001 attacks, have been designated for prosecution in civilian or military courts.

In 2008, Guantanamo detainees won the right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention in court. The executive order aims to create an executive branch review which would occur separately from the court review and would weigh the necessity of the detention, rather than its lawfulness, officials said.

"Perhaps the dangerousness of the detainee's country of origin could change, or the group that the detainee is affiliated with could cease to exist," one official explained.


Sorry to interject, but the humor factor of the possibility that someone would be released from Guantanamo after the CIA lowers the threat level of i.e., Yemen from burgndy to mauve, is just as powerful as that of someone stating that Bernanke will ever stop printing monetary ones and zeroes.

At the end of the day, this is merely another example of what happens when Congress refuses to play ball:

Weeks later, administration officials said the White House had decided to work with Congress on indefinite detention, rather than through Executive Order. But by the end of 2009, the White House had said it would not support legislation.

Then, in 2010, a government task force on Guantanamo completed a year-long review that placed 48 detainees in long-term detention. In its report, task force members said those detainees would be "subject to periodic Executive Branch review."

..

Jameel Jaffer, a national security lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Association, agreed that "more review is better." But he said that an executive order would only "normalize and institutionalize indefinite detention and other policies," that were set in place by the Bush administration.

While we hope we are wrong, we have this very nagging feeling that the timing and sudden reappearance of this order on the docket is in advance of one or more charges of espionage about to be lobbed at Wikileaks... And to think, all Julian Assange threatened to do was to take down Bank of America, something that should have happened over two years ago if that whole 'free market', risk/return thing was even remotely close to what it is taught to be at various ivy draped business schools.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/obama- ... -detention

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[vanlose kid]

House Overwhelmingly Approves New $725 Billion Military Spending Bill
'Stripped Down Version' the Largest Military Spending Bill Ever[/size]by Jason Ditz, December 17, 2010

The US House of Representatives today overwhelmingly approved the $725 billion military appropriations bill for 2011, by far the largest single military spending bill in the history of mankind.

The 341-48 vote saw vast majorities of both parties supporting it, and was referred to by officials as a “stripped down” version, despite its impossibly large pricetag. In addition to its budget busting expense, the bill also solidified the ban on closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay



http://news.antiwar.com/2010/12/17/hous ... ding-bill/

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