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Poor Ob… he’s been all but swallowed… 25 January 2010

Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, DC Politics, Democrats, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
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Obama announces dramatic Wall Street crackdown – Martin Rowson in the Guardian

… by his own vices.

****************

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1. ts - 25 January 2010

Newsweek headline: The problem with President Obama: He’s leading with his head instead of his heart.

ts - 25 January 2010

Written by Joe Meacham. It’s comedy gold!

2. catnip - 25 January 2010

lol…great cartoon

3. catnip - 25 January 2010

Brrreaking: AP sources: Obama will ask to freeze a part of govt spending for 3 years beginning in 2011

Exempt from the freeze would be the Pentagon, veterans programs, foreign aid and homeland security.

catnip - 25 January 2010

Interesting – when I was looking for a link to that story, several references to Pence calling for a spending freeze last year came up. More “bipartisanship”?

ts - 25 January 2010

The President can say anything he wants. His track record on doing is not so good. I’m going to avoid the SOTU even more than usual this year.

marisacat - 25 January 2010

hmm from the Politico story on that:

The proposal is in line with a plan floated by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), a fiscal hawk, who told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt last week that there was a “fighting chance” Obama would propose a freeze in most discretionary spending by the federal government as part of his address.

“The president can say in this State of the Union address, ‘I’m going to include in my budget a freeze on discretionary spending, I’m drawing a line in the sand, and I’m going to use my veto pen to enforce that,’” Bayh said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s Political Capital with Al Hunt. …

Read more: LINK

catnip - 25 January 2010

Yeah, well lines in the sand are easily blown away by the lightest of winds.

ts - 25 January 2010

And as non-defense discretionary spending is about 18% of the budget, this will wipe out the $1+ trillion deficit…how? (And this is not including supplementals)

marisacat - 25 January 2010

From the NYT piece on it………… I have to say the crew in the Wh is very visibly flailing. Maybe someone could tie their shoes for them. Some milk and cookies too… and few stuffed toys to hold.

The payoff in budget savings would be small relative to the deficit: The estimated $250 billion in savings over 10 years is less than 5 percent of the $9 trillion to $10 trillion in additional debt the government is expected to accumulate over that time.

The initiative holds political risks as well as potential benefits. Because Mr. Obama exempts military spending while leaving many popular domestic programs vulnerable, his move is certain to further anger liberals in his party, including senior Democrats in Congress, who are already upset by the possible collapse of health care legislation and the troop buildup in Afghanistan, among other things. …

Did I say these fuckign idiots are children? i wish I cared enough to call The Boxer, the Feinstein or The Pelosi. Those tired wax figures.

Mr. Obama’s proposal would have to be agreed to by the House and Senate, and it is not clear how much support he will get in an election year when the political appeal of greater fiscal responsibility will be vying with the pressure to provide voters with more and better services. The administration officials said the portion of the budget they have targeted — $447 billion in domestic programs — amounts to a relatively small share, about one-sixth, of the overall federal budget.

But given the raft of agencies and programs within that slice, the reductions will mean a lot of painful reductions that will be fought by numerous lobbies and constituent groups. Also not all programs will be frozen, the administration officials said; many will be cut well below a freeze or eliminated to protect programs that are higher priorities for the administration in education, energy, environmental, health and other areas. ….

catnip - 25 January 2010

This is going to be a tap dance and they’ll probably end up falling flat on their asses.

catnip - 25 January 2010

AND, they cut a deal with Citgroup so it wouldn’t have to pay $38 billion in taxes. That’s a good chunk of that ‘$447 billion in domestic programs’ they now have on the chopping block.

marisacat - 25 January 2010

From the Wapo version: IMO Chickie Babeee needs a “theme”.

While the freeze would shave no more than $15 billion off next year’s budget — barely denting a deficit projected to exceed $1 trillion for the third year in a row — White House officials described it as a critical part of a broader deficit-reduction campaign intended to restore confidence in Obama’s ability to control the excesses of Washington.

….

White House officials said reducing deficits swollen by emergency spending on the economy will be an important theme of Obama’s address to Congress, along with plans for creating jobs and helping the middle class. Democrats have said repeatedly that those goals do not conflict, but the tension between them was on display Monday as Obama rolled out a list of relatively inexpensive initiatives to help middle-class families, most of which were recycled from the budget he sent to Congress last year and never enacted.

4. catnip - 25 January 2010

Meltdown in progress in ObamaLand:

Obama Embraces Hooverism
by eugene
Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 06:44:11 PM MST

From the diaries. Susan.

There are no words to describe how disastrous this news is from TPM:…

Quick! Time for a Happy Bo Puppy pic diary!

catnip - 25 January 2010

(And about that “embracing Hooverism” – I’ve been saying for quite some time that he sucks.)

marisacat - 25 January 2010

Poor eugene, blood still pumps thru his veins… and I am sure he is STILL explaining women to the wimmens.

5. catnip - 25 January 2010

tweet from Tiny Revolution:

John Caruso: “Clinton wasn’t our first black president, but Obama is most definitely our first black President Clinton.

marisacat - 25 January 2010

Well useless and misguided as it is (none of this means anything) heseems to be obsessively going to confession.

Geesh… get a grip:

After weeks of denials from the White House that the health care reform effort failed to exhibit the transparency President Barack Obama promised on the campaign trail, Obama is conceding that locking the public out of key discussions was a “mistake.”

“We had to make so many decisions quickly in a very difficult set of circumstances that after awhile, we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right,” Obama told ABC’s Diane Sawyer Monday. “But I had campaigned on process—part of what I had campaigned on was changing how Washington works, opening up, transparency. …The health care debate as it unfolded legitimately raised concerns not just among my opponents, but also amongst supporters that we just don’t know what’s going on. And it’s an ugly process and it looks like there are a bunch of back room deals.” …

catnip - 25 January 2010

“looks like”?

How cute.

maddie - 25 January 2010

we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right

De-lurking to say…HO-LEE CRAP! Policy? Has that been the roadblock all this time? Getting the policy right? Wow…who knew.

I think this is the worst presidential flame-out I’ve seen in my adult lifetime. Not that I had high expectations, but this is worse than Clinton circa ’93-’94.

Democrats: Feckless cowards, and they deserve everything they are going to get.

maddie - 25 January 2010

Damn – my HTML skills suck. Sorry MCat!

marisacat - 25 January 2010

oh it’s fixed… 😉

no big deal………………….

marisacat - 25 January 2010

hmm i think htey are in something close to melt down………

6. Madman in the Marketplace - 25 January 2010

Exclusive: Obama Would ‘Rather Be Really Good One-Term President’

“I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,” he told ABC’s “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview today.

Obama sat down with Sawyer two days before he will deliver a State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress, and he acknowledged the political setbacks of his first year in office.

The State of the Union will be Obama’s chance to jump start his agenda, but he ducked when Sawyer asked if he could guarantee there would not be a tax increase for anyone making less than $250,000.

“I can guarantee that the worst thing we could do would be to raise taxes when the economy is still this weak,” he replied.

ts - 25 January 2010

Yes he can.

7. catnip - 25 January 2010

I lifted this from dkos:

MCCAIN: How about a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs.

LEHRER: Spending freeze?

MCCAIN: I think we ought to seriously consider with the exceptions the caring of veterans national defense and several other vital issues.

LEHRER: Would you go for that?

OBAMA: The problem with a spending freeze is you’re using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. There are some programs that are very important that are under funded. I went to increase early childhood education and the notion that we should freeze that when there may be, for example, this Medicare subsidy doesn’t make sense.

Let me tell you another place to look for some savings. We are currently spending $10 billion a month in Iraq when they have a $79 billion surplus. It seems to me that if we’re going to be strong at home as well as strong abroad, that we have to look at bringing that war to a close.

Who is this “Obama” person?

marisacat - 25 January 2010

Bending under the heavy wings of wax… and what’s under the wings is looking rather skeletal and insect like. To be bkunt.

8. marisacat - 25 January 2010

Thsi is one of the most pathetic – and fucking dumb – days in the pretzel industry.

Golly.

marisacat - 25 January 2010

via TPMDC………… could the honey drip thicker and faster?

Vice President Joe Biden is praising the decision by his son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, to not run for his father’s former Senate seat this year and instead to focus on prosecuting a high-profile case involving alleged child abuse.

“I know I sound like the proud father I am, but all of his life, Beau has put duty above any personal ambition, and this decision today is another example of that exceptional character trait,” Vice President Biden said in a statement provided to TPMDC. “Jill and I are so proud of our son and feel fortunate as Delawareans that he is our Attorney General.”

ts - 25 January 2010

How very Coakley of him.

marisacat - 25 January 2010

it just does not end… via TPM DC:

Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s office (D-AR) is denying reports that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is allegedly urging her to retire this year, in the face of poll numbers showing her in a tough race.

“No truth to it,” Lincoln spokeswoman Kate Laning Niebaum told The Hill. The DSCC also strongly denied the report, in an interview with TPMDC. “Sen. Blanche Lincoln is running an aggressive campaign in Arkansas, and we have no doubt that she will win,” said DSCC National Press Secretary Deirdre Murphy. …

9. catnip - 25 January 2010

w00t

Tonite’s wreck list:

This place has lost its mind
by oxfdblue
623 comments (623 new)

Leaving.
by indiemcemopants
112 comments (112 new)

Taking a Break
by Timroff
281 comments (182 new)

This is not “Hooverism.” Gimme a break….
by itzik shpitzik
495 comments (495 new)

This is all so sad
by mark louis
56 comments (56 new)

catnip - 25 January 2010

Hmmm…I just don’t even know which one to read first… so many misfiring neurons (theirs, not mine)…so little time…

BooHooHooMan - 25 January 2010

LOL.

They obviously didn’t get an invite to the exclusive Cali Kossack’s Club Affair

😉

They SOOO want to be Republicans. ..sorta… kinda… LOL.

ts - 26 January 2010

What they need is to host it on a boat, and invite some of the D’s most annoying luminaries to speechify as they dine on roast beast.

marisacat - 25 January 2010

oh I cannot bear to look! Are the troops falling apart?! It all sounds so DEFEATIST!!!!

How can they ????????????????

BooHooHooMan - 26 January 2010

It’s so sad.
Why Can’t those fleeing feel the love?

COME BACK YOU NADERITE ASSHOLE!

marisacat - 26 January 2010

He’s in REALLY big trouble if even fake boy wizard Ezra gets it:

Ezra Klein, reacting to the freeze news on MSNBC’s ‘Countdown’:

‘I didn’t actually expect him to go here. … I doubt that anybody who thinks this administration is engaged in runaway spending is going to give them too much credit on this, particularly as Democrats are going to have to also go forward simultaneously with a jobs bill that … will include more spending.’

via Mike Allen Playbook.

I notice the other thing happening to day, Fake Superman is grasping at straws, as are his ”anonymous aides and admin officials”, claiming A Great Achievement in cancelling the F-22.

Poor schlubs. Nobody remembers OR cares.

marisacat - 26 January 2010

Bob Herbert says the Ob has a cred problem. How so Bob……………? Remember, he’s YOUR GUY. And to be against him or, even, just not for him was to be a racist. Remember?

How can you look out for the interests of working people with Tim Geithner whispering in one ear and Larry Summers in the other?

But before he put them in place, he was the no 1 beloved of Goldman Sachs. How did that happen Bob? He was a candidate then… Bob.

They want to know who their president really is.

Actually I don’t think they give a flying hoo hoo WHO he is. They’d like him to DO something. Other than flounder and waste time.

Bob???????????? Bob?????????????

Come on speak up! Bob????? Bob????????

marisacat - 26 January 2010

More on Beau the son (nto the dog!)…

‘It became very crystal clear over the last several weeks that it was simply impossible to continue to focus my intention, which is like a laser on the case in Lewes, and at the same time mount a Senate campaign,’ the 40-year-old Biden said. … Biden said other possible factors – the recent loss by a Democrat in liberal Massachusetts in the race for the late Ted Kennedy’s longtime seat; polls that consistently showed Castle leading Biden in a hypothetical matchup; and a spate of collapsed murder cases handled by his office – did not play into his decision.’

Buh bye Beau. Nobody cares.

artemis54 - 26 January 2010

Too funny. There’s one up by droggie now taking a census of who is left.

Will the last person leaving dkos please turn off the lights?

marisacat - 26 January 2010

I can’t imagine what they are upset over… anyoen there by now, is part of the problem….

CSTAR - 26 January 2010

It’s a terrible thing to lose one’s mind…

10. BooHooHooMan - 26 January 2010

Way late in the news cycle tonite..

the NYT is reporting SOME on the Fallout proceeding from latest financial bloodbath courtesy of New York’s Jewish Mafiosa. If only they would tell it like it is. Nothin about Rubins Jew Crew though they Do mention that Freddie and Fannie put up close to 3 Billion going in..and the NYT is quick to remind : They’LL be OKAY!!
Remember Freddie’s CFO Kellerman who killed himself LAST YEAR?

Anyways to the short, very short and skinny on who SOME of the losers are…

Fallout Is Wide in Failed Deal for Stuyvesant Town

The partnership that bought the 80-acre property on the East River announced on Monday that it was turning the keys over to its lenders after it defaulted on its loans and the value of the property fell below $2 billion.

Yet in walking away, the partners, Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty, have left tenants in limbo and other investors with far bigger losses.

Many of the other companies, banks, countries and pension funds — including the government of Singapore, the Church of England, the Manhattan real estate concern SL Green, and Fortress Investment Groups — that invested billions of dollars in the 2006 deal stand to lose their entire stake.

“At the time, it looked like a sound investment,” said Clark McKinley, a spokesman for Calpers, the giant California public employees’ pension fund, which bought a $500 million stake in the property. “When the market tanked, we got caught.”

Dig how the NYT’s no namers regroup quit nicely:

This month, several of the secondary lenders sent letters to Tishman Speyer and BlackRock threatening foreclosure because of the default. The partners tried unsuccessfully to craft a new deal that would have involved them putting up “several hundred million dollars,” in return for restructuring the loans, according to one real estate executive briefed on the negotiations.

The secondary lenders, he said, had “overplayed their hand” in the hope that they would get back some of their investment. Instead of being forced into bankruptcy, Tishman Speyer and BlackRock will walk away sometime after a new manager is in place.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be in the best position of anyone involved in the deal’s financing. They acquired over $2 billion in securities backed, in part, by the $3 billion Stuyvesant Town mortgages. Fannie and Freddi Mac have to be paid before any other debtholders, but they are not parties to the negotiations over the property.

They may well become an integral part of the solution. In a report issued Monday, Deutsche Bank suggested that CWCapital’s most likely action will be to wipe out the existing mortgage and attempt to sell the complexes. “Given the size of the properties and an asking price likely to be well in excess of $1 billion, a sale may necessitate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac providing financing to a potential buyer,” the report said.

Priceless. Note how CALPERS got burned, tho….Hmmm.. Remember Hank Morris? the other top Schumer aide under indictment – Morris was Schumers campaign manager – TWICE- a longtime National Dem operative who went to Sheldon Silvers guy, Alaan Hevisi at the New York State Public Pension Fund? And bilked them out of 80 million in sham consulting and “investment advisory” fees?

Well Alan Hevisi, the Bar Mitzvah boy’s kosher inside man as SOLE Director of the NY State Pension …remember… had taken the venture capital show on the road and was hooking to get CALPERS use the Donk connected funneling firms in New York…

Presented as ‘losers” early on in the article is Fortress investment Group – who – whoops “lost” their stake –let’s face it, “their’ stake – aside from what is printed out of paper thin air – is OTHER PEOPLES MONEY.
but EVERYBODY SO CLUMSY™ ! —
– Fortress Investment Group is a spin off of Goldman Sachs partners…
Such packed , assorted turds in the colon of croney capitalism.
Fortress Investment Group also

paid Sen. John Edwards, candidate for the 2008 Democratic Party nomination for president, and the 2004 nominee for vice president, $479,512 for his consulting services, a part-time job. [1]

I think the real reason they are going berzerk over Chinese hacking is the sheer chaos that could ensue over leaked financial communiques and haven banking transactions , playing one spiteful set of vipers against the other…..IOW, not the kind of shit that is easily caged in the Press or before Banking and Finance committees.. Jeezis. Somebody cracks that kind of top level communications encryption?…or they get a leaker giving up the sordid details?…For one, such info advantage would be devastating to market manipulators…and two, it could set up the kind of “bite each other to death” fight that would be a fitting end to our Empire’s Decline.

marisacat - 26 January 2010

Ah yes Fortress……………….. who could forget? Or forget Edwardses craven explanation of his involvment with Fortress, he was learning how things affect the poor.

😆

11. catnip - 26 January 2010

More w00t from around the tubes:

Paul Krugman:
Obama Liquidates Himself

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The White House’s Brain Freeze

Brad DeLong / Grasping Reality with Opposable Thumbs:
Barack Herbert Hoover Obama?

Paul Rosenberg / Open Left:
It’s Official: Obama is an idiot

Jonathan Zasloff / The Reality-Based Community:
Obama’s Self-Inflicted Lobotomy Proceeds Apace

Allahpundit / Hot Air: [of the wingnut brigade -catnip]
Great news: Noted deficit hawk to announce three-year freeze …

ts - 26 January 2010

From back in my little league days there was a syndrome when a pitcher with one good pitch (say a curveball) got lit up for whatever reason. He’d look a bit stunned at first, but would continue to try and throw the pitch and continue to get lit up.

The desperation rising, the catcher would then call other pitches and realize quickly that it wasn’t doing any good. The opposing team would hit the other pitches even harder. At that point you’d see the utter confusion and defeat as the pitcher wasted time on the mound to let the next pitcher warm up and wait for the inevitable hook.

That’s pretty much where the administration is right now.

marisacat - 26 January 2010

Jonathan Zasloff / The Reality-Based Community:
Obama’s Self-Inflicted Lobotomy Proceeds Apace

Madman followed the link from DeLong to Zasloff and has been sending me snips from it. What a hoot!

ts - 26 January 2010

My goodness! I had to stop reading the comments I was laughing too hard. Brains are exploding out there.

12. ts - 26 January 2010

Oh, and Iraq is in the news again. Three bombs yesterday killed 35, and one today killed 17 and wounded 80.

“Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of American forces in Iraq, said it was significant that Monday’s blasts appeared to be smaller than the previous attacks, adding that joint efforts between Iraqi and American security forces, particularly shared intelligence, had hampered terrorists’ ability to operate. The general said the attacks were now limited to a small number of experienced, sophisticated and driven terrorists relying on hired suicide bombers to carry out their plans.”

Words fail.

ts - 26 January 2010

I keep hearing the interview with Helpmann from “Brazil”

T.V. Interviewer: How do you account for the fact that the bombing campaign has been going on for thirteen years?
Mr. Helpmann: Beginners’ luck.

marisacat - 26 January 2010

The luck that never runs out………………

13. ts - 26 January 2010

CNN’s website is blasting “The stimulus project”, where they define all the Treasury and Fed lending programs and the auto bailout as a “stealth stimulus”.

I’m going to avoid CNN like the plague because I’m sure the annoying bald guy is going to be on a lot. My conception of hell is a dinner party with him and Jim Cramer.

14. marisacat - 26 January 2010

woa…………….krugman blog… about two down… http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

January 26, 2010, 1:17 pm

A Tale Of Two SOTUs

In 1982 Ronald Reagan gave his first State of the Union address. His approval rating was about the same as Barack Obama’s now. His economic track record was considerably worse: instead of presiding over the end of a recession, he had presided over the beginning of one, and the economy was in free fall. Nonetheless, Reagan mounted an unapologetic defense of his economic ideology, combined with a harsh critique of his precedecessors.

We haven’t heard Obama’s SOTU yet. But the big news seems to be the spending freeze. What I hear from bat-squeaks is that it’s not a big deal on economic substance, and that admin officials hope it will clear the way for some modest job-creation efforts. We’ll see about that. Rhetorically, however, Obama is clearly, conspicuously endorsing his opponents’ world-view — which will buy him precisely nothing in return.

I don’t think I’m going to watch the SOTU; all indications are that it will be deeply, deeply depressing.

ts - 26 January 2010

That’s so interesting, because the Newsweek op-ed I mentioned at the top, the shorter version is “Be Ronald Reagan”.

marisacat - 26 January 2010

well ob has conceded………………….

15. ts - 26 January 2010

Michael Hudson has a piece up on Counterpunch. He’s been busy recently with the focus on the economy.

I’ll just say this. Rather than worry about what Obama is going to try to do to fix the economy, every American can, right now, make a commitment and an effort to end debt slavery. It may mean a strategic default or bankruptcy to jettison debts that are unpayable. It may mean several years of austerity to live without access to credit, but in the end you’ll be in a sustainable financial position and the people who now own you will no longer have that power.

brinn - 26 January 2010

Just read that piece….Hudson is so right on about so many things. Unfortunately, I think it’s waaay to late in the USofA**holes for Economy #1 to be revived in any way — Economy #2 has stangled it to near-death….

marisacat - 26 January 2010

to stay out of debt, and yes a lot of it was lost on unnecessary things, but to REALLY stay out of debt Americans need rising wages and at least SOME stability in the labor force. Both are in deep touble iwth no sign of turn around.

16. marisacat - 26 January 2010

This is a hoot… from SMBIVA… some poor schlub found the hilarious comments around today from Jared Berstein to be the straw that… you know.

Just heard my ex-colleague Jared on Rachel Maddow defending the proposed Obama spending freeze. I felt like I was fixin to die.

It won’t balance two dead flies on the scale of eternity, but I am officially off the Obama bus. I am sorry I ever said a good word about him. I will be putting my two cents onto TPM Café. It’s about all I can do.

17. BooHooHooMan - 26 January 2010

FFS. .. just recite the SOTU~logy from behind the catafalque…

Ft. Hood heroes to be guests at State of the Union‎
AP WASHINGTON — Two police officers credited with stopping last year’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood will be guests of the first lady during Wednesday’s …

marisacat - 26 January 2010

I actually don’t think that is such a good idea. ob did not do well in the hours, days and weeks after Ft Hood. I think when people die violently it behooves a pretzel to appear to think that this is of consequence.

IOW, he fucking blew it.

BooHooHooMan - 26 January 2010

I agree. Comes off as craven.
Some other options tho…

Edwards…for his efforts in Haiti? Okay, maybe not.

marisacat - 26 January 2010

hmm I din’t have any easy answers for that one. Her latest schtick is childhood obesity. Of course no mention that recess and sports in many many many public schools simply does not exist.

i say GOOD LUCK TO THEM.

18. marisacat - 26 January 2010

nuuuu

LINK

……….. 😯


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