The Democrat Thread

[BigSqwert]

Change we can believe in...the GOP version.

[Balta1701]

In a dramatic contrast to former President Bush's town-hall meetings -- which were held almost exclusively in party strongholds, with tickets distributed primarily to supporters -- it was first-come, first-served in Elkhart on Saturday. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained on Friday: "I've watched the President do town halls from 2004 through 2008, and the audience has never been hand-picked, and neither have the questions. And we're not going to start any of that on Monday."

Link

[Texsox]

Sure. And what they don't tell you is that all of those jobs those corporate tax cuts save have an additional full multiplier effect, most likely of a maximum nature because of the higher spending rates of lower level employees at these type of places. You already used the stoping the spiral story, this is the most effective way to do that... keeping people employed.

That makes so much sense.

 

So then would it also make sense that payroll dollars that are spent on the lower level employees is more beneficial than payroll dollars spent on executives. And further, dollars saved at the executive level at banks, if not spent on lower level employees, could they be used as loan capital?

 

I'm starting to like the executive cap more and more.

[NorthSideSox72]

Link

But they're all the same!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Too many exclamation points?

 

[caulfield12]

That makes so much sense.

 

So then would it also make sense that payroll dollars that are spent on the lower level employees is more beneficial than payroll dollars spent on executives. And further, dollars saved at the executive level at banks, if not spent on lower level employees, could they be used as loan capital?

 

I'm starting to like the executive cap more and more.

 

http://www.newser.com/story/50001/skirting...ce-of-cake.html

[BigSqwert]

Just ran into new RNC Chairman Michael Steele who watched President Obama's town hall in Indiana and wasn't impressed.

 

The Obama-backed stimulus, he said, "is just a wish list from a lot of people who have been on the sidelines for years.. to get a little bling, bling."

 

LINK

 

 

[BigSqwert]

LOL

 

 

RNC Chairman Michael

S

teele:

“

Democrat

s

in Congre

s

s

want a $1 trillion dollar

s

pending bill. You

’

ve heard about the por

k

-barrel program

s

they want to fund. $45 million dollar

s

for ATV trail

s

and removal of fi

s

h-pa

s

s

age barrier

s

i

s

, one that caught my eye. Exactly what i

s

a fi

s

h-pa

s

s

age barrier, and why doe

s

it co

s

t $45 million dollar

s

to

s

timulate the economy with it?

”

Do you read beforehand, what these guys put on the teleprompter for you? You just said it was for removal of fish-passage barriers and in the next breath you ask how you could stimulate the economy with a fish-passage barrier? That’s like saying, “There’s money for fixing potholes. Now, I don’t know what a pothole is but how can you stimulate the economy with potholes?”

 

If you don’t know what something is, then what makes you think it’s a good idea to speak out against it? Quit being the party of ignorance.

[Balta1701]

LOL

It's actually better than that.

Fish migration barriers are anything in the stream that significantly interferes with the upstream movement of fish. Unimpeded fish passage is especially important for anadromous fish which live much of their lives in tidal waters but must move into non-tidal rivers and streams to spawn.

 

...With a fish blockage present and no natural way for a fish to repopulate the isolated stream section, the diversity of the fish community in an area will be reduced and the remaining biological community may be out of natural balance.

 

If you see a fish barrier you can call Department of Natural Resources at 1-877-620-8DNR and ask for the Fish Passage Program.

That's a clip from a Maryland DNR page last updated during the Ehrlich/Steele administration.

[lostfan]

All of the sniping over "pork" is a bunch of PR bulls*** (granted, its working). Its a very very small part of the package. I just wish they'd give the real reason for opposing it, that they disapprove of the government spending, instead of pretending they have ideas of their own (they don't) and demanding concessions with no intention of voting for the bill. If you won't do it, then don't, and say so. Spare me the charade.

Edited February 9, 2009 by lostfan

[Balta1701]

All of the sniping over "pork" is a bunch of PR bulls*** (granted, its working). Its a very very small part of the package. I just wish they'd give the real reason for opposing it, that they disapprove of the government spending, instead of pretending they have ideas of their own (they don't) and demanding concessions with no intention of voting for the bill if they have no intention of voting for it.

It's the only way to make the bill bad enough that it won't do the job, and thus they can blame the President when it doesn't do the job.

[lostfan]

It's the only way to make the bill bad enough that it won't do the job, and thus they can blame the President when it doesn't do the job.

Wouldn't wanna lose any credibility on that anti-government mantra because if the government does something right its all irrelevant.

[Balta1701]

This is essentially inexcusable and indefensible.

The Obama Administration today announced that it would keep the same position as the Bush Administration in the lawsuit Mohamed et al v Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.

 

The case involves five men who claim to have been victims of extraordinary rendition -- including current Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed, another plaintiff in jail in Egypt, one in jail in Morocco, and two now free. They sued a San Jose Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen Dataplan, accusing the flight-planning company of aiding the CIA in flying them to other countries and secret CIA camps where they were tortured.

 

A year ago the case was thrown out on the basis of national security, but today the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the appeal, brought by the ACLU.

 

A source inside of the Ninth U.S. District Court tells ABC News that a representative of the Justice Department stood up to say that its position hasn't changed, that new administration stands behind arguments that previous administration made, with no ambiguity at all. The DOJ lawyer said the entire subject matter remains a state secret.

 

This is not going to please civil libertarians and human rights activists who had hoped the Obama administration would allow the lawsuit to proceed.

More at link.

[Balta1701]

And while we're on the subject of things done in our names...there was a case about a week ago of one of the former Gitmo detainees where the British were refusing to release some of the information about what happened to the guy, ostensibly because the Obama administration was still asking them not to. I think it leaked.

Material in a CIA dossier on Mr Mohamed that was blacked out by High Court judges contained details of how British intelligence officers supplied information to his captors and contributed questions while he was brutally tortured, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

 

Intelligence sources have revealed that spy chiefs put pressure on Mr Miliband to do nothing that would leave serving MI6 officers open to prosecution, or to jeopardise relations with the CIA, which is passing them "top notch" information on British terrorist suspects from its own informers in Britain.

 

Mr Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian, was granted refugee status in Britain in 1994. He was picked up in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, rendered to Morocco and Afghanistan, tortured and then sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. All terror charges against him were dropped last year.

 

Two High Court judges last week said they wanted to release the full contents of a CIA file on his treatment but they held back seven paragraphs of information after David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, argued that it could compromise intelligence sharing with the US.

 

A British official, who is regularly briefed on intelligence operations, said: "The concern was that the document revealed that intelligence from the British agencies was used by the Americans and that there were British questions asked while Binyam Mohamed was being tortured.

 

"Miliband is being pushed hard by the intelligence agencies to protect the identity of those involved."

 

The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, "is very far down the list of things they did," the official said.

 

Another source familiar with the case said: "British intelligence officers knew about the torture and didn't do anything about it. They supplied information to the Americans and the Moroccans. They supplied questions, they supplied photographs. There is evidence of all of that."

[Balta1701]

In an interesting bit of change, last night, the Huffington Post became the first web-only journalistic outfit (excluding ones employing homosexual male hookers) to ask a question at a Presidential press conference.

 

And, another interesting change from the previous administration...it wasn't a softball, it was a challenge from the left.

"Today," (Huffington Post Reporter Sam Stein) said, "Sen. Patrick Leahy announced that he wants to set up a truth and reconciliation committee to investigate the misdeeds of the Bush administration. He said that, before you turn the page, you have to read the page first. Do you agree with such a proposal? And are you willing to rule out right here and now any prosecution of Bush administration officials?"

The President dodged the question.

 

Meanwhile, the Washington Post, Katherine Graham's old paper, the paper that broke Watergate...their guy asked the President of the United States for his reaction to ARod.

[BigSqwert]

Obama Debuts Annoying Catchphrase

February 10, 2009

 

WASHINGTON—In an unexpected turn of events that even his most ardent supporters are calling extremely ill-advised, President Obama, known for his simple yet stirring slogan "Yes we can," debuted a new, extremely annoying catchphrase Monday during an address on proposed economic policy reform, saying, "It is time for America to move forward, not backward—and in conclusion, hot diggity ding dang!" The new catchphrase, White House officials announced, will replace the former slogan as the focal point of the president's public image effective immediately, and will be implemented in all appearances, official correspondence, and executive paperwork from now until at least mid-2012. Publicity materials featuring the wince-inducing phrase—and picturing Obama smiling wildly and giving a double thumbs-up to the camera—were distributed this week to thousands of media outlets. "We have no idea why he's chosen to do this," said former Obama supporter Kyle Hammersley. "It's unbelievably irritating." "Hot diggitty ding dang" was reportedly selected by Obama and his advisers from a final list of potential taglines that also included "Hanker down—soup's on!" "That's what the doctor told me!" and "Mama mia, where's-a mah pizza?!"

 

LINK

[Texsox]

LINK

 

You gotta love The Onion.

[BigSqwert]

"Mama mia, where's-a mah pizza?!"

 

LMAO

[Balta1701]

This is quite good.

 

A Fox News report this morning copied almost verbatim from a set of talking points the Republicans sent around this morning.

 

They copied it so exactly that they even matched the typo.

During the February 10 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott claimed that "the Senate is expected to pass the $838 billion stimulus plan -- its version of it, anyway. We thought we'd take a look back at the bill, how it was born, and how it grew, and grew, and grew." In tracking how and when the bill purportedly "grew," Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods. However, all of the sources and cost figures Scott cited, as well as the accompanying on-screen text, were also contained in a February 10 press release issued by the Senate Republican Communications Center. One on-screen graphic during the segment even repeated a typo from the GOP document, further confirming that Scott was simply reading from a Republican press release. The Fox News graphic and the GOP press release both claimed that a Wall Street Journal report that the stimulus package could reach "$775 billion over two years" was published on December 19, 2009 [emphasis added].

[StrangeSox]

This is quite good.

 

A Fox News report this morning copied almost verbatim from a set of talking points the Republicans sent around this morning.

 

They copied it so exactly that they even matched the typo.

 

What bias?

[Balta1701]

Yesterday, the AFSCME announced an ad campaign supporting the economic reinvestment and recovery act of 2009 and targeting a couple of key players in the opposition.

 

In response, the office of Rep Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent around this video to a number of press outlets. Totally NSFW language. Repeat, totally NSFW language, consider yourself warned.

 

 

The video uses "Fish" 6 times, and ends with the phrase: "AFSCME: We’re the fishing union that works for you."

 

 

Previously, while discussing obscenity on TV, Eric Cantor had this to say:

 

CANTOR: The use of obscenity…should not and cannot be tolerated. As a parent, I share the concerns of many regarding the level of offensive television and radio programs that are transmitted into our homes. The recent violations that have occurred disgusted not only me, but damage our society.

[BigSqwert]

Can I refer to him as the Cantoracle because of his blatant hypocrisy?

[BigSqwert]

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - Loyal Opposition

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody

Joke of the Day

 

 

[BigSqwert]

Sometime I agree with Barney Frank.

[kapkomet]

Sometime I agree with Barney Frank.

Never. Ever. Agree. With. Barney. Frank.

 

 

There is a difference between "doing the right thing" and getting a base payout, and expected (part of normal compensation) bonuses. When a bonus is a part of "normal" compensation, it's no longer a bonus.

 

You have to exceed performance and financial targets to recieve a bonus, IMO.

 

[Balta1701]

What bias?

Today Fox News issued an apology.

 

Side note: they didn't apologize for lifting a story verbatim from a Republican operative press statement.

 

They apologized for the typo.

 

And blamed it on the Wall Street Journal.