Obama smacks down SCOTUS activist judges in his first SOTU address

Barack Obama's first State of the Union Address was very, very good. Some say excellent. Beck and Hannity "HATED IT!" Well, here's one of the highlights. Just weeks ago, The Supreme Court of the United States struck down a decades-old law that limited what corporations could pay to support presidential campaigns. How did this happen? Well, there are 5 Republicans on the bench now, unfortch. both pilgrim99 and me spoke about this in earlier posts, just before the one. Well here's Barack's take on it, and we see (Republican) Justice Alito mouth "that's a lie" after Barack states the truth about the decision. Good times.

Dysfunction on Parade, or, the Senate

This is a pretty good summary of the asininity (yes, it's a word) that is the US Senate. I single out Joe "I need some attention so I'm gonna whine" Lieberman as a particularly odious example of a complete shithead, but at least 40 other of his colleagues could easily stand in for him to pinch hit on that lineup card. Couple that with a majority party with spines of Jell-O, and you have a full-on dysfunction worthy of comedic film....

"Minority obstructionism, of course, can be principled. But its chief attraction is that it absolves the opposition of responsibility for anything while making the majority look, well, stupid. As former British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin once said of the press, this kind of "power without responsibility" has been "the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."

An Aggregation of Nincompoops | Foreign Policy

Truth be told, I'm hoping for a "Damn the torpedoes!" moment in which the 18 seat majority party goes full-on nuclear and gets rid of the filibuster. F**k the consequences down the road. Nobody would be stupid enough to undo a real healthcare reform package once it was passed....

...but then again, there are Republicans there, too....

update: added the blockquote, which I forgot at first.

conference championship weekend predictions

Colts 27
Jets 19
...Colts are too good. Jets had a nice run though.

Saints 34
Vikings 29
...Saints have better matchups and better players. not by much, but they do.

The Foreign Takeover Will Be Televised

So here's an interesting take from The Center For Public Integrity. Say a foreign-owned corporation decides they want to influence American political processes. All they have to do is...

...write a check or three:

One prominent examples is CITGO Petroleum Company — once the American-born Cities Services Company, but purchased in 1990 by the Venezuelan government-owned Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. The Citizens United ruling could conceivably allow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has sharply criticized both of the past two U.S. presidents, to spend government funds to defeat an American political candidate, just by having CITGO buy TV ads bashing his target.

How's that for protecting state sovereignty? Teabaggers, are you listening?

And it’s not just Chavez. The Saudi government owns Houston’s Saudi Refining Company and half of Motiva Enterprises. Lenovo, which bought IBM’s PC assets in 2004, is partially owned by the Chinese government’s Chinese Academy of Sciences. And Singapore’s APL Limited operates several U.S. port operations. A weakening of the limit on corporate giving could mean China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and any other country that owns companies that operate in the U.S. could also have significant sway in American electioneering.

Think about it, though it may be painful. Don't worry, we'll donate some ibuprofen for you. Since corporations have full personhood now, just like you or I, they will be able to advocate directly on behalf of any candidate they wish, with as much dinero as they want to spend. So if our friend Hugo (who I don't find as odious as a lot of other people do) decided to influence our electoral process, all he would have to do is direct the state-owned Citgo Corp. to make some payments for airtime, etc.

If you for even a second think that we have a more even playing field now, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'm happy to accept bids on.

Democracy died yesterday. R.I.P.

Full article here:Will the Citizens United Ruling Let Hugo Chavez and King Abdullah Buy U.S. Elections?

This is great. Posted without comment.

SCOTUS says we can outright buy politicians (instead of doing it secretly)

Now that the Supreme Court has decided money equals free speech, I'd like to suggest that Congresscritters, now legally purchased by corporations, adopt a new dress code. Something like these:




Now THAT'S transparency!

no room for the weak: a tough & rough day for concerned Americans...

what...a fucking...day. here are my thoughts on the good, the bad, and the ugly from today.

the Good: Obama and his team have instituted real regulation on banks to stop their corrupt practices of using taxpayer money to take unnecessary risks for their own profits.

This is a victory for all americans, and should go far to help ensure a collapse like we've seen during the end of Bush's term, doesn't happen again. as I understand it, some of these rules are not dissimilar to the controls put on baks after the great depression.


the Bad: SCOTUS struck down a DECADES-old ruling, which restricted corporations from spending money on political campaigns.

So much for there not being 'activist republican judges' on the bench! This sucks for americans, and really, is just more proof of how corrupt the republican party is: we know the overwhelming majority of large corporations favor the Republican platform of tax sheltering, steering lobbies, and putting profits ahead of working americans. It's difficult to argue, w/ unfathomable precedences liek this, that we are not "a government for the corporations, of the corporations, and by the corporations."


the Ugly: The WH, Senate Dems and many other Americans were hoping to have the Senate healthcare reform bill passed by the House of Representatives within days or weeks, and get it to Obama's desk before the end of February. There were to be guarantees by President Obama, that the government would work on partnering w/ the house, immediately after signing bill into law, to satisfy some of their demands, and changes they wanted to make to the Seante's version. Why the rush? because the new GOP Senator from MA, Scott Brown, was going to vote against it, in effect killing it, due to Senate not having enough votes, by the time the House amended the Senate's version (this was a huge blunder by the Obama administration, to not put "high - priority" status on this MA senate seat, both to find a better candidate, and ensure a dem victory. No way in a thousand years does Hillary Clinton make this mistake). Pelosi announced today, ""In its present form without any changes I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House," the speaker said. "I don't see the votes for it at this time. The members have been very clear." Moving forward, it's anyone's guess as to WHAT will happen next.

Guess what? The Senate's HCR bill sucked. I'm a Dem and deemed it week, and didn't want it to pass. Most progressives, many liberals, and hardcore Dems feel the same way. I consider this a win. Let them go back to the drawing board, and re-craft a REAL healtchare/insurance reform bill, that has a public option, no mandate, and (gasp!), perhaps even a single-payer plan! It will be better for ALL americans in the long-run!

So...what's the 'ugly' part? Do I really need to tell you? Let me (not) count the ways. In a nutshell, Republicans will use this to drub the democratic party into submission, for failing on their #1 goal, and they will win back many seats in the House and Congress this year, and almost lassuredly, the Presidency in 2012, along with more congressional seats.

This was ANOTHER mistake Obama and his team made, boren out of inexperience, to hang his entire presidency on passing HCR. NEVER, would Hillary Clinton make that same mistake. Obama, simply couldn't imagine the size and scope the battle would be, against the greed-frenzy corporations and their gigantic lobbies-monster.

...is it time to pick up the kids from school yet?!

Martha "Choakley" shows us the way forward

Spacejace beat me to it, but I totally agree with his rant. I was all for reconciliation on the HCR bill long before that sack of excrement Lieberman began whining for attention. Speaking of whom, I imagine the new senator from Massachusetts will become Joe's new BFF, since nobody but the teabag crowd wants anything to do with him. Except maybe Harry Reid, who must have a skeleton in Lieberman's closet or something; seriously, how can one single jackass continuously demand the majority leader bend over and take it.

Oh, yeah, the filibuster. Time for that ship to sail. Undemocratic, and all that. Honestly, what does Reid have to lose? Have you seen the polls in Nevada? He's toast, so what's he got to lose, really? He could...gasp!...start leading like a Democrat, and maybe pull his base back around to supporting him again. Hell, he might even get himself reelected.

We believe that quality and affordable health care is a basic right.

So let's do it, already. Coakley's lackluster campaign and Scott Brown's (out-of-state staffed, and corporate-sponsored) "insurgency" just serves to illustrate what happens when Democrats stop acting like Democrats.

They get rolled.

We spent almost the entire last decade being told "F-you" by the Goopers. Playing nice went out the window a looooong time ago, so I'm all for a street fight.

Massachusetts has a new senator-elect, a one trick pony who's got to stand for re-election in 2012. If Democrats start acting like Democrats again, this guy will be cleaning out his office again soon.

silver lining for Dems? my rant on the Massachusetts special election..

so there's a social networking site I frequent occasionally. here's a rant I just posted on a friend's site (misspellings, and all, you friggin' grammar-nazis!) about the special election in Massachusetts today...

there IS a silver lining or two for us Dems: 1) we get the disillusion of the 60-seat 'majority' actually mattering, at least w/ this congress, out of the way early (instead of this November), and can use the slap in the face to remember that legislating the party platform is of paramount importance, and get to it sooner; and to do it, we SURELY don't need to meet republicans anywhere near the middle, since each one will vote against any real change, anyway (along w/ some weak-ass dems in the senate), and 2) relative to that, this sorry-excuse-for-a-healthcare-reform bill the Senate watered down from the House's version might actually not pass now, and we can start over w/ a real one, that has a true public option, no mandate, and 'gasp!,' perhaps even a single-payer option, and use reconciliation, or other maneuvers - including a couple more years of educating the masses who STILL don't have any clue why their healthcare premiums have gone up 'crazy-like' the last couple of years - and legislate some real change in this country. It was only a year or two ago, healthcare insurance companies laughed at accepting people w/ pre-existing conditions (Dems knocked down that obstacle), and a mere decade ago when the entire GOP and healthcare insurance companies laughed at the thought of healthcare for everyone (today, you won't hear a single one say they're against it). Baby steps, baby. Knowledge is power. If the mainstream media, comprised of Hannity, Rush, Bill-O, Fox and others, actually gave a crap about America, they might actually be able to educate their lobotomized followers about how the many industries the GOP fights for, and unregulated corporate, grand-scale book-cooking and scheming, is crushing their middle-class american hopes and dreams. Saw a great bumper sticker the other day: "of course it hurts: you're getting screwed by an elephant!"

Top 10 Reasons to Kill the Senate Healthcare Bill

Firedoglake is a leading progressive blog and consistently represents some of the best, most honest, investigative and thoroughly-researched reporting, writing, analysis and opinions on leading issues of the day, the internet has to offer. For real, for real. I discovered them during the Patrick Fitzgerald/Valerie Plame/Scooter Libby Trial, when one of their reporters/writers ("emptywheel" perhaps?) live blogged daily, direct from the courtroom (no audio or video devices were allowed in courtroom or to be used for reporting). It. Was. Awesome. Never mind, "Survivor" and "Grey's Anatamoy," THAT trial, was ridiculously-high drama! Recently, FDL has outpaced everyone else out there, with their analysis, research and reporting on "all-things" Healthcare/Insurance Reform. Between the staff at FDL and one of my all-time favorite writers/reporters David Sirota, it's become crystal clear to me, this HCR Bill is complete bullshit, and should be struck down, in it's current form. Obama and the Senate Dems should be ashamed of themselves for trying to pass this off on the American people. I will be posting more factual, 'must-read' pieces from FDL in the future. Here is one from a few weeks ago, and if you click on original article (on HuffPo; I couldn't relocate it on FDL's site), you can view th entire story/background for EACH of the folowing 10 points. Get clued in Y'all - knowledge truly is power!-sj



Jane Hamsher
Founder, FireDogLake
Posted: Dec 21, 2009

At Firedoglake.com we've been covering the health care debate extensively for months now and have put together an incredibly knowledgeable team. So I asked our expert-in-residence Jon Walker, our health care reporter Dave Dayen, analyst Marcy Wheeler and the rest of our team to help make it simple: how do we let people know what's going to happen to them if the Senate bill passes?

Everyone put their heads together and came up with a list:

Top 10 Reasons to Kill Senate Health Care Bill

1. Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations -- whether you want to or not.

2. If you refuse to buy the insurance, you'll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS.

3. Many will be forced to buy poor-quality insurance they can't afford to use, with $11,900 in annual out-of-pocket expenses over and above their annual premiums.

4. Massive restriction on a woman's right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.

5. Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays.

6. Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won't see any benefits -- like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions -- until 2014 when the program begins.

7. Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others.

8. Grants monopolies to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.

9. No re-importation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years.

10. The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of four will rise an average of $1,000 a year -- meaning in 10 years, your family's insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.

Background information on each point:

1. Hardship Waiver And Restrictions On Immigrants Buying Insurance Undercut Arguments For An Individual Mandate, by Jon Walker

2. What's in the Manager's Amendment by David Dayen

click HERE to read/view all 10 of these articles for each point, as 'click-able' links (which are not displayed as links here), and also sign the very user-friendly petition (!) to kill this Seante bull. ..er, I mean bill. And here is the outro...

The Senate bill isn't a "starter home," it's a sink hole. It needs to die so something else can take its place. It doesn't matter whether people are on the right or the left -- once they understand the con job that's about to be foisted on them, they agree. That's why Harry Reid and President Obama are trying to jam it through as fast as they can, before people get wise. So email the list to your friends and family, tweet it and spread the word.