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Open thread: Obama addresses Congress

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You can catch it live almost everywhere (try KUOW).

Like Carl yesterday, I won’t be able to live blog it—must finish a project with a deadline.

Talk among yourselves.

Comments

  5. 5

    here we go,the millionares and billionares again. hes a bigger joke than jimmy carter

  6. 6

    5. manoftruth spews:

    here we go,the millionares and billionares again. hes a bigger joke than jimmy carter

    09/08/2011 at 4:29 pm

    The “manofshit” is the joke, not Obama.

  7. 7

    What a bizarre speech. Bizarre.
    When you cut through all the rhetoric and platitudes, this fool is telling Republicans to pass his plan now, and he’ll tell us how he will pay for it in 2 weeks??? Why in the world wouldn’t he take this opportunity to present a comprehensive plan, which includes how it is paid for. And this is the same Obama who for months & months told us his prior plan was going great. Now he finally admits his failure. At long last.

    Look, the payroll credit is a no brainer as is the credit for hiring vets. Also some targeted infrastructure. But zero for the Union thugs. Zero. Did you see what the anarchists just did–
    http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....en09m.html

    This really helps their cause and shows how out of control they are. Do you know what these anarchists make in a year? Many are well over $100k plus massive benefits and retirement.

    Obama sucks.

  9. 9

    Michael-
    Definition of ANARCHIST

    1
    : a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power
    2
    : a person who believes in, advocates, or promotes anarchism or anarchy; especially : one who uses violent means to overthrow the established order

    They are anarchists by their actions.
    Inexcusable.

  10. 10

    And everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything.

    Too bad. Then you’re just moving money around the economy. Maybe it’ll be a better allocation than we have now. But without short term (until the economy picks up) deficit spending, it’s not going to stimulate the economy much.

  11. 11

    Republicans claim Social Security is a Ponzi scheme because the Social Security Trust Fund invests in U.S. Treasuries.

    Well, so do corporations, insurance companies, banks, mutual funds, foundations, university endowments, foreign governments, and countless individuals. So, if Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, so is almost every other financial entity on earth.

  12. 12

    So a teabagger is an anarchist too? So any act of civil disobedience against a ruling power makes one an anarchist? Our Founding Fathers were anarchists? Even if some kid just gives his mama some sass, now he’s a little fucking anarchist? A PGA pro golfer rebels against the USGA’s established order and he’s an anarchist? My goodness! Anarchy certainly makes for strange bedfellows. And what inexcusable fucktards! Either that or insipid wingnut namecalling will eventually leave words without any meaning whatsofuckingever. I reckon then they could bring us their very real fascism under any fucking name they want.

  13. 13

    Appeals Court Overturns Rulings Against Obamacare

    “In a victory for the Obama administration, a federal appeals court has tossed out two lawsuits in Virginia over the president’s health care law. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled … that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to sue … this is a rejection of the first … ruling that the health care overhaul was unconstitutional.”

    http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....uits-in-va

  14. 14

    In circumstances that come awfully close to BRIBERY, a buddy of Rick Perry was paid somewhere between $260,000 in $535,000 of “lobbying fees” by Merck after Perry signed an executive order forcing young women to get vaccinated with a drug made by — you guessed it — Merck.

    Oh, and btw, does anyone here besides me pick up on the HYPOCRISY of a guy campaigning for president on a “personal liberty” platform ORDERING private citizens to get a drug they don’t want injected into their bodies?

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44442051/ns/politics/

  16. 16

    As far as Presidential addresses to a joint session with the concurrent national broadcast, it does not get much better than what Obama just did.

    As far as the economic impact of the proposed program, it is probably not enough to jump start the economy on to the path of full employment and the de facto deficit reduction an economy at full employment brings. This is another significant yet insufficient step forward and our only hope to cross the finish line in the time horizon we all want with this plan is to hope for circumstances outside the US control to break our way. And the prospects for that at the moment seem pretty slim. See Eurpope’s non-growth under Austerian Economics.

    As far as the political viability of the proposal, the jury is still out.
    The President’s proposal, in part or in whole, is a passable piece of legislation with near enough carrots for a Republican majority in the house and a filibuster hide bound senate.

    The President promised to take his case to the people, but thus far in his administration he has not proven he can motivate the electorate as a President like he did as a candidate. Time will tell if he has the ability to do so.

    Politically the President’s proposal to address the nation’s primary concern – JOBS – is a tough one for a Republican congress that ran on “jobs, jobs, jobs” to ignore going into 2012.

    The President’s effectiveness to deliver something with this proposal, either substantively or politically, is his biggest re-election test.

  17. 17

    Execution Of Possibly Innocent Man Dogs Perry

    This CNN video recaps Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s efforts to shut down an investigation into whether he signed off on the execution of a man convicted by what experts call “junk science.”

    http://www.cnn.com/video/#/vid.....?hpt=hp_t2

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: And now Rick Perry wants to be President of the United States … ??!

  19. 19

    Meanwhile, Mittens promised us to deal with America’s jobs crisis by cutting corporate taxes. Never mind that corporations are already sitting on $1.2 trillion of cash they don’t know what to do with. In any case, they’re sure not using it to hire people. Romney also thinks the government should cut spending — except on the military. Never mind that millions of ordinary American working families are going hungry right now. He said we should “believe in growth” — as if wishing and clicking our heels together like Dorothy in Wonderland will make jobs appear. And Romney has named his campaign’s economic team. They’re guys from the Bush administration. You know, the team that got us into this economic mess in the first place.

    http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITI.....hpt=hp_bn2

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republicans haven’t had an original thought in 125 years. If you liked the economy they had in 1886, vote Republican.

  20. 20

    @18 What did you expect from the Party of No?

    No jobs for American workers.
    No extended benefits for the unemployed.
    No food stamps for the hungry.
    No health care for the sick.
    No payroll tax break for the middle class.

    Just more tax breaks for billionaires and oil companies. You almost wonder if the Koch brothers are paying these guys under the table.

  21. 21

    Frank Luntz’s focus group nailed it!

    EMPTY SUIT!

  22. 22

    The President promised to take his case to the people, but thus far in his administration he has not proven he can motivate the electorate as a President like he did as a candidate. Time will tell if he has the ability to do so.

    Some candid thoughts from Mikeboyscout.

    Obummer was at 70% in 2009. He went political from the beginning. All of my comments on this blog have his political comments from the Porkulus Bill to ObummerCare. Nothing this man does isn’t calculated and deliberate. This economy sucks because of what he’s implemented, plain and simple.

    What are Obummer’s numbers now?

  23. 23

    Roger @19,
    You are mostly correct regarding no new ideas from Republicans, but I’d add the following points.

    If you liked the the economic recovery plan of Andrew Mellon in 1929-1931 of “liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate… it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.” and the results it brought, then today’s GOP is for you and your capitalist master.

    And if you can’t learn from the history of the failed Republican policies of 80 years ago, look at what those policy perscriptions are doing for Britain, France and the EU.

  24. 24

    Speaking of how NBC sucked last night.. Michael Barone nailed it.

    Brian Williams, whom I haven’t watched much in recent years, seems to have been drinking liberally of the MSNBC kool-aid; many of his questions were so steeped in liberal distaste for Republican positions that it was embarrassing.

  25. 25

    3. “Don’t watch SouthPark. It’s for mental midgets!”, sez “serial dumbass” PuddyFOOL! spews:
    It’ll be a miracle if this Congress allows even one net job to be created from now until Nov 2012

    How well did the last congress do at producing jobs?

    …crickets…..

  26. 26

    When Rachel MadCow appeared on PMSNBC after the debate, half the people ran to something else.

    Bwaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaa haaaa haaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaa

  28. 28

    yep……..unemployment over 9% still…they did a bang up job didnt they – and all it took was to put us a few trillion more in debt…who gonna pay dat anywayz?

    good job there…not.

  29. 29

    28 – All he could get through Congress genius.. He had to have some Republican votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster..

    and all it took was to put us a few trillion more in debt…

    The cost of the stimulus was less than that and remember that almost a third of it was tax cuts – which Republicans think make economies walk on water.

    The remainder of the debt was the cause of continuing Bush’s policies: bank and auto bailouts, wars, tax cuts and an expensive new Medicare benefit.

  30. 30

    Simply put, more people would be unemployed if not for the stimulus bill. The exact number of jobs created and saved is difficult to estimate, but nonpartisan economists say there’s no doubt that the number is positive.

    Yes serial arschloch plagiarizer, 1 job is better than 0 jobs so it could be “positive”.

    And this moron had to venture all the way BACK to 9/2010, a year ago!

  31. 31

    The cost of the stimulus was less than that and remember that almost a third of it was tax cuts – which Republicans think make economies walk on water.

    Butt no House Republicans voted for the Porkulus Bill and the three Rinos in the senate did. One is gone and two will be fighting for their political lives in their reelection bids.

  32. 32

    The cost of the stimulus was less than that

    not after the interest is tagged on…..oh, you forgot about the interest….

  33. 33

    I have to chuckle every time the Democrats blame Congress. They had total control for most of year and only passed a failed stimulus, bailouts and ObamaCare? What do they do to create sustainable jobs? Answer is nothing.
    Now they want R’s to bail out the teachers & government employees again? Fat chance.

  34. 34

    @23
    Austerity measures worked great in Ireland, it’s one of the most austere places around!

  35. 35

    32 – Interest rates are very low at the moment silly.. And most of the debt is short term to keep the cost to the taxpayer to a minimum.

    The Republican alternative by the way was way weaker. More tax cuts – meaning more debt and less spending meaning weaker stimulus. Still many billions of dollars. Still more debt.

    I have to chuckle every time the Democrats blame Congress.

    I have to chuckle when right wing idiots pretend there’s no 60 vote filibuster obstacle post Scott Brown and no turncoat Dems like Lieberman and Nelson pre Scott Brown.

  36. 36

    The exact number of jobs created and saved is difficult to estimate, but nonpartisan economists say there’s no doubt that the number is positive

    Can’t read to save your life again dumbass. Again from Factcheck:

    The truth is that the stimulus increased employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million people, compared with what employment would have been otherwise. That’s according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

    You failed again gadarene swine.

  38. 38

    Ignoramus @33: “a failed stimulus”

    The stimulus failed because it was too small.

    “Was the stimulus too small? Both conservative and liberal economists agree on that point …”

    http://answers.yahoo.com/quest.....141AAoOSRJ

    “Now that unemployment has topped 10 percent, some liberal-leaning economists see confirmation of their warnings that the $787 billion stimulus package President Obama signed into law last February was way too small. The economy needs a second big infusion, they say.”

    http://what-is-is.blogspot.com.....small.html

    ” … it’s all in the math: Keynesian analysis provides numbers as well as qualitative predictions, and given reasonable projections of the economy’s path in January 2009, the proposed stimulus just wasn’t big enough.”

    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.c.....too-small/

    ” … liberal economist Paul Krugman and conservative economist Martin Feldstein agreed the country urgently needs a really big stimulus – three times the size of the 2009 stimulus …. Asked when the economy would return to full employment, [Krugman] responded that … the ‘maximum likelihood estimate’ for a return to full employment was ‘never.’ … Conservative economist Martin Feldstein said he ‘didn’t disagree’ with Krugman. The economy, he noted, faces a GDP gap of $1 trillion … and will require a stimulus big enough to fill that gap if jobs are to improve. The $800 billion stimulus the Obama Administration passed in 2009 … was ‘not nearly big enough,’ and the economy ‘never got lift off.'”

    http://www.cepr.net/index.php/.....rt-economy

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: The GOP’s chosen policy, austerity, didn’t work in 1930 and won’t work now. But Obama, having seen the failure of his too-small 2009 stimulus, has signed on for the GOP meme of going even smaller — viz., all the way to negative stimulus. Brace yourselves for Great Recession, Version 2.0.

  39. 39

    @35 “I have to chuckle when right wing idiots …”

    If only the economy could run on Wingnut Bullshit, we not only wouldn’t need to import oil, we wouldn’t have to drill either.

  40. 40

    Rabbit: “If only the economy could run on Wingnut Bullshit, we not only wouldn’t need to import oil, we wouldn’t have to drill either.”

    Composted crap does produce energy. Perhaps technology will soon give wingnut effluent value.

  42. 42

    In this “Meet the Press” segment, journalist Tom Friedman calls the 2000-2009 decade “the worst decade in American history.” I question that; I think America’s worst years were 1861-1865. But I agree that Friedman has something interesting to say about what he calls “the five pillars” of America’s historical success — and what has happened to them under neocon government. His remarks come near the end of this 20-minute video clip.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30.....6#44391320

  43. 43

    Southern California is experiencing a major electricity blackout tonight. Approximately 5 million people, in a belt from San Diego to Yuma, Arizona, are without power in sweltering heat. Traffic lights, cell phone systems, and gas station pumps are out of commission.

  44. 44

    # 43: My sister is visiting, she’s from central Pennsylvania. But she’s glued to the news from back home. Her home probably won’t flood, it’s on a hill, but she’s worried about her first son, who lives closer to the river, and the family of her second son (wife and infant son). He’s in Afganistan. We saw video of power crews switching off the power to electric lines shortly before the area flooded.

  45. 45

    One of the GOP senators on the budget super-committee is threatening to quit if they don’t quit talking about defense cuts. He’s insisting that all military spending is off the table, and it’s non-negotiable.

    Of course, Republican’s idea is that only poor people and the middle-class should be adversely effected by budget cuts. Defense contractors and corporate welfare recipeients are immune from cuts.

  46. 46

    journalist Tom Friedman

    You forgot the leftist in front.

  48. 48

    More for the deranged serial arschloch plagiarizer.

    Yeah whatever jobs were created by the government sure cost lots of lost money.

  50. 50

    The Dow is so enamored with Obama’s bizarre speech that leaves out how he is going to pay for his dream that it is DOWN 168 points at the opening.
    Obama has lost his pizzazz to say the least. Too much talking and not enough action that business can trust him.
    Obama is going down..but taking us with him. The idea the 1st Stimulus was too small is ludicrous. No evidence to show that. All it did was pay off friends of Obama and buoy up State Budgets for another year. That won’t happen again. States are going to have to live with the consequences of their overspending. And Government Employee Unions are going to be mumbling the words “Reduction in Force” RIF! to there bloated membership.

  51. 51

    When will the anarchists be arrested in Seattle Tacoma? Why aren’t the police doing their jobs?
    Destruction of property cannot be tolerated. Nor the bullyboy acts. When you start ignoring obvious lawbreakers, it sends the message that this type of response is ok, even if illegal.
    Welcome to the beginning of Greece, England etc.
    Glad I don’t live in a big city.

  52. 52

    And for my buddy Cynical..

    Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
    Friday, September 09, 2011

    The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 19% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -24.

    And the DOW is down 200 points after being down 120 points yesterday in anticipation of the turd Obama was about to lay.

  57. 57

    Obama is getting slammed from all sides for his non-plan. There is no Bill and there is no money. Just a bunch of hot air from a gasbag who can read a teleprompter.
    I wish Obama would resign and become a Shakespeare or Poetry reader. He could do that. It’s not having a clue about how the economy works that is troublesome for all of us.
    This dimwitted speech will be the end of the road for his re-election bid. He drives around in a Canadian-built Darth Vader Bus desperately trying to rev up his base…instead of offering up a real plan. He goes on vacation to Martha’s Vineyard to hob-nob with the rich & famous leftist elite…rather than offer up a plan. This guy is not a leader and not as bright as I used to give him credit for, to say the least.
    Jimmy Carter II–only worse.

  58. 58

    57. cain spews:

    Obama is getting slammed from all sides for his non-plan. There is no Bill and there is no money. Just a bunch of hot air from a gasbag who can read a teleprompter.
    I wish Obama would resign and become a Shakespeare or Poetry reader. He could do that. It’s not having a clue about how the economy works that is troublesome for all of us.
    This dimwitted speech will be the end of the road for his re-election bid. He drives around in a Canadian-built Darth Vader Bus desperately trying to rev up his base…instead of offering up a real plan. He goes on vacation to Martha’s Vineyard to hob-nob with the rich & famous leftist elite…rather than offer up a plan. This guy is not a leader and not as bright as I used to give him credit for, to say the least.
    Jimmy Carter II–only worse.

    09/09/2011 at 11:07 am

    So you’re really a troll huh? Good to know.

    Obama is getting kudo’s for the speech and the guts of the plan by everyone except fucking republicans…who he has neatly painted into a corner.

    Sucks to be you, twerp.

  59. 59

    http://thinkprogress.org/secur.....bin-laden/

    Bush Credits ‘The Work That Was Done’ During ‘My Presidency’ For Osama Bin Laden’s Death

    By Ben Armbruster on Sep 9, 2011 at 10:19 am

    President Bush sat down with USA Today to discuss the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and his role in shaping U.S. policy in their aftermath. During the interview, Bush thought he’d take the opportunity to pat himself on the back for Osama bin Laden’s death:

    Bush said the events that led to the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May began during his administration.

    “The work that was done by intelligence communities during my presidency was part of putting together the puzzle that enabled us to see the full picture of how bin Laden was communicating and eventually where he was hiding,” he said. “It began the day after 9/11.”

    The reality, of course, is that Bush’s attempts to capture or kill bin Laden were huge failures. While it’s been well documented that the Bush administration missed an opportunity to get bin Laden in Tora Bora in 2001, Bush himself subsequently stated publicly that he wasn’t spending much time thinking about getting him. “I truly am not that concerned about him. I am deeply concerned about Iraq,” Bush said in 2002, “I really just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you.” Bush told reporters in 2006 that hunting the al Qaeda leader was “not a top priority use of American resources.”

    And in 2005, Bush shut down the CIA’s unit dedicated to finding bin Laden in order to shift resources to Iraq. “The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants,” the New York Times reported in 2006, adding that resources “had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq.” When the right wing rushed to give Bush credit after bin Laden’s death in May, ThinkProgress produced this short video highlighting Bush’s failures:

    Right.

  60. 60

    Thanks for the Politifact serial arschloch plagiarizer…

    Furthermore, the publication created its statistic with the report’s low-end jobs estimate. Had it gone with the 3.6 million job figure at the top end of the range, it would have come up with a smaller $185,000 per job figure.

    So the top end gives $185,000 and the lower end gives the $278,000.

    Interesting….

    Maybe you should read your own material!

    ROTFLRHMBBAO!

  62. 62

    Ummm… you ran to Politifact not me searial arschloch plagiarizer. You were the one making snide commentary @54 after posting the link ya idiot. That’s why we all laugh at you! EVERYDAY we laugh at you. EVERY NIGHT Too!

    Yeah right, except Obummer’s gang didn’t use most of the money to buy the materials you dope!

    Whatamoron!

  63. 63

    Wow the misogynist dumb cinder block ran to his left wrong haven@59. Typical.

    This “emperor” penguin has no clothes!

  64. 64

    Beware the math. Some Republican lawmakers critical of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package are using grade-school arithmetic to size up costs and consequences of all that spending. The math is satisfyingly simple but highly misleading.

    From the Seattle Times – a Republican leaning right wing anti-union newspaper!

    DOPE – YOU BOUGHT THE MISLEADING BULLSHIT NOT ME.

    YOU”RE A JOKE! NICE TRY SERIAL DUMBASS..

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