Gross domestic product, a measure of the goods and services produced across the nation, shrank at an annualized rate of 6.2 percent in the last quarter of 2008, according to the Commerce Department, far worse than the initial estimate of 3.8 percent and the 5 percent most analysts were expecting.
The downward revision means the economy began the year from an even weaker position than previously thought, AND these Republican hypocrites are already trying to blame President Obama with his a little over a month in office.
28 February, 2009
21 February, 2009
the sin of the USA
read today: San Diego County sheriff's deputies escorted the pregnant woman out of her Poway home. It didn't matter that she had no car to drive and nowhere to go. It didn't matter that her baby was due the next day. The uniformed men had no choice, the North County Times reported.
As a country, we have lost compassion which would not please any deity that you wish to recognize.
As a country, we have lost compassion which would not please any deity that you wish to recognize.
Republicans strategy
What the Republicans are doing is just obstructionism. That's a well-trodden path that could consign the GOP to minority status for a generation.
16 February, 2009
republican baloney
Their idea of a good public face for the G.O.P. is a sound-bite dispenser like the new chairman, Michael Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor. Steele’s argument against the stimulus package is that “in the history of mankind” no “federal, state or local” government has ever “created one job.”
As it happens, among the millions of jobs created by the government are the federal investigators now pursuing Steele for alleged financial improprieties in his failed 2006 Senate campaign.
This G.O.P., a largely white Southern male party with talking points instead of ideas and talking heads instead of leaders, is not unlike those “zombie banks” that we’re being asked to bail out. It is in too much denial to acknowledge its own insolvency and toxic assets.
Given the mess the country is in, it would be helpful to have an adult opposition that could pull its weight, but that’s not the hand America has been dealt.
As Judd Gregg flakes out and Lindsey Graham throws made-for-YouTube hissy fits on the Senate floor, Obama should stay focused on the big picture in governing as he did in campaigning. That’s the steady course he upheld when much of the political establishment was either second-guessing or ridiculing it, and there’s no reason to change it now.
The stimulus victory showed that even as president Obama can ambush Washington’s conventional wisdom as if he were still an insurgent.
As it happens, among the millions of jobs created by the government are the federal investigators now pursuing Steele for alleged financial improprieties in his failed 2006 Senate campaign.
This G.O.P., a largely white Southern male party with talking points instead of ideas and talking heads instead of leaders, is not unlike those “zombie banks” that we’re being asked to bail out. It is in too much denial to acknowledge its own insolvency and toxic assets.
Given the mess the country is in, it would be helpful to have an adult opposition that could pull its weight, but that’s not the hand America has been dealt.
As Judd Gregg flakes out and Lindsey Graham throws made-for-YouTube hissy fits on the Senate floor, Obama should stay focused on the big picture in governing as he did in campaigning. That’s the steady course he upheld when much of the political establishment was either second-guessing or ridiculing it, and there’s no reason to change it now.
The stimulus victory showed that even as president Obama can ambush Washington’s conventional wisdom as if he were still an insurgent.
Obama up, republicans down
Perhaps the stimulus held its own because the public, in defiance of Washington’s condescending assumption, was smart enough to figure out that the government can’t create jobs without spending and that Bush-era Republicans have no moral authority to lecture about deficits. Some Americans may even have ancestors saved from penury by the New Deal.
In any event, the final score was unambiguous. The stimulus package arrived with the price tag and on roughly the schedule Obama had set for it. The president’s job approval percentage now ranges from the mid 60s (Gallup, Pew) to mid 70s (CNN) — not bad for a guy who won the presidency with 52.9 percent of the vote.
In any event, the final score was unambiguous. The stimulus package arrived with the price tag and on roughly the schedule Obama had set for it. The president’s job approval percentage now ranges from the mid 60s (Gallup, Pew) to mid 70s (CNN) — not bad for a guy who won the presidency with 52.9 percent of the vote.
12 February, 2009
republican fat-cats get the goodies
Fred F. Fielding, Emmet T. Flood, William A. Burck and Daniel M. Price worked together at the White House under George W. Bush. Less than two weeks before leaving office, Bush made sure the senior aides shared a new assignment, naming them to an obscure World Bank agency called the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
The appointments are for six years and are potentially lucrative, paying up to $3,000 a day plus travel and other expenses if an appointee is chosen to hear a case. Bush also named two other prominent Republican lawyers to the agency, which attempts to broker international finance disagreements.
Bush made more than 100 such end-of-term appointments to a constellation of presidential boards and panels, such as the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and the U.S.-Russia Polar Bear Commission. He turned to close aides and top political supporters to fill the last-minute postings, many of which will outlast President Obama's current term.
Nearly half of Bush's appointments after Election Day were filled by donors who gave a total of nearly $1.9 million to Republicans since 2003, according to an analysis of the postings. At least 20 of the positions were filled by former Bush aides, plus others filled by old hands from the administrations of Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. These republicans have no shame.
The appointments are for six years and are potentially lucrative, paying up to $3,000 a day plus travel and other expenses if an appointee is chosen to hear a case. Bush also named two other prominent Republican lawyers to the agency, which attempts to broker international finance disagreements.
Bush made more than 100 such end-of-term appointments to a constellation of presidential boards and panels, such as the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and the U.S.-Russia Polar Bear Commission. He turned to close aides and top political supporters to fill the last-minute postings, many of which will outlast President Obama's current term.
Nearly half of Bush's appointments after Election Day were filled by donors who gave a total of nearly $1.9 million to Republicans since 2003, according to an analysis of the postings. At least 20 of the positions were filled by former Bush aides, plus others filled by old hands from the administrations of Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. These republicans have no shame.
11 February, 2009
do-nothing republicans
These republicans are still stuck in the shadow of President Herbert Hoover who essentially did nothing to address the republican economic mess from 1929 to 1932 which caused ten years of economic Depression.
Fortunately, the people now are better informed and will not tolerate that do-nothing republican attitude.
Fortunately, the people now are better informed and will not tolerate that do-nothing republican attitude.
09 February, 2009
republicans, America's Taliban
Republicans are relishing the opportunity to make a big statement. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) suggested last week that "the party is learning from the disruptive tactics of the Taliban, and the GOP these days does have the bravado of an insurgent band that has pulled together." So there you have it, out of their own mouths.
07 February, 2009
Republican dirt 1-1
Michael S. Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, arranged for his 2006 Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed, his finance chairman from that campaign has told federal prosecutors.
04 February, 2009
republicans not likely to change
Even if Steele were inclined to try to reinvent the party, it's not clear the party would let him.
Many current Republicans like it pretty much the way it is. A new Rasmussen Reports survey found little appetite among Republicans for ideological moderation.
Indeed, 55 percent of Republican respondents said the party should be more like Sarah Palin—which means, that the GOP needs to become prettier and more belligerent.
Many current Republicans like it pretty much the way it is. A new Rasmussen Reports survey found little appetite among Republicans for ideological moderation.
Indeed, 55 percent of Republican respondents said the party should be more like Sarah Palin—which means, that the GOP needs to become prettier and more belligerent.
republicans say one thing do another
Republicans claim to be the party that America trusts on national security, but their intelligence failures and poor planning led to the fiasco in Iraq.
Republicans claim that they are the party of fiscal responsibility, but they have bankrupted our country.
Republicans were once a party of human rights and equality but now are the party of exclusion rather than inclusion. We have to watch what republicans do, not what they say. We didn't leave them, they left us.
Republicans claim that they are the party of fiscal responsibility, but they have bankrupted our country.
Republicans were once a party of human rights and equality but now are the party of exclusion rather than inclusion. We have to watch what republicans do, not what they say. We didn't leave them, they left us.
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