Was it shame that cause this “mass present by being absent” or a fear of a political backlash originating from below, from the actions of the “lesser people”? Who among the opportunists wants to stand beside the hangman and jailer on July 13?

A picture is worth 1000 words or perhaps in this case a billion dollars.

President TeaCup will raise his ginormous sums of cash from the well-heeled donors he serves. But, where will his electoral support come from?

Bueller… Bueller…

Thanks Jane. It damn well ought to be.

A picture is worth 1000 words or perhaps in this case a billion dollars.

More like 2.4 trillion.

Is it shame or humiliation?

Beautiful catch, Jane. Shame, indeed. Not even Bill Daley showed up.

I think this photo should be forwarded to Jon Stewart, Keith Olberman, Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow. It would make a powerful piece that exposes the shame and humiliation to a wider audience.

It’s lonely at the top. Especially when you’ve pissed off all your ex-friends.

Boxturtle (Romney is looking at that photo saying “Yeah, keep my chair warm”)

It seems to me that they’re forcing Obama to own this.

Me vs. US Progressives on Twitter –

USProgressives Progressive Caucus
Tea Party held country hostage to take $ from poor and vets. Progressives must unite & fight back against them- not Prez #p2
2 hours ago

@Notorious2again Kristian Andrews
@USProgressives you’re wrong. If the Prez doesn’t sign the bill it’s not law. 14th amendment could fix this. Thx for failing. On everything.

True, but I was thinking of O’s dreams of sugar plum fairies dropping big fat checks into his campaign war chest.

I don’t honestly think that in his mind knee-capping the economy to the tune of $2.4 trillion figures into his imagination at all.

Neither. He’s looking forward to retirement. Kicking back. Calling in a few chits.

You can’t possibly humiliate Obama. If it was possible, he wouldn’t have shown his face in public for months.

Boxturtle (Perhaps he’s been reading his own campaign literature)

Look at the difference in Obama’s facial expression as between the budget act and all the rest. He looks like a beaten man who knows he’s been thrashed. It’s got to be pretty horrifying when the picture of the world that you’ve constructed for yourself turns out to be totally false. He’s seen the polls that show he has lost a big part of the Democratic base without gaining any of the center his advisors were aiming at when they gamed out this fiasco. General Varus probably had a similar look on his face when he marched his three legions into a narrow gorge to be annihilated by Arminius. It’s either ‘oh, shit!’ or ‘oops!’ You choose.

I thought the same thing when I saw that…no six-pen souvenirs…

Presidential survival instincts have failed.

Wonder what they did with that horse head…

Where are all the Obamabots couldn’t Obama get Rahm to stand by him for a photo op? I don’t think any sane Dem even in African American Districts will want Obama campaigning with them in november:)

I see your 2.4 trillion and raise you 16 plus trillion. Let’s not forget the banksters.

Well, he ought to own it. He negociated it, he’s going to sign it.

Boxturtle (I wonder if Michelle will make him sleep on the couch tonight)

“And in the coming months I’ll continue also to fight for what the American people care most about: new jobs, higher wages, and faster economic growth.”

He thinks he’s BEEN fighting for us. I’d hate to see what it looks like when he doesn’t…

Or the wars.

Much like the Super Congress, nobody wants to be in the picture if they don’t have to.

I’m wondering how his African American wife can live with this…it’s a slap in the face. JMHO

But it isn’t just him. They are ALL guilty. Every last one who voted YES on that betrayal of the nation.

Every single one of them could have resigned in protest. Could have taken some sort of meaningful stand.

They are all guilty. Not to be trusted again.

I find it pretty evil to show him signing that bill with 24, $200.00 Monte Blanc executive pens.

Very telling, although I’m wondering why Obama’s key legislation, the Health Insurance Reform Bill, isn’t included.

Yup can’t forget those.

While these photos show that Barack Obama is left-handed, unlike the rest of us southpaws, he is certainly not in his right mind.

Political backlash Congress is going home for the summer I expect nobody will be giving Town halls unless they voted no but even the No votes will have to explain why they cut SS and Medicare instead of taxing the rich more ending both wars, making Fox News and GE pay more taxes, Ending the Bush tax cuts ( that still have created more jobs) etc.
Lets see if the Tea Baggers have any brains and confront the no votes with their freakin Obvious double dealing.
Are the Tea Baggers intelligent enough to participate in a Democracy can they think enough to figure out the Tea baggers were in on it?
If your not intelligent enough to figure out who stole your SS and Medicare then Democracy itself has a problem.
Maybe Strauss was right at least some people should be lied to after all Aristotle said some people are natural slaves.

Fierce Advocacy!1!

“that’s the problem with you progressives” (/s). . . . Electoral geniuses Axelrod & Plouffe will spin this as their guy going it alone in his principled quest to “transform Washington” even if it means he’s a one termer :~/

why yes, I am in a very dark place right now, why do you ask ?

Good one, Jane. You really nailed it.

Meanwhile, Congress is off on Summer vacation, inviting 74,000 workers on FAA contracts out to play without pay, Larry Summers plays cya, little Timmy is stuck in the well, and its time for another empty rhetorical pivot to jobs. Unemployment is on track to be above 9% on election day, but apparently the progressive base will turn out for the President because they have no where else to go (if they don’t turn out we can blame the loss on the left for staying home).

We helped beat McCain and made Bush unpopular by making it clear that supporting a moron or a moron’s ideas would get you laughed at we can have tons of fun tagging the Tea baggers as people who let their SS and Medicare be stolen.
We get extra points if we find out the rich will get a tax cut paid for with our SS and Medicare.
But we must make clear to the public that we are against Obama now or we get tainted by him.

DING! Don’t you just love a hit-and-run? Oh yeah, and where’s Petraeus hiding these days (BBC.Com, July 22, 2011)?

I think we ought to find a way (no, not a dirty bomb) to close DC. Make each and every one of these sellouts do their work from their local campaign offices. Let them be surrounded by the people that they have screwed day in and day out for years.

Maybe the lobbyists would still find them, but they we could close their fucking local airports by totally defunding the FAA.

I hate these bastards. They have the nerve to call the Senate a deliberative body. They never deliberate. It is all a sham. I wish CSpan would pan the camera around the chamber and see that it is EMPTY except for the gasbag reading some bullshit statement into the record. The senators are all out at $25,000 a plate fundraisers.

All they do is pocket the dollars for their dirty work.

that would be the same Michelle who celebrated the passage of her $4.5 billion Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act 2010 … even though it’s funding was derived from a draconian 25% cut in the Food Stamps SNAP fund

And yet most of them voted for it.

Cheapest Mont Blanc pen I see is close to $400.

An old fashioned Bic ballpoint was all this piece of shit warranted.

Collateral damage?

It is painful to watch a national icon melting daily in front of your eyes…I’m really sad for our country.

I seriously doubt these power mongers are capable of empathy or shame. Surly he is already working on more plans to reward criminals on Wall Street. Those people that sponsor Mr. O are insatiable, they always want more, no matter who suffers or how much they desire the ability for the earth to sustain life.

We need an entirely new way to live and have a society that benefits all. The almighty dollars has brought out the worst in the most ruthless.

The Tea bagger plan hope their flying monkey’s are stupid. Then blame Obama the Dems and traitor GOPers for the SS and Medicare cuts they made sure was the only deal available for Obama to sign. Never mind the majority of the voters wanted tax increases on the rich, Fox News and GE to pay more taxes, the Bush tax cuts to end or for both wars to end.

Captain Courageous dont need no stinken’ sidekicks

-103

If I recall, Bush 41, Clinton and Obama are all left-handed.

Lonely at the top, I guess.

Reminds me of Marlon Brando…..” I coulda been a contenda.”

The easiest way to force the legislators to again be responsible for their electorate is to force them to stay in their local states. There is no reason today for Congress to meet for 98% of what they do. Corporations have teleconferences and make decisions electronically all the time. Force the House and Senate members, and their constituent states, to find office back home, and the government could supply the secure high speed a/v datalinks. The states could pay for all of the needs that the representative needs (you can’t always get what you want…) and they would get paid for the days they contributed to the business of Congress.

Of course, the beauty of this, beyond forcing them to be near their constituents, is that all the lobbying firms would have to hire many more people to travel about the country with their suitcases of money in order to do their “jobs”.

Hmmm … how about a turkey feather quill pen dipped in blood?

Maybe we should email and /or fax the signing picture to everyone who voted for it and ask them why they were not at the signing.

Next, Obama will appoint a Super President to take responsibility for still more “tough choices.” This Super President will be a cute fluffy kitten.

So is my husband, but he is not a lying, cheating scumbag.

They can’t use that as an excuse.

saw that

and with on going plunder at historical, unprecedented levels, Obama’s SEC has decided to go after Hugh Hefner’s son-in-law for insider trading

lol..or if the “other” witch had melted…

Shame? I’m guessing not so much. Opportunism is more likely. This is a photo-op that lets them pin this on the President.

I think once the voting was done EVERYBODY in DC was gone on vacation. They left Washington like students on a Friday at a suitcase campus. NO reason to hang around.

Pencil or even better, vanishing ink

Shame???

In DC???

Poor little Mary Poppins. Nobody loves her anymore.

Like Rocco in Key Largo

Until the progressives are willing and ableto primary a large numbers of democrats and win they will be rolled by the tea party. Look for the tea party to primary republicans that voted for this deal. If they are successful they will strengthen their position even if they loose the house. Progressives must be willing to vote for the left wing nut cases the way the tea party is willing to vote for right wing nutcases to have a chance of getting a place at the table. I have never seen the left willing to go in and vote in mass for a candidate in a primary that they agree with but they know has almost no chance in the general election to make the other democrats afraid of there power. The tea party people are willing to do this so the have the attention of the congress and the president.

I think August should be a visit-your-congressman-in-his-state-office month.

Super congress, feh.
We need to get rid of that bullshit name right now and call it what it is: Abrogate Congress, or maybe the dirty deeds done dirt cheap boys.
Super just isn’t the right word.

Can’t wait to see his expression when the deal made by the triumvirate X four is introduced…what will that conclave ultimately excrete? Why, the next signing might show O with a clothspin on his nose.

That’s the Hatch Act signing statement, last photo

I think what pisses me off more than anything is to see these legislaturds, the “party of no” and the “party of can’t” smiling all the time while they make huge salaries and benefits packages, and get handsome retirement pensions, not to mention the kickbacks and money they can skim from their political campaigns all the while the rest of us have to live in the mess they created.

hell, I’m thinking Xerxes in The 300

and Jane is wrong, he’s probably sitting on Durbin

One of the big problems today is congress spends to much time at home. They do not develop relationships with other members so it is easy to villify them and not support them and just vote for their district. Many times the needs of a district are not good for the country as a whole. To quote Spock, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

You know, there would a lot accomplished by doing this. Give them a strict operating budget for their offices.

Strip them of the pampered princeling attitudes. Make them operate on a strictly enforced transparancy model with volunteers at the desk to monitor who meets with whom. Make it possible to communicate quickly with local media to keep constituents informed and in touch.

Let’s cut the budget and close the Versailles on the Potomac.

I like “mini-congress”

touche

I really like the idea of keeping members of Congress in their home districts where their constituents can easily find them and meet with them at any time. With modern technology, there is no need for them to hole up in DC.

I also think that it is important to tie Congressional salaries and benefits to the median of what Americans receive. That would give them personal incentives to see to it that the median salaries and benefits improve over time.

I just saw that (couldn’t remember the name of the insurance giveaway was called the ACA). But that Hyde Amendment EO is just a sideshow to his actual key legislation. Not that it changes anything, you could show anything and there’s a bunch of pols standing around. Except now.

Even if it was “school’s out!” mode after this vote, you’d think the White House PR would be savvy enough to have some legislators there. But apparently not.

this must not be a big fucking deal?

this must be a real shitty deal!

This photo also says, OBAMA troops may not believe in their leader anymore, and start seeking cover.

Imagine what the photo is going to look like once OBAMA guts the safety net?

They were all with Timothy Geithner having an Austerity Party!

I agree

Obama is becoming so toxic?

Yes, and in all seriousness they should have to negotiate the terrible and terrifying waters of the predatory, for profit healthcare medical rationing system the rest of us try to survive.

Various legislators were seen on the same day on tv doing interviews from the Capitol Building while the signing was awaiting and then announced …. just sayin’ … it’s NOT that they were all on planes already. They were doing their media first before leaving town.

Has Lawrence O’Donnell chimed in to tell the Democrats how they should interpret this BIG win????

If Congress critters had to live (and die) like average Americans, I bet a whole lot of legislation would change unanimously and overnight.

But…but…they’re supposed to pin this mess on Boehner! It’s Boehner’s fault, isn’t it? Obama is only the President! What can the President do, after all?

A lot of DEMS will be practicing CYOA in DC the next couple of months

CYOA = Cover Your On Ass

I don’t know. Super makes it seem “special” (which it is, but in a sinister way) and mini makes it sound diminished (which it is, but only wrt the number of “representatives”).

I’m trying to think of something short that appropriately conveys the total lack of respect it deserves.
Some kind of legislative body part or something.
How about the anussembly?

There will be plenty of populist rhetoric between now and the election, don’t worry. The President will even trot out some half-assed legislation that he can count on the Republicans to “obstruct” in order to make his case that he has tried to help. . . the 45 million people on food stamps, etc.

And he will roll up his shirtsleeves and pull the community organizer suit out of the closet and look better and better and tougher and tougher.

And 1/4 of readers here and 3/4 at Daily Kos will wring their hands and gnash and wail and go out and work for the guy. Because liberals hold up half of the capitalist sky.

I just thought of a new title for this post:

The Slime Sets In

Wonder who is coming to OBAMA birthday party?

How many Dems want to be seen dancing at the WH, after OBAMA just killed the new deal?

Like Matt Tabbi says
Progressives think OBAMA is doing a real Fucked Up Job
but
the ones he work for will give him a Billion Dollars

Or

The Same Shits In

Great post, Jane.

I did a pen count. Five, including the one the Putz is holding, are gone. Recipients Pelosi, Reid, Boner, Hoyer and Cantor hiding behind the camera, get pen, then duck behind camera for next shot of the Putz in Chief signing. Profiles in Courage.

But we know he is anything but tough. Most of what he’s done has been a failure. Shit if he started a fight and then lost, I would have liked it. Now, I have trouble listening to him. The Caveman.

Screw shame, where is the Democratic Primary opponent?

Maybe “The hatchet club.”

Were the teabaggers successful in “breaking” him as Sen. DeMint hoped for?

But we must make clear to the public that we are against Obama now or we get tainted by him.

Just one more reason why supporting democrats is wrongheaded. Low information voters assume progressives and democrats are one and the same. In the end, though, it doesn’t really matter because nothing exists in the political realm that actually represents progressives. Low information voters simply switch to whatever party is not in power when they get angry.

Eh? Shame? Fear? R U kidding me? Seriously, do Firedawgs *really* believe that the very wealthy poodles in Dee Cee would recognize shame or fear if it smacked them upside the head with a 2X4??? Really???

Eh? Why’s no one there? Why should they be? They don’t work for, us, as in: we, the small people.

Where were they? Probably all out getting drunk as skunks with their lobbyists, handlers & other assorted rich-sh*t swindlers… raising their glasses ever higher in vast great toasts to how very well they have ripped off the middle & working classes and brought us to our knees.

No FAA support until those d*mnable uppity *workers* (ick, spit) learn their lessons and stop agitating to unionize. Collective bargaining rights? So very 20th C. now chums.

The mega-wealthy are in charge. Who needs to show up at some dog ‘n pony show whereby the Poodle-in-Chief in the White House gets solo role today doing the Kabuki Show called “bill signing.”

Photo, to me, merely signifies how useless it is to believe that “government” means anything anymore. It’s that blatant. Who’s in charge? Not the dude in the photo, and that’s for sure.

Photo title

President Fuck Up
Signs a Fucked Up Bill
and Says Fuck You Progressives!

the most important word in this Photo Fuck

No, the Tea Party did not “break” Obama. Obama was elected in order to work hand-in-glove with the Tea Party.

However, let me be clear here that the “Tea Party” that Obama works for is the “Tea Party” that is a front-job for the mega-rich, like the Kochs.

That is the real “Tea Party” for whom Obama works.

The so-called “grass roots Tea Party” has no power whatsoever. None. The aspirations of the “small people” who were conned into believing that the “Tea Party” was about their needs – those small people aspirations and goals were trampled under a loooooong time ago by mega-wealthy Rupert Murdoch & David Koch.

There will be townhall meetings, I guess, during recess. Unless these cowards hide under rocks, which wouldn’t surprise me.

Maybe we could go to Dim townhalls and stage funeral marches for the New Deal. Would we get any coverage and stimulate any outrage?

The President does not have the votes for the change we want, if you want him to have the power to make progressive change you have to get off your ass and vote.
If we could elect Bernie Sanders that would be great, but I do not believe it is possible.

you still think Obama is a progressive?

how is life under a rock.

does Oil and Water mix? no

Obama and Progressive don’t mix either

please go back under your rock,

The b’day party is in Chicago. At the Aragon Ballroom. Uptown (on the North side). Where people like Bobby Rush and Danny Davis can easily pretend to be lost.

Hmmm. Looks like the Village is missing a whole bunch of idiots!

Sounds like a good place for a tent city protest

Where was Markos?

In many ways this makes the GOP (and GOP lite-Dems) who pushed so much for this, look very bad for not being there in the photo-op…

Cowards.

You should read this Post,
Bernie Sanders to Primary Obama? Don’t Make Me Laugh

The President does not have the votes for the change we want, if you want him to have the power to make progressive change you have to get off your ass and vote.

Wrong, totally wrong. Obama only meets, sees, and considers the views of millionaires and billionaires. The 2010 National Democratic campaign was not a campaign. There were no issues to rally around. In my state, the DNC was nowhere to be seen as the Teabaggers swept everything.

Actually Obama had one campaign issue in 2010. that is bashing and neutralizing the antiwar leftists. Obama talks about one America except when he bashes the professional leftists, who are not corrupt enough to work in the Obama Administration. How dare the fucking retards ask for Canadian Health Care and they should be drug tested.

Obama should be tested to see if he is human.

Self proclaimed NEXT ELECTION TWITTER CONTEST entry.

It does not matter who you vote for because #SS #Medicare #military will be decided by a bipartisan committee! ?LINK?

Need links to both short and a long informative article for reference.

In schools all across the USA
Kids will ask?

“How did the New Deal Die?”

And teachers will say

“Look at this Photo”

A kid will say “that is Obama the 1st Black President
he must have hated the Poor, the Sick, and Elderly a lot!”

and the Teacher will say
YES!

Jane Hamsher is an arrow;

she has a way of piercing the fog. and getting right to the heart of the thing;

in ways anyone can understand.

Are you serious? Cuz Randi Rhodes thinks Obama made a home run with this deal. You see, according to her, we won.

She’s lulled all the Obama-bots back to sleep, once again. I wonder how much Obama 2012 is paying her.

Beautiful catch, Jane. Shame, indeed. Not even Bill Daley showed up.

My guess is that Reagan’s portrait was unavailable due to a previously scheduled cleaning.

In schools all across the USA
Kids will ask?

“How did the New Deal Die?”

You’re assuming that schools will still be around after Obama , Jed. I wish I shared your optimism. =)

Obama to host Chicago birthday gala

On Wednesday morning, city crews started putting up barricades on the sidewalks near the theatre. Admission for the private dinner and celebrity concert — which includes performances by Chicago natives Jennifer Hudson, Herbie Hancock and OK Go — is $35,800. Some general admission concert tickets were as low as $200.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/politics&id=8286190

I hear you?

we can only hope public schools survive

Stevo67

I wish someone would make this commercial

Kids in a class room

Kid ask the teacher “How Did the New Deal Die?”

Teacher pulls out this Photo

Kid says “that is OBAMA the 1st black president, he must have hated the poor, the sick, and the elderly a lot”

and teacher says “Yes”

and when the camera pans around the room ” you see the kids shake their heads in disgust”

this 1 commercial, would end his political career, destroy his name, and put the shame of a nation on his lap.

Excuse me but the President had BOTH the house and the senate for a couple of years………how did he not have the vote then? He could’ve raised the debt ceiling then if he didn’t need the ruse to screw over the citizenry. Why do you think both Boehner’s and Reid’s original bills had the Super Secret Congress in them?
(sorry if I sound aggressive here, still really angry over this)

Well actually, I suspect the neighborhood is a little too dense for tents.

However, that very fact might explain why it’s being held at the Aragon and not at the South Shore Cultural Center on the South Side.

He’s still cozy with the ghost of Reagan.

You are not going to get grassroots solutions from the top-down Fed or the states without demanding it but you will see more NO OP, distraction theater from the POTUS. For example, let’s take a look at Alabama in which some Alabamans + the Southern Poverty Law Center are at work beating back a police state (Lisa Derrick, Aug. 2, 2011):

Meteor Blades has a post cataloging how many more people are relying on food stamps this month–45.8 million, or close to 15% of the country. He links to the state-level data, which reveals a huge spike in AL’s use of food stamps. In April 2011, 868,813 Alambamans used food stamps–a worse than average but not abysmal 18% of its population. In May, that number spiked to 1,762,481, over 37% of the population, almost 900,000 new people getting food stamps.

(from emptywheel, Aug. 3, 2011).

Right now grassroots constituents should be demanding town hall meetings in each Congressional District ASAP and arriving with video recording devices rather than waiting around to see if their critters will meet with them.

Folks, I gotta say; it warms my heart to see Jane righteously going after the bastards. No holds barred; no relativist bullshit about:

“We have to stick with him; the republicans are worse”. or any of that prescription for continuing the fire sale on the principles of the democratic party. I’d much rather have this stuff inflicted on us by republicans, than by Obama and the democrats. At least then, we go into it knowing whom we have to fight.

The white-hot anger that is shown on here (mixed with some really wicked humor… :o) ) so far from making me feel badly, or frustrated, makes me think that all is not lost.

Do not give in to these hacks. Most of us voted for the hack-in-chief, but given the choices, and given that (no matter what the monday morning quarterbacks say) Obama talked the talk of real change, I feel no guilt for my small part in helping him win the presidency. Only disgust at the man, himself, for his willful squandering of a great opportunity.

Just three more jobs-killing “free-trade” deals to pass and Obama’s errand list for his masters will be finished. Then he can quit late in the campaign so no other Dem will have a chance, and live off the largesse of the rich and powerful persons and corporations he worked for while in the White House.

Unless there’s more on the list we don’t know about. Like invading Iran.

Heck of a job, Mr. O. Having extended Bush tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires, which would have expired, had he done nothing. He now has his boot on the necks of the poor, sick, and elderly.

As JFK put it, Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

x2.

My entire congressional/senatorial representation voted yes. Both senators and my rep. Disgusting and unnecessary.

Randi Rhodes? You gotta be shittin’ me. That’s quite the disappointment.

O couldn’t find a robo-signer, otherwise he would be hiding under the desk, too.

I shit you not. She went on and on and on about what a genius Obama is. She said the Super Congress was a great win. Listening to that from her was quite disheartening.

Hey, you gave me an idea! The Supercongress can be called the duodecimviri legibus scribendis.

That series of photos is hilarious, in a sad pathetic Nelson Muntz “ha ha” way.

Still, the joke’s on us. Obama isn’t alone; it’s just that his friends are too toxic to most of America to let himself be seen with them. They’ll be there when it counts, though.

A flimflam man with shame, really ?

He played us or we played us but either way we are played !

I keep wondering if a lawsuit could be brought to abolish the debt limit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David Atkins :(“thereisnospoon”):The debt ceiling has always been somewhat preposterous: how is it Constitutional to have to approve debt for spending that has already been approved? Isn’t that pretty much the definition of calling into question the “full faith and credit of the United States?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, could anyone of standing (who looses $ as a result of higher interest because of these bullshit negotiations) sue to call the limit unconstitutional and strike down the law?

“I have never seen the left willing to go in and vote in mass for a candidate in a primary that they agree with but they know has almost no chance in the general election to make the other democrats afraid of there power.”

I think this is right. I also think our (the left’s) greatest fear is our greatest weakness. Our fear, disgust, loathing, whatever word you want to use, of a Republican President, Senator, who will probably be right wing, pushes us to accept the Democrat, even the one we know won’t even consider the left’s stance on the big issues. You’ve all heard it before, thousands of times: “they have no place to go,” or “our Dem sucks, but those fuckers are evil, so you gotta vote for the Dem.” When the left votes like this, we lose any claim to accountability from the Dem we vote for. When would my Senator, Feinstein, give two craps about what the left thinks when she knows the left will vote for her over her right-wing opponent anyway? The entire Democratic establishment takes us for granted. We don’t hold them accountable. That’s our great weakness. If the Democratic establishment were to ever seriously think the left would make them pay, then something might change. Not until.

Sorry Jane, gotta disagree here.

There is no shame.

Their political advisors warned them that given the anger of the unwashed masses, they should stage a photo op like this to make it appear a solumn, but necessary, thing. Make it appear as though they are ashamed to be seen near that thing.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, they’re dancing, partying, drinking, laughing….. and counting their campaign cash.

It’s. All. Theater.

The single adult in the room.

Excuse me while I go and puke.

Bullshit he got what he wanted and that’s NOTHING progressive.

As long as Democrats in Congress support whatever a Democratic president does, whereas they are willing to oppose the more objectionable things a Republican president does, progressives have strong reason to prefer a Republican in the White House.

Keep a lookout for his best bud Grover.

This is EXACTLY the problem.

Until the left holds Democrats accountable and WITHHOLDS votes from undeserving Democrats, they will never, ever change. Didn’t have the votes??? Pahleeze.. Did you just get thrown off the turnip wagon and weren’t aware of the majorities in 2009? HISTORIC majorities. Majorities not seen in generations.

The problem was, is, and will be that the Democrats do not and will not give a shit about what the left wants as long as we keep giving them our votes no matter what they do.

Stop being part of the problem and start being the solution. Make them earn your vote, and do NOT give it to them when they don’t. Or are you gonna forever be afraid of the big red rrrrrrepublican boogey man?

He’ll lose like a real man and walk away with millions and no soul, to be laughed at like bush, never to show his face in public, even at at a Habitat for Humanity work site.

And the hookers are hooking.

Obama got weak in the knees on the HCR and the base stayed home in Nov 010. Now he gets weak knees on a “balanced” approach. My guess is, the base will stay home in Nov 012. Karl Rove was Bush’s brain and he always told Bush, “don’t ever alienate your base.” I don’t know who Obama’s “brain” is but whomever it is, they appear to me to be boaderline mentally retarded!

Randi is quite the sell-out. Stopped listening to that drivel a long time ago… and this is why.

Right now grassroots constituents should be demanding town hall meetings in each Congressional District ASAP and arriving with video recording devices rather than waiting around to see if their critters will meet with them.

Agree. To the extent possible, everyone should be out there demanding Town Hall meetings with these KochRoaches (aka ALL fed pols are *bought off* by the mega-rich; there is NO difference between putative Dems & so-called Repubs; it’s all the same).

Let’s go for it!! Time’s a-wasting.

I cannot begin to tell you how sorely disappointed I am in her total and complete sell-out to the Dems. When I met her, she struck me as a strong person (that was before she lost her job). I once in a great while listen to her on the drive home, when I really need to scream at someone. I’m pretty refreshed by the time I hit my front door.

Jane,

I keep coming back and looking at these pictures. Son-of-klynn made a great observation…

He said, “I hope Biden does not have any future plans. His lack of presence in the signing photo-op, after his work on the legislation and his constant MSM sound bites, makes Biden look very bad.”

Son-of-klynn just earned the right to vote recently.

Son-of-klynn shows the apple does indeed fall near the tree. Good on him.

Funny story along similar lines.

We’ve been a D family forever (father a union organizer) and my younger sister’s oldest daughter voted for the first time in the 2009 Virginia election.

Governor, Lt. Governor, Atty General as well as state senate and delegate races were on the ballot. Well, in our house district, the incumbant R ran unopposed. So his name appeared on the ballot with only a blank line underneath for write in votes, which appears under all the choices.

Well, I guess she wasn’t sure what the blank line was for, as after she voted she prounced in the house all proud of her votes and said “There wasn’t a Democrat in one race and I sure wasn’t gonna vote for a Republican so I voted for a blank line!”

Brought tears of pride to my eyes, I tell ya. *g*

Maybe they were there and but then photoshopped out,
The Commissar Vanishes style.
:o)

I am crafting a “Hall of Shame” report to my local paper namimg those who voted for this along with the reasons why this crisis was a lie. Also while thanking Menedenz and Lateunburg for not voting for it pointing the fact these two were likely given the role of “good guys” this time around…I called my Senators to let them know I will not vote for Obama

My answer to that will be, “If we’re that important, why didn’t you respond back then, instead of bragging, ‘They have no where else to go.’”

Did that really happen? If so, it’s the Cult of the Personality arising.

That first picture documents just how many friends Barrack Obama now has. He is due to get even lonelier for the rest of his term. Brilliant demonstration.

The photo of him signing the “sugar-coated Satan sandwich” is a 21st century version of what life must have been like for Hoover during the fateful last days of his administration.

I found some interesting specifics about the calculated design behind, and deliberate time pressures built into the Catfood II Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, as admitted by the authors (Reid has claimed ownership) of this profoundly-undemocratic, top-down Party plan to avoid full and fair Congressional deliberation and debate, or amendment, on very consequential national policies.

The details are in this scripted back-and-forth that was inserted into the Congressional Record just before the Senate vote on Tuesday, without being publicly spoken, though the CR doesn’t make that clear (the script is placed between the Jon Kyl and Mitch McConnell speeches that were delivered on the floor at or near noon, shortly before the vote on S. 365 began):

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would like to engage in a colloquy with my friend the Republican leader, with whom I worked in drafting the provisions of this bill creating a joint committee to address deficit reduction. We wrote a number of deadlines in the bill to guide the work of the joint committee. I wanted to discuss with my colleague the consequences of missing these deadlines.

Section 402(g) of the amendment before us makes clear that if the joint committee fails to meet the November 23 deadline to vote on the report and proposed language, or if the Congress fails to meet the December 23 deadline to pass the joint committee bill, then the joint committee bill will lose its privilege. It would cease to benefit from expedited procedures under this amendment.

But I also want to make clear that if the joint committee or Congress fails to meet other deadlines in the title creating the joint committee, then that failure would not lead to a loss of privilege. We attached special importance to the deadlines for the committee to vote and the Congress ultimately to act.

And so, I would like to inquire whether the Republican leader agrees with that assessment.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I agree with the majority leader. We did attach special importance to the deadlines for the committee to vote and the Congress ultimately to act. And we did not intend for failure to meet other deadlines in the title to cause the joint committee bill to lose its privilege.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would like to engage in a colloquy with my colleague the chairman of the Budget Committee, Senator Conrad, who worked with me as we drafted the joint committee language in this bill.

The compromise we are voting on today on the debt limit establishes the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to build on the more than $900 billion in up-front deficit reduction in the bill. The joint committee would work to achieve another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, for a total of $2.4 trillion. This important joint committee will be bicameral and bipartisan, with three members selected by each of the four congressional leaders, for a total of 12 members, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Importantly, their recommendations will be guaranteed an up-or-down vote on the floor of both the Senate and the House.

For this historic process to work, we felt it important that the joint committee be given maximum flexibility, with everything on the table–discretionary spending, entitlements and other mandatory spending, and tax reform. To accomplish this goal, the joint committee should similarly be given maximum flexibility in how it analyzes its work and how it determines that it has met the target of $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction.

Mr. President, over the past year, we have had three distinguished bipartisan groups provide us with comprehensive deficit reduction packages. We had the President’s Fiscal Commission, led by former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Senator Alan Simpson. We had the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force, led by former Senator Pete Domenici and former CBO and OMB Director Alice Rivlin. And we just had the so-called Group of 6, a bipartisan group of Senators, including Senator Conrad, and Senators Warner, Chambliss, Durbin, Crapo, and Coburn. All three of these groups decided that given the comprehensive and complex nature of the work that they were doing, they needed to take advantage of the flexibility to measure the effects of their proposals against the most accurate benchmark possible. I believe that it is critical that the joint committee have the same flexibility to decide on and use the most appropriate baseline possible for its work.

I believe that the legislation that we will vote on today accomplishes that, most directly by mandating the joint committee to include a statement of deficit reduction as part of the legislation it must vote on. There are no conditions on that statement. But, obviously, the legislation will need to have bipartisan support to pass the House and Senate.

I wonder if the chairman of the Budget Committee would agree with my conclusion.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I think it is absolutely correct that the flexibility exists for the Joint Committee to determine the benchmark it wishes to use and that such flexibility is entirely appropriate given the circumstances.

The leader mentioned three bipartisan groups that came to a similar conclusion. I was a member of two of those groups, the President’s Fiscal Commission and the so-called Group of 6. We devoted considerable time to considering the most appropriate baseline to use in our deliberations given our goals. In both cases, on a bipartisan basis, we decided what made the most sense was not a standard current law baseline, as CBO normally uses for the work we do around here, but a baseline that was adjusted for more realistic policies, such as more realistic war costs, more realistic tax policies, and more realistic health spending given the need to regularly provide the so-called doc fix. I can tell the leader that having that flexibility was critical to both groups reaching completion of its work. The joint committee should have that same flexibility, and I believe the bill provides it.

Mr. REID. I thank the chairman of the Budget Committee, who is the Senate’s expert on such matters.

I think we can be confident that Kent Conrad is going to be one of Harry Reid’s three selections to the SuperPower Committee – if for no other reason, than as reward for Chairman Conrad’s inexcusable blockade of the Senate Budget Committee’s legally-mandated budget work this year; a public, democratic legislative process that was clearly abandoned at the behest of Reid and Obama, no doubt demonstrating to them that Conrad will likewise play the obedient yes-man to their upcoming efforts to privately influence the committee’s product.

See, too, this very good round-up by Paul Blumenthal at HuffingtonPost focusing on the Budget Control Act’s omission of any requirements that the Joint Select Committee do the bulk of its work in public (something that could change at its first meeting, if its Co-Chairs recommend rules that would keep the committee from operating in secrecy):

“This is the same as the whole debt debate,” [John] Wonderlich [policy director of the Sunlight Foundation] said. “The power struggle trumps process entirely. The committee is designed for power, not for transparency and accountability.”

Thanks powwow.

I know there is some discussion around here of creating a scorecard for legislators on the basis of how they vote on various pieces of legislation. However, unlike some scorecards I have seen where there is only a list of votes on the final bill, I would like to see columns added for procedural votes leading up to the final vote, along with a final “duplicity index” for those who enable bills to pass/fail, even though they ultimately vote the opposite way in the final tally.

The kind of work you have done to shed light on the procedural shenanigans is essential to creating a truly meaningful scoring system. Thanks for doing so much to inform the rest of us of what is really happening versus what the critters would like us to believe.

I’m on that group and we’re actually doing something like you suggest.

Except instead of “duplicity index” we’re awarding “weasels” (not to give too much away. The rest of the group might shoot me.)

And powwow, I would just love it if you would email me at kelly1.canfield AT gmail DOT com to ask you some questions and see if you have any interest in advising our Congressional Scorecard group.

You rock Kelly! Thanks so much for letting me know. Weasels is a more evocative choice, definitely better than my suggestion ; ) Good luck! Can’t wait to see what you come up with…

Obama = shame… please lets not go down the Carter road again and watch him lose. Have someone challnge him that is credible and get the loser out!
if not I’ll just sit this one out.

BINGO!

You are a treasure, powwow. Thank you for this information!

Sounds like son-of-Klynn will be a wise voter.

Yes and so we start now. It’s simple. Just don’t vote for them. Yes we need a movement. Yes we need a candidate. Yes we need our own contract with America, our own non-negotiable slate of values. But don’t wait for that to happen. Just do what you can do with your very own vote. Accountability begin with your own vote.

Release your inner liberal. It’s starts by liberating your vote.

Just stop voting for them. If nothing else, it will cost them to buy a vote to replace yours.

I hadn’t quite put it all together in my head until just now after reading the following article in Mother Jones. This is it: Boehner and Obama negotiated this deal in which Boehner got 98% of what he wanted and 0% of what he did not want, and yet Boehner still did not have enough votes in the House or the Senate to pass the thing. The Democrats under Pelosi and Reid had to step up and pass it. And even though the Democrats had the decisive votes in their hands they still got NOTHING while Boehner got all but 2% of what he wanted. Its no wonder they were ashamed to show their faces.

Read this and then decide if you can trust a word that Speaker Pelosi woman says when she assures us that Medicare will not be “on the table”

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/pelosi-boehner-debt-ceiling-deal

“When the voting began on the controversial—and ugly—debt ceiling bill in the House of Representatives on Monday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the Democratic leader, did not know how many votes House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had for the measure that had been crafted by President Barack Obama and the Republicans. Boehner had not reached out to her to make certain that the crucial legislation designed to prevent a potentially disastrous US default would be approved. When Boehner “went to the table”—brought the bill to a vote—he “had no idea” how many votes he had, Pelosi says.

The speaker, as it turned out, did not have enough Republican votes to pass the bill—only 174—and he had made no arrangement to guarantee its success. When there were minutes left for the vote, and it became apparent that Boehner would fall far short of the 216 votes necessary for passage, Pelosi’s Democrats began voting in favor of the measure. “We were not going to let it go down,” she told a small group of journalists on Wednesday morning….”

“Pelosi didn’t have to send any signal. Her Democrats, she says, are a “sophisticated” group, and they could see that without Democratic support the bill would fail.”

is it true reid is O’s daddy?? they are both worthless cowards so i think it might be more than likely. may need a dna test. might as well sneak in a drug test also-these guys must be on something the way the are driving this country…

spot on

Powwow,

That would make a great diary. Just copy and paste and it would be done.

Great catch there! You are amazing.

when he had the votes for the changes he sold out to the GOP rich and killed or toned down every change.

During the 2004 Dem Convention Randi came on gushing about Obama’s speech. She was almost breathless with excitement when she said “I said to myself, ‘that’s the next president of the united states’”. And I thought “the fix is in for this guy”. In retrospect it confirms what always suspected: the Dems were never serious about taking down Bush

No new revenue – but “tax reform is permitted”

hell of a victory Barry.

Brought tears of pride to my eyes, I tell ya. *g*

Love it! Great story!

You and Jane would have loved the conversation about the state of Delaware son-of-klynn rolled out in relation to his “who-is-missing-in-the-picture” conversation.

Fantastic collage. Thanks, Jane!

Who is Randi Rhodes?

Heard an interesting take by James Carvel. Says if O was smart, he would have reluctantly signed but then gone to the people and said what a bad deal it was but he had to do it to prevent default. But it would ruin the economy which was now the repub economy and then run on the do-bad repub congress and blame them when the next crash comes. The cynicism is breathtaking. It would probably work except I don’t think that O’s ego will allow it.

Before we go all 14th Amendment on everyone, take a look at a very insightful piece by Michael Hudson at Counterpunch.org (Aug.3). He explains the history of the debt ceiling act: It was pushed through Congress by isolationists in 1917 after Wilson broke his 1916 campaign pledge to keep the US out of World War I. The intent was to put some reins on what was likely to be uncontrolled and unanticipated war spending.

Hudson’s article gives some cause for thinking that a debt ceiling law ought to be there to prevent wild executive spending on wars. That would assume, of course, a Congress that had the intestinal fortitude to face down a war-mongering President. Just remember how Bush put the Iraq war off the books, and practically no one raised a fuss about this gimmick.

Randi is a wholly owned Third Way girl.