Hold your nose!

There's no other way to say it, but this vote stinks!  While I'm sure that there are plenty of Republicans that held their noses or had one hand over their eyes, this one didn't sit well with the Democrats either. 

There's still the vote in the Senate, and they have to get 60 to cut off debate to even have a vote.  But it will likely just be a process matter. 

What else can be said about this particular vote.  No one was a winner, the losers were the American people, and we still kicked the can down the road to deal with on yet another day. 


Here's the Roll Call for the Virginia delegation: 

Yeas – Cantor (R), Connolly (D), Goodlatte (R), Hurt (R), Rigell (R), Wolf (R)

Nays – Forbes (R), Griffith (R), Moran (D), Scott (D), Whitman (R)

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll690.xml#Y 

Correction: 

Yeas – Cantor (R), Connolly (D), Goodlatte (R), Hurt (R), Rigell (R), Wittman (R), Wolf (R)


Nays – Forbes (R), Griffith (R), Moran (D), Scott (D)

Krugman is right!

No matter how many ways you slice it, President Obama has bent over backwards to work with the GOP and their Tea Party leadership to address: 1) raising the Debt Ceiling, and 2) making painful cuts to entitlements. 

Even when the GOP gets what they want, which is massive, massive cuts in entitlements and other government programs, they are still not willing to concede the other part to the problem - Revenues. 

Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman, lays it out in his column this morning, how if the GOP and the Tea Party really cared about governing and what's best for the people of the United States, they would have agreed to the President's and Democrats' conditions on revenues by closing tax loopholes and eliminating some very popular exemptions in order to pay down the national debt and start bringing cost under control. 

As further evidence of the willingness of Democrats to do what's best for the financial stability of the nation, and the world, they even proposed taking out most of their demands on the revenue side of the ledger by pointing out that with both Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, we would be able to count that funding towards reductions in spending. 

But yet again, the GOP and Tea Party deny that the money spent on both wars counts towards our deficit spending.  Are they really that departed from reality that they thought the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were freebies?  That Iraq and Afghanistan didn't cost this nation a dime?  Come on! 

So Paul Krugman is absolutely right.  Even when the GOP and Tea Party gets everything they want, and more, they care more about what's best for their own political base than what's best for the nation. 

Even if Obama agreed with them that the world was flat and that the planet was actually cooling rather than heating up, it still wouldn't be good enough for them. 

Don't look, but the GOP and the Tea Party are about to off all the hostages.  In case you're wondering who the hostages are - they're US. 

Image found at:  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNS9y0WzUJ3cOzBoJiqqZlMVOk1jAUMji1tFUKtsRY7x3pLpEkODX82LlDU7VGkhGWs1yoYeA2v6prAclkS5cmF3WnP4yFbwTvOH4XRfaclC6xX62YYxzMEI11rAKpuJevFZ7MLm-gmyX/s1600/hostage.jpg 

America's need for Audacious Leadership

Two stories, one from Politico and one from CNN, on what Obama needs to do in order for Democrats to hold on to their majorities in the House and Senate.  The message is pretty clear from both stories: 

1.  Tell us where we are going and how we get there as a nation. 
2.  Use the Bully Pulpit of the Oval Office.  
3.  Lead, Lead, Lead. 

If Obama does these things, Democrats will fair far better than people expect. 

As Don Baer, former Communications Director for the Clinton Administrations, tells Politico: 

"You have to provide the country with a narrative of where we have been and where we need to go and how to get there.  That requires a theory of the case on the role of government — and the role of the president." 

Obama has fallen into the same wonky, inarticulate policy muck that most Democrats get trapped by and spend too much time explaining.  Rather than doing what Republicans do (forcing you to explain the details as the crowd goes to sleep or gets folks banging their head on a table and yanking clumps of hair from wherever they can), Democrats hunker down in the bunker and wait for them to stop swinging.

Contrary to the CNN article, Obama needs to forget channeling Reagan and get and infusion of some "Teddy" Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.  That ain't "No Drama" Obama's style, but its what people respond to.  So far, Americans are responding and reacting to ultra-Conservative demagoguery that is tearing this nation apart. 

President Obama, time for some Progressive "Pragmatic Righteousness" to confront and counter the Demagoguery and Righteous Bigotry.  Give us the Audacity of Leadership. 

Image found at:  http://www.africabusinesssource.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/barack_obama1.jpg

President Obama supports construction of Mosque near Groud Zero

This is the right call.  Freedom of Religion in America doesn't mean the freedom to only practice the Christian faith.  If anything, this is more of a poke in the eye to the Taliban that feeding into their propaganda of American hypocrisy and intolerance. 

This is what Jeffersonian Democracy looks like.  Religious tolerance is an American Value.  This mosque will be on private property and there's already one close to Ground Zero.  This is going to make the evangelicals crazy and fire up the Birthers.  Hang on to your hats! 

The Nobel Peace Prize goes to... Barack Obama?

Certainly a surprise choice, but if you can't land the 2016 Olympics not a bad consolation PRIZE. Sooo... TAKE THAT SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!!!!

President Obama is only the third sitting United States President to wind the prize, joining Presidents Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt and President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson won his in 1919, after the end of World War I. This is truly an exclusive club and also puts President Obama is rarefied company.

Obama has been widely criticized by Republicans and many conservatives for spending too much time traveling the world and not focusing on domestic economic issues and not being more engaged in the Healthcare Reform efforts in the United States. The truly stunning move by the Nobel Prize Committee in naming Barack Obama the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is that it usually goes to someone who has spent a significant part of their life in the pursuit of peace. President Obama has only been in office for 9 months.

I don't think that the Nobel Peace Prize has ever gone to a leader of any nation that is engaged in any war, let alone two wars. But, Obama has reached out to almost every corner of the world to make that case that the United States is back and intends to full fill the promise that it has been hyped up to be for so long.

So again, TAKE THAT SNL!!!