Millions of Hostages Win Release After Ransom is Paid

American hostages have finally won release from Republican hostage takers... in the boldest and biggest hostage standoff in history. The ringleaders, Eric Cantor & John Boehner, got just about everything they demanded. They would not guarantee that this wouldn't happen again. In fact, the hostage takers have now been emboldened to use their extreme measures in the future.

And while America continues to drown in her own vomit... I still can't find a decent job.

Most Americans found themselves this past week asking... what in the world is going on... what just happened here?

Obama & Co. were taken to the cleaners once again. I have grown to accept the fact that Obama has few (if any) smart, competent advisers. Because someone should have told him to rally the troops much earlier... not 7 days before a deadline to default. The original debt ceiling proposal (a routine vote over much of the last century) was voted down back in May. Even before that, the Republicans telegraphed their plans to everyone...making it clear what their intentions were. They had been planning this stunt for a year. The debt limit itself was actually reached in June. The U.S. Treasury has managed this long by creating liquidity and finding extra funds. The point is... this was no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. A surprise to the average American? Yes.. because they are fixated on Reality TV and American Idol. But for those who read the paper daily...and keep up with government... this was no surprise. So why in the world was the White House behaving as if they were caught flat footed.... yet again? I have mentioned the poor strategy & PR within the White House before... and it seems to keep rearing its head again and again. And as long as this problem persists... we will get the same results. Whispers from the White House suggest that Obama just didn't believe that the Republicans would be this evil... that they would hold the Country hostage to protect private jet owners. Yes Mr. President.. they are really that evil. Time and time again Obama & Co. seems to demonstrate a lack of imagination regarding just how tacky and low the Republican Tea Party could be. Was Obama being naive again?

President Obama should have taken his case to the people much earlier... 5, 6, 7 weeks before... telling the public exactly what the Republicans were planning to do. That would have forced the Republicans to confirm or deny and would have put them on the defensive. He should have told Americans the truth about what could happen to their benefits, and to the economy as a whole. Once people would have been informed about the potential hardships...and that we have never been held hostage quite like this before... that would have put tremendous pressure on Republicans. Obama could have effectively isolated the Republicans and forced them into a corner by preempting their plans. Obama (had he acted earlier) could have made it much harder for Republicans to go through with their plan.

But like so many other times before... the Obama Administration was not proactive. Instead... they reacted to whatever the Republicans wanted to lull them into. The White House actually believed that the Republicans planned to negotiate in good faith... when in reality..the Republicans were just dragging the President along... trying to get as close to the deadline as possible. They had no intention of coming up with a deal before the last 3 days or so. They were following their plan.

I don't know what it is about Obama & Co. and Democratic strategists... but something has to change. They always seem to react...(and even then...often too late). They are rarely proactive when it comes to their strategy for dealing with Republicans... even when they know the Republican playbook...and even when the Republicans announce their plans.

Will Obama be prepared for the next fight? The next fight will likely be the Affordable Care Act...(Healthcare Reform). Republicans plan to defund certain pieces of the legislation as a way of killing it.

We will go from one problem to another with this Congress. In fact... the reprieve will be short. There will be another budget fight in September...and a government shut down (while not likely) is possible. It isn't likely because the Republicans are actually afraid to go through with it. They remember what happened after their effort to shut down the government in 1995. They came away as the bad guys. But this Republican caucus is much more extreme. So these fights are not over... they are only getting started.

Meanwhile the world is watching...amazed at the level of dysfunction within the U.S. system. Global bond holders & investors may now have second thoughts about U.S. Treasuries... so damage has been done. The world is questioning the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency (have been for a while... but especially now). Not only that... but now the credit rating for the Country could be under review. The economy...already weak, has been wounded yet again. The Dow Jones has fallen over 500 points (or about 4%) over the past week. All because the Republicans resorted to draconian measures... blaming Obama for the debt... most of which was racked up under the previous 4 Presidents (but they were white). More from the New York Times. Now the Republican Tea Party wants the debt problem solved instantly...which will cause more problems. Cutting spending too drastically will be a drag on an already slow economy. As if that wasn't enough... the political uncertainty & instability (caused by Tea Party nuts) will cause consumers and business owners to sit on their money. These Tea Party extremists didn't say a word when Bush put the Country into two wars...paying for them with emergency supplemental appropriations (outside of the standard budget process...adding to the deficit but hiding the cost).

It will be frustrating to watch Obama & Co. stumble from one debacle to another.... (including manufactured crisis) appearing unprepared..and surprised.  They will be reactive instead of proactive... allowing the Republicans to get the biggest deal that they can get. But unfortunately, this has been the m/o for Obama & Co. since 2009. The latest ploy was simply the most public example of a strategy deficit that has been a drag on the Obama Administration for quite some time.

Where are the JOBS, John Boehner? Oh yeah, what did you say? " So be it"?

Speaker Boehner, you opened your yap during the campaign season to ask the President ' WHERE'S THE JOBS?'

Now, any thinking person knew that you and your fellow Republicans didn't give a rat's ass about jobs. Only those dumb enough to vote for you actually thought you were sincere in being concerned that there are jobs needed. WHY they thought this, considering that yours is the party which voted against everything in the stimulus, and held up unemployment benefits until you got tax breaks for rich folks, and were the party to challenge that unemployment isn't actually needed...but, there are those delusional souls out there who actually thought you and your party cared about unemployment.

Since you have gotten into office, it hasn't been about jobs. It's been about redefining rape, then letting women die if they actually need an abortion to save their lives, or it's been about repealing Obama CARES, or it's been about reading the 'Constitution', but only the parts that feed into your delusions. What we, the people have not heard from the GOP is an actual plan to CREATE JOBS in America.

What we've heard from you is the following.

From TPM.com:

Boehner: If Jobs Are Lost As A Result Of GOP Spending Cuts 'So Be It'

If House Republicans succeed in cutting tens of billions of dollars in discretionary spending over the next six months, some of the most immediate victims will be federal employees, many of whose jobs will be slashed as their agencies pare back.

At a press conference in the lobby of RNC headquarters Tuesday morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) shrugged this off as collateral damage.

"In the last two years, under President Obama, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs," Boehner said. "If some of those jobs are lost so be it. We're broke."

There we go.

First of all, the 200,000 new jobs is a LIE.

Read more »

Why Wasn't the New Speaker of the House at the Tuscon Memorial? Oh Yeah, he had something better to do.

So, while the President, First Lady, Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Former Majority Whip James Clyburn could make it to Tuscon for the Memorial Service for the victims of the domestic terrorist attack, new Speaker of the House John Boehner was not.

Why was that?

Because he couldn't get there?

No. He was offered a ride to and from Arizona on Air Force One.

So, it wasn't a matter of transportation.

Did Speaker Boehner have a family emergency?

No.

So, why couldn't the new Speaker of the House attend the Memorial in Tuscon?

BECAUSE HE WAS AT A FUNDRAISER.

Yes, you read it right.

The Speaker couldn't go to Tuscon because he was at a fundraiser.

When I first heard this, the mind reels at the profound offensiveness of this.

Orange Julius cries his phony ass tears at the drop of a hat, but can't be bothered to place his behind on AIR FORCE ONE to attend a memorial service for the victims of a domestic terrorist attack.

They are who we thought they were.

Republican 'Pledge to America' Authored By Lobbyist for AIG, Big Oil

The Republicans unveiled their Snake oil today... their "Pledge to America". Based on what is in "the Pledge" the Republican answer to our economic situation is to extend tax cuts for the rich (the top 3% of American taxpayers) and that will take care of everything. Absent were specifics about controlling deficit/lowering national debt, what to do about jobs going overseas, specifics on exactly how to create jobs, etc. But the Pledge does promise to repeal healthcare reform. And on the subject of Social Security, Boehner couldn't answer reporters questions, but from what he had to say, privatizing Social Security is still on the table for them (of course it is... that's what they intend to do, but he was afraid to say it). the pledge was critical of special interests.... ironic since the man behind the "Pledge to America" is a professional corporate lobbyist for such great companies as AIG and Exxon, among others. Basically the Republican program was authored by a corporate shill by the name of Brian Wild.

From The Huffington Post:

The Republican Party's 21-page blueprint, "Pledge to America," was put together with oversight by a House staffer who, up till April 2010, served as a lobbyist for some of the nation's most powerful oil, pharmaceutical, and insurance companies.

In a draft version of The Pledge that was being passed around to reporters before the official release, the document properties list "Wild, Brian" as the "Author." A GOP source said that Wild -- who is on House Minority Leader John Boehner's payroll -- did help author the governing platform that the party is unveiling on Thursday. Another aide said that as the executive director of the Republican leadership group American Speaking Out, Wild's tasks were more on the administrative side of the operations.

Until early this year, Wild was a fairly active lobbyist on behalf of the firm the Nickles Group, the lobbying shop set up by the former Republican Senator from Oklahoma, Don Nickles. During his five years at the firm, Wild, among others, was paid $740,000 in lobbying contracts from AIG, the former insurance company at the heart of the financial collapse; $800,000 from energy giant Andarko Petroleum; more than $1.1 million from Comcast, more than $1.3 million from Exxon Mobil; and $625,000 from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.

More here

For those who may have missed an earlier post regarding what the Republican Tea Party stands for.... Here is Their Basic Platform.

From Think Progress - No real mention of controlling the earmark pork spending in Congress:

As the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports, the GOP’s new “Pledge to America” was directed by a staffer named Brian Wild, who until early this year, was a lobbyist at a prominent DC firm that lobbied on behalf of corporate giants like Exxon. Moreover, the insurance industry is the leading contributor to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the Republican who led the effort. Consistent with its desire to placate lobbyists, the 21-page “Pledge” omits any mention of a key Republican mantra: a ban on earmarks.

Lobbyists have long supported the practice of “earmarking,” a maneuver that allows lobbyists to cajole members of Congress to add pet projects to appropriations bills. While it’s no surprise that the lobbyist-authored document drops any discussion of “earmarking,” it is nevertheless an interesting pivot for Republicans.

On March 11, 2010, House Republicans adopted a one-year moratorium on all earmarks, urging Republicans in the Senate and Democrats in Congress “to follow their lead.” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) touted the decision as “an important step toward showing the American people we’re serious about reform.” While Democrats announced a ban on earmarks for private companies the day before, Boehner wanted to “put [all earmarks] on the line to win” the November elections. Republicans touted their measure as a message that they were going to “cleanse themselves” of corruption and bring about “a culture of change”:

See full commentary from Think Progress.

Two great commentaries on The Republican "Pledge to America"

One from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Another from the Examiner.