Now that we have seen just exactly what the influence of the centrists in the Senate has been on the stimulus bill, it is clear that the bill is much worse than when it arrived in the Senate and if passed in this form it will be much less effective than we desperately need it to be.  The naive emphasis on bipartisan outreach from the Obama administration has yielded exactly what it always yields and that is an inferior piece of legislation that will not deliver the stimulating punch it is intended to deliver to the economy, but that will serve to undermine the efforts of the President and this mutant they have conceived, when it fails as it surely will, will be hung around the President's neck like the albatross it is intended to be.  That's simply unacceptable.

So, the thanks the President gets for his attempt to work cooperatively with the Republicans is a product that hampers the intended purpose of the bill.  And even after all their rotten ideas were included they still are voting no.  This is not just a happenstance but a deliberate and well thought out plan to hobble this legislation so that it won't work.  That way, the Republicans can run against Obama in 2010 saying that "look at all the money he spent and it didn't do any good at all".  Then they will undoubtedly add that "the problem with the bill was not enough tax cuts."

This grotesque demonstration of bad faith and unpatriotic political manuevering cannot be tolerated.  The President should get rid of ALL of the foolish tax cuts in the bill, do the things he knows are right, make no compromise with those blithering idiots and demand that they support the bill as he wants it.  He should then call on the American people to lay down a withering barrage of phone calls, emails, letters, visits, etc... to the office of those gutless centrist wonders and the Republicans to pressure them as they have never been pressured before until they cave in and support the President's bill.

Most economists I have read or heard in the past couple of weeks believe that even at $900 Billion the bill is not big enough to stop, let alone reverse the tsunami of job losses that are headed our way in the next 2 years.  If we load this bill down with in excess of 40% of all the money going toward tax cuts which we know will not be even close to the most effective stimulting measures we can take, then we have reduced the effectiveness of the bill dramatically.  So, by loading the bill up with tax cuts that won't stimulate the economy much, if at all, we are simply doing more of the crap Bush was doing and that is the opposite of what the people voted for last November. 

It is time to face the reality of the situation we are in.  The country is in a new depression and the effects are growing by leaps and bounds every single day.  We don't need some analyst to inform us in a year or so that a depression is underway.  We see it.  We feel it.  It is time to act, not to ponder or hesitate and not to vacillate over whether we should do what is right or what the worst elements in public life demand.  There really is no choice, our leaders must do what is right and they must do it now.  Over 600,000 people lost their jobs last month alone which is a huge increase from the month before so the depression is growing rapidly.  We have no more time to waste attempting to appeal to the better angels of the Republicans' nature: they don't have any better angels.  They are morally and politically bankrupt.  They are so corrupt they cannot act in the best interest of the country even when they want to (which is rare).  They are filled with bad will and malice toward all.  They hate the American people and are demonstrating just how much by gutting the country's best hope of blunting the effects of the economic catastrophe they and their idiotic policies have caused.  Hopefully, the President has learned his lesson and the bloody stump he pulled back from his attempt to reach out to these creeps has taught him just how much cooperation he can expect from them.

So, Mr. President, if you were listening to me I would advise the following:

You did your damndest on the bipartisan business but it didn't work out and we don't have any time left to mess around with it.  It's okay to put on your partisan war bonnet now, open up a couple of cases of whoopass and let's kick those Republican's asses from here to next Wednesday until they understand who is boss now.  The people are behind you sir: use them!   Rally them!    Call upon them to demand the action you and we know is needed and that they know is needed.  Tell them not to listen to the corrupt liars who got us in this mess and instead show them the way out of it.  It's time to do what is right and to fight as hard and as much as necessary to get this bill passed.  There will be no comity and no collegiality with the Republican swine until you have demonstrated to them that you are, indeed, the big dog, that you will not be pushed around, and that you will do what is right for the country whether or not they are willing to cooperate.  It's the only language they know and it is a language where actions are much louder than words.  So Mr. President, let's get to work, put those bastards in their place, and bring real change to Washington and the rest of the nation. 

I am simply amazed at what I've just seen on yahoo news. 

After it's shameful anti-Democratic reporting of the past couple of years they now have the gall to attempt to get a piece of the Obama marketing pie by going after Shepard Fairey.  It's disgusting.  Screw the Associated Press and it's right wing owners.  No class at all.  No shame either.

Here's the opening of the AP article running on yahoo as I type this:

AP alleges copyright infringement of Obama image

NEW YORK - On buttons, posters and Web sites, the image was everywhere during last year's presidential campaign: A pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE.

Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers, has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay.

The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an Associated Press photograph, taken in April 2006 by Manny Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees.

To read the rest of it, go here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090204/ap_en_ot/obama_poster

God how I wish Harry Truman were here today because he would give Obama the advice he needs  to be successful and Harry would quickly disabuse him of some of the more Quixotic ideas clouding the President's vision as he starts his 1st term.  Truman was one of our keenest political observers and he understood just exactly what the score was.  Time has passed since Harry was in command, but the essential character and objectives of the Republican Party and the political dynamics of Washington have not.

We all wish our President well and hope he is successful in reviving the economy, cleaning up the government, protecting the environment, etc...  But many of us understand that what we are seeing from the Republicans since power was transferred is not going to change.  Nothing Obama does will ever accomplish the mythical comity and collegiality of politics that many fondly, but innaccurately recall. 

Truman was never fooled and the sooner Obama forgets this pipe dream of a new era of bipartisan cooperation the better.  It isn't going to happen.  All one needs to do is to observe how the Rebpublicans are undercutting the docile Democrats and the President on the hill regarding the stimulus bill.  Or take a look at how Judd Gregg's highly partisan "conditions" on accepting the Commerce Secretary position screw the President's ability to overcome Republican obstructionism.  Where is the benefit (other than to the Republican's political objectives) in cooperating with these scoundrels, liars, and criminals?  There is none: none at all.

In lieu of the much needed, but unlikely resurrection of Harry Truman, here are some Truman quotes that the President would do well to study and take to heart now that the Republicans are mangling the stimulus bill and everything else that comes before the Congress in order to harm him and his ability to make any significant changes in DC.  It is not too late for the President to do what he should have done from day one which is to take charge, understand there is no such thing as bipartisan cooperation with the Republican Party and get on with restoring all the things they have destroyed.  So, for those who wish to argue with me about the desirability of pursuing the myth of bipartisanship, don't waste your breath.  Argue with Harry.  I'm with him 100%.

"Carry the battle to them.  Don't let them bring it to you.  Put them on the defensive.  And don't ever apologize for anything."

"I don't like bipartisan.  Whenever a fellow tells me he's bipartisan, I know that he's going to vote against me."

"The republicans believe the the power of government should be used first of all to help the rich and the privileged in the country.  With them, property, wealth, comes first.  The Democrats believe that the power of government should be used to give the common man more protection and a chance to make a living.  With us the people come first."

"We should resolve now that the health of this nation is a national concern; that financial barriers in the way of attaining health shall be removed; that the health of all it's citizens deserves the help of all the nation."

"Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke.  They stand four-square for the American home--but not for housing.  They are strong for labor--but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights.  They favor minimum wage--the smaller the better.  The endorse educational opportunity for all--but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools.  They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine--for people who can afford them.  They consider electrical power a great blessing--but only when the private power companies get their rake-off.  They think the American standard of living is a fine thing--so long as it doesn't spread to all the people.  And they admire the Government of the United States so much they would like to buy it."

"I do not understand a mind which sees a gracious beneficence in spending money to slay and maim human beings in almost unimaginable numbers and deprecates the expenditure of a smaller sum to patch up the ills of mankind."

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Republican. But I repeat myself."

Also, I highly recommend that people either listen to or read Truman's acceptance speech in 1948.  It helps to remember what a real Democrat ought to sound like. You can listen to it or read it by going here: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/educ/1948.htm

Don't know about anyone else, but I didn't see the following story in the news last week about a coalition that has formed to press the Medicare for All legislation in Congress.  If you can get two very different kinds of Congressmen like Conyers and Dingell supporting the same basic approach on health care, then it becomes crystal clear that theonly thing standing in the way of doing the right thing is the greed of the insurance compaines.

It wouldn't be easy to drive a stake through the heart of those blood suckers, but it would be worth it to try.  And if you don't even try then you have made the failure of attaining the goal a foregone conclusion.  So I'd say those interested in actually providing health care for all Americans should do what they can to support this coalition and promote passage of the Medicare for All bill in the House.

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=2&docID=news-000003020217

In this piece running right now on TPM

 http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/02/obama_urged_not_to_backburner_climate_change.php 

Al Gore advocates the President take strong action now on Climate Change.  He is right and everyone who loves humanity and this precious blue jewel of a planet needs to join him in demanding that the President take quick and drastic action to reverse the disasterous course the nation and planet are on with respect to climate change. 

It is not at all hyperbolic to say that nothing else matters if we so foul the planet that life on earth is destroyed.  What we have already put in motion through our irresponsible activities are huge and cataclysmic changes in our environment.  We must act now if we hope (even within the next hundred years) to be able to stop and reverse what we have put in motion from going any further.  Whatever your religious beliefs (or not) we humans have inherited a uniquely beautiful and extraordinary, self-sustaining planetary ecosystem that we humans alone are responsible for screwing up.  We owe it to the future and to the grace and providence of the universe that bestowed this planet upon us to make 100% sure, no matter the cost or inconvenience) that we act in a manner that secures that future for at least as long as it would have endured without all the pollution and destruction caused by human activity.

We have an absolutely glorious planet.  It is an ingenious, living organism that has provided the possibility of life for us and all the other living things we share this it with.  It is our sacred obligation to protect it.  If we were dumb animals, unable to discern what is happening and that we have caused it, that would be one thing.  But we are not dumb animals and we do know what has caused the already terrifying destruction of the polar ice caps, the changes in our weather patterns that all of us have experienced and can easily understand and more.  We have caused this profane and obscene destruction to be set in motion.  Our top priority: bar none, must be to do whatever is required to stop and reverse the warming of the atmosphere.

If we fail to do so, how can we look our children and grandchildren in the eyes and tell them we love them?  If we fail to protect the earth it is clear that our love for our own families is not great enough to make us stop killing the planet in order to continue on our selfish and perverse course.  Though there is almost certainly life elsewhere in the universe, we have no proof that there is.  What if we are it?  Do we really want to roll the dice in hopes that if we do ourselves in a manner that could have been avoided that some other human life will arise somewhere in the vastness of the universe?  I think not.  What magnitude of crime are we committing if we snuff out the light of life here on earth?  We are talking about no less.  We must act responsibly and we must act immediately on behalf of the billions of people who have a right to the blessings of this earth as we know them in a future that will be centuries or even millenia beyond our own living moments in existence on earth.

Every soul in this country that cares about humanity and it's future needs to contact the President and let him know very clearly that we are deadly serious and in earnest about this issue.  Yes, the economy is an extraordinary crisis, but life on earth is a bigger issue than the passing economic downturn we are experiencing no matter how bad it is.  Time is running out for humanity even as I type this and you read it.  Gore is right and we need to echo his urgent call for action to all the powers that be before it is too late.

Act now and urge the President to take far-reaching and dramatic action on climate change now! 

Taking a momentary break from politics... who are ya for in today's Super Bowl and what's your prediction?

Personally, I'm for the Steelers but if the Cardinals win it won't upset me.  They are a good team too and Warner is an exceptional quarterback.  I've always liked both teams for different reasons but hate to see Bidwell (the Cardinals owner) get rewarded with a Super Bowl victory after being as cheap and rotten an owner as he has been forever and after he really screwed St. Louis by moving out west.

I am not confident of my prediction but I'll say Steelers by a touchdown.