Quote :

""I think Obama's larger goal here is to build support among normal Muslim's for him and the US, and by extension, the US"

Quote :

"I don't think we have reached any common ground yet in regards to cutting off our heads, and flying planes into buildings. Perhaps we could revisit those topics first. "

no shit - the point of reaching "common ground" it to, you know..... find common ground. Cutting off heads and knocking down buildings obviously isn't common ground, and therefore we don't build up a relationship based on that ground.

6/4/2009 11:09:11 PM

Biden says some waste inevitable part of stimulus

Quote :

"'There are going to be mistakes made,' said Biden. 'Some people are being scammed already.'"

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5516HE20090602



Days without a Joe "Rhetorical Flourishes" Biden foot-in-mouth incident: 0

6/5/2009 12:43:39 AM

Human admits humans make mistakes! News at 11!

6/5/2009 1:03:05 AM

A VEEP who acknowledges reality instead of distorting it?

GET IN THE CAR

6/5/2009 9:19:40 AM

^^^ name one public or private operation in which there isn't waste or the potential for getting "scammed". he might as well have said "you know, if you go out in the rain, you're going to get wet".

[Edited on June 5, 2009 at 10:55 AM. Reason : .]

6/5/2009 10:54:37 AM

I like how on NPR yesterday (OMG LIBERAL BIAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111one) they were talking to a bunch of muslims and a couple people said "gee, he makes a great speech, but he is a bit short on details or plans..." I was like "yeah, welcome to his presidential campaign, lol"

6/5/2009 12:34:43 PM

you have to bring people together to the table to actually make the plans first.

6/5/2009 5:04:50 PM

Quote :

"Obama: "To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened. This place is the ultimate rebuke to such thoughts" "

Rather than chastise Holocaust-deniers, I would've liked to see the Prez. talk more about the results of totalitarian gov'ts, of gov't leaders who centralize more and more power unto themselves, who nationalize private industry, who bark at the citizens to sacrifice for the good of the country.

Quote :

" The president said Buchenwald "teaches us that we must be ever-vigilant about the spread of evil in our own time, that we must reject the false comfort that others' suffering is not our problem, and commit ourselves to resisting those who would subjugate others to serve their own interests.""

Now there's a good thought.

[Edited on June 5, 2009 at 9:19 PM. Reason : .]

6/5/2009 9:19:00 PM

i wish you could meet him

and give him a laundry list of things that are a result of things you've been keeping since the 1960s

cause the lack of solutions go back before that

6/5/2009 9:57:54 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090606/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_cuba_spy_charges

gg team obama for catching those ppl

6/6/2009 12:18:47 AM

gg FBI, actually

6/6/2009 9:13:43 AM

9.4% Unemployment...highest in 25 years.

Quote :

"WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama promised Monday to deliver more than 600,000 jobs through his $787 billion stimulus plan this summer, with federal agencies pumping billions into public works projects, schools and summer youth programs. The announcement comes days after the government reported that the number of unemployed continues to rise; Republicans remain critical of the stimulus spending, slamming it as a big government program that ultimately will do little for recovery. With only a fraction of the federal money actually spent thus far, it's premature to give the stimulus plan credit for economic trends, congressional Republicans said last week. "I think the economy is just as likely to begin to recover on its own, wholly aside from this, before much of this has an impact. So I'm very skeptical that this massive sort of spending binge that we've engaged in is going to have much of an impact," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky."

Oh Oh the country might start looking behind the curtain. I'd better take some of their money and "create" some make-work jobs so they think I'm working on the problem.

6/8/2009 10:52:55 AM

but we "saved or created" millions of jobs.

THings will turn around, its just a matter of when and if our economy is going to be dragging along more burden from washington. There is no doubt in my mind when seeking reelection he will point out that his spending caused things to rebound...its what politicians do. Although we are seeing signs of a rebound and about 5% of stim money spent. haha

6/8/2009 11:05:52 AM

I kinda gave up on this administration a month or so ago, but this may just seal the deal

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/us-says-tarp-issue-out-of-courts-reach/

6/8/2009 12:49:57 PM

Piece on teleprompter

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31051003#31051003

6/8/2009 2:15:46 PM

that is literally one of the dumbest things i have ever seen

6/8/2009 2:32:07 PM

Rather than figuratively one of the dumbest things you've ever seen? (sorry I hate the overuse/misuse of 'literally')

But seriously, that video is a waste of time, bandwidth, server space, electricity, and time.

6/8/2009 2:51:16 PM

6/8/2009 2:59:54 PM

^^^^ well there goes that argument.

"Breaking: Supreme Court to block sale, take Chrysler case"

6/8/2009 4:27:58 PM

Thank god, it appears that, at least for one more day, the law still means something.

6/8/2009 4:31:23 PM

Quote :

"commit ourselves to resisting those who would subjugate others to serve their own interests"

Quote :

"Now there's a good thought."

Yes economic regulation is a step away from scientific racism and the subjugation of an entire continent to a superior nation and race.

Quote :

""Breaking: Supreme Court to block sale, take Chrysler case""

This is dissapointing to me purely from a automotive standpoint. When am I gonna get my Fiat 500?

From WaPo:

Quote :

"Supreme Court Stalls Chrysler-Fiat Deal The Supreme Court ruled moments ago that Chrysler cannot yet sell most of its assets to Fiat, a move that has been opposed by three Indiana state pension and construction funds. The ruling grants a stay in the sale as the court gathers more data. The court has not decided whether to schedule a hearing on the matter. It temporarily blocks the way for Chrysler to complete its merger with the Italian automaker and begin its new, post-bankruptcy life. The U.S. favors the Chrysler-Fiat merger and wants to remove the Indiana road block. "I'm delighted it appears we will be getting our day in court," Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock said in an interview on CNBC. Here's the text of the statement from Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: "UPON CONSIDERATION of the application of counsel for the applicants, and the responses filed thereto, IT IS ORDERED that the orders of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, case No. 09-50002, dated May 31 and June 1, 2009, are stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.""

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-watch/2009/06/supreme_court_holds_up_chrysle.html?hpid=topnews

meh

[Edited on June 8, 2009 at 5:37 PM. Reason : .]

6/8/2009 5:33:13 PM

To PinkandBlack et al:

1. Vice President Joe Biden Will be Economic Stimulus Cop

http://www.wcbs880.com/pages/3915249.php?

Biden is "monitoring" and "promoting" stimulus package spending (God help us).

Quote :

"Along with Vice President Joseph R. Biden, who has been leading efforts to monitor the stimulus package and promote its use, administration officials also will open up another Web page — in addition to http://www.recovery.gov, which is already supposed to track the spending. The latest, http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/Recovery, will seek participation from people affected by stimulus spending and trace their stories. How much has been spent so far has been disputed, with projects already under way that are still to be buoyed by stimulus money and with some overstated expenditures, as well as continuing debate over how the money should be spent."

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/the-early-word-stressing-the-stimulus/?hp

You know, the economic recovory Web address that Biden didn't know the "number" of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QY8wCZSgM0

2. Transparency takes a big hit
It's a shame the program to track federal stimulus funds won't be active until October; and not fully online even then.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12339659

3. And concerning oversight of stimulus spending, Obama said, "Nobody messes with Joe." I guess we can add this to the list of Obama's incorrect statements or outright flip-flops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyC-SU8Emhc

[Edited on June 8, 2009 at 6:19 PM. Reason : PS: ]

6/8/2009 6:18:18 PM

Meh?

It's good to know that the Supreme Court won't allow Obama to trample on the rights of 1 politically unsympathetic group in order to force his bankruptcy deal through. Give these guys their day in court, they have been begging for it.


I have a lot of questions about whether Chrysler will be viable even if partnered with Fiat. It didn't work so well with DaimlerBenz, why is it gonna work this time around?

6/8/2009 6:20:40 PM

nobody messes with joe?

are you off your rocker, hooksaw?

6/8/2009 6:21:12 PM

^ I suppose it's possible. But I was simply posting Obama's quotation concerning Biden and his role as "watchdog" over stimulus funds--you know, the funds that Biden now says are being wasted.

6/8/2009 6:25:23 PM

Quote :

"I have a lot of questions about whether Chrysler will be viable even if partnered with Fiat. It didn't work so well with DaimlerBenz, why is it gonna work this time around?"

Most reports I've read attribute the failure of DaimlerChrysler to the inability of Daimler to contribute anything worthy of a massive selling car to Chrysler. Think about it. Mecedes-Benz makes great cars but none will be big sellers to challenge the likes of Toyota and Honda, who are led by their mid-size, affordable entries.

Now Fiat is a better competitor since it is used to producing mass sellers, more efficient mid to small cars, etc. Chrysler lacks function over all else, and Fiat has that.

Of course, I say this as a total mark for the World Rally Championship.

6/8/2009 6:38:56 PM

Quote :

"Yes economic regulation is a step away from scientific racism and the subjugation of an entire continent to a superior nation and race."

I made no such claim, my friend.

My point is I find it interesting how Obama makes such a statement while he is in the process of trying to subjugate the banks, the auto industry, the health care system.. even the Supreme Court to his will.

Quote :

"but we "saved or created" millions of jobs."

Everytime Obama says that line, we should come back with the country has lost or prevented from being created over 3 million jobs...or something to the effect.

Quote :

""At the time, our forecast seemed reasonable," Vice President Joe Biden's top economic adviser, Jared Bernstein, said Monday, explaining that the White House underestimated the scope of the recession. "Now, looking back, it was clearly too optimistic." By now, according to earlier White House economic models, the nation's unemployment rate should be on the decline. The forecasts used to drum up support for the plan projected today's unemployment would be about 8 percent. Instead, it sits at 9.4 percent, the highest in more than 25 years. Some analysts believe the White House is still not being realistic, that Obama will be lucky if any real job creation from his recovery effort is seen by the end of the year, let alone the employment explosion he predicts. "I think these estimates are overly optimistic," said Arpitha Bykere, a senior analyst with RGE Monitor. Obama spoke Monday about "modest progress" in the economy, citing fewer jobs lost last month than expected. He said he hopes to build on that in the months ahead with stimulus programs. "We've done more than ever, faster than ever, more responsibly than ever, to get the gears of the economy moving again," he said."

And, of course, if the gears of the economy fail to get moving again after all the stimulus spending..it won't be Obama's fault. He just under-estimated Bush's evil-ness. He was just trying to help the best way he knew how..with socialism.

6/8/2009 10:46:08 PM

Uh-oh.



Amidst Questions About Their Numbers, White House Says Stimulus Will Save or Create 600,000 Jobs in the Next 100 Days

Quote :

"After much criticism that the $787 stimulus bill hasn't created enough jobs and isn't being distributed quickly enough with more than $700 billion of it unspent, President Obama and Vice President Biden debuted their new summer mantra: they will, they said, create or save 600,000 jobs in the next 100 days. But their 600,000 figure comes at a time when other numerical projections and claims have been questioned."

Quote :

"The administration last month claimed that 150,000 jobs had already been saved or created due to the stimulus bill, though that number is based on a theoretical projection and not an actual count. As ABC News' David Kerley points out, last week Keith Hall, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, told a House subcommittee that he could not substantiate the claim. 'No,' Hall said. 'That would be a very difficult thing for anybody to substantiate…We're busy just counting jobs.'"

http://tinyurl.com/lpykyo

[Edited on June 9, 2009 at 2:02 AM. Reason : .]

6/9/2009 1:56:03 AM

Quote :

"Gingrich, the event headliner, also thanked Palin for attending. He said "this country would be amazingly better off" had McCain and Palin been elected."

LOL; hell ya git er dun.

Quote :

"In a lengthy speech that touched on topics ranging from health care to border security, Gingrich railed against the Obama administration's "disastrous" approach to federal spending and national security policy"

I see the GOP is still jacking its jaws. Easily I could label some of Obamas policies as 'misguided' but disastourous cut me a fucking break.
At the least it is to early to tell; as our republican leaders should very well know since they are the ones that lived by the "policy lag"
theory when Bush started getting shit about the economy and how it was really Clinton's fault since it takes time for policies to make real
world impacts.

Quote :

"Gingrich held up former Cheney, the former vice president, as an expert voice on national security"

you can't be serious? I think the term fiction writer would be more accurate label for that old wind bag.

Quote :

"Cheney laid out facts, while Obama resorted to little more than high-minded oratory."

"facts" like the manufactured ones in all those intelligence reports leading up to the war in Iraq for example Saddam was plotting
with Osama Bin LAden.

Quote :

"soft-spoken Caesar" who bullies Israel and employed pleasant-sounding language to dupe the country into voting for him last November. "

This may be true but on the same light we could call the McPalin campaign a horse and pony show leading around fear-mongerers about
communism coming to america, the terrorists winning, missles landing on grandma's porch and every fairy queen in the US getting hitched after Jan20th

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/09/GOP.fundraiser.palin/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

6/9/2009 8:29:06 AM

Quote :

"At the least it is to early to tell; as our republican leaders should very well know since they are the ones that lived by the "policy lag""

He said

Quote :

"disastrous approach"

So clearly he is recognizing it is too early to tell. However, it doesn't take a racist fratter to realize you can't 4x the deficit in the face of rising interest rates and think they country is going to come out unscathed.

6/9/2009 8:56:11 AM

^^ A+ analysis

Probably should have posted the Nazi American flag and thrown in some racist comments like normal and I would have been 100% satisfied

6/9/2009 9:00:59 AM

6/9/2009 9:15:36 AM

^^agreed.

Quote :

"Most reports I've read attribute the failure of DaimlerChrysler to the inability of Daimler to contribute anything worthy of a massive selling car to Chrysler. Think about it. Mecedes-Benz makes great cars but none will be big sellers to challenge the likes of Toyota and Honda, who are led by their mid-size, affordable entries."

In some cases I agree. However, the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger were both huge commercial successes when they came out. And what platform did they, and do they still use? The previous generation Mercedes-Benz E-Class platform.

6/9/2009 10:02:58 AM

hooksaw,

well, personally I'm still willing to give the stimulus package time to work (since I hope it does and we are not straddling ourselves with debt for nothing).

But I think the admin's claim of "creating or saving" thousands of jobs is hard to criticize because its essentially an unprovable claim. Greg Mankiw explains:

Quote :

"The expression "create or save," which has been used regularly by the President and his economic team, is an act of political genius. You can measure how many jobs are created between two points in time. But there is no way to measure how many jobs are saved. Even if things get much, much worse, the President can say that there would have been 4 million fewer jobs without the stimulus."

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/02/create-or-save.html



[Edited on June 9, 2009 at 10:32 AM. Reason : ``]

6/9/2009 10:30:55 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/09/us/AP-US-Guantanamo-Detainee.html?_r=2&hp

Quote :

"The department said Ahmed Ghailani arrived in the early morning hours Tuesday. U.S. Marshals took custody of Ghailani from his military jailers and brought him to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Ghailani is scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court later Tuesday. ''With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed Ghailani is being held accountable for his alleged role in the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224 people,'' Attorney General Eric Holder said in a press release. ''The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case.''"

This super-man of criminals was incapable of resisting the mighty US Marshals, and escaping to summon his sleeper al-qaeda brethren.

This seems like a step in the right direction though in terms of closing down the Guantanamo PR debacle.

6/9/2009 10:42:10 AM

Quote :

"Biden Mistakenly Claims New Hudson River Tunnel Project Will Accomodate Cars Vice President Biden, on a conference call Monday with reporters, claimed that the planned Hudson River tunnel between New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan would provide a much-anticipated route for automobiles. Problem is, it's for trains. "

not a huge deal by any means.


but I laffed

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/09/biden-mistakenly-claims-hudson-tunnel-accomodate-cars/

[Edited on June 9, 2009 at 2:21 PM. Reason : link]

6/9/2009 2:20:40 PM

^ You forgot this:



Days without a Joe "Rhetorical Flourishes" Biden foot-in-mouth incident: 0



Socks``

You were kidding, right?

Quote :

"But I think the admin's claim of 'creating or saving' thousands of jobs is hard to criticize because its essentially an unprovable claim."

This is the very reason Obama's claims are being criticized--and that some claims are just flat-out wrong. . .



. . .such as what's illustrated in this graph that nobody seems to care about.

6/9/2009 3:02:48 PM

do you have a link to that graph? I love it

6/9/2009 3:03:40 PM

hooksaw,

The claim that the stimulus package would "create or save" thousands of jobs can't be flat-out wrong because its too vauge to have test-able predictions. As Greg Mankiw pointed out, we cannot count the number of jobs the stimulus "saved". Therefore measured unemployment could continue to rise (as you have shown it has) and the administration could simply say that unemployment would be even higher if the stimulus package had not "saved" millions of jobs.

I'm not saying that is a good thing. In fact, its a very bad thing because it removes any credible metric for the success of Obama's policies.

6/9/2009 3:42:58 PM

^ I understand. But Chairman Obama told us that words matter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgMcht-EW6I

6/9/2009 3:47:53 PM

heh the obama effect

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/09/obama-effect/

Quote :

"Researchers Debate 'Obama Effect' on Black Students' Test Scores A recent study found that African-Americans scored higher on standardized tests if they were reminded of President Obama's accomplishments before the test -- narrowing the achievement gap between black and white test takers and suggesting a tangible effect of Obama's presidency."

Quote :

"Friedman said the students who earned higher scores likely overcame "stereotype threat" -- a fear that one's performance will confirm an existing negative stereotype of a group with which one identifies, resulting in psychological discomfort."

6/9/2009 5:44:32 PM

^ sounds plausible to me. And if electing a black president is helping young people reconsider the opportunities they have in life, then I think that's a good thing.

I would also note that it also sounds like Dr. Friedman, the Vanderbilt Univ. who conducted the study, was much more rigorous than the person criticizing him in the article. Friedman tested 4 groups of 100 people and over time, which is how he noticed that the gap narrowed as Obama's election became more certain. By contrast, his critic conducted a single test of 160 people after in June of 2008 when Obama closed the Democratic primary. These seem to actually confirm Friedman's findings because he also found a similarly negligable effect of Obama's nomination on test scores in his earliest tests.

Of course, the article doesn't mention anything about statistical significance and I'm too lazy to google it. But just from what I'm reading in the article, it sounds like Friedman has the better case.

6/9/2009 6:09:55 PM

There was an episode of Radio Lab about this a while back, really interesting.
http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2009/01/27/the-obama-effect-perhaps/

6/9/2009 6:42:52 PM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8091689.stm

Quote :

" Ten US banks to pay back bail-out Ten of the largest US banks will be able to repay $68bn in government bail-out money, the US Treasury says..."

So if the banks are being "allowed" to un-nationalize themselves, does this mean we're now moving away from socialism?

6/10/2009 10:25:56 AM

^
Many of the banks who got "Permission" to pay back didn't even want the money in the first place. They were forced to take it.

So the gov't forced them to take bail-out money and then they have to beg the gov't for permission to give it back. Yea..might not be socialism...just tyranny. No need to worry.

6/10/2009 10:48:45 AM

6/10/2009 12:32:52 PM

Quote :

" So the gov't forced them to take bail-out money and then they have to beg the gov't for permission to give it back. Yea..might not be socialism...just tyranny. No need to worry."

The plan was hatched in the head of a Republican SOT. The real truth here is that money and Wall Street power knows no political affiliation. Sure, they'd rather be left to their own devices because that means they'll be able to steal soooo much easier than with pesky regulations, but it really doesn't matter which party is in control, because at the end of the day both of them have very rich and powerful friends who they will not alienate no matter what the crisis.

6/10/2009 1:02:52 PM

Overseer to Set Executive Pay at Rescued Companies

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/business/11pay.html

Too bad the Obama administration hasn't appointed yet another czar to "oversee" executive pay at educational institutions. We could have really used one around State these last few months.

6/10/2009 5:11:55 PM

Quote :

"because at the end of the day both of them have very rich and powerful friends who they will not alienate no matter what the crisis."

True..The Bailout was started by Bush et al.
The Constitution was set up to limit gov't from getting too much power. Through the years, we have allowed politicians to get more and more power in exchange for spending our money on vote-getting projects.

If the gov't didn't have the power to pick winners and losers, Wall Street's money wouldn't have the effect it does today.

Quote :

""It is not the government's business to discourage risk taking," said (Barney) Frank, D-Mass. "But neither should we allow systems which have existed up until now whereby decision-makers are handsomely rewarded if they take big risks that pay off, but suffer no penalty whatsoever if those risks result in losses to the company.""

Do you see the wrongness of this thinking? If a company wants to reward a CEO for risk-taking and also protect him from failure, what Constitutional power allows gov't to prevent this? IT's a private contract between the company and the CEO.

If the CEO screws up so much that the company goes bust, the Board of Directors muct answer to the stock-holders...not the gov't.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090611/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_executive_pay

[Edited on June 10, 2009 at 11:03 PM. Reason : .]

6/10/2009 11:02:34 PM

6/10/2009 11:41:04 PM