Obama Deal Averts "Massive Tax Hike" on Middle Class!

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Tuesday December 14, 2010 · 10:56 AM PST

2010/12/14 · 10:56

President Obama praised his tax cut bill yesterday saying it saved "middle class families" from "a massive tax hike come January 1st".

The full video and transcript are here.

Since Obama didn't go into any details, can someone here explain by what measure or definition letting the Bush Tax Cuts expire would have a "massive" effect on the middle class? The summaries I've seen say it will have so little effect, except on the very wealthy, that each middle class family could create one job -- if that employee earns $700 a year. Help me with the math.

For a family that might be earning $70,000, is it honest to describe 1% change as a "massive tax hike"? Is it appropriate, smart, or honest for Obama to spin the planned return to Clinton's proven, sustainable tax revenue system as "massive tax hike"? Does the "middle class" Obama is saving refer to families lucky to earn $40,000? It makes you wonder how much less tax the Obamas will pay - that may be more massive.

Six years ago I would have expected that spin from the Weekly Standard. Now we get it from Barack Obama.

Time, New Republic Decline to View WikiLeaks Site?

Levity

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Sunday December 12, 2010 · 7:03 PM PST

2010/12/12 · 19:03

As the WikiLeaks diplomatic cable revelations continue this week, news organizations are quietly but hilariously drifting into at least 3 camps:

organizations and reporters who read WikiLeaks source material and publish informed stories based on the cables, carefully redacting where necessary to minimize harm. These include The Guardian, Le Monde, the NY Times and WikiLeaks itself.
organizations like the Associated Press with reporters who read and write about redacted WikiLeaks cables published elsewhere
organizations that write about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks based on third party reports, but who don't read the cables and won't visit the WikiLeaks site itself even for basic information

This week both Time Magazine and The New Republic revealed themselves to apparently be in the latter category. Both published articles containing false statements, followed by update/corrections that essentially said, 'Julian Assange says our description of the site is false but we haven't attempted to verify it' and, 'It's not our fault we didn't know as much as the AP', respectively. In the case of The New Republic, Todd Gitlin crankily confesses his fact checking was done by Salon's Glenn Greenwald, after the original false TNR piece was published.

Levity

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Friday November 05, 2010 · 2:26 PM PDT

2010/11/05 · 14:26

There's nothing that says "I understand how to do better over the next two years" than continuing with the same House and Senate leaders who have been running the show so effectively for the previous four.

To finally get spending and deficits in line, and to ensure the cooperation of even the most hawkish Republicans, every half-trillion dollar military budget and utterly unexpected 'supplemental' must be rubber stamped as before. Anything less would hurt our stranded troops. Nancy Pelosi vowed to do this four years ago and she has delivered, without ever wavering. We need more.

The fact that funding these wars makes us much less safe -- as even Rumsfeld's report acknowledged -- is insignificant compared to the political boost we can see this policy has won for our party. Even Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were re-elected! And it's not like that money could be used for education, jobs, or incentives here in the US. It belongs in the middle east with our oil.

Levity

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Wednesday October 27, 2010 · 10:07 AM PDT

2010/10/27 · 10:07

During election season, the White House and the president's leadership is critical in showing why electing or re-electing members of his party in Congress is good, valuable, important - ideally a no-brainer.

The list below is by no means exhaustive. It leads with things the White House has done just this month. It includes other achievements further in the past, and I encourage readers to add, in comments, the strongest things the president has done to make Americans want to get out and vote Democratic.

Poll

19 votes Show Results

Which Obama policy rallied us the best?

fighting in court to ensure Don't Ask Don't Tell doesn't end prematurely

insisting that fraudulent mass foreclosures continue

settling with Countrywide's Mozilo for 1/2 his fraudulent 2006 earnings

ensuring health care denials over pre-existing conditions will end by 2014

condemning the Wikileaks war documents without disputing any of them

increasing drone strikes in the middle east

making sure gay families still don't qualify for Social Security benefits

President Obama's vow to end Don't Ask Don't Tell on his watch

President Obama's vow to close the Guantanamo Bay prison

getting all 77 progressives in Congress to abandon their Public Option pledge

accepting resignations from Rahm Emmanuel and Larry Summers

the President's refusal to prosecute confessed approvers of torture

passing the Lilly Ledbetter Act

not being a psychotic tea-bagger

see comment below

19 votes Vote Now!

Which Obama policy rallied us the best?

fighting in court to ensure Don't Ask Don't Tell doesn't end prematurely

2 votes

insisting that fraudulent mass foreclosures continue

0 votes

settling with Countrywide's Mozilo for 1/2 his fraudulent 2006 earnings

0 votes

ensuring health care denials over pre-existing conditions will end by 2014

1 vote

condemning the Wikileaks war documents without disputing any of them

0 votes

increasing drone strikes in the middle east

1 vote

making sure gay families still don't qualify for Social Security benefits

0 votes

President Obama's vow to end Don't Ask Don't Tell on his watch

0 votes

President Obama's vow to close the Guantanamo Bay prison

1 vote

getting all 77 progressives in Congress to abandon their Public Option pledge

0 votes

accepting resignations from Rahm Emmanuel and Larry Summers

7 votes

the President's refusal to prosecute confessed approvers of torture

0 votes

passing the Lilly Ledbetter Act

1 vote

not being a psychotic tea-bagger

6 votes

see comment below

0 votes

Clinton/Netanyahu Call - Transcript Obtained

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Wednesday March 17, 2010 · 1:47 PM PDT

2010/03/17 · 13:47

Last week US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a widely-reported 43 minute "angry" phone call about an "embarrassing" and "insulting" announcement, during Vice President Joe Biden's recent visit to Israel, that in violation both international law and the "road map" agreements, Israel would be building 1600 new settlement units on occupied land.

Our source has obtained a transcript of the last few minutes of the conversation, during which Clinton and Netanyahu attempt to repair the damaged US/Israel relationship and prevent such embarrassments from ever occurring again.

Levity

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Monday February 22, 2010 · 1:57 AM PST

2010/02/22 · 01:57

This week's season 8 premiere of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher is the best episode ever!
And not slowed down with some dumb conservative pundit to balance the thoughtful, funny guests:

Elizabeth Warren, economic watchdog and consumer finance advocate
Seth MacFarlane, creator, writer and voice artist on Family Guy and other shows
Eliot Spitzer, renowned prosecutor of Wall Street and former NY governor
Norah O’Donnell, MSNBC commentator
Wanda Sykes, comedian, late night host, screenwriter and black lesbian

Prodded by Maher, MacFarlane did an indescribably perfect Captain Kirk to explain why the current "intent to filibuster" rules grind the Senate to a halt. And so much more.

Since MacFarlane's honesty and intelligence may offend squeamish ears, only grown ups should read his prize quotes about Dick Cheney's war crimes after the fold.

Levity

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Monday January 25, 2010 · 4:48 PM PST

2010/01/25 · 16:48

This month the world noticed that when our Afghan president Karzai appointed cronies with no credibility for cabinet posts, the Afghan congress pushed back and refused to confirm most of them. That's how democracy and government are supposed to work - "advise and consent" with a balance of power rather than tyranny.

Meanwhile, we can't help but notice your own Congress has approved infamous, torture-enabling war criminal Alberto Gonzales as your Attorney General; a tax cheat as your Treasury Secretary; and your president has re-nominated Ben Bernanke - who insisted in 2008 that there was no mortgage bubble threat - to be your central banker. The president and his cronies insist he will be confirmed, despite objections from every economist and numerous representatives from both currently leading parties.

Our question is: is there a way to export Afghanistan's healthier checks-and-balances system to the US - to replace the enablers, cronies and tyranny Americans have grown so accustomed to? The poll answers include the solutions most often used by Americans to export democracy.

Poll

29 votes Show Results

How should Afghanis train the US to respect democratic institutions?

29 votes Vote Now!

How should Afghanis train the US to respect democratic institutions?

send ground forces across the oceans for at least 18 months

2 votes

bomb them with drone weapons

2 votes

detain some permanently without charges

1 vote

use enhanced techniques until they confess

3 votes

render some to a third country for interrogation

1 vote

send billions of unaccounted dollars for bribes to officials

6 votes

keep out of their country and try to set a good example

14 votes

Obama Moves to Free the Hostages

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Thursday January 21, 2010 · 12:19 PM PST

2010/01/21 · 12:19

Over a year after the hostages were first taken and the rAnSoM nOtE was discovered, the president is challenging the terrorists.

Dear [Negotiators]:

We have taken hostages. We hold the life savings of over 100 million US families, their pension funds, the current cash assets of millions of businesses, and the world's economy, in our hands. We have guns to their heads. Unless you do exactly as we say, they will all disappear. You need only look at our past behavior to understand we have no concern for their well being or the damage we will cause - even to our own corporations and stockholders. Take us seriously.

You will make two initial payments of 750 billion dollars each, totaling $1.5 trillion - the first in Q4 2008, the second in Q1 2009. We will decide whether there will be more payments after that.
- You will ignore most of the constituents who elected you and provided the money - who don't want us to have it.
- We will have no obligation to loan any of the money, as if we were still banks. That is obviously no longer how we make our money.
- When we pay the money directly to ourselves as bonuses and other compensation, you won't prevent it. Make it look like an accident.
...

Levity

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Saturday January 02, 2010 · 11:47 AM PST

2010/01/02 · 11:47

Remember a year ago - when after 8 years of dangerous, destructive Bush rule, we were ready for new approaches to national security, health care, the financial system, and climate change?

Almost year has passed. Do you feel safer now? More optimistic than you did then?
There are plenty of ways to feel unsafe or to feel safer.
Our leaders have been working on them in dozens of areas. I've included as many as I could into the poll.

Choose the policy that has done most to improve your impression of your own safety.
Add a comment, especially if the things that make you feel safer aren't in the list.

Poll

48 votes Show Results

What makes you feel safer than you did a year ago?

two escalations of US ground forces in Afghanistan, a 50% increase

vastly increased drone attacks on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen

Obama's promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison in one year

Obama's Cairo, Afghanistan and Nobel speeches

Obama's financial team, Wall Street and foreclosure rescue policies

the health care bill Obama has championed

new rules that change the FOIA Act to keep abuse photos hidden

Obama's vow not to prosecute CIA torturers who acted in good faith

Obama's policy on prosecuting torture approvers and attorneys

Obama's vow to investigate Afghan mass graves & 2001 war crimes

US rejection of a UN report documenting war crimes in Gaza

US insistence that habeas corpus shouldn't be followed at Bagram

Obama's leadership in addressing climate change

are you kidding? I felt much safer and more optimistic a year ago

none of the above - explained in my comment below

48 votes Vote Now!

What makes you feel safer than you did a year ago?

two escalations of US ground forces in Afghanistan, a 50% increase

0 votes

vastly increased drone attacks on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen

2 votes

Obama's promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison in one year

1 vote

Obama's Cairo, Afghanistan and Nobel speeches

3 votes

Obama's financial team, Wall Street and foreclosure rescue policies

0 votes

the health care bill Obama has championed

4 votes

new rules that change the FOIA Act to keep abuse photos hidden

0 votes

Obama's vow not to prosecute CIA torturers who acted in good faith

0 votes

Obama's policy on prosecuting torture approvers and attorneys

3 votes

Obama's vow to investigate Afghan mass graves & 2001 war crimes

0 votes

US rejection of a UN report documenting war crimes in Gaza

0 votes

US insistence that habeas corpus shouldn't be followed at Bagram

1 vote

Obama's leadership in addressing climate change

3 votes

are you kidding? I felt much safer and more optimistic a year ago

19 votes

none of the above - explained in my comment below

12 votes

40% of Kossacks Didn't Vote for Obama

Levity

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Tuesday December 22, 2009 · 6:41 PM PST

2009/12/22 · 18:41

I had to chuckle upon seeing, in the results of a poll here with the option:
* I want the guy I voted for, not the current Chief Executive
that the plurality of participants -- about 41% -- chose that option above all the others.

I know - they were being metaphorical or snarky or hyperbolic. Most were trying to say they voted for candidate Obama but not for President Obama whose cabinet is run by Wall Street alumni and who hasn't mentioned the disastrous financial consequences of repealing the Glass-Steagall - the topic of the diary and poll - since the campaign.

But does it matter if it's metaphorical when the bottom line is we don't have the president they thought they voted for? Did we want someone who'd spend trillions on guilty financiers and their bonuses, while only rescuing 10,000 mortgages? Who'd move Guantanamo to Illinois but continue indefinite detention without charges? Who'd fight in court to expand the Bush policy on state secrets and argue against equality?

Here's another poll: let's take responsibility, or figure out what happened.

Poll

227 votes Show Results

Why isn't the person I voted for the Chief Executive?

227 votes Vote Now!

Why isn't the person I voted for the Chief Executive?

He is - I'm delighted with Obama's performance and don't see any reversals or surprises

96 votes

Obama misled us and I feel betrayed

23 votes

I misled myself and have no one else to blame

7 votes

I was voting against McCain/Palin, and they lost - that's enough

18 votes

now that Obama knows what Bush knew, his policies are more similar

6 votes

Obama isn't the leader I imagined when I voted

34 votes

Obama has reversed direction for reasons I don't understand

25 votes

because I didn't vote for Obama, I expected and predicted this, and was proven right

18 votes

Holiday Faith and Morality Poll

Levity

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Monday December 07, 2009 · 10:40 AM PST

2009/12/07 · 10:40

It's the time of year many of us celebrate our faith. That includes how our beliefs and our houses of worship, along with the New Testament, Torah, and Q''uran, shape our idea of moral justice.

How is our behavior affected when we believe that an all-knowing supreme being will judge us after our death? How do the strongest advocates of this belief behave? How would people behave if they didn't think there was a Judgement Day?

Many of the poll choices focus on all the ways our faith helps us do good in the world, so choose whichever fits your experience best.

Poll

95 votes Show Results

belief in a supreme being who provides invisible, posthumous justice:

95 votes Vote Now!

belief in a supreme being who provides invisible, posthumous justice:

discourages piety and hypocrisy

1 vote

reduces child molestation, rape and abuse

0 votes

discourages occupations, crusades and jihads

0 votes

diminishes greed

1 vote

amplifies and justifies all of the above

8 votes

gets people to stand up for tolerance and equality

1 vote

astonishingly, doesn't discourage evil and selfish moral choices

18 votes

predictably, is the worst morality solution ever invented

22 votes

applying evidence and common sense this way is unfair

3 votes

who knows? - people only pretend to believe, to fit in

5 votes

clerics would molest even more children if they weren't religious

0 votes

much of the evil in the world has religious support

26 votes

delete that poll before god-fearing Americans lynch you

10 votes

"Obama's War" on Frontline: Letter from an Afghan Farmer

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Monday October 19, 2009 · 1:19 PM PDT

2009/10/19 · 13:19

The following is a letter to Americans from an Afghan farmer who appeared briefly in the new Frontline documentary "Obama's War", which he viewed online.

Excerpt:

On Frontline, Marine Captain Eric Meador recalls conversations we had: "I was asked point blank by some of the locals that are farmers, 'Hey, what are you going to do about my drugs? Because that's the way I make my money. That's the way I make my living. That's the way I feed my family.' "
The Captain never gives his answer -- soon there's incoming fire from an unseen gunman which the narrator calls "The Taliban". (I think it was actually my neighbor.)
But the narrator is clear: "for now the Marines turn a blind eye -- it's a matter of priorities."

It's not like my neighbors need to see Frontline to understand: If "the Taliban" and "the insurgency" weren't here every day shooting at Americans and blowing up their trucks, Americans would be burning our crops -- even more aggressively than they burn tons of American growers' crops each year in the War on Drugs that President Obama has vowed to rename.

Full letter, below the fold.

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Obama Deal Averts "Massive Tax Hike" on Middle Class!

Time, New Republic Decline to View WikiLeaks Site?

Pelosi Equals Change - also Hope

Which Obama Policies Help Our Party Most? (poll)

Clinton/Netanyahu Call - Transcript Obtained

Seth MacFarlane Stings on Real Time with Bill Maher

Afghani Asks: "Can the Americans Be Trained?" (poll)

Obama Moves to Free the Hostages

Feel Safer? (poll)

40% of Kossacks Didn't Vote for Obama

Holiday Faith and Morality Poll

"Obama's War" on Frontline: Letter from an Afghan Farmer