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Susan Rice is crispy around the edges. Republicans are refusing to endorse her… Why? When pressed by reporters the answer is… they don’t know.
They tried to pin the Benghazi hearings on her. That backfired. She was telling what was thought at the time. Republicans say… you should have said you didn’t know instead of saying what you thought was true…. Not many other then Breitbart readers are buying that one.
Her real sin, it appears, is that she is our UN ambassador. Republicans hate the UN.. Why? If the US wants to attack Canada for tar sands, the UN will object. If the US wants to attack Newfoundland to change its timezone by one half an hour…. the UN will object. If the US attacks Iraq to steal its oil, the UN will object……
That is why the Republicans don’t like the UN. They can’t attack random countries. The UN recently supported Palestine over their favorite child Israel, giving it another bad mark in Republicans eyes… For you see? Republicans have a basic flaw. If you hand them a giant bag of money, and tell them what to believe, THAT becomes what they believe… Forget facts.
Now, conservative pundits are becoming worried. It appears that all the noise they created, as of itself, pushed Susan Rice into the number one contender. Originally, no one outside of the beltway and New York, knew who she was. Now thanks to Republicans, we all know her name… And the more we see of her, the better she appears over other contenders to take over the Hillary Clinton legacy.
As anyone who has just come from seeing the movie “Lincoln” knows, the Secretary of State needs to be on a very personal relationship with the president. Obama and Clinton though once adversaries, did sit on quite a few stages together throughout the primary campaign. That relationship has worked well.
The president gets to chose who he wants. The Republicans have offered a list of those who they recommend. However, based upon the election, the direction the American people want to go, is directly opposite the way Republicans want to take us… In fact, it should be argued that the election proved concisely that Republicans are going in the wrong direction. Beaten back on every platitude they uttered, the American people said “no! We don’t like what you say, how you act, or what your policies are.”
So the Republican list, should read as…. these people are exactly the ones who should not be Secretary of State. In fact, based upon the election’s results, by sitting back and seeing whom the Republicans object to the most…. should point the finger at who will become our best Secretary of State…
That person appears to be Susan Rice.
She is reportedly blunt, or crisp around the edges, at times. Yet, her detractors are decrying that on the talk shows… she was not blunt enough.. She was diplomatic, obfuscating, pleasant, and believable. So, since they are using her bluntness against her, and her non-bluntness against her at the same time, it is obvious that as with everything else on Capitol Hill right now, Republicans are in disarray. Repbumblicans don’t know what they want… Which is why,… no news source should be noting their objections except to make fun of them.
If she has the president’s confidence, it sounds like the Benghazi episode in itself, PROVES she has all the qualifications she needs… If she made the world believe the incident was caused by a video, (without intention of course) thereby buying time for the US to rescue it’s informants, I would think she would have the perfect qualifications to be Secretary of State….
Some of us can remember a Chief Executive once saying: We do not have spy planes flying over Russia”, less than a week before one got shot down…. Sometimes, you have to lie to your enemies….
The fact that John McCain, Susan Rice’s biggest critic, thinks Sarah Palin is the smartest woman in the world (at least back in 2008) shows the world how good of a judge he is when it comes to women and that little matter of their intelligence.
So, if this Rice IS a little crispy wound the edges…. it is time to move forward and to serve the world a wondreful batch of: Rice Crispy Treats….. 🙂
Photo Courtesy of Soggy Log
They thought he was nuts.
Reading a recent critique of the debates, it focused on a fact. Millions of Americans are not enjoying the benefits of this economy. Romney had the lucky position to point out all that was wrong, without the responsibility of finding any solution to fix it.
His line, “bring down the rates, broaden the base.” simply has not worked. It didn’t work in Reagan’s time. It didn’t work for Bush HW. It didn’t work for Bush W. It is called: “trickle down”.
Clinton, who practiced kavipsian Economics, raised the rates, causing profits to revert back into the economy stimulating even more growth; that growth grew people’s incomes. That is the key. People will take lower wages if they know they will grow out of them. But ever since Republican Tax Rates went into effect, wage growth immediately stopped. 99% of Americans are earning exactly what they did in 2000. It’s been twelve years since wages for the 99%, increased. Higher taxes takes away all incentive for any employer to pay his people more.
Here is the funny part. To actually do something about the economy, President Obama has to eradicate the Republicans. Get rid of them. Make them a non player. Republicans and republicans alone, are the reason the economy is in such a slump.
Let’s review.
Republicans fought the stimulus.
Republicans fought the car buying incentive.
Republicans fought infrastructure development.
Republicans fought giving Veterans jobs upon returning to USA after fighting for years.
Republicans fought lowering insurance rates.
Republicans fought lowering gas price legislation.
Republicans fought regulating big banks from literally stealing your money.
Republicans fought against balancing the budget.
Republicans fought against payroll increases for all Americans.
Republicans fought against lowering medical costs.
Republicans fought against a better economy.
Republicans fought against hiring more policemen.
Republicans fought against hiring more fireman.
Republicans fought against hiring more school teachers.
Republicans fought against building roads and bridges that were sorely needed.
Republicans fought against not defaulting on the US Dollar.
Republicans fought against strengthening America Abroad.
Republicans fought against stopping corporate corruption.
Republicans fought against fighting wealthy tax cheats.
Republicans fought against closing the loopholes Romney used to get rich.
Republicans fought against raising wages for all Americans.
Republicans fought against legislation that allowed workers to ask for more money without being fired.
yeah. There is a reason the economy is bad. It is called the Republican Party.
Having “No Republicans” equals massive investment back into our economy. The formula for a successful America is…..
NO REPUBLICANS EVER ELECTED AGAIN = MASSIVE AMERICA ECONOMIC GROWTH
So Obama, you are at fault according to Mitt Romney and the Conservative Cheer-leading squad… Because you didn’t get rid of Republicans… Shame on you!!!!
I guess it is up to us, to do so if we EVER want our economy back.
If not… I guess every vote for a Republican is a vote in support of Communist China…..
Courtesy of Climate Code Red
If you kinda thought the weather was wild this year, you were right. The most ice lost is taking place right while you read this. A large chunk was broken up by a freak storm. Another similar on is on its way. The question that no one knows the answer to, is… will this affect the circulation pattern.
We all know in our lives that as human beings we can put up with aggravation rather well, unless we are Type A. Whether it is aggravation from our boss, from our spouse, from our in-laws, from our choir director, from that guy selling papers on the corner,… we put up with it, accepting it as the normal course of business. Except once or twice in our lives, we just snap. And the consequences of that, momentary snap, cause big changes… maybe in our employment, maybe in our marriage, maybe in our in-law’s will, maybe from the choir director’s husband, maybe from the police…. things change for us in a big way…..
That is how we have to see this. From a mud core taken from an ancient lake, Lough Monreach, in Ireland in 2009 it was discovered that in a matter of one month 12,900 years ago, we went from normal seasonal temperatures to an ice age. The cause came from a switch in ocean currents. As cold fresh water entered the ocean, warm water stopped flowing north. That Ice Age lasted 1300 years before the thaw returned. It flipped in one month…. 30 days more or less.
So is that happening?
The science is too big. We don’t know. It will be like on the Day after Tomorrow where we first find out from buoys scattered across the Atlantic. It cannot be predicted.
What can be foretold is that the earth has never had this much stress before during civilized mans span on earth. Do you know when you snap, or does it take you off guard as well?
That is where we are…
Of course nothing could come about it… Just like when your boss insults you in front of all your staff, your office competitor’s staff, and ridicules you like you have never been before… You just take it…
The boss tells your competitor… “I knew he was a wus… I wasn’t worried one bit… you have nothing to worry about him…”
Republicans will say in Tampa:… “I knew it was a scam…. I wasn’t worried one bit… we have nothing to worry about burning carbon fuels and putting carbon dioxide into the air.”
News Flash: The earth is not a wus……..
2012, day 230, 2.87743 million square kilometers
2011, day 253, 2.90474 million square kilometers (previous record low)
Right click to open full image… Pictograph Courtesy of Viral..
So, can someone tell me again, why we shouldn’t tax the rich, and instead, balance the budget on the backs of everyone else?…….
I seem to be missing that little detail where that all makes sense……
Duffy is God’s answer to a prayer.. I miss the old days of blogging when we were debating principals instead of people… Duffy has stuck to the old line of debating principals with facts, and that is what makes him special in the eyes of bloggers everywhere…
Since the passing of Steve Newton, he has been the only one to challenge me in any argument, and usually some pretty good stuff comes out of both sides during the exchange… I have respected that.. Cause once again, opinions mean dick. Facts are what we steer by.. It is my hope that in responding to his challenge that an answer may make itself apparent.. Who knows? It may not come from me… But if I’m the catalyst for bringing it out in the open, then… none of this was in vain..
Why I like to debate Duffy is simple.. Neither side, he or I, is concretely set in their opinions… We accept it when the other side makes sense… I usually go into such debates having no idea where they’ll end up… I hope the rest of you enjoy the ride as welI….
That said..
kavips rebutt’s:Uh… Mr. President. That’s not entirely accurate.
First off, the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 was developed for, and locked in on, urban developmental areas and had no part of the subprime boom, which primarily occurred out in western desert regions where owning 4 to 5 investment homes was normal… Those homes were overwhelmingly funded by loan originators NOT SUBJECT to the act… We all know the crises was not because people couldn’t afford a payment on their house. It came about, because with no occupants, people could not afford the payments of 4 to 5 houses….. Instead of one loan per borrower turning up in default; four to five were.
Second off, The housing bubble reached its point of maximum inflation in 2005.
Courtesy of NYT
Third off, During those exact same years, Fannie and Freddie were sidelined by Congressional pressure, and saw a sharp drop in their share of loans secured by the Feds… Follow the dotted line on the very bottom of the graph…
Courtesy of NYT
Fourth off; During those exact same years, private secures, like Delaware’s own AIG, grabbed the lions share of the market.
Courtesy of NYT
Remember these graphs for later on when I discuss the results of deregulation, versus regulation… But like it or not, these graphs conclusively show that private insurers, who thanks to Marie Evans, we now know were deregulated by Phil Gramm in the 2000 Omnibus Bill, were the primary cause of the worlds financial collapse.. Probably put best by these words of AIG’s spokesperson, who when asked why they didn’t have sufficient funds to cover losses, said point blank, “We were deregulated. We were no laws requiring us to keep any funds, ..so we spent it…”
kavips rebutt’s:Uh… Mr. President. That’s not entirely accurate. I agree that the hedge funds did survive better than the banks. Not because of bailouts, but because they sold short during the crises and made billions while firms closed and people got thrown out of work. There is nothing wrong with that; I did the same. In fact close readers may remember my warnings that the crises was impending almost a year earlier. Very close readers may remember my telling them exactly when to sell, and at what point the stock market would rebound… I must say: I called it rather well. 🙂
De regulated hedge funds are not the issue… De-regulated, excessively leveraged, mortgage securities, are a different story however… They, not the banks that held them, are the cause of the crises…Years from now, when academics search for causes of the stock market crash of 2008, they will focus on the pivotal role of mortgage-backed securities. These exotic financial instruments allowed a downturn in U.S. home prices to morph into a contagion that brought down Bear Stearns a year ago this month – and more recently have brought the global banking system to its knees.
Where you err is when you state that banks too big to fail, assumed they would be bailed out… By implication, you say imply they failed from squandering money, and wanted the bailouts.. But your tax dollars didn’t flow directly to the bottom line.
So in that sense, the bailout money represents an expense for banks. That’s one reason a number of banks have said they want to give the money back as soon as possible.
You say big banks were counting on a bailout, and they got them? That didn’t happen to these banks. New Mexico, Georgia, and Florida each lost a bank just last Friday. That brings to 8, the number of banks failed in June. Unfortunately if a bank is failing, it can’t bet on itself to fail, as can a hedge fund.
kavips rebutt’s:Uh… Mr. President. That’s not entirely accurate. The idea is that the banks made bad decisions knowing taxpayers would bail them out is the issue that is inaccurate. For the record, I have no qualms that it was the Clinton legacy who tore down the wall between banks and investment banking. Like you, I feel it was a good idea to do so… Again the problem was not primarily with banks making loans to people who could not pay.. Although, it was as late as October 2009, when I was made aware of one private Bank in Denver still exaggerating income to make loans look good enough on paper to get approval of securitization. What caused the collapse was the leveraging of those loans as securities, so that as the housing market became overextended, and the ARM jumped past the low cost opening years, the damage was 100 times worse because of leveraging. What made the collapse criminal, was that the insurance most financial institutions had bought from AIG, to cover such an improbable event, had already spent by that companies executives, out on bonuses to themselves. What made it doubly criminal, was that when they received government dollars through a taxpayer bailout, those same executives assumed it was to first go towards paying their bonuses again. However, very recent events may give some cover to the argument that some collusion was implicit in the bailing out of Goldman Sacs and AIG… Basically, once bailed out, AIG paid Goldman Sacs for shares twice as much as they were worth. The documents also indicate that regulators ignored recommendations from their own advisers to force the banks to accept losses on their A.I.G. deals and instead paid the banks in full for the contracts.
One might as well come right out and say it.. The Tea Party movement is based on race… There is no other explanation.
Lets assume, just for fun, that black is white… and white is black….
Imagine that thousands of black protesters, bussed in from Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, and DC, were to descend upon Dover’s Green, next to our General Assembly, armed with AK-47s, M-1’s, and handguns stocked with live ammunition. And imagine that the television cameras happen to conveniently catch some of these protesters — all wearing hoodies — ranting over the need for violent political revolution and armed conflict, should laws they despised, ever be enforced by the government? Would you see them as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would shit in your pants and want them all “lined up and shot”? Don’t answer! You know how you’d see them.
We all know this happened… but black was white… and Republicans cheered and licked the butts of those shouting slogans.
Imagine John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Michelle Bachman, while walking to work, got surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit so much in Michelle Bachman’s hair, it caused her to look like she had just exited a Penn State frat party. It was done for no reason, except that she had not voted the way that black demonstrator with a Muslim beard and saggy pants, had desired.
Would you see this as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or would it be apparent to you, that it was an angry, potentially violent, and even a subversive mob of really dumb ass people?
Again, we all know that this happened… but black was white… and Republicans cheered and licked the butts of those shouting the slogans.
Imagine the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, a rap artist, were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.”
This happened… but black was white… and Republicans cheered and licked the butts of those shouting the slogans…
Now.
Imagine that a pill popping black radio host with the face of an ass, were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of any white president was to “hate black people,” or that a prominent white General had only endorsed a white presidential candidate cause they were both the same color, or blamed a white president because a fight occurred one of our nation’s school buses in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or if this ass faced radio host had said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget what these people stood for.” After all, we all know these are things Rush Limbaugh has said….. and when he did, Republicans cheered and licked the butts of those shouting the slogans…
Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.”
Meanwhile the Republicans cheer and line up to lick the butts of those shouting the slogans…
Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white men who have been “destroying” the country, or if said radio personality were to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to conservatives, the best solution would be to “hang ‘em high.”
And Republicans stand up to cheer and line up to lick the butts of those shouting the slogans…
Imagine a black political commentator, with very odd hands, suggesting that the only thing the guy who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not blowing up Fox News instead.
… and the Republicans cheered and licked the butts of those shouting the slogans…
Enough.
Even if one-third of the anger currently being hurled at President Obama, were being aimed by people of color at a white Republican president, how many whites would wax eloquent about every black person’s right to free speech, to own a gun, and praise all the glories of democracy?
On the other hand, how many of them would be instead calling for crackdowns on unlawful behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of all those armed people of color?
Bottom line… Free speech, intimidation, and the right to insurrection, being championed everywhere across the Republican spectrum, … is only “right” if it’s “white”…
To each and every one of us who are color blind….. Intimidation is not right at all…
There are common laws of human decency, that boil down to the realization that ALL men do not share the same agenda. We are blessed that it was OUR founding fathers who realized that this could be a good thing… The open expression of ideas and the public rebuttal of the criticism of them, allows for cream of this country, to rise to the top…
Any group, white or black, that doesn’t abide by such common lows of human decency, … “deserves to be lined up and shot”.
If as a nation we go that far, just make sure we dump their carcasses in a salt dome… We wouldn’t want those tea bags, either white or dark, leaching into our aquifers…
Funny, … I don’t hear Republicans lining up to cheer….
Why? Because the Tea Party is all about being anti black; Anyone who has ever heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak to a crowd, … knows in his heart, there is no other explanation.
That includes Michael Steele, and David Anderson. At some point, like Senator Robert Byrd, they will come clean about their past…..
… and so ends Conservatism. exactly 30 years after it began.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that comments are where the action is.. The best writing is usually below the canal, where smart minds give and take and dissect the others points of view… Having spent an inordinate amount of time on one such comment, I thought today’s epistle would be, something that in the olden days would have been titled: “Comment Rescue… ”
(Since I didn’t garnish another’s permission, I’m not naming him or her, but if they want to come forward on their own, they most certainly are welcome… They probably will, because their comment is not that hard to find.. But I thought the overall give and take was done well enough to showcase to others how all argument should take place on blogs, and use this as a measure upon which all other future commentary can be judged…)
“Bush is the person who fought a war in which Americans died for oil.” Where was Congress? I seem to remember they voted to send troops but that can’t possibly be so, can it?
There are two ways an administration can approach Congress… One is to say look at all the evidence and come to your own conclusion… The other is to say, take our word, we have the intelligence that says this will happen, we need your support as a fellow American… The latter was the path that was taken… Today, trying to pin Congress in on the instigation of the Iraq War, is nothing but a cowardly attempt to shift blame… Those of us who know human nature, chuckle at each such attempt, because we know that is done only by people who KNOW they are guilty… The act of blaming Congress actually drives home our point that Republicans were guilty and got caught! The proof is there. Cheney constructed the threat of Iraq and sold it… We found out too late it was nothing but a contrivance…
“Bush is the person who bankrupted our nation by spending every dollar of the surplus and then ran our nation on deficit spending for 8 years…Let our children pay for it!” So you’re a deficit hawk then. Great. Please direct me to the post where you go bananas when Obama takes a mere 143 days to surpass Bush’s 8 years of spending which included not one but two wars.
There are two kinds of deficits. one is flagrant spending of favors to bolster the Republican party’s power; the other is to borrow to save a nation… Deficit spending saved us during WWII… The deficit spending that was spent recently, is an investment that saved the entire financial global network. The government of the United States of America, absorbed the stupid Republican-caused collapse. We now own shares of the banks. When the economy grows, we can cash those shares in at a profit. Your deficit argument is like castigating a well-meaning American homeowner for going into debt for a house… After all, someone signing a $250,000 note while making $30,000 is scary. But it is a good thing for the rest of us, that a lot of homeowners have balls, isn’t it..
Republicans obviously don’t have balls or brains. … Their wimpy whinings are no more relevant than the naive advisor who says “don’t buy a house, rent… You don’t want to go in debt.” Bottom line, the deficit of saving a nation, worked.. or has so far. The previous administration’s deficit, of making the wealthier even wealthier, didn’t work. Instead it fucked up this nation….
“Bush is the person who pushed the Medicare Reform that first tripled the cost of pharmaceuticals and then reimbursed drug companies three times over what the drugs originally were worth.” Cite please. I agree that the program was ill conceived and even poorly executed but I’ve not seen anything approaching these numbers.
If you bought drugs over the counter and paid $40 dollars for your supply before the Medicare pharmaceutical supplements came to be passed by the Republicans, today those same drugs cost $120 dollars, and the government covers $80 of those dollars and you pay….. $40 dollars… What has changed for you? The pharma companies are now getting $120 dollars for the same drugs they once got $40 for…. you pay the same $40, and your children and grandchildren pay the $80, which assuming interest will accrue, could amount to about $240 dollars depending on how long we allow the debt to continue unchecked…… The sacrilege comes from the fact that the $80 dollars part, was added to the deficit, so the wealthiest 1% could receive a tax cut… We doubled the cost, while cutting the revenue stream in half…
Smart Republican policy… WE are all paying for our nations stupidity now, aren’t we? As for citation… go to you own bills or ask you parents… That is far better citation than I could ever give… Go look.
“Bush is the person who deregulated our finance industry, so it collapsed on his watch.”
Nope. Bush warned three times that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were headed for trouble and he was rebuffed three times. Misregulation was the cause not deregulation. The largely unregulated hedge fund industry (Cerebrus Capital notwithstanding)skated through while the very tightly regulated insurance and banking were devastated.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not the problem although Bush was right to warn us of their unwieldiness… No, they were secondary symptoms caused by the main problem which was in Phil Gramm’s Commodities Act, a clause he inserted which allowed all derivatives to be unregulated. Insurance on these derivatives, was also unregulated… When the time came for AIG to cough up? There was no money! It had all been spent on bonuses… and when the Feds coughed money to save AIG, they tried again to spend it on their bonuses… such malfeasance among our corporate brethren, can only happen on a Republican’s watch… “do what you want… we Republicans won’t interfere.” The Democrats would have been all over that before a crises had occurred…
“Bush is the person who sent your manufacturing jobs overseas.” Really? Did he put them in boxes or…? Labor and regulatory costs sent them overseas. Blame our high standard of living.
No, our jobs went overseas because it was cheaper under the tax codes made up by Republicans to make something in another country and bring it back over… Under a better tax package this would not have occurred, we would not have had as deep of a deficit, and we would have had a much healthier economy. As pointed out in the Kavipsian theory of economics, the difference of only 5% in our top rate, is all we needed to keep our economy steaming forward as it did during the Clinton years.. Pure and Simple. It is the Republican financial philosophy that caused us to experience what earlier this week became official: 0 % real job growth over the entire Republican presidency… That is just plain sick.
“Bush is the person who tried to remove your social security.” If remove = privatize then yeah he made a half-assed attempt and then quit.
Facts are in: Had Social Security been privatized.. as of around somewhere in November 08… It would not have existed. I call that getting rid of Social Security.
“Bush is the person who tried to get rid of Medicare.” By increasing funding?
Medicare has always been on the Republican chopping block. Bush was nothing new at putting lip service into eradicating it… The increased funding you mention, was passed on to future generations… That shows real responsibility… “Here, spend as much as you can on your health… Don’t worry! Your children and grandchildren will foot the bill…”
“Bush is the person who came close to nuking Iran.” Define close.
As for defining usage of nuclear weapons upon Iraq, that is what all were saying… In fact, one ranking officer said he would refuse the order if given to bomb Iran… Everyone who wasn’t a neocon, received a sigh of relief…
“Bush is the person whose policy made the US hated around the world.” Really? How’s Barry’s Charm Offensive going? Poland hates us, he snubbed the King of Norway and the UK, our closest ally isn’t returning our calls. Bang up job there Barry. Oh, and Muslim terrorists are still trying to blow up our airplanes.
As for Barack, I haven’t seen the evidence you mention… I do know, however, that the entire globe breathed a sigh of relief to see the former president step down…
“Bush is the person who destroyed the economy…” Please keep it straight. Is he a dunce or an evil genius. He can’t be both. (I’ll give you a hint. Liberals typically make Bush the dunce and Cheney the Evil Genius.) YMMV.
So say what you will about Barack… He is no Bush and for that, every American can be thankful…..
Since taking office, he has saved this nation several times… Bush in eight years… with help from all Republicans, mind you… destroyed it… At the rate were are currently on, (knock on wood) we should be in good shape to remove the rest of Republicans from office by this November…
With lies about Barack circulating about, yes, we do have some work to do, but then again, everything wonderful that ever happened to this nation, has always had some work behind it….
kavips 
