Jack & Jill Politics

EVENING THREAD IS UP

It's about time attention is being given to the President's lax security. WaPo is covering it today. I had a couple of friends who were fortunate enough to be in the ticketed section at the inauguration say they were stunned to see how easy it was to go around the BROKEN scanners. She said they were jokingly screaming at the police and Secret Service, "We have grenades, boozokas,..." and they paid them no attention.

A Trillion Here, A Trillion There… … Just how big is this stimulus, anyway?

You are such an idiot. We need a huge stimulus to counteract the downturn and stimulate the economy. It's not only a stimulus package but also a recovery package, meaning to keep things afloat.

rikyrah, here's alink to photos of was figures of President Obama and Frist Lady Michelle. Nicely done.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=photos+of+p...

sorry, WAX figures.

More rumours that Michelle Obama is pregnant?

If not true but she wants another kid (hopefully a boy), being in her 40s should be no impediment. I know of at least three high profile fertility practices in the DC area that'd love to give her the royal zygote treatment (as they do for stars like Halle Berry, J-Lo).

rikyrah: HERE IT IS:

Michael Steele, RNC Chairman?

UPDATE, 4:04: Michael Steele will be the next chairman of the Republican National Committe, having one the sixth and final ballot by a margin of 91 to 77.

"This is awesome," he tells the crowd. "I accept and appreciate all of you for the opportunity to serve as the next national chairman of our very proud, our very strong, and our very, very hard working Republican National Committee."
* * * * *

Three words Green Lady . . . .

heh . . .heh. . .heh

Val: LOL! :>)

I C: U do "NUMBER-SPEAK" 2. :>) :>)

I still think about "In Living Color!" :>) :>) :>)

Can you believe it?? LOL. Actually, I can, this is the RNC's first step toward gaining the black vote and showing how "open-minded and inclusive" they REALLY are. That whole "Barack the Magic Negro" song was just a misunderstanding, right?? ;)

Steele the semi-magic-negro or Dawson "I got my start in politics opposing desegregation of public schools in the South"

haha and it was CLOSE!

"Lexington" Steele is more odious than Blackwell for this reason: he really thinks these wingnuts, rednecks and uber rich tools can "change" and adapt. It's better to be a scumbag like Blackwell than a naive tool like Steele. He was tossed to wolves in Maryland by Ehrlich and GOP. Same thing awaits...

Steele has little skills beyond the grievance card.

I actually think that it is good that we have people on both sides of the aisle. I see a good thing in this

So all it takes is a black face even if their policy proposals and ideaology are completely antithetical to what you believe?

I am not in the tank for either party. All I am saying is that it is good to have some people in both parties to give us a choice. Some Democrats also have ideology antithetical to what I believe as well. Some Republicans have a few good ideas.

rikyrah: UPDATE on RNC Chair"

MICHAEL STEELE.

Typical GOP astro turfing.

eclecticbrotha: LOL! :>)

UsToo!

You have Hillary, we have Pain.
You have Obama, we have Steele.

LOL! Anything you can do we can do too!

You're gonna have that song in my head all weekend...LMAO

Piepiepie: Ya mean like THIS?"Anything You Can Do" :>) :>)

ENJOY!! :>)

Yes that one... I'm waiting for a RNC parody ...

Anything you try to do, we will obstruct you!
Anything you want to do we won't want to do !
No you can't Yes we Can! (too!)

Piepiepie: LOL! :>)

we have Pain

Love that Freudian slip (or was it? LOL)

LOL defo Freud, not intentional!

But, I have to love how Republicans still think Palin was great...
Any idiot with half a left brain sees this as republican tokenism.

Somehow I don't think you got the better of that equation in the minds of most normal folk...

Explain

We got Obama and Clinton is the better side of the equation than we got Steele and Palin, unless somebody's Joe the Plumber. LOL

I see. LOL Well we have Barney Smith from Indiana.

Damn! I wanted Dawson.

Dang!! Now all the Black people going to join the GOP. /snark

Lisa M: LOL!!! :>)

BUT: Dija see the audience? :>)

I counted 2 black people: Steele and Blackburn. I may have missed the other 2.

So I guess we can't call the Repugnants racist anymore. Now all the rethugs are all enlightened and stuff. SMH!!

Lisa M: Wolfe "blitzen" just said - - - "Let's take a look at the audience." :>)

Attorney Donna Brazille says that she believes that he will do a good job. BUT -- - he needs to reach out 2 PRESIDENT OBAMA.

heh heh heh

Val: LOL! :>)

My Chairman is Black!!!

(corny, but I couldn't resist)

Guess I can actually join the GOP now.

What's sad is that the only reason (let me re-emphasize "Only" reason) that your "Chairman is Black," is because our President is Black.

Tit-for-tat don't mean jack, but congrats anyway.

Attribute whatever reason you want for it....he is.

Thanks.

Your Welcome...I hope that your optimism is justified. My instincts tell me that the Right Wing media is going to throw Steele, "under the bus."

Maybe I'll be proven wrong--but wisdom has taught me, "once a nasty saltine, always a nasty saltine."

OH PUHHLLLEEEEEZZZZEEEEE D

This is going to make one interesting year. LOLOL

I have to break out the popcorn while I watch the remaining 20% of the GOP self implode.

Can you hear the wails throughtout Appalachia going down thru the south....oh my......this is HILARIOUS!!!!!!!! LMAO

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT.

R.A.O.T.F.L.M.A.O.


Bbbwwwwahhhaaaaaahhhaa

No, your chairman is a shoe shiner! LOL

If you don't have anything nice to say...just say "congrats."

Sorry, I can only laugh LOL

So begins the slow descent into hell. Repent and save yourself.

lolol

D: CONGRATS! :>)

Why am I running around the house?

Seriously, this is big...no, we didn't just stop being the stereotypical "party of old white men," but this is as big a first step as could've been taken.

Told y'all change was coming...slowly, but it's coming.

Maybe change is coming...it still is gimmicky though

Now if only Republicans could check their humor..Barack the Magic Negro and the Star Spanglish banner

By the Way, i wonder will Ruh Limpballs go on his show and rant about how Republicans should bend over and be happy..well because the RNC chairman is a BLACK man, with Rush's emphasis on black...you know how Republicans do.

Those days are coming to an end.

Not over...but ending.

Tell you the truth, I will get a better satisfaction from hearing Rush and his ilk refer to "Chairman Steele" than "President Obama."

(and I don't expect anyone to understand that sentiment)

This is for you D. Welcome to the 21st century
James D-Train Williams- Keep On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baeDB3bl_s0

All I know is, a band-aid does not stop the bleeding....

It takes more than a different color band-aid to change the narrow politics of the Republican party...and it will be interesting to see Steele have to explain/denouce some of the incendiary comments that are sure to come out of his fellow Republican's mouths in the months to come.

He doesn't have to explain or denounce.

His job will be (should be?) to explain in no uncertain terms that kind of behavior is no longer acceptable, and start holding those who traffic in it accountable.

I hope you're right...we'll see. Let the revolts begin!!

D: WE DO UNDERSTAND. :>)

"Thrush" will CHOKE on sayin' "CHAIRMAN" - - - - B4 a Black man's name!! :>)

Ima ENJOY that!

Annnnnnnd. I'm NOT gonna get a glass of H2O!

'cause I 'on't care! :>)

D - don't kid yourself.

Pausing the euphoria for a second:

Yes, there's going to be a segment of the GOP who's not gonna be down with a black man being the face of the Party.

And that's fine. Those voices will be marginalized over the next four years. New ones will take their place, and new money will replace theirs. None of that will happen overnight, but it will happen. It has to.

We're still in the wilderness...but at least we have GPS now (okay, maybe just a compass. LOL).

that is the thing. Have you read the comments from your fellow GOP regarding this bit of exciting news?

I have. LOL It ain't pretty but it makes for great reality teevee.

Oh, yeah....I'm on Free Republic now.

We'll drag you guys into the 21st century yet (LOL)

Don't have to.

We'll walk willingly, and anyone who doesn't want to can stay behind.

D: I belie' Mr. Steele said: "We'll knock you down!" :>)

Get on the train, or get out of the way. :)

I am really not trying to rain on the Republican's parade...I think this is progress.

But I have to say, if "moderate" John McCain could not unite the party and the have the majority behind him (he used Palin as a gimmick to rile up the base, and the ugly came out)-----what makes you think Steele, who is Black and moderate will do that. It takes more than a "blackface." Pun intended.

D: Watch the vid: "For those of you who wish to be obstructionists, get ready to get knocked over!" :>)

Also, as Tamron Hall pointed out:

CHANGE = "They're looking for something different."

50 STATE STRATEGY = "We'll take it to the North/South/East/West."

***raisin' eyebrows*** :>)

This is your engineer. Ride and you going to die, the man's afraid of Oreo's:
http://pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do;jsession...

But I'm not.

Congratulations D!!!!!!! :-)))

Recalling an article on various blogs posted on 1-16-09, what ever happened with:Two U.S. attorneys appointed by Dubya are refusing to leave the Justice Department when Obama takes office. Their explanation: they've got too many corrupt Democrats to prosecute!

The now-former governor of Illinois is getting a raw deal. It’s not that he’s innocent. It’s that, compared to the greats of Illinois corruption, he’s not guilty enough.
But what has he actually done? “Blago” has been charged by federal prosecutors with talking about committing a crime.
Show me the money! Show me the victims!—and , please, don’t say “the citizens of Illinois.”

"he's not guilty enough" - that's too funny. I'm going to miss ol' Blago.

"Mike Duncan withdraws his name from consideration!"


"Look! We have one, too!!"

I am praying its Steele. The GOP needs someone to assume Alan Keyes' legacy.

ouch! lol

BWA HAHAHAHAHA!

LOL

Plantsmantx: LOL! :>)

They said security was real laxed at inauguration compared to that of Clinton.

Is this the article you are talking about?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

it was very disturbing to me as well. These executives and others are use to strict standard of security so they know what they are talking about.

I think Matthew Yglesias has a good explanation as to why there are certain items in the stimulus bill:

A few points in response to the Brooks/Nelson objections. One is that this sort of thing really does need to be kept in perspective. The stimulus bill is huge. It’s huge because the macroeconomic situation requires a huge stimulus. The stimulus bill is also multi-faceted. And it needs to be multifaceted because it’s so huge. Targeted tax cuts can be good stimulus, but you can’t do $850 billion of well-targeted tax cuts. Infrastructure can be good stimulus, but you can’t do $850 billion of good infrastructure projects. Long story short, the grab-bag character of the stimulus is a feature rather than a bug. Now, boring down into the bag you can find some specific spending provisions that probably are mistakes. Elsewhere in the piece Brooks singles out Head Start expansion as not such a hot idea. And my understanding is that he’s basically right—it would be better to target early childhood spending on Community Development Block Grants to allow child care services to keep running, and on construction of new facilities for early childhood programs. The existence of these kind of problems are good reason to hope that the Senate version of the bill is improved on these fronts. It’s also a good reason to push the future conference committee to fix these problems. But this is a pretty piece of the overall puzzle. The existence of a handful of sub-optimal provisions in an enormous program does not justify the kind of irresponsibility shown by the House members who voted against the overall package. The House version of the stimulus isn’t perfect, but it’s way better than doing nothing and way better than Jim DeMint’s Dr. Evil stimulus.

Second, with a lot of this stuff whether or not it really “belongs in the stimulus” seems irrelevant to me. If you have a program that actually is worthy, then funding it will make the country better, whether or not it truly “belongs” in the stimulus. If you have a program that’s worthy, and that doesn’t really belong in the stimulus, and you have a Republican who doesn’t think the program is worthy, and he’d be willing to vote for the stimulus if you stripped that program from the bill, then it seems to me that you have a decent case for dropping a worthy program. But if you’re Ben Nelson and you think the program is worthy, then why not just support the worthy program? It’s true that doing so doesn’t fit a perfectly pristine notion of how the legislative process should work, but anytime the process is working in favor of worthy programs rather than crappy ones, that’s a lot better than the normal functioning of the legislative process.

another example of how they think we all look alike.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/homestyle/01/30/...

call me crazy, but i don't see it.

The little girl is cute, but there is no resemblance whatsoever outside of skin color.

Other than differences in their eyes, nose, eyes, chin, mouth, forehead and cheeks, they look just alike.

raotfl

Practically switched at birth!! LOL

But it does warm my heart just to see two little pretty brown girls smiling happily like that.

Lisa M: LOL!!! :>) :>)

TallBlackMan: HEY! :>)

EeeeeH! She's a Q T, BUT. . . . .

Her "chin" is a little more "pointed" than that of Sasha. Forehead - - a little larger.

AGAIN - - - She is a "major Q T"! :>) BUT. . . I agree with U. :>)

Kerry opposes the bad bank idea.

Finance committee member John Kerry said on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports that he is against the reported bad bank proposal Treasury is working on.

Kerry said he'd prefer to see the banks write off their losses, take their hits and avoid more taxpayer liability .

I can agree to that. I don't see the necessity of TARP II.

TARP II only if there are more strings, lending guides, consumer/privacy/credit report/collections etc strings than over the puppets in one of those old British "Thunderbirds" /"Captain Scarlet" marionette TV shows from the 60s...

The bad bank idea is a good one. The devil is in the details. The problem is at what price will the government buy the toxic assets of the financial institutions. These assets are counted against bank capital for the purposes of lending. Right now they do not have much value at all.
i believe that certain of these assets can be valued toxic assets being mortgage backed bonds and credit default swaps. The bonds can be valued by a reverse auction process. What the banks and surviving institutions do not want to do is take the loss this process would cause ; the current prices are artifically inflated in that they are based on last sales of assets that no one will buy.. The other problem for them is that they would lose their jobs. this happens because the value of these repriced assets would make the bank insolvent despite the infusion of cash from the government or private buyers. At this point the bank becomes liquidated under FDIC procedures.
You would still be selling off the good assets like insurance companies and brokerage house the institution owns.
No matter how it shakes out these toxic bonds would be owned by the government. At some point even w/ the government should get the money back w a profit as the economy improves as there will be buyers when people can buy their mortgage.
the othr toxic asset is credit default swaps. they are essentially insurance on bonds of all types. This insurance was not written on a one policy for one bond basis. There are multiple swaps on a single bond. This is how they can be dealt w/ without a drain on the treasury.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/25gr...

Mother of 8 has six little ones at home with her parents

Something more to that story

Lesbian Couple Denied Medical Treatment in Manitoba: Once again homophobia shows its ugly head but how do they fight against it, bu employing racism of course. The darkies apparently need to be taught civilized values.

So if this doctors says in Egypt we do female circumcision and I want to practice it in Canada--that's ok? Let's get real racism clear. Prof. Kwame Anthony Appiah has a theory on this as to enlightened culture versus racism. I think he'd come down on the side of the couple, not the doctor. Plus, the doc's stated reasoning is laughable if it wasn't so scornful. As if lesbians are a different species. Quick, get them a veternarian! Hospital admins in the US have long wrestled with other aspects of foreign doctor culture like lack of understanding w/accountability and credentialling, lack of bedside manor (which trust me is a euphemism for very serious problems on medical staffs), etc. etc. If you are from Egypt, Nigeria, India wherever--yeah, the privilege of practicing medicine in North America entails that you at least try to act like a North American. That's not racism. That's a professional string attached to your medical license...

So no, not racism.

Just because you don't see it as racist , does not mean that it isn't racist. The point is not that the doctor did not behave inappropriately but that they refused to see such attitudes exist in the larger social circle. Repeatedly saying that homophobia is "natural" to Egyptian culture ignores the ways in which homophobia is very much a part of Canadian society...How supportive do you think the Conservative government (BTW largely white) is of gay right? The answer is not very. If they are going to fight homophobia it needs to be fought wherever it occurs and not just by saying it is an issue with the foreigners.

Mike Duncan withdraws his name from consideration!