John Cole boils down the compromise:
“…what we might have to do to keep the poorest of the poor afloat is toss out tons of cash to the already rich. God, I hate Republicans.”
Oh, and those of you who didn’t vote last month, please tell us how that’s working out so far.
Andrew Sullivan argues that Obama knows exactly what he’s doing with the tax cut compromise:
And notice that Obama has secured – with Republican backing – a big new stimulus that will almost certainly goose growth and lower unemployment as he moves toward re-election. If growth accelerates, none of the current political jockeying and Halperin-style hyper-ventilation will matter. Obama will benefit – thanks, in part, to Republican dogma. So here’s something the liberal base can chew on if they need some grist: how cool is it that Mitch McConnell just made Barack Obama’s re-election more likely? Bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you?
[…] Now for the short-term benefits of resolving this tax-and-spend dilemma so swiftly. The president urgently needs to get the new START and DADT through the Senate. DADT would be a major boost for his base – and the country’s military. Getting START through is critical to his foreign policy cred. If he can pull all this off by Christmas – and the Senate should indeed stay open for an extra week – the last Congress will indeed be viewed by historians as one of the most substantive (and liberal) in recent history. And Obama will have orchestrated it – while ending up firmly planted and rebranded in the center.
Read it all…
Andrew Sullivan talks about Obama’s long game:
“Like 2009′s removal of the HIV ban, which was as painstakingly slow but thereby much more entrenched, this process took time. Without the Pentagon study, it wouldn’t have passed. Without Obama keeping Lieberman inside the tent, it wouldn’t have passed. Without the critical relationship between Bob Gates and Obama, it wouldn’t have passed. It worked our last nerve; we faced at one point a true nightmare of nothing … for years. And then we pulled behind this president, making it his victory and the country’s victory, as well as ours.”
The President’s statement:
“By ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, no longer will our nation be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans forced to leave the military, despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay. And no longer will many thousands more be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love.” Read it all….
(Source: underthemountainbunker.com)
A handshake & a salute to the President after #RIPDADT signing.
(via)
No Congress since the 1960s has impacted the public as much as the outgoing ‘lame duck’ 111th Congress. And the partisan hackery we’ve witnessed for the past two years makes this achievement that much more impressive.
The 111th Congress made more law affecting more Americans since the “Great Society” legislation of the 1960s.
For the first time since President Theodore Roosevelt began the quest for a national health-care system more than 100 years ago, the Democrat-led House and Senate took the biggest step toward achieving that goal by giving 32 million Americans access to insurance. Congress rewrote the rules for Wall Street in the most comprehensive way since the Great Depression. It spent more than $1.67 trillion to revive an economy on the verge of a depression, including tax cuts for most Americans, jobs for more than 3 million, construction of roads and bridges and investment in alternative energy; ended an almost two-decade ban against openly gay men and women serving in the military, and today ratified a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.
Before adjournment today, Congress approved legislation to help rescuers and clean-up crews suffering from illnesses linked to the wreckage caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. The Senate approved it on a voice vote, the House by a vote of 206-60. New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, in a statement, called it a “Christmas miracle.”
Read it all…
Hopefully the voters will remember, and the progressives / moderates will take a moment to vote in 2012. Because I have a feeling the incoming GOP-Teaparty lawmakers of the 112th, under the directions of Mitch McConnell, plan to be a fiasco.
Major Health Care Reforms Take Effect January 1
Two of the most significant reforms go into effect tomorrow.
President Obama signs H.R. 847, the “James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act” in Kailua, Hawaii, Jan. 2, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Things that, sadly, will never happen
The GOP-Teaparty has one goal: obstructionism until Election Day 2012 to put a Republican in the White House. End of goal.
Country last.
An estimated 300 White House staffers joined the Obamas on the South Drive for the Moment of Silence observance.——markknoller
“Only 999 of these will be produced, get yours before they are gone!” the Palmetto State Armory declared.
The retailer’s online product page was apparently taken down after coverage from The Colombia Free Times. It was still available in Google’s web cache.
The paper also noted that while the company had no official endorsement from Rep. Wilson, a photograph of the congressman holding a firearm was also hosted on their website. That image was also removed, but similarly saved by Google.
Both sides do it.
TPM: Some conservatives are upset over t-shirts bearing the logo “Together We Thrive: Tucson & America” that were handed out to attendees at [last] night’s memorial service in the McKale Center on the campus of the University Of Arizona here:
There were some conservatives were very put off by the “tone” of the memorial. One in particular sums that mess up best:
I guess they’ve never heard of Irish Wakes or New Orleans funerals — OR what about Bush’s “bullhorn moment” atop the rubble of the World Trade Center? Oh, well. It’s really impossible to understand, let alone communicate with, such hate-filled and fueled people.
Dave Weigel expressed my thoughts about such criticism best:
I also agree with how Charles Johnson sums up the glaring difference between Palin and Obama yesterday:
Well, I just have one comment after watching the President’s speech: what an enormous contrast with Sarah Palin’s shallow statement. A Grand Canyon of contrast.
And Bob Cesca on the ‘tone’ of the memorial:
The president’s address was, naturally, excellent. But I thought the audience participation was such an important accent to the event. It represented a community gathered in solidarity. The cheering and applause were the biggest “fuck you” imaginable to Loughner and everyone who thinks the use of firearms is a reasonable response to a trespass. This, as Richard Wolffe described it on Countdown last night, was a celebration of the heroes and a farewell to the victims. Meanwhile, there will be a time for solemn deference and, as we’ve already recognized, moments of silence for the fallen.
But last night? *clap clap clap*
Presidential vs. Pettiness:
In the span of a single news cycle, Republicans got a jarring reminder of two forces that could prevent them from retaking the presidency in next year.
At sunrise in the East on Wednesday, Sarah Palin demonstrated that she has little interest — or capacity — in moving beyond her brand of grievance-based politics. And at sundown in the West, Barack Obama reminded even his critics of his ability to rally disparate Americans around a message of reconciliation.
Palin was defiant, making the case in a taped speech she posted online why the nation’s heated political debate should continue unabated even after Saturday’s tragedy in Tucson. And, seeming to follow her own advice, she swung back at her opponents, deeming the inflammatory notion that she was in any way responsible for the shootings a “blood libel.”
Obama, speaking at a memorial service at the University of Arizona, summoned the country to honor the victims, and especially9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, by treating one another with more respect. “I want America to be as good as Christina imagined it,” he said.
Obama was presidential, fatherly, seeking to heal our nation in the midst of tragedy. Sarah’s focus was on herself. One day she’ll be lucky if she’s at least a footnote in a very ugly part of our history.
John Cole:
I really like the idea of Politifact fact-checking politicians, but now they are really going in over their head… They are going to need to hire about 1,000 new researchers if they are going to start fact-checking wingnut blogs and even make a dent. Half those researchers could work nonstop fact-checking just Malkin and Hot Air.
Bob Cesca | Good Luck, Republicans
The main reason why the Republican frontrunners are too a’scared to declare their candidacies for the 2012 nomination — illustrated in convenient graph form.
![Obama: President. McConnell: Sucker.
Andrew Sullivan argues that Obama knows exactly what he’s doing with the tax cut compromise:
And notice that Obama has secured – with Republican backing – a big new stimulus that will almost certainly goose growth and lower unemployment as he moves toward re-election. If growth accelerates, none of the current political jockeying and Halperin-style hyper-ventilation will matter. Obama will benefit – thanks, in part, to Republican dogma. So here’s something the liberal base can chew on if they need some grist: how cool is it that Mitch McConnell just made Barack Obama’s re-election more likely? Bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you?
[…] Now for the short-term benefits of resolving this tax-and-spend dilemma so swiftly. The president urgently needs to get the new START and DADT through the Senate. DADT would be a major boost for his base – and the country’s military. Getting START through is critical to his foreign policy cred. If he can pull all this off by Christmas – and the Senate should indeed stay open for an extra week – the last Congress will indeed be viewed by historians as one of the most substantive (and liberal) in recent history. And Obama will have orchestrated it – while ending up firmly planted and rebranded in the center.
Read it all…](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ld638uWuNc1qf10tro1_400.jpg)
