Jacksonian's Comments (100)

“Don't you just love the word, "perspicacious?"

You bethcha!”

“In W's case, maybe that's just as well.

:o)

Fanned.”

“Fanned.”

“"...she plays the victim and blames everybody but herself."

It sounds as if she has found her ideal role model in Sarah Palin.

This is a thoughtful, well-reasoned, intelligent article complete with excellent analysis. You give us all hope that today's high school seniors are not as vapid, vacuous, and devoid of critical thinking skills as some of Palin's admirers apparently are.

Kudos!”

“You're right that he's too dangerous to ignore.

But I still have an overwhelming urge to do so.

:o)”

“Fanned.”

“Many of the things you list as accomplishments either haven't happened, aren't actual accomplishments, or are more appropriately credited to Congress and not the White House.

Guantanamo Bay remains open and likely will not close by the president's self-imposed deadline; health care reform, on which Obama has waffled shamelessly, appears unlikely to offer much real reform at all; the Matthew Shephard bill has been more than a decade in the making. Obama just happened to be in office for the signing ceremony.

Notwithstanding your rosy view, the stimulous bill in all likelihood was too small and, despite modest gains in some areas, has done almost nothing to rein in unemployment. And the Goldman Sachs - led Treasury Department has utterly failed to close the casino.

Green? Talk to me when meaningful legislation emerges in which the White House has played a critical role.

I admire Justice Sotomayor, but I don't consider presidential appointments to be accomplishments, per se. It would have been stunning for the president, a Constitutional scholar, to appoint a lesser person.

In short, I stand by my statement that you need to put the Kool-Aid down.

And, no, I don't own any tinfoil hats either. I also voted for and supported Obama. That doesn't mean I have abandoned independent observation or independent thought.”

“Dump the Kool-Aid down the drain, Harry.

It's completely unfair to equate hsko1945's legitimate criticism with the nutcases in tinfoil hats.

And as for all those "things (Obama's) accomplished?" I'm still looking for them.”

“LMFAO.”

“Which one of us isn't paying attention?

He has embraced Bush's surveillance tactics; he has expanded illegal detention; he has refused to authorize torture investigations.

He has put Wall Street in charge of the Treasury Department; he has permitted excessive bonuses and executive pay; he has offered no serious regulatory reform of our financial markets; he has not provided effective mortgage relief; he has backed corporations over the people.

He has waffled on the public option; he has sold out to pharmaceutical companies; he has conducted health care reform in an opaque fashion; he has put the concerns of Olympia Snowe and Joe Liberman ahead of his constituents; he as engaged in a pointless, self-defeating exercise in bipartisanship with a party that is out of power, generally marginalized, and fading fast.

He has escalated troop deployment in Afghanistan; he has failed to close GITMO; and he has procrastinated in ending "Don't ask - Don't tell."

In short he's been less about change than he has been about typical Beltway politics.

I voted for him too. I cheered his historic election. I find him, his family, even his dog, immensely likeable. But I never liked Kool-Aid, don't wear rose-colored glasses, and refuse to cede my right to independent thought.

I'm not looking for a magic wand. I'm just looking for the guy I helped to elect.”

“What's all that different about Obama and the Republicans? He's just as willing as Bush was to abuse his executive powers. He's just as willing to side with corporations. He's just as willing to opt for political expediency in lieu of keeping his promises.

Why are there no torture investigations? Why does he advocate rendition? Why does he support warrantless wiretapping? Why is Wall Street still running the Treasury Department? Where is the regulation, where is the reform, where are the investigations, where are the prosecutions of the thieves who nearly destroyed the world's economy, who robbed us of our 401ks, and who profited off our bailout?

You say the Democrats always find a way to put the Republicans in office? I say what's the difference? It looks like that's exactly what we did.”

“Sadly I realized several months ago that the president is a weak leader, if he's much of a leader at all.

Combine that with the fact that he lacks the courage of his convictions, and it leaves those of us who voted for him in a quandary.

What do we do in 2012 when Obama is almost surely going to be the Democratic nominee? Do we hold our noses and vote for him anyway, as John McCain's mother might put it?

Do we find a third-party candidate and hand the election to the Republicans?

Maybe we need to start thinking right now about backing someone new for the Democratic party. Someone who really is what Obama purported to be.”

“The voters of Nevada.”

“Make mine a double.”

“From the president on down, Democrats have taken a peculiar route to health care reform.

While the "party of no" largely remains silent, it is, incredibly, the Democrats who are sabotaging the legislation -- their own legislation.

They eagerly seek whatever cover they can find to hesitate, to defer, to delay, to water down, to dismiss. They talk about 60 votes, knowing they need 51. They talk about bipartisanship, knowing it's virtually unattainable and mostly irrelevant. They float enough phony trial balloons to fill Colorado's skies.

You'd think the G.O.P. was still calling the shots.

I've spent six months signing petitions and calling my Congressional delegation, and I've eagerly read every word I came across about the health care issue. I've sweated every premature declaration of the public option's death and alternately cursed and cheered the president I helped to elect.

It's as if the Democrats, beholden to corporations but seeking electoral cover, are tossing around a hot potato, refusing to take credit either for promoting the public option or for killing it. But all indications are that they really don't want to pass meaningful reform.

Why don't they pressure their caucus members? Why don't they threaten to revoke chairmanships? Why don't they name names?

Why pass weak and meaningless legislation? Make the republicans filibuster. Let America see what they really stand for.

My biggest question, though, is why did I vote for these people?

And why would I repeat that mistake?”

“They get it, Arianna.

They just don't care.”

“Of course -- which is why I prefaced my remarks by dissing conspiracy theories.

But I find the whole thing bewildering nonetheless.”

“My husband's a lawyer, and our kids grown, so with no mortgage-interest deduction and no dependents (apparently we cannot claim four spoiled cats and a golden retriever), we have really been hurting at tax time.

So he said we should become home owners again.

Frankly I also like not having to worry about what the landlord will say when I pound a nail in the wall or paint a room.

This isn't to say there aren't lots of perks to renting: My husband's not nearly so keen on home ownership when it comes to repairs or lawn maintenance.

:o)”

“I'm not normally a conspiracy theorist of any kind, and I'm loath to imply such here, but couldn't this 11th-hour pushback from the insurance industry just be a way to give cover to Obama and the Democrats when they pass meaningless health care reform?

Why else would Max Baucus, the industry's $3 million point man, suddenly take umbrage with his favorite benefactor's behavior?

He's upset that the industry is threatening higher premiums EVEN AS THEY REVEL in the spoils of their decade-long gouge fest?

He bristles at the idea that CBO estimates of his gutless, worthless bill are wrong and that the measure won't, in fact, drive down health insurance costs?


Of course it won't. It was never designed to do so. It was designed to do the opposite.
It was designed to seem frugal even as it opened lucrative markets to insurers through mandatory insurance premiums and even as it set Americans up for increased costs down the road when what passes as reform reveals itself to be simply more of the same.

But what if this last-minute complaining from Big Insurance is by design too?

By lining up against the bill, the industry gives Obama someone to point to as he deflects criticism that this is nothing more than watered-down legislation masquerading as reform. The president gets his second term; the C.E.O.s get to keep their profits and their bonuses; and the American public gets screwed.

Talk about your flawed designs...”

“My husband and I moved from Minnesota to Missouri in 2007 and rented for the first two years we were here.

But without a real estate tax deduction, we were getting killed every April.

This year we finally bought a house down here and are happy with what we thought was a good deal on the property as well as some long-term tax relief.

Our 21-year-old son got a great deal on a foreclosed townhouse back in Minnesota, plus he gets an $8,000 tax credit.

We expect to stay in our home long term, and the terms of our son's tax credit require him to stay a minimum of three years.

So there are plenty of good reasons to buy and plenty of good deals. But if you view your purchase as some sort of road to riches, you're going to be disappointed.

Just try to enjoy your new home sweet home.”

“For 40 years, the G.O.P. has been the party of bad ideas.

Now it's become the party of no ideas.

Republicans express these non-ideas with the subtlety of a spoiled, petulant two-year-old, the openmindedness of a stubborn, contrary teenager, and the intellectual verve of an old racist, xenophobic redneck.”

“They mostly just leave me wanting to pull my hair out at the roots.

Sigh.”

“Ditto”

“Yesterday I nominated Jason for the post of "Comedy Czar," a parliamentary move which received a quick second (and third), and one for which we expect swift presidential approval.

Today, in honor of Jason's MSNBC appearance, which was GREAT, I offer my own services up as "Zombie Czar," inspired as I was by the monotone and almost-lifelike presentation of his conservative counterpart. (This is not to be confused with, nor to detract from, my work with the Zombie Anti-Defamation League.)

Today's political confrontations with the living dead brought to you by the Missouri chapter of the Shiba Inu Puppy Livestream Fan Club.”

“It's TIME, Greg.

Nuff said.”