I Wasnt Kidding

End Of Life Counseling Out Of ObamaCare Again
First Obama pushed for end-of-life counseling in ObamaCare, then it was pulled after Sarah Palin rightly pointed out the spooky nature of the Death Panels (you put this in as a cost saving feature of a bill and you’re damn right its a death panel). Then Dr. Donald “I love Socialism” Berwick, head of Medicare, put it back in…this time during the yearly Medicare checkups, and he tried to do it all sly like and back door the thing. He got caught and now Obama is pulling it o...

What a Socialist Schools Chancellor Might Do
Socialists are often in possession of the sharpest critique, but come up a bit short when it comes to offering concrete proposals for social change.  There is no denying this flaw in our community.  Therefore, in the spirit of rectifying this, here are a few of my ideas about the possibilities of the Schools Chancellor position from a Socialist perspective.  Nothing official here, just a few thought organized around the question: What might be possible with a red at the head of th...

Have some time on Sunday?
Do you have some time on Sunday? Are you in the New York City area? If so, please consider heading over to Herald Square and making a counter-demonstration against this (Hat Tip: Challah Hu Akhbar). Join us January 9th to demand: End the Siege! No US Aid to Zionist Racism and Murder! Bring Zionist War Criminals to Justice! Free Palestine! Sponsored by: Al-Awda NY -The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, US Palestinian Community Network-NY, International Action Center, Hunter Students for Jus...

BULLETIN: BILL DALEY ANNOUNCEMENT AS CHIEF OF STAFF EXPECTED SOON -- Gibbs to give speeches, consult to reelect Karen Finney, J
THE 20 CORRESPONDENTS with the most minutes on the dinnertime newscasts in 2010, per the Tyndall Report: ABC’s Jake Tapper … ABC’s David Muir … ABC’s Jonathan Karl … CBS’ Chip Reid … NBC’s Anne Thompson … CBS’ Mark Strassmann … NBC’s Tom Costello … CBS’ Nancy Cordes … NBC’s Chuck Todd … ABC’s Sharyn Alfonsi … NBC’s Pete Williams … CBS’ Anthony Mason...

Gene Sperling Thinks Asset Bubbles Are Cool
Very few reporters discussed the stock bubble before it collapsed in the years 2000-2002. It was the same way with the Housing Bubble. The most frequently cited source on the Housing Market in the Washington Post in the bubble years was David Lereah, the chief Economist of the National Association of Realtors and the author of the classic book, Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust and How You Can Profit from It. Those who tried to warn of impending disaster were virtually invisible in the Po...

Overnight Open Thread
Welcome to yet another semi-half-assed hump day ONT. Adorable Video of the Day Here father-daughter duo Jorge and Alexa Narvaez do an uber-cute version of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros’ "Home." Good And Bad News For Obama The good news is that his Approval Ratings have risen back to 50%. The bad news is that midterm Approval Ratings are pretty much useless in predicting which presidents get re-elected. If Michele Bachmann Runs, Will There Be Bachmann Derangement Syndrome? Probably. And exp...

Mainstream Pakistani Islamic Groups Praise Assassin of Governor and Warn Others That They Would Be Killed For Opposing Blasphemy
The mainstream Islamic organizations have rallied in response to the Assassination of of Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab province by one of his Bodyguards. However, they are not rallying to denounce the killing but to celebrate it because Taseer had stood up against the country’s notorious Blasphemy laws. Islamic leaders warned people not to mourn his death and warned other politicians that they could face the same fate if they tried to curtail Blasphemy prosecutions. In the meantime, hi...

Roseanne Barr: Cheney Never Worked Honest Day in His Life, Traitor Palins Followers Are Dumbest People on Earth
As she debated right-leaning rocker Ted Nugent on a special edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Wednesday during the 9:00 p.m. hour, liberal comedian Roseanne Barr tagged Sarah Palin a "loon" and a "traitor to this country" and, although she apologized later, called Palin’s followers the "dumbest people on Earth," and described them as being "on the government dole." Barr: "I think she's a loon and I think she's kind of a trait...

Energy groups abound on Issa's Obama reg list
The Hill has obtained a full list of the companies and groups Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) reached out to in mid-December in order to identify the most onerous Obama Administration regulations. The list includes a wide range of groups, but many of them have ties to Energy Policy. These include: the Edison Electric Institute, the American Petroleum Institute, Duke Energy, ExxonMobil, the American Chemistry Council, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Mining Association, the ...

Obama's CEO Problem.
Matthew Yglesias says the idea is that warmer sentiments from CEOs will lead to businessmen praising Barack Obama, which will make him more popular is ill conceived. I find it difficult to get worked up about debates over who the president should pick to succeed Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff or Lawrence Summers as head of the National Economic Council (NEC). These are important jobs, but they're fundamentally staff jobs whose occupants work for the president and have little to no autonomous de...

"Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Whistleblower?": White House Seeks to Identify "Insider Threats" Among Federal Workers
The Obama Administration is asking federal agencies to monitor employees with an eye toward identifying "insider threats" who might reveal "classified" information that the government is trying to keep from the American People. The White House Office of Management and Budget this week circulated a memorandum to senior federal officials that urges them to use psychiatrists and sociologists to assess -- among other "signals" -- the “grumpiness” of federal employees who have access to c...

Obama 2011: Raise the Debt Limit! Obama 2006: Dont You Dare Raise the Debt Limit!
What a difference five years makes. President Obama‘s economic spokesman Austan Goolsbee has turned into Chicken Little, demanding the nation’s Debt Limit be raised above the current $14.3 Trillion (excluding unfunded liabilities). But in March 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) passionately opposed raising the then-$9 Trillion National Debt limit. Here’s what Obama said back then: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s Debt Limit is a sign of le...

If It's Thursday...
Adjusted claims are in-line at 409K new Jobless Claims, but the unadjusted number is pretty brutal, some 577K new jobless claims last week. Tyler Durden: The seasonal adjustment in the last week's sub 400k initial claims is starting to water out, and the resulting jump in initial claims from 388K to 409K was to be expected. Of course, last week's 388K was revised as always to a worse reading of 391K. More importantly, as we have been noticing for the past 3-4 weeks, the Unadjusted claims continu...

Missouri Legislature launches 2011 session
JEFFERSON CITY • Rob Mayer, the new Senate president pro tem, knows what it is like to lose a job. The Dexter Republican had worked 12 years at an automotive supply company when his position was eliminated. Saying that he used that "life-changing moment" to finish college and go to Law School, he pledged Wednesday to improve the opportunities for the 280,000 Missourians who have been out of work the past year and a half. Mayer, who was unanimously elected by his colleagues to lead the Sena...

Get used to 10% unemployment
The U.S. economy finally appears to be picking up steam and headed toward recovery: several Economic Indicators — including Manufacturing and services output, and sales of cars and consumer goods — have shown noticeable improvement over the last few months. Scan virtually any financial news website, and you’ll see it’s now a consensus that a sustained Economic Recovery has not only arrived — it’s picking up speed. But there’s good reason to believe that...

Federal Agency's Claims of Jobs Saved by Stimulus Were 'Unclear and Misleading,' Says Inspector General
Thursday, January 06, 2011 By Pete Winn Stimulus sign (CNSNews.com) - The Small Business Administration, which was given $730 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to increase the availability of credit to small businesses, is making claims about the number of jobs saved that are “unclear” and “misleading” and which cannot be verified, according to a report issued by the agency’s Inspector General. “The lack of a definition for ‘jobs retained

Decker named to town's top job
WINTHROP — Clark S. Decker became the town of Stockholm's newest supervisor Tuesday night. The Town Council voted unanimously to appoint Mr. Decker, a Republican town councilman, to the position after former Supervisor Lowell E. Kelsey resigned last month. Mr. Kelsey cited health reasons for his Resignation. Mr. Decker will serve in his appointed role through the final year of Mr. Kelsey's third term. "I am really quite surprised about the opportunity, but I look forward to se...

Top 10 Political Lies of 2010 (Larry Elder)
Creators Syndicate – The biggest political "lie" of 2010? The winner is: the Republican assertion that ObamaCare is a "government takeover of Health Care." A website called PolitiFact based this on the votes of 4,000 of its readers. ABC's "Nightline" featured PolitiFact's editor, and "Nightline" reporter Jake Tapper heartily agreed this was the "biggest lie of the year." Tapper, normally pretty sane, concluded the piece by saying,...

Open thread for night owls: Low-wage jobs lead in new hiring
At The Atlantic, Eve Tahmincioglu, a labor and career columnist for MSNBC.com and the voice behind the blog CareerDiva.net, writes The Political and Economic Assault on the Middle Class: Did you hear the happy news? Dollar General stores will hire 6,000 people this year. Yes America, hiring is back! Actually, curb the enthusiasm. This isn't the stuff that robust middle class recoveries are made of. According to Payscale.com, The Dollar General chain pays its assistant managers $9.22 an hour an...

Dip Bought
and Sara Underwood (who as always, can get under Money McBags' wood whenever she pleases). So forget about Unemployment, forget about Home Prices, and forget about everything you never learned in your economic classes because you were too busy trying to understand crucial concepts like Giffen goods and positive externalities, and just lever up on those double long S&P ETFs because the market has nowhere to go but up (and yes, that was sarcasm). Money McBags may be but a simple antithalian m...

Private Report: US Added 300,000 Jobs in Dec.
Like this Story? Share it: A new report is raising hopes the government's official report Friday on last month's Job Creation could be a blockbuster. (CBS/iStockphoto) (AP) A new report is raising hopes the government's official report Friday on last month's Job Creation could be a blockbuster. The private Payroll firm, Automatic Data Processing, says companies added nearly 300,000 jobs in December. While some Economists see reasons to doubt the numbers, the ADP report and another showing str...

Issa: Obama Is Corrupt The Way A Disc Drive Gives You Bad Bits (VIDEO)
Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is now attempting to explain away comments he made about the President Barack Obama being corrupt -- by claiming that the media just doesn't understand what he was trying to say. "I think people misunderstand the meaning of the word corrupt, and obviously CNN does. Corrupt or corrupted or failure -- it's no different than a disc drive giving you some bits that are wrong," Issa said. "I've never said it was illegal. I've never said many of the st...

Michele Bachmann refuses to rule out 2012 presidential run (Daily Caller)
Rep. Michele Bachmann did not rule out the possibility of a 2012 presidential run on Wednesday, but called discussions of candidacy premature at this point. “Can you imagine two years of speculating about who the nominee will be?” Bachmann asked Greta VanSusteren. “It’s boring.” Speculation arose earlier in the day when it was announced that the Minnesota Republican and Tea Party darling would headline a Fundraiser in Iowa later this month held by Iowans for Tax R...

Issa Redefines "Corrupt"
In an interview on CNN, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) defended comments he had previously made that President Obama is "one of the most corrupt presidents of modern times" by offering an alternate definition of "corrupt." Said Issa: "I think people misunderstand the meaning of the word corrupt, and obviously, CNN does. 'Corrupt', or 'corrupted' or 'failure', it's no different than a disc drive that's given you some bits that are wrong." ...

Kathy Griffin, 60, declares war on 16-year old girl.
Kathy Griffin: rolling around in the gutter, looking for her newest schtick. This is as disgusting as David Letterman, 112, making a “joke” about Willow Palin (then only 14 years old) being raped by New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez in New York City back in the summer of 2009. Kathy Griffin, 60, has declared her New Year’s Resolution to be a war on Willow Palin. Being sober or funny were seen as “too last year” to make the Resolution cut, it seems. What’s with L...