Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
A friend who is a much-heralded salesman, told me a long time ago that you know you have made the deal when the other side starts to negotiate, and then you keep screwing them until you make it a better deal for yourself, getting better terms, a larger slice of the pie, whatever it is that you really want.
So… when negotiations have not even started yet, to abandon your stated starting line of no tax cuts for those making over $250K, you’ve already lost. You don’t compromise before everyone makes it to the table to present their deals.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs reiterated on Thursday that the president will be open to extending the upper-end Bush tax cuts for one or two years as part of a broader compromise with Republicans.
“He would be open to having that discussion and open to listening to what the debate is on both sides of that,” said Gibbs, during an off-camera gaggle with reporters. “Obviously… making those tax cuts for the upper end permanent is something the president does not believe is a good idea.”
This is not an example of 7-Dimensional Chess, this is an example of extended failure.
Even the San Jose Mercury News say that Obama should Man Up, and it is pretty conservative paper owned by the AP president, Dean Singleton.
Obama to visit our jobs, in India - President Carebear is going to India and the rest of Asia on a trade mission, fleeing the wreckage of the midterms. Meanwhile, Wingnuttia is claiming that this trip with cost $200M per day (the Afghan War costs about $190M per day), and why bother debunking the delusional claims from Bachmann-the-nut and Drudge. (Reuters)
Weepy, uncorked - The Tangerine Man says that high unemployment is proof that the wealthy’s tax cuts that have been in place for 8+ years need to be extended. (Reuters)
You’ve seen us drive, now watch us fly - Terrible plane crash of a Cuban airliner, and none of the 68 people on-board survived. The plane was an ATR-72 twin turboprop and that the crash site was not far from the Zaza reservoir, the largest in Cuba. Maybe if we lift the embargo, they can get real planes, or at least parts? (AP)
We here at Mock, Paper, Scissors believe Shakespeare got it just right when he said that brevity is the art of wit. We’ve been described (accurately) as the Internet’s Band of Incorrigible Spitballers, and one critic said of MPS that it is like a small, mangy dog that runs out from under the porch, bites your ankles and runs away to bite again another day.
What I’m trying to get at is that we do not write long-format posts (or at least not often). This is by design. We admire that sort of dedication that Driftglass and others put into their work, but we walk a different path, one that usually starts under a porch.
This is a long way of introduction to a great post by Athenae over at First Draft. Yes it is a rant, and a damn fine one. If you click on the link (and please do), be sure to read the comments, too. She lays waste to someone who tries to sell her on the thin gruel of compromise, and it is as worthy a response as the original rant.
Poor old David Broder is having another bad oxygen flow to the brain day.
He starts off his screed by stating:
There will be a temptation to interpret the Democrats’ loss of their House majority and of at least six Senate seats as a rejection of Obama’s first-term agenda, the one on which he was elected in 2008.
…and then midway through says:
Somewhere along the way, Obama lost sight of his campaign pledge to enlist Republican ideas and votes. Maybe they were never there to be had, but he never truly tested it. And the deeper he became enmeshed in the Democratic politics of Capitol Hill, the less incentive there was for any Republican to contribute to his success.
…thus saying, in essence, it’s his own gaddam fault, where’s the Birth Certificate, you filthy Muslim?
Regular readers know that MPS and Nancy Pelosi have a love-hate relationship. While I am button-bursting proud that the member of Congress from San Francisco broke the glass ceiling and became Speaker of the House, I was absolutely crushed that she took impeachment off the table. She will always have that on her permanent record.
That said, she has been a very effective Speaker. What few successes liberals and progressives have had these past 18 months or so are directly related to her effectiveness as a Speaker. It did not come up for a vote unless she knew she could deliver, and frankly, the drubbing congress took this time out was more due to Harry Reid’s incompetent leadership, than to Nancy’s excellent management. Pelosi delivered, Harry did not.
Lots’a luck, Weepy: you have a tough act to follow.
This little snippet of an interview with Pelosi shows us how to be gracious in defeat, and reframe the issue:
At an election night rally in downtown Washington, Steele said: “We’re about to do the one thing the American people want done and that is to fire Pelosi.”
Pelosi said she didn’t take it personally.
“They have used me as a personification of health care and the rest,” she told Sawyer. “I take that as a compliment.”
Thank you, Madam Speaker, for your hard work these past 18 months. I hope you decide to stay on in Congress.
“Over the past week, some have said it was indelicate of me to suggest that our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term in office. But the fact is, if our primary legislative goals are to repeal and replace the health spending bill; to end the bailouts; cut spending; and shrink the size and scope of government, the only way to do all these things is to put someone in the White House who won’t veto any of these things.”
On a related note, President Carebear announced that GOP and Dim leaders have been invited to the White House to discuss potential areas of common ground. Maybe they can discuss the above quote from McConnell?
We’re in the money - The Fed has two tools at its disposal to stir the economy: interest rates and money supply. Cutting interest to zero has done nothing, so let’s print some money! Nothing like paying a Visa bill with your MasterCard. (The Upshot)
All work and no play - The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment aid rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000 for the week ending Oct. 30. Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a smaller rise. Maybe people are trying to get some of that sweet, sweet unemployment love before Weepy cuts it off? (ap)
No, they really are watching you - The promise of social media comes full circle as Corporations are now responding to your tweets, Facebook updates, and MySpace stalkings: “So you’re excited about getting a new job. You tweet the good news, or post it on LinkedIn. Don’t be too surprised if that prompts a message from someone at your bank, asking if you want help rolling over your old 401(k) into a new retirement account.” (Mercury News)
The three-year survey found that teens who had oral sex by the end of ninth grade were at the highest risk of having sexual intercourse during high school. These teens had a 25-percent chance of having intercourse by the end of ninth grade and a 50-percent chance by the end of 11th grade.
Meanwhile, teenagers who did not have oral sex until the end of 11th grade had only a 16-percent chance of having intercourse by the end of that school year.
The survey also found that most sexually active teenagers will start having oral sex and intercourse within the same six-month period.
Um, my memory of it–of course so long ago I could be mistaken–was that it was about 10 minutes between having oral sex and then having intercourse… but that’s withing the same 6-month period, so I guess the research is valid.
One of the bright sides of last night’s hors d’oeuvres in the abattoir is that the Blue Dog Democrats (Rahm’s parting gift to National Politics) got piked, too.
Yes, The Blue Dogs started off the evening a caucus of 54 and concluded the evening a caucus of 26. So if anyone wants to tell you that last night was a refudiation of the policies of the Left, point this out to them.
Orange is the new Black - All praise and flowers to our new Speaker of the House, the Oompa Loompa Überboss, Weepy the Cigarette Smoking Skidmark. Proving that you can fool enough of the people some of the time, the GOP has swept back into power on a promise of austerity for thee, but not for me, and tax cuts for the rich and powerful. WalMart greeter jobs soon to be outsourced to China, etc.
The punditocracy, the villagers, just about everyone is trying to make this midterm a referendum on President Carebear.
“He overreached,” or “He betrayed us,” or “He doesn’t feel our pain.”
REMINDER: Obama is not up for re-election, it’s both houses of Congress.
Did Nobama overreach? The President does not write laws, his role is to execute them.
Did he betray us? The President does not write laws, his role is to execute them.
Does he feel our pain? Who cares. That’s not his job to be lip-biter-in-chief.
There’s plenty of reasons to vote the rascals in Congress out. But, from a strictly left perspective I also suggest that what ever significant progress we’ve made these past 18 months or so has been thanks to Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, not President Carebear’s leadership (which strictly speaking has been lacking from day 1). Pelosi has been very effective at getting votes to pass significant bills and move them into the Senate where they become watered down or killed.
You want someone to blame, start with the Senate.
Here’s the deal, as I see it: any vote for the GOP (literally any) is a vote against yourself and a vote against democracy. If you think that the Huns and the Visigoths were dreamy, then you will love the 2010 GOP. They will sell you out to the highest bidder in a heartbeat; they are wholly-owned by the corporations; in a word, the GOP are fascists. The GOP will take this country on a lemming-style Bataan Death March, and Tex gives us the things to expect from them.
You want to exact revenge on President Carebear, wait until 2012. Today, your job is to vote for you own, best interests.
If you don’t want rightwing billionaires to own our government, vote Democratic.
If you want billionaires and corporations to pay taxes, vote Democratic.
If you want a decent job with decent wages – not corporate slavery – vote Democratic.
If you want Social Security, Medicare, public education, and environmental protection to survive, vote Democratic.
If you don’t want rightwing thugs to stomp on your head at a political rally, vote Democratic.
If you don’t want a woman’s body to become the property of the Republican Paty, vote Democratic.
If you want campaign finance reform that gets billionaires and corporations out of politics altogether, vote Democratic.
If you want Truth, Justice, and the American Way, don’t wait for Superman – vote Democratic.
Rachel Maddow tells us how much this current congress has really accomplished, even though many of us are disappointed that they didn’t fight hard enough for us:
No, it only seems like Senator Ensign has that many hands.
Payback is a bitch - Republicans have a message for the businesses that worked closely with the Obama administration over the past two years on key controversial issues: We won’t forget. (WaPo)
Following the Money in Arizonastan - It turns out that border security wasn’t the only, or perhaps even the major, reason it passed. During a December meeting in Washington at which the law was written, representatives of the Corrections Corporation of America — the largest private prison company in the nation — were in the room with Russell Pearce, the bill’s chief sponsor. (Mercury News)
Waiting by the phone - President Carebear did NOT phone the SF Giants to congratulate them for the World Series Win, the first one for team since moving to California. He still has not called. (AP)
You knew it was coming, right? I mean, how could you miss the signs? Of course the Macaca Awards would have to acknowledge the ground-breaking work our public figures are doing in slut-shaming us all while they go off and get their freak-on with religious zealots, hooker, and call-boys (oh my)! And tonight we have quite a rogue’s gallery of, well, rogues:
As always, Nonnie has the full sized version at her place.
Senator John “Hush Honey, Here’s Momma’s Money” Ensign - the man once described by his hometown newspaper as the sheep with a secret sorrow, who not only had an affair with his best friend’s wife, but tried to buy off each member of the injured family (Husband, Wife, Teenage Son) using his influence and finally his own mother’s money.
Senator David “Huggies” Vitter - Vitter’s diaper sexy-time play is well known to us all, but what is not as well known is that the DC madame “committed suicide” and other hookers will not talk about their client, as they say things happen to them.
Fundamentalist George “Rentboy” Rekers - A founding member of Family Research Council and of National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, Rekers was researching something else it seems when he hired Lucien from Rentboy.com to handle his sack while on a European Vacation.
Would-be Governor Carl “Bastardini” Paladino - It’s not news, exactly, that Paladino has his own little bundle of joy with a woman who is not his wife, but imagine what your life must be like to think that Carl Paladino is a good option?
Former Senator John “DNA” Edwards - It seem that in John Edwards’ Two Americas, he had two families. Now he only has one.
Governor Mark “Kiss Me South of the Border” Sanford - The man who redefined castanets for a generation, left the governor’s mansion without telling his staff or his family where he was going, and proceeded to have his own Free Trade with a Firecracker Lady in Argentina! Oh, lay!
Congressman Mark “Abstinence Educator” Souder - No mention of false Christians would be complete without mentioning Souder, who was recording Abstinence Education videos with his mistress.
Bachmann-the-Nut may not back Weepy the Orange to be the Speaker of the House:
“Right now, we don’t know exactly who the candidates will be. It may be John Boehner. If John Boehner’s the only candidate running, I’ll be voting for John Boehner.
Boehner better make The Nut a High Priestess of Nutlandia to win her support. And remember: she is the head of the Teabagger Caucus in the House, so she will be bought off with some plum assignment.
The least popular of the Superheroes, Chicken Hawk is a favorite of the GOP. (Christian Leitner, on Flickr)
The Road to 2012 starts Tuesday - And the GOP is figuring out how to stop Mooselini! Hey, you created the monster, you get to deal with it. (Politico)
Another Mooselini FAIL - The race with Miller, Lisa Murkowski and Scott McAdams has the GOP worried that Miller is going to split the vote with Murkowski and give the Senate Seat to the Dims. They are backing off Miller and supporting Murkowski’s write-in campaign. (The Caucus)
Carry on! - The Supreme Court rejected an appeal for campaign finance reform: The court’s action a day before the 2010 midterm elections leaves in place a federal appeals court decision that struck down limits on contributions to SpeechNow and similar independent groups, but upheld disclosure requirements. (AP)
