A couple of things to remember
1. The "Earmarksalot" stimulus bill currently being fought over --- corporately-employed journalists* may have to preface their remarks with "I can't say whether this was intentional or not," but I don't:
When President Obama repeats that he inherited the bill, he's not saying he CAN'T delete the earmarks, or even that he's preoccupied with other matters.
He's being diplomatic since he knows -- as I do, having heard Repugnican ops last September boast about what they were doing -- larding the bill (that was months late) with all sorts of special payoffs (9,000 of them if the red-faced bloviators are to be believed) so that Obama would have to veto them, thereby pissing off millions of voters, who Repug senators and congressmen would would tell their constituents: "Hey you - you lost your job and your home because that big city socialist Obama cut out the funds for the new sky-diving school and replaced it with 12 acres for growing watermelons...."
2. After less than 2 months in office, the opposition is screaming "FAILURE!"
They seem to forget -- as they have for years -- that Monkey Boy had been president for 8 months before September 11, 2001 -- AND had the benefit of the Hart-Rudman Report which strongly advised creating a central intelligence bureau called something like Homeland Security BECAUSE of likely imminent attacks by religious crazies of the Islamic persuasion on American Cities. (The ignoring of the August report has been well-covered.)
3. And oh, while we're on the subject of redacting history -- EVERYONE IN THE WORLD believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- not just us."
Except that Hans Blix -- the actual, trained, experienced full-time inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Scott Ritter, Chief United Nations Weapons Inspector In Iraq BOTH said "Ain't no WMD's in Iraq, NONE. (I remember Dennis Miller mocking Scott Ritter and the careful way he made statements on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect TV show.
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*"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it." Upton Sinclair
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**It's sort of the equivalent of the late great Senator Everett Dirksen, he of the curly tousled white topknot and the voice that was described as akin to the "white froth on the top of a bucket of fresh milk straight from the cow," when he told his staff to spread the rumor that his opponent in the upcoming election was having sex with farm animals. When his aides said "But that's not true," Dirksen said "I know, but let's make the sonofabitch deny it." In this instance it's "I know my earmark is bullshit, but let's make the Darky cancel it." (Oh don't tell me there's no racism playing around the attacks on this presidency.)
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---Additional links to who-knew-what in 2002 about WMD's:
Common Dreams -- article by Scott Ritter
CNN's Hatchet Job on Scott Ritter
and
Dick Cheney STILL refusing to admit (in December 2008) that there were people, people in positions to know, saying it -- over and over again and right out in public -- saying that Saddam Hussein did NOT have WMD's -- Cheney saying there was no available intelligence to say Saddam Hussein DIDN'T have them. (Except of course, for the people whose job it was to give us reports on that fact -- that there weren't any there.)
Hans Blix in interview with Christiane Amanpour on the refusal of the Bush-league to accept the actual intelligence reports on WMDs
When President Obama repeats that he inherited the bill, he's not saying he CAN'T delete the earmarks, or even that he's preoccupied with other matters.
He's being diplomatic since he knows -- as I do, having heard Repugnican ops last September boast about what they were doing -- larding the bill (that was months late) with all sorts of special payoffs (9,000 of them if the red-faced bloviators are to be believed) so that Obama would have to veto them, thereby pissing off millions of voters, who Repug senators and congressmen would would tell their constituents: "Hey you - you lost your job and your home because that big city socialist Obama cut out the funds for the new sky-diving school and replaced it with 12 acres for growing watermelons...."
2. After less than 2 months in office, the opposition is screaming "FAILURE!"
They seem to forget -- as they have for years -- that Monkey Boy had been president for 8 months before September 11, 2001 -- AND had the benefit of the Hart-Rudman Report which strongly advised creating a central intelligence bureau called something like Homeland Security BECAUSE of likely imminent attacks by religious crazies of the Islamic persuasion on American Cities. (The ignoring of the August report has been well-covered.)
3. And oh, while we're on the subject of redacting history -- EVERYONE IN THE WORLD believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- not just us."
Except that Hans Blix -- the actual, trained, experienced full-time inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Scott Ritter, Chief United Nations Weapons Inspector In Iraq BOTH said "Ain't no WMD's in Iraq, NONE. (I remember Dennis Miller mocking Scott Ritter and the careful way he made statements on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect TV show.
----------------------
*"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it." Upton Sinclair
-----------------------------
**It's sort of the equivalent of the late great Senator Everett Dirksen, he of the curly tousled white topknot and the voice that was described as akin to the "white froth on the top of a bucket of fresh milk straight from the cow," when he told his staff to spread the rumor that his opponent in the upcoming election was having sex with farm animals. When his aides said "But that's not true," Dirksen said "I know, but let's make the sonofabitch deny it." In this instance it's "I know my earmark is bullshit, but let's make the Darky cancel it." (Oh don't tell me there's no racism playing around the attacks on this presidency.)
-------------------
---Additional links to who-knew-what in 2002 about WMD's:
Common Dreams -- article by Scott Ritter
CNN's Hatchet Job on Scott Ritter
and
Dick Cheney STILL refusing to admit (in December 2008) that there were people, people in positions to know, saying it -- over and over again and right out in public -- saying that Saddam Hussein did NOT have WMD's -- Cheney saying there was no available intelligence to say Saddam Hussein DIDN'T have them. (Except of course, for the people whose job it was to give us reports on that fact -- that there weren't any there.)
Hans Blix in interview with Christiane Amanpour on the refusal of the Bush-league to accept the actual intelligence reports on WMDs
posted by Saintperle at
11:31 AM
