Obama's Big Sellout (MUST READ)

Obama's Big Sellout
The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout
MATT TAIBBI
Posted Dec 09, 2009
Watch Matt Taibbi discuss "The Big Sellout" in a video on his blog, Taibblog. http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/player/31163379
http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/6/7/7/3/31193776-31193781-slarge.jpg
Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008. He pushed a tax plan to soak the rich, ripped NAFTA for hurting the middle class and tore into John McCain for supporting a bankruptcy bill that sided with wealthy bankers "at the expense of hardworking Americans." Obama may not have run to the left of Samuel Gompers or Cesar Chavez, but it's not like you saw him on the campaign trail flanked by bankers from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. What inspired supporters who pushed him to his historic win was the sense that a genuine outsider was finally breaking into an exclusive club, that walls were being torn down, that things were, for lack of a better or more specific term, changing.

Then he got elected.

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Quote from story:
Morning, the National Mall, November 5th. A year to the day after Obama named Michael Froman to his transition team, his political "opposition" has descended upon the city. Republican teabaggers from all 50 states have showed up, a vast horde of frowning, pissed-off middle-aged white people with their idiot placards in hand, ready to do cultural battle. They are here to protest Obama's "socialist" health care bill — you know, the one that even a bloodsucking capitalist interest group like Big Pharma spent $150 million to get passed.

These teabaggers don't know that, however. All they know is that a big government program might end up using tax dollars to pay the medical bills of rapidly breeding Dominican immigrants. So they hate it. They're also in a groove, knowing that at the polls a few days earlier, people like themselves had a big hand in ousting several Obama-allied Democrats, including a governor of New Jersey who just happened to be the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. A sign held up by New Jersey protesters bears the warning, "If You Vote For Obamacare, We Will Corzine You."

I approach a woman named Pat Defillipis from Toms River, New Jersey, and ask her why she's here. "To protest health care," she answers. "And then amnesty. You know, immigration amnesty."

I ask her if she's aware that there's a big hearing going on in the House today, where Barney Frank's committee is marking up a bill to reform the financial regulatory system. She recognizes Frank's name, wincing, but the rest of my question leaves her staring at me like I'm an alien.

"Do you care at all about economic regulation?" I ask. "There was sort of a big economic collapse last year. Do you have any ideas about how that whole deal should be fixed?"

"We got to slow down on spending," she says. "We can't afford it."

"But what do we do about the rules governing Wall Street . . ."

She walks away. She doesn't give a fuck. People like Pat aren't aware of it, but they're the best friends Obama has. They hate him, sure, but they don't hate him for any reasons that make sense. When it comes down to it, most of them hate the president for all the usual reasons they hate "liberals" — because he uses big words, doesn't believe in hell and doesn't flip out at the sight of gay people holding hands. Additionally, of course, he's black, and wasn't born in America, and is married to a woman who secretly hates our country.

These are the kinds of voters whom Obama's gang of Wall Street advisers is counting on: idiots. People whose votes depend not on whether the party in power delivers them jobs or protects them from economic villains, but on what cultural markers the candidate flashes on TV. Finance reform has become to Obama what Iraq War coffins were to Bush: something to be tucked safely out of sight.

~The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism~
Sir William Osler

The redistribution of wealth upward will continue. Corporate socialism is the name of the game.

Pink Slip

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12182009/watch.html
Something's not right here. One year after the great collapse of our
financial system, Wall Street is back on top while our politicians
dither. As for health care reform, you're about to be forced to buy
insurance from companies whose stock is soaring, and that's just dandy
with the White House.

Truth is, our capitol's being looted, republicans are acting like the
town rowdies, the sheriff is firing blanks, and powerful Democrats in
Congress are in cahoots with the gang that's pulling the heist. This
is not capitalism at work. It's capital. Raw money, mounds of it,
buying politicians and policy as if they were futures on the hog
market.

~The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism~
Sir William Osler

Hrm...Democrats are the majority party in the house, the senate since 2006, and now hold the excutive branch for 43 weeks?...oh yeah...Democrats...namely Obama....

And Just WHO's fault is this????

Oh yeah...those eeeeeevil republicans.....LMAO...

Liberalism is a mental disorder that requires a disconnect from reality...

These are the people YOU championed...

The peopleYOU wanted in power...

The people YOU defend endlessly...

The people YOU Praise...

YOUR possee..

YOUR crew...

YOUR fellow travelers...

YOUR kind....

YOUR ilk....

The people WE TOLD YOU WOULD SCREW YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE in order to KEEP power....

YOU order the titanic to flank speed...then blame the iceberg...

Liberals CANNOT BE TRUSTED....But you will gladly run back and VOTE FOR THEM...

Defend them...

Support them...

Champion them...

All over again....

You are the beaten wife complaining over coffee... when in fact you never will leave your abuser and then blame the neighbor for your beatings...

When it's time to throw them out...you will balk and declare how much they really love you and all of us...they are the only ones who can care of you and us...and they only have our best intrests at heart...and how they have changed their ways....while you hide your black eye behind dark glasses...and winch when they make sudden movements...

Non Compos Mentis....

You people can barely be trusted to handle your own affairs.....much less controlling the lives of others...

You have gotten EXACTLY what you were told you would get...SCREWED...

You Hit the selective amnesia button and do it all over again expecting a different result...

And you want to blame US??????

Well... Fa la la la, la la la que

You want blame someone go look in the frickin mirror.

"Truth is, our capitol's being looted, republicans are acting like the town rowdies, the sheriff is firing blanks, and powerful Democrats in Congress are in cahoots with the gang that's pulling the heist. This is not capitalism at work. It's capital. Raw money, mounds of it, buying politicians and policy as if they were futures on the hog market."

Truer words have never been spoken. Glad to see there are still journalists like Moyers & Taibbi. Our government does not represent the people anymore. It represents the monied interests, corporations, and lobbyists.

Pink Slip

But you danced so happily the night it was ordained!!

Need directions to your next local tea party?

Our Govt???

YOUR GOVT...

YOUR PEOPLE..

YOUR LIBERALS AND MARXISTS, AND CORPORATISTS...

YOUR PELOSI

YOUR REID

YOUR PRESIDENT ODUMBA

YOUR FRICKIN MESS

43 WEEKS IN AND YOU CRY LIKE A BABY WHEN YOU GOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU ASKED FOR DIMWIT.

WHEN YOU GUYS POST CRYBABY THREADS ABOUT YOUR OWN PEOPLE YOU NOT ONLY PROVE HOW STUPID AND GULLIBLE YOU ARE, BUT YOU ALSO PROVE YOU LIKE TO BRAG ABOUT IT.

D
U
M
B
A
S
S

There aren't any Republicans in "our" government? I realize they don't actually govern, but they at least hold an official title. Last I checked, there were 40 GOP senators, which is enough to filibuster any piece of legislation. I guess that's the difference between you and I. I criticize bad government, and you're just a partisan hack.

Pink Slip

"Last I checked, there were 40 GOP senators, which is enough to filibuster any piece of legislation."

Nope. Wrong.

A filibuster can be ended by a vote of 3/5ths of the Senate. That is 60 Senators. Since Repubs have 40 seats if the Dems get the two Democratic friendly I's to vote with them they can force cloture.

41 votes would be enough to successfully filibuster.

As much as you Dems try to pin the failures of your HC takeover it's not working because your own side isn't convinced.

MikeyA

In THIS Congress (since the Dems only have 58), 40 Repubs is enough for a filibuster. If all Democrats voted for cloture, they couldn't overcome a GOP filibuster. So the GOP still has a lot of power in the Senate.

Pink Slip

The two Independents are not exactly the Republican's best friends.

Both are moderates from the liberal NE. One a former Republican. One a former Democrat. Both have faced internal opposition from their former parties which made them both I's.

The Dems have no problems finding ways to appease Landrieu and Nelson please tell my why they have problems appeasing these two.

The general consensus when Franken became the 100th Senator was that these two would generally fall in line. Your argument would have been pressed had you used the excuse of Sen Byrd's health preventing a vote to cloture.

But wait... what happened. Oh yeah they stopped a filibuster and VOTED FOR cloture. Hence ending the filibuster. Don't act like you don't have the votes to do it when you did it.

MikeyA

Lieberman is a thorn in the Democrats side, and he knows it. I'd say he's been siding with the GOP more often. Heck, he campaigned for McCain! I wouldn't exactly expect him to "fall in line". The GOP's filibuster has been a very effective weapon.

Pink Slip

Where did he side with dems on the HC takeover?

By the way you talk he MUST have voted No on cloture. Right?

MikeyA

He voted for cloture only after the public option was taken out, and the Medicare buy-in was taken out. The Dems make a lot of concessions because of Lieberman. This is because they are not able to break a filibuster with their 58 votes.

Pink Slip

It's not the Republicans holding things up and they don't have a filibuster proof minority.

It took us a while to get there but at least we agree.

MikeyA

The Dems cannot break a filibuster on their own. It's simple mathematics. They have 58 votes, and it takes 60 to invoke cloture.

Pink Slip

The original quote was "Last I checked, there were 40 GOP senators, which is enough to filibuster any piece of legislation."

The Dems can get the votes to break a filibuster. They just did it. Proving the initial quote false.

MikeyA

"The Dems can get the votes to break a filibuster."

Getting the votes is different than having the votes. They can't do it by themselves. They only have 58 senators. So they can't break a GOP filibuster. The GOP has enough senators to filibuster, & the Dems don't have enough senators to break the filibuster.

Pink Slip

I'm not sure I understand this "haha" mentality. I was quite vocal in criticizing the Bush administration, and I plan on being quite vocal in criticizing the Obama administration when it's deserved.

Pink Slip

This Rolling Stone piece is getting huge play across the country. Even Jack Kelly of the Blade mentioned it in his Op Ed piece today.
Article published December 19, 2009
Obama helps the fat cats
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091219/COLUMNIST...
"The President has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway," charged Rolling Stone magazine in an article Dec. 9 by lefty writer Matt Taibbi.

~The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism~
Sir William Osler

Jack Kelly's a GOP hack. He defended Bush, but while Obama continues Bush policies he criticizes Obama.

Pink Slip

Your comment,"Jack Kelly's a GOP hack" is generally true but this piece rings true. I think if progressives and ring wingers could somehow find common ground I think we could affect change in our corrupted government.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091219/COLUMNIST...

~The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism~
Sir William Osler

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