“The lesson should be simple—-Republicans are lying when they pretend to object to this small bit or that, and concessions offered to get their votes will equal knives planted firmly in your back.”

Too right. What dems need to do now (and, I’ll totally hold my breath until they do /sarcasm), is make this fact loudly and widely known. That the tried to compromise and repubs still didn’t cooperate.  That its not dems who are “the problem”. 

Someone be ready with smelling salts when I pass out from lack of oxygen.

I don’t understand why Limbaugh can’t be exposed as the pariah he really is.

He doesn’t just have feet of clay, he’s clay from the waist down.  The inability of the Left to cut down this hypocritical blowhard junkie, serial matrimonyist, and (from what I’ve read) sex tourist is sickening.

During the Cold War we would never have allowed the Ruskies a huge daily platform from which to tear down the basic fabric of America.  And yet Rush Limbaugh does this every day with virtually no acknowledgment by anyone more conservative than Karl Marx…

Republican opposition to the Ledbetter fair pay bill needs to be hung around their neck at every opportunity.  The stimulus bill is harder for low information voters to wrap their minds around because it’s a fairly complex thing.  Fair pay is dead simple, and everyone can see the plain rights and wrongs of the issue.

The stimulus bill is harder for low information voters to wrap their minds around because it’s a fairly complex thing.

Unemployed?  Thank a Republican!

See, that’s not so complicated . . .

One of the things that amazes me, though, is how the mask is coming off the antichoicers and Republicans—not only do they oppose abortion, they oppose any birth control at all.  They used to be more careful to keep their opposition to birth control a secret, or at least, deniable.

The global gag rule never ceases to amaze me. No matter how much some people would like it otherwise, it remains that abortion is still legal in this country. Now, I don’t agree with the war on drugs, but seeing as how marijuana is illegal in this country I can at least wrap my head around how we might fund efforts to stop its production in other countries (even if I don’t agree with that either).  There is something resembling a logical consistency there. But we have a legal medical procedure that upwards of 1 in 4 american women have availed themselves of. And yes, it’s controversial, but it’s still fucking legal and we’re telling other countries that we will punish them horribly if they use that procedure. It’s complete hypocrisy!

Excellent post.

What, Limbaugh doesn’t have the bawls to just say what he thinks?  That he thinks Obama should be assassinated?  What’s with this wimpy fail stuff ... other than Limbaugh is already soaking in it?

Ms Kate, he doesn’t have to say it.  The most radical of the hard-right gun-nut wackos heard the dog whistle loud and clear…

I don’t think getting wingnuts to blather about sex again is necessarily a bad thing - it gives them ample opportunity to demonstrate exactly how far out of touch they are with even the conservative side of mainstream America they are, and how utterly unrealistic and intrusive their stupidity is.

Yes, they are evil and need to be treated that way. Why are Dems reaching out in a spirit of compromise? “Shove it up your ass” sounds like just the appropriate message for those who, as Amanda writes, throw a fortune into meddling in Iraq, capitalize on fear and misery, and root for the failure of their country so they can gain power (all while proclaiming how patriotic they are).

But no, we have to kowtow to their fairy tales of virginal princesses waiting for their Stepford Norms and Values Council-appointed husband to ravish them on their wedding night, while gays swing from the gallows outside. “Shove it up your ass” seems like a mild and charitable response to that, actually.

Even if he doesn’t have to say it, he still doesn’t have the bawls to say it, and that alone speaks volumes. 

Cowardly lump of drug-addled crap.

I’m actually hopeful that Obama has learned a good lesson in this.  And since he uses his brain for more than a hat rack, he can evaluate this experience and correct his strategies regarding the Rethugs.  (Bush, OTOH, would insist that we do the exact same thing…again…and again…and again…)

I was not naive enough to believe that Obama would find the winning combination immediately.  Hard knocks will school you whether you want them or not.  But he’s agile enough to make it work better the next time…

To add, I understand that Obama wants to be kind and inclusive. But that should not extend to compromising with evil in any substantive way - e.g., dropping contraception funding.

I think it shows how clueless and stupid the republicans are ... that they would pull a grandstanding stunt like that, get their way, and then not follow through speaks volumes about their utter failure to understand their current situation in the governance of the country. 

They have shown that they are just throwing tantrums.  Now they need to be taught a lesson - a big lesson - about how very marginalized they are.

I want the commenters from the previous thread to come back and tell us why, exactly, this was such a fucking shrewd move after all.

Because putting the BC stuff into the bill so that they could toss it under the bus when the Repubs complained and thereby, like, pass the bill after all was so fucking clever.

And Gypsy Lee and ginmar and everyone else who thought otherwise was a naive self-defeating idiot. Or something.

Aren’t gLibertarians tired of being wrong about everything yet?

“Socialist Bush”. Tee hee. The only socialist thing Bush ever did was being a living breathing example of why we need to hang the capitalist owner class and take over our workplace ourselves.

I used to feel that way, but bald-faced lying fits the evidence so much better than cluelessness and stupidity. The Republicans didn’t fail to follow through on their “compromise” because they’re dumb. They failed to follow through because they never intended to follow through in the first place.

Both/and.  They’re dumb enough to think that not following through is a good strategy:

Pushing back against the unanimous House Republican vote against President Obama’s stimulus plan, the White House plans to release state-by-state job figures “so we can put a number on what folks voted for an against,” an administration aide said.

“It’s clear the Republicans who voted against the stimulus represent constituents who will be stunned to learn their member of Congress voted against [saving or] creating 4 million jobs,” the aide said.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the lawmakers will have to answer to their constituents.

“I do believe that there will be people in districts all over the country that will wonder why, when there’s a good bill to get the economy moving again, why we still seem to be playing political gotcha,” Gibbs said.

I want the commenters from the previous thread to come back and tell us why, exactly, this was such a fucking shrewd move after all.

Essie—see my comment above and read the story linked to it.  What do you think will play better with a public that’s tired of partisan bickering:  openly refusing to negotiate with the Republicans at all, or negotiating, making concessions, and then saying, “See, we did what they asked us to do, and they still wouldn’t budge.”

Are Snowe and Collins thinking about changing to Democrats yet?

Mnemosyne, I guess I just have to agree to disagree.

Assuming they compile the stats, assuming the MSM reports is, assuming anyone ever hears anything else about this story (since it won’t be sexeh next week), I don’t believe that the average voter is going to recall, next election, that their Republican representative voted against X number of hypothetical jobs even though the Democrats totally caved on the BC issue, and what’s up with that?

The BC issue is dead now, as far as this bill goes. People who will be pissed about the job losses will be pissed regardless of the fact of the compromise. People who won’t be pissed (because they have theirs and fuck everyone else) won’t care about the BC.

I think it’s time that we face that not EVERYTHING Obama and the Dems do is Magical ‘Strategery’ and that sometimes they throw us under the bus. (Geez, and I’m supposed to be the magical thinking resident pagan…lol). I’m just tired of hearing people tell ginmar and Gypsy to shut up because THIS IS TOTALLY ACCORDING TO PLAN, YOU STUPID WIMMENS. (And, Mnem, since you DIDN’T say that in this or the last post, that wasn’t directed at YOU.)

And, to add to that, I’m not saying I’m upset with Obama or the Dems. I’m just saying that they are straight men who sometimes do not act in the interests of, say, gays and women, and it’s silly to close our eyes and plug our ears and ignore all evidence to the contrary.

Instead, we need to ride their asses and make them earn our votes.

Libertarianism is teh stupid

Hey Libertarian, guess what?  Ayn Rand wrote novels.  It’s FICTION, dude.

Even if he doesn’t have to say it, he still doesn’t have the bawls to say it, and that alone speaks volumes.

If Republicans had <strike>balls</strike>gonads, they’d be in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting for the wars they advocated.

This bill will do nothing but hurt the ecomomy long term, if it helps at all (even in the short term).  Someone (we) will have to pay this money back someday.

Which is a bit like advocating that a patient turning blue not be given artifical respiration, as it so often cracks ribs.  I mean, healing bones is painful in the long term…

I dunno.  I tend to think that some of the stuff that Obama and the Democrats agreed to take out of the bill could also be brought back later.  It’s not now or never for family planning on Obama’s watch.  Not everything that’s good has to happen all at once.  Take the provision out of this and put it back into the health care bill that comes up at some point.  Or fold it in with SCHIP somehow.  (OK, I have no idea how the legislative process works in nuts-and-bolts terms, but those are off the top of my head.) 

I mean, yeah, it’s ridiculous to watch the Republicans demonize thoroughly sensible policies and priorities, and I agree that when Republicans are given so-called small victories it _does_ tend to be the disadvantaged and disempowered who feel the slings and arrows most.  But I’m more hopeful that the sacrificeability of family planning is based on a narrow argument about whether it is best considered “economic stimulus,” rather than whether it is necessary or good.

Did people see Rachel Maddow last night?  She defended things like the Mall repair project as a valid part of “stimulus,” and she had on a Republican Congressmen who felt otherwise; he said, incredulous, that by Maddow’s definition _any_ spending could be considered economic stimulus.  And Maddow was, like, yeah, that’s how it works.  It was as though they were speaking two different languages.  To me that was telling; I think the Republicans have a cramped and twisted view of what rightfully should be considered economic stimulus.  Gaming it out as Obama, I can see how it would be very tempting to say, Fine, let the babies have their bottle about _this bill_, but we’ll live to fight another day on the _underlying policy_.

All that said, I would also feel gratified to see the House-Senate compromise bill put all the eliminated provisions back in, with a flourish, saying, We don’t need you anymore, so get used to it.  But I kind of thrive on spite.  Obama doesn’t.

They will bring it back. I’m sure of it.  And it will be a good thing, because it’s another round of Republicans wailing about the horrors of contraception.  That said, I don’t think that was the plan.  Obama conceded this because he really did think he’d get votes.

BTW, any spending is stimulus, as long as it goes to the public and not to the fat cats.

In addition, Senate Republicans put on a big show of writing a bill to reinstate the global gag rule, even though they had to know it wouldn’t pass.

Which was going to be part of SCHIP. Which is rich, because what the hell does family planning funding abroad have anything to do with children’s healthcare?

Obama conceded this because he really did think he’d get votes.

I agree—and I think it (sadly) makes political sense to drop it rather than have to have a whole days-long meta-argument about how Democrats think the economy relies on fucking, which would give the wingnuts more opportunity to comb through the bill looking for petty points to score. 

I guess the alternative would be having a days-long meta-argument about the importance of government spending on just about anything personnel-intensive as a way to get money into people’s pockets and have something to show for it.  And I would kind of _like_ to see that meta-argument as a way to pick away at Reaganite congealed wisdom.  But I’m not sure there are enough left-leaning Democrats zealous to take it on.

Mikey.  Are we getting any closer to Socialism now?

I’m hoping, but we’ll have to see.

moth, I hope not.  My feeling is that most people thought McCain was a “moderate” on choice issues, and they weren’t educated otherwise.  When he put scare quotes around “health of the mother”, however, that opened a lot of eyes.  He dropped pretty badly in the polls after that, especially with women.

BTW, any spending is stimulus, as long as it goes to the public and not to the fat cats.

Cf this graphic from FDL.

The reason for the obsession with sex (really with misogyny and homophobia) hasn’t changed—-it’s always been about distracting people from economic issues with the deadly combination of prejudice and titillation

Which is a good time to call al bigot a bigot.
This is a human rights issue.
It’s a civil rights issue.
It’s a time to take those people spouting mysogynistic to task for their behavior.

They cherry picked the issue.
Let’s bludgeon them with it.
Women and feminists should be making every discussion about this because a woman’s right to not be pregnant is just as important as Rush Limbaugh’s right to get a chubby.

moth, I think our level of awareness as liberal blog readers was and is a lot higher than the average person’s might be, someone who doesn’t closely follow politics. Like Amanda said, people made assumptions, or didn’t really follow what was happening, but when certain things were made clear and broke through into general awareness, people started to wise up. And giving that something like 98% of women have used some sort of contraception, I don’t think it’s a mainstream view.

At the same time, you are right about the lack of outrage and the complicity of the MSM (liberal media, my ass). Misogyny is “politically correct” (in the literal sense) in our current environment.

Brain bleach!  Need brain bleach .... arrrrggghh cynickal ... brain bleach!

I’m just tired of hearing people tell ginmar and Gypsy to shut up because THIS IS TOTALLY ACCORDING TO PLAN, YOU STUPID WIMMENS.

My name is Pepito, and I’m the one you’re mischaracterizing there.

My objection is that when the Ledbetter Act passes, it’s all credit to Congress, but when family planning for the poor is stripped from a bill, it’s THAT MAN’S FAULT and EVERYTHING WOULD BE RAINBOWS IF HILLARY WERE PRESIDENT. It’s a bullshit, paranoid argument that has nothing to do with what’s actually going on, but when I call it out I’m a condescending misogynist.

The point was to win over the Washington media more than any actual Republicans. I don’t know whether it’ll work and it’s not what I would have done, because the Washington media only have as much power as the government lets them. But I’m willing to wait until week 3 before I declare the Obama presidency a failure.

Frankly, I was disappointed that Congress decided to borrow money from our children and grandchildren to increase spending, create new government programs, and increase the federal deficit by invading Iraq under the guise of combatting al-Qaeda.”

And, buying contraceptives stimulates our economy because they are made in this country.

No matter how much some people would like it otherwise, it remains that abortion is still legal in this country.

Yes, but the government won’t pay for it.  That’s a major issue, even for people who nominally support abortion remaining legal.  They figure that it’s a woman’s choice, but they don’t want their tax dollars going toward it.  The Global Gag Rule doesn’t ban abortion in other countries, it denies government funding going to organizations that mention or perform abortion.

It still sucks, but that’s the logic of it.

“it’s THAT MAN’S FAULT and EVERYTHING WOULD BE RAINBOWS IF HILLARY WERE PRESIDENT. “

Hi, I’m Gypsy Lee and that *me* (and ginmar) you’re mischaracterizing there.  As I explained, I vented and in the same post made it clear that’s all i was doing. It was out of a feeling of helpless disappointment. 

And I didn’t call you a misogynist.  Condescending obviously, but not a misogynist. At least, as far as I know.

“I’m just tired of hearing people tell ginmar and Gypsy to shut up because THIS IS TOTALLY ACCORDING TO PLAN, YOU STUPID WIMMENS.”

It never actually silences any feminist, so you have to wonder why they keep trying. it’s the compulsion of privilege, I guess.

Maybe most people aren’t like that and could be swayed if they were exposed to what the right really thinks, but the ignoramuses have dominated the discussion for so long, I don’t know if it can be changed.

I don’t know either, frankly. It’s bizarre scene out there. Many rightwingers have developed their own parallel universes with their own versions of what’s going on.

Libertarianism is teh stupid

Hey Libertarian, guess what?  Ayn Rand wrote novels.  It’s FICTION, dude.

DonnaDiva on 01/29 at 01:22 PM

That never stopped L. Ron Hubbard’s pack of d-bags from founding a freaking “religion”.
Compared to that, libertards are amateurs.

I wonder how much you have to pay in before they tell you the Xenu story?

so. why is it when republicans win something by some veryvery narrow margin, we are all expected to fall in line and support something we are TOTALLY against, but when they LOSE they scream and shout that it *isn’t fair* that their hard-earned money goes to support something they dislike?

Because Republicans act like three year olds.

This has been another edition of short answers to stupid questions.

so. why is it when republicans win something by some veryvery narrow margin, we are all expected to fall in line and support something we are TOTALLY against, but when they LOSE they scream and shout that it *isn’t fair* that their hard-earned money goes to support something they dislike?

Because they’re whiny bitches. When Buckley said that conservatism meant “Standing athwart history, yelling STOP” it was code for “We will cling, tooth and nail, to every last tiny scrap of straight white male entitlement and privilege that we can manage to get away from you filthy subhuman bitches, and we will make you pay dearly for each crumb that finally slips from our grasp. Because we’re fucking relevant. Why? ‘cause we said so.”

A three-year-old throwing a tantrum at the grocery store has more class.

Phoenician, I totally did not see your comment while I was typing mine. o_O

I love the projection. Limbaugh recently claimed Obama was afraid of HIM. No, more like he’s afraid of a Democrat who doesn’t roll- like Kerry and Gore before him. Reminds me of the media rabbi (Gellman? something like that) who wrote an article asking why atheists are afraid of religion. No, it’s the other way around, rabbi.

@pepito & Gypsy Lee & Essie: I’m the one who said the wimmins got thrown under the bus. And we did. (And I sure don’t blame Hopey alone, pepito. It’s the whole gang of Republican pigs and the craven Dem fools who kowtow to them that I blame).

From this I learned, again, that women’s issues are special. Different and apart from other regular, human issues. Gasp, shock, no WAY!, etcetera.

I’m unsurprised, and furious. It’s so disheartening, and so fucking mundane. But I suppose I’ll wait patiently for The True Plan to be made clear. Because some day, if we’re real, real good, and civil, and we don’t make too much noise or complain inordinately, if we just trust in our politicians, our ‘special’ interests will be attended to. At some point. In the future. Probably. Possibly. I’ll ask the LGBT community how this has worked out for them.

Eventually, people on the left will understand that no argument by a prominent conservative is ever made in good faith.  The trick is to clue the audience in on any discussion in such a fashion that they think they came up with the idea themselves.

I have a very good Republican friend whose Facebook status today was, “Firstname Lastname is happy that the Republicans voted against the stimulus package.”

::headdesk::  Does he think it’s a sign of integrity to demand concessions and then vote against something anyway?  What the fuck is wrong with these people?

“Bar ain’t getting off the hook for those offspring.  She doesn’t worry her beautiful mind about them.”

*lol*  very true.  i didn’t immediately think of her because she’s not genetically a Bush, but you’re right, she’s absolutely no better.

Mir, I 100% agree.

@ mir and Gypsy Lee: Word.

Obama didn’t make concessions for House republicans. He knows they’re irrelevant, and so do Republicans and that’s why he didn’t get their votes. It sucks that this happened, but come on, you have to realize this is more than about the house vote. Maybe he’ll get something out of the sacrifice in the Senate, or maybe he had other long term intentions. Sucks that it happened, but saying “we didn’t get shit” is a bit of missing the point.

“Sucks that it happened, but saying “we didn’t get shit” is a bit of missing the point”

Whew! nothing to think about then, ladies.  Clayton says its all okay! Thanks, Clayton. Us silly girls just never know what our thoughts are about anything until you big manly me tell us.