1. President Obama is closer philosophically to Ronald Reagan than 99% of the people who contemporarily self-identify as “Reagan Republicans”.
[HTML1]
2. A new food truck will be setting up in western New York in the Spring. Miss Cheesious grilled cheese truck:
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/MissCheesious/status/114900452243542016″%5D
3. As of this writing, the Buffalo News’ Bob McCarthy has yet to apologize for, retract, or correct his libel directed at Chris Smith and the other bloggers at WNYMedia.net. This makes him an unscrupulous thug.
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/buffalogeek/status/120978142314766340″%5D
4. NOM, also known as “National Organization for Marriage”, which omits its patent homophobia from its name and its acronym, has targeted State Senator Mark Grisanti for something “next”.
The National Organization for Marriage has a lot of gall coming to this community, making idle billboarded threats directed at one of the few politicians in this region who has integrity, guts, and intelligence. Bring it.
5. Maybe Michele Bachmann is worth a second look?
[HTML2]
Related articles
- Bob McCarthy’s Sleep Number is “Laurels” (wnymedia.net)
- Controversial billboards target representatives (buffalo.ynn.com)
- NOM Targets Grisanti, Voters Think Differently (wnymedia.net)
- Obligatory Response To Bob McCarthy (wnymedia.net)
- Clarifications and Corrections From The Buffalo News (wnymedia.net)
- WNYMedia.net Demands a Retraction from the Buffalo News (wnymedia.net)
The Buffalo Record 
The difference between Reagan and Obama is that when Reagan said close loopholes for the really wealthy, that’s what he meant whereas Obama uses the millionaire loophole boogeyman as a reason to raise taxes on a lot more people than that.
As for Michelle Bachmann, this actually made more sense to me than the stuff she usually says.
The love affair some Republicans have with Reagan is based on his rhetoric, not his results.
Today’s GOP teabaggers often rhetorically pine for the days of Saint Ronnie, who spent his presidency rhetorically pining for the 1950s.
Ironically, the fifties were marked by fair taxation and a strong middle class, concepts that today’s GOP teabaggers find abhorrent.
Of course the ’50s also gave us Jim Crow laws, something the base assuredly does not find abhorrent.
What this country needs is a true liberal – like say, Richard Nixon.
Ronald Reagan, characterized by Chris Hitchens as the stupidest president ever, a wrinkled, old lizard.
Greatest president of our lifetime. Bar none. Won the Cold War (yes he did, it’s indisputable) while breaking inflation. The deficits were a result of having to compromise with a Democrat Congress.
@6- Greatest myth of our lifetime, Reagan began the attack on the middle class and layed the groundwork for the obscene disparity in wealth that continues to undermine our society and economy. As for the cold war, many forces and movements resulted in the collaspe of the Soviet Union, it is certainly not “undisputable” as you claim.
I have been hearing this more and more and I think it’s hilarious and irrelevant. Liberals have really hated Regan, just look at the comments by liberals in this post. That’s OK we have elections and leaders with ideologies and then history judges them. Some people honestly believe Carter was a good president I disagree but that’s just my opinion.
My question for the Liberal Oriented Americans and Liberal Pundits who hated Reagan and are saying that Obama and Reagan are 99% the same is:
Does this mean they now think Reagan was a good president, or that Obama is a bad president?
One thing for sure was that Reagan inherited a mess just as bad as Obama (I lived it so I will never be convinced otherwise) by this point in his Presidency, Reagan had seriously began to right the ship. (all with a democrat congress sound familiar?). President Obama has precious little time left to right the ship. If he succeeds fair minded people, especially independents will take a different look at him and re-elect him, else I will not only be referring to the President as George W. Obama, but also Jimmy Earl Obama.
Well, @Allen Miller, it means that the Democrats have become the only sane political party in the US, and the Republican party has gone off a horrible cliff.
@8- I survived the Reagan years as well, there is no comparison to the economic situation in the early 80’s to the economic collaspe of 2008, such a claim is naive at best, more likely just partisan rhetoric..
Saw the billboard yesterday and gave Grisanti a call. I told his staff that as a lifelong WNY republican that I was very pleased with his vote on this issue and hope to see him stay in the NYS senate as a republican.
@Alan Bedenko: So you are saying that Reagan and Obama are both good? I think that both parties have gone off a cliff and are all a little insane. Seems you are trying to spin out of the 99% philosophically alike comparison.
@Black Rock Life, If you want we can be specific of the details they are both pretty bad. If it makes you feel better I will stipulate that it is worse now, if you think it was fine in 1979 you are the naive one. During Reagan the ship was corrected, the elections of 1980, 1984 and my bank account validated that.
The real question is will Obama right the ship or suffer the fate of Jimmy Carter? What we do here is just opinions. If he does not it will be difficult for sane voters to justify his re-election. So far he has failed to deliver hope or change and has about 13 months to fix it. If he does not he will go down in history next to Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.
I think Reagan did some good, but in the long run his economic policies have proven time and again to be an absolute and utter failure. You don’t build a country on the backs of the middle class and don’t give them a piece of the action. You don’t whine about smaller government while growing it. You don’t cut taxes and increase spending, deficits, and debt. It’s a recipe for failure.
All of you supposed Reaganite Obama-haters can’t get around the fact that the perils of 2008 were far, far more acute and serious than the slow-burning malaise that Reagan inherited.
From Reagan’s farewell speech:
When will President Obama get to be like Reagan?
Carter was my C-in-C, voting for his win was the first presidential election I voted in. Carter had unemployment rates in the double digits… interest rates in the double-digits. I don’t know, Alan, this is kind of like the discussion we had about the stimulus and economic recovery a few weeks ago, when you challenged me to provide evidence that it was a failure. The misery of middle-class, working people isn’t a statistic to cite, it’s an event to witness anecdotally, with your own eyes, or to experience anecdotally, with your own ass.
Perhaps the recorded numbers of wall street may substantiate your claim that things are worse now, or that the stimulus package worked, but… as a dedicate in the class war, shouldn’t you have something to show re: the experience of the working class, something that says, “My life is better now because of these policies”?
Personally, I don’t hate Obama. I wouldn’t mind talking politics with him over a beer.. but, as a leader? You’ve expressed your own doubts lately, and I’m going to vote against him, again.
The crises of the 70s were due to myriad factors, many outside of our control. The 2008 meltdown was a rapid descent into worldwide depression that TARP and the subsequent, weakened stimulus helped us avoid.
Remember after 9/11, when Bush cut taxes on the wealthy to stimulate the economy? It worked, but only temporarily, and resulted in huge deficits and a larger debt. Huzzah. We were told that if you cut taxes on the wealthy, they’ll somehow miraculously hire people and it’ll all work itself out. Well, since tax rates now are essentially unchanged for the wealthy as compared with 2008, we can expect them to start creating those jobs now, right? Oh, you mean it’s not the same to compare Reagan’s reduction of the top tax rate from the 70% range to the 30s versus Obama leaving it unchanged? Hm. Interesting. Meanwhile, income disparity has grown exponentially, the middle and lower classes are far worse off now, adjusted for inflation, than they were before Reagan, and incomes are flat or down across the board, except for the wealthiest.
You guys may be comfortable supporting an economy of endless war that largely benefits only the wealthiest, but when trickle-down proves to be an utter and unabashed failure, it’s time to cut that cord and try something new.
Today, you have to go to the U6 numbers to get to double-digits. It isn’t worse than it was then.
Reagan’s policies were proven successful. It’s the bastardization of those policies done supposedly in his honor that got us into this mess.
There was a similar myriad of events that happened after those tax cuts, too. Katrina comes immediately to mind, with the loss of oil refining capability and its resulting increase in fuel costs. The intransigence of the congressional minority at the time also comes to mind. Still, the experience of the people was nowhere near as bad. Trickle-down failed… what evidence do the unemployed have that the policies put in place during this administration’s two-year hiatus from opposition is making things better?
Why are the “Occupy” forces in the streets along with the TEA movement, if things are better now?
If anyone really believes that Reagan inherited a more dire situation than Obama, please look at this chart and note the notch in late 2008. Show me something like that in 1979 please.
And if you want to lay blame for the failure to turn things around more (we did come out of recession during Obama’s first year in office), by all means criticize Obama but if you don’t include the Republicans in Congress then no one should take you seriously. The Republicans are fighting ALL job creation initiatives because they believe that a 2012 recession will guarantee them the White House.
I actually like the jobs creation bill. I disagree with getting new financing for it; everything in it was financed 100% in the stimulus bill of two years ago. I’d rather they identify and prosecute those who misappropriated those funds the first time we paid for these programs and recoved the original funding.
I’m particularly happy about the “Buy American” idea… that could have been taken from my own rhetoric, which I’ve posted here in the past. It’s insane to take our tax dollars and spend them on goods from overseas in the hope of generating jobs here in the US.
The other problem I have with the jobs bill is that it disburses funding in the same way the stimulus bill did – through grants to the state that are not dedicated to any particular project or cause. It looks like the path towards yet another bait-and-switch like the stimulus bill turned out to be.
How long before we hear, “there’s no such thing as a shovel-ready project” repeated?
You guys may be comfortable supporting an economy of endless war that largely benefits only the wealthiest, but when trickle-down proves to be an utter and unabashed failure, it’s time to cut that cord and try something new.
Is this the reason Obama started a third war? Payback for his wealthy wall street donors? There are plenty of them, I personally know a lot of them. They are very pragmatic about who they support. Last week they had a fundraiser hosted by Warren Buffet in NYC at the same time Occupy Wall street was going on. The meals were $10,000 a plate. They wanted $35k per plate but I guess because of the recession they had to settle for the early bird special.
Alan I was hoping to open a dialogue about what was worse 79 or 08. They are both pretty bad. I have asked where is the change that President Obama promised. In actuality we have had plenty of change. Try something new? He did and it is not working. It is making things WORSE. Personally I do not hate Obama or anyone for that matter. I have said it many times in this blog. If he leads us, and his policies right the ship and, I am fine with him in the white house and sane voters will keep him there.
I was fine with Clinton, We had a fair economy under Bush, wasn’t too happy with what you accurately call an economy of endless war. I could not agree more. Problem there is with Obama we are just getting more accurate expensive drone’s and still paying a lot of boots on the ground and the equipment to support them.
@Leo
I agree, what I think what the republicans in congress should do is “Pass the Bill”. It’s only a half trillion. ;( I see in the senate yesterday the republicans tried to force a vote. But Harry Reid (D) squashed it! Then less than 10 minutes the white house blames republicans. The president said it is the most important thing we have to do. Harry Reid said they needed to punish China first. The bill will probably make things worse. But the is cynical politics being played here.
Anyone that was an adult in 1980 and is still an adult today knows the problems inherited by Reagan do not compare to the problems inherited by Obama. Those that attempt to claim some kind of parity in scope and seriousness are not old enough to remember or purely political in their denial. The other major difference was the Democrats worked with Reagan and compromised, putting the good of the nation ahead of partisan politics. Today we have Republicans publicly stating their number one priority is to “defeat this president” and refusing to work towards any real consensus. This is not governing, it is obstruction and dereliction of duty, they should be held accountable for failing to fulfill their responsibilities to our citizens.
What is dereliction of duty and, per my earlier post, criminal misappropriation is when an $800 billions stimulus program sells rebuilding infrastructure as a goal and no infrastructure projects actually get done because “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” Then the same crew comes back asking for ANOTHER $400 billions stimulus program to “rebuild infrastructure.” It didn’t work; we’re still at 9+ percent unemployment… claim it didn’t work because the money was stolen for something else if you like, but we still already paid for it.
This beast needs to be obstructed. You just convinced me to send another Benjamin to the RNCC.
Leo- Dereliction of duty in this case is ignoring the responsibility of working for the good of the country, regardless of ideology. It is also the responsibilty to compromise with a president that was elected by a majority of Americans. This isn’t a one party dictatorship, America is diverse and our government should reflect the interests of all, not be hijacked by a far right minority bent on imposing their views on the rest of us. As for the stimulus, see Chris Collins as a typical example of Republicans hording stimulus dollars rather than spending to increase employment. You just convinced me to advocate for progressive candidates, sending Benjamins just corrupts the system further.
What ideology? What I’m saying, and what you aren’t bothering to challenge, is that the first stimulus funded everything in the jobs bill 100%. It isn’t ideological stubborness that doesn’t want to pay the same con man twice for one thing that wasn’t delivered the first time it was paid for, its economic necessity. We – that’s both you and I – can’t afford to be fleeced like this.
Chris collins isn’t asking for another $400 billions to pay again for what we already paid for, Barack Obama is.
It seems logical that, now that Obama’s on polling life-support (55% disapproval overall, independents disapprove 56%-38%) the lib pundits would try for a philosophical transfusion from Reagan.
Good luck with that. (Predictably, it does seem to be driving a thrill up the leg of your core Kos fans.) I guess it can be forgiven, in that Alan was in perhaps seventh(?) grade when Reagan was elected, and may be relying on “secondary” authority.
To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle, “I knew Ronald Reagan; Little Barry is no Ronald Reagan.”
Obama’s only chance is if Ward (“John Raese won by 10 points”) predicts that he’ll lose.
Leo- The problem with the stimulus was it was too small and state and local governments used the dollars to offset their own losses instead of spending for job creation. As for being fleeced, I have been nickled and dimed my whole life while my government continues to enable the wealthy avoid their responsibilty. Those that profit from the resources, infrastructure, and workers of this country should pay for that privilege, I am tired of them using their money to buy politicians instead of paying their fair share.
@24 – Allen, punishing China seems like the smart thing to do when we can’t keep the lights on without borrowing from China. I wonder how Warren Buffet would handle one of his dependents who tried such a thing?
Oh, and, how much shorter a time will it be to another debt ceiling debate, if we toss out another half trillion dollars?
Ward- Of course Republicans approval ratings are half of Obamas, presently 26% of American approve of the Republicans, without their corporate backers and wealthy donors the Republicans couldn’t elect a dog catcher. Take the money out and we would have a new government looking out for the majority of Americans, not the present plutocracy that has divided our country.
31 – Black Rock Lifer, the problem with the stimulus was that it was misappropriated to pay off contributors and to pay for stuff that was never even mentioned when our elected representatives voted on our behalf to authorize it. The problem with the jobs bill is what I already posted – rather than asking for new funding, they should prosecute those who misappropriated funds or other stuff on the first go and recover the original funding. They should also NOT allow discretion in its use when disbursing it – make its mission dedicated, not disbursed at all until that dedicated mission is identified and make them be contingent upon timely use. Hire the people and get those projects started within 180 days or pay it back.
I’ve said before that the revolution we need desperately in this country is the one our founders started. We need to take away most of the discretion our executive and legislature has and limit them closely with law, so closely that we don’t ever have to worry about them betraying our trust because they don’t have the leeway to do it.
Is that ideological? Which party’s ideology is it?
Leo- We can agree the funds should have been dedicated, not used at the discretion of the likes of Chris Collins. As for revolution, it would be much simpler and less bloody to just break the stranglehold that money has on our system. Go to public financing and outlaw all outside influence by the special interests. Close down K Street and tell corporate America they no longer can call the shots. One man, one vote, just as the founding fathers intended it.
Corporate America was pretty much the way you said, until there was one-party control of congress for 50 consecutive years after WW2. That one party created all the rules, codifying and institutionalizing them into a truly cohesive culture of corruption. All we have today is Johnny-come-lately types who go with the flow.
Just like in your own family, creating a culture takes more than one decade.
Let’s not forget – the guy who coined the phrase, “military-industrial complex” wasn’t part of that one party.
Leo- I didn’t forget, Eisenhower was a reasonable Republican, before the party lost credibilty and sold out to the rich and far right. He would not recognize the Republican party today nor would he be welcome.
Anyone that was an adult in 1980 and is still an adult today knows the problems inherited by Reagan do not compare to the problems inherited by Obama.
STILL AN ADULT? I was 22 in 1979, had my military pay capped by carter at 3% three years running while inflation rose 10-12% a year, Used car loans at 19%, Mortgages at 13%, “We’ll be out of natural gas and oil by 2000, turn your thermostat down to 55 and put on a sweater”, “We’re in a state of national malaise”. Who’s THAT sound like? Let’s create the most stupid, most broken law in our history and set the national speed limit at 55mph, lets forget it was engineered to be 70. Let’s ration gas by the last digit on your license plate, and watch the cost go from 40 cents to a dollar in 6 months. Oh, 2008 WAS SO MUCH WORSE. BULLSHIT. Black Rock Lifer has been there so long his mind is collapsing in on itself.
I agree with you about that divorce, though BRL… you’ve seen my suggestion: regulate the polician’s actions, forcing them to recuse themselves when contributions create a conflict of interest, be it from corporations, unions, PACs, rich assholes, foreign powers or whatever. Dont’ create a conflict with the first amendment and have it sticken by the courts AGAIN; create instead workplace rules for our employees. Take away their ability to misappropriate funding like the stimulus bill did. Make them deliver 80% benefits to the citizens for every extra-constitutional program the way the PPACA does private insurers. And, give those restrictions TEETH – let the remedies include nothing less than losing their positions in politics for life, with options for extensive stays in prison, too.
In every case, on the left or the right, we object to the abuse of the power that WE invest them with. Our founders were geniuses, but they are centuries dead and the politicians have had centuries to erode the restrictions that our founders placed on them. We’re in need of a serious correction that strenghtens and continues what makes America exceptional. It is the politicians that move us away from that exceptionalism.
I’m less convinced about which side of the ailse is trustworthy than I am that we shouldn’t have to rely on trust in a society bolstered by the rule of law.
Hank- I was 23 in 1980, there were some bumps in the road, some inconveniences, but I don’t remember the world economy almost collapsing. Maybe you just were too busy whining about things that a person from Black Rock would just take in stride. Maybe my view is shaped by being around can do people that live within their means and deal with the challenges thrown at them.