Thursday, December 9, 2010

This Is a Negotiation?

I have been so angry I think I nearly had the big one yesterday.  My head hurt so bad I thought it was a migraine, but the pain shifted around and the muscles at the top of my spine were like throbbing concrete. So it was not a migraine.

I had a hissy fit at the Smiths Superstore.  I made my girlfriend very uncomfortable.  Could be I'm having strokes. I blame it on the obstructionist Republican who hold us all hostage to their greed...  And a President willing to give away the revenue we'll need to keep the whole thing from collapsing because the GOPers are bluffing a bad hand.  Call it.  Don't fold! Why the top 2%?  Why not compromise with a cool $ million?  Why two years?  Why not one?  My inclination is to say, "fuck em'"but that's one of many reasons I'm not a politician.

I'm reacting badly (slight understatement) to the news that we're going to give another two years of Bush tax cuts to the top 2% because the Republicans believe nothing is more stimulative to the economy than billionaires increasing their stock portfolios and buying another villa in Tuscany.  This is not stimulative to the economy yet, seemingly,  despite every evidence to the contrary we just have to toss truth aside and eat that shit!?!.  Republicans are willing to shut down the government to get their way.  Please President Obama, let them do it!  Let's go back to the tax rates of the Clinton Years.  Then veto every single sop to billionaires that crosses your desk.  You made promises.  We expect you to keep them.  Do not negotiate with thugs and bullies.  Let's let the country actually watch them have a tantrum and try to legislate for the top 2%, for the corporatist blood suckers and bankers.  Don't we all just love the bankers these days?

Please President Obama, take a quick course is the art of the negotiation.  When the polls are with us, why do the opposite?  Bid low for billionaires and high for poor people and the middle class.  We're Democrats, remember?  We voted for change. We need jobs and they don't creat them.  So bring it.  I know you think you got a lot in return for us, but there is so much more you didn't.  You didn't get unemployment benefits for the 99ers. Bush Tax Cuts expire for everyone, we go back to Clinton tax rates when we were at our best.  I realize these are not the same economic conditions.  We've lived with unfunded tax cuts for the uber-rich and two unfunded wars.  The Defense Department is bloated.  Afghanistan is a sink hole into which we will eventually be swallowed.  It might already be too late but change course.  Please, Mr President. Turn left!

My internist says there is an empathy gene.  If someone is a plutocrat more than likely they're missing it.  There is no room for anyone else at their table. The rest of us are merely here to serve them.  They don't create jobs, they make them vanish. They get richer off your misery and loss.  You lose your house?  Goody goody for them.  More cheap real estate for them to turn into shit like derivatives and credit default swaps or other kinds of Ponzi schemes to fuck you over again and again.  First goes the job, then your house, then the car, and you'll be damn lucky to have a relative to take you in.  Otherwise you're homeless without a safety net.  Is this the country you want to live in?

15 comments:

jurassicpork said...

Just got some really bad news a few hours ago and just in time for the holidays. What makes this especially galling is that at the same time this is happening to us, jiggling fucks are poised to get their 6 figure tax breaks in Phase 3 of the Billionaire bailout.

mbarnato said...

I not only feel like I got suckered by O, I feel like I got sucker-punched. My mistake for not reading the fine print, I suppose. And the bad news just keeps on comin'... Nonetheless, I occasionally have to take a break from it all for my sanity. It's way too crazy making; gives you a bad headache and gives me an upset stomach. We have to take care of ourselves - it's no good if we give up our health & sanity to them too...

The Blog Fodder said...

Lipstick and Dipstick for 2012?

Cirze said...

I'm with you, girl.

Hurting.

And writing about it like crazy.

Think healing thoughts.

It's the best we can do right now.

Suzan

Loran said...

I feel "sucker punched" too.

Nan said...

I'm probably feeling a little less sucker punched than some because I've never been real keen on Obama (his sucking up to Lieberman when he first got to the Senate set off all sorts of alarm bells), but I'm still rather nauseated by his spinelessness. I fear he's going to do the same thing Clinton did -- try to get ahead of the Repugs by doing everything on their wish list and making it sound like it was his idea. (Among others, Clinton shredded the social safety net with "welfare reform," and repealed Glass-Stegall, which led in turn to the financial meltdown under W.)

Tengrain said...

Utah, my love, you are so not alone.

My favorite part?

President Carebear got Big Dawg to pimp it for him: the man who deregulated everything, set up DADT and DOMA, and who "ended Big Government as We Know It" is now pimpin' for the GOP.

It's like finding the mint on your pillow in a cheap motel at the end of the night.

Rgds,

TG

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

Finally! After taking a beating from many on the left I get here and find someone that gets it.

Obama has consistently caved. On the public option. Took single payer health insurance off the table before even seeing the table. Still in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama got played. The republicans are laughing all the way to the bank that was bailed out by what really was the Bush stimulus and Tarp program but has been vilified despite it's success and labled the Obama bailout.


God Almighty when will Obama learn these republiscum are not interested in what's good for our Country as a whole?

Commander Zaius said...

I'm ashamed of Obama and myself for voting for the guy.

Anonymous said...

I heard the President's Weekly Address this Saturday, as well as the Republican "response." It seemed like it would have been more appropriate to have a Democratic response; while we Progressives are freakin' livid over this total capitulation, the Republicans are all smiling like Cheshire Cats!

That's certainly a good measure of the "compromise" Our Guy wrested from his Secret Lovers.

Freida Bee said...

I'm pissed the Dems are acting the least bit indignant now. They've haven't stood up for anything and now, when a couple people I know really need unemployment benefits to survive, they are acting like they haven't kissed republican ass the whole time. The whole thing is fucked, and while I agree Obama's been leading the way in playing (ineffectively) to the middle, it's a screwed system and I'm closer to thinking the thing has to fall so something new can move into it's place than I ever have been (which was a lot in year 5 of Bush).

Fran said...

This was Obama's time to push back. Those bastards in the Senate refused to work till they got their fat cat tax breaks???

Let the GOP shoot themselves in the foot.

Fiddlin Bill said...

You may conclude that I paraphrased your post with mine today, since I too ended up with empathy, and the mystery that the Republicans don't seem to have any. I assure you I wasn't ripping you off. It's just reality--and cudos for your insight!

Utah Savage said...

Bill, thanks for the sincerest form of flattery. Great minds and all that.

ultravox said...

I voted for Obama, I'll probably vote again for him. Has he made some mistakes, yes. Could he improve, yes. With politics you have to make concessions. If lobbyist and/or the top 1% rule the country, guess what, you'll have to make some concessions. Obama messed up by making health care his priority from the getgo, when he should have been addressing jobs first, or other issues, pick one. The health care that was passed was sort of a half-assed attempt anyway. If that's the best that he could do, I would have just said fuck it. He was too hardheaded to let it go. Now it probably won't amount to much. I still think he tries to do the right thing, and that's important.