Friday News Roundup - Hour 1
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-09/friday-news-roundup-hour-1
President Obama outlined a $447 billion jobs program before a joint session of Congress. The President’s address was followed by news of a specific, credible but unconfirmed terrorist threat tied to the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Texas Governor Rick Perry stirred controversy in his first GOP presidential debate Wednesday by calling Social Security a ponzi scheme. A panel of journalists joins Diane to discuss the week's domestic news stories.
Guests
Chris Cillizza
author of The Fix, a Washington Post politics blog, and managing editor of PostPolitics.com.
Julie Hirschfeld Davis
congressional correspondent, Bloomberg News.
Major Garrett
congressional correspondent, National Journal.
Friday News Roundup Video
Why did Texas Governor Rick Perry get such a enthusiastic reaction when he mentioned the high number of executions in his state during the last GOP debate? He said it was because Americans recognize justice, but some were disturbed by the applause.
Comments
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The republican debate was a set up by msnbc to bash and ridicule republicans after the fact.
President Obama's address to congress was little more than a temper tantrum accompanied by an orchestra of idiots leaping to their feet.
The past few weeks we have heard outrageous comments coming from the left, "the tea party wants to see black people hanging from a tree" , "the tea party can go straight to hell", referring to the tea party " take those son's of bitches out", "The real enemy in America is the tea party". If similar comments were coming from the republican party towards democrats there would be extreme media outrage. How does this double standard go unanswered?.
Monte, From my vantage here in Indy-no-place, you are mistaken. Our Republican rag, Indpls News carried very much criticism of our state rep. Carson. What R candidate said, "take em out"?
Please look up the word, "hyperbole". Tell us that you do not practice it. And I'm reminded about the 4X4 piece of lumber in one's own eye. Man does not live by bread alone. Man lives in harmony with all man. Living is much, much more than surviving. It's sharing without qualifications and conditions. Look it up. I pray for you.
It's the same old boosterism, but now it's being preached in a country with no civic pride, gone "every man for his-self." Whether it comes from the lips of Obama or Eric Kantor there is hardly a person who believes it has substance.
Governor Perry would be beneath contempt in normal times, a bully from a FIRE economy using convicts for fuel. In normal times President Obama would be a traitor to working people, but attitudes adjust and the frogs contentedly boil.
It might be the right thing to do, to sprinkle a little roach bait for veterans, or teachers, or undocumented aliens busting their tails on crumbling Interstates or the driveways to some new casino, but it ain't the smart thing in abnormal times. This is worse than two little-two late: It's at least four times too little three years too late.
Inside job or incompetence, 9/11 was a coup, and the USA has no democracy left for export. The products we export are fear and death and Oligarch vampirism. Somebody should have thought about the nephrons in our national kidneys, or become patriotic about the alveoli in our American lungs. Now the body politic is white with stroke and the extremeties are tepid and paralyzed.
It is as if some doophus rancher brought 300 million cattle to feedlot and ran out of dough. He has no market for them and wants to turn them out into the desert. Human beings don't have even no animal rights anymore.
Starving us beasts leads only to "root hog or die." But we were better than this, and it was not so long ago. We were better than the gameboy fantasies of NASCAR and Seal Team Six, of Michelle Bachmann's laquered hairdoo.
Feces is not cream (notice this Diane) but somehow it has risen to the top.
Churn away all you want. There has been a coup, and there will be only guns and no butter until we clean up this kitchen. If there is a God and She blesses anyone or anything maybe She will bless the people who still toil in the rest homes, and the hospitals and the schools and the water treatment plants. Why would She bless murderers and crooks and charlatans while the gleaners are massacred?
Marvin Wagner wrote:
'Monte, From my vantage here in Indy-no-place, you are mistaken. Our Republican rag, Indpls News carried very much criticism of our state rep. Carson. What R candidate said, "take em out"?"
Marvin, I know republicans are complaining about it as you illustrate with "republican rag" I am talking about main stream media. I would say it's obvious main stream media is in on the smear of the tea party.
What are we trying to save; ourselves and the nation, or just the Dopocrats and the Trepublicans??? I didn't even know they were on the Endangered Species List, and if they are maybe I'm a sheepherder with wolves in my scope. Maybe civilization is moving on and they will soon be extinct. I can visualize Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton figures in loincloths huddled at a dung fire in the bush: a diorama in the Museum of Natural History on the Mall. "See those discarded Chinese dish drainers in the midden, children. Notice Governor Romney is sitting on an empty gas can. We must never forget the Dark Ages."
In the moment responses last night during the speech
Obama has made the first touchdown of the NFL's opening night.
While he opened with "we meet at an URGENT time for our country" That was a bit much. Just about two years late. URGENT two years ago.
He then moved into
"Pass this jobs bill" is what I would title this speech.
Ten minutes in and he has said "Pass this jobs bill 8 (11111111) times oops 9 times
Obama "pass it right away" 10 times
Buffetism
Obama "members of congress it is time for us to meet our responsibilities
You can say that over and over and over again
Ok chills
"doing nothing is not an option"
"this plan is the right thing to do right now" pass it
"they need help and they need it now"
Nailed it. Cantor and Boehner had to be pissing in their pants.. Touchdown"
Please don't focus on the election today - there are many more important issues and the election is 14 months away.
During the Republican event I kept askingWhat debate? It was a Republican hug fest
Romney and Huntsman were the only two on the stage with their lights turned on. And Christian Americans are too prejudiced towards Mormons to see those lights on in those two fellas heads. Bachman was being squeezed out and started dilly dallying, Perry was just silly, Cain was in Chile, Gingrich is a blowhard, Ron Paul seemed like he just got up from a nap, and what was that other guys name oh yeah Santorum looked like he was on another stage.
Looked like the teabaggers could sink the Republican parties ship that night.
None of the parties seem to include We-the-people in ideas or action. The president has been told from the get go that he will be a one term president and the re-pub-lickers have been boisterous in screaming that statement since before he was inaugurated. It doesn't matter what he proposes, no matter if it makes sense or forecasts are that his plan would be of great help for most Americans, it will be crushed without even being evaluated just because he presented it.
This is fact based opinion.
Tea party, republican party, democrat party or any other part of a party matters not one bit - they are all having a party of benefits, salary increases and the Americans who pay for their luxuries are not allowed even minimal bennies with a bit of federal reserve notes left over for the luxury of food on the table.
IF people had jobs they would pay income taxes and fill the general coffers - since people are losing jobs and when finding a new job at half the pay they do not even make enough money to be required to pay taxes.
The justice dept. is telling GIbson guitar company they need to send 75% of their jobs overseas - post office to lay off 120,000 - B of A to lay off 100,000 - how will this bring jobs to people and money in the federal coffers?
I should point out in Obama's campaign speech last night there were a lot more union gifts in his rant. We all like the sound of road repair, my question is where is all the federal and local tax money we already pay with gas taxes for this purpose. We are being sold a bunch of BS on this, government has no problem making us pay twice because they stole the money for something else.
Who believes there will be any real offsetting budget cut, what a joke. Yea we will pay for it ten years from now.
Regarding Rick Perry's remarks about climate science jeopardizing America's economy. . .
On Tuesday, a caller from Texas on Talk of the Nation brought up the fact that natural gas fracking there has made the drought and fires much worse because the process has further depleted the water resources and left property owners with dry wells.
It's another bad mark for fracking, and for the Governor's confused logic.
Barbara Bellows-TerraNova
Salt Lake City, Utah
Kathleen: I'm not sayin' the O-man can't throw some tongue-lightning, but what I'm saying is that it never strikes. Grandpa Biden was probably having a Serenity-moment too, as would anyone startled by a diesel horn. The problem is that the Electorate and Congress assume Reality resembles Cyberspace and that the Game resets automatically. The Game has superceded
any logical response to real immediate danger. I know how that works because I once let a pot melt while I was writing commentary on a blogsite. As a character in the Game let me assure you that the 240 cartons of almost expired yogurt I bought at auction last night will be handed out at the foodbank this morning, and that other real characters in the Game will eat it. I know that much is real. I am my actions more than my insubstantial words. Are politicians their words, or are they their actions?
Th payroll tax cut is a sneaky con job which will actually raise taxes. By cutting the amount withheld on payroll tax but not cutting the actual income tax, millions of workers will not have enough deducted from their paychecks. Then next April, they will have to pay the same tax plus a penalty.
Republican debate was interesting to hear republicans worshipping Reagan while touting energy independence when Reagan's first act after inauguration was to have the solar panels removed from the Whitehouse and to tear up Carter's plan for American energy independence in ten years.
"You should pass this bill, . . . right away!"
Yes, they should - no they won't. Why? Because the president presented it. That is enough to not even read it - just make sure it fails so he fails too.
Hell with the people, who cares about the people? They only care about reelection and staying there in DC with their wonderful benefits and salary increases given to themselves.
BTW, does anyone remember why Labor Day exists? Because of the unions, the wars that brought the unions into existence, and remember how Reagan brought the beginning of the busting of the unions - followed by the great exodus of manufacturing from the USA.
What a worshipful master was Reagan!
Just want to clarify that the capitol visitors center cost some 600 million dollars, not billions as your guest stated
Sounds like a Ponzi scheme to me.
This is from the GAO.
As you all know, Social Security has always been largely a pay-as-you-go
system. This means that current workers’ taxes pay current retirees’
benefits. As a result, the relative numbers of workers and beneficiaries has
a major impact on the program’s financial condition. This ratio, however, is
changing. In the 1960s, the ratio averaged 4.2:1. Today it is 3.4:1 and it is
expected to drop to around 2:1 by 2030. The retirement of the baby boom
generation is not the only demographic challenge facing the system.
People are retiring early and living longer. A falling fertility rate is the other
principal factor underlying the growth in the elderly’s share of the
population. In the 1960s, the fertility rate was an average of 3 children per
woman. Today it is a little over 2, and by 2030 it is expected to fall to 1.95—
a rate that is below replacement. Taken together, these trends threaten the
financial solvency and sustainability of this important program.
Diane,
The "jobs program" is focused on temporary low wage jobs, at a cost of 1/2 Billion. Does your panel believe this really addresses our economic woes ? Get real.
Thanks to caller and (was it Major's?) comment re Perry's position on death penalty. There is much evidence that Texas has put innocent people on death row. Perry's position is that if someone is FOUND guilty, regardless of whether they actually ARE guilty, Texas will put that person to death. He's sadly misguided, though, to think that other Texans support this position. America should fear this man.
I am interested in why no one is strongly connecting the dots between the August unemployment and jobs situation and the debt ceiling fight. If one looks at a graph of job creation or unemployment from 2009 until July, the trend is slowly and gradually better ... until the August debacle. Isn't this strong data that the President's policies DID work and it was the Republican blockages that have caused this downturn?
Add to that the connection between slightly less boisterous recovery in the early months of this year and the election of all the new ultra-conservative governors around the country who have been laying people off right and left. Who can even question who is stopping job creation?
Governor Perry is merely stating the obvious when he calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme. We've known that for decades. The payroll taxes of today's young workers are paying for the Babyboomers' current benefits. The payroll taxes of the Babyboomers paid for THEIR parents social security benefits. It's a Ponzi scheme - the question is how do we modify the scheme to keep it going now that it is no longer an income supplement as designed, but the only income for so many people.
Shame on the panelists for not addressing the subject brought up by the woman from Ohio who said government does not create jobs. What an ignorance of history. That's exactly what the New Deal did.
I keep hearing that business is not hiring because they are unsure. Most the things that I hear they are unsure about can be markedly decreased if they would hire someone. The others are based in the fact that the republicans are stonewalling everything and NOT DOING THE NATION'S BUSINESS. The democrats seem to be lost and wandering in the desert looking for the forest NOT DOING THE NATION'S BUSINESS.
In my view, the same business community that screams about too much government interference, is using government interference as a reason not to spend money. Can't have it both ways folks
The Ponzi Scheme model does not fit Social Security. If it did all insurance would be ponnzi schemes. The other word is pyramid scheme. A pyramid funnels money to the top by defrauding an increasing pool of people and never delivers any substantial good to the community. Capitalism itself is closer to being a Ponzi Scheme than Social Security. For the small investor the stock market is a Pyramid Scheme.
I'm glad my older relatives and friends get their checks and I'm glad to pay my premiums. Social Security is a compensation for the uncaring exploitation of capitalist business and it results in a great deal of good in the community. No one can continue working at sub-living wages indefinitely. No one can save for retirement paycheck to paycheck. We all have social obligations that preclude saving and investment. At a time when home values have fallen SS benefits save lives. It is a small-minded cruel sadist who would disrespect it and not see its continuing value.
Why is it that we expect a federal service organization to be solvent?
As a business owner who depends on the low cost rates of the USPS to be competitive, I am concerned that their has been a double standard created that unfairly targets the Postal Service.
Why don't we hold other federal agencies to the same standard? Why don't we scrutinize the military with the same fine-toothed comb?
When the average citizen no longer has daily mail delivery, or we have to pay the private sector $5.00 to send a letter, we'll understand what a great national mistake we are making.
Many of the comments today have stereotyped statements and name calling. Please note that talking points are of little value in getting at the truth. Please refrain from name calling, stereotyping and parroting Of talking points. We need evidence not rhetoric.
Yea dbrnmc- Close down the wars on Saturday and layoff Blackwater.
Take a look at the graph from Gallup 2008 thru Feb 2011. Yes, hiring is slowly on the rise, but it also indicates we are far from 2008 employment levels:
"While Gallup's Job Creation Index shows hiring and firing conditions nationwide were slightly better in February than in recent months, they remain weak. Job market conditions are better now than they have been over the past couple of years, but they are no better than they were during the recessionary period of September-October 2008."
Take a lok here and click on unemployed:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/145487/Gallup-Global-Employment-Tracking.aspx
The administration's Job Creation Tsar (CEO of GE) has exported numerous jobs. Which country has the lowest unemployment?
Take a look at the graph from Gallup 2008 thru Feb 2011. Yes, hiring is slowly on the rise, but it also indicates we are far from 2008 employment levels:
"While Gallup's Job Creation Index shows hiring and firing conditions nationwide were slightly better in February than in recent months, they remain weak. Job market conditions are better now than they have been over the past couple of years, but they are no better than they were during the recessionary period of September-October 2008."
Take a lok here and click on unemployed:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/145487/Gallup-Global-Employment-Tracking.aspx
The administration's Job Creation Tsar (CEO of GE) has exported numerous jobs. Which country has the lowest unemployment?
pancosmio- Take a look at median family income, benefits, hours worked.
Realize the real unemployment rate is about 23% and that the BLS seeks new ways to mitigate admitting it. Things are much worse than the virtual world of figures, and worse; our future is going up in smoke. An idled population becomes unstable and diseased. I see it up close. People in their 50s fall apart when you end their opportunity for employment and earning. Medicare Snake has swallowed another armadillo.